The power of III

Summum ius summa iniuria--More law, less justice
--Cicero.

22 January 2011

Quote of the Day 1/22

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."

Ayn Rand

World Net Daily picks up the Project Gunwalker ATF scandal story

"The death of a U.S.Border Patrolagent north of Nogales, Ariz., on December 14, 2010 might turn out to be the death knell for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms andExplosives, or ATF.




Allegations have surfaced suggesting that one of the guns used by Mexican bandits during the firefight in whichBorder PatrolAgent Brian Terry was killed might have been smuggled into Mexico with the knowing assistance of ATF officials. If these allegations prove to be true, it is quite possible that the long troubled agency could be dismantled. Even if there proves to be no connection with Agent Terry's death, the scrutiny generated by an investigation could crash the agency.




There are actually four separate but connected accusations against ATF officials: First, that they intentionally arranged to have hundreds of firearms "walked" across the U.S. border into Mexico. Second, that they instructed U.S. gun dealers to proceed with questionable and illegal sales of firearms to suspected gunrunners. Third, that they intentionally withheld information about U.S.-sanctioned gun smuggling from the Mexican government. Fourth, that one of the guns ATF allowed or helped to be smuggled into Mexico was involved in the death of Agent Terry."


Read more:Did U.S. agency smuggle guns to Mexico to justify its budget?http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=253993#ixzz1Bmz0TcIv



via Codrea at Gun Rights Examiner

21 January 2011

The Big Fed Chill : The feds attempt to stifle free speech, starting with TL

"If you want to know what oppression looks like, you need to look no further. The situation with TJIC, well known by now, is just one. The accumulative effects of having every website this one is connected to being hit by FedGov for the past two weeks is another. I have gotten independent sources inside the federal government telling me that they have received from their bosses warnings about the siege and many of these employees have hit the website and gone to others from there."

http://tlinexile.blogspot.com/2011/01/big-fed-chill.html

To the Department of Defense visitors to my site

I have had visits on this blog from US Army Information Systems Command and Navy Network Information Center.

I have no idea if your visits are friendly curiosity or for purposes of intelligence gathering on private and public activities of American citizens.

I suspect it is unlikely that a soldier or sailor would use a government computer during working hours to check out patriot sites for their own interest.

Before you read further, think again of your military oath.
That oath is to support, protect, and defend the US Constitution.  As you know, part of the Oath also applies to obeying the President;  but that applies only as long as his orders are within the bounds set by the Constitution.  Few servicemen think about that aspect of the oath.


If the President's orders are extra-Constitutional, the orders are null and void.   

The American people are supposed to rule this country.  We are supposed to be citizens, not subjects.  

Now read the following:

The Defense Information Systems Agency is a combat support agency responsible for planning, developing, fielding, operating, and supporting command, control, communications, and information systems that serve the needs of the President, Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commanders, and the other Department of Defense (DoD) Components under all conditions of peace and war. [emphasis added]

                        DoD Network Information Center Mission Statement:
To provide information and services that are mission critical to the operation of the worldwide IP router Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) and other DoD sponsored networks.

So what is wrong with the DoD Network Information System homepage information?  Are you serving the American people and the Constitution, or are you serving the President, Vice President, SecDef, Joint Chief, Combatant Commanders, and the DoD?  


As the economy crumbles around us because of the actions of our government, I would argue that serving the federal government blindly is in direct conflict with your prosperity and the Constitution.

If you serve the American people and the Constitution, you serve yourself and your family.  


Food for thought.  Make up your own mind.

While the ideas contained on this site may seem radical by CNN and Fox News standards, the source of these ideas are derived from the leaders of the generation that composed the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

This is primarily a site dedicated to sharing what I have learned about the Constitution and its original intent, why I think individual liberty in this country is at risk, to share relevant history and news of the United States, Great Britain, and other areas of the world, and to debunk the way that history is taught in our public school system.

The purpose of this site is also to demonstrate that the economic policy of the federal government is completely at odds the tradition of the American Dream:  our children will not be better off than we are. 

We the people are getting totally ripped off by this government, by the actions of both political parties.  

The only chance we might have to revive our economy is to try to revive true free market capitalism, and the only way to maximize satisfaction among the people of the United States is to increase the power of local authority and diminish central authority.  Otherwise, I am convinced, we are an empire about to come crashing down in a heap.

The founders of this nation, particularly the Jeffersonian faction from the Southern United States, saw our current type of government in its infancy, knew similar governments from their study of history, and warned extensively about it.  

It has become clear to me that we no longer have rights, only privileges. Rights are inviolable.  Privileges are granted and can be revoked.  The Constitution was written to guarantee that government would never interfere with our rights. 

The difference between what we have now and a totalitarian government is only in degree;  it is only a matter of time.  I really hope I am wrong on that, by the way.

If you are tasked with monitoring this site as part of your job, and you have an open mind, please use your "official" visit as an excuse to look around.  

I invite your private emails to honourablemeans@gmail.com.  I would like to get to know as many of you as I can, and understand what you think about all this.

I only ask you to take the time and read as many of the posts as you might have time for.

Quote of the Day 1/21

War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement.

James Madison






Ain't it the truth:


Look what happened with the Executive Branch's power since the War for Southern Independence.  Lincoln, TRoosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, etc., with every generation more emboldened and proactive executive branch.  Korea, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, numerous smaller ops...but no congressional war declaration (as required by the Constitution) since World War II.


Now any US citizen, deemed arbitrarily by the president as an enemy combatant, can be executed without due process of law.

20 January 2011

TSA applies psychological pressure on passengers

If the experience of a man traveling through Baltimore Washington International Airport last night is anything to go by, the TSA is now forcing people who opt out of the naked body scanner to walk through the machine as part of a psychological ploy to coerce subservience out of other travelers.

At the height of the revolt against the TSA a couple of months ago, it was admitted that the goal of making the pat down procedure tantamount to sexual molestation was to psychologically coerce people into using dangerous radiative body scanners, devices colloquially known as “Dick Measurers” amongst TSA agents.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was told by a TSA agent directly that pat downs were made increasingly invasive not for any genuine security reason, but to make the experience so uncomfortable for the traveler that they would prefer to use the body scanner, despite the fact that scientists at Columbia University and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, along with other scientific bodies, have all warned that the devices increase the risk of developing cancer.

The passenger relates:

Upon further reflection, I do not believe this procedure to be arbitrary or isolated. It makes perfect sense in a game of psychological warfare by the government to suppress the will of people to opt out of the intrusive searches being done. What better way than to make that naughty guy that opts out walk through and thereby, in a way, submit to the machine. Otherwise, by walking around the machine, there is a sense of victory. In such a case, one thinks, “I did not submit to that machine and the unwanted xrays and pictures. I did not go through it.” By going through it, there is a sense of defeat. “I had submitted,” one thinks.

Read article at Alex Jones' Prison Planet

Idiot at the NY Times (or is that redundant?) goes after guns, gets "shot down" in comments section

...big surprise, right?  Bob Herbert writes an essay filled with spun statistics and collectivist sentiment in yesterday's New York Times.

Below, a reader of the article left a comment, which I felt was eloquent and well reasoned.  

Wish I'd written it:

"Although we agree on our outrage when it comes to the senseless killing at the hands of a criminal with a gun, we differ in our solutions to fix the problem.

First, your broad generalization of gun owners makes me uneasy. If I were to make the same sweeping statements about another group of Americans, my points would be written off as uneducated. The fact is, the majority of gun owners are responsible and careful with their firearms. the fact is that there are hundreds of millions of firearms in the US. The number of shooting deaths per year by comparison is so small that they would be difficult to quantify otherwise.

Yes. One death is too many. We can also agree on this point. However, I haven't found away to keep everyone from dying from everything. Have you? Senseless acts, accidents, criminal actions happen all the time. And like any rational person, I abhor them. I denounce them. But my first thought is not to take freedoms away from the innocent.

Your statistic of 100,000 shootings per year is on target. However, if you break those numbers down I think your logic fails. How many are drug related? How many are law enforcement officers defending themselves or others? How many attributed to accidents? How many are civilians defending themselves? It's not as easy as you think to categorise shootings as one large group. So why attack the inanimate gun as the solution to all of these issues?

Do you like to have a glass of wine or a beer? Be thankful that no one has tried to ban alcohol after a bad weekend of DUIs ending in numerous deaths. How about smoking a cigar? Why haven't we banned tobacco? Motorcycles? How about football? There is risk of death or injury in almost everything, so why is it that we turn to banning guns/magazines when a criminal makes criminal choices. There are already laws against killing, threatening, injuring, discharging a firearm, carrying a firearm, proper storage of a firearm and more. Enforce those laws. Do not punish the innocent.

As much as we hate to hear it, freedom isn't free. It's a difficult notion to grasp, especially for the victims. But there will always be victims, no matter how hard we try. Don't turn everyone in to victims by banning there right to own firearms responsibly.

I'll save my constitutional arguments for another time.

Are guns dangerous? Yes. All guns? Yes. From the single shot .410 shotgun to an AR-15 rifle. They all can injure or kill. With the proper training, knowledge and respect. We can reduce these ultimate consequences, while remembering that everything we do, carries inherent risk. Let's agree on some licensing/training standards where everyone is taught to respect the power of firearms. This may be a departure from the typical pro-gun argument, but I believe it is a reasonable one.

When has prohibition worked for anything in America? Why are firearms any different?"

Pete
Boston
January 18th, 2011
9:41 am

Quote of the Day 1/20

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

James Madison 

Pictured on $1 coin worth 7 cents.  Thanks Fed!



1. Calculate 88.5% copper value :

      (4.3764 × .00220462262 × 8.1 × .885)  =  $0.0691631


2. Calculate 6% zinc value :

      (1.0905 × .00220462262 × 8.1 × .06)  =  $0.0011682


3. Calculate 3.5% manganese value :

      (3350.00 × (1.0 × 10-6) × 8.1 × .035)  =  $0.000949


4. Calculate 2% nickel value :

      (11.8084 × .00220462262 × 8.1 × .02)  =  $0.0042171


5. Add the four together :

      $0.0691631 + $0.0042171 + $0.000949 + $0.0042171 = $0.0754974




$0.0754974 is the melt value for the 2007-2011 Presidential golden dollar on January 19, 2011.


 Any questions?

19 January 2011

Operation Gunwalker update: Codrea posts open letter to Senate Judiciary Committee

Reposted verbatim:

Open Letter to Senate Judiciary Committee staff on 'Project Gunwalker'


To: Brian Downey, Senate Judicary Committee Staff
Dear Mr. Downey,
Charlie Harman, Chief of Staff for Sen. Saxby Chambliss tells us you are the appropriate Senate Judiciary Committee contact to discuss "Project Gunwalker" with, and says he has already forwarded some relevant documentation to you.  Here's why:
ATF employees are looking to come forward and provide testimony and documentation about guns being illegally transported to Mexico, with management cognizance, in order to pad numbers and justify Project Gunrunner expansion. This includes gun stores being used to allow illegal sales to proceed. Additionally, the gun used in the recent killing of a Border Patrol agent is alleged to be one of the guns involved.  My colleagues and I working to bring this to light are told the Mexican authorities have been intentionally kept in the dark about this, with the approval to do so coming from Washington, and protests have been overridden. 
In order for these people to come forward, they require whistle-blower protection. Because the allegations involve high levels in Washington, they require the extra protection afforded through separation of powers, rather than going directly to a US Attorney reporting to Justice.
Here are some background summaries for you to start at, which contain additional links for further information:
Once you can guarantee their safety when our sources talk to you, you will have the opportunity to fully validate the reliability of their testimony and documentation for yourself.
Understand that representatives from major media are aware of this situation and we have let them know our sources want to open up under protection of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Here is what I am telling reporters asking about this:
--BEGIN MEDIA RESPONSE--
We have several media folks who have noticed this.  Here's where we are and what I can personally tell you without saying more than I should at this time:
Our guys are not in position to talk to the media yet, preferring to speak to a senator or congressman.  We're working on getting the story out that way, although if we don't get movement soon they'll probably have no choice but to reconsider a direct media route.
Here's a place to start--aside from the links in my latest. Mike Vanderboegh just released a timeline at:
http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/01/sources-timeline-summary-of-atf-project.html
Per Mike: "Urge them to use their own sources.  With the clues in the Timeline, they can easily track down some of these guys themselves."
One that he's referring to:
"(REDACTED) former attache to Mexico is an honest and honorable guy. He was forcefully removed from Mexico w o warning in Nov in large part because he wouldn't sit silent on these matters. He will tell the truth if asked by competent authority. He retired Dec 31 because of all this."
Again per Mike: "I believe that if we can get the Timeline and Summary out there, the Senators will fold by afternoon."
That's one way a reporter could expedite things.
Sorry to sound so evasive, but I'm not the one taking the really big risks here.
I will make sure our sources have your contact info. and let them know you're asking about this. If you have anything you'd like me to pass along to them, let me know and I will.
--END MEDIA RESPONSE--
But also understand that so far, attempts to generate interest among various senate and congressional staffers over the past few days has been a frustrating experience of evasiveness and deflection, and that also is being documented. There is far too much at stake for the brave people who are putting themselves on the line to let this continue. To do so is inexcusable.  That's why this is being sent to you as an open letter, published on the Internet to apprise the media and interested citizens of the efforts we are taking to bring this matter to light.
What do we tell our guys, Mr. Downey?  How can we get this process started where they can safely prove themselves to the Senate Judiciary Committee?
You can contact me at dcodreaAThotmailDOTcom [Phone # redacted in posted version] or Mike Vanderboegh at georgemason1776ATaolDOTcom [Phone # redacted in posted version]
Please advise by today, 5:00PM EST so we can pass that information along to our sources and let them know if they can disclose what they know under Committee protection, or if they need to consider other avenues of disclosure.
Sincerely,
David Codrea


The fox guarding the hen house

NYT--"The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Eileen Rominger, the global chief investment officer of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has been named its director of investment management."


A Goldman Sachs executive set to supervise a division of the SEC is like the U.S. Supreme Court being the final arbiter of the limits of the U. S. Constitution (should be up to each State -- original party to the compact of the Constitution).  

Each will do what is in its own interest.

Man blogs "1 down, 534 to go" after Tucson, Feds and locals violate 1st and 2nd amendment in response

Apparently he crossed the feds' red line...

Although he personally does not say he intends to harm a specific person, he has his gun license revoked and his arms and ammunition confiscated "temporarily" for an investigation.  

This process is likely to take years and cost him a lot of money in lost business and legal fees.

The rest of the article here, via Drudge. 

Judge Roll dies a hero, saving another

As the shooting starts, the video shows Judge Roll pushing another man, Rob Barber, onto the ground, Mr. Nanos said. "It looks to us as though he is pushing against Ron Barber to move him out of the way." Both men fall to the ground; both are shot. The judge was shot in the back and died.
"It's pretty evident to me that Judge Roll was a hero … if Judge Roll had not pushed Mr. Barber his wounds might have been fatal," Mr. Nanos said. "Judge Roll's actions are of a man trying to save another man's life."



Inflation kills the value of your dollar

The following article was written for the UK, but is applicable to the US.  In order for your savings in a bank with their interest rate to actually keep your money at the same purchasing power or increase even slightly, the interest rates would have to be higher than anything currently on offer.  That is why it makes more sense to have federal reserve notes converted to physical commodities like gold and silver.  

The numbers would certainly vary a bit, but the situation is analogous to ours:

The rising cost of living means higher rate taxpayers need a rate of 6.17 per cent to avoid losing money on their savings once inflation and tax is taken into account, while basic rate taxpayers need 4.625 per cent.
Just one account offers a higher rate for basic rate taxpayers. But the fixed rate bond from Coventry Building Society paying 4.75 per cent requires savers to lock their money away from five years and financial experts said this would not be suitable for many savers.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/8266502/Millions-of-savers-need-6pc-to-beat-inflation.html

Quote of the Day 1/19

"A sixgun or automatic pistol is a tool, and a deadly one; handle them as such. From the start, consider all guns as being loaded whether you know them to be empty or not. Treat them as loaded guns and you will never have an accident.


I am scared of empty guns and keep mine loaded at all times. The family knows the guns are loaded and treats them with respect. Loaded guns cause few accidents; "empty guns" kill people every year."
– Elmer Keith, Sixguns, p. 87

18 January 2011

ATF scandal in Arizona/Mexico update, "Operation Gunwalker"

 The scandal:  

"Operation Gunwalker":  ATF purchases hundreds of legal semiauto AR-15 type weapons from AZ stores, and brings them into Mexico, where they find their way into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.  This is in order to artificially increase ("pad") the number of US origin guns found south of the border.  The allegedly high number of guns found in Mexico is being used by the Obama administration to justify new gun control regulations to prevent the guns being used by the drug cartels.

At least one of the guns used in the killing of a US border patrol agent.

The latest:

 -Politicians from Senate and House contacted;  ATF agents willing to break the story with documentary evidence.  These agents are trying to obtain legal whistleblower status.  

-At least one politician's staff told ATF agents to lawyer up.  Politicians not answering their phones.

-Press being held in reserve for now;  Codrea of Gun Rights Examiner protecting his confidential sources.

-Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh asking patriots to contact the named congresscritters to pressure them to grant the ATF agents coming forward whistleblower status.

From Codrea

"Reporters have been apprised of this in a general sense, but for the time being, the best strategy for the safety of the sources is to get them whistleblower protection.  As such, certain redacted information that does not identify the sources is being shared with the offices of—so far, and that I have first-hand knowledge of—Saxby Chambliss, Jeff Sessions and Charles Grassley. Some House members are also being approached.
Understand at this point, our sources have not been put directly in touch with anyone outside a very close group of colleagues with a need to know—I have not even disclosed to my colleagues anything but carefully redacted information about my newest contact—I don’t mean it to sound cloak-and-dagger, but it’s just that we are being that careful.  We need to be able to give them assurances before they reveal themselves to the political contacts, as they are literally taking immense risks with immense repercussions.  And so far, the response from the politicos has been less than encouraging in the 24-hours since our renewed effort with new information has been offered to them—I’m told Chambliss’ staffer contact  has tried to wash his hands of this saying we should just advise our sources to lawyer up."


"Folks, this has been a frustrating morning. Senate staffers who have been completely briefed on the Project Gunwalker scandal over the last few weeks are deliberately not answering their phones. Others, including Charlie Harmon, the chief of staff of Saxby Chambliss, the U.S. Senator from Georgia, told one of his constituents, "We're on it." Yet, when pressed about the urgency of the matter, said "these guys need to get a lawyer."

No, Charlie, right now they need a Senator with a spine and a pair to do his damn job. The agents need a Senator to COME TO THEM. There are ongoing investigations, the main thrust of which, in my opinion, is to cover up the circumstances of Project Gunwalker and the death of Border Patrol agent Terry. To volunteer to go to the press during an ongoing investigation can end their careers or put them in jail themselves. Yet some are willing to do so, if forced by the inaction of your elected senators and representatives. The tools that the agency, Main Justice and the White House have at their disposal to shut these agents up are many and powerful. These guys need whistleblower protection NOW. "



Stewart Rhodes of Oathkeepers on the Tucson shooting, and Liberty

[Regarding John Green, father of Christina, the 9 year old killed in Houston] 
"My hat is off to this man for giving such a principled, deep, courageous, and thoughtful response to the tragic death of his daughter.  Mr. Green is an example of what is best about America.  He deserves our utmost respect and gratitude.  If only the political chattering class were half as principled.  In a guest editorial for the Daily Bell (http://www.thedailybell.com/1689/Ron-Paul-On-Gun-Control-and-Violence.html), Congressman Ron Paul had this to say about the shameful attempts to use the Arizona shooting as justification for liberty stealing legislation:
 
“Liberty only has meaning if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and more government security is demanded.”

Precisely.  Just as it was wrong to curtail liberty and to violate the Bill of Rights after 9-11, it is now equally wrong to do the same in the aftermath of this senseless shooting. The whole point of a written Constitution and a Bill of Rights is to bind us down from doing mischief to our own lives and liberty during times of fear, war, and emergency."

-------------------------------

Read the rest here

Quote of the day 1/18

No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate).

Frederic Bastiat

Slingshot Man of Asheboro

Authentic rural North Carolina character 

Best slingshot man in the world...

17 January 2011

China seems to want to takeover the Fed, along with everything else

China is constantly telling the West to stay out of its internal affairs, but it rarely seems shy in complaining about the way the US manages itself, particularly in the field of economic policy. Ahead of his official visit to the White House, President Hu Jintao has been at it again. In written responses to questions from the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, he has again criticised the recent stimulus measures adopted by the US Federal Reserve.
Here’s the relevant quote: “The monetary policy of the US has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the dollar should be kept at a reason and stable level”.

via telegraph blogs in UK.  Premier Hu's justification for current demands:

Wikileaks will soon break major scandal about offshore accounts of famous Americans and Britons

The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians".

Read the article here.

Quote of the Day 1/16

"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty... and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree."


Cesare Beccaria, Italy, 1738-1794, author of "Of Crimes and Punishments", widely read by the founders of the United States.






This is the position of modern 2nd amendment proponents.  It has been demonstrably true for centuries.  Laws primarily affect those who obey them.


There are always people who are not deterred by threat of punishment, no matter how many laws are on the books.

16 January 2011

Pre-crime division of Denver Police revokes CCW, violates 2A rights

...for a right wing radio talk show host saying inflammatory things about Martin Luther King and threatening to "have a shootout" with a rival radio talk show host.

The man has a 2nd amendment right to bear arms;  he has a right to free speech, even hateful incindiary speech, under the first amendment.

No crime has been committed, and no cause given to revoke the man's right to carry a weapon. No crime except the one by the police in Denver against the US Constitution they are sworn to uphold (I assume). 

Denver PD precogs in action!

Using Tor, surfing anonymously

So I downloaded Tor, and tried it today.

It is slower than direct connection, as it uses several connected encrypted servers on the way to the destination.

Using the browser directly, I went to my own blog.  The tracking program I have recorded the pageview as if it originated from Hamburg, Germany.

You cannot use it on websites for streaming video like adobe flashplayer.  This is a vulnerability for security, according to the information provided by the developers.

It will be good for arriving at and viewing specific content containing websites without the point of origin being known.

Email security should probably be covered by 256 bit encryption, like PGP.

Still learning the ropes here.

Comments and recommendations from those in the know are appreciated.

Tor project sees spike in usage in Tunisia during "Jasmine Revolution"

It has been reported that the Tunisian President has stopped the Internet censorship in the country. We have confirmation from a few Tunisians that Tor works from within the country, without requiring bridges. And that Youtube and some other sites are no longer censored. There is cautious optimism that this is real, however many continue to use Tor to protect their Internet traffic as a safeguard.

blogpost here