A Facebook group put up by an anonymous user seems to be suggesting a threat against people who sign the recall petitions in Wisconsin against Republican Governor Scott Walker. The page was initially launched with a message that read:
You know who you are. WE know who you are. This is gonna get FUN!!
I'm sure as hell going to inform my employer about co-workers names that show up. He is a true Walker supporter. He was looking to let go a couple of workers...now that decision is made that much easier.
The group's profile pic is a photo of a house on fire. The implication is clearly that those who signed petitions to recall Walker would be targeted with loss of job or their home being burned.
After a number of websites learned of the group, the original message was scrubbed from the site and it was "remade" as a "warning" that right-wing extremists might engage in this type of behavior:
Daily Kos gets it wrong, as usual. This is Knot a hate page. This is a page warning petition signers of a clear and possible realitly that radical right wing extremists will be getting your info off the Recall Petitions.
If you read posts on the page, though, this smokescreen falls flat, as there are denigrating references towards liberals and the page lists among its favorites the "Verify the Recall" group, which claims to be a nonpartisan group interested only in making sure recall petition signers were legitimate, but is a fan of tea party-related groups and organizations like Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty, which is promoting events like a "Celebrate Walker" rally and is linked to numerous right-wing organizations.
It seems clear the original page was going to be flagged and removed as a threatening site and they changed the tenor of the page to comply with Facebook guidelines.
Fellow blogger over at FutureMajority.com has just released an expose on what has been said to be one of the fastest rising political youth organizations in the country. As it turns out - the group is a front group for ultra-conservative economic policy, spinning fake or cherry picked polling data, and running one of the largest AstroTurf 2.0 operations ever seen!
While the GOP has made gains with young white males (though just how much is in question do to an oversampling of the south in the cited report) since the period those surveys were done, overall the ethnically diverse Millennials have not drastically changed, with the majority of disappointment in Washington coming from the left...
"Generation Opportunity bases their legitimacy on the number of followers on their Facebook page, "Being American." At the time of writing, the page has just under 940,000 fans, which would be very impressive for an organization that was publicly announced less than 3 months ago. According to their announcement press release, their fan page already had over 600,000 fans before they even publicly announced their existence. That is a little bit too impressive. . . .Then again, Generation Opportunity doesn't have any fans, "Being American" does. Apparently, "Being American" is a Generation Opportunity project. Let me translate: someone gave Generation Opportunity the existing page for "Being American" and the organization branded it as their own. Anyone who has ever liked "Being American" on Facebook because they like being American is unwillingly being counted as a supporter of this organization, and Generation Opportunity is using these people as 'evidence' that they are legitimate and "one of the largest and fastest growing organizations targeting young Americans." This is astroturfing 2.0. . . . "
"Generation Opportunity is a conservative astroturf front group being used to push a pro-conservative youth narrative using the false legitimacy of their acquired Facebook page. There are no Millennials involved. There is nobody involved in the organization that is not a conservative activist. None of their polling data has included crosstabs or demographics.. . ."
"Paul T. Conway, Kellyanne Conway, and Matthew Faraci are not bad people. Kellyanne Conway in particular has been a long-time advocate of youth outreach on the right and has spoken openly about improving voter access. If conservatives want to start another youth outreach or advocacy group, more power to them. I welcome the addition of organizations that seek to engage young voters regardless of their place on the political spectrum. However, I do not support the idea of a falsely non-partisan organization disingenuously using the followers of another Facebook page as legitimacy to push a conservative narrative so it looks unbiased."
Google and Verizon released a new plan this week for how the Internet should operate (see Susan's post for more background), if they got to rule the world. We'd keep Net Neutrality for the wired Internet (at least for consumers not corporations), but they could set up fast lanes and slow lanes for the wireless Internet. Wireless is of course the future of the Internet, but then again that is exactly the point.
Their proposal has devided the tech industry, as the NYT reported today, with Facebook, Amazon, eBay and venture capitalists raising serious concerns with the Google/Verizon evil deal:
It set off a flood of reaction, much of it negative, from Web companies and consumer advocacy groups. In the most extreme situation that opponents envision, two Internets could emerge — the public one known today, and a private one with faster lanes and expensive tolls. [snip]
The wireless Internet is quickly emerging as the dominant technology platform, said Matt Cohler, a general partner at Benchmark Capital, a prominent venture firm in Silicon Valley that has invested in start-ups like Twitter. “It is as important to have the right protections in place for the newer platform as it is for the older platform.”
The media has trashed their evil deal and over 300,000 people have signed an open letter demanding Google drop this proposal.
It's a giant corporate power-grab and Google who claims to "do no evil" is doing exactly that with this evil plan. That's why MoveOn, the PCCC (where I work), CREDO Action, Color of Change and Free Press are holding a rally at noon tomorrow in front of Google headquarters. The event is at the corner of Amphitheatre Parkway and Charleston Road in Mountain View. Click here to RSVP.
For people in the San Francisco area, there will be a bus leaving from the San Francisco Opera House at 11 a.m. You have to RSVP to get on the bus, as seats are limited.
This deal can be stopped, but only if President Obama and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski understand just how angry we are at the prospect of our rights being trampled online by Google and other corporate giants. So, please join us, or if you don't live in the Bay Area, pass along the info to your friends.
In case you missed it, the DREAM Now letter series launched this week, with a letter from DREAM Act student Mohammad Abdollahi. The first featured letter-writer, Mohammad, helped to organize this week's DREAM mobilization in DC, which consisted of lobby visits, a "mock graduation," and student-led rallies. The mobilization took a controversial turn yesterday, as 21 young people engaged in civil disobedience in the nation's capitol to highlight the urgency they feel for moving the legislation -- the youth risked deportation because of their immigration status.
The DREAM Now letters to follow each week, from undocumented young people who feel they must tell their stories, will be used to call attention to the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act without further delay. Please get involved by posting the letters on your blog, your facebook or twitter profiles, or wherever you can. Together we can make the DREAM Act a reality for the million or more young people whose lives are now on hold, waiting for this critical legislation -- a stepping stone to full immigration reform that 70% of Americans support.
I was born in 1985 to a barely-turned 16 year-old who had been kicked out of her house while she was pregnant for being a disgrace to the family. I lived with my mother in an abandoned house in Guerrero, Mexico. She struggled to find work, but was either harassed or asked for sexual favors. She said no. She was 17 in 1986 when the 8.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico. She decided to take me to the U.S., but we didn't stay that long. At my grandmother's request, we returned to Mexico. The hits kept coming: my mother ended an abusive relationship with a military man and feared for her life.
Then, my father called- after abandoning my mother while she was pregnant and being MIA for most of my early years, decided he wanted us to join him in California. My options have always been limited. I was 8 years old when I came to the U.S. When I was 14, my 18-year-old boyfriend wanted to marry me. I said no. When I graduated from the top of my high school class, I thought I couldn't go anywhere. My parents were migrant farm workers- college wasn't likely. But years later, I found a private college in Kansas that would accept me. I worked myself to the bone, and obtained an Associate's Degree. Today, I am working towards my Bachelor's degree. According to my calculations, it will take me eight years.
I've had people tell me that it's not a big deal, that I should keep on waiting for the DREAM Act to pass. My life has been on pause, rewind or replay for years. Waiting is not an option. That is why undocumented youth like myself are risking everything, right now, to pass the DREAM Act, this year. If we're putting our lives on the line for this, Mr. President, the least you can do is call members of Congress and ask them to do the same.
It started with 3 undocumented youth sitting in John McCain's office, and it has escalated to 20. How many more will it take before Congress passes the DREAM Act?
As of May 30, in addition to the 1000th American GI casualty, the National Priorities Project calculates that we have past the one trillion dollar mark on the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. One TRILLION dollars, with a T. It's a hard number to wrap your mind around, as this Google Sketchup illustration demonstrates. It also begs the question: just what have we bought for all that money and what good could have been done with that money instead?
Brave New Films's ReThink Afghanistan has a new Facebook app that allows you to see other ways that money could have been spent:
You could choose to hire every worker in Afghanistan for a year for
$12 billion or hire 1 million public safety workers for a year for $46.5 billion, and still only have made mere drops in the bucket.
Personally, I opted to pay for four years of college for a million students, fund the clean up of the gulf oil spill, hire one million elementary school teachers and offer health care for 10 million Americans and guess what? I still didn't reach that one trillion mark.
Check out the app. Tell us how you'd spend the money. Then consider sending this to your congresscritter to ask him/her how much more blood and treasure need to be lost in the sands of the Middle East.
Here is the first of the Chat series -- Art, Space and Politics: Shepard Fairey asks Robbie Conal
Best known for his unapologetic in-your-face style of political street art, Robbie Conal is ready to take us on a new journey with his new book Not Your Typical Political Animal. But that doesn’t mean his ideas of creating art anywhere and everywhere have changed. In this chat with fellow artist and long time fan Shepard Fairey, he discusses the use of public space for art and challenges us all to take action.
Despite the drubbing in the media, the threatened boycotts and the planned marches and protests, there is a segment of xenophobic Republican lawmakers empowered by Arizona's anti-immigration law enough to try to emulate it in their home state. ThinkProgress has a breakdown of the states (Utah, Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Nebraska) and the actions being contemplated.
“For many in Washington, border violence is merely a talking point, but for those who live along our southern border it has become a fact of life. Talk is cheap, but talk means nothing until we follow through and deliver the tangible resources our law enforcement needs to keep border residents safe,” said Senator Cornyn. “Our government has abdicated its responsibility when it comes to border security for far too long, leaving state and local taxpayers no choice but to pick up the slack to protect communities from cartel, gang violence, and cross-border trafficking. This bill will require the federal government to do its job.”
“For communities along the border with Mexico, the threat of violence is becoming all too real, but the federal government has yet to fully step up and do what is necessary to take on these challenges,” said Senator Hutchison. “This failure costs our state and local governments millions every year and puts lives in danger.”
Based largely on input from local law enforcement officers near the Texas border, Sen. Cornyn introduced The Southern Border Security Assistance Act to create a $300 million border grant program for state and local law enforcement within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, which will help quickly provide resources to purchase equipment, upgrade critical information systems, and hire additional officers. The bill also requires additional federal judges to handle the caseload from increased criminal prosecutions along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Not too pick too fine a nit, but I would mention that Cornyn, complaining that the federal government is not doing enough, is actually a MEMBER of the federal government.
A little Sunday funnies with which to start your week:
The late, great Flight of the Conchords
Okay, I'm childish, but when a friend from Down Under posted on Facebook that it was ANZAC Day, this was the first thing that came to mind. No disrespect intended, you Ozzies and Kiwis, I just loves me some FotC.
This guy was yelling that he's a libertarian and was getting the shit kicked out of him.
Palin is able to walk the line between teabagger and GOP operative quite comfortably because they live in a reality all their own. If McCain beats Hayworth, she might face some blowback in AZ, but probably nowhere else.
(courtesy of 
