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Sen. Ted Stevens Introduces "Son of DOPA"
DJCacophony writes "Ted 'series of tubes' Stevens has introduced a bill, going by the interim name S.49, that aims to block access to interactive websites from schools and libraries. The wording of the bill is vague enough to apply to Wikipedia, MySpace (and other social networking sites), and potentially even to blogs. The bill is apparently so similar to the failed Deleting Online Predators Act of last year that it has been termed 'Son of DOPA' by some." Stevens introduced S.49, the text of which is not yet available, on the opening day of the legislative session.
It will be the end of Flash advertisements, javascript and other "interactive" tools. Heck, I won't have to waste hours and hours learning AJAX for Web 2.0 because I would want my sites to be able to be seen in schools and libraries.
Wait...my local library has an interactive catalog. Would they have to block themselves? They probably should already turn themselves in. They have a subscription to Playboy and I'm sure there are countless books that have "porn" in them teaching kids about sex.
Where do bills like this come from? Surely, anybody who actually uses and understands these websites would never propose such a thing. Is there some massive, lobbying corporation out there who stands to gain a fortune by the blocking of web 2.0? (Maybe Microsoft Encarta is behind this!!!!) Or is this just a pathetic case of "won't somebody please think of the children?"
...when politicians come up with laws restricting... well, anything.
I just wonder why there's so much support for laws restricting freedom in the land of the free. Or was that rewritten and nobody told me?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Dammit Alaska, will y'all do something about that guy sometime soon? I'm sorry to say... not until he keels over on the Senate floor. Up here in Alaska, he's known as "Uncle Ted." He brings obscene amounts of money into this state. The international airport in Anchorage is the "Ted Stevens International Airport." The man is still alive! His eleventh hour ads supporting Lisa Murkowski turned the election around and won her the junior seat in the Senate two term, popular former governor, Tony Knowles. This was the lady who was APPOINTED to the Senate by her FATHER when he was elected governor. Can we say nepotism? Most Alaskans hated her... right up until Uncle Ted endorsed her. In this state at least, the man walks on water (or tubes... or bridges to nowhere). But the people here have no choice. We have a population of around 700,000. We're constantly having to argue with government agencies for them to even have a presence here. To them, it's not worth spending money on services for such a small population spread out over such a large area. (Never mind the billion dollar oil, fishing, mining, and tourism industries.) So we have to have someone who can make our voices heard. Stevens has a lot of clout in Washington, which means Alaska has a lot of clout in Washington, and I doubt we'll give that up until we absolutely have to.
The library here in La Jolla is already halfway there thanks to a little program called CyberSitter. 90% of everything I click on results in "IE cannot display this page" though, sometimes, if I click reload enough times I'm able to recieve enough page text and click stop before CyberSitter receives whatever part of the page it is which causes the page to be dumped.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Every time this old crank or any of his fellow Senators wastes time with these fake "child protection" systems that screw adults instead of actually protecting children, they leave children actually exposed to the real threats. And their sneaky smokescreens using children as "human shields" from criticism of their sweeping attacks on American liberty makes it even harder to trust any plan offered to actually protect these people.
All they do is damage everyone. Delete Stevens and his technocrat cronies.
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make install -not war
Most news sites have polls, blogs, comments, and messageboards. This bill would block students form going to their local newspapers site or the big sites like cnn and msnbc. Politicians are stupid.
Alaska's pork should be reduced in 2007 for two reasons:
1. Uncle Ted Stevens is a Republican, and the Dems have the majority in the Senate (49+1+1=51 vs. 49). Therefore, Uncle Ted isn't in the majority, and he can't use his majority status to ram things through appropriations.
2. The Senate has "eliminated" pork, known as earmarks, for this budget cycle (source). I'm sure it won't be a 100% freeze, but given that the amount of earmarked appropriations skyrocketed under the GOP-led Congress (60% increase in the past five years), it's reasonable to expect that it will be reduced dramatically -- especially to states with two Republican Senators and a Republican Representative, such as Alaska.
So, with Uncle Ted presumably bringing in less pork for the foreseeable future, will Alaskans react by electing a Dem, or will they re-elect Uncle Ted in the hopes that the GOP recapture the senate and Stevens' seniority becomes valuable locally again?
Support a few technologists in Washington.
Not really. Libraries may be public but they are still owned and operated by the government. That means it's their call as to what goes on there. It's not violating your rights because you can still access whatever you want anywhere else.
Even if they somehow blocked a website for everyone it still wouldn't be a violation of your rights but rather the rights of the person running the website being blocked. Even that would be questionable because they aren't actually stopping you from saying something(freedom of speech intact) but they may as well be.
Dunno what universe you live in, but here in the US, "Owned and operated by the government" MEANS "public."
And it's called censorship when the government decides what someone can and cannot read/hear/view.
A private company (like your employer) is well within their rights to block any and all Internet traffic it deems inappropriate, in much the same way they can say, "No porno mags in the bathroom." No, this is not censorship, as it's not the government doing this.
Of course this leads right into the Net Neutrality debate, as the tubes are owned and operated by private companies who are arguing that they can do anything they want with their property. This differs from the airwaves (broadcast radio and TV), which are actually owned by the public, and an agency operating in the public trust (the FCC) grants a monopoly on the usage (transmission) to whoever can pony up enough dough for a license. The FCC (the government) also retains the right to censor broadcasts (hence big fines for profanity and wardrobe malfunctions).
So with all of these contradictions, my head is spinning ...
The federal government collects this money from all the working members of society, then they withold it from anyone who won't accept rules that they are not actually supposed to be able to make. That's generally considered extortion. The "national" drinking age is yet another example. No more funding if your state's drinking age is less than 21.
I'd vote for the DESESE (Deleting Senile Senators) act, forcing mandatory retirement for people who behave like this. I mean, the guy is incapable of even reading out a speech prepared for him by his handlers. People like Ted Stevens shouldn't be in politics anymore, they should be in an institution.
Uh, 20% of the Democratic Caucus is conservative democrats right now... and Sen. Webb is a Republican, or at least was until he got annoyed with Bush and the Iraq war, and it's unclear where he'll stand after the Iraq war. Dean did an AMAZING job of turning the Democratic Party back into a national party (read Zell Miller's book for how bizarre they got at writing off the South -- don't attack him, he makes a LOT of good points), but it's not a 99.8% string up the Republicans party... if it was, it wouldn't win many elections...
But the comment you've misreading isn't "punish Bush," it's the "punish Bush states."
The Daily Kos crew, and other "politics isn't a contact sport, it's a battle to the death sport" wants the Democratic Party to ATTACK government funding goals that help Republican states. You wouldn't be very happy if the Democrats first action was to pull all highway funding, social spending, etc., for the state of Georgia, while leaving it for the rest of the states.
The implication that Uncle Ted can't deliver the bacon because he's in the minority and all his projects will be cut is probably wrong, and somewhat dangerous. I'd love to see the corruption rooted out of Washington with ALL appropriations, but punishing your opponents and rewarding your friends TOO extremely is just a bad scene.