Gawker: valleywag, protests

GOP House Members Know Exactly What It's Like to be An Iranian Freedom Fighter

Pareene — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:12:46 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Who let Republicans use the Twitter? Who told them that was ok? Michael Steele? "Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House," Representative Pete Hoekstra says.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Yes, according to Representative Hoekstra, this thing looks like that thing. Oh, and according to John Culberson, some jerkoff Rep from Texas, the attempts by Iranians to publicize news the government doesn't want released—acts that put their very lives at risk—are just like how congressmen Tweeted about how the Democrats were mean to them, yesterday.

How incredibly self-deluded do you have to be to say these things, in public?

Olympic torch gets obligatory rickrolling

Paul Boutin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:23:42 EDT

San Francisco city officials, hoping to avoid the hippies, began today's torch run up the Embarcadero in front of the Splunk office and its large scale sound system.

SF police riot gear mix of 20th, 21st centuries

Jackson West — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:10:01 EDT

"My BlackBerry just died and we need more Polaroid film at the protest." — a San Francisco police officer, overheard by photographer Steve Rhodes.

War protesters snarl Financial District

Jackson West — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:40:42 EDT

Jackson West, reporting live (don't tell my boss!) from downtown San Francisco: War protesters have shut down Market Street between Sansome and Montgomery, with smug Berkeley Hills residents gleefully getting arrested. The cops expect to clear it soon. Police have shut down San Francisco's old-money corridor of power, Montgomery Street, between Sutter and Bush, but except for the private building security having upped the menace-level of their sunglass stares, it's business as usual — the House of Shields is already serving drinks. If the protesters were smart, they'd concentrate their efforts at AT&T headquarters on Folsom and 2nd, where stopped traffic could snarl the 101 and totes disrupt your meeting in Multimedia Gulch. That might actually generate some Twitters.

Update: All clear, and that was fast. Noting the wet tile sidewalks, scruffy entrepreneur Schlomo Rabinowitz quips, "They even washed the hippy off the street."

Downtown SF parties against the war Wednesday

Paul Boutin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:20:46 EDT

The fun starts at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. A brass band, bicycle activists, pirate radio DJs, snake marchers, guerrilla street theater, the inevitable giant puppets plus a few straggling poets from City Lights will conduct what they call a "direct action" to end the war in Iraq. They've helpfully provided instructions and a map of which downtown offices are "targeted" for sit-ins and handcuff-ins. The list skips over token local Republicans and focuses on power Dems Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein, who'll hopefully explain how Karl Rove's Jedi mind tricks compelled them to support the war in Congress before they found a way to block the thought-control rays from Diebold's voting machines. Me, I'm just happy that activists have dropped their inane "M19" date format for events. We won't see confused stoners wandering Justin Herman Plaza on May 19.

100,000 people have joined a Facebook group...

Jordan Golson — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:17:31 EDT

100,000 people have joined a Facebook group to support the monk-led protests against Myanmar's junta. Sadly, the government has disconnected the country's Internet connections so we doubt they're providing much in the way of moral support. [IHT]

Second Life: French Racists vs. Exploding Pigs

Chris Mohney — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:20:51 EST

Whatever your politics or personal thoughts about virtual playground Second Life, after reading the following, it will be hard to avoid thinking of the service as little more than a romper room for retards. Wagner James Au chronicles a protest/battle at the virtual headquarters of rightist French political party Front National:

And so it raged, a ponderous and dreamlike conflict of machine guns, sirens, police cars, "rez cages" (which can trap an unsuspecting avatar), explosions, and flickering holograms of marijuana leaves and kids' TV characters, and more. ... And when the lag was not too overwhelming to stream audio, the whole fracas was accompanied by bursts of European techno. ... One enterprising insurrectionist created a pig grenade, fixed it to a flying saucer, and sent several whirling into Front National headquarters, where they'd explode in a starburst of porcine shrapnel. A few native English speakers joined the fray, though at least one missed the point in either direction, unhelpfully shouting "The French stink! Get out of Second Life!" and the like amid the conflict.

And to think they threw us out of a press conference just for not getting down in front. Makes us nostalgic for the days of rape-play.

Fighting the Front [New World Notes via Boing Boing]

Earlier: Second Life: Rape for Sale

Vive la indifference

Nick Douglas — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:26:31 EDT

"Oh J r me, how shall we ever express the empty shell our lives have become?"
"We must hold a mock protest against something so banal, the world sees instantly it is but a satire on the whiny petite bourgeoisie, distracted from the true existential questions of our time."
"But what if they take us seriously?"
"Mon amie, they couldn't possibly be so stupid."

Their Crime: Playing iTunes on Devices Not Named iPod [NY Times]