Dear Church of Reality Members,
As many of you know besides being the glorious supreme leader of this religion I also have a "real job" hosting web sites, filtering spam, and other geek related stuff. And one of the sites I host the the Church of Reality itself, along with this email list. This list is being blocked by the New York Times email servers because political sites on my server does mass mailings to reporters about matters of political interest. I myself write letters to the editor and Church of Reality press releases on a regular basis.
Without explaining it all to you again I'm just going to pass on the email I sent my customers. I think this is an important issue because our religion considers communication to be extremely important. Here's the letter. Feel free to pass it on.
Dear Computer Tyme Customers,
We are having an interesting email issue with the New York Times tech staff regarding email to them and about 3000 other reporters that they host email for. Apparently there is some sort of consortium of news services that share common email services and spam filtering services. Their equipment is blocking email comping from my servers what prevents all of you from contacting various news agencies through my service.
The problem is that these servers - from what the techs told me - block all mass mailings regardless of content. If what they are saying is true then this situation applies not only to us - but also to anyone who is mass mailing reporters for any reason. And I do believe we are not being singled out. What is disturbing about this is that political free speech as well as press releases or any type of mass communication with the press is being blocked. This might explain the disconnect between political activists and the mainstream press. The press is not getting email from the people because it is being blocked.
As many of you know, I host email for a lot of very interesting people. One of those interesting people is PC Magazine writer John Dvorak who was having his messages bounce when trying to contact the New York Times. After several exchanges he asked me to look into it. So I called them and had a fascinating conversation. I don't often record conversations but I do sometime so that if there is something important I need to remember that I need to do I can review it. It save me having to attempt to read my handwriting which is nearly impossible. Although California has laws making it questionably legal to disclose recorded conversations, I believe in this instance it is justified because I am sure that it wasn't the intent of the legislature for these laws to conceal the fact that the people can not communicate with the press. So - I'm going to take my chances with this one because of the importance of the issues.
Here are the recordings. You can see if what I hear is the same as what you hear.
http://bulk.ctyme.com/nytimes.mp3
http://bulk.ctyme.com/nytimes2.mp3
These are unedited except that I cut out my home phone number in one place.
What is important here is that I'm sitting here about to write a major press release about the Church of Reality's position on the Iraq war and the moral implications of Realists fighting an unjust war in relation to Conscientious Objector Status and knowing that the email servers at the New York Times is going to block my release. Likewise I host a lot of political newsletters as well as my own letter to the editor list and I don't know if my letters are getting through.
This is an issue where people are sending free political speech to newspapers - this is clearly not spam - and a third party is blocking it. This block is on an IP basis and not by individual or domain so if one person sends a mass mailing they block everyone. In this case American Politics Journal's mass mailing blocked John Dvorak from communicating with New York Times reporters.
After the conversation the techs who control this have stated that they refuse to remove the blocks and that they have determined that all mass mailing to reporters will be blocked. They have flat out refused to fix the problem. Not just for the few hundred domains that I host, but for all the other people who want to send their messages to the press.
One of the things they mention is a company called Cipher Trust http://www.ciphertrust.com/ which seems to be the common blocking agent cutting off access from all these sites to all the companies. I'm still researching who these people are and who they block for. It sounds fairly massive.
Ironically, if their reporter, Judith Miller, hadn't conspired with Scooter Libby and the White House to sell America on this fake war we might not be writing them in the first place. But that's a rant for a different time.
The tech contact at the New York Times is Ed Muller. His email address is mulleea@nytimes.com . I consider it necessary that our servers as well as all the other servers who he is blocking be unblocked and it's time to lean on them to make that happen. So, here's what I suggest we do to start with.
First, the people on your lists who are not blocked needs to know about this. So send this message to everyone on your list so that they can individually post this on their blogs and write to the NYT directly. I want to show them that blocking free speech isn't possible and that there is no way that they can filter email coming from diverse sources. This is a message that we will get through. Please include the contact information and you can provide links to the recorded conversations. I will also be covering it on my blog at http://marc.perkel.com .
So - how want's to kick some butt?
Marc Perkel
Fearless Leader
Computer Tyme Hosting
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Marc Perkel
First One
Church of Reality
GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party's decline
By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Nov 10, 2005, 06:19
A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."
The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”
The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.
GOP insiders who have seen the memo admit it’s a risky strategy and point out that such scenarios are “blue sky thinking” that often occurs in political planning sessions.
“The President’s popularity was at an all-time high following the 9/11 attacks,” admits one aide. “Americans band together at a time of crisis.”
Other Republicans, however, worry that such a scenario carries high risk, pointing out that an attack might suggest the President has not done enough to protect the country.
“We also have to face the fact that many Americans no longer trust the President,” says a longtime GOP strategist. “That makes it harder for him to become a rallying point.”
Wondering what Ahmad Chalabi (curveball) was doing in Washington last week meeting with top Whitehouse officials? He was auditioning for president of Iraq. Ahmad Chalabi is a man who understand how the system really works and he knows that you don't get elected in Iraq by the people. He knows that the US will install a puppet government there and he wants to be that puppet. So he's doing what you really need to do to get "elected" in Iraq. He's pitiching a deal to the oil company representatives who control America. Condi Rice, Rumsfield, Cheney etc.
This is the same guy who help generate the lies that led us to war in the first place.
I'm a Windows user and it's a hard habit to break. But Sony's new rootkit installs is even more reason to move to Linux rather than use proprietary operating systems like Wondows and Macs.
Sony decided to out secret software on its music CDs that installed into the kernel of Windows so it can track and control what is copied. This software installs without your permission and without your knowledge. In fact, like a virus program it does everything it can to hide itself.
Sony seems to think it owns your computer and has the right to secretly install software on it to modify your operating system without you knowing about it. That's pretty brazen if you ask me. I can tell you that Sony isn't a brand that I will be buying anymore. From now on I'm going to avoid doing anything that make Sony money. It's my computer and you don't screw with it.
Here's the EFF story about it.
* Are You Infected with Sony-BMG's Rootkit?
EFF Confirms Secret Software on 19 CDs
San Francisco - News that some Sony-BMG music CDs install
secret rootkit software on their owners' computers has
shocked and angered thousands of music fans in recent days.
Among the cause for concern is Sony's refusal to publicly
list which CDs contain the infectious software and to
provide a way for music fans to remove it. Now, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has confirmed that the
stealth program is deployed on at least 19 CDs in a variety
of genres.
The software, created by First 4 Internet and known as
XCP2, ostensibly "protects" the music from illegal copying.
But in fact, it blocks a number of legal uses--like
listening to songs on your iPod. The software also
reportedly slows down your computer and makes it more
susceptible to crashes and third-party attacks. And since
the program is designed to hide itself, users may have
trouble diagnosing the problem.
"Entertainment companies often complain that fans refuse to
respect their intellectual property rights. Yet tools like
this refuse to respect our own personal property rights,"
said EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz. "Sony's tactics here
are hypocritical, in addition to being a security threat."
If you listened to a CD with the XCP software on your
Windows PC, your computer is likely already infected. An
EFF investigation confirmed XCP software on 19 titles, but
it's far from a complete list. Sony-BMG continues to refuse
to make such a list available to consumers.
Consumers can spot CDs with XCP by inspecting a CD closely,
checking the left transparent spine on the front of the
case for a label that says "CONTENT PROTECTED." The back of
these CDs also mention XCP in fine print. You can find
pictures of these and other telltale labeling at
"Music fans should protect themselves from this stealth
attack on their computer system," said EFF Senior Staff
Attorney Fred von Lohmann.
For EFF's list of CDs with XCP:
The "legalese rootkit" - Sony-BMG's EULA:
For this release:
: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :
* Sony-BMG Rootkit: EFF Collecting Stories, Considering
Litigation
EFF is collecting stories from EFF members and supporters who
have purchased Sony-BMG CDs that contained the rootkit copy
protection software. We're considering whether the effect on
the public, or on EFF members, is sufficiently serious to
merit EFF filing a lawsuit.
If you satisfy the following criteria, we would like to hear
from you:
1. You have a Windows computer;
2. First 4 Internet's XCP copy protection has been installed
on your computer from a Sony CD (for more details, see our
blog post referenced above or the SysInternals blog,
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-
digital-rights.html);
3. You reside in either California or New York; and
4. You are willing to participate in litigation.
We have not made a final decision about filing any legal
action, but we would like to hear from music fans who have
been harmed by the Sony-BMG rootkit copy protection
technology. Please contact allison@eff.org for more
information.