Occupy Wichita Printable Poster
Posted: May 24, 2012 Filed under: Kansas, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wichita Leave a comment »
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Occupy Wichita Protests CISPA outside Verizon – Video
Posted: May 22, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: CISPA protest Wichita Leave a comment »Wichita CISPA Protest
Posted: May 5, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »On Monday, May 7, we will peaceably converge upon AT&T in Wichita, Kansas, in opposition to CISPA and ACTA. We will bring our signs, our masks and, most importantly, our voices. We will not be silenced by the elite.
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If you ask me, our elected officials in Washington have absolutely no respect for the wishes of those they are sworn to represent. Our officials were given the loudest, most echoed message in the history of the world in opposition to SOPA.
Here and now, a few months later, the Congress has passed CISPA, which is SOPA on steroids and they did it in a rushed vote, before anyone had time to organize against it. This is grounds for dismissal, under the laws of common sense.
This blatant disrespect towards the will of the people should not be tolerated. We elect people to represent us, not the 4oo wealthiest families in this country. The richest man’s vote should be no more powerful than the poorest woman’s.
Yet, here we have our very own government completely ignoring the obvious expressed will of the vast majority of Americans in the name of returning profitability and the flow of information back to the handful of corporations that have controlled the media for decades.
Citizen journalists will not be silenced by draconian internet censorship laws. We will adapt, as our brothers and sisters in the middle east have. We will use dial-up connections on proxy servers and we will get our message out.
If we have to go back to ham radio and projecting information onto the sides of buildings, we will. We will continue to expose the corruption, shining light onto that which the traditional media chooses to ignore.
We will continue to spread new ideas freely and we will call for the resignation of those who would seek to suppress our rights to freely express ourselves. We will continue to fight for the free press that the Constitution of this land guarantees us.
Wichita Student Gains Support of ACLU Against School
Posted: May 3, 2012 Filed under: Education, Kansas, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wichita, Politics Leave a comment »“What you describe is a clear violation of your First Amendment rights. However, since you are a minor, I need the permission of one of your parents before I can contact the school about this matter. Have one or your parents call me if they are supportive of your position in this matter. If they are not supportive of your position, let me know that as well.” -
Doug Bonney
Chief Counsel & Legal Director
ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri
This letter was sent to a Wichita eighth grader who has been repeatedly isolated from other students for his polite refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The student, Alex, is protected by a Supreme Court decision dating back to 1943 that clearly states no one can be forced to participate in the pledge, regardless of age.
Alex is a member of the Occupy movement, as is his mother. When asked why he refuses to stand for the Pledge, Alex said:
“I dislike and distrust the way nationalism is fed to us (us being us children of course) it seems to separate us and causes a lot more hate than love. I don’t think that no one should say the pledge, Just not kids who are to young to understand the full extent of what it means. Kids my age are old enough to grasp the meaning of it but its natural tendency to say the pledge every morning I know that I even said the pledge when i was in kindergarten. And I understand that schools want everyone to conform to their standards and saying the pledge is a standard, But to suppress any deviation from the norm in such a manner as they have done to me is uncalled for and unjust.”
More details to follow…
Koch Industries, Wells Fargo, CBS, Facebook and CISPA
Posted: May 2, 2012 Filed under: Kansas, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wichita, Politics | Tags: CBS internet censorship, Facebook Internet Censorship, Koch Internet Censorship, Mike Pompeo Internet Censorship, Wells Fargo Internet Censorship 1 Comment »The vast majority of the media companies, the tech industry, the defense industry, the big five banks and many others in this country and around the world are behind legislation to censor the internet (see CISPA, ACTA, SOPA,).
Under proposed legislation, sharing photos, videos, music and any other potentially copyrighted material on the internet gives corporations the power to monitor your sharing and report it to the federal government. While they say the bill (CISPA) is only geared at thwarting cyber-threats, the language specifies sharing copyrighted material as a threat.
To put things more clearly, if CISPA passes, I will have to remove this photo of David Koch, along with a myriad of photos on my Facebook page, going back years. All those cute little cat pictures you share, with the funny captions, those are likely copyrighted photos, prior to the caption being added.
Facebook, being a CISPA supporter, along with Google, and virtually every company you have ever heard of, will be required to report and share your copyright infringement with the federal government, who will then have the option of prosecuting you. If convicted, you will face up to five years in prison on each count.
Wells Fargo, a CISPA supporter, is also heavily invested in the two largest for-profit prison corporations in America. Wells Fargo routinely lobbies for stricter laws and harsher sentences for non-violent “offenders” who are caught with drugs, or who may be in violation of immigration laws.
Koch Industries is not on the list of CISPA supporters, but Rep. Mike Pompeo did co-sponsor the bill. Pompeo is from Wichita, Kansas, which is also Charles and David Koch’s hometown. Wichita is also the international headquarters for Koch Industries.
Pompeo’s chief-of-staff is a former Koch employee and the Kochs donated more to Pompeo’s 2010 campaign than any other candidate in the nation, which is significant considering the vast amounts of money the Kochs funnel into political campaigns.
CBS is also a major supporter of CISPA, along with virtually every other mainstream media outlet in the country. But CBS’s role in the censoring of the internet began years ago, with the advent of CNET.com and Download.com.
CNET and Download.com are the two largest distributors of the software that allows people around the world to share files for free. CNET and Download.com are both owned by CBS/Viacom.
You have CBS claiming that copyright infringement is a major crisis that requires the censoring of the internet, despite the fact that CBS provided and continues to provide the primary vehicle for the infringement itself.
The content industry wants to take back their control over the flow of information. Our media corporations want to turn the internet into a cable television-like version of what we have now, where we have a few thousand channels that are owned by about six companies.
