First imprisoned US blogger Josh Wolf continues to update from jail

Josh Wolf, the US vlogger who was put in jail at the start of August after refusing to hand over video footage of a demonstration to US federal authorities, is continuing to blog from prison via friend's transcripts at  The Revolution Will Be Televised. A recent post quoted Malcolm X, whose biography Josh read while in prison:

Children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again. Most of us adults are so afraid, so cautious, so ’safe’ and therefore so shrinking and rigid and afraid, that is why so many humans fail. Most middle-aged adults have resigned themselves to failure.

Metroblogger and BoingBoing reports that there is a benefit tomorrow (Thursday the 24th) at House of Shields. Violet Blue says:

"Our local politicians are fumbling around with little more than two hands and a flashlight trying to figure out what to do, and SFMike is all over it in his deatiled Civic Center post about the supes trying to pass *something* more than gas in Josh Wolf Rules (Kimo Crossman points us to video of this session here). Interesting to note that the SFPD didn't bother to show up for the hearing, isn't it? In case it wasn't obvious, Josh is still in jail for refusing to hand over the video he shot -- but he's not silent, as pal Jackson West is exchanging letters (analog email) with Josh and transcribing Josh's mail into blog posts over at. There's a wiki, too. Josh would love to get mail, so if you still remember what a pen is, drop him a line at:

Federal Correctional Institution - Dublin
Joshua Wolf 98005-111
5701 8th St. Camp-Parks, Unit J2
Dublin, CA 94568

Background from Violet Blue, Metroblogging San Francisco, August 2nd

Yesterday local indy media blogger Josh Wolf was put in jail for refusing to hand over a video to the federal government that he shot at last summer's G8 protest in the Mission District. This is the the first instance in which a blogger has been pursued and eventually jailed by federal authorities. Josh was at the protest shooting video to blog -- as he feels the same as many of us, that corporate media is tired and dying, and it's up to us citizens to go out and record the world around us. The protest got out of hand, as protests sometimes do, and fireworks were set off, and a police officer was hit in the head. But after Josh posted part of the video he shot on his blog, the feds showed up *at his house*, demanding the entire tape and not saying why -- but that because Josh's video contained federal property in it, they had a right to it.

Josh refused, and in his incredible presentation I saw at Vloggercon 2006, explained that he was concerned about the feds' intentions -- worried that they might be indiscriminately compiling antiwar, "terrorist" group lists. Josh is 24, and a friend. So now... shoot a video locally and go to jail? Our lame-duck SFGate has its head stuck up its ass because they're defending the mainstream media with an article the totally sidesteps the story (ha!), but CNet is on it.