According to a BBC News report, Sister Megan Rice and two other protesters, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, were convicted this week of sabotage and depredation of government property. The trio cut a fence and broke into the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which processes and stores uranium for use in nuclear weapons. They threw baby bottles filled with human blood onto the walls of the facility.

The protesters are part of a group called Transform Now Plowshares. The group issued a statement in conjunction with the protest, stating that the facility is “an ongoing criminal endeavor in violation of international al treaty law…” From a separate statement:

We come to the Y-12 facility because our very humanity rejects the designs of nuclearism, empire and war. Our faith in love and nonviolence encourages us to believe that our activity here is necessary; that we come to invite transformation, undo the past and present work of Y-12; disarm and end any further efforts to increase the Y-12 capacity for an economy and social structure based upon war-making and empire-building.

Sister Rice is well-known for her anti-war activism. According to a New York Times feature on Rice published in August 2012, she has been arrested “40 or 50 times” for civil disobedience.

Rice and her fellow protesters now face up to 20 years in prison for what authorities believe is one of the most serious U.S. nuclear facility security breaches in history.

According to a Las Vegas Sun report, the protesters were members of Culinary Union Local 226. The protest took place outside the The Cosmopolitan hotel and casino.

The union states that it has been in contract negotiations with Deutsche Bank, the owner of The Cosmopolitan, for over two years and “have not come to an agreement on major issues.” Worker contracts are scheduled to expire on June 1.

The arrests came after some of the protesters sat in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard, blocking traffic for over an hour. The protesters in the road were well aware that the act would likely result in their arrests. According to the Vegas Sun, they were surrounded on walkways and sidewalks by over 2,000 of their fellow protesters.

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Culinary Union 226
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Workers getting arrested right now on the Las Vegas Strip! #1u#Vegas#cosmopolitan#occupy#lasvegas#p2… http://t.co/khiBqg5HUb

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“Mark and Priscilla have worked closely with Governor Christie on education reform in the Newark school system. They admire his leadership on education reform and other issues and look forward to continuing their important work together on behalf of Newark’s school children,” said a Facebook spokesperson, in justification for the fundraiser.

But the fundraiser didn’t go off without a hitch. In fact, it was disrupted by dozens of activists who led a spirited protest outside Zuckerberg’s home. According to Bloomberg, around 40 protesters greeted guests as they arrived last night.

“When we heard that Mark Zuckerberg was going to be inviting his wealthy Silicon Valley friends to raise money for Chris Christie, we thought they needed to see a bunch of us out here,” said Becky Bond, VP and Political Director of CREDO.

CREDO Action is an activism program working as a wing of CREDO Mobile.

“When I say ‘go home’ you say ‘Christie,” said one protest leader.

“CHRISTIE, GO HOME,” echoed the protestors.

As former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice walked through the crowd of protesters, she was met with cries of “Shame on you,” and questions about the Iraq War. You can see Rice arrive at the fundraiser in a video here.

Protesters mainly spoke out about Christie’s record on women’s rights, which they find lacking.

“Chris Christie has built his political reputation by attacking Planned Parenthood, which provides all kinds of health services to women and men,” Greg Miller, a retired nurse with the California Nurses Association told The Huffington Post. “And we think that Mark Zuckerberg is contaminating himself by supporting that.”

[Images via @cmarinucci, Twitter]

Some held signs saying, “Larry Page supports terrorism.”

Here’s a video from the protest that has been uploaded to YouTube:

Here’s a video the Telegraph has shared:

Here is what YouTube (Google) has said in a statement (via The Telegraph) regarding its refusal to remove the video in question:

“We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions. This can be a challenge because what’s OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video – which is widely available on the Web – is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube.”

If one goes to view the video on YouTube, they are met with the following message before they can click through to watch it:

The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised.

The option to not display this warning in the future is available.

“Innocence of Muslims” is also the top search suggestion from Google’s autocomplete when you get as far as typing “Inn”.

The protests were reportedly just the first in a series, which, according to the Telegraph, will include a “million-strong march in Hyde Park” in the coming weeks.

Honestly, it is somewhat absurd to think that a $20 fine is going to redirect a behavior that has existed within humanity since people first learned to talk. Cussers gonna cuss, and haters gonna hate. As victimless “crimes” go, cussing ranks right up there among other offenses like leaving the toilet seat up and chewing with your mouth open. Still, the ordinance practically begs for opposition from some young upstarts and, lo and behold, if you build it, they will come.

Adam Kokesh, who organized the opposition really, excitedly decried the government as a “bully” for passing such an ordinance. Kokesh, who actually doesn’t even live in Massachusetts but in New Mexico, said that the issue wasn’t just about the right to free speech (even though it pretty much is, as a fellow supporter points out in the video below) and went on to escalate the anti-profanity ordinance as some larger metaphor for why government sucks.

Kokesh has made a small name for himself as a regular anti-war protester and even has his own website up, Adam Versus The Man. According to that site, he made a failed bid to represent New Mexico in the House of Representatives in 2010.

YouTube user rachelabombdotcom uploaded a video of Kokesh explaining to reporters why he thinks today’s protest is necessary. And yes, he uses some purple language, so if you are in possession of some delicate sensibilities to language, you’ve been warned.

Meanwhile, the same government body that implemented the $20 fine-for-cussing ordinance in Massachusetts is said to be considering a ban on Civil War beards, prompting further speculation that Kokesh’s next rally in Middleborough could gain the support of re-enactors of the 28th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

[via Boston Herald.]

Yago Alayza, a graphic designer living in Florida, has put together a petition at Change.org after feasting his easily-offended eyes on the previews for Peli’s spooky endeavor. “Seeing teenagers taking a vacation at Chernobyl, as if they were going to Disney World, shocked me deeply,” he recently told Reuters. “Anyone visiting Chernobyl should have the same respect as if they were visiting Auschwitz or the Khmer Rouge Museum in Cambodia.”

Regarding the film’s “Experience the Fallout” tagline, Alayza added, “Honestly, who wants to experience a fallout? Do the filmmakers really know what that means? They are making a real horror situation into a joke! This is pure indifference to the reality of the tragedy.”

Considering quite a few motion pictures have been based on horrific real-life events, it’s kind of strange that people are getting so worked up over a disposable horror flick like “The Chernobyl Diaries”. Methinks he might be giving filmmaker Oren Peli and company a bit too much credit.

Even the director seems to understand that his picture isn’t exactly high art. “It’s obviously a fictionalized movie,” he explained. “We’re not trying to say this is a serious documentary or anything like that.” In other words, simmer down.

Have a look at the official synopsis if you’re unfamiliar with the flick:

Chernobyl Diaries is an original story from Oren Peli, who first terrified audiences with his groundbreaking thriller, Paranormal Activity. The film follows a group of six young vacationers who, looking to go off the beaten path, hire an “extreme” tour guide. Ignoring warnings, he takes them into the city of Pripyat, the former home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, but a deserted town since the disaster more than 25 years ago. After a brief exploration of the abandoned city, however, the group soon finds themselves stranded, only to discover that they are not alone.

If you and your friends/family/invisible companion(s) are plotting to take in a screening of “The Chernobyl Diaries” this weekend, try not to take the experience too silly. The last time I checked, there are far more important things to get your underwear in a bunch about.

For instance, try this:

Or this:

If you weren’t around for the first phase of Operation Defense, it was a coordinated effort to protest CISPA with various cyberattacks and other usual Anonymous tactics. The speaker in the video admits that DDoS attacks aren’t as effective anymore with many corporations upgrading their network to handle the influx of hits.

To that end, Anonymous is proposing a joint coalition between the Occupy movement, themselves and other factions to physically protest against the corporations and politicians who support CISPA. Anonymous says to expect similar protests that were made against the church of Scientology a few years ago.

This means that they are looking for people to protest at various locations owned by these corporations, not just at a corporate office or in a general area. In essence, they are taking the fight to places that normal people visit.

The targets of the two month long protest will be AT&T, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Verizon, Bank of America, Chase Bank, McGraw-Hill, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Target, Wal-Mart, CVS, MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. Each protest will be set between certain dates. Consult the video for the dates of each protest. For more information, check out the official Anonymous Twitter feed for this particular movement.

What do you think of Anonymous reinitiating its physical protests movement? Will it be effective? Let us know in the comments.

Let’s just take a trip back in time to some of the most recent stories of dustups between the TSA and travelers:

Last year, a blog post from a woman crying “TSA rape” prompted legal considerations. In February, a TSA agent was accused of stealing money from someone during a patdown. Just a week later, a Denver woman made news when she refused a patdown.

Hell, even a U.S. Senator was reported to have a dustup with the TSA.

We’ve also seen video of old ladies, young children, and even people in wheelchairs going through the TSA checkpoints. The TSA has a knack for hitting on issues of privacy, personal liberties, and saftey & security like almost no other entity in modern American culture. Just this week, a video went viral of a woman sobbing uncontrollably while being frisked by agents.

That’s why I can’t say I’m surprised that an Oregon man stripped buck-naked at the Portland National Airport on Tuesday in protest.

Google+Reader”>According to CNN, 50-year-old John E. Brennan was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure after walking through a TSA security screening area in the buff. His reason? He said that he’s a frequent flyer and he took off his clothes to protest what he felt was harassment by the TSA officials.

His actions caused a couple of screening lanes to be shut down for a little bit.

While nude protests might not always be the best way to go about this (there are kids around, man), it’s pretty clear that people are becoming more and more fed up with the recent complications of flying.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

[Lead image courtesy reddit]

Now, it appears as if the European Court of Justice is no longer in the picture. AKAScope has the details, courtesy of Reddit:

Protests in European regions had taken place with the committee responsible for ACTA in the European Commission responding to the protests by stating they would send ACTA to the European Court of Justice… A decision in the parliament [opposing the] help of the European Court of Justice, however, has instead taken place. ACTA is now going to passed or failed within the European Parliament with the final vote being decided in the next ten weeks.

The report also reveals the final vote in the EP will occur between June 11 and June 14. If the vote passes, the supporting countries will gain a level of control over the Internet that has not been seen before.

As I suspected, the general public isn’t acting too concerned about the news concerning the ACTA treaty. I guess the average Internet user needs Wikipedia to blackout before they can react. A quick look at the current Twitter trends, in light of this article going wide, is disappointing. Clearly, it’s easier to revel in being uninformed, choosing instead to tweet about Dumb and Dumber 2 instead of worrying about how much Internet freedom they’ll have in the near future.

Once again, folks who follow such inane trends won’t react until Google and Wikipedia tell them to. It’s a good thing our European neighbors are a lot more informed, seeing how they’ve singlehandedly spearheaded the anti-ACTA movement. Thankfully, however, not all of the Twitter traffic is ignorant to the damage the treaty can cause:

Which is reason enough to keep the protest alive and kicking.

What she said.

For those of you who are wondering why you should protest the ACTA treaty, start with Wikipedia and go from there. If, after that, you’re still choosing to follow useless trends, then maybe your Internet freedom should be restricted.

If, however, you’re moved to take part in the “Stop ACTA” protest, start here.

Star-Ledger reporters on the scene said access to that area had been restricted all day, and confirmed no active protests were occurring in the place depicted in the photograph.

Westboro Baptist Church threatened to Whitney Houston’s funeral today. Shocker.

You may recall when they said they would picket Steve Jobs’ funeral. Then Penn State football coach Joe Paterno’s. While covering Twitter reaction to Whitney’s funeral today, we stumbled across some tweets from old Margie Phelps, a top member of the church, spreading god’s hate:

Here’s that:

Here are some things she’s been retweeting:

Clearly they love the attention. We’re not helping that any, but they’re going to get it regardless. People should know what these people are doing.

Interestingly enough, Kevin Costner (Whitney’s co-star in The Bodyguard), who spoke at the service, said that one thing he and Whitney had in common was that they both grew up in the Baptist church. Much of the Twitterverse is talking about how the funeral is bringing everyone together, spreading god’s love and whatnot.