Graphic violence: video of David Snyder, attacked by a police officer
It has been confirmed by a representative from WNDU-TV that the above video qualifies as “fair use.” This is really great news. The biggest problem with fair use is that it’s not consistently enforced. Even the copyright office bitches out of accountability.
So, since the United States crawls along at the inexorably slow snail’s pace of precedent, I present for your litigious inspection the opinion of Scott Hums, Web Directory at WDNU:
…I have no problem with people uploading parts of the video. Completely ignoring the legal argument, it’s the best for both parties. The information is spread and the topic is discussed without “giving away” the power of the full version of the video. Using 20 or 30 seconds is perfectly fine and I wished everyone did that.
The problem comes from people thinking they have a right to just show the whole or nearly whole video. That’s what we are fighting. There’s no reason anyone has to upload the whole thing when we are offering it for free to anyone who follows a link. All they are doing is encouraging us to never put this material on the internet in the first place, which is something that is obviously not good for everyone involved.
“Fair use” is about having access to material to make further commentary without damaging the marketability of the copyright holder. That’s a concept that most YouTube users fail to understand from my recent experience with this video.
On Sept 14, 2007, David Snyder was beaten by a police officer at a town meeting
This youtube video has a strange story behind it. For some reason, it was taken down along with other videos related to the Roseland, Indiana Police attack against David Snyder. It’s not clear what the problem is with the video - copyright? Does it have something to do with the terms of service?
It could be something completely legitimate motivating YouTube’s actions, but the fact that the video and account simply disappeared is shady.
“A slum insight” is a video developed by Gapminder in collaboration with UN-Habitat and ITC for the UN Habitat conference World Urban Forum III , Vancouver, Canada. The film was directed by Filmfront Stockholm and the graphic profile was made by Zut.
A hurricane’s “hot towers” can increase its intensity by adding power to boost the storm’s heat engine. For the first time, research meteorologists have run complex simulations of these phenomena using a very fine temporal resolution. They have combined this new simulation data with satellite observations to study the innerworking of the “hot towers” in never-before-seen detail.
Bill Clinton exposes the hypocrisy behind the Republican attacks on MoveOn.org
I am happy to see this sort of reaction to the moveon.org Petraeus ad. However, it disappoints me that Bill Clinton would be forced to respond, at all. In this video, Clinton lists several egregious examples of personal smears against military figures, committed by the very same Republican Senators who voted to condemn moveon.org.
From the 9/26/07 democratic debate, Mike Gravel talks about the senate’s latest vote on Iran which Hillary supported. In responce to his criticism, Hillary gives her staple arrogant laugh.
Watch this video. It relates to the declaration of war against Iran.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited President Bush to speak at an Iranian university if the American leader ever traveled to the Islamic Republic, state-run television reported Friday.
I would love to see Bush do this but alas he’s a terrible speaker. Maybe afterwards they can have a boxing match.
Roseland, Indiana is a small town in north central Indiana that has been usurped by two married town counsel members: Dorothy and David Snyder. Why this hasn’t hit the MSM I’ll never know, but it’s an amazing example of political power gone awry.
The two forced elections for town counsel president in July and ousted the current president in a 2-1 vote and the wife, Dorothy Snyder, took control of the town. Since then, residents have been arrested for protesting at the city hall and have been ticketed for signs that display messages demanding new elections to oust the Snyders. An unequivocal dictatorship has been established in Roseland. More below
The story of small-town Roseland, Indiana is truly remarkable. For years, it appears locals have seethed with anger at the very mention of the name “Snyder.” David Snyder appears to have earned the animosity expressed by the town.
Although we’ve posted excerpts of the September 14th attack to RTFA, the full and uncut video is available here. In it, you can distinctly hear the extent to which the townsfolk dislike the Snyders. Seriously - this video is an amazing window into the town of Roseland.
In the WNDU comment forum, if you can get your opinion past the moderators, you will be among dozens of local Roselanders who are perfectly happy with how things happened. Watching the extended video from WNDU, this is obvious. One woman taunts Mr. Snyder and takes pictures of his broken forehead. Another man asks if Mr. Snyder tripped and fell. The town is happy with its justice, but it seems there are people elsewhere on the planet who are adding their opinions.
All the while, WNDU’s copyright takedown notices have prevented this story from being discussed on YouTube, almost as if the small town wanted to keep its business private — as if the rest of the world should stay out of Roseland. Of course, it was WNDU itself that put several versions of the video online, for global consumption. It’s a compelling story that goes back at least to 2005, when Roseland first started publishing its woes of the Snyders, and their successful conquering of the town council.
For better or worse, this story will unfold in a very public manner, in such a way that its public nature has become part of the story itself.
On September 14, 2007, David Snyder was thrown out of the Roseland, Indiana town hall meeting for speaking while he didn’t hold the floor. As the police escorted David from the meeting, violence erupted. The video evidence speaks for itself.
This video has been online through WNDU-TV for more than a week. However, attempts to comment on the event using YouTube have been thwarted by repeated copyright takedown notices. Finally, fair use versions of the event are beginning to surface through YouTube and otherwise.
The story now has two elements: what will come of the Roseland Police, and will YouTube keep this video online?
(AP) PORTLAND, Ore. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”
A team of scientists says it has found a string of vast, rich forests in an unexpected setting: far below the coral reefs found in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The new forests are made out of kelp plants that harbor a huge range of plants and animals. Like tropical rainforests, they may be refuges from threats posed by global climate change.
Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly said Wednesday his critics took remarks he made about a famed Harlem restaurant out of context and “fabricated a racial controversy where none exists.
“He criticized the liberal group Media Matters for America as “smear merchants” for publicizing statements he made on his radio show last week.O’Reilly told his radio audience that he dined with civil rights activist Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s recently and “couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference” between the black-run restaurant and others in New York City.
It was just like a suburban Italian restaurant, he said. “There wasn’t any kind of craziness at all,” he said.
Boykin is a born-again Christian, who has cast the “War on Terror” in apocalyptic terms. A Pentagon investigation concluded in 2004 that he had violated regulations by failing to explain these remarks were not made in an official capacity.
Boykin achieved wide-spread media coverage for his statements that appeared to frame the War on Terror in religious terms, first broadcast on NBC News, October 15, 2003 [12]. William Arkin,[13] military analyst for NBC-TV News, was the source of the video and audiotapes of Boykin. The following day the Los Angeles Times ran a piece on Boykin. Amongst several quotes, the LA Times article revealed Boykin giving a speech about hunting down Osman Atto in Mogadishu: “He went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said, ‘They’ll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.’ Well, you know what? I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.”
WASHINGTON - Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, caused a stir at a Senate hearing Wednesday when he repeated his view that gay sex is immoral and should not be condoned by the military.
Pace, who retires next week, said he was seeking to clarify similar remarks he made in spring, which he said were misreported.
“Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing focused on the Pentagon’s 2008 war spending request.
“We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it,” he added. “And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God’s law.”
On July 26, 1920, the acerbic and cranky scribe wrote in The Baltimore Sun: ” . . . all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily (and) adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any other country in the world besides Thailand.
Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution passed a fatwa authorising them nearly 25 years ago. While homosexuality is considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure.
The 1996 Solomon Amendment provides for the Secretary of Defense to deny federal funding to institutions of higher learning if they prohibit or prevent ROTC or military recruitment on campus.
This law has been codified in 10 USC Sec. 983. Version in effect as of Jan 2000 shown here.
Apparently there have been some suggestions to deny federal funding for Columbia University based on this law.
As Columbia welcomes Ahmadinejad to campus, Columbia students who want to serve their country cannot enroll in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) at Columbia. Columbia students who want to enroll in ROTC must travel to other universities to fulfill their obligations. ROTC has been banned from the Columbia campus since 1969. In 2003, a majority of polled Columbia students supported reinstating ROTC on campus. But in 2005, when the Columbia faculty senate debated the issue, President Bollinger joined the opponents in defeating the effort to invite ROTC back on campus.
I actually agree with Freedom Watch’s Ad that it’s wrong to ban the ROTC on campus. If you don’t want to join the ROTC you can always say no. But this policy discourages joining the military and I believe it’s an honorable profession. It’s the politicians who dishonor the military. Should we discourage students from becoming doctors because of stem cell policy?
It does seem hypocritical that Ahmadinejad is allowed to speak and the ROTC cannot. I understand they are two different situations and cannot be equally compared. However, I would like to point out that the reason the ROTC is not allowed on campus is because of their homosexuality policy… what about Iran’s homosexuality policy?
The above commentary is completely unrelated to the complaint about unfair pricing, which is bullshit, as Farking A pointed out.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress on Wednesday he is unhappy with the Pentagon’s oversight of its private contractors in Iraq, saying he’s dispatched a fact-finding team to investigate problems there.
“My concern is whether there has been sufficient accountability and oversight,” he told the Senate Appropriations Committee at a hearing called to discuss the administration’s request for additional war funding.
Gates said the Pentagon has sufficient legal authority to control its contractors. The issue, he said, is whether commanders have sufficient “means and resources” to exercise adequate oversight.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev warned Russians on Wednesday of the risk of a rebirth of Stalinism, saying their country was in danger of forgetting its tragic past.
“We should remember those who suffered, because this a lesson for all of us,” Gorbachev told a conference marking 70 years since the start of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s Great Terror.
“We must squeeze Stalinism out of ourselves, not in single drops but by the glass or bucket,” Gorbachev added. “There are those saying Stalin’s rule was the Golden Age, while (Nikita) Khrushchev’s thaw was sheer utopia and (Leonid) Brezhnev’s neo-Stalinism was the continuation of the Golden Age.”
During the Great Terror, 1.7 million Soviet citizens were arrested between August 1937 and November 1938, of whom 818,000 were executed, the human rights group Memorial said.
Historians estimate that up to 13 million people were killed or sent to labor camps in the former Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953, the year Stalin died.
Despite Stalin’s record, recent polls have shown many young Russians have a positive view of the former Soviet leader and there have been attempts this year to play down his excesses, which have found an echo among the country’s youth.
Fifty-four percent of Russian youth believe that Stalin did more good than bad and half said he was a wise leader
A recent New York Times column by “Public Editor” Clark Hoyt criticizes the NYT for running the now-famous moveon.org Petraeus ad, apparently in violation of NYT’s own policy. Hoyt quotes from the New York Times’ internal advertising manual, which states, “We do not accept opinion advertisements that are attacks of a personal nature.”
Furthermore, Hoyt states: “Bradley A. Blakeman, former deputy assistant to President Bush for appointments and scheduling and the head of FreedomsWatch.org, said his group wanted to run its own reply ad last Monday and was quoted the $64,575 rate on a standby basis. The ad wasn’t placed, he said, because the newspaper wouldn’t guarantee him the day or a position in the first section.”
Although Hoyt published his editorial September 23, Freedom’s Watch announced on September 21st that it WOULD run an ad criticizing Iranian President Ahmadinejad. It was later revealed by Blakeman, himself, that Freedom’s Watch paid the same discounted rate moveon.org paid for the Ahmadinejad space. Hoyt had at least a day to correct his column before it published.
In the uproar over the moveon.org ad, and particularly since the NYT advertising policy has been made public, you would expect the NYT staff to be vigilant about such advertising matters. It appears the NYT has violated its advertising policy yet again by publishing another opinion attack of a personal nature, and, according to Hoyt and the Associated Press, for offering to do so at the same reduced rate as the moveon.org ad.
Ironically the ad was placed by Freedom’s Watch, who were so vocal in criticizing the original moveon.org ad.
For what it’s worth, I join Freedom’s Watch in condemning Columbia University’s President, but I do so on the grounds that the introduction was intellectually dishonest, and a far cry from the grace of former Columbia University President Ike Eisenhower.
Freedom’s Watch should be ashamed for suggesting that political forums are an inappropriate place for working out political problems. It doesn’t require any stretch of the imagination to understand the preferred techniques of Freedom’s Watch.
Hoyt said he was asked to investigate the ad rate by FreedomsWatch.org, which advocates a strong national defense and a powerful fight against terrorism, because it said it wasn’t offered a similar rate.
Pariser told Hoyt his group had called three days before the ad ran and asked to place it. He said MoveOn was told the ad would cost $65,000 and that the ad would run on Sept. 10 as it had requested.”We paid this rate before, so we recognized it,” Pariser told the Times.
Mathis told Hoyt the newspaper’s advertising representative failed to make clear that the Times could not guarantee the Monday placement for the reduced rate but left MoveOn with the understanding that the ad would run then.
“That was contrary to our policies,” she said.
Freedom’s Watch president Bradley A. Blakeman praised Hoyt for criticizing the paper’s ad policy, and said it had paid a similar, reduced rate for an ad blasting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance Monday at Columbia University.
That full-page ad, headlined “Ahmadinejad is a terrorist,” appeared in Monday’s editions. Blakeman said his group did not receive a guarantee that it would run on the date it had sought.
We posted this link September 24th on RTFA, but I am re-posting it after new analysis. I would like to note the excerpts in bold, above. This apparent contradiction has a story behind it.
We begin with Freedom’s Watch, who describe themselves as fighters and protectors, dedicated to keeping America prosperous.
Freedom’s Watch placed an ad in the Times stating “Ahmadinejad is a terrorist.” Freedom’s Watch paid the same rate moveon.org paid for their Petraeus ad.
This apparent omission, or perhaps the undue focus on moveon.org, is questionable, particularly given Hoyt’s position with the Times. Has the Times only erred in its ad pricing, or is its Public Editor policy in need of examination, as well?
Men with deep voices tend to have more children than those who speak at a higher pitch, scientists say.
Their finding is based on a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania known as the Hadza, who can be studied without bias because they use no birth control.
Ahhh the benefits to smoking… now all i need is a tanzanian mail-order bride.
Resolved, That Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, against Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Text of the Kucinich’s resolution to impeach Cheney. Currently, there are 19 co-sponsors.
