Sam Stein, in the Huffington Post (a publication I respect less and less for its tawdry "TMZ"-type infotainment, but that's another story...), revealingly notes in his article Webb: I Couldn't Speak Openly If I Were V.P. that Jim Webb, everyone's favorite killer senator from the Old Dominion, doesn't want to be considered as Barack Obama's Vice-President because...

    he doesn't like power?

    he doesn't like "Vice"?

    he's afraid he'll morph into Richard Bruce Cheney?

    --No, it's because, the article says,

...In essence, he was concerned about his ability to speak openly. ...

    But can something be done about this?

    (more)

It's quite sad how little attention this is getting outside the corners of the internet where tech-savvy people gather, but perhaps the media thinks those are the only people who would understand it.  The overriding theme, the sound bite, the message, it's loud and clear and it can't be argued against:

Internet Service Provider X shuts down access to deep dark portion of the Internet where only pedophiles hang out.  Your children are safer now!

You have carte blanche to do whatever you want in this country if you can somehow, in some vague way - with connections basic enough so Joe-casual-news-reader can understand - tie it into protecting the children.  If the appearance of the children being protected looks good enough, it doesn't matter what reality actually is.

Besides, a good portion of people out there probably have no idea what Usenet is.

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

The Courts and Congress have come to believe there is reason for fear.  Enemies are everywhere.  Those who wish to do us harm are in our homes.  They talk to us on our telephones.  Some sashay in through our computers.  "Evil doers" are ubiquitous in the United States.  Our open society places the public at risk.  We, the people, must defend ourselves.  Thus, the Supreme Court and Congress have given the government and us the means.  The highest judicial body in the nation has made it possible for the common man to protect himself with a pistol; Legislators provided the President ethereal firearms.  Indeed, individuals and the Commander-In-Chief were bequeathed more than either had asked for.  In 2008, we have entered the Summer of Separation.  In the United States we say, "Farewell to privacy.  Hello to arms."

Israel has been staunchly defended against all potential enemies, such as, say Iran, by the United States, as we heard lately from Condoleeza, who along with most neocon-oriented folks, believes that defense should know no boundaries, even all-out war. But few dare question why a nation that receives 23 times the aid given to Palestine should even need to use the strongarm tactics against Palestinians and others that it does. Who even dares to ask why they should bring their thugs on a prize-winning journalist?

Dahr Jamail tells of this harrowing experience suffered by Muhammad Omer, a Palestinian journalist who, along with Dahr Jamail, received the Martha Gellhorn Prizefor Journalism in London on 16 June (1).

Yesterday, I was swimming with my young grandsons. They were playing army with each other and were having fun making aircraft sounds and falling into the pool. We started talking about July 4th. They knew it was a holiday but I asked them if they knew what we were celebrating.

I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

George Carlin (1937 - 2008)

I was at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival in 2001, at the end of a great week meeting 100's of comedians, we had a big banquet diner. They gave awards to the best comedians of the week. I get up to get a drink and onto the stage strides George Carlin. The room with 500 comedians EXPLODES!

MR. GEOGRE CARLIN tells us the story about how he had gotten banned for a while, for saying the word "shit". He paused and said, "But look at me now motherfuckers...., look at me now!"
He walks off the stage towards me and I get a chance to look him in the eyes and shake his hand. He didn't say shit, I didn't say shit, cause I figured, " If the pope says nothing to you, you can't say shit to the pope." Plus he was in between shows and who the fuck would I be to slow down the MASTER!

The trolls are out there - searching for blogs that are favorable to Senator Obama, and then trying to post a "comment," which is usually a cobbled-together smear of the swift-boat category.

One found my web site and began to post long lists of these smears and then got a little upset that their comment was deleted or never appeared.

I get the feeling that these trolls are trying to post their smears/lies on as many blogs as possible, so as to boost some statistical counter like Technorati, as in - "Fox News today reports that Technorati reports that 53 percent of all blogs have some mention of 'Obama is -----', therefore there has to be some truth to this - right America?"

I added this to my "About" page today -

Please note that ALL comments are moderated before they get approved. Civil questions and intelligent discussions are always welcomed and are likely to be approved, whearas diatribes listing smears will NOT be published.

“We can disagree without being disagreeable.” Senator and Democratic Party Nominee for President of the Unitied States of America - Barack Obama

Read about one such troll's "indignation" below.

Who says you have to wait 24 hours to say how you really feel? Who made up that rule?
I am a stand-up comedian, very little if anything is too sacred to talk about or blog about.  Are we not supposed to be real when we write a blog?  
When I tell a joke, what I am really saying is, "Here’s a topic we all know or should know, I thought of some new shit about that topic and I made it funny."

I usually choose not to do jokes about the recently deceased because;

I assume that just about everyone on DailyKos is all for homosexual rights (just to be clear, I'm not).  So this story will be interesting.  

See, a gay rights activist won a major victory in Alberta recently (May 30th), yet he won a victory that will probably prove Pyhrric.  In short, he won the right to censor any speech that is even "disparaging" to homosexuals.  Yep, victory through repression and censorship!

Do you feel it? Something good is about to happen and we the people are making it happen.

We're demanding our freedom return to us. And Obama is giving it back to us.

So, it goes like this...late last night, I read Frank Rich's article on McLellan. Filled with anger, I jump on the comments section and rattle off some thoughts. Despite my history of writing things there that are too filled with truth to get posted, imagine my excitement when I just clicked over and saw...TADA...my post is number 1...with 94 people recommending it. You can check it out here:
http://community.nytimes.com/...

But then...I get to the end, and my blood boils, my faith in democracy is once again crushed, and I start cursing like mad...

According to this important report from Alternet:

Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008
were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in
D.C. Superior Court. The defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited
defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse
and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.
Charged with "unlawful free speech," the defendants were part of a larger
group that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11 -- the day marking
six years of indefinite detention and torture at Guantanamo. "I knelt and prayed
on the steps of the Supreme Court wearing an orange jumpsuit and black hood to
be present for Fnu Fazaldad," said Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner from
Asheville, NC who provides health care for people with HIV.

Dunkin Donuts has pulled a commercial featuring Rachael Ray wearing a scarf because Michelle Malkin and other conservative observers thought the scarf looked too much like a keffiyeh, what Malkin describes as "the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."

Just so we are all on the same page... Racheal Ray was born in America and is of Italian & French decent.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

La Bloguera Yoani Sanchez

Well, to no one's surprise, Cuba wouldn't relent and permit Yoani Sanchez to travel to Spain to receive the Ortega y Gasset prize, despite my post yesterday urging Raul Castro to permit her to go.

Join me across the Bloqueo.

OK. So now I know. This diary was erased from MYDD after two minutes, and three complimentary comments. Let it speak for itself.

Have I broken the site guidelines by writing this diary?

Before anyone tries to get this banned as a I hate MYDD diary, hold back on that reaction. It would be stupid and patently contradictory, I've been coming here for four years. Nor am I asking for more Pro-Obama diaries, or any kind of fix for the obvious pro Hillary bias of the diaries here. That's fine. She's got a large proportion of democratic voters. But I am sorely confused

I thought the principle of netroots and progressive blogosphere was that it largely regulated itself. In fact I'm told as much in trusted user guidelines. Rec'ing, rating, were all means by which the community patrolled itself. Dissent, debate, argument, reason - these were the core tenets of it's break from the MSM and would lead to a rejuvenation of freedom of speech.

Rec this diary if - notwithstanding your candidate or none - you want to find out if that's still true

Tired of those crazy over-the-top discussions about the war, the tanking dollar, the sub-prime fiasco, the world food shortage, global warming, torture, illegal CIA renditions and how anyone who doesn't wear a flag lapel on their clothing hates America?  If so, I've got a great story for you to lighten your progressive load.  A new campaign issue that the TM will surely pick up on and run fast and furious with.

Truck Nutz.

Yep, truck nutz.  Rubber and metal nutz that you can hang from the back of your car or truck (hanging them on your moped, Vespa or motorcyle might be problematic though.)

I've been informed by my service provider that the web site for my science fiction novel "Vatican Abdicator" is currently under attack!

Now, I can't tell you if it's Papist Hackers out to smooth the way for The current Pope's visit to the USA, but the timing is pretty suspect.

My service provider is trying to stop the DOS attack and track down the perps. Nothing so far... vaticanabdicator.com is still inaccessible to me.

Vatican Abdicator is the third book in my science fiction trilogy, where my lead character begins as killer for the Pope. So far, the web sites for "Vatican Assassin" and "Vatican Ambassador" are okay.

I am known for my progressive religious views, so perhaps I've made myself a target with books like "Holy Sh!t: Or... Pat Robertson Is The Anti-Christ".

Does make me wonder if religious persecution has gone high tech! DOS equals silencing... how many of my rights are being violated here? Freedom of Speech? Freedom of Religion?

Feel like the peasant in Monty Python... "I'm being oppressed!"

my main site: glowinthedarkradio.com

As most of you know, an 80 year old man was arrested at Smithhaven Mall on Long Island (home of many great people but also home of some putrid hybrids who represent the worst stereotypes of Cobb County, GA, rural Alabama, and Orange County, CA.) for wearing a T shirt.  The mall manager and a woman sitting with Mr. Zirkel have both had letters printed in the local newspaper (Newsday.)  I want to share with you those letters and then discuss what action, if any, needs to be taken.