The War Rages On

Day two of the all out assault on the Westboro Baptist Church continues today as the WBC headed to the funerals of Sandy Hook victims to protest. Firefights from Fairfield County, Connecticut as well as other activists were there to form a human wall to block the WBC protesters from the scene of the funeral.

On the ground was a man named Jake Esker, who with his iPhone documented the counter-protest until his phone unfortunately died. While back at his car to charge the phone up he saw a camera man which he stopped to ask what was happening.

The camera man informed Jake that the WBC would not be protesting today, only because the funerals would not be taking place. I’m still unsure if the funeral was postponed or if it was even meant to happen today.

This isn’t stopping WBC, however. In an email intercepted by the group Anonymous from WBC members which indicates they may in fact leave Connecticut to protest something back in Kansas, their home state. Although @YourAnonNews has reported that #OccupyNewtown is still in effect because the WBC will not leave Connecticut until the funerals have passed. Below is a copy of the email that was intercepted. 

So if this is any indication that WBC is leaving to go home then does that mean Anonymous won? Of course, but the war isn’t over yet. The group as vowed to destroy the organization, and with their strike planned for this Friday all bets are open to what will happen. So far Anonymous has attacked the WBC in many ways. They have hacked Shirley Phelps-Roper’s Twitter account @DearShirley, changed her desktop background to gay porn, disclosed the WBC members contact information, ordered tons of pizzas to known WBC member’s homes, prank calls, hacking WBC member’s email accounts and more.

However, last nights confusion over where the WBC members were staying was up in the air. Many thought that the members were staying at a Motel 6 in Southington, but according to a tweet by Fred Phelps JR that was not so. 

Either way it doesn’t matter where they stayed. It does matter I guess who allows them to lodge seeing as how I wouldn’t want to support a company that allows these types of people to stay in there establishment. They still got to the cemetery to protest, but they were thwarted not only by the firefighters and other people building the human wall, but by Anonymous themselves.

But what of the funerals that were suppose to take place today? Were they postponed or were they even supposed to have happen? How long will WBC stay in Connecticut? They spent the money to get there so will they even make due with their threats to protest at this point, or have the good samaritans scared them off? Only time will tell.

I will continue to be on the front lines reporting what happens next in this. In the mean time follow me on Twitter @Turk_Reno and add me as a friend on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/reno.erde as I will be constantly updating my feed and what’s going with in Connecticut.

SOURCES:

Jake Esker’s Streaming Video

TWITTER TAGS: #OpWBC #OpWestboro #Anonymous #Sandyhook #Newtown #OccupyNewtown #godhatesfags.com #Renosblog  

From the Front Lines: #OPWBC

It’s been a very crazy couple of days now here, and the all out offensive from the group known as Anonymous against the Westboro Baptist Church is still in full swing. The continuing DSOSing of their site www.godhatesfags.com as well as an all out full frontal attack against the church by ‘rallying’ at each place the WBC twits are lodging. People have been making calls to Motel 6’s all across Fairfield County in Connecticut right now to not only find out where the members are staying but to verbally express their distaste for Motel 6 to allow them to lodge in their establishments.

I’m currently reporting from the front lines…I guess you could say. The truth is I’m safely at home in Washington, but I have been following Anonymous and the others who are against the WBC. They formed an IRC chat which I joined to watch the war unfold and report what was happening as I got it.

All day and night there were people working hard to find out exactly where the WBC folks were hiding, and of course, what they were tweeting. The group also had a firm grip on the website godhatesfags.com, but have let up on their attack recently to prepare for something bigger.

Fred Phelps JR himself was retweeting everything on Twitter.com that had a #WBC tag. When hackers and activists alike found out where they were staying they posted it on Twitter.com. Fred Phelps himself retweeted the same tweet which gave away his location. Either a ploy to lead people in the wrong direction or seeking attention, I don’t know but it’s still pretty dumb.

Anonymous’ main goal here in this first part of the war seems to be to get the WBC people banned from every hotel and motel in Fairfield County, Connecticut. This way they will be forced to spend the night in their van(s) before they protest victims of the Sandy Hook shooting tomorrow.

On top of calling every hotel and motel in the area (including Motel 6) they also were successful in issuing Shirley Phelps a death certificate, changing the background to her desk top to gay porn, and locating the motels they are staying at and ordering a ton of pizza to known WBC members homes.

Anonymous would like to see people rally to the motels WBC members stay at and peacefully ask them to leave. And rumor had it that a biker club would be attending the funerals to protect the victims’ family members, most likely by creating a hybrid wall of humans and motorcycles. However, when I looked online to see if there was any truth to this I could not find any. I did find the website to the Patriot Guard Riders, and they had this message on their website regarding the shooting in Newtown:

*** Connecticut Elementary Shootings ***

The recent, tragic shootings in Connecticut weigh heavy on us all. The Patriot Guard understands the anguish caused by such a calamity as this and our hearts go out to the family and friends of those affected by this horrific event. 

We (PGR) receive hundreds of emails a day requesting the PGR to stand in honor at the planned services. However, the PGR is not a counter protest group. Our mission statement is clear and regrettably the circumstances surrounding this tragic event do not fall within our mission statement. For more details on our missions statement, please go to www.PatriotGuard.org and review the information located in the “About Us” section in the Site Navigation section. 

Again, our hearts go out to all of the families of the affected families, and to the community as a whole, for this tremendous loss.

Patriot Guard Riders, Inc.

  

That is understandable and all, but it does kind of suck to know that a biker club won’t be there.

The big news was when we all found out that WBC was lodging at a Motel 6 in Southington, Connecticut. People had taken photos of a van in the parking lot with Kansas plates, Kansas being where these asshats originate. There were also photos taken of police cruisers in the parking lot of a Motel 6 that hit the web as well.

But it was very possible that after Motel 6 tweeted about not allowing the WBC members to stay at their motel that they stayed anyway. But it is still very possible that they left the motel after the corporate office made that statement via Twitter. Either way, there is an article that I discovered while in the IRC chat. The link was placed into the chat feed so I clicked on it and found this:

FROM THE ARTICLE:

“I can't put you through to those rooms,” a desk clerk at a Motel 6, who refused to give their name, said over the phone. “I wish those people weren't staying here. I hate them and what they stand for.”

If in fact Motel 6 did not turn down the members of WBC it wouldn’t matter too much because they’ll still protest tomorrow. But even after the protests Anonymous will still wage the war on this sick group of fucks.

While I was inside the IRC room I noticed some text on the top of the chat room:

[Welcome to #OpWestboro] Targets [Godhatesfags.com – 199.59.163.38 -] No DDoS for now. Strike time is 6pm EST 12/21

As well as that text I also found a link which guided to the Anonymous war plan. For now it would seem they are going to halt most DDoS attacks until the time of strike. It said that phone and fax attacks would also cease for a short time but that prank calls would be conducted and that the ordering of pizza to known addresses of WBC members would continue.

The time of strike will include such attacks as listed above; mail spam, twitter attacks, prank calls and deliveries, and DDoS.

The war is not over. Anonymous vowed to destroy the WBC completely and they are working around the clock to do so. The WBC believes that no one can silence their message of hate and that the internet was created by God for them to be able to spread their message. Anonymous and others want to show them that they can be silenced, and that if there is a God he would truly find them deplorable. 

Follow me on Twitter for Updates. @Turk_Reno

SOURCES:

Examiner Article

Patriot Guard

IRC 

Twitter Tags: #WBC, #OpWBC, #OpWestboro, #Anonymous 


UPDATE!

12/19/2012 12:30PM PST

Back on the front lines here, @YourAnonNews posted a link directing me to a streaming video of a person at the Sandy Hook victim's funeral, where firemen and women formed a human wall to protect the mourners from the WBC. 

During the video, which was presented by Jake Esker, you can see hundreds of people lined up to show support for the victims families and to block the WBC's protest from being seen.

Unfortunately, Jake's IPhone was about to die and he couldn't give us a full streaming account of what was happening. He returned to his car to charge up the battery when he noticed a camera man walking by. He stopped him to ask him what was happening. 

It was there that Jake learned that the WBC members would not be coming out to protest today because there would be no burial today. Still unsure if the burial was just postponed or if was even suppose to happen today. Camera man said, "They never came out. They say they're going to show up at everything, but they almost never do."

But what happens when the funeral plans are back on track? Will WBC stay to protest? Did the amount of people that showed up today, including the firefighters, deter the WBC from wanting to protest? 

Most likely not, but it doesn't matter. The war is still raging on as the Twitter account of @WBCFredJr was hacked just moments ago by Anonymous members. 

Hack Attack! Anonymous' Offensive Against Westboro Baptist Church

Anyone who knows what’s going on with the hacker group known as Anonymous and the hateful mother fuckers at the Westboro Baptist Church knows that right now, as of this very moment, the WBC website GodHatesFags.com is currently offline. The site has been DDoS’d which stands for Distributed Denial of Service. That means that someone has sent the website so many requests that the server cannot keep up with, thus taking the website off the internet until it can handle the amount of requests either by increasing bandwidth or just waiting for the amount of requests to recede or cease. 

This came about when WBC said in a tweet that they would picket the funerals of the children and adults who died last Friday in the shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The church (if you’re unfamiliar with these inbred throw backs) claims that God is upset with the fact that this country has allowed gay rights to such as the right to marry to pass legislation and that he is allowing horrible acts to occur in our country, such as the Connecticut school shooting, because of it.

These assholes actually plan on protesting these funerals, holding signs which read “God Hates Fags” “Fag is Sin” and prepare yourself for this crazy shit… “God Sent the Shooter”.  

The hacker group Anonymous has pledged to keep the WBC website down for as long as it takes, and apparently they plan to deface the site as well.

From the Article:

An Anonymous source has said it intends to keep the website offline throughout the day, with plans to take it over completely and deface it
.
“We will continuously DDOS until they are forced to put their inbred church tithes to use to pay for bandwidth.”

But not only have they taken down the website and plan to deface it, ANON members are saying that they were able to…

 “change Phelps-Roper’s desktop background to gay porn, uncovered alleged social security numbers of key WBC members through the doxing process, and successfully filed for a death certificate for Phelps-Roper. The group has since tweeted out the alleged hotel where WBC members were staying and offered an IRC channel specifically to talk about its #OpWBC movement.”

Twitter is all abuzz with Anonymous and WBC news. Currently following a few tweeters here on #OpWBC and watching @YourAnonNews for breaking developments. The site seems to come up and go down, but right now it’s down. 

Currently Shirley Phelps’s twitter page has been taken over as well by someone known as @cosmothegod, who has already posted tweets about his victory. Hundreds of people are thanking the hackers for what they have done as well, one person saying, PLF @PLF2012: I do not ever recall an Anonymous Operation where we have received this many messages of gratitude in this short amount of time. #OpWBC

And according to @YourAnonNews, the WBC members have left a hotel in Connecticut after ANON leaked info about which hotel they would be staying at. A solid victory for Anonymous on this day, as not only has the GodHatesFags website been taken down, but they have also hit the members hard by releasing their contact info, and just generally causing massive amounts of issues for these useless throwbacks.

 
Follow me on Twitter! @Turk_Reno

(What do you think of the hacker group’s offensive against the Westboro Baptist Church? Comment below.)


SOURCES:

SALON ARTICLE

TWITTER POSTS: #WBC, #WestboroBaptistChurch, #OpWBC, @YourAnonNews

To Be Thankful Again

Its eight days until Christmas and this year we have a lot to look back on and a lot to be thankful for. This year we faced a lot of hardships, not only as a country but as a species. We face the 2012 election with high hopes and expectations and thankfully our man came out the winner. We faced the Benghazi issue and tried to remember all those who died during the war. We even face the threat of extinction in the next few days, as many people believe that the world will end on the twenty first of December (BTW: all of those who made a bet with me that the world would end owe me fifty dollars. That may not b the amount we agreed on, but it’s the amount I will come searching for).

We even saw great triumphs as we saw a man sky dive from the edge of space, the first photos of DNA were taken, water was found on Mars, and many others.  

But we saw some great losses as well this year, and the shooting that occurred in Connecticut last Friday was the most tragic. Twenty school children ages six to seven and six other adults were slain by Adam Lanza, a 20 year old troubled young man who many people claim was highly intelligent.

This tragic event all happened just days before Christmas and everyone in America is heart broken. We think about how these people won’t be able to spend the holidays with their children and how this will affect them in the long term. There will not be a Christmas for the families of twenty children and six adults in Newtown Connecticut. There may never be another Christmas again for some of those families now, and yet we get to go on celebrating, yet being mindful and thankful for what we have.

What’s a real shame is that according to reports this Adam Lanza kid was actually pretty intelligent; however there were also many reports that he was pretty weird and prone to outbursts. He attended college at the age of sixteen at Western Connecticut State University where he got a 3.26 GPA. Many described him as introverted and weird but overall a nice kid. I guess it’s true what they say; it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.

So how does this happen? What happens to a kid like this to make him steal his mother’s firearms and murder her then force his way into an elementary school to kill more innocent children before taking his own life? What was going through the mind of Adam Lanza days or even months before he committed this horrible act? Did he plan this, and if he did then why? What connection did he have to that school other than the fact that he attended that school? Was he out for revenge of some kind? Did he feel like he was slighted as a child when he attended? Such a brash series of choices he made…did he know he would end up offing himself in the end? Was he trying to copycat some other school shooting event?

This kind of thinking will drive you crazy. I honestly don’t want to care about why he did it because in the end the act was still committed and lives were not only lost but destroyed.

So this Christmas, while you sit warm in your house with your family, just remember those who we lost and the Christmases that will not be for some people this year. This affects our children too, so hug’em if ya got’em.

(How will you be celebrating Christmas this year after the terrible events that occurred in Connecticut this year? Post your thoughts below.)

SOURCES:

YAHOO! NEWS ARTICLE

The Shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School

On Friday, December 14^th 2012 a horrible tragedy occurred in Newtown, Connecticut when an armed 20 year old forced his way into an elementary school where he opened fire killing twenty school children and six adults, before finally shooting himself in the head.

The attack occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown Connecticut around 9:30 AM EST when a young man named Adam Lanza forced his way into the school armed with two hand guns and a semiautomatic rifle. He opened fired killing twenty school children who were ages six through seven and six adults. It all happened very fast and within minutes twenty-six people were dead not including the shooter himself.

According to news reports Adam Lanza was a troubled man who perpetrated the attacks using guns that were actually owned by his mother. Why he did this…I really don’t care. I don’t care about people who are crazy and kill a bunch of young innocent kids before killing himself. He was sick, that’s all we need to know about this asshole. The reason I don’t care is because the more I think about it the more it drives me crazy. Why would someone do this, even if they are miserable and hate their own life why do they need to take others out with them. The thought upsets me, so I try not to think about it.

All the same, this tragic event did happen and it saddens me to think that out there some kid may do this again in the copycat fashion that is so prevalent these days thanks to our 24 hour media providers. I’m sorry for all those people who lost something and are suffering because of this psycho, but I think we need to grieve and move on.

This event is prompting politicians to bring up the gun control argument again, and even Rupert Murdoch has jumped on the band wagon saying that automatic assault weapons should be banned. The politicians use fear like this to further agendas, and thanks to the media they are able to do this. But aside from being able to bring up politic issues like gun control tragedies like this are used as distractions and we must be careful to not get sucked all the way into this to the point where we forget everything else in the world that is affecting us.

The truth is that horrible things happen around the world all the time and we are ignorant and selfish to it because 1) it’s happening far away, 2) we aren’t shown it in the media, 3) if it’s not involving Americans than it doesn’t matter. I understand that some people may say they care about what happens to others over seas in third world countries but they always end up saying that we have a vested interest in things that happen within our boarders. And that is true, we do and should have a vested interest in the happenings of our own country, but here are a few truths for all of you:

Children die on their birthdays in Gaza.

They die from abuse all over the world.

They die every day here in America.

They die in sex trafficking crimes

They die from drugs

They will continue to die and there is nothing we can to do stop it because some day we will die.

This event that occurred is absolutely terrible, and by all means I know how sensitive people are about this. It strikes at the hearts of all of the, the horror of it all. But remember to that that horror exists all over and always has, and we shouldn’t let this event distract us from what is actually going on that affects us, like the fiscal turmoil this country is in. Our President is our in Newtown right now and he is going to give a speech about the event, and politicians will be giving us promises and trying to sooth the wounds by being sympathetic to us and the victims, but in reality they are going to get as much television exposure as they to further their own agenda and you will see no solutions to the problems.

So remember people, step back from the TV for a while and take some time to think about it on your own. Don’t listen to the news or the radio or read it on the internet. Just take a few to separate yourself from the constant bombardment of information provided to you by the media. Grieve if you must, but remember that we must keep focused here. 

(What do you think about the shootings that occurred in Connecticut on Friday? Post your thoughts below.)

SOURCES:

CNN ARTICLE

Anonymous Takes Down Westboro Baptist Church Website

Today the group known as Anonymous hacked the website of the Westboro Baptist Church in response to the church’s intentions to protest the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting that occurred in Connecticut on Friday. The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC for short) is well known for protesting funerals of soldiers who died while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that they were killed in action by God because he was upset with our country for allowing gay rights to pass legislation. They’re plan to protest this upcoming funeral, which consists of twenty children ages 6 and 7, and six adults, who were killed when a mad man named Adam Lanza, age 20, forced his way into the school armed with two hand guns and a semiautomatic rifle and started shooting, saying that this was an act of God and that those who died were killed because God is upset with our country allowing gay marriage and other such civil rights.

WBC took a poke at the group (which I’ll just call ANON) a while back when they claimed that ANON sent them a message telling them they were going to be hacked for their hate messages. WBC responded to ANON in a message saying “bring it” and in a video where a member of ANON speaks with Shirley Phelps the member says that the message sent to WBC was a hoax and was never sent to them with any knowledge of the ANON group. Shirley Phelps continued to disagree with the ANON member, calling the group names and saying that no one will ever silence them and that the internet was created specifically for them to send out their hateful messages and that it is God’s will. After ten minutes of silliness ANON became impatient and shut down the WBC websites, replacing them with this message:

This domain has been seized by Anonymous under section #14 of the rules of the Internet.
Greetings Westboro Baptist Church,

If you're reading this, it means that Anonymous has lost its patience with you, likely because you've threatened us again after we denied you a war.

Your recent antics to gain media attention for yourself were found to be laughable. In response to your rather poorly-written "bring it" letter, wherein you tried to goad Anonymous into giving you yet more attention by calling us "crybaby hackers", we wrote, sincerely, a press release explaining clearly the hoax behind the initial declaration of war against your church.

We had thought this latest release would be enough to make you realize that we have no interest in going to war with you. Anonymous is hard at work with ongoing operations such as those involving Bahrain, Libya, and Iran, not to mention we are working tirelessly to maintain coverage of all our HBGary leaks for the public to enjoy.

Your continued biting of the Anonymous hand, however, has earned you a swift and emotionless bitchslap, in the form of this very message. Despite having had the capability to hack your sites previously, we chose not to and instead responded maturely to your threats, but you have not respected this.

For this unremitting display of overzealousness, we award you no points. Take this defacement as a simple warning: go away. The world (including Anonymous) disagrees with your hateful messages, but you have the right to voice them. This does not mean you can jump onto Anonymous for attention.
God hates fags: assumption. Anonymous hates leeches: fact.

Now after the tragic events that occurred in Connecticut WBC wants to picket the funerals, a truly unfathomable action, but hey they’ve done shit like this before. They’re crazy, and nothing is going to stop them from this craziness. Unless…maybe ANON could?

I asked a few for their opinions and the most conversation I got was from Bree Still, who believed that this is a case of media mongering and that both WBC and ANON are just going for the flavor of the month and that ANON is silly for doing this saying that WBC has already lost and it’s like kicking a dying rabid dog before it stops breathing. I happen to disagree, only because I dislike WBC so much and I think it’s great that ANON is willing to step in and disrupt their hate machine.

When WBC said they were planning on picketing the funerals ANON shut down their sites and sent them this nice little message:

"We will not allow you to corrupt the minds of America with your seeds of hatred. We will not allow you to inspire aggression to the social factions which you deem inferior. We will render you obsolete. We will destroy you. We are coming."

I think that WBC members should be ashamed of the things they say, do and feel about everything. I’m glad to see that members of ANON are willing to shut down the hate machine and disrupt their evil ways. What I would like to know is how much more will they do? I can’t wait to see this unfold.

I will agree with Bree on this one though. WBC has lost, it lost a long time again and the majority of America disregards their message. Hell even Fox News pundits don’t like the messages that WBC spreads, now that is saying something. But I don’t really mind watching this dying, rabid, evil wolf get kicked a few more times before it takes it’s last breath, and then maybe a good shock from a cattle prod.

(What do you think about Anonymous attacking the Westboro Baptist Church’s website because of their plan to picket the funerals of those who died at the Sandy Hook school shooting? Feel free to post a comment.)

SOURCES:

YOUTUBE VIDEO: 

ARTICLE: Westboro Baptist ChurchHacked by Anonymous as Group Plans Protest at Sandy Hook Elementary School

The Santa Lie

Remember when you were young and Santa was real? Oh my, those were magical times weren’t they? When we were kids and we were told that a magical man dressed in red would deliver us gifts from the North Pole? We waited anxiously the night before, barely able to get to sleep, and sometimes you would be in bed thinking, “maybe I can catch him.” But alas you never could, unless of course you got out of bed only to find your presents being left under the tree by your parents. What awful timing.

I was in the third grade when I found out that Santa wasn’t real, despite having been told that he wasn’t real in the second grade from a cynical bully. I stilled believed that Santa was real for a whole other year before making the realization that he wasn’t. I don’t remember how I came to the realization; it just sort of popped into my mind from what I remember. I was in my fathers car and he was taking me to school when I just said, “Santa isn’t real, is he?” My father said, “No, he is not.” I then replied, “Neither is the tooth fairy, or the Easter bunny?” My father came clean on them too.

It wasn’t until I became older that I became cynical of the idea of Santa. When I was younger I thought everyone knew he wasn’t real because I did and I told my friend who at the time stilled believed. My reaction to finding out that he still believed was very minimal. I just felt like, “Oh well he is fake, can’t be mad at me for telling him the truth.” Since then I have changed my tone a bit as I wouldn’t want to make a child not believe if they do believe. I just felt like I wouldn’t tell my kids a lie that a man dressed in red with magic powers come down our chimney once a year to leave gifts behind and eat your baked goods and drink your dairy products.

But I guess I had it all wrong really. After talking to a lot of people about I started to think what my childhood would be like if I never believed in Santa. I guess we tell the Santa lie to our children because we want their first years to be magical. The world can be a very scary, tough place, so why have it start out like that? Magic doesn’t exist and the happy ending never really comes true but would you really want to have your child experience something like that before they are emotionally capable of handling such ugly facts? Shouldn’t the beginning of their lives be full of magic and mystery? Sure once they find out the truth it will be a sad day, but for who? For the child growing up to realize the truths of the world or for the parents who are realizing that their kids are starting to understand that life isn’t always a happy place.

 I’m guessing it may be harder for parents then children. For humans there are certain things we realize when we are growing up and the truth isn’t as hard for kids to accept as you would think. I think it’s harder on the adults because they realize that their child is started to connect the dots to discover that magic doesn’t exist and they are growing up and not the little cute kid they used to be who got excited at the thought of Santa coming to bring them presents.

So in closing I think I would tell my kids about Santa when I have them. I think they deserve some magic in their lives even if the magic isn’t real. As long as they think it is real then it is real to them and that’s all that matters. When they discover the truth I don’t think they will take it as hard as I will.