Plunderbund

Via Wired:
Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.
The internet is a tremendous tool for democratization. While access, even in the US, is not yet universal, if some […]

The other day I pointed out the Catholic League’s overreaction to a poster for a gay pride festival that took it’s inspiration from da Vinci’s “Last Supper”. Lisa Renee mentioned in the comments that she found it insulting (perfectly valid for her to feel that way) and that it ‘mocked’ Christianity.
I wanted to point […]

While not “Net Neutrality” related, this underscores the potential power and abuse allowing common carriers to regulate the content transmitted on their networks would permit.
Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network […]

Well, anything that impugns on the separation of church and state infringes on freedom of religion, so it’s not exactly like this is a new thing for these guys. But this is pretty blatant. Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries:
Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out […]

The strip-club regulation law will be going to the polls this fall.
In the battle for popular support, strip-club owners and dancers claimed an edge yesterday.
They turned in 120 boxes of petitions — 382,508 signatures total — to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s office. Citizens for Community Values, the Cincinnati-based group behind tougher rules, submitted more […]

We’ve all known that Bush’s public appearances have attempted to carefully control access to “lock out” any kind of protesters. However, that just scratches the surface.
To counter any demonstrators who do get in, advance teams are told to create “rally squads” of volunteers with large hand-held signs, placards or banners with “favorable messages.” Squads […]

This Abukar Arman mess just won’t go away. It seems the Ohio right-wing blogosphere is obsessed with this man, and unwilling to take his writings at face value. Just yesterday, BizzyBlog had this to say:
Abukar Arman has expressed support in his writings for known terrorists, terrorist organizations, and groups that wish to impose […]

When corporations talk about opposing “Net Neutrality”, what they want to protect is their ability to censor. For example, AT&T webcast Lollapalooza, and decided to censor Pearl Jam for some rather innocuous political speech. Here is the web cast:

And here is what it looked like from the crowd.

Media corporations shape how we view […]

You know, it’s natural to get frustrated when stuff like the “Protect America Act” manage to get passed in a Democratic Congress. But before you get too worked up, check this out.

Still think there’s no difference between the GOP and Democrats? CorrenteWire generated the chart, and has some analysis as to what’s going […]

New law that modifies FISA was passed this weekend.
The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency’s ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals “reasonably believed to be outside the United States.” Civil liberties groups and many Democrats said it goes too far, possibly enabling the […]

When I finally got close to the front of the line at my polling place in 2004, a pollworker told me to cover my T-shirt. It had the words “Vote Explosion” on it.

Seeing as I had nothing to cover it with and had just spent 3 hours in line, I politely pointed out that there was no partisanship expressed by the shirt. Vote Explosion was just a loose group of friends registering folks to vote at rock shows. She replied that they were trying to avoid even the slightest possible implication of impropriety.

OK, fair enough. Polling places are supposed to be inner sanctums of nonpartisanhip. Neither voters nor pollworkers may wear political shirts, stickers, or buttons within a 100 foot radius. Although the words “Vote Explosion” aren’t explicitly partisan, neither are the words “Eagle Forum” or “MoveOn.” I think it was a wise move to err on the side of overzealousness, and simply prohibit T-shirts bearing all of the above.

The guy behind me in line loaned me his sweatshirt, and I was able to step forth to express my partisanship in the privacy of the voting booth. As an ongoing tribute of thanks to sweatshirt guy, ever since that day I’ve stowed an extra large, plain T-shirt in my purse whenever I go to vote - just in case a fellow voter is asked to cover up.

Until I read Monday’s Columbus Dispatch, it had never occurred to me that I might someday want to offer my spare shirt to a pollworker.

Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona appeared Tuesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, charging that top Bush administration officials silenced him in his public health reports. According to Carmona, during his four-year term (2002-2006) he was not allowed to speak or issue reports regarding stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or […]

This morning, RABid is pimping Ken Blackwell’s latest column on TownHall. The entire column is a fabrication - a lie - and plainly claims a bill does something it explicitly does not. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Blackwell says:
A bill making it illegal for people of various faiths to freely hold and […]

This post is a Matty Special, just for our friends at RABid.
It turns out that Dr. Laura’s son, who is currently deployed in Afghanistan, had a MySpace page. And what a page it was.
The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one […]

Retired General John Batiste had his consulting arrangement with CBS terminated due to his participation in a recent VoteVets ad. Think Progress notes the numerous excuses and backtracking that followed the announcement. They either can’t get their story straight or they never had one.
Keith Olbermann discussed this recently with the general and it […]