In April 1999, the Columbine High School massacre happened. The shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, reportedly learned how to construct sophisticated bombs through their internet activity. This discovery caused then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder to say the following(audio uploaded at Eyeblast.tv:)
The court has really struck down every government effort to try to regulate it. We tried with regard to pornography. It is gonna be a difficult thing, but it seems to me that if we can come up with reasonable restrictions, reasonable regulations in how people interact on the Internet, that is something that the Supreme Court and the courts ought to favorably look at. - May 28, 1999 NPR Morning Edition
As tragic as Columbine was, Holder’s reaction to stifle free speech on the internet is nonetheless disturbing. Combine his zeal for what he may consider “reasonable regulations” along with his advocacy for a federal hate crime law(H/T to National Review), and internet users may find themselves in a world of legal woe after the Obama administration takes over in January.
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Who needs the Constitution?
November 21, 2008 - 08:45 ET by PopularTechMaybe Obama can figure out how to do away with the first Amendment.
Censored Global Warming Videos
I would say something ... but
November 21, 2008 - 08:53 ET by legacyrepublicanPopular Tech,
I would respond to you, but I don't know what Big Brother will allow me to say. Even this might be considered hate speech.
Obama approved NB Comment System - Coming Soon!
November 21, 2008 - 09:27 ET by PopularTechSoon you will not have to worry after they implement the Obama approved comment system. Example:
You enter...
"Barrack Hussein Obama who was born to a muslim father and raised muslim by a muslim stepfather in indonesia had a working relationship with the domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, attended church and was married by the racist Preacher Jeremiah Wright who called the U.S.A the U.S. of K.K.K.A."
And out comes...
"Obama is the Messiah"
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How I Really Feel
November 21, 2008 - 10:06 ET by legacyrepublicanPopular Tech,
You make an excellent point, but ...
"Obama is the Messiah"*
* Message edited to block hate speech from poisoning Al Gore's precious Internet and whose very emission would further global warming causing the planet to spin off it axis and fall into the sun hurting thousands of innocent animals but thankfully aborting innocent children inside the womb who cause global warming with the increase need they have for farting cows needed to feed them at McDonalds -- often found at Wal Mart who treats their employees as slaves and destroys the middle class with low paying jobs with their heinous low prices and rollbacks which are evil as they cause consumption to increase which further scars the enviroment, but not those of animals who should never be harmed no matter where they are in their life cycle except for the human kind because they have the choice to spread whatever disease they want because they can't control themselves so we, the compassionate liberal, will through forcing them to eat, drink, act the way they should from craddle to grave given we in our wisdom determine that we should let them live at the beginning of their lives or at the end be encouraged to commit suicide so they do not have to put up with the health care system we created to hurt, I mean, help them.
And that is how I really feel. What do you think?
Why not? He plans to do
November 21, 2008 - 11:14 ET by NL207Why not? He plans to do away with the Second Amendment. What's so sacrosanct about the First? In the Obama view, curtailment of individual liberty is a perfectly reasonable thing to do if furthers the agenda.
Virus'
November 21, 2008 - 09:58 ET by Paul GYou heard it here first. That's how the Gov't is gonna stop the internet.(and 'certain websites they don't like) Viruses. Started with Emails, then certain sites by 'idiots', now it will be done by the Gov't ..and even though the MSM might report it, they'll NEVER find the 'culprit'. mark my words.
Interesting
November 21, 2008 - 10:06 ET by general companySomeone I know in the IT field was just telling me the other day that it wont be long before viruses and addwear and the like will be obsolete. He was suggesting that the computers will be far better at detection, by the way the write the code? A bit over my head though.
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
why of course
November 21, 2008 - 10:05 ET by candanceObama will make sure that no crisis goes to waste.
Stifling the internet to stop people from building bombs sounds like a good idea...until it becomes illegal to post something rude about Michelle Antoinette and then the Secret Service starts watching you.
I'm a typical white person.
Depends on who
November 21, 2008 - 12:00 ET by Heather RadishThey're planning to bomb.
"....reasonable
November 21, 2008 - 10:50 ET by winston smith"....reasonable restrictions and reasonable regulations on how people interact....."
LOL! I love it. Just the kind of statement you would expect from the incoming adiminstration. And what's really scary is that you have a generation of young people who have been given an idiot's education in politically correct public schools who will be just fine with those restrictions. Obama is our savior --- end of story. I'm telling you, this administration will be 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm and Lord Of The Flies all rolled into one!
Notice how it's "the
November 21, 2008 - 11:09 ET by mattmNotice how it's "the Supreme Court and the courts" that need to work on this?
He knows very well that it couldn't be done legislatively without a possibly severe backlash against any of the "representatives" pushing it, so obviously it has to be done in the courts, where there's no accountability.
Bye bye USA, welcome to the National Zocialistik States of North America.
Sophisticated failures
November 21, 2008 - 11:12 ET by CobraMan"The shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, reportedly learned how to construct sophisticated bombs through their internet activity."
Yes, and those bombs were so sophisticated that they failed to detonate.
Obama: My job is above my pay grade
they're already
November 21, 2008 - 11:12 ET by jackie3They're already trying it. Internet hate crimes. Porno regulations. All in the name of "public safety." That's how the regulations will be done. In the name of public welfare and safety. Cigarettes, seat belt laws, lowering the drinking limit, raising the drinking age to 21. Our freedoms have been slowly disappearing for decades.
Has my hubby says, "It's illegal to have fun."
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
As AG he can yammer about
November 21, 2008 - 13:55 ET by ConservativeRexAs AG he can yammer about any damn thing he wants to. There are a ton of folks in the private sector a helluva lot smarter than anything in governement that will figure some way around what this knucklehead is proposing. And when they do they'll make a ton of money off of it, hopefully tax free.
The way I've got it figured, there is about fifty six million ways to skin a cat, so to speak.
My friend...
November 22, 2008 - 20:59 ET by andophiroxia...mentioned when Carter imposed the 55mph from his Secretary of Transportation (who hated cars), people just went, "Oh ok." and just ignored the signs.
I gotta say, Americans are great for ignoring the rules when they deem them useless and/or stupid. :)
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ~ Winston Churchill
I think the 55MPH speed
November 22, 2008 - 21:19 ET by Free StinkerI think the 55MPH speed limit came about in '73 or '74
"Gov. Palin has been subjected to one of the most massive and dishonest pile-on smear attacks in the history of liberal media." -- Lowell Ponte
The line in the sand must be drawn somewhere...
November 21, 2008 - 15:13 ET by ThalpyThe line in the sand must be drawn somewhere, even if its with this political hack. The constitution says nothing about the "reasonable" he's talking about.
You must remember there are
November 21, 2008 - 15:40 ET by ricklailYou must remember there are a lot of lefty organizations out there like the NEA and the librarians that are dead set against any type of censorship on the internet or access to it. How are they going to get around making them mad?
YOU CAN KEEP "THE CHANGE" PALIN 2012
web to be filtered at the US "border"
November 21, 2008 - 15:57 ET by wizardjrAustralia is discussing a law to "filter" the entire internet in Australia, much like the jerks at Google/Yahoo! did for China. Guess who gets to set the filter parameters?
Oh yeah, when it comes to making bombs The Poor Man's James Bond has been in print for ages. There's lots of this sort of literature running around in print form. Filtering this kind of info is futile.
True, there is indeed
November 22, 2008 - 19:28 ET by RR GOPTrue, there is indeed precedent. I'm thinking that if you Google "Obama sucks" or something then you're linked to an illegal site and then they have you.
In fact, all they have to do is lean on the ISPs and they'll buckle. Also, remember that the authorities have had about 15 years experience in tracking down perverts on the 'net and in newsgroups.
Come to think of it, the RIAA might be the ones to hire for a government contract.
As for the bombs, think of all the pre-internet terrorists who made and set off bombs. There have always been resources for bomb making-they're called chemistry textbooks and libraries.
One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.