I don't usually align with groups like Anonymous or Wikileaks, but I have to admit I am all in with them on this.  

That's because while real criminals like John Corzine walk free among us with no threat of prosecution, the Justice Department goes after foolish kids like Aaron Swartz, threatening him with so much time behind bars that he eventually offed himself.  Corzine, for example,  can steal literally billions of dollars, with no consequence, yet it is Aaron Swartz that gets to feel the full weight of the Justice Department's legal assault.

What did Anonymous do?

Hacktivist group Anonymous took control of the U.S. Sentencing Commission website Friday, January 25 in a new campaign called "Operation Last Resort."

The first attack on the website was early Friday morning. The second - successful - attack came around 9pm PST that evening. 

By 3am PST ussc.gov was down (it has since been dropped from the DNS), yet as of this writing the IP address (66.153.19.162) still returns the defaced site's contents.

It appears that via the U.S. government website, Anonymous had distributed encrypted government files and left a statement on the website that de-encryption keys would be publicly released (thus releasing the as-yet unkonwn information held on the stolen files) if the U.S. government did not comply with Anonymous' ultimatum demands for legal reform.

Why did they do it?

Swartz was dedicated to sharing data and information online. He worked tirelessly to develop and popularize standards for free and open information sharing.

He co-authored RSS 1.0, developed the site theinfo.org, released the Python framework he developed web.py as free software, he co-founded Creative Commons, and he was a member of the Harvard University Ethics Center Lab.

Swartz co-founded Demand Progress, which launched the primary campaign against Internet censorship bills (SOPA/PIPA). His work on Reddit enabled millions to share information and news socially (Swartz sold Infogami to Reddit).

Aaron Swartz was facing a potential sentence of dozens of years in prison for allegedly trying to make MIT academic journal articles public.

Charged with felony hacking

In September 2012, Aaron Swartz was charged with thirteen counts of felony hacking.

In July 2011 Swartz was arrested for allegedly scraping 4 million MIT papers from the JSTOR online journal archive.

He appeared in court in Sept. 2012 and pled not guilty.

Swartz's subsequent struggle for money to offset legal fees to fight the Department of Justice and stay afloat was no secret.

This is the way government crushes people they don't like.  Justice is not served in any way by persecuting talented but arguably misguided kids like this.  I honestly wouldn't support Swartz' actions, but as I see the lawless, immoral and unconstitutional behavior by our government, I find myself more and more in sympathy, if not yet in full support.  

Eric Holder's Justice Department could truly be retitled the Injustice Department, given all the lawless and horribly immoral actions they have taken.  Think Fast and Furious, just to start. Mr. Swartz can now join the hundreds of people outright killed or driven to death by the immense misuse of our public offices by this administration. 

With people like this in charge, I feel folks in the prepper movement, and those who are actually of the opinion that this government must be forcefully resisted either through civil disobedience or outright force, are the natural allies of those who might consider themselves on the other side of the political spectrum, like the Anonymous movement.  

Perhaps it is time to make common cause with them.  

Are not the actions of Anonymous and their allies in support of the same freedoms that people in the Tea Party, the Preppers and their ilk are?  

Who in the Tea Party does not support total freedom of the internet, for example?

Are not we all in support of a small, limited federal government?  Of freedom of thought, action, and conscience?

Just thinking over it all on a Saturday morning.