August 8th, 2006
- Preparing for Martial Law - Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that President Bush is trying to secretly federalize the National Guard, a move that the National Governors Association is trying to put a stop to. This is the kind of thing a dictator would do, by the way.
- Might as well face it, they’re addicted to porn… - SpinDentist @ The All Spin Zone reports on a poll revelling what I’ve suspected all along — that there are quite a large number of self-identified Christians involving themselves with porn. This may be why so many rightwingers are so interested in what everyone else is doing in their bedrooms.
- ABC’s Good Morning America covers story of gay Arabic speaker kicked out of military - John in DC @ AmericaBlog has a link to ABC’s Good Morning America video coverage of the story. I’ve seen the story reported on several liberal blogs, including Pandagon, but this is the first main stream media coverage I’ve seen. I have to agree with John that it does appear that the military does seem more interested in it’s witch hunt for homosexuals than in helping itself and in stopping the terrorists.
- Senate ratifies Europe cybercrime convention - Michael Hampton @ Homeland Stupidity reports that as of last Thursday night, “the U.S. can now spy on your Internet activity at the request of a foreign government — even if you are only doing things completely legal.” It’s called the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime. What does that mean? It’s a treaty which requires its signatories to pass laws against breaking into computer systems, child pornography, Internet fraud, computer viruses, denial of service attacks and related crimes.
The treaty requires the U.S. to turn over data stored by Internet Service Providers, and provide real-time interception of your Internet traffic, at the request of a foreign government, whether the offense the foreign government is investigating is a crime in the U.S. or not.
“That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation activist coordinator Danny O’Brien. “American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdictions’ requests to log their users’ behavior without due process, or compensation.”
“And it applies not just to ‘cyber’ crimes but to digital evidence of any crime, so foreign governments now may begin using U.S. law enforcement to help them gather evidence in all kinds of cases,” wrote Cato Institute Director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper.
- Gunning for PBS - Steve Aqui @ Donklephant writes about the GOP’s targeting of funding for NPR and PBS and how the GOP would prefer both would just disappear. Steve points out how hypocritical the GOP is with it’s big tax cuts and it’s attempts to eliminate the estate tax and yet it claims there’s no money to help handicap children or pay for public radio and television or reduce the deficit.
Tags: PBS, NPR, GOP, Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, ABC, Good Morning America, Christians, George W. Bush, National Guard, National Governors Association, EFF
June 6th, 2006
- I don’t care who’s flag you’re flying…I swear I don’t care if you feel the need to fly the Mexican flag, the American flag, or the Confederate flag on your flagpole. Mostly I’m tired of people complaining about what people should be flying or what it means or who it’s insulting.
What kills me is that all of those people who are demanding that the American flag be honored above all others don’t seem to care that no one seems to bother taking them down every night or in bad weather anymore. There are hundreds of those dirty tattered little car flags attatched to SUV windows all over the country and no one seems to think it’s a disonor to the flag to let them continue in that sad condition, but every time anyone talks about burning the flag, which is the recommended way of destroying a flag, everyone gets up in arms.
As for the other flags — I don’t really care…I came from the South; I feel a bit of Southern pride. I do however, understand when it’s appropriate to show it and when it’s not. I appreciate the historical value of the flag and that it represented more than just the idea that the South was about Slavery, but it seems that so many people can’t seem to look at the Confederate flag without seeing that. The War was about so much more than Slavery…in fact, Lincoln didn’t free the slaves until well after the war had begun…you might look that up if you have any doubts. I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying that Southerners have a different view…they believe the South was once a great place once upon a time and they’re proud of that and why does it have to be all about Slavery?
As for the Mexican flag or whatever flag any immigrant decides to fly, I don’t care. Let them fly it. Stop whining about it. It’s where they came from. They’re just as proud of their heritige as you are of yours. Mind you, again, there are times of appropriateness. But whatever. I just wish people would get over it.
- I don’t care about the Dixie Chicks. Really. I liked their first two albumns. I supported their right to free speech. I thought it was innappropriate where they chose to speak when they spoke out about the war way back, but I agreed with them. However, they didn’t learn to shut up and they turned into major bitches in the Country world…it probably doesn’t help that I worked with a cousin of two of the Chicks and it runs in the family. Anyway, I’ll continue to support their right to free speech, but I’m no longer listening and I can’t believe everyone’s making such a big deal about what they have to say still.
- Really, WTF is wrong with the GOP? Aren’t there more pressing issues going on in the world than gay marriage?
Tags: Dixie Chicks, Gay Rights, GOP
