Anonops #9: Get Los(t) Zetas

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LA Councilman: Leaked Info On LAPD Officers Could Put Families At Risk

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A City Council member called on Monday for state lawmakers to help the personal information of law enforcement officers remain confidential.

Councilman Dennis Zine wants the California Legislature to move quickly to protect police, fire and other officers after family photos, property records and campaign contributions of LAPD police commanders was posted online last week.

And according to Zine, the department should use the Department of Motor Vehicles as a privacy model.

“The DMV recognized a number of years ago they do have the confidentiality for law enforcement personnel and it’s been use-effective, so we’re trying to extend that to the assessor’s office, which maintains those records,” Zine told KNX 1070.

Punitive measures to be determined would be assessed for violators under the plan, he added.

A former police officer himself, Zine said he wants to work on legislation that will standardize protections for law enforcement agencies across the state in effort to protect what’s most important to the officers.

“The bottom line is the ability of law enforcement not to be intimidated or not to feel intimidated and their families to be protected,” he said. “When they start posting the children’s names, addresses, it causes concern with the officer’s and their families.”

The LAPD has launched an investigation into a number of cases involving the personal information of police officials that ended up on the internet.

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Op maandag 12 december 2011 10:38 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Anonymous Leaks Anti-LGBT Movement Member Emails

After yesterday they leaked information on the members of the Florida Family Association (FFA) for their discrimination campaigns launched against Muslims, the members of Anonymous leaked the email addresses and passwords of what they call “The Most Active Anti-LGBT Members on the Web.”

A total of 600 email log-in credentials were published in a Pastebin document, but since the passwords are in clear text, I’m not going to provide a link.

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Members of the Anonymous hacktivist collective are known to fight for those who are often targeted by the public for being different. LGBT rights opposition organizations are most often affiliated with right-wing religious and socially conservative political organizations.

If not long ago Anonymous punished those who oppose Muslims, now it’s the turn of those who actively oppose gay and transgender civil rights.

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Guy Fawkes Mask, 'Anonymous' Milieu, Used in Teen YouTube Threat That Got SoCal High School Shut Down, Cops Say

​A threat against Bishop Montgomery High School made very publicly via YouTube landed a 16-year-old suspect in handcuffs, police said today.

Torrance police Sgt. Steven Jenkinson tells the Weekly the video featured an Occupy-style Guy Fawkes mask and the graphic stylings of the hacker group Anonymous. It made a statement indicating "something very bad is going to happen" today at the campus attended by the sophomore, he said.

The kid was arrested Sunday on suspicion of making terrorist threats. But following calls from concerned parents Saturday the school ...

... already made plans to shut down Monday, Jenkinson said.

It'll be back up and running tomorrow: A statement today by the Torrance Catholic school's principal, Rosemary Libbon, states that "the situation has been resolved."

The video allegedly featured threats made in a voice that is processed through robotic, Autotune-style software, police told us.

As a precaution, as school was closed today, administrators and security personnel swept the campus to ensure that there were no "suspicious items or devices," Jenkinson said.

He said police checked to see if the teen suspect was involved with the hacker group but found no connection.

The video, unfortunately for us, has been taken down.

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The academics of Anonymous

If the word “doxing” makes you think of puppies, and the word “hacker” has you imagining a zit-faced, social outcast eating junk food in his or her parents’ basement, it’s time to head to the anthropology section of your local library or bookstore and start reading up on “hacktivism,” or online activism.

Academics have been studying the very non-academic undertakings of hacktivists, predominantly groups such as Anonymous, for years. These include the repeated hacking of the Church of Scientology Web site, the infamous online message board 4Chan, and the philosophy of “doing it for the Lulz.” Their findings, while not your average classroom fare, are helping to paint a picture for policy makers of a leaderless, geographically and socio-economically diverse and powerfully disruptive group.

“Anonymous is by nature, as well as design, difficult to define,” said New York University Assistant Professor of media, culture and communication Gabriella Coleman during a gathering at the Brookings Institution on Dec. 9. ”It made my life as an anthropologist very difficult at times.”

Coleman has spent the past decade studying hackers, meeting with members of the hacking community and using formal academic tools to understand this emerging sector of society. She joined Richard Forno, director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Cybersecurity Program, and Paul Rosenzweig, the founder of Red Branch Law and Consulting and former assistant secretary for policy in the Department of Homeland Security, at Brookings. The group was convened by Brookings’s Director of the Center for Technology Innovation, Allan Friedman.

“I tend to say they’re geeks — they’re geeks and they’re hackers,” said Coleman when asked about the demographics of the hacking populace, “and yet, when you say geeks, often times the problem with using the term like that is that it kind of conjures one image, and one image alone: basement, pimples, and psychological pa­thol­ogy. That is wrong.”

Coleman has met with a “remarkably diverse group,” with people who “are near royalty” in Europe and others who are “below working class” and “at the bottom of the barrel at some level.”

“They just have very unusual backgrounds,” said Coleman of those in the group willing to engage in illegal activity, “which may be one of the reasons they me be willing to go where they go.”

Beyond understanding who Anonymous is, there’s the additional question of how to protect society against its destructive power. This, argues Rosenzweig, depends on which value is deemed to be predominant among the group. Is it hacktivism, vigilantism or collective action?

If it is a hacktivist group or a criminal group, such as Mao in China or the VietCong, perhaps anti-insurgency tactics, such as the employment of good intelligence, empowering hactivist resistance movements and public education campaigns should be used, said Rosenzweig. If vigilantism is dominant, the solution could lie in improving criminal law enforcement and diplomatic activity. If, however, the group is deemed to be dominated by an attitude of collective action, then it falls under First Amendment-protected speech, meaning that reinforcing First Amendment protections and vigilant policing of the margin between protected speech and criminal activity are all that can be done.

“I see less of the political speech and more of the criminality,” said Rosenzweig, “but I am certainly willing to acknowledge that I might be wrong.”

Right or wrong, the subject of online activism can be expected to only grow as a subsection of anthropological study in the coming years. A far cry from the social outcast in mom and dad’s basement.

Given this, we spoke with Coleman afterward about what to expect from Anonymous, what companies can learn from the group’s behavior, and what aspiring and current anthropologists can expect in terms of how these activities stand to change the academic landscape.

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Anonymous hacker arrested and bail on 10k bond, faces 15years for LOIC attack

Well once again, a person who downloaded the infamous LOIC and used it in a widespread attack, the attack was on gene simmions website.

Kevin George Poe, 24, of Manchester, Connecticut, who used the screen name “spydr101,” was taken into custody today without incident in Hartford and later was released on a $10,000 bond, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles said in a statement. He’s accused of waging a denial of service attack on GeneSimmons.com.

If found guilty he faces the same problem all the other anons do…a possible 15years behind bars for using a simple program. Its amazing they can even have such a high bail bond for just computer hacking…

Poe made his first appearance in U.S. District Court, where a judge ordered Poe released on a $10,000 bond and required Poe to come to Los Angeles at a date yet to be determined.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned an indictment last week that accused Poe of being affiliated with the Anonymous hacking group.

The FBI alleges that during a five-day period in October 2010, Poe and others linked to Anonymous allegedly conducted a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against Simmons’ computer systems, sending tens of thousands of electronic requests designed to overload the computer server and render the website useless.

By now everyone knows that LOIC would have to be the most stupid way to attack anything at all,

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'Time-persoon' 2011: de demonstrant

Time Magazine heeft 'de demonstrant' uitgeroepen tot persoon van het jaar. Die heeft namelijk niet alleen zijn eigen ongenoegen kenbaar gemaakt, maar ook de wereld veranderd, vindt Time.

Volgens het Amerikaanse blad is 2011 vooral het jaar van demonstraties. "Massaal en effectief straatprotest was een wereldwijde eigenaardigheid totdat het een jaar geleden plots het bepalende thema werd. De betoger maakte weer geschiedenis", aldus het blad.

Onder 'de demonstrant' schaart Time onder anderen de Tunesische fruitverkoper die zichzelf in brand stak en daarmee min of meer de Arabische Lente ontketende.

Wanhoopsdaad

De 26-jarige Mohammed Bouazizi was een gewone Tunesische jongen met een universitaire opleiding. Na zijn afstuderen kon hij geen werk vinden. Omdat hij inkomsten nodig had, ging hij op straat groente en fruit verkopen. Bij een controle nam de politie zijn spullen in beslag, omdat hij geen vergunning had.

Op 17 december 2010 overgoot hij zichzelf met benzine en stak zichzelf in brand. Bouazizi belandde op de intensive care met ernstige brandwonden. Hij overleed 4 januari dit jaar. De wanhoopsdaad van Bouazizi leidde tot protesten in het hele land

Eervolle vemelding

De Occupy-beweging die in september in de VS losbarstte en daarna de hele wereld veroverde, en de demonstranten in Griekenland die protesteerden tegen de bezuinigingen, krijgen ook een eervolle vermelding.

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PVV steekt tóch geen stokje voor 'geheim' ACTA-verdrag

Minister van Economische Zaken Maxime Verhagen kan zonder problemen namens Nederland de onderhandelingen voeren over het ACTA-verdrag. Dat bleek tijdens de stemmingen in de Kamer vandaag.

Lang leek het erop dat de PVV daar een stokje voor zou steken, maar uiteindelijk steunde de partij een motie van D66-Kamerlid Kees Verhoeven niet. 'Teleurstellend en een gemiste kans', vindt Verhoeven.

Het ACTA-verdag is een overeenkomst tussen de Verenigde Staten, Japan en de Europese Unie en moet door copyright beschermde goederen waarborgen. Er moeten afspraken in worden gemaakt hoe piraterij, met name op internet, te voorkomen en te bestraffen. Het verdrag bevat afspraken die het illegaal downloaden van films en muziek moeten tegengaan. Minister Verhagen voert namens Nederland de onderhandelingen. Op het verdrag bestaat kritiek: het zou de vrijheid van internetters drastisch inperken bijvoorbeeld - maar niemand weet precies wat er in het verdrag staat.

Turbulent
Het verdrag kent in de Kamer een korte maar turbulente geschiedenis, 'een soort van afvalrace', aldus Verhoeven. De Kamer verzocht Verhagen twee weken geleden unaniem om openbaarheid over de onderhandelingsdocumenten voor het verdrag. 'Die documenten hebben juridische waarde. Zonder deze documenten kun je het verdrag niet goed beoordelen', zegt Verhoeven.

Verhagen schreef op dat verzoek een brief, waarin hij aangaf dit niet te kunnen, omdat Nederland dan allerlei verdragen zou schenden. Toen de Kamer daarop nogmaals verzocht om openbaarmaking, stemden VVD en CDA tegen, maar de PVV bleef voor openbaarmarking. Verhagen wilde de documenten alleen vertrouwelijk ter inzage geven, waardoor een debat erover onmogelijk werd.

Hierop diende Verhoeven vandaag zijn motie in, om Verhagen ervan te weerhouden namens Nederland op te treden bij de verdere onderhandelingen en ondertekening van ACTA. Maar nu stemde de PVV niet meer voor.

Gebeld
Verhoeven: 'Ik denk dat Verhagen met Wilders heeft gebeld en heeft gezegd: zorg ervoor dat jouw fractie tegen de motie stemt. Het is een gemiste kans. We hadden als Nederland nog invloed kunnen uitoefenen op Europa, maar het omgekeerde gaat gebeuren. Daar zit 'm de crux. Er komt nu een ratificeringswetje, maar dan gaat het er alleen nog maar over hoe we het verdrag in de Nederlandse wetgeving gaan invoeren.'

Downloadverbod
Volgens de D66'er is dat geen goed nieuws. In het ACTA-verdrag zou worden vastgelegd dat individuele internetters hoge boetes opgelegd kunnen krijgen en is er wellicht ruimte voor een downloadverbod. Een verbod dat onlangs door de Kamer - met steun van de PVV - is tegengehouden.

Kamerlid Jhim van Bemmel (PVV) deelt de visie van Verhoeven niet. Hij zegt op de site van Webwereld: 'We hebben ons laten informeren door de minister, en hij is met handen en voeten gebonden aan de afspraken met Europa. Nu kunnen we onze gedoogminister het zo moeilijk mogelijk maken, maar daar voelen we niets voor.'

Volgens hem is nu niet gezegd dat Nederland ook daadwerkelijk instemt met ACTA. Het uiteindelijke verdrag moet door de Eerste en Tweede Kamer worden goedgekeurd. Pas wanneer alle landen van de Europese Unie instemmen met het verdrag, kan ook de Europese Commissie het ondertekenen.

Goed moment
Volgens Van Bemmel zou het moment dat het verdrag in de Kamer komt nog een 'heel goed moment' kunnen zijn, om tegen te stemmen. Verhoeven ziet dat anders; 'op het moment dat Verhagen het ACTA-verdrag heeft ondertekend, kan Nederland niet zoveel meer doen'.

Volgens Verhagen leidt ACTA niet tot strengere regelgeving in Nederland. D66 heeft daar zo zijn vraagtekens bij.

De Limburgse PVV-leider Laurence Stassen laat via Twitter weten niet achter het standpunt van de landelijke fractie te staan: 'Voor alle duidelijkheid: PVV eurofractie was en is tegen geheimhouding ACTA en is voor 100% openbaarheid! Dus oneens met Haags PVVstandpunt!'

twitter:

BarrettBrownLOL twitterde op woensdag 14-12-2011 om 22:39:16 An important #Anonymous participant and #ProjectPM member has been arrested in Europe. reageer retweet

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Globalsign confesses to certificate attack

CERTIFICATION AUTHORITY Globalsign has admitted that it was the target of a recent attack, but added that its systems and certificates were not compromised.

The threat of exposure followed the efforts of the Comodohacker, who in early September hacked certificate authority Diginotar and issued bogus certificates as a result. At the time it was suggested that Globalsign had also been affected, but if it was, apparently it was not severely affected.

In a security incident report just released by the firm, it said that despite earlier suggestions it had found no evidence of any rogue certificates having been issued, that no customer data was exposed, and that no harm was done to its infrastructure or systems.

It did confirm that a peripheral web server, which is not part of its certificate issuance infrastructure and hosted a public facing web property, had been breached, however. This means that some data could have been exposed, including publicly available HTML pages, publicly available PDFs, and the SSL certificate and keys issued to www.globalsign.com. According to its statement these were deemed compromised and revoked.

Globalsign said that it responded to the threat with an immediate, strong response, including nine days of service disruption when it stopped issuing certificates.

"The self-titled attacker 'Comodohacker' has been assumed to be a credible threat to security providers," said the firm in its disclosure about the hacking.

"The same post also stated that several other CAs had been compromised, including a reference to GlobalSign. GlobalSign deemed the threat credible and immediately began a thorough network analysis, assuming a highly sophisticated attack had been executed on, or was in process against, multiple Certificate Authorities. GlobalSign deemed the most responsible reaction was to halt issuance of new Certificates."

Globalsign worked with Fox-IT, the company that raised awareness about the security threat, in resolving the issue and resuming its services. µ

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Adventures in #Hacking / #Programming - #links and #tutorials for evey skill level.

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http://pastebin.com/dvE67a3c

Anonymous - OPBLACKOUT

NEW LEAKS OF OFFICIAL HEADS
Case 3:09-cv-01952-CFD

The following people are part of a murder conspiracy. All are being sued under official capacity:

George Bush
1725 Lakepointe Drive
Lewisville, TX 75057

George H. W. Bush
10000 Memorial Dr. Suite 900
Houston, TX 77024

Richard Cheney
c/o The Harry Walker Agency, Inc.
355 Lexington Avenue, 21st Floor
New York, NY 10017

John Kerry
218 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington DC, 20510

John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, D.C. 20510

Joe Lieberman
706 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington DC, 20510
***"Mr. Liberman is a primary driving force behind this multiple murder conspiracy, working on both sides of the political spectrum."***

FULL COURT CASE: http://www.mediafire.com/?d7c5flgdp048l CASE 7!!!!

Contains: More information leaks on people such as Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and the NFL.
Shows how much they have in the bank. Growth Hormones with bribery in the NFL. This leak is the mother load of all leaks. Everything you need to know about the GANGSTER GOVERNMENT running us is in it. The other court cases contain assaults Sarah Palin was involved in assaults against countless people (ie. stabbed some guy in the eye, sexual) (Court Cases: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) SPREAD LIKE FUCKING HELL.

WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
To the United States Government, IT'S TOO LATE TO EXPECT US.

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Anonymous declares cyber war on Congress over indefinite detention act

Hacktivists are continuing their mission to take on politicians causing the collapse of constitutional rights in America, with operatives from the online collective Anonymous keeping up a campaign against the signers of controversial legislation.

As RT reported on Thursday, members of Anonymous began a campaign this week to expose information on the lawmakers who voted in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, a bill that will allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, the reinstating of torture methods and the creation of the United States as a battlefield. Despite the implications of the act, the Senate allowed for the bill to leave Capitol Hill on Thursday, leaving only the inking of President Barack Obama’s name as the final step for ratification.

President Obama had earlier insisted on vetoing the bill, but the White House retracted that statement in the days before it cleared Congress. Before the final draft left the Senate yesterday, Sen. Carl Levin asked that a statement from the administration be added to the record in which the president’s press secretary, Jay Carney, said that the president will not be advised to strike down the bill.

On Thursday, Anonymous hacktivists launched a campaign against Senator Robert Portman, a Republican from Ohio. Not only did Portland vote in favor of NDAA FY2012, he received $272,853 from special interest groups that also backed the bill.

“Robert J. Portman, we plan to make an example of you,” an Anonymous operative posted to the Internet on Thursday. Along with the warning was personal information pertaining to the senator, including his home address and phone number.

On Friday, Anonymous says that this is just the beginning of the campaign against those that are creating the collapse of the US Constitution. With NDAA FY2012 almost guaranteed to be approved by Obama any moment, a second piece of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is close to clearing a Congressional committee. Should that bill be brought before the president and signed into law as well, Internet access and content across America and the world will become largely censored.

“We've been watching you systematically destroy the rights of your own people, one law at a time. No longer shall we stand by and watch you enslave our fellow citizens,” writes an Anonymous operative in an open letter to Congress posted Friday. “You have continued down this path of treason by creating acts such as the National Defense Authorization Act, Stop Online Piracy Act, Protect IP Act, and more. You've tried to conceal the true purpose of these bills, and pass them without the consent of the American people.”

As a result of the recent legislation which has managed to make its way through Congress, Anonymous operatives write on Friday, “We are now here to undo your sordid life's work in its entirety. No longer will your transgressions go unnoticed. No longer will you enslave the people. The world will know of your violations against the rights of the citizens you were elected to represent.”

In the memo from the hacktivists, they include a copy of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution that have been crushed in-part by the latest congressional meetings. “Every time you violate these amendments we will ensure the people are aware of your actions,” says Anonymous. “You may have previously succeeded in concealing your actions, but that time has come to an end. You were elected by us, and you can be removed by us.”

Anonymous members are using the trending topic #OpAccountable on Twitter to spread the campaign against the congressman involved in the legislation. On Friday, one hacktivist tweeted that the topic is even being used by known members of the Tea Party movement.

“Goes to show this year’s outrage is far stretching," adds the operative.

twitter:

littlelisa8 twitterde op vrijdag 16-12-2011 om 21:37:46 #OccupyWallStreet is #Winning #SOPA vote postponed till #2012 #Anonymous reageer retweet

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Quorvis Dox

While the employees at @Qorvis are sitting at happy hour drunk off of their asses (https://twitter.com/#!/qorvis/status/142715730557796353) celebrating another ‘successful’ year of facilitating the oppression of foreign nations at the behest of their leaders who contracted it to them, we have been busy compiling their professional data and pouring through already existing public intel. Apparently, 1/3 of your firm leaving because of your disgust with the firm’s actions against the freedom-desiring people of countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, amongst others is worthy of a celebration. Who knew!

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#LulzXmas the modern day robin hood, takes control and gives gifts out

Many off you will of seen, heard of or even received the very Merry spirit from just 2 Hackers this Christmas.

The Hacker “Charrie Wong” who has been seen on CWN a few times before and even Australian TV on SBS insights & lulzfunny who seems fairly new have been on a Jolly “rampage” of taking from the rich and giving to the poor and have taken the robin hood style to a WHOLE new level with a modern touch.

Giving nearly $100,000 away in Presents ranging from “Pizzas to Servers & Domains to iPads”.

#LulzXmas is the name they have taken and it seems they have fulfilled exactly what they have set out to do.

With heart wrenching story’s off their amazing generosity, it seems this Christmas is dedicated to the 99%.

Merry Christmas from all the Staff at CWN & Destructive Security ( CWN is not affiliated with these attacks or operations at all )

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Approval of covert offensive cyberwar sneakily inserted into NDAA

I just came across yet another portion of the NDAA that is getting barely any attention, via the Federation of American Scientists‘ Secrecy News.

Why this isn’t getting more press is beyond me, as this represents a significant upgrade of the unnecessary and absurdly costly cyberwarfare apparatus operating mostly in secret in the United States.

We are regularly being inundated with blatant propaganda like the claim that Russian hackers had destroyed a water pump in Illinois, which turned out to be a total and complete fabrication.

Incidents like this — be they contrived or genuine — are then used to push increased control and monitoring of the internet, along with the growing push for total centralization of the American power grid under the control of a single government agency.

This increased control is something that the government has been promoting for some time with the irrational fear that at any time the entire United States could be brought down by a hacker or hackers, along with the corporate backers that would be granted all of the lucrative contracts to create such a system.

This little gem tucked away in the NDAA, Section 954, allows the Department of Defense, upon the Presidents direction, to “conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our Nation, allies and interests.”

While this authorization is conditional in that it must be compliant with the law of armed conflict and the War Powers Resolution, the President and Congress don’t care too much about these measures as evidenced by Libya.

In the conference, they affirmed, “because of the evolving nature of cyber warfare, there is a lack of historical precedent for what constitutes traditional military activities in relation to cyber operations and that it is necessary to affirm that such operations may be conducted pursuant to the same policy, principles, and legal regimes that pertain to kinetic capabilities.”

This is also remarkable because it explicitly allows for covert operations as shown in the passage which reads, “The conferees also recognize that in certain instances, the most effective way to deal with threats and protect U.S. and coalition forces is to undertake offensive military cyber activities, including where the role of the United States Government is not apparent or to be acknowledged.”

I am constantly amazed by the brazenness of our illegitimate criminal government and our so-called Representatives and the examples only seem to get more absurd by the day.

They claim that the War Powers Resolution “may apply” but as Steven Aftergood points out, “This is an odd formulation which suggests that the War Powers Resolution may also not apply. In any case the Resolution is a weak reed that has rarely been used by Congress to constrain executive action.”

This is precisely what we saw in the case of Libya where Obama flouted the War Powers Resolution and then claimed he had no responsibility to adhere to it because the operation didn’t qualify as hostilities under the Resolution.

Section 954 could easily be used to run around the War Powers Resolution as covert operations need not ever be so much as admitted by the President or the Department of Defense if they so choose.

Plus our castrated Congress has proven themselves to be wholly subordinate to the dictatorial Executive, indicating that even if they were aware of an operation they likely wouldn’t wield their rightful power over it.

Lawfare goes over some of the technicalities, but I think we all know that our government pays very little attention to the meager constraints that they are subjected to. When they want to go to war, they will go to war, even if they have to conduct a false flag operation like the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify it.

This section is completely unnecessary as Wired points out in writing, “Despite mainstream news accounts, there’s been no documented hacking attacks on U.S. infrastructure designed to cripple it.”

Therefore, whatever justification they attempt to utilize to push this is completely irrelevant and illegitimate. This is just another warmongering effort by our insane government which will keep the money flowing out of the pockets of the people and into the coffers of the war profiteers.

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Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.

He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.

"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."

At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.

Before she left the store Tuesday evening, the Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line at the cash register.

"She was doing it in the memory of her husband who had just died, and she said she wasn't going to be able to spend it and wanted to make people happy with it," Deppe said. The woman did not identify herself and only asked people to "remember Ben," an apparent reference to her husband.

Deppe, who said she's worked in retail for 40 years, had never seen anything like it.

"It was like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store," she said.

[See also: 5 Super Stocking Stuffers for Under $10]

Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.

Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.

"I was speechless," Bremser said. "It made me believe in Christmas again."

Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Montana.

The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children. They often pay a portion of the balance, usually all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's system.

The phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart executives said.

"It is honestly being driven by people wanting to do a good deed at this time of the year," said Salima Yala, Kmart's division vice president for layaway.

The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of his stores in Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have also seen some layaway accounts paid off.

Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. But it's happening as the company struggles to compete with chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Kmart may be the focus of layaway generosity, Yala said, because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about four decades. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several weeks.

The sad memories of layaways lost prompted at least one good Samaritan to pay off the accounts of five people at an Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the store's assistant manager.

"She told me that when she was younger, her mom used to set up things on layaway at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay them off because they just didn't have the money for it," Graff said.

He called a woman who had been helped, "and she broke down in tears on the phone with me. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to pay off their layaway and was afraid their kids weren't going to have anything for Christmas."

"You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a lot, but I tell you what, at the right time, it may as well be a million dollars for some people," Graff said.

Graff's store alone has seen about a dozen layaway accounts paid off in the last 10 days, with the donors paying $50 to $250 on each account.

"To be honest, in retail, it's easy to get cynical about the holidays, because you're kind of grinding it out when everybody else is having family time," Graff said. "It's really encouraging to see this side of Christmas again."

[See also: White House Christmas Trees: Then and Now]

Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.

Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's layaway.

In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart store's inventory because of late payments.

Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle Children's Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed illness.

"She was yelling at the nurses, 'We're going to have Christmas after all!'" store manager Josine Murrin said.

A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich., called Roberta Carter last week to let her know a man had paid all but 40 cents of her $60 layaway.

Carter, a mother of eight from Grand Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon hearing the news. She and her family have been struggling as she seeks a full-time job.

"My kids will have clothes for Christmas," she said.

Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of four children under the age of 8, was in the Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a payment on her layaway bill when she learned the woman next to her was paying off her account.

"I started to cry. I couldn't believe it," said Torres, who doubted she would have been able to pay off the balance. "I was in disbelief. I hugged her and gave her a kiss."

quote:

Anonymous Retaliates: Massive Information dump released on Senators who Passed NDAA

This year’s National Defense Authorization Act passed quickly through the Senate and as expected President Obama signed the bill. 86 Senators in a bipartisan move, signed off on this controversial bill, which opens the door to invasive acts against Americans. Almost everyone has felt the effect of Anonymous’ presence online and off and now, the 86 Senators will feel their ubiquitous presence as well.



The collective activist group just released a massive dump of information, which begins with, ”Robert J. Portman is a Republican Senator from the state of Ohio. He has made himself a target as an advocate of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), but we are truly disturbed by the ludicrous $272,853 he received from special interest groups supporting the NDAA bill that authorizes the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. Robert J. Portman, we plan to make an example of you.”

Also included in the dump are Twitter accounts for each Senator who use the social site. Feel free to tweet your grievances:

quote:

SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]

So this was a bit of a surprise. Lots of people expected Lamar Smith to keep the SOPA markup process going until he could get a vote out, even if it was late tonight. But it looks like he ran out of time. With Congress settling it's other business and closing up shop, Smith abruptly ended the markup, saying they'll resume at the next available date -- which likely won't be until late January. They only had time to go through two amendments, the second of which was withdrawn. That was from Rep. Chaffetz who asked that the DNS/IP blocking sections not be put into effect until after a thorough analysis was done by experts on their impact on online security. Somewhat surprisingly, Smith seemed willing to agree to something like this. He came close to suggesting that perhaps they should, in fact, have hearings with some of these experts concerned about the internet blocking part of SOPA (perhaps because he realized that SOPA wouldn't get voted on today). Of course, now we'll have to see what actually happens.

In the meantime, this represents a very brief, but significant, victory for those in favor of internet freedom and against internet censorship in the US. Have no fear, however, that Hollywood and the US Chamber of Commerce will be pushing very, very, very hard to get SOPA approved as soon as possible. This fight isn't over by a long shot, but there does appear to be a brief and thankful reprieve. The momentum is also on the side of those opposed. When PROTECT IP came out early this year, it was seen as a slam dunk. Congress would bend over backwards to grant Hollywood its wishes. The fact that it's getting pushed into the new year is big, big news. On top of that, people have really jumped up on this one. The grassroots efforts have been amazing -- as an issue that normally gets little attention (copyright) has become a very mainstream issue in a matter of months. We keep hearing about SOPA from random and surprising places. This needs to keep up and Congress needs to learn that giving in to Hollywood's short-sighted whims isn't going to go over well with the public.

Update.... Or not. Despite the fact that Congress was supposed to be out of session until the end of January, the Judiciary Committee has just announced plans to come back to continue the markup this coming Wednesday. This is rather unusual and totally unnecessary. But it shows just how desperate Hollywood is to pass this bill as quickly as possible, before the momentum of opposition builds up even further.

twitter:

nermin79 twitterde op zondag 18-12-2011 om 10:31:53 "@Psypherize: #Anonymous, Egyptian and Arab hackers out there. We need you to hack #Maspero and shut it down." reageer retweet