Animal Rights Activist Jailed at Secretive Prison Gives First Account of Life Inside a "CMU"

In a Democracy Now! exclusive interview, we speak with Andrew Stepanian, an animal rights activist who was jailed at a secretive prison known as a Communication Management Unit, or CMU.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder and the Federal Bureau of Prisons challenging the legality of two secretive prison units in Indiana and Illinois.

English: Federal Bureau of Prisons (seal) Español: El escudo de la Agencia Federal de Prisiones (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The prisons, known as Communication Management Units, are designed to severely restrict prisoner communication with family members, the media and the outside world.

Most of the prisoners held in the CMUs have been Muslim men, but the units have also held several non-Muslim political activists, including environmental and animal rights activists.

In 2006, Andrew Stepanian was sentenced to three years in prison for violating a controversial law known as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act.  - Animal Rights Activist Jailed at Secretive Prison Gives First Account of Life Inside a "CMU"

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Facebook getting your friends to data mine for them.

facebook engancha (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Facebook has added a feature so that you can ask friends whether or not they are in a relationship. It sounds like a way to help the somewhat creepy, but as always advertising is likely the key.
The new feature applies to any field in a user’s profile that they’ve not yet completed, such as phone number, relationship status, educational background or workplace. If you are a Facebook friend with that person, you’ll no longer see a blank in that slot, but rather an “Ask” button. For now, the button will only appear for US users. - Facebook Encourages Users To Probe One Another | Geeks are Sexy Technology News 

Looks like Facebook is at it again with being nosy. Another way to gather information that you have intentionally left blank because you thought that it was something you didn't want to share with your Facebook contacts. Makes you wonder if they are really working for Big Brother.

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Big Brother replacing good parenting

User big brother 1984 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It would appear that job hunters are not the only ones that have to watch what appears on their social media, now middle and high school students have to as well.

A suburban Los Angeles school district is now looking at the public postings on social media by middle and high school students, searching for possible violence, drug use, bullying, truancy and suicidal threats.
The district in Glendale, California, is paying $40,500 to a firm to monitor and report on 14,000 middle and high school students’ posts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media for one year.

Though critics liken the monitoring to government stalking, school officials and their contractor say the purpose is student safety.  ↬ California district hires firm to monitor students’ social media – CNN.com

No matter how they try spin it, this is another sign that good parenting has gone out the window. At one time, parents kept tabs on these things themselves. Now either mom and dad are too busy with their careers to give a damn or they just don’t know what their kids are doing. Either way, it is a sad state of affairs.

If your kid attends a school that has this type of monitoring program, educate them in how to set their privacy settings on their social media accounts and monitor their activity yourself. Be your kid’s best friend as well as a parent and they will love you for the rest of their life.

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