Writers Guild of America, West Statement on Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger

The Writers Guild of America issued the following on the proposer merger  of Comcast and Time Warner Cable (The Free Press has an online form to help you register your objection to the proposed merger):

Contact: Gregg Mitchell (323) 782-4574
News Release: February 13, 2014


Writers Guild of America, West Statement on Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger 

LOS ANGELES -- The Writers Guild of America, West issued the following statement today regarding the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable:

"Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable is bad for everyone: content creators, programmers, suppliers, and consumers. As writers know all too well, media consolidation leads to already too powerful companies limiting competition. The WGAW will fight to stop this ill-conceived merger."


The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) is a labor union representing writers of motion pictures, television, radio, and Internet programming, including news and documentaries. Founded in 1933, the Guild negotiates and administers contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of its members. It is involved in a wide range of programs that advance the interests of writers, and is active in public policy and legislative matters on the local, national, and international levels.


For more information on the WGAW, please visit: www.wga.org.

One app for Flickr, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Dropbox?

Mejuba has a Crowd Funding Campaign:

We Need Your Help

We have setup a Crowd Funding Campaign on Indiegogo and we need your help to raise money and to spread the word – so we can develop Mejuba into the world’s best storage and sharing application.

We will increase the value of using Mejuba.com by transforming Mejuba into the leading FILE sharing application allowing uploads and sharing of ALL types of files while retaining the emphasis on the photo and video part as well as the social media aspect. On top of that we will add state-of-the-art photo- and video-editing tools and later to come also online editing of documents.

We want to melt Flickr, Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Dropbox into one single application.

We have already invested $350.000 and need a further $200.000 to develop and launch our vision. This will allow us to redesign Mejuba, increase the usability, increase the upload and download speed, increase the streaming speed, weed out all errors and build the world’s best file storage, sharing and editing application. And keep it free for all members. For this we need your help.

How You Can Help

Back our campaign

By backing our campaign you’re telling us that you’re as excited as we are about this project and you’ll help us get closer to our goal.

SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN HERE >>

Share our campaign

It may seem like a small thing, but sharing our campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Email etc, will allow us to see the response of our intended audience and hopefully get us closer to getting the project funded. Share this link to our campaign:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mejuba-com-worlds-best-file-sharing-site-and-application

The more people know about it, the more feedback we get and the better Mejuba will be.

  

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Leaked documents tell what NSA spy programs do (Chris Fry)

Repost from Workers World:

Leaked documents tell what NSA spy programs do

By Chris Fry on February 14, 2014

Revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency spy programs have appeared in German and Dutch magazines.  The articles’ source appears to be former NSA contractor and now whistleblower Edward Snowden.


On Dec. 29, the German magazine Der Spiegel published a lengthy article titled “Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit.” The article describes a secret NSA computer hacking unit called the Office of Tailored Access Operations.  A former head of TAO wrote a document urging her bosses at the NSA to “support Computer Network Attacks as an integrated part of military operations.”


To do this, she wrote, TAO needs to acquire “pervasive, persistent access on the global network.”  The Der Spiegel article states that “the NSA hackers have been given a government mandate for their work.”


Some of the NSA’s TAO operations have included:


Operation WHITETAMALE — the Mexican Government Secretariat of Public Security was penetrated. Its email accounts were downloaded, and then the entire network, including employee addresses and video surveillance records.


Operation STUXNET — jointly developed by U.S. and Israeli agents, a computer “worm” was created to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program.


XKEYSCORE spying tool — a program designed to “fish” computer “crash” reports to Microsoft to gain access to those computers and intercept all of its Internet traffic.


QUANTUMTHEORY — a “toolbox” of computer “malware” programs, which are designed to not only monitor but also misdirect target computer systems.  One of these programs — QUANTUMINSERT — was used, according to the article, “to attack the computers of employees at partly government-held Belgian telecommunications company Belgacom.” The same programs were used to attack the OPEC computer network in Vienna, which meant that the U.S. “gained unhindered access to valuable economic data using these tools.”


The article also describes how the NSA’s TAO has its own covert servers, known by the codename FOXACID.  Targeted users are directed to fake websites on these servers, from which malware is transferred onto their computers.


SEA-ME-WE-4 — an operation designed to penetrate the largely underwater computer cable system. As the article states, with the help of a “website masquerade operation,” the agency was able to “gain access to the consortium’s management website and collected Layer 2 network information that shows the circuit mapping for significant portions of the network.”


Sharpening the tools of oppression


Not satisfied with installing malware to remotely monitor and attack computers and networks, the NSA actually intercepts ordered computers before they are delivered, opens them up, installs both hardware and software, closes them up and resumes delivery.  They call this “interdiction.”  The NSA considers this among “the most productive operations” that allow TAO to obtain access to networks “around the world.”


A Dutch magazine published an article in November exposing another NSA program used to download information from cell phones — the Apple iPhones are said to be particularly vulnerable to this.  Contact lists and other private information are being fed into the NSA databases.


Clearly the NSA spy program is not simply a case of an expanding government bureaucracy. It is designed to serve the ruthless competitive goals of the largest U.S. banks and corporations. That is, of course, consistent with all the activities of the capitalist government.  And it can and almost certainly is used against peoples’ movements around the world.


Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who wrote the first stories based on materials from Snowden, pointed out in an interview with democracynow.org that while the U.S. government has attacked the Chinese government for conducting electronic spying and placing spyware hardware and software on the computers that it sells, it has not proven these charges.  However, the U.S. NSA expanding spyware programs are doing this very thing on a massive scale.


Revelations of the NSA spy programs have generated public outrage.  With growing resistance to the capitalist crisis both here and abroad, it is clear that the U.S. is sharpening its tools of repression. This NSA campaign of electronic warfare must be stopped now!

Articles copyright 1995-2014 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.


"Maxine Kumin died -- did anyone notice?" -- most requested highlight of the week by readers of this site.

"Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- C.I. covers a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing and a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing.

"Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Success" --  Isaiah weighs in on Barack's 'success' in Iraq.

"Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Joker" -- Isaiah on Barack's gutting of food stamps.


"Writers Guild of America, West Statement on Comcas...," "Comcast + Time Warner Cable = Disaster (The Free P..." "Real issues matter," "Stop the merger," "The Proposed Merger," "Firefox, anti-trust and the frauds who lie (yes, that means Mia)" and "Whatever happened to anti-trust laws?" -- community coverage of the proposed Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger.

"Again on the sell out Dylan," "Nicki Minag,""i don't blame drake for being mad," "Diana Ross' Greatest Hits Tour," "Bono still wastes U2's time and our time," "Joni's Urge For Going" and "And some people call me a bitch?" -- Kat, Betty, Rebecca and Trina cover music.


"Feminism and other issues" -- Trina calls out nonsense.

"Sister Megan Rice" -- Elaine on the nun being railroaded for civil disobedience.

"Brown Rice and Corn in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a healthy recipe.

"Avoid Endless Love," "Beetlejuice," "Good for Ellen Page," "Why I hate Chicago (and musicals I do love),"
"Gotham," "Muppets Most Wanted"  and "The Great And Powerful Stan" -- Stan, Mike and Marcia cover movies.
"joel mchale to visit hell," "The low rated (ha!) Winter Olympics," "Good news for Nick Zano," "Halle Berry's summer series," "Halle Berry's new show EXTANT," "a sequel to the awful how i met your mother?"
"The Tonys," "juliette lewis" and "Iraq, the economy, EXTANT" --Rebecca, Stan, Kat,  Ann, Marcia and Betty cover TV.



"Yellin lives, Shirley Temple passes away," "Shirley Temple Black" and "Ralph Waite" -- Ann, Ruth and Trina note passings.




"It passes for workers' rights under Obama" and "THIS JUST IN! A WORKERS' VICTORY?" -- Cedric and Wally on the state of workers' rights.




"The kiss asses learn they're not so popular," "Medea Benjmain basks in her uselessness," "Where was their energy in 2000?,"  "The attack on WSWS," "Little Bitch Robert S. Becker" and "How she overplayed her hand" --  Ann, Elaine, Marcia and Mike provide perspective.



"No Lift Off" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.



"An affair to rumor" and "THIS JUST IN! REFUTING RUMORS!" -- Cedric and Wally on the laughable rumors.


"Isaiah, Iraq, The Drone War, Third," "The Jewish Archives," "Iraq, Lynne Stewart, Ed Schultx," and "Iraq, the economy, EXTANT" -- Mike, Ruth, Elaine and Betty offer some Iraq coverage.

Truest statement of the week

We don’t know who we fear more, Al Qaeda or SWAT. Why would we help them fight Al Qaeda when they’ll just come for us as soon as they’re done with them?

-- an Iraqi woman in Falluja quoted in Human Rights Watch, (PDF format warning) "‘No One Is Safe’: Abuses of Women in Iraq’s Criminal Justice System,"

Truest statement of the week II

You don't earn a daily slot on either side of corporate media if you're not a consistent and effective shill for corporate interests – for the privatization of public education, for US imperial interventions and war crimes in Africa, South Asia and the Americas, for fracking, for unfettered police spying, and for only attacking the bad things the other party does. That's Joy Ann Reid to a T, and that's how you earn those slots at Fox or MSNBC and that's how you keep them.


--  Bruce A. Dixon, "Another Black Face on MSNBC: Good News For Joy Ann Reid, Not So Much For The Rest of Us" (Black Agenda Report).

A note to our readers

Hey --

One more Sunday.



First up, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:




The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.


And what did we come up with:

• Truest statement of the week

An Iraqi woman speaking to Human Rights Watch.

• Truest statement of the week II

Bruce A. Dixon.

• Editorial: War Crimes against women and the outlet...

Exactly how do you claim to be a feminist outlet -- Ms. and Women's Media Center, we're talking to you -- and ignore a Human Rights Watch report about the torture and rape of Iraqi women?  We can't understand that.

• TV: Big Ed of the Little Mind

Ava and C.I. take on Ed Schultz in their latest TV report.

• Roundtable

We go through the e-mails.

• Tweet of the week

The Iraqis continue to protest.  Nouri has tried everything to silence them.  Nothing has worked.  They're strong. 

• Double Bills In Hell

A possible new feature.  5 articles would not work.  Would not.  Could anyone think of something we could do quickly?  Ava asked, "How about movie posters?"  C.I. followed with "double bills." What are you talking about?   We'd recently watched Malcolm X so Ava tossed that out.  C.I. said, "Pair it with Madam X."  Ty quickly hollered, "Double Bills In Hell!"  

• This edition's playlist

What we listened to this edition.

• What Bob Somerby will be obsessing over this week

It's a preview of this week's Daily Howler.

• Who is it?

A puzzle.

• Sexuality, class and control (Sue Caldwell)

Repost from Great Britain's Socialist Worker. 

• Syria: US imperialism and diplomacy (Gene Clancy)

Repost from Workers World.

• Highlights

Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it. 

Peace.

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Editorial: War Crimes against women and the outlets that ignore them

In Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki terrorizes the Iraqi people.

No one gets more tortured than the Iraqi women:


For example, Fatima Hussein (not her real name), a journalist accused of involvement in the murder of a parliamentarian’s brother and of being married to an Al-Qaeda member, described physical and sexual torture in early 2012 at the hands of one particular interrogator in Tikrit, Colonel Ghazi. She described Ghazi tying her blindfolded to a column and electrocuting her with an electric baton, hitting her feet and back with cable, kicking her, pulling her hair, tying her naked to a column and extinguishing cigarettes on her body, and later handcuffing her to a bed, forcing her to give him oral sex, and raping her three times. "There was blood all over me. He would relax, have a cigarette, and put it out on my buttock, and then started again," she said.


That's from Human Rights Watch's report entitled (PDF format warning) "'NO ONE IS SAFE: Abuses of Women in Iraq's Criminal Justice System."




The response in the US was highly disappointing.


Do you remember last year when McClatchy's Hannah Allem was grandstanding in public about how the most important thing was the fate of the Iraqis trying to get into the US?  And how this problem needed serious attention?  And she kept grandstanding until it was pointed out that she'd never written a report on this topic or even done a Tweet?

Well Hannah still useless.

Human Rights Watch released their report on Thursday of last week.

Thursday and Friday?  Hanna Allem served up 40 Tweets and reTweets.

How many were on the HRW report about Iraqi women?

10?

Try lower.

8?

Lower.

5?

Let's just end the guessing.

Zero.

Human Rights Watch released a report that's over 100 pages, addressing what happens to Iraqi women in prisons and detention centers and Hannah Allem can't even be bothered to serve up 140 characters or less about the report.


Here's what one Iraqi woman shared to HRW:


They took us with the children. For the first half-hour they held us in the same room. Then they separated us and the torture started. The first day they tortured me all night, through until the morning. I was bleeding on the floor. I couldn’t breastfeed my baby. They used electricity on me the first four or five days, after that they mostly just beat me.... My shoulders are still damaged and I can’t pray. Ibtihal said that four men at the 8th Brigade headquarters interrogated her about Khalid. I told them I only know he works as a laborer. They beat me up and electrocuted me during two days, asking me over and over where he works and what he does. When I didn’t know the answers they handcuffed my hands behind my back, blindfolded me and beat and kicked me, calling me bad names. They would do this two or three times a day, about a half-an hour each time, for three days. 


What happens in interrogation?  One woman offers:

They used a thick black tube they calle d the “donkey.” They beat me with it and inserted it into my vagina. They chained me to a bed and threatened to rape me with their dogs. They asked me how I had sex with my husband and made me dance with them.



A woman grabbed in a super market by Nouri's forces was quickly beaten, shocked with electricity and more.  When that didn't force her to sign a false confession, they used her daughter to threaten her:


They pulled up her picture on my mobile, and said, "Is this [name withheld]?"   They knew her name, where she went to school, everything. They said "We can take her just like we took you."  I would have said anything at that point. 



There are many other stories like that in the report.

And they were ignored by Hannah Allem.  And she wasn't the only one.

Ms. magazine's blog never noted the report.

While Women's Media Center has a campaign which insists "Don't Let Women's Voices Be Silenced in 2014," they have thus far let Iraqi women be silenced by refusing to write an article or even a Tweet about the HRW report (and they've 28 Tweets since the report was released).

B-b-but the report just came out!

Last Thursday.  And Women's e-News has managed to cover it. Sarah Sheffer covered it for The NewsHour (PBS).

By contrast, NPR refused to cover it -- on air or at the website.

They did 'tax' themselves by re-running an AP report.

Women are tortured and raped, disappeared into prisons, their children threatened and this isn't news to Women's Media Center?

WMC makes time on their awful Twitter feed to whore for the daughter of celebrities  but they can't do a damn thing for Iraqi women?