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Crank Blogging, Like Phone Calling, Now Illegal
On Thursday, President Bush signed into law a must-pass
DoJ appropriations bill
which contained a
little gotcha for the internet.
For decades, making anonymous abusive phone calls has been a federal crime, good for up to two years behind bars -- and the term "abusive" has included threats, harassment, and the much weaker "intent to annoy." Now, that telecommunications law has been extended to include the Internet, so when you post an anonymous troll to wind up your least-favorite blogger, you may break the law. This is silly: the law needs to start taking into account the qualitative differences between things like telephones, email inboxes, blogs, and IM accounts. A 3 AM phone call is different from a post to blogger.com calling me a jerk. I don't need federal protection from that Night Elf who keeps /chickening my Orc.
http://stout.hampshire.edu/~bjk02/princess/
I wonder if people think I suck or if they think I'm great?
So I guess he figured that while he was already taking away our freedoms and bypasing the Constitution and/or other institutions in place to help preserve our freedoms, what's one more little law.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
The electric company just called me regarding a possible power outage... is anyone else's refridgerator running?
...but I would LOVE for the FBI to be able to track down assholes that I report to them for harrassing me... and have them give me their address. I posted on my LiveJournal about my beloved car that I wrecked, (black ice is eeeeeeevil) with pictures, and some asshole had the gall to post: "(Anonymous) 2005-12-22 10:49 pm UTC (from 65.145.232.121) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!! I wish there was a barfing with laughter emoticon." Best I could get was: 0-1pool232-121.nas116.newark2.nj.us.da.qwest.net Last I checked, that doesn't include his street address. Actually, considering that his address might actually be IN Newark, New Jersey, maybe I'd better have the feds do the arresting. :(
Hmmm...with 2 mod points remaining I'm torn between modding "Funny" or "Flamebait" the latter of which to do my civic duty and get the gov's attention. How about I just reply and relieve myself of that obligation :-p
...in bed
Just want to say I'm in 100% agreement... it seems to me the crowd complaining the most about totalitarianism in our own government are the ones who actually support it the most.
I don't want to start a love Bush/hate Bush thread, but just want to point out, for example, that the guy who suggests private social security accounts gets called totalitarian by the same people who want government forced retirement accounts.
It's also the crowd that complains the most about not having free speech that wants to restrict it with laws governing political correctness and so-called "hate" speech.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Your All Assholes!!!
I agree. Bush is an utterly powerlessness President. He has never shown any ability to affect the decisions of Congress by say calling them on the phone, inviting them over for a talk, having someone on his huge staff contact their staff, using his influence as the de facto head of the GOP or finding some member of the media to hear his opinions on anything.
Or are you some liberal who has fallen for the media's line that Bush is stupid and lazy and probably doesn't even read the laws he signs, much less understand them?
"Bugger this, I want a better world." - Jenny Sparks
Two out of three ain't bad. Work on the capitals though!
By a guy half the country wouldn't mind to see dead by having his VP collapse on top of him... while dying of a heard attack...
Should make you wonder who the "enemy" really is.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX