Hey, I'm very interested in throwing a CryptoParty and looking for other people who would be interetested in helping organize, teach, and present at the party. I'm thinking about reserving one of the rooms at one the minneapolis public libraries and throwing the party there.

I'm looking for people with all types of backgrounds and skillsets. All you have to have is an interest in Encryption, privacy and teaching others.

Shoot me an e-mail at mncrypto@hushmail.com

Public key:

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So i really have a strong distaste for the economic leeches in the world who make money for having money, so i really hope this happens. Anyway just wanted to get the word out http://www.meetup.com/goldman/-55401/-914852/

and the original post http://www.reddit.com/r/Anarchism/comments/1blleh/we_take_out_goldman_sachs_may_23/

Dear Brendan,

Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your concerns about the Fiscal Year 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As your Representative for the sixth district of Minnesota, your views are very important to me and I appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, the House and Senate convened a Conference Committee to reconcile the different House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the NDAA. The result, the Conference Report on H.R. 1540, passed the House on December 14, 2011 by a vote of 283-136. It subsequently passed the Senate and was sent to the White House. President Obama has said it is his intention to sign the bill into law in the coming days.

In regard to your concern about provisions addressing the detention of terrorists and suspected terrorists (Sections 1031-1037), it is important for you to know that the Conference Report would not extend any new authorities to detain U.S. citizens and explicitly exempts U.S. citizens from provisions related to military custody of terrorists (Sec. 1032 (b)(1)). You can find further information about the Conference report and these provisions at the House Committee on Armed Services web site, http://armedservices.house.gov/.

As a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, please rest assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind when legislation related to national security comes before the House of Representatives.

Again, thank you for contacting me, and for all you do for our community and country. I care about you, and if I or my staff can be of assistance to you regarding this issue or any other, please contact us at the Woodbury or the St. Cloud/Waite Park district offices or the Washington, DC office.

Sincerely,

Michele Bachmann Member of Congress

Dear Brendan,

        Thank you for contacting me about the detainee provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act.  I appreciate hearing from you on this very important issue.

On December 15, 2011, the Senate passed a bill including provisions on detention that I found simply unacceptable. These provisions are inconsistent with the liberties and freedoms that are at the core of the system our Founders established. And while I did in fact vote for an earlier version of the legislation, I did so with the hope that the final version would be significantly improved. That didn't happen, and so I could not support the final bill.

The bill that passed included several problematic provisions, the worst of which could allow the military to detain Americans indefinitely, without charge or trial, even if they're on U.S. soil. Another provision requires the military-not civilian law enforcement agencies like the FBI-to detain anyone that it believes to be a member of al Qaeda or an associated force and who helped plan or carry out an attack on the U.S. or its allies. At their core, these provisions will radically alter how we investigate, arrest, and detain individuals suspected of terrorism. This leaves it unclear what role the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are to play, despite their proven effectiveness at preventing attacks on our homeland since September 11th. This comes despite deep concerns voiced by FBI Director Robert Mueller before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which I'm a member. What's more, these provisions could undermine the safety of our troops stationed abroad.

During consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act, I expressed my strong opposition to these provisions on the floor of the Senate. I filed two amendments to strip each of the provisions, but unfortunately neither received a vote. I also voted in favor of several amendments that would have made significant improvements to the provisions; none of these passed.

September 11th irrevocably and unalterably changed our lives. But it is exactly in these difficult moments, in these periods of war, when our country is under attack, that we must be doubly vigilant about protecting what makes us Americans. The Founders who crafted our Constitution and Bill of Rights were careful to draft a Constitution of limited powers-one that would protect Americans' liberty at all times-both in war, and in peace.

As we reflect on what this bill will do, I think it is important to pause and remember some of the mistakes this country has made when we have been fearful of enemy attack. Most notably, we made a grave, indefensible mistake during World War II, when President Roosevelt ordered the incarceration of more than 110,000 people of Japanese origin, as well as approximately 11,000 German-Americans and 3,000 Italian-Americans.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Non-Detention Act to make sure the U.S. government would never again subject any Americans to the unnecessary and unjustifiable imprisonment that so many Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans had to endure. It wasn't until 1988, 46 years after the internment, when President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, that the government formally acknowledged and apologized for the grave injustice that was done to citizens and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry. These were dark, dark periods in American history. And it is easy today to think that is all behind us.

But I fear the detention provisions in the bill forget the lessons we learned from the mistakes we made when we interned thousands of innocent Japanese, Germans, and Italians. With this National Defense Authorization Act, Congress will for the first time in 60 years authorize the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge or trial-according to its advocates. This would be the first time that Congress has deviated from President Nixon's Non-Detention Act. And what we are talking about here is that Americans could be subjected to life imprisonment without ever being charged, tried, or convicted of a crime, without ever having an opportunity to prove their innocence to a judge or a jury of their peers. And without the government ever having to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

I think that is highly problematic. It ignores what our Founders intended when they created a civilian, non-military justice system for trying and punishing people for crimes committed on U.S. soil. Our Founders were fearful of the military-and they purposely created a system of checks and balances to ensure we did not become a country under military rule. This bill undermines that core principle, which is why I could not support it.

On the same day that I voted against this legislation, I joined a number of my colleagues in introducing the Due Process Guarantee Act, which would explicitly prohibit the military from holding Americans caught in the U.S. in indefinite detention without charge or trial. I will be working to get this important legislation enacted into law.

Thank you again for contacting me, and please don't hesitate doing so in the future regarding this or any other matter of concern to you.

Dear Brendan,

Thank you for contacting me about S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (the PROTECT IP Act). I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me on this important issue.

As you may be aware, I am a cosponsor of the PROTECT IP Act. I believe that intellectual property (IP) enforcement is extremely important. IP-reliant companies account for more than $7.7 trillion of the United States economy and employ more than 19 million workers. We must protect American jobs from piracy, which has become rampant on the Internet. We don’t tolerate shoplifters in stores and we should not tolerate them online.

The PROTECT IP Act would authorize only the Attorney General to seek a court order to block foreign websites whose primary purpose is to sell or distribute pirated goods. Right now, a company has no way to enforce its rights if it finds that its products are being pirated or counterfeited on a website hosted overseas. The PROTECT IP Act gives the Attorney General (and not private companies) jurisdiction over foreign websites.

This bill is the successor to the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), a bill that the 111th Congress never voted on. I had several concerns about COICA, but PROTECT IP contains significant improvements that addressed many of my concerns. I worked with Senator Leahy, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, to narrow the definition of an infringing site, and I was glad to see he removed the controversial provision that directed the Justice Department to publish a list of offending websites (also known as a "blacklist") without judicial process. After these improvements, I became a cosponsor of the PROTECT IP Act to protect intellectual property rights and the jobs that depend on them.

As you may be aware, there is similar legislation going through the House of Representatives—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This piece of legislation contains many provisions that are actually broader than the PROTECT IP Act. If both versions pass through their respective chambers, I will take a close look at the differences between the bills and will work to address your concerns.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to do so in the future on this or any other issue that may be important to you.

Sincerely,

Signature

Al Franken United States Senator

There was a meeting in Stevens Park tonight to do some planning for OccupyMN We agreed on a few things as a group then broke up by committees to start some preliminary planning. We are desperately short on Lawyers, money, medics, and all kinds of equipment from radios to generators. There were some changes in plan. On Oct 7. we'll be moving in at Government Plaza (which we renamed "People's Plaza" and which I've been referring to as The Plaza Formerly Known As Government Plaza"). We're 'starting' at 9am. Committees have been formed to handle things like legal representation and port-a-johns. There is another planning session on Monday in Steven's Park at 6pm. If you want to help out please come along. Dress warmly and bring something to write with and something to write on. "People Over Profit" seems to be the agreed "mission statement". We've got a team drafting up more specific demands.

www.OccupyMN.Org

We're going to go get out on the streets and stay their until we become such a nuisance that they either beat the shit out of us and throw us all in jail or actually make some changes that will make it harder for major corporations to destroy lives. I hope you'll all come and join me. Singing protest songs is more fun the more people you've got.

Please Look At This

We are the 99 percent

It is personal accounts of people who are suffering. For the sake of compassion please come out, or find something else you can do to effect change.

OccupyMN

Meet & Greet Oct 1 in Steven's Park @ 4pm

General Assembly meeting @ 5:15pm.

Please. We need help. We all need help and all we've got to turn to is each other.

I'm a Public Policy Intern at a local non-profit called HOME Line. We provide free legal services for tenants in Minnesota. I recently interviewed Representative Loeffler (for those of you unfamiliar she represents Northeast Minneapolis, district 59A) for a story we were doing on renters' credit in the past budget debate/gov shut-down in MN. Rep. Loeffler, however, did a fantastic job of connecting the actions of everyday citizens with the decisions of their local representatives. This was our first stab at this kind of technology (and by that I mean: microphone + garageband) and there are definitely kinks, but I think what she had to say was both compelling and informative and in my biased opinion worth listening to. Here is a link to my blog post and audio from the interview.

I was just wondering how this whole situation affects your pay in the long run. Do recieve unemployment right now? Do you get any back pay when you return to work? I am just curious. I hope they resolve the budget quick so you all can get back to work. I want to go camping.

Minnesota was among the first group of states to decriminalize to possession back in the '70s. How come we seem to be getting nowhere towards medical? As in, I never even hear about it being discussed tangentially.