Daily Archives: October 4, 2013

Arab freedom feet fetish scene
Arab freedom feet fetish scene.

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Arab freedom feet fetish scene - Video

Mayor Phillip Campbell #39;s address at the Howell rally for Religious Freedom, 2012
Address of Mayor of Howell Philip Campbell, at the Howell Rally for Religious Freedom.

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Mayor Phillip Campbell's address at the Howell rally for Religious Freedom, 2012 - Video

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

updated 3:13 PM EDT, Fri October 4, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Always outspoken. Always challenging the system. Always a champion for freedom.

Anderson Cooper's conversation with singer, actress and activist Madonna about her "Art for Freedom" movement yielded not only a sense of the passion she has for it, but also revealed a few things about the woman who has both scandalized and intrigued the world with her refusal to be anyone other than herself.

Here are five things we learned from Madonna:

1) This project is the most important thing she's done besides raising her kids

By providing people a vehicle in which to express their thoughts on freedom by sharing their photographs, videos, music or other media, Madonna feels an incredible sense of responsibility. And just as she does not take her role as a mother to her four children lightly, she also feels an incredible sense of responsibility for "Art for Freedom."

Madonna: Through the years

Madonna: Through the years

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5 surprising moments from Anderson's talk with Madonna

The residents of Freedom Village didnt just meet their goal, they exceeded it, by $6,073.

They were challenged by a couple of local philanthropists in the spring. The philanthropists would each put forth $100,000 to the Windmill Island Future Fund if the residents at Freedom Village could collectively put in $100,000 to the fund, totaling $300,000 of the overall $2.1 million goal.

The fundraising program at Freedom Village ended Monday and the final tally was $106,073.

I was sort of overwhelmed with the way it ended, said Gordon Van Wylen, a resident of the community and former president of Hope College who has also been involved in many community projects. There was a sense of excitement, gratitude and satisfaction in the Freedom Village community that we were able to make that kind of contribution to this important project.

When it became evident Windmill DeZwaan needed nearly $800,000 in repairs to remain operational, a committee was formed to look at the future of the citys popular tourist attraction and park. One major goal has been to make the park more accessible to Holland-area residents who have Holland addresses, whether they live in the city or not. A pedestrian pathway from the south and a bridge linking the island to Holland Charter Township have been discussed but will cost a significant amount of money. The fundraising goal was set at $2.1 million.

One of the reasons the Freedom Village residents jumped on board to donate was the prospect of a safe walking path to the park, Van Wylen said in a previous interview. Being the immediate neighbor to the park, many liked the idea of being able to walk there.

At Freedom Village, a total of 104 donations were made. Some people donated twice to reach the goal, Van Wylen said.

DeZwaan is undergoing repairs that should be completed by the end of the year. Donations can be made directly to the city of Holland or its fundraising partner, the Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area, cfhz.org.

Van Wylen hopes the fundraising at Freedom Village will be an inspiration to other organizations in the community to help the projects at Windmill Island Gardens move forward.

Follow this reporter on Facebook or Twitter, @SentinelNetty.

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Freedom Village residents raise $106K toward Windmill Island Future Fund

Internet freedom has declined in the United States over the past year as a result of its surveillance policies, reflecting a trend that appears to have caught on worldwide, according to a recently released study.

The study [PDF], conducted by Freedom House, gauged Internet freedom in 60 countries by tracking obstacles to access information online, limits on content, and violations of user rights. Among the issues cited in the report are government agencies' outright blocking of specific Internet content, surveillance measures, and legal and violent repercussions taken against those who use the Internet to criticize governing or religious bodies.

Iceland was the top-ranking nation on the list, which may not come as a surprise considering its recent role as a safe-haven for controversial Internet whistleblowers. Edward Snowden, for example, has recently expressed a desire for refuge in the country.

Estonia was the second-ranked country on the list, followed by Germany and the U.S., both of which received a score of 17 on Freedom House's scale of 1-to-100, which assigned points for higher rates of violations of Internet freedom. Australia, France, Japan, Hungary, Italy and the UK round out the top 10.

Despite its relatively high ranking, the U.S. showed a significant decline in overall Internet freedom as a result of the revelations of its surveillance capabilities and their impact on the global Internet, Freedom House explained.

RELATED:The NSA quiz

"While there is no evidence that the NSA surveillance programs were abused to suppress political speech, they have drawn strong condemnations at home and abroad for their wide-reaching infringements on privacy," the report says. "Since many large technology companies -- with millions of users around the world -- are based in the United States, the NSA was able to collect information on foreigners without having to go through the legal channels of the countries in which the targeted users were located."

However prevalent this trend may be in the U.S., it is also a sign of a much broader movement among international governments of all kinds. In 35 out of the 60 countries examined, Freedom House marked increases in the sophistication of communications monitoring technology, the scope of the people monitored, and the enactment of laws enabling the government to spy on its citizens.

Russia, for example, has increased its surveillance capabilities significantly since the Arab Spring began in late 2010, going as far as legalizing the government's wiretapping of opposing political parties, the report says.

The report also included the caveat that the problem is likely more common than its research reflects.

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U.S. ranks fourth in Internet freedom as surveillance grows worldwide

MIAMI Cuba's Internet remains one of the least free in the world, suffering under "prodigious government regulation" that have left it with little access to almost anything except for email, the rights group Freedom House reported Thursday.

The number of Web sites blocked by censors has remained about the same since last year and the government still uses a "cyber militia" to attack dissidents, the Washington-based non-profit noted in its global Freedom on the Net report for 2013.

Branding Cuba as "not free," the report's 14-page chapter gave it an 86, with zero being the best and 100 the worst. Also on the "not free" list: China, Vietnam, Syria, Belarus, Sudan, Ethiopia, Burma and Pakistan.

Cuba "has long ranked as one of the world's most repressive environments for information and communication technologies," it said. "High prices, exceptionally slow connectivity, and prodigious government regulation have resulted in a pronounced lack of access to applications and services other than e-mail."

Only select government entities have benefitted from the ALBA-1 fiber optic cable that was turned on earlier this year, the report said, although the ultra high-speed cable had been expected to allow much wider, cheaper and faster access to the Web.

At least a dozen dissident bloggers were detained and one independent journalist, Calixto Martinez, whose reports appear on several online sites, was held without formal charges for six months. Even generally pro-government blogs were blocked when they crossed the official line of acceptable criticism, the report said.

Freedom House also reported that government censors blocked Cubans' access to phone numbers abroad for systems such as the U.S.-based Digalo sin Miedo - Say it Without Fear - once widely used by activists to publicize abuses.

The system allowed Cubans to call a U.S. number and record a brief complaint. A computer would then email an alert to those who had signed up for the service, such as exiles who support the dissidents or journalists who report on Cuba.

Government censors also tightened controls on access to the Web in the workplace - the vast majority of Cubans with Internet connectivity get it through their jobs in state agencies and enterprises - and continued to use computer-savvy supporters as foot soldiers in a "cyber war" against government critics, according to the report.

The "cyber militia," for instance, uses blogs or Tweets to accuse dissidents of cheating on their spouses or pocketing money meant for others, and send emails to journalists abroad pushing the Cuban government line but pretending to be simple citizens.

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Freedom House ranks Cuba's Internet as 'not free'�

A new bill aims to tighten surveillance powers that are granted by the Patriot Act to the National Security Agency.

In a rare display of bipartisanship amid the government shutdown, Patriot Act author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., is poised to introduce a bill to tighten surveillance powers that are granted by his 2001 law to the National Security Agency (NSA) with help from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

[READ: House Intelligence Chairman Considering NSA Reform Legislation]

Sensenbrenner and Leahy are circulating an outline of "The USA Freedom Act" to tighten Section 215 of the Patriot Act and end the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. phone call records, according to a copy of the outline obtained by The Hill.

If the bill were passed the NSA would only be allowed to collect data relevant to "an authorized investigation into international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities" of a foreign power, the outline stated. The bill would protect Americans from surveillance, requiring the NSA to discard online information about Americans and strengthen the prohibition against "reverse targeting" of Americans, which is a loophole to collect communications involving an American by monitoring the communications of a foreigner.

To reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the draft bill calls for the creation of a privacy advocate to argue civil liberties concerns and appeal court decisions.

Transparency is a big part of the draft bill, which would make public all FISC opinions issued after July 2003 that contain a significant construction or interpretation of law. It would also increase the ability of Internet and telecom companies to disclose information about government requests. Companies including Facebook and Yahoo sued the government in September for the right to publicly disclose the amount of user data requests those companies receive from the government.

[ALSO: PATRIOT Act and FISA Under Fire in Senate]

Leahy is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but the bill will face opposition from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. She has proposed her own bill that adds oversight and transparency measures to NSA's programs, but would still preserve the surveillance.

The House will also be a difficult arena for the Freedom Act, where a proposed amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would have restricted the NSA's collection of phone records and metadata was narrowly defeated in July. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., is also planning legislation to rebuild confidence in the NSA, but it might also leave the surveillance intact while adding transparency and oversight measures.

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'Freedom Act' in House, Senate Would Amend 'Patriot Act'

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Hundreds march for 'freedom' in Sudan