Showing posts with label Power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Power. Show all posts

America: It Ain't No More Ok

My take on the current political/internet buzz:



I saw this yesterday on HotAir. Pretty sad no matter how you take it...

Honestly, I think the police officer just might have misspoke out of frustration & nervousness in front of the camera. But taking all of his statements together throughout the video like, "I can charge you whatever I want to charge you" didn't do anything to assuage the notion that this was politically motivated. I don't know. I can't read his mind, but I can form an opinion based on what he did and said...

The bigger question, (if the officer wasn't making up his own rules) who in the heck gave orders that folks could not carry signs (with or without pictures) on public property?!?! Every time I go to vote at my polling place, A PUBLIC SCHOOL, there are political signs (and guys telling me who to vote for) all over the place! Outside of course. Not inside...

If the protagonist was inside attending the meeting? I don't know, maybe they might be able to tell him "no signs at all" depending on whether it was a public or private event or whatever--maybe... But outside? Nope. No way... Not on public grounds.

It was freaky when that balding mustachioed guy--some kind of what? School administrator?--said (regarding First Amendment rights): "Actually school grounds have very different First Amendment rights then anywhere else." What the heck was that? What the heck does he mean by that?! Who was that guy? School employee or official? Yes? Then he definitely needs a school district smack-down for certain.

If someone actually gave "marching orders" to this officer to do this, who was it? Did the officer make the rules up himself? If he did, then he definitely should receive some kind of disciplinary action--up to firing. If he didn't and was just doing "as ordered", then whoever ordered him to do this should be held accountable as well.

If this is indicative of "making up the rules as we roll along" for the next three-plus years, it is not a good sign....

A White House Internet

It's back!

I was hoping this had died, but that is not the case.

Today's big tech news is the return of legislative proposals to grant the White House power over the Internet. The "ability" to shut down parts of the net in case of a "cyber-attack". Just how they think they would go about doing that would be interesting, but just the fact that they want that kind of power is telling.

It goes beyond that, they want power to regulate private networks. The EFF is not happy, rightly so. Speaking of, this isn't a left or right issue. This should be concerning to everyone.

CNET: Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
ZDNet: White House not equipped to hold keys to the Internet
FoxNews: Senate Bill Would Give President Emergency Control of Internet

Slashdot Denizens are (unsurprisingly) not pleased...