Indy Media Watch

I have previously noted a a slight problem with eBay's automatically generated keyword based advertising on Google.

Evidently eBay has not noticed. Behold the following screenshot:


In case you were wondering, relax. This is why I was looking up scrotal inflation, I swear.

Oh and in case you were still wondering, no, eBay doesn't really have any great deals on scrotal inflation. At least not at the moment...

Update: Via one of the comments, someone has suggested it may not be eBay but an affiliate looking to make money via their referral scheme. eBay should still pay heed. This is wrong on so many levels...

Via Slashdot, The sysadmin for flag.blackened.net, best known for hosting infoshop.org and the Anarchist FAQ has responded to an FBI request for server logs. Although he cannot reveal the details of the request due to the gag order, the sysadmin has issued an informal press release discussing his reasons for turning over the information.

Comments on the Blackened site's discussion forum include:

Maybe you should let indymedia do a story on this. Then it would be hard for them to deny any involvement if they did come after you for freedom of speach.

and freedom of spelling.

In response to this,

That is what Indymedia does in Oz... for precisely these reasons. An ethical issue does not arise if there are no logs for the feds to seek access to.

regards and deepest sympathy

Alastair
Scoop.co.nz

Ethics schmethics. It you aren't breaking the law, and don't operate in a totalitarian regime, what's the problem, really?

Incidentally, Infoshop is a member of "Lesbians Against SUVs". Just thought you should know. Infoshop also doesn't think very much of Indymedia according to a poll in which the majority of users thought Indymedia had "gone downhill". I also discovered this article which you should read in full and describes "The Sad Decline of Indymedia". It was written in 2002 and the 'decline' evidently continues...

Secondly, the inability of the IMC network to take aggresive action against racist and anti-semitic posts further damaged the Indymedia's reputation with Jewish people and people of color. We understand that some pro-Israel extremists think that any criticism of Israel is anti-semitic, but the IMC network became a hotbed of just plain anti-Jewish articles, opinions, and comments. Part of the problem within the IMC network is that most activists refused to stand up to the free speech totalitarians within the network, who argued that everything posted should stay visible to the public.

I have previously observed the same problem.

I've been a free speech advocate for many years and often considered myself to be a free speech zealot, but not even I would argue that our websites should provide any space for right wing and racist views. The racists have their websites--we don't need to use our limited resources to promote their hideous and offensive views.

The net result of this inaction is that racist and anti-semitic views became normalized on Indymedia websites. Sure, newswire moderators would remove the occasional racist rant or picture, but lots of stuff was left online. This normalization of racist content showed the racists and right wingers that they could have their way with Indymedia. It also alienated lots of potential Indymedia supporters. Why should a Jewish activist participate in an alternative media project that tolerates hate speech against that person?

I'm also convinced that the right wing posted lots of conspiracy content to ruin the repuation of Indymedia.

I'm not. One of the long standing arguments is that right-wingers deliberately post Nazi material or Jews post anti-Semitic material in order to discredit Indymedia. Why would they need to? By the author's own admission (and the most basic examination) it's pretty clear they wouldn't need to forge this material, there is enough 'genuine' anti-Semitic and lunatic material to discredit Indymedia without assistance whatsoever.

With the exception of this theory most of the article makes good sense. The facts are Indymedia has slipped, and in many ways is destroying itself (in order to save itself according to some).

Santa Barbara IMC is hosting this article which identifies the mastermind behind 9/11.

Osama Bin Laden perhaps? Not quite...

System Planning Corporation designs, manufactures and distributes highly
sophisticated technology that enables an operator to fly by remote control as many as eight different airborne vehicles at the same time from one position either on the ground or airborne.

It goes on...

In the context of 9/11 it also needs to be pointed out that Rabbi Dov Zakheim was Chief Executive Officer of System Planning Corporation's International
Division

Excuse me? Unless you trying to reverse-engineer proof that the Jews were responsible for 9/11, why is that of relevance in "the context of 9/11" unless you have concrete proof Sysplan's technology (and not a deranged Islamist terrorist group) was flying the planes on that awful day. You don't.

And here it comes:

There you have it! Motive, means and opportunity all rolled into one and existing between Rabbi Dov Zakheim's ears. The motive was that a false flag intelligence operation would trigger a response by the USA that would be good for the Zionist state. The means consisted of the aforementioned remote control of airborne vehicle technologies as well as the nurturing, creative accounting at the Pentagon to pay for such an operation. The opportunity was Zakheim's closeness to the Command/Control/Communications in our nation's capital and its interwoven cousin network of psychopathic Zionist Neo-Cons all hell-bent on provoking a war with Saddam Hussein.

Unfortunately, it seems that the 9/11 commission is not looking in this direction when it ought to be.

You're right. They probably should be looking in your direction as well! Like much of this material, rebuking it is pointless at it rebukes itself to all but those who will never be convinced.

For what it's worth however, given that Osama bin Laden admitted and actually celebrated that his al-Qa'eda group carried out the attacks on the World Trade Centre and that "the pilots who hijacked the planes were "blessed by Allah", what exactly will it take to convince (ahem) some people that it wasn't actually a grand Jewish/USA/Neocon/whatever conspiracy?

The Mossad has lately had trouble pulling off something as basic as a passport fraud without getting caught. The US meanwhile can't even give Iraqi prisoners a wedgie without it being televised. For an 'operation' like 9/11, considering the resources involved, how exactly did they manage to keep this a secret again?

Oh wait... I forgot. They deliberately screwed up those incidents just to make us think they couldn't get away with it, which is exactly what they wanted us to think, so they could really get away with it. Damn those clever Mossad/CIA agents! But how did they get bin Laden to confess? He must be a Zionist Neocon as well! Damn, Double Damn!


Well done Mossad, well done CIA and well done Santa Barbara Indymedia!

NYC IMC is broke according to the statement on their front page:

We're "Unique," "Invaluable," an "Important Resource." These are just some of the comments supporters have sent us in the last few days. But we're also BROKE. If we don't get your support today, NYC Indymedia may not be able to continue in the ways you expect! Please DONATE now to help keep us going strong! [Read More]

So in other words, if they fold they may not be able to continue in the ways we expect like this or this:

Overcoming Speciesism - Toward Nonhuman Emancipation
Author of Speciesism and Animal Equality: Language and Liberation, Animal rights advocate Joan Dunayer defines this form of prejudice as "a failure, in attitude or practice, to accord any nonhuman being equal consideration and respect."

Followed up with this observation:

How come all the presenters at this event are human?

Sounds pretty speciesist to me!
...
Until this panel is opened up to woodchucks and shrubbery -- to say nothing of the mighty Scotch Oak -- I will not be dignifying this event. Plants are tired of human speaking their behalf!

And to think, if they don't get at least ten-grand real soon, we might miss out on this kind of stuff!

Rusty Shackleford's MypetJawa is the latest blog at the centre of controversy over what blogs are and are not indexed by Google News (note I am referring to the Google News index, not main Google search engine index).

Mega-Blogger Charles Johnson notes:

Private Radio has a list generated by a script, of Google News sources for the United States. Since they’ve now dropped Jawa Report, can we assume they will also be dropping Electronic Intifada, Jihad Unspun, uruknet.info, AlJazeera.info, infoshop.org, antiwar.com, and many other hard-core Islamist and anti-American sites that feature prominently in their news search results?

Indymedia has previously been blocked by Google News.

Only in Israel previously reported the inclusion of the Hamas terrorist website and asked similar questions about the double-standards (at worst) or sheer incompetence (at best) of Google's assessment criteria for newsworthiness.

The specific branch that used the word "zionazi" hasn't returned to GoogleNews since and Nazimedia is closely monitored and edited now that branches of it are back in GoogleNews.

It seems, according to a Google News search for "Zionazi" which returned this entry that not only is Indymedia back in the Google News Index, the standard is no better.

I traveled around the United States for the first four years of the traitor bush appointment here, as he did his experimentations for his zionazi mastes in israel, all perped in Americans with no regard whatsoever to public health.

It seems "experimentations" in spelling have suggested "mastes" "perping" things in [sic] Americans. See also my two most recent comments below (or here if you are on an archive page) on the link between spelling, Google and nutbag conspiracies.

All brought to you of course, by Indymedia.

Seconds ago I proposed automatic spell checking to the whole Internet as a means of reducing insane conspiracy theories and their host sites.

Looking through my Web Server Logs has shown me the rather interesting search queries by which people find this blog and its contents.

Firstly, hello again Steven Cuzner of Sweden whomever you are. Secondly, Google searches have included: "articles about homesexuals" (presumably someone who has sex with homes) and "asia sunami usa conspiracy testing nuclear weapons" which lead to my delightfully witty commentary on the UN and the Tsunami, and drew to my attention a typo, which I have left standing thanks to the traffic it's obviously bringing.

Anyway, looking at the errant searches, kan you notise a concistant patten?

Finally, I am thrilled that people are searching for "un, corrupt" and imagine they won't have a hard time finding results on which to draw their conclusions.

UK Indymedia is currently hosting an article entitled This is very important - Putin assaination attempt.

Evidently it wasn't important enough to give it the once-over with a spellchecker. What an ass.

This is information that you will not be able to access for long (ways will be found to define it as: "conspiracy bollocks"; "anti-semetic" & "non news"). So make sure that you read every word and understand the unrefutable proofs therein.

Err... Irrefutable. When you look at the author's credentials and level of proof, it really won't be hard at all to find ways to "define it as conspiracy bollocks, anti-semitic" (note spelling). Contrary to the poster's paranoid hysterics however, it will be accessible for quite a long time on the website of its author, one Mr Joe Vialls, whose distillation of stupidity has been previously reported on in Invest in Oklahoma Tinfoil. Conspiracy bollocks? Now why ever would we think that of the man who also informed us the US and Israel were responsible for the South-East Asian tsunami (and this was actually one of his less grandiose claims).

Oh here it comes:

Links in well with the news that an attempt on Putins life has been made.

http://joevialls.altermedia.info/myahudi/embassynuke.html

Or you could attempt to insert your head where the sun don't shine, put your fingers in your ears and go "blah blah blah" and generally engage in character assasination and messenger shooting.

Okay then...

And now, a picture of the author going blah blah blah...


One respondent offered some sound advice:

You have a real problem and you need help - quite seriously, if you're posting links like this as serious news (because you believe it) then I suggest you get tested for schizophrenia. The earlier you get help the more easily the symptoms can be managed.

Another offered a thorough refutation of the piece. I see no real point. To a sane man/woman the article roundly refutes itself. Nevertheless, the response did ask the question:

If the 'zionists '[code for Jews] were capable of all of this, without ever being discovered, then, as I say, they must be damned clever chaps.

Quite.

Reading this and various other articles around Indymedia, I propose the following idea. An automatic spell-checking filter on the Internet's core routers, which summarily deleted any article with bad spelling or grammar. I am certain this would reduce wild conspiracy theories tenfold with a very low rate of false-positives affecting intelligent or remotely sane commentary.

I have previously reported on the implications of online hostilities leading to 'real-world' violence.

The recent, tragic high-school shooting in Minnesota was allegedly perpetrated by a teenager who whilst quiet in school, "became an extrovert in cyberspace" according to this CBS article which claims:

He may have posted messages on a neo-Nazi Web site expressing admiration for Hitler and calling himself "Todesengel," German for the "Angel of Death."

Several notes signed by a Jeff Weise, who identified himself as "a Native American from the Red Lake 'Indian' Reservation," were posted beginning last year on a Web site operated by the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party.

It is prudent to note the "Libertarian National Socialist Green Party" website is www.nazi.org. I'll let you guess what their logo is...

In one posting, he criticized interracial mixing on the reservation and slammed fellow Indian teens for listening to rap music. "We have kids my age killing each other over things as simple as a fight, and it's because of the rap influence," he wrote.

While the writing of his postings on the neo-Nazi Web site may have been sloppy and full of typos, Weise was also able to write more polished prose for stories published on the Internet about zombies.

Frequent online hate material, "sloppy and full of typos". Sound familiar?

I fully accept that the child may have had other issues besides online misadventure, his father had committed suicide about four years ago, and his mother is in a nursing home after a motor vehicle accident, according to news reports.

Nevertheless, the link between online hate and real-world violence cannot be ignored. One of the Sydney Indymedia moderators however wants to do just that...

I truly believe that providing the opportunity for people to vent their frustrations anonymously prevents them from venting them physically, and reduces the amount of violence in the community. I would rather tolerate over-the-top statements on the newswire than have to read about a rabbi being bashed or a temple defaced.

The 'venting of frustrations' and 'over-the-top' statements she referred to, was the previously reported "INFANT RAPEING (sic) RABBI INFECTS VICTIMS WITH DEADLY VIRUS" and the above comment was in response to fair criticism of the ongoing anti-Semitic content of Sydney Indymedia and the impunity with which it was treated by Sydney IMC staff.

I've said it before. When free speech encourages hate-speech, something is seriously wrong. It isfoolishly naive to assume that active and prolific online encouragement of hate, be it religious, ethnic or political in nature, may not lead to acts of violence any more than rallies in 1939 or KKK rallies later in the century did.

Nazis and Commies and far right-wing looneys
Pinkos and Greenies and far left-wing mooneys
Serving up hatred on IMC hosts
These are a few of my favourite posts....

Evil Pundit very kindly linked to this blog in a comment on Little Green Footballs where they are presently discussing this post on San Diego Indymedia, or what Little Green Footballs' affectionately refers to as Nazimedia. I don't call it this as I wouldn't wish to exclude the radical-left from Indymedia's various problems.

In any case, it caused me to compile my favourite posts as an introduction to Indymediawatch if you will, to give new visitors a quick taste of what I've discovered. You'll probably want to gargle afterwards...

I will leave a permanent link to the post on the left-hand side for the benefit of new visitors.

Certainly looking over my numerous posts showed a consistent pattern. A disturbing one at that. I've had hate-mail and praise, links and condemnations. I've even had some Indymedia Bigshots leave a comment here and there.

Certainly I haven't seen any dramatic improvement on the part of Indymedia and despite some IMC sites closing down in a fit of honesty, in many cases, no lessons were learnt at all by those which remained. The site and the concept could be so much more, yet it refuses to grow up. A shame....

I do know many want nothing to do with Indymedia. Not only does this include people who disagree with its content, it also includes activists and left-wingers, the predominant target group of the site (if there is one). Sites like Democratic Underground have filled the void left by Indymedia. Much of Indymedia's original support base would be shocked to see what has happened to it. Ignoring a problem however doesn't mean it goes away. There is no question Indymedia is a problem and I say this as someone who believes strongly in the principles of free speech and knows the problems of the mainstream press. I also believe however that free speech should not be an excuse for hate speech, libel or dishonesty.

Finally, note the favourite posts is only a summary, there's a lot of good stuff buried in the monthly archives. Please grab a cup of coffee, some disinfectant and half an hour or so to look around. I'd love to hear from you.

Ireland Indymedia is seething because Ireland is playing Israel in a soccer match. The headline confusingly refers to Zimbabwe and attempts to draw parallels between the furore of England playing Zimbabwe.

Is the FAI in breach of it's own codes by allowing its's national team to play in a Terrorist State. Is it covert acceptance of the oppression and murder of Palestinians and theft of Palestinian land on a daily baisis and the shooting of school-girls in the face, and the bulldozing of houses and farms and an occasional peace activist.

...and run on sentences.

One respondent asks;

If I understand correctly, Ireland are due to play a home international match with China very soon. What protests are planned?

Nothing of course. Israel is the only country on earth which commits human-rights abuse. Didn't you get the memo?

This is followed by examples of other human-rights abusing countries worthy of similar "attention" until someone says no way:

Chechen war is a seperatist war. No comparison

No comparison? Tell that to the schoolchildren of Beslan who now have quite a bit in common with Israeli schoolchildren.

Subsequently, the conversation turns into ideas of how match audience should wave Palestinian flags at the game and an argument over whether or not Israel would censor the images.

I somehow think there might be an oh-so convenient break in the Israeli TV transmission if that happened.
...
let's deal with the facts here. It also happens to have a relatively free press/TV culture.

But who said football matches should be political? Failing that, how about merciless harrassment of players?

a picket of the Israeli team's hotel - follow them around and shame them, that's the sort of thing that's needed

Ultimately, this shuts them all up:

You poor losers, the best player for Israel is an Arab...the best football team in Israel is predominantly Arabic.
We played Iran twice recently - you cant even phone Israel from Iran!
Please do protest as visibily as possible - you will be remembered in later years if you ever want to be taken seriously for something, an you will most likely be ashamed of yourself within five years

Harrassing players and hijacking a sporting event? Five minutes if you ask me...

I look through my web server's log statistics from time to time to discover via what referring site people visited this blog.

One of the more interesting types of referral is from search engines where you can see the specific search query which yielded your blog as a 'hit'. I discovered someone came to my site via a Google search for "Indymedia moonbat".

More interestingly, at the time of writing, one of the articles on my blog (Indymedia Goes Country) is the very first returned hit of about 552 for that search. This surprised me. I would have thought an Indymedia would come up first, but Google has surprised me (and probably annoyed Indymedia) once again.

For those still unfamiliar with the term moonbat, it's a (usually derogatory) term used to describe a little too far-left wing activist types. I am always quick to remind people the far-right occupy Indymedia as well, and mustn't be ignored. More often than not these days you can't tell the two extremes apart. This is the most 'interesting' phenomena.

Coming in a close second on Google is UK Indymedia followed by this example of the blurry line between far-left and far-right.

Evil Pundit gets emotional about the politics of hate.

It's difficult, if not impossible, to feel more than one emotion intensely at a time. If you're feeling anger or hatred, you're not feeling love or happiness.

Therefore, the more time you spend hating, the less time you have for being happy.

I learned this from experience, having started out as a political hater. I haven't completely kicked the habit yet, but I recognise its pitfalls.

Political campaigns driven by hatred...have not only proved themselves ineffective in practice, but are also harmful to the mental well-being of the campaigners.

Some good advice. Maybe he's not really that evil after all...

Last December I wrote about the Wikipedia taking on Indymedia's news-reporting.

Since then, Wiki News was born.

For those unfamiliar with Wikis, the system's is inspired in part by the success and implementation of open source software development. That is, the article writing process is completely public. Anyone can compose a new Wikinews article, but unlike say Indymedia or a conventional news website, can also edit an existing one and see an inventory of all prior changes.

According to an article on Wiki News, Irish Indymedia is not impressed.

Jimmy Wales characterises Indymedia as a "far left" project and asserts that the Wiki process results in a story with no bias because "There's no magic bullet to eliminate bias, and be objective and neutral. But what's interesting about the way the wiki process works, and the openness of it, is that if you write something and you want it to survive the process, you have to write it in such a way that is broadly satisfactory to people of many points of view. That is a natural impetus to push you away from loaded terminology--or having an ax to grind in a story."

The discussion over at Ireland Indymedia makes the following observation:

I would hazard a guess that before too long the wikinews site will be full of stuff copied and pasted from other websites. It will become a playspace for nazi trolls and conspiracy nuts.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed this Indymedia trait.

Nevertheless I trust the irony of competition for news generation won't be lost on the Indymedia crowd who set up camp in opposition to commercial news outlets.

The article also helped me learn that Indymedia is effectively boycotting Google as Google News refuses to index Indymedia as a 'news source'. Gee I wonder why?

Whilst large (Little Green Footballs) blogs (Michelle Malkin) and small blogs (House of Wheels) are currently debating what sort of news Google should (and should not in the rather misguided case of the National Vanguard Nazi website) index, it seems Indymedia has done an about face and decided if Google doesn't want to know, well that's just fine by them.

Indymedia is currently installing "bots" (clever pieces of code which restrict the ability of Google, to search and collate the gigabytes of opinion, data, background noise, original art work and text which the imc community have assembled these last years).

It's rather like phoning the boss three whole weeks after you were fired and shouting "yeah, well you can't fire me, I quit!"

Okay, whatever.

Assuming people turn to Google News for quality news harvesting, will anyone really care at Indymedia's absence? As for Wiki News, it's too early to call, but there are some lessons to be learnt. Indymedia already has the market share but is unwilling to heed them.

The Terri Schiavo story is dominating news worldwide. I would have assumed Indymedia contributors to have an opinion, possibly even a unique one, on this matter. Life, death, human-rights, euthanasia, medicine, this has it all. But what do you think they are talking about on Miami Indymedia? Do you think at the very least they could copy an article or two such as this must-read for human rights activists?

Not bloody likely.

A few hundred at an anti-war rally, nothing much to see.

There's also this:

When we sent in a videographer into Fallujah - an American who was the only unembedded videographer to go in and risk his life every single day. And the Iraqis took him in, risking their lives every single day. He got incredible footage of the war crimes that the US has committed in Fallujah, including the use of chemical weapons that were dissolving people’s skin, including the corpses that were rotting in the streets eaten by dogs and the US military did not even allow the ambulances to come in. He got this footage. He came back, flew directly to San Francisco. Was on his way the next day to Santa Barbara where he lives. He was in a hotel. Went out to eat. In the meantime somebody broke into his car. And broke into his hotel. They only stole one thing. Guess what it was. All of the videotape. All of the videotape. That is the length that the US government is going to now to keep the truth from the American people.

Okay then...

But what about Terri? Let me guess, the (evil corporate scum) mainstream media are doing such a fine job as usual, Indymedia just doesn't need to report on it, at all, concentrating instead on typical rhetoric. Either that, or nobody at Indymedia felt the need to report on this major story despite Indymedia purporting to be a 'news' and 'media' organization.

Either way, Indymedia is demonstrably irrelevant yet again. Say what you want about Terri Schiavo, it's past-time someone removed Indymedia's feeding tube...

Want to get your record published? Try spamming every Indymedia with your story even if the Indymedia in question isn't in English (like Croatia in this case).

Joseph Ferrante is convinced he is a victim of a global Beatles-led conspiracy to suppress his version of Hey Jude.

The conspiracy is so large he can't even write his name correctly, deferring to "J/o/s/e/p/h F/e/r/r/a/n/t/e".

Weird, but it gets better.

Ferrante is described as "one of the best musicians on Earth in almost every existing style" and a "music encyclopedia".

As such, the authors of the piece request:

your cooperation against this NAZI FACT and against the MOST VILE AND CRUEL THING DONE TO A HUMAN BEING IN THE WHOLE STORY OF MANKIND.

Lousy MusoNazis...

With all respect to the Indymedia hyperbole, I'm sure millions of victims of genocide, famine, terrorism, torture and oppression in the history of mankind will cry him a river...

Update: After leaving comments calling everyone Nazis, someone has pasted over ten pages of material regarding Joseph Ferrante into the comments as well. I have enjoyed deleting every single bit of it.

To the perpetrator: Didn't my comment above about spamming all of the Indymedia sites suggest I may not take kindly to you doing it here as well? Do not come into my house and pee on my rug.

I haven't commented on Maritimes (Buffalo) IMC before. Perhaps I should have...

What can one say about an article entitled Fuck America?

I can't wait for one of those arrogant fascist slimy reptilian pedophiles to show their fuckin ugly faces on this soil! This is not fascist america its Canada, and its [sic] staying Canada!

Erm... No. It's (note my slimy reptilian use of an apostrophe) an American website actually, though admittedly that never stopped anyone on Indymedia disregarding high-school geography before. Apparently:

The Pentagon has released the summary of a top secret Pentagon document, which sketches America's agenda for global military domination.

Oh really? Needless to say the "top secret" document in question wasn't actually quoted or displayed (in the frustrating tradition of top secret documents "revealed" to conspiracy theorist websites). Why am I surprised? Let me guess... The mainstream media refused to report on it?
Ah yes...

There has been no press coverage concerning this mysterious military blueprint.

Thankfully Indymedia shows us the truth again...

Apologies (not) if reports of Indymedia's anti-Semitic content is becoming a major focus of this blog, but it's too prolific to ignore. The following posting is as long as it is offensive.

A recent post on Melbourne's Indymedia suggests a protest on March 26 is an event for all activists.

In other words, it doesn't matter if you are against Iraq, Immigration policies, the Government, Australian Unions or whatever, you should be there.

Ever heard of the Land rights for gay whales movement? Pick a cause people!

According to one of the respondents to the invitation:

Peace Groups Continue To Miss The Real Issue

Fair enough. But what was the real issue? According to the poster:

I received an e-mail notice the other day informing me of a worldwide day of protests March 19 to focus public attention on America's neverending massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians and the continuing lies that attempt to justify this needless and shameful carnage.
...
Nevertheless, I replied to the notice by inquiring if organizers had been adequately briefed on the latest revelations about 9/11, and if they hadn't, I offered to happily volunteer my services. After all, it doesn't take a genius to realize that if 9/11 hadn't happened, the bogus Iraq invasion wouldn't have happened.

And therefore understanding what really happened on 9/11 would significantly improve anyone's perception of the colossal crimes the United States is committing in Iraq (and in a list of beleaguered countries that is now practically endless) - after all, the USA is now waging war on the entire world, and our so-called leaders are not ashamed to admit it.

But I never received a response to my inquiry, because these peace demonstration organizers completely avoid talking about 9/11. They have accepted the government's fantasy explanation about Arab hijackers and the need to conquer Muslim countries, and yet they still insist they are against the Iraq war.

I regard this as a profound psychotic break in the American consciousness. You can't accept the first and advocate the second and still be regarded as either sane or honest.

So in order to properly understand what you are protesting, you must understand why it happened in the first place. But all these trendy yuppies who sport peace buttons only on socially acceptable occasions are in reality confessing their stupidity for all to see if they demonstrate against the Iraq war but don't want to hear anything about 9/11.

It goes on:

Americans are now known around the world as the torturers, as the sexual perverts who go out of their way to profane the sacredness of life by raping Muslim children and sexually traumatizing Muslim adults. Who are these troops we say we support as they mow down innocent families in Fallujah while they listen to heavy metal music and take drugs to dull their senses? Who are these alien neighbors of ours who refuse to hear this statement, and say "Support Our Troops!" as they close their eyes and drive off to Wal-mart to save a few pennies and destroy their own way of life.

Have you worked out where it's heading?

Gee, I wonder in which chapter of Leviticus or Deuteronomy we learned to do that?

Whoah, here it comes...

Gee, I wonder which smug rabbinical commentary told us it was OK to ignore the death rattles of dying Gentiles?

Americans are the people who didn't protest when their government refused to investigate what happened on 9/11, despite the 3,000 of their countrymen who were crushed in the rubble of deliberately demolished skyscrapers.

Americans accepted the media-spun story that Arabs run by a madman in Afghanistan did it. These fantasy bad guys got the U.S. air defenses to stand down, they got on airplanes without any identification or any record of them getting on, they performed aerobatic maneuvers that could not have been performed by Top Guns, and they defied the laws of physics by knocking down buildings that could not have fallen in ten seconds without the help of considerable explosives. We know that from the building that fell the same way that was not hit by an airliner.

Now comes all the stuff that Americans didn't know (until now that is)...

Most Americans don't know that the PNAC report, which yearned for "a new Pearl Harbor" to turn American citizens into enraged warmongers, was written by a high American official who was also an Israeli intelligence agent, Dov Zakheim.

Most Americans don't know that their new head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, is an Israeli intelligence agent.

Most Americans don't know that their new intelligence czar, John Negroponte - he of the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran death squad fiascos - is also Jewish.

Most Americans don't know that all the TV networks are owned by Zionist Jews. Most Americans don't realize that all the major newspapers, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, are owned by Zionist Jews.

Do you understand that Iraq was no threat to the United States? Do you understand that Iraq was a threat to Israel? Do you understand that American children are killing innocent people and being killed themselves to protect Israel, not the United States?

Or are you one of those lily-livered Yankee dogs so terrified of losing your income or some friends who don't really care about you anyway that you feel compelled to say, "People aren't ready to hear this yet. You have to bring them on slowly to tell them about the problem with Israel."

We're looking at the end of civilization because of the silence of honest Americans over the most important issues of our day, and you're telling me that I have to wait til people get used to the idea we are being totally polluted by the demonic influence of Zionist warmongers, who take their authority from a holy book that says it's OK to kill non-Jews with no penalty because they're animals?

Take a wild guess as to what I have to say to cowards like that - which are the majority of the American people.

The real issue to protest March 19 is not the Iraq war, colossal crime though it is.

The real issue to protest is that George W. Bush and John Kerry are accomplices in the same series of crimes. The real issue is to realize that our country has been sold out from under us, and that Israel, thanks to the neocons, now owns us.

And on it goes, I'm sure you've got the message. Gluttons for punishment, continue reading...

Have you observed how the Palestinians live? Scrambling in their rubble, constantly avoiding bombs and excuses to murder them on a whim. This is the future of America run by the Zionist monsters who control the White House, and most other aspects of your life, as well.

The real issue to protest is that the entire U.S. Congress is guilty of treason for destroying the Bill of Rights to our own Constitution by participating in this charade that there is some terror threat that justifies these police state measures.

The real issue to protest is that al-Qaeda was created by the CIA and the Mossad in a proxy war in Afghanistan and then later at a CIA training camp in the Philippines, and that 9/11 was planned, executed, and then covered up by levels of American society that are actually more powerful than the president, who is only a bobble-head doll fed lies, stimulants and quite possibly little boys (or at least big boys) as a reward for his mindless obedience to his masters with the big money.

But even more than that, the real issue to protest, in the silence of your own ravaged heart, is your own silent complicity in the savage system that kills innocent people every day so that rich Zionist Jew manipulators and their conscienceless Zionist Christian dupes can steal money from YOU.

Just to be clear, these people are Americans, British, and Israelis, and they have no real consciences, which makes them dangerous sociopaths - which is why we have a sociopathic culture that feels no guilt when we kill innocent people overseas. It is no coincidence that this attitude perfectly reflects what is written in the Talmud and the Old Testament. Now that would really be something to protest about.

A peace protest without a serious component investigating the lies about 9/11 and the predatory dominance of Israeli influence on a severely crippled America is like a body without a brain, which I suspect is what many of those protesters on March 19 will be like.

For some reason, references to a "body without a brain" seem to conjure up images of the author. I didn't expect to find the specific clauses in the Talmud or Old Testament which would support any of the above. I suspect the author may have got his sources mixed up with Mein Kampf.

The article originally appears on Nazi site www.rense.com and the author has his own trash-can at www.johnkaminski.com where we can learn all about other great conspiracies of the century and even buy merchandise.

Reuters? Please... It's nice to see where Indymedia sources its material.

People need to speak out about this sort of thing. Looking around Indymedia, I deeply regret that fighting odious anti-Semitism, one of the oldest hate crimes in the world, is the one noble cause which won't get a mention at the 26 March Protest for all Activists.

Update: The Environmental Republican has linked to this entry via his latest Anti-Semitism watch. This has allowed me to discover (to my horror) that Mein Kampf is currently a bestseller in Turkey. The oft abused argument of anti-Israel attitudes (anti-Zionism) and anti-Semitism not being the same thing peels right away when you are talking about a book which was effectively the handbook of the Holocaust.

Now there's something the anti-racism, anti-hate, pro-human rights crowds who we are led to believe inhabit Indymedia, might protest loudly about. Sadly, all I expect to hear are crickets chirping about this issue as the hatred is ignored at best or encouraged at worst.

Faruque Ahmed has been caught out. If I were referring to Bangladeshi cricketer of the same name who keeps driving search traffic my way, I could make a cricket joke (if I knew anything about cricket). I am not however, and it is no laughing matter.

The Faruque Ahmed in question is this rodent, previously reported on who scurries around the Australian Indymedia sites and periodically pops up elsewhere.

In one of his textbook postings: Zionists are Fascists he has linked to this image as proof of his accusations that Israel deliberately targets schoolchildren and is responsible for incitement of hatred. Look closely.
See the problem?

I'll give you a hint, look at writing on the boys' t-shirts.

It is obvious this photo was staged by Arab children dressing up as sterotypical Jews. What's more frightening (but sadly predictable) is that young Arab children are playing with what looks to me like a very real gun.

Worst of all, is this photo is being used for exactly what was intended, incitement to hate Jews. Regrettably for Ahmed, he was caught out:

I couldn't help but notice the "Israeli children" in the photo you have provided are wearing tee-shirts in Arabic.

I don't suppose they are really Palestinians engaging in their usual violent playtime, and then being used by you as fraudulent anti-Israel propaganda?

That wouldn't happen would it Faruque?

Needless to say Faruque Ahmed never responded, preferring instead to post more of the same albeit with different photos this time. Certainly there was no attempt by the excreable Sydney Indymedia editorial committee to do anything about it. You know... Free speech man!

Pathetic.

An article on DC Indymedia discusses a disagreement between Hebrew University Israeli history professor Moshe Zimmerman and Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League.

The poster claims triumphantly that The ADL has been given "the finger" at long last.

This is then followed by numerous excessively CAPITALIZED rants of typical form. Buried in there however was this:

Your words and actions speak for themselves and don't need my help. Look how excited this lame topic got you - not just here but spending a good portion of a day cross-posting (spamming) this on hundreds of sites across the internet.

Thanks for proving my point - that you can't see beyond your hatist racist rage:

MH> [ADL] advocates in favor of gay rights

JA> Lots of affluent Jews who contribute to the adl are gay.

True or not, so what?

Ah, for you it's about the "affluent Jews", eh? As if non-affluent gay Jews do not contribute to the ADL? As if non-Jews and straights don't contribute to the ADL?

The fact that gays are comfortable within the ADL, the fact that the ADL is comfortable with gays, and the fact the ADL advocates in favor of equal rights for gays speaks much louder than your hatist racist nonsense.

MH> [ADL advocates] against religious displays in public spaces

JA> Jewish organizations have often opposed religious displays/expressions in public places because Jews in the U.S. have been at a distinct numerical disadvantage

Thanks for explaining why the ADL is on the correct side of this important issue of our time, that it understands minority issues, and that it is an ally opposing President Bush's and the religious right's conservative agenda.

The fact remains that the ADL is on the left side of this issue speaks much louder than your hatist racist spam propaganda.
...
JA> Jews, it's all back to *me* *me* *me* !!

So it's not OK for a Jewish group to monitor and complain about anti-semitism?

It's comical that you can't even see how ridiculous you sound. Who but a racist would blame the victim for speaking up for himself? But then, you probably also oppose African American groups that speak out against racism.... So either you are a hypocrite when it comes to Jews, or you're a racist.

The fact of the matter is that, again, the ADL is on the correct side of an issue - and YOU ARE NOT! We should be supporting the ADL and other groups, Jewish or not, which fight anti-semitism as well as other forms of hate, bigotry, racism and discrimination. Not condemning them for doing so. Duh!!
...
The bottom line is that you despise the ADL because it is a Jewish group. For this "sin", you attempt to (in typical racist fashion) rationalize away anything good about the organization - until only what you don't like remains, and thus in your small and hateful mind it becomes pure evil.

JA, you need to take a long and hard look at yourself. If you are not a right-wing fascist shill posting on left-wing systems, you need to think about why you all too often come across that way.

Maybe because Indymedia is abused by just those groups?

As well, if one reads the original article in Israel's Haaretz Newspaper, one could conclude that Foxman was intervening where a university had failed to draw someone to task. Similarly to its activities in the US and certainly no 'finger' was given, literally or metaphorically. Instead the ADL is merely preventing double-standards in its impressive task of fighting racism.

It's obvious numerous commenters don't bother to read the articles but the presence of certain keywords (I'll let you guess what they are) result in an automatic activation of the hate-bots.

Priceless? I think not. Maybe about half a cent on a good day...

Update: Like so many similarly disgraceful pieces, this article has been spammed verbatim on numerous Indymedia sites worldwide. Looking at the dialog which followed on some, there is no question the intent was to further undermine legitimate accusations of anti-Semitism by arguing "if a Jew said it, it can't be anti-Semitic" (ergo ruthlessly disproportionate criticism of Israel above any other country can't be either). In other words, the person who posted it would love to 'stick it up' the ADL and saw this as his chance (notwithstanding the reality of what actually took place). I guess some people who are fighting a morally bankrupt ethos take what they can get...

In my last entry on an article discussing "Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism" I referred to the "Harvard Style" of referencing source material.

For the benefit of readers who didn't know what that was, I was going to link to a description. I thought I could make an oh-so-subtle joke by linking to a reference from Columbia University. Instead, searching their website for "Harvard" I found something more interesting.

The Columbia University Digital Knowledge Venture Editorial Style Guide which provides guidelines to all documents, both online and print, that originate at Columbia University Digital Knowledge Ventures (DKV).

The very second entry:

anti-Israel
Not anti-Israeli.

Yes, I know the list is in alphabetical order and this doesn't mean anything on its own, but scanning the whole document, you will notice the amount of specifications for 'certain' geographic regions or political groups is quite disproportionate to geographic or political descriptors for the rest of the world (sorry Professor, The World).

I didn't go to Columbia and perhaps it is just an innocent compilation of frequently abused styles in academic papers, but really, in between the PLO, Gaza and Neoconservatives, how much "Digital Knowledge" are they producing about the "World Zionist Organization"?

Maybe there is something going on at Columbia after all...

This article, spotted first on Michigan IMC and crossposted globally is entitled: The Witchhunts Continue: Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism .

It begins:

Rape, massacre, theft, torture, ethnic cleansing: these are not crimes which nations can defend with ease - especially when unearthed by their own historians. Israel recently faced this most troubling predicament. Combing through declassified state archives, Israeli scholars of the past twenty years have discovered their nation was founded upon the mass expulsion and deliberate destruction of the native Palestinian people

and therein lies the problem.

Israel, hasn't declassified any documents.

Only after the 50th anniversary of the State, are some documents from 1948 finally being declassified and this is an exception, rather than a rule (such as age-based document declassification in the US).

Indeed, a Google search for any combination or derivative of "Israel declassified state archives" leads to some pretty interesting results:

• Lefthook: A Radical Youth Journal Based in the US (and author of the above)
• www.arabmediawatch.com - previously reported on here
• www.uruknet.info - Pro Saddam Hussein site
• www.dawn.com - an Islamist Pakistani website

And for some unknown reason, http://news-dictionary.dailyreviews.net/wildavi.html which includes "declassified state archives" amidst dozens of keywords for naked chicks...
And of course, the article above, reposted on numerous IMC, Arabist and far-right/far-left websites.

What's going on? Guess...

The document then uses the tactic of disarming accusations of anti-Semitism by arguing:

Empathy for Palestinians being beaten, bullied, and bulldozed out of existence, the doctrine goes, is nothing but some disguised expression of Jew-hatred

Bulldozed out of existence? One house at a time presumably, this should take around 900 years assuming of course the Palestinian birthrate drops to zero immediately.

Wielding this new ideological weapon, Israel's champions aim to cut down pro-Palestinian voices inside America with the same ruthlessness Israeli soldiers employ to shoot up Palestinian children outside their homes.

Ruthlessness? By this, it is referring to the protests at Columbia University. Evidently, the right to protest is considered "ruthless" when exercised by Jews. Looking at the article I can see why they would have every right to be upset, and indeed it seems my earlier comments about some groups who strongly support freedom of speech provided you agree entirely with them.

Reading the article itself, you will also notice literally dozens of source references cited in the footnotes. Apparently, this adds credibility and is a well used tactic even by non-scholarly types like Faruque Ahmed (who continues to bug me). The gratuitous use of references, to support a premise which is fundamentally wrong from a factual standpoint (let alone an intellectual, moral or ethical one) however is disgraceful.

Unsurprisingly, while most of the references are clearly detailed in the Harvard Style, the sole reference to the "declassified documents" is rather... Vague.

1. The Israeli historians who have gone through some of the state's massive archives of the pre-war and war period of 1947-9 sometimes refer to themselves as 'new historians.' They include Simha Flapan, Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim, Tanya Reinhart, Ilan Pappe, and many others. I would recommended as an introduction The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, edited by Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, which contains a number of 'new historian' essays.

Uh huh...

Despite commencing with intellectual dishonesty and dismissing accusations of anti-Semitism and with that out of the way, following up with Jewish blood-libel, conspiracy theories and outright anti-Semitic 'logic' about Jewish control of the media and politics, it is undeniable that the article is well written. So much so, it will no doubt be reposted globally by 'certain' groups and maybe even find its way into more 'respectable' disgraceful publications.

I will probably be called a Zionist stooge again for this, but it really bugs the hell out of me that people go to such obvious trouble to deliberately spread lies about Jews. It bugs me even more that Indymedia provides the publicity time and time again.

Shocker scoop: Dr Kissinger arrested at Gleneagles, Scotland.

Err... Not exactly.

The Gleneagles Hotel will be the venue in July for the meeting of the G8. What was our activist hero doing there? Whaddya think...

I had a look through the brochures I got from reception, decided I had seen what I wanted and tried to walk out of the hotel. On my way out I was stopped by Hotel Security. They led me to a large room – I think a ballroom perhaps – to my surprise and disquiet I found two police waiting for me – 1 male, 1 female. They searched me and my bag (a briefcase) and asked what I was doing. They found my G8 alternative leaflets and March 19th demo leaflets in my bag. The Hotel security guy was most displeased and said, “What were you going to do with these sir?” I mumbled something about being interested in peace but they didn’t seem too happy with that reply. He wasn’t pleased with the leaflets I had in my bag or with the Socialist Worker, Socialist Review and `Voice` I also had. He noted I had a copy of the Financial Times in my hand along with two Hotel brochures. He told the police that “He got the Financial Times here.” and I asked if I might keep it. He said I could “keep it with the Hotel’s compliments”. I said he could have the Voice with the compliments of the Scottish Socialist Party but he just glared at me as if to say he didn’t think that was funny. He went on: “ I don’t know what your game is sir, coming in the back way and pretending to be Henry Kissinger but I’m going to ban you from this establishment and ask for an injunction to keep you away from the hotel.” They apparently had me under surveillance for some time and were particularly concerned about my visit to the toilet.

And what do you think he was doing in the toilet?

I went to the toilet and found it was surprisingly dirty – in contrast to the spotless Bed and Breakfast the previous evening. The bowl was full of paper and a discarded fag end and wouldn’t flush. I tried several times but the offending waste didn’t want to go round the bend. For posterity I took a picture of it. I thought of using it as a cartoon with perhaps a humorous caption like 'Yes! It’s true - Bush goes to toilet!' or maybe 'Blair shat here!'

Ahh those wacky 'activists'...

Still, toilet humour does beat the rampant anti-Semitism and racism appearing elsewhere on the site...

NYC Indymedia features a series of interviews with Hezbollah.

I am trying to work out who is worse, the PR guys for this organization, or the Indymedia Interviewer. Help me decide...

On the one hand, in Part 1 of the series, Sheikh Hassan Ezzedine, Director, Media Relations answers a question thus:

Q: Hezbollah doctrine is vehement about supporting the right of "oppressed peoples." Does that include Jews under the Nazis?

A: The Holocaust is an historic lie. A French
student wrote a paper on the subject saying it was a skewing of facts and so the Jewish Lobby got him expelled. The number of killed were over estimated.

In Part 3 of the series the table seems to turn. Pertaining to recent anti-Syria demonstrations in Lebanon The Indymedia interviewer asks in the best spirit of objective journalism:

Q: Is the Mossad or CIA backing any of it? It smells that way to me...

Hussein Naboulsi, another Director of Hezbollah Media Relations responds:

No- no we cannot know this and we must be objective.

Advice it seems the Indymedia 'journalist' would do well to take on, especially when PR organs of Holocaust-denying listed terrorist organizations come across as more objective than a journalist.

Update: Google Caches are here and here.

In a recent blog entry, Sydney is Screwed I observed a tasteless posting which had resulted in subsequent arguments over whether or not it should be deleted.

The offensive post in question has evolved into an argument over whether hate-speech leads to violence, and whether Indymedia is encouraging the latter by turning a blind eye to the former.

On the one hand, an Indymedia moderator being called to account says:

The problem comes in deciding what to hide and what not to hide. That involves a judgement, and I am uncomfortable doing that if I can avoid it. That might mean that the newswire looks less than professional, but the fact is that indymedia is by no means a professional news organisation - nor does it aim to be. We have no money and are run entirely by volunteers.

Also, our motivation is not professional, but community service oriented. I truly believe that providing the opportunity for people to vent their frustrations anonymously prevents them from venting them physically, and reduces the amount of violence in the community. I would rather tolerate over-the-top statements on the newswire than have to read about a rabbi being bashed or a temple defaced.

On the other hand:

its posts like these which make Sydney Indymedia into a junk-site, full of crap which should not be here
...
In your opinion, encouraging, fostering and hosting comments on Sydney Indymedia such as (from this thread alone):

"DISGUSTING JEW BLOOD RITUAL "
"This shows how depraved the jews are as a group"
"the jew rats"
"I hope someone does stuff you in a gas chamber sometime soon and post a vidio link here so everyone can enjoy your last gasp."

I believe many in the Indymedia network would disagree with the Sydney moderator's claim (above) that Indymedia doesn't try to be a "professional news organization" save for payment. Certainly, other contributors from time to time admit Indymedia needs to lift its game. The above seems to contradict that position and allow for Indymedia to by policy, essentially remain a free-for-all with the obvious credibility issues (if not illegality in some areas) this creates.

Looking through my archives, I could see this was not the first time Sydney Indymedia has had to 'confront' these issues.

Sydney IMC bows to threat of lawsuit.
Apparently someone took offence to being labeled some not very nice things and threatened to sue Sydney Indy Media if they didn't remove it.
So they did.

Of course that didn't stop a cunning reply-posting pasting the whole controversial article in full. No doubt if the management of the site do find themselves in court they will employ what I call the Standard Indymedia Defence - "It's an unmoderated medium, we can't be held responsible for its content". In rather the same way they would expect you not to be held responsible for someone getting shot with your firearm if you failed to take any responsibility for properly securing it after multiple warnings to that effect.

I think what we are now seeing on Sydney Indymedia is a combination of the "Standard Indymedia Defence" and a belief that it's actually a good thing to allow people to post hate-speech on the assumption (which I completely disagree with I might add) that such benign activity prevents them from engaging in acts of violence.

In other words, hate-speech actually prevents hate-crime. I have previously expressed my thoughts on the insanity of this attitude.

Harrasment and hate-speech aren't the same as free-speech. Preventing hate doesn't make you a sellout.

How Jake and Elwood dealt with Nazis

There are at least six-million reasons why Jews would also believe this is wrong.

Ditto US victims of terror given political incitement to kill Americans.

This American administration is an enemy. Our motto, which we are not afraid to repeat year after year, is: 'Death to America.'"

Crowd: "Death to America"
"Death to America"
"Death to America"
"Death to America"
"Death to America"
"Death to America"

I don't suppose anyone believes the attackers on 9/11 simply woke up one morning and decided it would be a cheap thrill to kill a bunch of Americans. There was motivation. And where do the proponents of Indymedia's argument believe that motivation came from?

There is plenty of other discussion here on the matter pertaining to homesexuals and hate-law legislation in the US as well.

Update:A new article on Sydney Indymedia: Anti Semitism: The socialism of fools (or discussed separately on Melbourne Indymedia) is calling for some introspection.

Why on earth is hate speech allowed by Sydney indymedia to remain despite the obvious contridictions this poses to editorial policy. These examples of hate speech such as the excrescent post alleging Rabbi's rape and molest babies and the call to free notorious fascist Anti Semite Ernst Zundel should have no place on this list.

Sydney Indymedia is a joke. What should be a forum for progressive activists has been hijacked by morons and racists. What is worse is that the collective is so politically naive and incoherent as to allow hate speech to go uncensored under the guise of 'free speech.' Racists and fascists should be hunted down, not given a forum to spew their invective.

I couldn't agree more. Read it all.

This article on Western Massachussetts Indy Media features the headline:

Bush is a child molester!!

Wake up mommy my ass is sore!
Hey! Leave Those Kids Alone
Where Are All of Those Missing Children on Milk
Cartons? In the White House... of course!

Umm... Of course.

There are practically no subsequent references to George Bush however, rather a member of his staff. Apparently the headline is not borne out by the body text. Why am I not surprised? Read it all and see if you can work it out.

I can't.

I had to add a link to Sydney Indymedia which I had erroneously left out of my last Indy Roundup and visited Sydney to recover the URL and poke around the commentary since my last visit.

Faruque Ahmed is so nutty he could probably be the subject of his very own blog. Other one-dimensional whackos have been previously singled out (E.g. Joe Vialls by Whacking Day but I have bigger fish (the whole of IMC) to monitor. I can see a number of Google searches for his name have led people to this blog (although they could also be looking for Dr Qazi Faruque Ahmed instead). Anyone interested?

Meanwhile on visiting the Aussie Indymedia sites, I came across this article on Melbourne Indymedia: Sydney is screwed.

Those who have visited Oz will know of the legendary (but mostly friendly) rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney. I figured it was more of the same, but found this instead:

Two articles on Sydney Indymedia have brought into light the question of moderation and general IMC quality.

The first, "INFANT RAPEING RABBI INFECTS VICTIMS WITH DEADLY VIRUS" - is a repeat of an article which has been consistently hidden on the Melbourne network yet remains visible in Sydney.

The second: "Zio-Nazi boy" - is presumably by the same author. It contains zero news content, threats, anti-semitism and worst of all, terrible English.

Present you arguments in support of your case, if you
have any I may add! Calling names, personal vilifications, etc are the
ultimate sign of a soar looser. Should you continue your zio-nazi
style, trust me; the gas chamber will haunt you!

Read towards the bottom of the comments and draw your own conclusions. The Sydney collective have now made it clear they will not be removing either -

"The sydney indy editorial collective has chosen not to hide either of those stories. "

- Stacy, SIMC Moderator
...
It's high time for Sydney to shape up or ship out.

This sounds like another call for Indymedia Seppuku.

In response to the statement of non-action on the part of the site's management came the following question:

We all know by now that anti-Semitism, sexism, racism etc. are fine by you and your anti-censorship/pro-hate speech editorial buddies, but seriously, how low do you actually set the bar on what actually constitutes 'news'?

A very good question indeed. The discussion should have dealt with Indymedia editorial policy, newsworthiness and general quality issues. Instead, well.. It didn't.

Via Tim Blair, what happens when Moonbats and Military have children - the song."Texaco Tracey-Lou and her Toeless Tennessee Tappers present their latest Internashville crossover smash:

MoonSEAL Daughter

My momma was a moonbat
Daddy was a Navy SEAL
So I grew up conflicted
The way a moonSEAL daughter will

Momma went to demonstrations
But Daddy liked to hunt
Ma was always readin’ Pilger
Daddy said he was a largely discredited commentator on Middle Eastern issues

(chorus)
Dear Lord, have mercy on a moonSEAL girl!
Bipolar creation of different worlds
She don’t know if her enemy’s a Muslim or a Jew
She wants to read The Guardian and kill Osama too
(end chorus)

I voted Bush AND Kerry
And drink wheatgrass on the rocks
I bought my solar SUV
With Halliburton stocks

I support Kyoto
But I’d nuke Hiroshima
If you don’t like my attitude
Then blame my Ma and Pa

(chorus)
Dear Lord, have mercy on a moonSEAL girl!
Bipolar creation of different worlds
Half of her is communist and half of her is right
Checkin’ Instapundit every day and Daily Kos at night
(fade) "

The mainstream media and blogosphere has been closely watching the story of freed Italian hostage in Iraq, Giuliana Sgrena with a raft of differing opinions on the matter.

More quality references at the House of Wheels and The Jawa Report if you are unfamiliar with the story.

I seldom visit non-English Indymedia sites as it's hard enough for me understanding the English ones! Nevertheless, I thought it would be very interesting to fire up the Babelfish and Google Translation plugins to see what Italian Indymedia were saying about it.

Non molto... (Not very much!)

The only thing I could find, amidst the usual Indy material (albeit in Italian except for certain articles spammed worldwide) was this: l 'arroganza amricana whose headline I hopefully don't need to translate for readers. This is the first time I've been pedantic about spelling in a foreign language and yes, even in Italy, many of the Indymedia contributors cannot spell.

The article itself is little more than a link to a rather poignant Cox and Forkum cartoon and the headline.

That's it. Quello è tutto, buona notte.

Such a news source!

Indymedia has always claimed to be about free speech. Why else then, would they run some of the material they do when it is so obviously sexist, racist and offensive ?

Apparently free speech does not apply to Jews Zionists as evident in this article on NYC Indymedia discussing ongoing protest against certain lecturers at Columbia University.

You see, when Jews Zionists take offence to something, and exercise their right to complain about it or protest, according to some, that's not free speech. It's "racism and the new McCarthyism".

Even though one person claims:

I attended a university on the west coast and anti-Semitism is rampant among tenured professors in Middle East Studies programs as well as Black Studies programs.

any complaints about this are easily dismissed as the (you know whose) "agenda of silencing critics of Israel and US foreign policy". Sounds a wee bit like an ancient conspiracy theory doesn't it?

Looking at Indymedia or indeed most of the mainstream media, this so-called "agenda" to stifle criticism of the US or Israel clearly hasn't worked (there's even an old joke about it). But is it even real? or is it that protest and dissent are fine, as long as you aren't Jewish a Zionist.

One person summed up the problem nicely:

"Free speech is not intimidation. Dissent is not intimidation." Firing lousy, racist professors is not "intimidation," when not done by the government.

They need to be accountable for the things that they say and do, like anyone else. No one's stopping them from working at Starbucks.

Fair enough. Of course it turns out the story runs much deeper, and surprise, the 'other side' of it is conspicuously absent from Indymedia's version. Noticing the reference to Alan Dershowitz in the article a quick Google search for "Columbia Dershowitz" led me to this and this:

Dershowitz Says Faculty Members Work To Encourage Islamic Terrorism

Columbia is the university that raised $4 million – including a contribution from the United Arab Emirates – to create the Edward Said endowed chair in Arab studies.

Dershowitz, speaking to a full house at Columbia, reminded those gathered that Said was an extremist, and he ripped the university as a whole on the issue of its anti-Israel bias.

"The kind of hatred that one hears on campuses like Columbia – and let me say, especially Columbia – is a barrier to peace," Mr. Dershowitz said. "They are encouraging the terrorists. They tell the terrorists you will have academic support even if you oppose the peace process."

"This is the most unbalanced university that I have come across when it comes to all sides of the Middle East conflict being presented," he said. "I have never seen a university with as much faculty silence."

Whoa! That's a whole lot different to say legitimate "criticism of Israel and US foreign policy" isn't it? Read it all and weep for the future. Disagree if you like, but would it be so much to ask Indymedia to offer the opposite argument and debate it, rather than omit it altogether?

You know... While we are talking about silencing criticism....and stuff.

The last Indy Roundup was so popular, I have put on rubber gloves and travelled the IMC Network to bring you another one.

This chapter's theme: "Damn, I can't believe they published that". Hang on folks, here we gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo......

[cue harp music and swirly picture]

First off, from Michigan Indymedia (and published on nearly every other Indymedia site from what I can see):

Tired of always being on the losing side, Democrats decide to become Neocons as well. Older Neocons are confused:

"It was bad enought that Jews and Nazis were simultaneously Neocons, but now Republicans and Democrats at the same time as well? Man, I remember when being a Neocon meant something..."

Also from Michigan: Victims of Palestinian suicide bombing of Tel-Aviv nightclub were fair targets as "as they would have been of military service age". I can't believe they published that!

From San Diego Indymedia:
Vibrant Activist Grrls Invoking National Attention.
Also known as: V.A.G.I.N.A. No, I'm really not making this up.

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I wonder if VAGINA's are also Neocons?

Via Sydney Indymedia, Faruque Ahmed is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore:

Present you arguments in support of your case, if you have any I may add! Calling names, personal vilifications, etc are the ultimate sign of a soar looser. Should you continue your zio-nazi style, trust me; the gas chamber will haunt you!

Nazism, lousy spelling, harrassment and zero 'news' content (howsoever offensive). Vintage Faruque, but is there actually anything Sydney Indymedia won't publish under the pretext of being a news source?

From Scotland Indymedia. The headline says it is "A story you'll not read in mainstream media". The article itself demonstrates why - Because it's shite.

Meanwhile... New Orleans Indymedia are urging people to run Nazi leader David Duke out of town. Sydney Indymedia extends him a warm welcome.

Buffalo Indymedia publishes a duplicate of the abovementioned "Story you'll not read in mainstream media". I checked. It's still crap.

Via NYC Indymedia, it's Protesters versus Protest-warriors.

WAS @ MALCOLM X PARK AROUND 10:45 DURING THE RALLY IN D.C. WHEN THE BLACK BLOC BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF ONE GUY AS THE COPS LAUGHED HAHA. PROTEST "WARRIORS" BASICALLY STARTED TO CRY. THEY SAID "I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PEACEFUL PROTEST" AND THE BLACK BLOC REPLIED "WHO SAID WE WERE PEACEFUL???" HAHA CLASSIC RIGHT ON! BLACK BLOC TRASHED THEIR SIGNS SUCH AS "IRAQI CHILDREN ARE FREE" AND PICTURES OF CHE GUEVARA. KEEP IT GOING! SMACK THEM AROUND. HIT THEM WITH EGGS TAKE PICS.

Ahhh that wacky peace movement.

Also from NYU, want to start a campus riot? Ban Coca-Cola.

Lastly, from Atlanta Indymedia: Why I Love Shoplifitng from Big Corporations, a movie which argues:

I am surrounded by forces beyond my control or comprehension that obviously are not concerned about my needs or welfare

It is a way to carve out a little piece of the world for myself in a world where everything belongs to someone else, where I am expected to sell away my life at work in order to pay for the bare minimum I need to survive.

...which apparently included an expensive camcorder and Macintosh edit suite.

This would actually be a great short film were it not for the fact plenty will take its message quite seriously. Like these guys.

Thank you, and goodnight. You may now open your eyes, please wash your hands after you leave.

Update: I have added the link to the Sydney article which was previously absent.

You may have noticed the term Neocon was widely being used as a euphemism for Jew (except for Indymedia of course where they came right out and said it).

Spain’s prime minister tonight ordered the recall of Spanish troops from the jew-neocons war of thievery in Iraq
...
9-11 and The Zionist Connection

and so forth.

Now comes another article from Urbana-Champaign Indymedia which argues:

Anyone who has studied the history of the Nazis would be hard pressed to differentiate between a Nazi and a Neoconservative.

The Neocons embrace the ideals of fascism and despise the ideals of democracy. They are suppressing any form of dissent , free speech or justice as demonstrated in the cases of Ward Churchill and Lynne Stewart. They have deployed a finely tuned propaganda machine made to manufacture consent. They commit crimes against humanity using depleted uranium munitions an act of genocide every bit as evil as the gas chambers. They torture and imprison people in concentration camps without charge. They have started a war of aggression and are guilty of all the crimes the Nazis were tried for at Nuremberg. They control the minds of the people with a steady flow of nationalist and religious brainwashing. They have a leader who is intellectually challenged, immature, mentally unstable and completely out of touch with reality.

Actually, anyone who has "studied the history of the Nazis" would know you are a fool, but anyway... There you have it folks. Not only are Neocons Jews, they are simultaneously also Nazis.

Gee, talk about your self-hating Jew!

I have said it before people. You can only have one opposing looney conspiracy theory at a time.

San Diego Indymedia has issued a call to drummers, musicians and noisemakers to attend a protest to "meet up there, talk and make music." The details of the actual protest are rather inconsequential. Something about Zapatista anarchists.

Bring some music making object, we wish we could provide, but at the moment we are trying to see who would be interested in promoting this collectively, who would be down to keep it up thorugh March, to do sometihng on the 8th (womens) and the 19th. If you are interested and want further info, check out earlier postings on MARCH AND RALLY PROGRESSIVE ENSEMBLE, or call, drop a message. No one is an expert drumming, so we all learn collectively, but if you are, chingon!, bring yourself on and teach us. Even if wednesday is bad for you, still maybe you want to do something for the March 19th. Also, and a very deep ALSO; we are poor, so if you have a drum, cow bell, noisemaker of any kind that you wish to donate so that other people may have something to use, please let me know how I can get a hold of you, i would be more than happy to go pick it up. Drumming and music is a healing processes, drumming and music on a progressive event is healing on top of healing, its a great feeling if you've done it before and it will be agreat experience for those whose first time this will be. So don't be shy and get in touch with the nice people at the MARCH AND RALLY PROGRESSIVE ENSEMBLE. in solidarity.

Like making noise? Own a drum or some saucepans? Turn up! They'll tell you what you are actually protesting after you get there...

Maybe.

Six people were arrested during a sit-in at an Oakland Schools' Administrator's Office.

From what I can tell from the article, they were not violent, they did not damage any property nor were they offensive in any manner.


They had a grievance and weren't going to leave until it was heard.

This ladies and gentlemen is civil disobedience.

(This is not).

Obviously the Police had no choice but to remove then from the property when requested, however the so-called 'activists' who continually act in a far less dignified manner than these folk could learn a hell of a lot from them. I am sure the parents who occupied the school would not identify with the antics of much of the Indymedia mass who no doubt 'support' them.

Governor Arnie, your move sir.

Some more discussions about Californian education spending here.