Hey folks, I’m not a total slacker!

I’m working on transferring this blog to this site. As you can see, it’s a total work in progress, but it shouldn’t look too much different from what you see here at good ole’ wordpress. On account of the fact that it’s being built using wordpress.

The Triumphant Return Of The New Activist!

But have no fear, this sexy blog is not forgotten! If any of y’all are personally familiar with me, you’ll know I’ve been really busy lately. But, while I may not have been blogging, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve been busy promoting liberty. I have begun broadcasting once a week from 10pm-12am on wednesday nights. I broadcast with rick caldwell, and you can listen at Ifaq.us we’ve got about 9 shows under our belts so far (we did an annex of our 8th show because of massive content overflow). So far it has been an exceptional expierence and has grown much more quickly than I would have expected. I’ve also registered Thenewactivist.org, although I have not yet fixed it up like it needs to be. (actually, right now, it’s a picture of a hot japanese girl and a bunch of random test pages).  But yeah, thats what I’ve been up to, and most of why I’ve been gone for so long.

G20 protests

Now, I’m all about some free markets, and thats certainly not what we have here, but lets just clear up the fact that my sentiments on government will line up very little with the apparent majority at those protests.

Nice, flex ties, shot-guns, and riot gear.

That being said, here is the link to 5 videos of police attacking demonstrators with rubber bullets, batons, tear gas, and pepper-spray. As a human being you possess the right to assemble, you have the right to move freely in a public space (God-willing,  public spaces will disappear at some point), and you ABSOLUTELY have the right to protest self-proclaimed rulers. Pittsburgh police reported less than 50,000 dollars in property damage (link), I’d venture to say that much property damage probably occurs any given day in any major city.

The fact is, police barred entry to portions of the city so that a collection of rulers could get together and tell people how to live their lives and spend their money. There is NO justification for any of this.

Whats more disturbing is the apparent left v right trend in opinion on this subject, with many comments on the story being absolutely insane, such as this one.

ConanTheRepublican:

CHOKE–ya left-wing filth! The first Civil War in America was between North and South. The next will be Left vs. Right, and I look forward to gettin’ in the streets with you trash, and caving yer godd*mn skulls in!

Not bothering to get into the ignorance of the fact that america NEVER had a civil war (definition here), is this really what these people are coming to? What major differences are there exactly, between “left” and “right”?

The New Activist Goes LIVE!!!!!!!!!

What the heck am I blithering about? Well, I’m going to be a host with Rick Caldwell on the new internet radio show, Infrequently Asked Questions. Things are still in the planning phase, but if everything turns out half as well as we hope, then it’s going to be amazing!

Ricks blog post about it is HERE.

Just for a bit of background info, Rick is a fan of linux, EEE computers, and liberty. The show itself will focus mostly on liberty, but also on whatever happens to fly into rick and I’s brains, which for me may be a lot about comic book movies and guns. We plan on having a lot of guests on the show, hopefully as co-hosts for that particular show.

Rick Caldwell's Blog, Ifaq.us, Currently down for maintenance.

Fr33agents

http://www.fr33agents.com

The above site is a blogging portal for the fr33agents.ning.com social networking site for liberty minded folks. If you’re not already hip to the jibe, check out the freedom activist network at www.fr33agents.ning.com

Be on the lookout!

I’ve heard rumors of good things coming our (bureaucrash survivors) way. Stay tuned here and to other sites (such as anarch.me, fr33agents.com, and the motorhome diaries) for updates on these developments.

Bureaucrash CEI and the youth outreach

Original Post:
Whoa! Bureaucrash is now Youth Outreach at CEI??????Posted by Michael Lowry on May 31, 2009 at 12:55pm

http://copiousdissent.blogspot.com/

I Got a Job at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Answering Questions
Posted In: YouTube . By Devil’s Advocate
“Please email if you want to build your Resume and get more involved in your Community. I am currently working on Youth Outreach at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Enjoy!!”

Devil’s advocate is our new CiC’s pen name on copious dissent, and Bureaucrash is somehow now youth outreach. How old is this dude? Like, late twenties maybe? Did anyone mention that BCS has members of EVERY age and race?
Tags: blogs, bureaucrash, copious, dissent, doren, lee, youth

Comment by Lee Doren
No, it is just that my audience on HTWW doesn’t know about BureauCrash yet.

Comment by Michael Lowry
Then you are misleading them sir.

Comment by Rev Lentil
I just posted about this as well. This is another example of the way establishment “libertarians” treat the more principled libertarians.

Comment by Chase
Is your audience all young people Mr. Doren? Because from what I heard you said a few younger – high school, college, and graduate – people had been getting in contact with you.
Also, why dismiss the youth who are already here?

Comment by Cord Blomquist
I’m no longer working for CEI or Bureaucrash, so I haven’t met Lee in-person, but I think we ought to give Lee a chance to get used to the community here and figure out what Bureaucrash is all about. He was hired because he’s dedicated to liberty and limited government and because he’s a good organizer.

Bureaucrash merged with the Competitive Enterprise Institute years ago and Bureaucrash’s focus has historically been “youth outreach,” which is how folks at CEI still talk about the group, so Lee was just repeating what I used to hear around the office all the time.

Once Lee has a chance to meet more people here, he’ll see how much Bureaucrash has grown–a lot of it in only the last eight months since Pete and I started Bureaucrash Social.

And remember, Bureaucrash still finds a lot of its strength in young people who have the time to organize and fight back against government power, so it still has a very young feel. I don’t want to discount the awesome contributions from those who might no longer consider themselves “youths” either as Bureaucrash gets such great contributions to the network from people of all ages.

Anyway, I hope y’all can help me help Lee to see what Bureaucrash is all about, what the community wants to do over the next months and next year, and how we can continue taking the message of liberty to the streets where people really need to hear it.

Comment by Rev Lentil
@Cord
A good organizer researched before he opens his mouth (or in this case types a sentence). Between Doren’s left-baiting and blog roll, it’s obvious where he comes from. My question remains, why wouldn’t CEI hire a libertarian for the position of Crasher in Chief? Why hire someone is prefers Limbaugh and Malkin to no government?

That’s kind of you to support Doren, but he really should have looked into the group he was leading before he introduced himself. I would suggest that he read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” but he probably wouldn’t be able to get past the fact that Alinsky was on the left.

Comment by Michael Lowry
Hmm, looks like lee was moderating comments on my blog. Or somebody was! That’s really other-than-kosher.

Comment by Xaq Fixx

@Cord, Your comments are not in line with Lee’s statements. I am sure you made them in good faith, but you are mistaken.
He referred to BC as CEI’s youth outreach because he did not want to mention BC by name. He wanted to check things out before ‘his followers’ came over and we (the current users) ‘become a minority.’ He wanted to sanitize Bureaucrash before ‘his followers’ made the move because he could not endorse a site that allowed certain content (advocacy of Non-Voting, drug use or any 9/11 conspiracy stuff). These are his claims, not mine.

He is clearly not dedicated to liberty. Advocacy of a global nuclear superpower, the use of torture, and an interventionist foreign policy simply cannot be considered pro-liberty stances. Censoring this site and limiting what form of pro-liberty activism can be carried out under the BC banner are not the acts of a pro-liberty person.

I don’t think anyone was bothered by the thought of classifying BC as youth outreach, I certainly wasn’t. There was concern about stripping away any autonomy the BC may have (or appeared to have) had. His not mentioning the Bureaucrash Brand by name was taken by many as a slight against the work individuals have put in for Bureaucrash both before and during CEI’s involvement.

Finally you are asking for our help and patience in teaching Mr. Doren what Bureaucrash is all about. However, it seems the same was not asked of him. He did not take time to get to know the organization or think about the way he worded his bio. He said he held disdain for anarchy and anarchists from the very beginning. He avoided questions, or answered them like a politician when honesty was critical. He spoke to the group, and to me, with a condescending attitude. Before asking us to change for him, please consider what he needs to do to be an effective guide and member of the Bureaucrash community.

Yours in Liberty,
Xaq Fixx

Bureaucrash, CEI, Lee Doren, and the fiasco

The following are the NOOR chronicles on the events of the past few nights with the New Bureaucrash CiC. Suffice it to say, he seems neoconish, at best. By the way, Noor compiled these, hence the title noor chronicles.

I’ll update this as much as possible, but for the original stuff from noor check it out here

Peace and liberty,
The New Activist

P.S. Upset about Bureaucrash Social? Check out anarch.me

May 30, 2009

8:31 pm – I got an email from the Xaq Fixx group on BCS, which had this content:
“A message from Xaq Fixx to all members of I support Xaq Fixx for Crasher-In-Chief on Bureaucrash Social!

Bureaucrash has announced their new CiC. I appreciate your support in my quest to carry on Pete and Jason’s vision as Crasher in Chief but CEI has decided it was not meant to be.
Thanks,
Xaq”

Going through the Lee Doren introductory blog post, which explained his linkages to right-wing and conservative sites, including “Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Instapundit, Gateway Pundit, Pajamas Media, Right Wing News, Ace of Spades, NewsBusters and Rush Limbaugh’s top headlines.”

8:35 pm – The link to Lee Doren’s intro blog post on Bureaucrash (http://bureaucrash.com/2009/05/29/meet-lee-doren/
) was linked to in the Skype chatroom.

Everyone in the Skype chat was shocked at the idea of this kind of pro-state right-winger being the Crasher-in-Chief of an anti-state organization, and within a few moments of browsing through his posts many of us were talking about taking action against this. We also noticed the changes in the Bureaucrash website, including the removal of the Political Affiliation profile question which had all libertarian and anarchist options.

around 9 pm – We also found out that Lee Doren was a fan of the fair tax, and in the discussion that he started (http://social.bureaucrash.com/forum/topics/please-leave-your-input-below) he kept answering questions with one-line answers such as this.

Reply by Leo_the_Magnificent
“Well, what do you normally categorize yourself as, id est, libertarian, objectivist, classical liberal, et cetera?”
Reply by Lee Doren
“I’m perceived differently to different people depending who I am with.”
Reply by Leo_the_Magnificent
“XD I think most libertarians are, but I believe you are at least a minarchist of some form or another. Though mere perceptions are not necessarily the truth; for instance, I could categorize you as a Marxist based on my perception, but that doesn’t say anything about the truth of the matter of what you are.”
Reply by Lee Doren
“Well, I’ll let you watch my videos and decide for yourself.”

While some of us went into the Bureaucrash Social chatroom to watch the ongoing discussion, we were posting replies to the topic.

“Reply by Neal ‘Jiutai’ Conner
Sounds like an answer a politician would give, Lee.
Reply by Lee Doren 19 hours ago
Lol.”

I posted a link to Lee’s introduction on my Facebook profile with a comment “Wtf, a terrible choice on several levels if you ask me.” and soon after three people “liked” it including my disapproval, including Jason Talley. Ryan Maddox and Neal Conner commented on my link expressing their outright disapproval of the CEI’s decision also while we were all talking on Skype, and some of us joined the Xaq Fixx supporters group on BCS. I also got a tweet from an agorist friend saying that he deleted his Bureaucrash account, and at that point some of us were also considering doing so.

Then we spent a while on Skype discussing, commenting on, and planning posts with commentary and questions for Doren on the input thread, and analyzing his responses to us. When Aaron Kinney and I posted similar questions to him asking him whether he thought anarchy, which was the ultimate goal of a lot of crashers, was viable, he responded to both of us with the same line “I’m for a Constitutional Republic. Utopia doesn’t exist.”

Most of us were fairly sure we would move over to anarch.me and other similar sites, if Bureaucrash was not going to change, especially after Doren posted this – “Well, I’m not going to be promoting Anarchy, if that is what you’re hoping for. I will be promoting limited government, however.”

All this time we had been debating him in the Bureaucrash chatroom as well, and here is a short list of quotes from him over the 2-3 hours of “debating.”

“The fact that the government violates its own laws doesn’t change the fact that it is my government”

“The world that we live in is ruled by force
I just happen to want the force to be in the hands of the best of the worst people”

“The ONLY reason why certain civilizations have stayed in existense was because of might”

“You should accept that might makes right…and that is why we have a government”

“Since America has the most powerful military we are in control”

“I’m willing to have America as the most powerful Nation”

“The government is there to protect life liberty and property”

“What happens next after freedom?”

“Of course I state it over and over…because I have followed history and limited government is necessary”

“The fact that limited govenrment expanded ignored what life was life before govenrment, if you didn’t have a strong government….that is how you became a REAL slave”

“Did I like McCain….no. Did I vote for him over Obama yes.”

“Terrible…McCain’s explaination for the financial collapse was greed”

“Look, you cannot support the Free Market and ignore the concept of trade-offs”

“Look, you’re welcome to dream about a fantasy world that doesn’t exist and base your life on a fantasy, but the world exists as such that the strong win, and it might as well be us”

Most of the above was compiled by Ryan Maddox. We tried to get the whole chatlog, but it wasn’t possible to copypaste everything in the Ning chatroom due to its structure. Several anarchists were arguing against him, while he insisted that we all “really need to read Bastiat”, was arguing for a “government exists, accept it” kind of perspective.

I saw Jason Talley’s Facebook/Twitter link to the Input thread on BCS, and commented for anyone interested that there was a discussion going on in the BCS chat. On Skype some of us were half-jokingly talking about taking over and planning a coup d’etat on Bureaucrash, but we realized it was up to the CEI, and that if it was not going to change, we would be gone. We also asked some of the anarchists arguing Lee in the BCS chatroom to join us on Skype, so over the course of the night new people were being constantly added in the room.

After a while, Lee Doren disappeared from the BCS chat, so it devolved into a discussion of random topics, but some crashers were responding to the Input thread expressing their disagreement with the decision.

Aaron Kinney asked us for links to libertarian/anarchist/agorist blogs, and posted a list of them (along with North Korea’s twitter, as a joke) to Doren’s request for blogs for the new Bureaucrash blogroll, which was infiltrated with Malkin and other heavily right-wing and Republican resources.

In a while of Skype as a break, some of us were talking about Bob Barr’s moustache, and we ended up creating groups on Facebook and BCS with the title ” I like Bob Barr’s ‘stache more than his political views.” for the lulz.

We then talked about creating a group or Facebook cause against Lee Doren, posting the list of quotes from him and everything else that supported our beliefs that this was not the proper person to be running a libertarian/anarchist organization, but we decided to wait a few days before doing so, so we could wait and see what he had planned for BCS.

Mike Gogulski then told Leo and I that he had apparently been banned or deleted from BCS over Twitter, and that it could possibly be for spamming around with links to his NLM audio recording, but many of us suspected that was not so. Regardless, after discussing a little with him I created a topic asking about this, and demanding an explanation (http://social.bureaucrash.com/forum/topics/mike-gogulski-banneddeleted). Ryan Maddox also created a topic (http://social.bureaucrash.com/forum/topics/is-bureaucrash-social-going), which got responses expressing dissatisfaction.

After I added Mike into the Skype chatroom, it evolved into them discussing it again for the next several hours. After a failed attempt at going to sleep a couple hours ago, I was suddenly overwhelmed with sleepiness at 8:30 am, and I crashed (excuse the pun) until 4 pm, and I woke up with 38 new emailed notifications, hundreds of new Skype messages, messages, and new posts all over, not one of them supporting the change.

The Skype discussion was still going on with many instrumental people being recently added, and the primary topic was again to somehow take action against this, and in about an hour there was a BCS group “Countering the Crasher-in-Chief” (http://social.bureaucrash.com/group/counteringthecrasherinchief), with a long message from the founder, Daniel Patrick, reinstating what so many of us had been talking about all night and day.

Many users have suggested checking out the site anarch.me

In a while, the “Please leave your input” thread by Lee Doren where almost all the posts expressed disapproval and questioning, had been deleted. Some of the members started uploading agorist and radical videos, and Daniel Patrick got us a screenshot of the chatroom where Lee Doren admitted that he “removed 9/11 truth stuff.” In a few minutes, Lee Doren’s intro blog post on the main BC site had also been removed.

IT’S 2081 AND EVERYONE IS FINALLY EQUAL

This looks like a very promising film, based off of Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron. Depicting a dystopian future in which everyone is equal in EVERY way. Check out www.finallyequal.com for more info!

Lie To Me* New liberty leaning show

The video below is the season finale to an excellent show entitled “Lie to me*.” The show has shown itself to be fairly liberty oriented, suggesting that one should distrust one’s government, and rely upon themselves for their needs. They broke ground however, with the above episode, in which the lead character tells an FBI deputy director that any government who breaks the law in time of emergency is a dictatorship.Near the close of the show two of the main characters are discussing the illegal bugging of a mosque as a possible recruiting tool for islamic extremists, to which one states “That’s tomorrows problem”……The reply? “How do you think we got to today?”

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Lie To Me* New liberty leaning show“, posted with vodpod