HESSLA
Cop: "Why are your eyes so red, son?"
Hippie motorist: "Cuz I'm allergic to pig."
Cult of the Dead Cow - License To Chill -- Hackers Hamstring Rights Violators - Hactivismo has released the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement, HESSLA, an open source license aimed at eliminating the so-called "sovereign immunity" of people who work for governments. Of course the bottom line here is that government's just won't use software with this license. And which court is going to try a dictator in power anyway. From the license's introductory statement: [grabbe]
Software that Hacktivismo[fn1] releases under this License Agreement is intended to promote our political objectives. And, likewise, the purpose of this License Agreement itself is political: Namely, to compliment the software's intended political function. Hacktivismo itself exists to develop and deploy computer software technologies that promote fundamental human rights of end-users. Hacktivismo also seeks to enlist the active participation and involvement of people around the world, to help us improve these software tools, and to take other actions (including actions that involve using and distributing our software, and the advancement of similarly-minded software projects of others) that promote human rights and freedom worldwide.
[fn1] http://hacktivismo.com/
Because of our non-commercial objective of promoting end-users' freedoms, Hacktivismo has some special, and admittedly ambitious, licensing needs. This License Agreement enhances the benefits of published source code by backing up our human rights projects with appropriate remedies enforceable in court.
Alan Stang at Etherzone - When Dictatorship Comes, How Do You Know? - when a government becomes a dictatorship, it is our right and duty to feed the hogs, but knowing when it's crossed over is not always easy without the advantage of 20/20 hindsight. [assaultweb]
Notice that even in Hitler's case that isn't an easy question to answer. Suppose we're living in Germany and it is January 30, 1933. That is the day Hitler takes over. Are we living under a dictatorship? No, not yet. Remember that Hitler took power legally. President Paul von Hindenburg appointed him Chancellor. On January 30, 1933, Hitler hadn't yet done anything dictatorial. So, if we start the revolution on that day, we would be wrong. Hitler would have said we were breaking the law, and he would have been right. We do know that somewhere between that day and the day he started World War II in concert with his ally, fellow totalitarian socialist dictator Joe Stalin, September 1, 1939, he did impose a dictatorship on Germany.
When? What did he do to make that fatal change? What we are talking about today applies to all totalitarian dictatorships; we are talking about Hitler, because the modern species of insanity known as "liberalism" has assiduously kept the "Nazi threat" alive for its own totalitarian purposes all these years.
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Let me know if I'm wrong, but I can't think of one case in which one of these weasels came right out and told the people what he was doing. It would have been so helpful if Hitler had announced well before January 30, 1933: "Guten morgen, Damen und Herren. My name is Adolf Hitler. Since early childhood, I have been a criminal psychopath. I labored long years as a homosexual prostitute in Vienna and Munich, with the result that I suffer from a work-related injury in which it is hard to sit down and must make hours-long speeches. Now, I am seizing total power in order to impose a dictatorship and kill Jews."
It would have been helpful, but it doesn't happen. Always, everywhere, the aspiring totalitarian dictator says he is doing what he is doing for the people's "own good." In ancient Rome, the dictator gave the people handouts, then known as "bread and circuses." Hitler loved boat rides and wanted all German people to enjoy them. You can see the germ of that classic technique even in the gangs of the 1920s that sold storekeepers "insurance." Who knows, if Al Capone had hired a couple of Harvard professors instead of more headbusters, he could have become President.
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What did the Founding Fathers say? Well, why did they give us the Second Amendment? It certainly wasn't such preposterous reasons as sport or hunting. It wasn't even self-defense, however crucial that is. No, the reason the Founding Fathers said again and again and again that they wanted every American to be heavily armed, was that we would need those arms if it became necessary to overthrow the government.
Every once in a while, said Jefferson, the tree of liberty must be watered by the blood of patriots and tyrants. Read the Federalist Papers, by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. The Fathers were suspicious of the system they had created, and reserved the right of the people to replace it. The Declaration of Independence, the nation's birth certificate, perfectly expresses that spirit. How often did they have to repeat it?
Abbie Hoffman - Steal This Book - this classic from 1971 is available in its entirety (stolen from the Library of Congress). [picks]
Joe Blow at Ether Zone - Let The Beatings Begin! Miranda A Mirage? - the Supreme court will soon here the Martinez case. The Bush administration wants them to allow the police to coerce testimony as long as they don't use it against the tortured person. Once again the innocent will be forced to pay for the wrongs of the guilty. [etherzone]
Henrietta Bowman at Sierra Times - The Fix Is In - commentary and links on the appointment of Henry Kissinger to a "bipartisan" panel to investigate 9-11. [sierra]
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." - -Henry Kissinger, The New York Times Magazine of October 28, 1973.
DRCNet via Sierra Times - Weitzel Acquitted in Utah Pain Treatment Manslaughter Case Retrial - another telling of the acquittal of Dr. Robert Weitzel. [sierra]
But while Weitzel's legal problems are behind him, he still has a date with a federal penitentiary in less than two weeks. On the advice of an attorney he told DRCNet he now regrets having listened to, Weitzel earlier this year pled guilty to a federal count of prescription drug fraud. That charge arose after DEA agents raided his offices after his arrest by Utah authorities. They found that Weitzel's record-keeping was shoddy and that he could not account for a small number of vials of morphine. Under the terms of the plea bargain, Weitzel must report to prison within 15 days from the end of his just finished trial. While the typical penalty for such a charge does not involve jail time, Weitzel was sentenced to a shocking, perhaps politically motivated one year term.
David Hinkson at Sierra Times - David Hinkson's Day Of Terror, at the hands of Satan's Foot Soldiers - another tale of the brutality of the IRS. [sierra]
After thinking about the whole situation, I believe that Defendants Nancy Cook and Steven Hines orchestrated the raid on Water Oz and my home for the sole purpose of murdering me and ending the lawsuit that was filed against them by me in the amount of $50 million dollars.
