Would anyone be up for making the May 10th protest a "moving" protest, where we all wander the South Side in the general vicinity of the Scientology building, handing out fliers and not constantly blocking off the same shops? We could reach a decent number of people that way, and we might not provoke the same ire we do when we park our butts outside on their sidewalks. There is the abandoned building the cop suggested standing in front of last time, which we tried, but we tend to spill over past either side of it, so maybe a few of us could stand there, and the rest could move to intersections and corners and we could rotate through the day without blocking any active businesses.
I'm just brainstorming here, seeing as we have under two weeks until May 10th, and I don't know what the turnaround time would be for a permit if someone started now. If anyone's got other ideas, please post them.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Update on the Shopowner Situation
I've been reading up about it on enturb, and many of the anons there are discussing getting a permit for our protest to ensure they don't have any grounds to get us in trouble in the future. Has anyone started this process? Anyone willing to get the ball rolling on a permit application? I'm not all that knowledgeable about the process, so if we have anyone around who is, I'd be grateful if they'd speak up.
Monday, April 28, 2008
A Small Problem from Our Protests
This was just mentioned by manysigns in the comment section of the last post, and it's something I think we've all noticed since the last raid.
The store owners across the street from the CoS bookstore are becoming increasingly agitated with us and our gatherings on their sidewalk. The police have been summoned about it more than once, and although they have always stated that we're doing nothing illegal by being there, the last thing we want is for someone to create a huge problem and try to turn us into the bad guys.
Does anyone have ideas for handling this? Last time we ended up moving down the sidewalk a bit to stand in front of a vacant building, but I'm afraid even if we do this from the start, they're still going to complain.
The store owners across the street from the CoS bookstore are becoming increasingly agitated with us and our gatherings on their sidewalk. The police have been summoned about it more than once, and although they have always stated that we're doing nothing illegal by being there, the last thing we want is for someone to create a huge problem and try to turn us into the bad guys.
Does anyone have ideas for handling this? Last time we ended up moving down the sidewalk a bit to stand in front of a vacant building, but I'm afraid even if we do this from the start, they're still going to complain.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Possible Pittsburgh Miniraid
Some of the Anons have been discussing one for this week/weekend in the IRC channel. Comment here if you're interested in arranging one.
Friday, April 25, 2008
I'm/We're Not Dead.
My apologies for the long lapse between updates here. I've been bogged down with school and work, and Xenu is infested with sickness and cooties (I think the thetans finally got him).
For those who haven't heard, Mark Bunker's full interview with Jason Beghe is up -- linking to WBM's blog, since the YouTube's been having problems.
Also, one issue that's been bugging me about the upcoming protest -- attendance has been down, here as well as most other cities. We peaked at about half our peak from 2/10 last time. I understand that a lot of our original Anons are only here for school and as a result may not spend all their time locally, but I think it's important that we recruit new people and try to keep our local numbers up. Any opinions on the matter? Ideas for how to do this?
For those who haven't heard, Mark Bunker's full interview with Jason Beghe is up -- linking to WBM's blog, since the YouTube's been having problems.
Also, one issue that's been bugging me about the upcoming protest -- attendance has been down, here as well as most other cities. We peaked at about half our peak from 2/10 last time. I understand that a lot of our original Anons are only here for school and as a result may not spend all their time locally, but I think it's important that we recruit new people and try to keep our local numbers up. Any opinions on the matter? Ideas for how to do this?
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The YouTubes Are Down, and Another Possible Celeb Blow.
The other day, Tory Magoo's YouTube account was suspended due to mass-flagging. Today, WBM's is down for the same reason -- the account with the Jason Beghe interview. See enturbulation's Breaking News forum for more discussion on these.
Also, lots of rumors in the works that Katie Holmes may be taking Suri and running away from Tom and CoS. Could be just celeb gossip, but I sure hope it's true.
Articles on TomKat split:
The Superficial
News.com.au
Other Gossip
Also, lots of rumors in the works that Katie Holmes may be taking Suri and running away from Tom and CoS. Could be just celeb gossip, but I sure hope it's true.
Articles on TomKat split:
The Superficial
News.com.au
Other Gossip
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Pictures from 4/12
Just offloaded the pictures from my camera, resized them, blurred faces, and all of that. You can find them here.
Note: I only blurred your face if you weren't wearing any facial covering at all, I figure sunglasses are enough to at least partially conceal your identity. If you really want to be blurred, email me and point out who you are and I'll do it.
Note: I only blurred your face if you weren't wearing any facial covering at all, I figure sunglasses are enough to at least partially conceal your identity. If you really want to be blurred, email me and point out who you are and I'll do it.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Our Original IRC is Back
Apparently this happened a while ago and I failed at noticing. The interim channel we had was dying off in terms of attendance, so we'll be back at #pghraid on the partyvan servers.
Quick Updates from 4/12
Hey, guys, good work today. A quick summary for those who couldn't be there:
Had some issues with nearby small businesses calling the police and claiming that Anonymous was driving away customers. A police officer stationed at the Scientology bookstore came out and talked to us about it -- he said they'd received 5-6 calls about the matter, one of which went to his personal cell phone (which he didn't know how anyone had accessed). Now, since we did have one neighboring storeowner complain last time, it's not unreasonable to think it could have happened again. We did witness a young male employee of the shop that called police last time going to other shops on the block and purportedly asking them to call the police on us, also. At least of these shop owners seems to like us and apparently told the kid to get lost. However, 5-6 calls still seems excessive, and officer mentioned that one had been directed to the mayor's hotline, which SEEMS like something the Scientologists might do, but again, that could be jumping to conclusions. Overall, though, the officer was cool and requested that we shift down the block slightly so that we only blocked a vacant building, and there were no more complaints after that.
Had a drive-by Rickroll at 11:24am. Young male in a car pulled to the side of the road, rolled down the windows, and blasted the song at us. Win. Footage here.
We were joined briefly by Chuck Beatty, ex-Sea Org member and prominent local SP, as well as another older male who said that he was once in the Sea Org as well and had been in CoS for something like twenty years. This one brought two signs and stayed all day, which was awesome. Beatty in particular, I think it was (I didn't talk to him personally as I was holding up part of our giant EXSCIENTOLOGYKIDS.COM banner at the time), had some interesting things to say about the local bookstore. Specifically, that there's really only one full-time employee there, a Russian or Ukrainian immigrant who gets paid only about $100 a week and was desperate for work and took the job.
Turnout appeared to peak at 25-30, still somewhat less than the 2/10 protest peak of 40-50, so I think that for May 10th, we really need to focus on recruiting a larger group. I did get in contact with all the major media outlets and some seemed interested over the phone, but as far as I know none of them came out this time. We did have giv3m3truth's coverage (thanks again, and I'll be looking out for your footage =]) and a local South Side paper that wants to put our pictures in their next issue. Lots of passersby were taking photos (interestingly, many had professional-looking Canon cameras) and some potential Scientologists photographing from across the street. Also, a couple people who run an about.com page on Agnosticism/Atheism were there taking pictures, and gave one of us their business card.
UPDATE: giv3m3truth's video
UPDATE: Austin Cline's About.com Coverage
UPDATE: Many Signs' photo gallery
UPDATE: Xenu's photo gallery
I will update this with any important media/etc. as it comes up. If anyone has links to photos or whatnot, post comments and I'll add them to this entry.
Had some issues with nearby small businesses calling the police and claiming that Anonymous was driving away customers. A police officer stationed at the Scientology bookstore came out and talked to us about it -- he said they'd received 5-6 calls about the matter, one of which went to his personal cell phone (which he didn't know how anyone had accessed). Now, since we did have one neighboring storeowner complain last time, it's not unreasonable to think it could have happened again. We did witness a young male employee of the shop that called police last time going to other shops on the block and purportedly asking them to call the police on us, also. At least of these shop owners seems to like us and apparently told the kid to get lost. However, 5-6 calls still seems excessive, and officer mentioned that one had been directed to the mayor's hotline, which SEEMS like something the Scientologists might do, but again, that could be jumping to conclusions. Overall, though, the officer was cool and requested that we shift down the block slightly so that we only blocked a vacant building, and there were no more complaints after that.
Had a drive-by Rickroll at 11:24am. Young male in a car pulled to the side of the road, rolled down the windows, and blasted the song at us. Win. Footage here.
We were joined briefly by Chuck Beatty, ex-Sea Org member and prominent local SP, as well as another older male who said that he was once in the Sea Org as well and had been in CoS for something like twenty years. This one brought two signs and stayed all day, which was awesome. Beatty in particular, I think it was (I didn't talk to him personally as I was holding up part of our giant EXSCIENTOLOGYKIDS.COM banner at the time), had some interesting things to say about the local bookstore. Specifically, that there's really only one full-time employee there, a Russian or Ukrainian immigrant who gets paid only about $100 a week and was desperate for work and took the job.
Turnout appeared to peak at 25-30, still somewhat less than the 2/10 protest peak of 40-50, so I think that for May 10th, we really need to focus on recruiting a larger group. I did get in contact with all the major media outlets and some seemed interested over the phone, but as far as I know none of them came out this time. We did have giv3m3truth's coverage (thanks again, and I'll be looking out for your footage =]) and a local South Side paper that wants to put our pictures in their next issue. Lots of passersby were taking photos (interestingly, many had professional-looking Canon cameras) and some potential Scientologists photographing from across the street. Also, a couple people who run an about.com page on Agnosticism/Atheism were there taking pictures, and gave one of us their business card.
UPDATE: giv3m3truth's video
UPDATE: Austin Cline's About.com Coverage
UPDATE: Many Signs' photo gallery
UPDATE: Xenu's photo gallery
I will update this with any important media/etc. as it comes up. If anyone has links to photos or whatnot, post comments and I'll add them to this entry.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Another Update (Miss Anonymous must have no life.)
Just wanted to give a bit of a shout-out to giv3m3truth, he posted a video update here here. He's been at all the protests so far but will be taking a bit of a break from Anonymous after Reconnect to diversify his work.
I think we all owe him a big thank you and some Anonymous love for his great coverage of the protests thus far.
Also, giv3m3truth, apparently Noah, myself, and some other Anons will be giving out free hugs tomorrow in the interest of showing how kind and loving Anonymous is, and I'll make sure you get one.
I think we all owe him a big thank you and some Anonymous love for his great coverage of the protests thus far.
Also, giv3m3truth, apparently Noah, myself, and some other Anons will be giving out free hugs tomorrow in the interest of showing how kind and loving Anonymous is, and I'll make sure you get one.
Media Updates
Okay, so here's a quick briefing on what's been done so far:
Called WTAE. They confirmed that they already had the info. Don't know whether that was from my email or if I was beaten on the phone by another Anon, but they're the ones who sent the 2/10 camera guy, so I'm optimistic about them.
Called KDKA. They gave me the proper email address for news releases (which was nowhere to be found on their website, from my searches at least): newsdesk@kdka.com
Called WPXI. They said they'd heard about the protest and took down my phone number.
Called the Post-Gazette. They gave me an email address for the guy in charge of local news on Saturday, and I sent him information.
Called the Tribune-Review. They also gave me the address of the person in charge of local news this weekend, and I emailed that address.
Also, got through to the South Side police, they seemed kinda busy, just took down the time and place and said thanks. They probably already know what's up, but so far no efforts to stop us, so that's a victory for Anon.
Called WTAE. They confirmed that they already had the info. Don't know whether that was from my email or if I was beaten on the phone by another Anon, but they're the ones who sent the 2/10 camera guy, so I'm optimistic about them.
Called KDKA. They gave me the proper email address for news releases (which was nowhere to be found on their website, from my searches at least): newsdesk@kdka.com
Called WPXI. They said they'd heard about the protest and took down my phone number.
Called the Post-Gazette. They gave me an email address for the guy in charge of local news on Saturday, and I sent him information.
Called the Tribune-Review. They also gave me the address of the person in charge of local news this weekend, and I emailed that address.
Also, got through to the South Side police, they seemed kinda busy, just took down the time and place and said thanks. They probably already know what's up, but so far no efforts to stop us, so that's a victory for Anon.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Some Minor Updates
I emailed all the media sources that I posted on this blog with some information about Reconnect today, using a pseudonym. Tomorrow, I'm going to try and call a few of the television stations and talk to someone about it and see if they'd be able to bring out a camera crew - I figure chances might be better this time, as its likely to be a slower news day than 3/15 was. Xenu is going to call the South Side police station tomorrow to give them a heads-up about the date and time of the protest, though Scientology will likely be taking care of that for us, as well.
Also, we're still working on selecting leaflets and handouts to print for the protest, so if anyone has contributions or suggestions, post here.
Also, we're still working on selecting leaflets and handouts to print for the protest, so if anyone has contributions or suggestions, post here.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Flyers and Handouts for 4/12
If you're willing to print up leaflets or simply have ideas for producing leaflets that us Anons with university print quotas can use, please post here! Also needed are ideas for foamboard slogans -- remember the theme of Reconnect is Scientology's forced disconnection of members from family and friends. And NO hate!
Also, check out this thread on enturb, which is basically an archive of the work of more creative Anons who have contributed their work.
Also, check out this thread on enturb, which is basically an archive of the work of more creative Anons who have contributed their work.
Permit Troubles for our Brothers in Philly
From comments on the last post: Philadelphia had their permit jacked, and are inviting all neighboring city's anons to show the Scilons that no amount of permit shenanigans will dissuade us. Visit their Google Doc here for more information: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhbcgwts_80vjfh8bdz
I was afraid upon initially reading this that it was another case of the police being out to get Anon, like in Atlanta, but upon reading the doc it appears to be foul play by Scientology that the police had no way of really stopping. So the Philly protest was moved to 4/13 so they could have their permit. And that means if any of our Anons feel like heading out that way, you can double-protest for this month!
I wish I didn't have to work.
I was afraid upon initially reading this that it was another case of the police being out to get Anon, like in Atlanta, but upon reading the doc it appears to be foul play by Scientology that the police had no way of really stopping. So the Philly protest was moved to 4/13 so they could have their permit. And that means if any of our Anons feel like heading out that way, you can double-protest for this month!
I wish I didn't have to work.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
< One Week to Go.
And it's time to ramp up efforts to attract media attention. In the interest of saving people search time, I'll repost here the list of media contact info I posted weeks ago. You can call/email as an anonymous participant who wants to get word out, or you can call as an average citizen who saw previous press and wants to hear more about this cause. Either way, it'd be a good idea for everyone to encourage the local media to look into Reconnect.
If anyone has media contact info to add, comment and I'll edit this post.
Pittsburgh Media Contact Info
WPXI (telephone): 412-237-1100
WPXI (email): assignments@wpxi.com
WTAE (telephone): 412-244-4444
WTAE (email): newsroom@thepittsburghchannel.com
KDKA (telephone): 412-575-2245
KDKA (email): Submit via form on this page
Post-Gazette (telephone): 412-263-1100
Post-Gazette (email): localnews@post-gazette.com
Post-Gazette reporter who covered 2/10, Jerome Sherman: jsherman@post-gazette.com
Tribune Review (telephone): 412-321-6460
Tribune Review (email): opinion@tribweb.com (for letters to the editor and giving your opinion -- they don't really have a more appropriate avenue for directing emails listed on their site).
Local University Press
CMU, The Tartan (telephone): 412-268-2111
CMU, The Tartan (email): contact@thetartan.org
CMU TV (email): cmutv@andrew.cmu.edu
CMU, WRCT Radio (email): info@wrct.org
The Pitt News (telephone): 412-648-7980
The Pitt News (email): pittnews@pitt.edu
Pitt TV (telephone): 717-475-2848
Pitt TV (email): pitttv@pitt.edu
The Duquesne Duke (telephone): 412-396-6629
The Duquesne Duke (email, editor): leonee@duq.edu
Point Park, The Globe (telephone): 412-392-4740
Point Park, The Globe (email): globe@pointpark.edu
CCAC Student Newspapers:
Allegheny Campus (telephone): 412-237-4632
Boyce Campus (telephone): 724-325-6730
North Campus (telephone): 412-369-3698
South Campus (telephone): 412-469-6352
If anyone has media contact info to add, comment and I'll edit this post.
Pittsburgh Media Contact Info
WPXI (telephone): 412-237-1100
WPXI (email): assignments@wpxi.com
WTAE (telephone): 412-244-4444
WTAE (email): newsroom@thepittsburghchannel.com
KDKA (telephone): 412-575-2245
KDKA (email): Submit via form on this page
Post-Gazette (telephone): 412-263-1100
Post-Gazette (email): localnews@post-gazette.com
Post-Gazette reporter who covered 2/10, Jerome Sherman: jsherman@post-gazette.com
Tribune Review (telephone): 412-321-6460
Tribune Review (email): opinion@tribweb.com (for letters to the editor and giving your opinion -- they don't really have a more appropriate avenue for directing emails listed on their site).
Local University Press
CMU, The Tartan (telephone): 412-268-2111
CMU, The Tartan (email): contact@thetartan.org
CMU TV (email): cmutv@andrew.cmu.edu
CMU, WRCT Radio (email): info@wrct.org
The Pitt News (telephone): 412-648-7980
The Pitt News (email): pittnews@pitt.edu
Pitt TV (telephone): 717-475-2848
Pitt TV (email): pitttv@pitt.edu
The Duquesne Duke (telephone): 412-396-6629
The Duquesne Duke (email, editor): leonee@duq.edu
Point Park, The Globe (telephone): 412-392-4740
Point Park, The Globe (email): globe@pointpark.edu
CCAC Student Newspapers:
Allegheny Campus (telephone): 412-237-4632
Boyce Campus (telephone): 724-325-6730
North Campus (telephone): 412-369-3698
South Campus (telephone): 412-469-6352
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Post-Gazette Sunday Forum Article
Link to the article
It really goes in for the shock value at first when describing Anonymous, but generally is critical of Scientology for the same reasons Anonymous is. However, the comments about "hate" signs really drive home that fact that there can be none of this at future protests -- "Honk if you hate Scientology" is not the right approach if we're seeking the support of the media or of non-Anonymous critics.
It really goes in for the shock value at first when describing Anonymous, but generally is critical of Scientology for the same reasons Anonymous is. However, the comments about "hate" signs really drive home that fact that there can be none of this at future protests -- "Honk if you hate Scientology" is not the right approach if we're seeking the support of the media or of non-Anonymous critics.
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