Wikipedia Blocks 'Disruptive' Edits From US Congress 165
alphatel writes: Wikipedia has blocked anonymous edits from a congressional IP address for 10 days because of "disruptive" behavior. These otherwise anonymous edits were brought to light recently by @Congressedits, a bot that automatically tweets Wikipedia changes that come from Congressional IP addresses. The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies." Mediaite's Wikipedia page was modified to label the site as a "sexist transphobic" publication.
Yeah, "disruptive" (Score:5, Funny)
The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies."
His unmasking isn't supposed to happen for another 20 years, now our plan is shot to hell.
Damn meddling kids mumble mumble...
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[citation needed]
Re:Yeah, "disruptive" (Score:5, Funny)
The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies." [1] [google.com]
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wikipedia
No, congress.
And they would know and never lie to us. Would they?
Re:Yeah, "disruptive" (Score:4, Funny)
The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies."
Why won't Donald Rumsfeld deny these allegations? We're not saying he is an alien lizard who eats Mexican babies -- In fact, we think he isn't! But I can't help but wonder, since he has failed to deny these horrible allegations, why won't he deny that he is an alien lizard who eats Mexican babies?
Hey, I'm just asking questions.
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I take offense! (Score:5, Funny)
I take offense to the idea that Donald Rumsfeld is some kind of racist who only eats Mexican babies. Donald Rumsfeld isn't a racist - he eats babies of all races equally, without taking the color of their skin or their nationality into consideration. Have a little respect for the man!
Re:I take offense! (Score:4, Funny)
But to be fair... the babies are skinned before they arrive on a golden platter for him to devour.
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But to be fair... the babies are skinned alive before they arrive on a golden platter for him to devour.
FTFY
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WTF but the crispy skin is the best!
What a waste!
Re:I take offense! (Score:5, Interesting)
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I hope they have the same for the executive branch!
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"That filter might be a little too restrictive; you'd only see your own edits."
That's how Republicans like it.
Re:I take offense! (Score:5, Funny)
I think that these stereotypes about alien lizards are getting out of hand. All we ever hear about is the baby-eating, and never the fine and nuanced cuisine that goes into it.
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I mean, there's a very comprehensive cookbook about it! [twilightzonemuseum.com]
Re:I take offense! (Score:5, Insightful)
All joking aside... Donald Rumsfeld is 82.
He's about as open minded as most other 82yr olds in this country.
Our problem is that Donald Rumsfeld is a bad guy. Or problem is we put people into positions of power who developed their sense of morality at a time when "The Nazis" were still a valid political party and we didn't generally allow African Americans into the military yet.
Re:I take offense! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I take offense! (Score:4, Informative)
Our second problem is that we have voters who never learned in school that there were plenty of African Americans in the military, but they were segregated thanks to progressive President Wilson.
Our third problem is that plenty of people think it's cool to blame it all on a particular president of a political leaning they do not agree with, even though the US has had African Americans in the military in their own segregated units at least as early as the Revolutionary War [wikipedia.org].
Re: I take offense! (Score:2)
Our problem is that we have given a generation of attention-deficient gadgeteers who think that a reader-edited encyclopedia was a good idea public forums to spew their gerontophobic bias.
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It's there for ALL other professions, at least in my country.
Re:I take offense! (Score:4, Insightful)
And in 50 years, we'll be putting people into positions of power who believe something that is a very fashionable idea in 2014. No idea what it will be, but since we pick our leadership from among the elderly, and develop our ideas of what's good, right and proper during our youth, it's inevitable.
Note also, for reference, the "Buffalo Soldiers". They were around from the end of the Civil War (formed in 1866). There were Negro regiments during the Civil War as well.
It should be noted also that the 9th and 10th Cavalry, as well as other Negro regiments existed through WW2 until the military was integrated during the Korean War (considerably before the rest of US society).
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It should also be noted that this same military, which integrated early, is also one of the most conservative elements of society. Which should inform some folks, but probably won't.
Re:I take offense! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I take offense! (Score:4, Funny)
Have a little respect for the man!
I already have about as little respect for the man as I possibly can! How much less do I need to qualify under your guidelines?
Or is that an unknown unknown?
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Look, no one said that Rumsfeld won't eat non-Mexican babies, but everyone knows that Mexican babies are the most delicious ones. That's not racist, that's just being a gourmand, and it's a taste he probably picked up eating at the finer restaurants on the beltway with lobbyists.
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I see the error (Score:2)
In the case of Donald Rumsfeld, it should say: "Evil, alien lizard who eats Mexican babies and puppies."
If anybody cares (Score:5, Informative)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:143.231.249.138 [wikipedia.org]
Citation needed? (Score:5, Funny)
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Correct. He is proud American domestic lizard who eats Mexican babies. Sorry about the mistake.
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No no...he is a proud domestic lizard who only eats domestic babies...
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Exactly. Just tag it with [Citation Needed] and let people know that there's a chance he might not be.
Re: Citation needed? (Score:3, Funny)
Well Louis C.K. Asked him just that back in 2011, and instead of a simple yes or no answer he dodged the question. Now, I'm not saying he's not not a lizard person, but if he wasn't not not a lizard person I wouldn't think a simple not-yes wouldn't not suffice.
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A simple not-yes would not not suffice?
Re: Citation needed? (Score:5, Funny)
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Well, if he is an alien, let's make sure he doesn't overstay his visa.
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I suggest an autopsy to determine the truth. :P
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Descartes primary body of work proves how wrong you are. Lacking physical evidence does not imply that something is impossible to prove, just that you can not prove something absolutely without physical evidence.
Given the political history of the person TFA is discussing (Franklin Coverup amongst numerous scandals), I think there is enough to question whether or not he is at a minimum a pedophile worthy of being labelled an "alien reptilian baby eater".
I wonder who is doing the actual posting. (Score:2)
I hope this is coming from some over zealot unpaid interns, working for the congress. Not from the actual congressmen themselves.
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This isn't that different than the kind of stuff you would hear when Robert Byrd would start filibustering. He wasn't so big into the 'space-lizard' conspiracy, but he would gladly go so far off-topic that a GPS couldn't find a route back to whatever vote was scheduled to happen.
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There is a far, far easier way assuming the government really wanted to get the individual who did this.
All federal internet traffic goes through Mount Weather, VA in the East (Denton, TX in the west). Every activity done right down to mouse clicks and keyboard keystrokes are recorded with no expectation of "privacy". It is in fact a part of the agreement you sign every time you take the required network security training every year. So finding out who was accessing Wikipedia at the time of the edits become
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I hope this is coming from some over zealot unpaid interns, working for the congress. Not from the actual congressmen themselves.
I hope this is coming from the congressmen themselves. They're much less likely to cause damage trolling Wikipedia rather than if they're attempting to pass legislation.
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Given the scope of some of the edits...
Probably a lot of bored congressional staffers. One of my favorite edits was this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/inde... [wikipedia.org]
However, other topics of interest have been Wendy's, Choco Taco, the current home town of Orly Taitz, a rant about gender identity on both the GID and Mediate pages(I'm in agreement with this anonymous person here), various pot shots at conspiracy nut bags...
There's a LOT of white washing going on here, don't get me wrong, but it's being buried under a
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Bahahahahahhaa.... lol... like actual Congress-people would know how to edit wiki pages.
They obviously don't.. hence need for bracketbot to clean up their mess.
Congress? Disruptive? (Score:3)
Fuck, with this bunch of chuckleheads, we can't even get roads and bridges maintained.
Wikipedia Never Bans Vandals? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wikipedia does not ban people who repeatedly vandalise their site, over a period of years?
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Looking into this, this ip address has been vandalising Wikipedia for over 4 years now...
C'mon, we're working hard enough to undo the "an IP address is a person" myth, to keep the government from smashing people who have shared wifi/tor exits/etc., without perpetuating it ourselves.
You'll notice a few helpful edits from staffers too - only most of them on Capitol Hill are psychopaths, not all of them. Probably the good editors already have accounts, though.
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Wikipedia does not ban people who repeatedly vandalise their site, over a period of years?
The other editors get so much sadistic pleasure of continuing writing the "I wanted to let you know that I undid one of your recent contributions" notes that they do not want to completely ban an user.
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No innocent IP was harmed in the making of this message.
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We should always err on the side of least effect on innocent people, preferably no effect.
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That IP is not a person. Period.
That IP is not a person. Yet. Give the Supreme Court a little time, would you. They'll have IP's making unlimited campaign contributions before you know it.
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Wikipedia does ban. The IP has been banned for 10 days. RTFS.
So, based on past performance, the stream of edits should resume in about a week followed by another ten day ban in August of 2018 if the disruptive behaviour continues?
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LOL. If we fired every person on Capitol Hill who wasted taxpayer money we'd have no legislative branch.
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Now we're getting somewhere.
Chris Hedges (Score:5, Insightful)
“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.” - Chris Hedges
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News source (Score:3)
I was amused to see that TFA was a front page BBC article. For comparison I went to CNN and FOX to see what was reported there. Didn't find anything on either of those 2 sites.
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American mass media and "journalism" is a vast miasma of bloated infomercial junk food weight loss car commercial erection drug propaganda aimed at conditioning whats left of the American Mind into dull and plodding consumerism and hopelessness.
Bread and Circuses and all that.
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I love your .sig
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I agree with you on everything exception your mention of Democracy Now. They definitely cover some legitimate stories and they haven't been commercialized, but they're clearly pushing a particular worldview and appealing to a certain demographic in very much the same way as Foxnews. Just because you happen to agree with that particular perspective doesn't mean that they aren't biased.
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... American mass media and "journalism" is a vast miasma of bloated infomercial junk food weight loss car commercial erection drug propaganda aimed at conditioning whats left of the American Mind into dull and plodding consumerism and hopelessness. ...
That part is not fair. The other day when I got hooked on watching large building controlled explosion demolitions (implosions) were it not for a local Las Vegas TV station's news department's one hour coverage of it I would not have discovered the superb footage of the thirty second downing of the Alladin with the inclusion of sacrificial cameras. I love you balcony cam!
Absolutely correct (Score:2)
That's an unfair assertion, and completely not supported by facts.
Don Rumsfeld has NOT been proven to be an alien, nor have I seen any evidence that he prefers Mexicans over any other nationality, much less the exclusivity implied by the wiki entry.
Glad they fixed it.
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I don't understand why he doesn't simply deny these allegations. Every time he has been asked he avoided the question. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz_gy7-bOoo
Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
What is really sad is that these congressional staffers show suck a lack of professionalism and honor in doing their jobs.
There used to be a time where you could politically disagree with some but still be great friends, or at the very least amicable colleagues. Nowadays, the other political side is just filled with inhuman enemies that need to be degraded and driven into oblivion.
The concept of a government and laws derived from debate and compromise and consideration of different sides of an issue has been wiped out in favor of "I am right and you are wrong, and since you are wrong you can shut the hell up."
So much of this shit looks like stuff a 3rd grader would come up with to insult their enemies.
Re:Sad (Score:5, Interesting)
There used to be a time where you could politically disagree with some but still be great friends, or at the very least amicable colleagues. Nowadays, the other political side is just filled with inhuman enemies that need to be degraded and driven into oblivion.
Indeed. I recall when Hubert Humphrey retuned to the Senate floor after months of cancer treatment. He was terminal, in the last weeks of his life, but he found the energy to return one last time. Barry Goldwater, a man he had run against during a presidential election, a man who was always on the opposite side of any debate, crossed the aisle and embraced Humphrey in a bear hug that lasted a least two minutes, Senate decorum be damned. On national television. These two men, decade after decade, made the case for their beliefs, debated vigorously, but never lost each other's respect. Where has that gone?
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Where has that gone?
Forsaken for the sake of the Eternal Campaign. You are now always campaigning for your party's next presidential candidate, which means the other party must always be demonized.
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The vandalism in question is coming from someone who has access to a congressional staffer's computer, not necessarily a member of congress. This could be anyone from a member of congress to a teenage page to the 12-year-old nephew of a congressman's chief of staff to an intern to a night watchman. Apparently, there are about 9000 people with regular access to the machines in this address range. Given a sampling of 9000 people, how many are going to be as impolite as an internet troll? That there is at
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I'd push it a lot farther back than that. More like when it became fashionable to hate Liberals. Not merely as individuals a la GWB, but as an entire group.
To the point that Liberals, who - as any Conservative will happily point out - are too spineless to defend themselves, dodged the problem by renaming themselves "Progressives".
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Is it the evil conservitives who did this? or is it that the american public sees through it after being hoodwinked for so long that it requires a reboot?? I dont know the answer to that one
the actions of a few (Score:2)
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Tell that to voter fraud bills, the claim of "welfare queens" and not allowing female reproductive rights because "some use it to be promiscuous".
You missed gun regulation bills because "some use guns to murder", banking regulation bills because "the fraud laws that were violated arent good enough", gambling regulation bills because "some people gamble away their house", ....
...pretty much everything they do... including all the liberal shit that you didnt want to mention and probably dont even realize is the exact same thing...
Rewriting the history (Score:4, Interesting)
Wikiality (Score:1)
Some of the edits are funny and the response to the Wikipedia admin from whoever is doing this is also kinda funny
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=617234780&oldid=617214414
Apparently most of the other Congressional staffers editing Wikipedia are transphobic otherkinphobic conspiritard Republicunts shilling for the heteronormative patriarchy. And it seems like a lot the Wikipedia administrators are as well. No wonder this site is so biased. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 18:46, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
I have just been informed that there's a Twitterbot posting all Wikipedia edits from Congress. There have been questions as to exactly which edits are otherkinphobic. The edit calling Donald Rumsfeld and "alien lizard" was clearly intended as a smear against otherkin people. Firstly, we prefer the term "Scalie". The term "alien lizard" is considered a slur. Secondly, if he wants be open about his species identity (if the claims that he's not cisspecies are true) then that should be his decision. People shouldn't be outed for their species identity before they want to come out. 143.231.249.138 (talk) 21:56, 16 July 2014 (UTC)
Truth (Score:2)
The biography of former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies."
Truth hurts...although I hear Guatemalan babies are much tastier with better spices.
Reptilian Humanoids (Score:2)
This is going to drive the Area 51 conspiracy theorists crazy...
This edit [twitter.com] on this article [wikipedia.org].
Unfair? Hardly. (Score:3)
Sorry, but if you're a congressional staffer, using a computer in a congressional office, why are you making edits about birds in Omsk, or KDE? You want to make those edits, do them from your own home on your own time. There, I fixed it.
Supervise Your Children (Score:4, Insightful)
""Out of over 9,000 staffers in the House, should we really be banning this whole IP range based on the actions of two or three? "
Yes. It may get the attention of the guilty parties. I, for one, want to see the exact identification of that House representative, the office guilty of this ongoing abuse. Name names, cowards!
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It's N'Aktuilxy Ktra'kht.
Oh wait, you meant the name of the staffer.
Misdirection and slight of hand (Wiki Style) (Score:4, Insightful)
You should probably look at *all the other edits* to articles made around and during the vandalism spree.
this is bad. (Score:2)
If congressional staff is denied this recreational outlet, they will just find other mischief.
Which can only result in more laws and more spending
The CIA Or? (Score:3)
They missed one... (Score:2)
The Mediaite page is still not quite kosher. At the end of the first paragraph:
"There's significant evidence to suggest that they're also inundated with Thetans."
So....yeah.
Wikipedia's page on the U.S. Constitution (Score:2)
(On the discussion page it looks like all the recent edits are coming from five guys at the Supreme Court.)
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Is it impossible for a congressional computer which is obviously connected to the public Internet to be a botnet slave?
Maybe your a botnet slave? How would we know if you weren't?
For all we know someone else outside of congress controls this computer/router/whatever
It's controlled by a Gremlin in the Kremlin. Mothra Russ1a p0wn3 a11.