30 August 2007

Internet Censorship

Call to regulate the net rejected accd to the BBC. The internet should not be used as a scapegoat for society's ills, said Vint Cerf, Google's net evangelist and a founding father of the network.

There is already heavy censorship of online material in most of the world, especially in China. Now, the conservatives in the US are trying to take away all freedom of real expression in this country in much the same way, albeit in more insidious ways.

From the inception of the internet to the modern day, the internet has been a bastion of free expression. Whether information (such as Wikipedia), searches (such as Google), movies (imdb), etc., anything, I repeat ANYTHING has been able to be posted without harrassment from governments until recently. But the pressure is mounting. The bullshit artists are beginning to try to limit free speech via the precedence of undecency standards, which we all know is the start of government censorship of anything deemed contrary to its own position (in ANY country you live in around the world). Net Neutrality must be preserved, unless we all want big brother to tell us what is acceptable to think.

17 August 2007

Wikipedia under attack!

the BBC reports that certain agencys have made tactical edits to the free online encyclopedia. Though this should come as no surprise, it is yet another reminder on how information itself is under attack from groups or individuals with an agenda. Scientific facts are regularly questioned both here in the United States as well as the Islamic world and many, many places elsewhere.

This attack on knowledge is nothing knew. It has been in place by governmental institutions from tribal elders to royal courts to the nazi regime. They simply attack the truth to push their own agenda, and get their puppets (in the US, this comes in the form of radio talk show hosts) to put a seed of doubt into the mass consciousness about proveable theories, thus advancing their false adgenda. Look at the attack on evolution in the US today, what factual, scientific basis do any of these assholes have?

An assault on Wikipedia is an assault on education, free thought, wisdom, and science. We all need to be offended by this bullshit and speak out against it in our "outdoor voices".

14 August 2007

Karl Rove tribute







Karl Rove, the chief architect of the neofascist movement in the United States, has finally left his post as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Bush regime. For those of you who have been living under a rock or are too poor to pay attention, let me give you a brief list of his highlights as executive puppet master to King George.

1. He was instumental in devizing the most divisive and polarizing political attack strategy in US history. Rove advocated "energizing" the conservative republican base to win elections, rather than seek middle ground positions. Although they somehow worked in getting a doofus like George Bush elected twice, they mercilessly savaged good people both on the left and in the middle for the last 7 years. This shifted the political spectrum in this country far to the right, making even regular conservatives appear to be moderates by comparison.

2. This brutal tactic of vicious and personal attacks extended to means inside office as well. In the wake of 911, he tried to score politcal points by saying that, "liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." He insinuated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "fathered an illegitimate black child". Rove is linked to the so called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the smear group that accused war hero John F. Kerry of cowardice in the 2004 election. Typical rumor-mongering and dirty mud slinging that effectively plants a seed without any evidence, but always has an effect.

3. TREASON! Hot Karl was likely the one who orchestrated, if not directly leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative, Valeria Plame. This was done as direct retribution because her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, IV, refused to manufacture evidence implicating Iraq as trying to purchase Yellowcake from Nigeria in the propaganda war leading up to the invasion.

4. Karl Rove was involved in the firings of 9 US attorney who were not Republican loyalists. Though Alberto Gonzales is ultimately the one with the greatest fault here, it was a vindictive politcal vendetta meant to further stack the courts with former colleagues and neocon activist judges. Further, he was likely involved in the "accidental" deleting of all emails pertaining to this scandal (funny how those were the only ones that disappeared).



There are many, many more things (this IHT for example)I could list in detail, but I think you get the idea. This behind the scenes neofascist is finally out of official government. There is a legacy of destruction behind him, and I dont think anybody could blame the Democrats if they adopt similar attactics to rebalance the political system when they win the presidency in 2008 (though it will take them 8 years to undo the damage).

Remember Karl Rove not at "boy genius" or "bushs brain", but as Darth Deceiptful.

Kosovo partition

An international envoy says the partition of Kosovo could be acceptable as a way of breaking the deadlock over the province's future. the BBC reports.

This may be only viable political solution to this horrific situation in my opinion. It would appease the Kosovo Albanians by giving them their independence while allowing the Serbs who cherish this land as the birthplace of their culture and civilization a stake as well. In order to be an acceptable compromise by the Serbian nation however, the partition would have to include an area much larger than a 10% slice, and would likely have to include a meandering boundary to guarantee access to their most sacred historical sites.