"Theory of Change" -- what most institutions in DC don't understand
Nearly one year ago today, my life was changed by a blog post I wrote on OpenLeft entitled, "Profiles in Bad Online Organizing: Part 1 (DSCC)." In critiquing a DSCC petition to Norm Coleman, I wrote:
View ArticleDirector of DemandProgress Indicted
I just got this email:"Shocking news: Moments ago former Demand Progress Executive Director Aaron Swartz was indicted by the US government. As best as we can tell, he is being charged with allegedly...
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Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: 7/21
To receive the Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest via email each weekday, sign up here.Senate:•FL-Sen: This is awfully thin, but could GOP Rep. Connie Mack be thinking about getting back into the...
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Aaron Swartz' Death Is Our Legacy
My inital reaction to the loss of Aaron Swartz can be summed up in this quote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:While his methods were provocative, the goal that Aaron died fighting for — freeing...
View ArticleChallenge Obama/DoJ on Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz committed suicide after being hounded by the DoJ for a victimless crime.There are plenty of memorial diaries, but I'd like to focus on a fact-based look at the DoJ and its priorities. We...
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Family & Friends Blame U.S. Attorney for Aaron Swartz's Death
26 Year old internet genius Aaron Swartz, founder of Reddit, was bullied into suicide by the overzealous prosecution by the U.S. attorney according to family and friends. He faced 35 years in prison...
View ArticleIn Memory of Aaron Swartz
From the Belly of the Beast...It's Sat. night Liberal Talk Radio! We're Live and taking your calls at 417-717-1454. Aaron Swartz is the topic of discussion. Join us in our new Google+ hangout where...
View ArticleWhat Aaron Swartz did at MIT
Courtesy of The Tech, we have the following summary of what led to the prosecution against Swartz:In the basement of Building 16 there is a wiring and telephony closet, known as Room 16-004t. Between...
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Aaron Swartz, Intellectual Freedom Fighter, 1986-2013
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is...
View ArticleThe Threat of an Informed Public: Where Hackers & Whistleblowers Intersect
Aaron Swartz, Jake Appelbaum, Bradley Manning, Thomas Drake, Jeremy Hammond . . . wanted not only to "liberate information," but to inform the public. Aaron Swartz's suicide has brought these lofty and...
View ArticleAnonymous hacks MIT- A tribute to Aaron Swartz~UPDATE x 3~
Link to Anonymous Facebook page illustrating the MIT defacementGoogle Cached version of MIT's defaced website~UPDATE~Demand Progress, which Aaron founded, has a moving tribute to him HERE.It says, in...
View ArticleAaron Swartz and the Choices We Have To Make
I weep for Aaron Swartz. Today on Democracy Now Lawrence Lessig gave us insight into this brilliant man who died--hounded to death in the most literal sense of the term 'to hound'--to torment. When...
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In Aaron's Name, Change This Law
Computer programmer, writer, archivist, political organizer, and Internet activist, but most of all son, brother and friend, Aaron Swartz tragically took his own life last week. One of the many...
View ArticleFiring Swartz Prosecutors (TWO hackers have committed suicide on their...
Yesterday, it became public that Stephen Heyman oversaw TWO excessive prosecutions of hacker-defendants who committed suicide, Aaron Swartz and Jonathan James.There are multiple petitions circulating...
View ArticleAaron Swartz: Hidden facts and speculation
FACTOne of the major questions about Aaron Scwartz's suicide has been the role of MIT. Kevin Cullin at the Boston Globe (paywall) answers that one. One of Swartz's earlier lawyers (there appear to...
View ArticleSurveying the Debt Ceiling Battle: Time for Kicking Ass. Live on...
On this Martin Luther King Birthday, a new show; Fripp (not that one) and Steve are live this morning with fresh audio. Taking on the usual suspects: Tennessee GOP's Marsha Blackburn who has no problem...
View ArticleAcademic publications and Aaron Swartz
I am sad about the overeager prosecution and tragic death of Aaron Swartz. Since I have a little experience in the world of academic publications I have been thinking about how things can change in the...
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The Evening Blues - 1-15-13 Aaron Swartz
Welcome! "The Evening Blues" is a casual community diary (published Monday - Friday, 8:00 PM Eastern) where we hang out, share and talk about news, music, photography and other things of interest to...
View ArticleIt's a start :: Aaron's Law
“Like most others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that some of us were making real...
View ArticleLessig and Demand Progress: Demand justice for our friend Aaron Swartz
LETTER ISSUED BY DEMAND PROGRESS AND HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR LAWRENCE LESSIG:We spent Tuesday burying and mourning our friend Aaron. We're sad, we're tired, we're frustrated -- and we're angry at a...
View ArticleWithout Comment: Lawrence Lessig on Aaron Swartz
This from Mr. Lessig's blog. Surprising how much he speaks for me and I suspect so many of us around here:A time for silence A week ago today, Aaron gave up. And since I received the call late Friday...
View ArticleOrtiz costs US another Million today
About half to pay for legal fees and another half in additional Ortiz minions time. Judge decides MA motel won't be confiscated by Ortiz. Not a good day for the Federal Attorney General office here in...
View Article(Updated) Anonymous Takes Over Government Website, Advises It Will Release Files
http://www.cbsnews.com/...The U.S. Sentencing Commission's website was hacked late last night by Anonymous.They left a statement:Citizens of the world, Anonymous has observed for some time now the...
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Aaron Swartz Was Going Home With a Slap On The Wrist. Then The Feds Got...
Aaron Swartz, the 26yo internet activist who recently committed suicide because he was facing the prospect of 50 years in prison on federal charges, would have received a stern warning from the state...
View Article"unlocking" your smartphone can now land you in jail!
After the tragic and untimely death of Aaron Swartz, we are all going to have to do a little bit more to make up for his loss. If he was still alive, I suspect I'd be receiving a letter from him about...
View ArticleMass AG Uses Newtown To Justify Massive Expansion of Electronic Wiretapping
Some folks might be ashamed to use the bodies of dead kids as cover for a power grab. That clearly doesn’t include Massachusetts Attorney-General Martha Coakley, last seen managing to lose a Senate...
View ArticleCA-49: Darrell Issa Praises Aaron Swartz and Internet Freedom at Memorial
This may be one of those rare moments which I agree with Rep. Darrell Issa on something: The access to information is a human right.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...WASHINGTON -- One of the staunchest...
View ArticleElizabeth Warren Gets to Work
What a blessing Elizabeth Warren's election to the Senate has been. She is wasting no time.At her first hearing in the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee - which took place on Valentine's...
View ArticleAaron Swartz, R.I.P.
Aaron Swartz was an internet leader and free-speech advocate. He helped organize the worldwide movement to keep the internet free from censorship and corporate control. After Aaron downloaded a large...
View ArticleUPDATED: The Democrats Have No Clothes
UPDATE: Diary edited to delete reference to the Black Agenda Report as I have been apprised of some unfortunate associations there which I cannot support. The message of the diary remains the same.As a...
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CISPA Resurrected: The "Patriot Act of the Internet"
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette and DocudharmaYou know that dress or shirt that's been hanging in your closet for years, you know that hideous shade of fuscia that was a fashion must have...
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MN-Sen: Al Franken (D) Presses Eric Holder On Aaron Swartz Prosecution
Senator Al Franken (D. MN) joins the fight to find out more about prosecution of Reddit founder, Aaron Swartz, that lead to his suicide: http://www.forbes.com/... Al Franken, the Junior Senator of the...
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Internet activists have first victory in stopping bad anti-hacking law
This week is "Cyber Week" in the House of Representatives, with the body slated to vote on CISPA and on a handful of other cyber security and reesarch bills. Among them was supposed to be an update of...
View ArticleWhat Do A Russian Blogger, American Hacktivists, and CISPA Have in Common?
What do a Russian blogger, American hacktivists, and CISPA have in common? They all demonstrate government crackdown on dissent and information.Vladimir Putin's regime is criminally prosecuting lawyer,...
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MN-Sen: Al Franken (D) Pushes Bill To Protect LGBT Students From Bullying
Senator Al Franken (D. MN) is pushing to get his anti-bullying bill passed: http://hometownsource.com/... U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) reintroduced the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which protects...
View ArticleTIME Magazine's Joins War on Whistleblowers & Hacktivists
TIME Magazine's cover story is a journalistic, moral and logical disaster. It pictures hacktivist Aaron Swartz, NSA whistleblowers Edward Snowden & WikiLeaks defendant Bradley Manning under the...
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This is unbelievable cr*p from the MSM
This is not the most substantial diary in the world, for which I tender apologies, but what I just saw makes me so angry I could scream. I think this community should discuss the implications of this...
View ArticleAaron Swartz, Carmen Ortiz and M.I.T.
Wired Magazine's lawsuit for secret service documents pertaining to Aaron Swartz's indictment just resulted in the release of 104 heavily redacted pages. Over 10,000 pages left to go. Here a quote from...
View ArticleAre We a Nation of Sheep?
It's time to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate the Department of Justice (DoJ) and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz about the death of Aaron Swartz.
View ArticleOne year ago today...
we lost him. Yet his fight, our fight, lives on.Aaron Swartz was an avid champion of internet freedom and open access with a brilliant mind. At the time of his death he was under indictment for his...
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A Walk Across New Hampshire For Aaron
Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of Aaron Swartz, the computer coder and Internet freedom activist, who committed suicide while facing prosecution on federal hacking charges. So,...
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Aaron Swartz One Year Later...Speaking Out About the NSA
An amazing wunderkid RIP!Andrea Peterson from the Washington Post writes the following about the death of Aaron Swartz, A year ago today, Aaron Swartz was found dead in his New York apartment. Swartz...
View ArticleThis is unrepentant spam and a call to action
http://aaronswartzthedocumentary.com/You can watch a trailer for the documentary entitled The Internet's Own Boy and goddamn the prosecutor who turned a violation of terms of service into a death...
View ArticleAaron Swartz Documentary: 'The Internet's Own Boy' Trailer
The Internet's Own Boy, Brian Knappenberger’s Kickstarter-funded documentary about internet activist and programming pioneer Aaron Swartz."From Swartz's help in the development of the basic internet...
View ArticleThe Rancid Hypocritical Honeytrap
These days it is hard to wade across the morass of the virtual political world. There are radical activists, those who are trying to make a difference in the world for the better – whatever their flaws...
View ArticleStrange bedfellows indeed: Lessig/Mayday PAC and right-wing extremist Jim Rubens
Lawrence Lessig's Mayday PAC aims to drive the money-changers out of the temple of American politics by fighting fire with fire. Or something.Mayday is Lessig's very own SuperPAC, funded half by...
View ArticleThe Price That You Pay For Rocking The Boat
Last month, I gave this tribute to Aaron Swartz, an internet activist, when I hosted a special Capitol Hill showing of the documentary Killswitch. Aaron was targeted for prosecution for his political...
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