Mooninite's revenge

[Eric Smith]

Hello dorkbot (and others bcc'ed)

I'm making a bunch of LED signs for the upcoming senate primary. The
current plan is to make reproductions of the Mooninite signs from
2007, with the following edge-lit text:
"It had a very sinister appearance, It had a battery behind it, and
wires." -Martha Coakley
I imagine that there are many members of the dorkbot community who
would like to speak out against politicians who demonize hand built
electronics. So who is interested in doing some soldering for
politics?

We're meeting Saturday (the 21st) at noon (12PM) at sprout
339R Summer st in Davis sq.


The back story:
On January 31st, 2007 the city of Boston was brought to its knees by
LED wielding terrorists - or so Martha Coakley would have you believe.
Much of the city was shut down including I-93, the T, and BU and
Longfellow Bridges, and around $1 million was spent by emergency
responders because "suspicious" devices were found all over the city.

When the dust settled it became clear that the devices were nothing
more than LED signs meant to promote the upcoming release of the Aqua
Teen Hunger Force movie. The signs had been up in 10 cities across
the United States for weeks without incident, until the Boston panic
occurred. Within hours of the initial response, police investigators
had determined that the signs were intended to publicize the movie,
and by 5pm Turner Broadcasting had publicly taken responsibility for
the signs and explained they were nothing more than advertisements.

It was with this knowledge in hand that state attorney general Martha
Coakly stepped forward to address the situation. Rather than
acknowledging that mistakes had been made, or seeking to calm people's
fears, she pushed forward with the claim that the two MassArt'ers who
had placed the signs had intended to "incite panic" among the
residents of Boston. She filed felony charges against them, with the
potential of a 5 year prison sentence, and insisted that the city had
the right hold them financially responsible for the million dollars it
had just wasted. In case the response seems a little extreme, she
reminded us that the signs "had a very sinister appearance, It had a
battery behind it, and wires."

And wires! Oh the horror. It is clear that Martha Coakley would
rather be wrong than admit she is wrong. She would rather defend
unreasonable actions by government agencies than figure out how to
make them work effectively. And now, she wants to be your senator.
It is time for everyone who is not afraid of batteries and wires to
stand up and say you do not represent us. I'm pushing for a two
pronged response:

First, Vote!
The special election senate primary is Dec 8th. If you are not
already registered, you need to do so now - the deadline is tomorrow
(Wednesday) - directions here:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleifv/howreg.htm . Also spread the
word to everyone you know. Perhaps forward this email to other lists,
or make other appeals to like minded communities. Coakley currently
has a sizable lead, but primarys and special elections tend to have a
very low turnout, so if we can get people to the polls we might have a
significant impact.

Second, electronic terrorism! (that's what you call LED signs, right?)
Back in 2007 many people were outraged by Coakley's response to the
Mooninite incident, but by 2009, most people don't remember her
connection to the event. This is where the reproduction signs with
the infamous Coakley quote comes in. Voters in Massachusetts need to
remember that the person who is currently asking us to promote her to
the senate, is the same person who insisted that fearing things simply
because they contain wires and batteries is justified. Besides, how
often do you get to influence the way our government is run by
soldering together some LEDs?

A warning to anyone thinking of getting involved in creating signs:
Turner Broadcasting was fined $2 million for the last time Mooninites
appeared in Boston. Well, not fined exactly, that would imply that
they were cited for something - but they did make a $2 million
donation to Boston and Homeland security to make the matter go away.
The felony charges against the guys who placed the signs were quietly
dropped months later when DAs realized that they couldn't prove the
two intended to incite a panic. They were "let off" with a forced
apology and community service. I think round two would pretty clearly
be a case of political free speech, and if we pay attention to city
ordinances when we place the signs, I don't see what we could be cited
for. That said, we have clear evidence that Boston authorities do not
always have reasonable responses to LED signs.

If you'd like to know more about the incident, the wikipedia article
is pretty thorough:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare

If you'd like to get involved, send me an email, or come by sprout to
help us plan/build:
Saturday Nov 21st
12pm
339R summer st, in Davis square

-Eric