McCain is sponsoring legislation -- the "Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act" -- that would mandate stiff fines for any blogger who allows comments by a sex offender. As if I would have any way of checking the backgrounds of the anonymous and pseudonymous people who comment on my posts!
This is a political site, primarily. People do not come here to talk about sex. We've mentioned pedophilia only in condemnatory terms and only in response to stories in the news, such as the Foley affair.
Can you think of a blog that has ever printed anything that might justify McCain's implicit accusation?
Consider this:
After child pornography or some forms of "obscenity" are found and reported, the Web site must retain any "information relating to the facts or circumstances" of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly.Much commentary appears on this blog, on any blog, that may not be read by the blog's owner. This is the case with high-traffic sites. Do you think Kos reads the thousands of comments published on his site every day? It is also the case even on smaller sites, such as the one you are reading right now. Do you think I do a daily check-up on the hundreds of older posts?
Think about it. If McCain's proposed law goes through, any G.O.P. trickster who wants to shut down this site need merely append an obscene and illegal comment to a three-week-old (or three-month-old) post. I'll never know that those words appeared -- until too late.
Any blog owner caught in this trap will stand accused of dealing in kiddie porn. Any blog owner who did not report the invisible "offense" in a timely manner, and in precisely the right way, will have to pay an unpayable fine. And his anonymity will end.
How can I know anything about my commentators beyond the "facts and circumstances" immediately available to anyone?
The recent Democratic victory owed much to Air America and to progressive blogs. Mismanagement may shutter the former, while McCain hopes to destroy the latter. The G.O.P. intends to regain total control of the debate, and they are using false kiddie porn fears to accomplish that goal.
9 comments:
"This is a political site, primarily. People do not come here to talk about sex. We've mentioned pedophilia only in condemnatory terms and only in response to stories in the news, such as the Foley affair."
Sap.
You're defending yourself.
That's the trap, dig?
They bore in one one side, you leave a flank exposed, and you get nailed on the other.
The 'maverick.' The righteous, patriotic McCain. Right.
Get it now?
Jaime Frontero
Oy veh!
It is not a matter of "if" but when the Rethugs shut down the blogs and control email via internet.
I say that blogs get shut down after the US declares war on Iran. End of two party system, end of democracy, hello to the folks who engineered 9/11, and these folks ain't no al quaeda.
may happen as soon as this spring along with a terrible growing $$ recession.
I've offended a couple of different sexes in my time, so you may as well ban me right now.
Considering the Republicans
are the only ones who
have been caught lusting
after teenage boys via
e-mail, it seems like a
rather curious case of
projection on McCain's part. It's also a
ridiculous proposal, for
all the reasons stated by
Mr. Cannon
nono McCain can't shut DeLay's new blog down... Tom has plans.
If this is the best they can do, I like our chances...However, we should also hope for the continued good health of Justice Stevens.
Let's be fair. It's not just the GOP. It's all these old men who still don't know how to work their VCR. The same old men who work hand in hand witht he people and corporate interests who now own all the TV, Radio and Newspaper. They are threatened by the internet they don't understand that provides information freely with out any filters, control or gateway and no one stop enforcement. They have no way to control the news. We can see Al Jazeera, or videos Palestinians post of them being attacked by Zionists and Coalition forces firing at innocent cars as they drive down the highway. The internet is very hippie like. Much of it is free, commune-like, with collaborative projects. The power of the people is concentrated and magnified through the internet. AND THAT REALLY SCARES THE ELITE! So what do they do? They do the same thing they've always done when something scares the elite. Just like when blacks were empowering themselves they said they would rape your wives and children. It's the same thing now. Unless these dangerous internets are brought under control and subdued they will ravage your towns raping your women and stealing your children! The Bush Administration has already subpeonaed Google and Yahoo and MSN to hand over among other things 1 million random Web addresses from Google's databases as well as records of all searches entered on Google during any one-week period. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6029348.html How that helps them fight child pornography is anyone's guess. However what it does do, in conjuction with NSA wiretaps and AT&T's secret room recording everyone's phone calls (http://www.secondaryscreening.net/static/archives/2006/04/exatt_employee.html) is provide a traceable database able to track everything you do on the internet. Including posting on liberal websites, watching LEGAL porn, downloading files, if you go to a web site of a band that sings offensive or maybe subversive lyrics, what things you buy on line, maybe you buy viagra but you aren't married, maybe someone will want to know that one day. In Kansas the District Attorney is demanding at least 90 case files from abortion clinics to retroactively search for sex and abortion crimes. He said it's to catch child rapists but the records he demanded were all on adult women. http://cjonline.com/stories/100306/leg_kline2.shtml In 2004 Ashcroft attempted to access thousands of abortion records from at least 6 hospitals. http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/02/13/abortion.records.ap/ "Sex" is just another excuse that serves the same purpose as "terrorism" serves in limiting our freedom, stifling our constitutional rights and providing the excuse to give the elite a stronger choke hold on those that threaten their power.
Bad as this measure is, it apparently wouldn't apply to blogs like this one, at least as the bill is described in the link Joseph provided.
There's a "social networking" requirement; and the site has to require registration of users and with user profiles. In that case, webmasters would apparently be required to expunge comments by "sex offenders", which (in itself) is a remarkably broad category.
I suggest extending the ban to violators of the Geneva Conventions, or anyone who lied about weapons of mass destruction. For that matter, why not throw Repug pundits who actively sold the invasion not only off the internet, but off the air?
If a stupid and homicidal foreign policy isn't a threat to "our children", what is?
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