UK’s Cameron announces internet censorship plan

Could it inspire the American right?

BBC: Most households in the UK will have pornography blocked by their internet provider unless they choose to receive it, David Cameron has announced.

In addition, the prime minister said possessing online pornography depicting rape would become illegal in England and Wales - in line with Scotland.

Mr Cameron warned in a speech that access to online pornography was “corroding childhood".

The new measures will apply to both existing and new customers.

Cameron says he expects service providers to push back against the plan, but that he could “force action" by changing the law — yes, this is some sort of non-democratic decree or demand., not legislation. He also makes it clear he has no idea how to go about doing this, telling ISP to figure it out. As the BBC put it, “if there were ‘technical obstacles,’ firms should use their ‘greatest brains’ to overcome them." In addition to websites being blocked, he said that “horrific" search terms would be “blacklisted," so they return no results.

Of course, this sort of censorship is basically pointlless. Ask China. There are plenty of ways around government roadblocks.

It’s interesting though; here in America, the last big push to censor adult content on the internet was way back when the public net was still young, during the Clinton administration. Since then, the idea’s come up from time to time, but no serious effort has ever been made. You wonder if the religious right in America, already freaking out about the rapidly expanding acceptance of gay rights, will renew their calls for censorship, inspired by Cameron’s move here — after all, they argue that homosexuality is the result of being “turned," not an aspect of yourself you were born with. It would make sense that some would believe that gay porn will turn you gay and therefore want to limit exposure. In any case, the thought of fifth graders giggling while they google up “butts" has got to scare the bejeezus out of the rightwing bejeezus-fearing crowd.

Back in the Clinton years, one of the things that defeated censorship was the fact that filtering software was largely imaginary and wholly unworkable. That’s probably not the case now. Any challenge to an American push for censorship would likely be based on the First Amendment. One would hope the Tea Partiers would be as diligent in defending the First Amendment as they are over-the-top in defending the Second, resulting in a break among the Tea Party and the religious right. But, frankly, I have my doubts. They’re all for liberty until they’re for oppression — and they’re for oppression one helluva lot more often.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Following NSA revelations, Army blocks access to The Guardian

Montery Herald: The Army admitted Thursday to not only restricting access to The Guardian news website at the Presidio of Monterey, as reported in Thursday’s Herald, but Armywide.

Presidio employees said the site had been blocked since The Guardian broke stories on data collection by the National Security Agency.

Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email the Army is filtering “some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks."

He wrote it is routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative “network hygiene" measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

“We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security," he wrote, “however, there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information."

In a later phone call, Van Vleet said the filter of classified information on public websites was “Armywide" and did not originate at the Presidio.

Presidio employees described how they could access the U.S. site, www.guardiannews.com, but were blocked from articles, such as those about the NSA, that redirected to the British site.

Seems kind of pointless, unless they’re also blocking cable and broadcast news. Kind of a case of locking the barn door after the horse got out. It’s like trying to patch a leak in cheesecloth. It really is quite futile. It’s not going to limit the spread of the info, it just makes the Army look pissy and like it’s punishing The Guardian by denying it web traffic.

[image by IsaacMao]

Republicans defend freedom — except for most of the time

ThinkProgress: The Central Carolina Community College has stopped airing “The Rant,” a weekly radio political program, after North Carolina State Rep. Mike C. Stone (R) objected to its commentary.

Stone’s state legislative office complained to the college’s president after one of the program’s hosts criticized Stone’s proposals to subvert local control and add more partisanship to the political process.

NC Policy Watch

reported Friday that, following the critical editorial against Stone’s proposals, Stone’s legislative assistant sent CCCC President T.E. “Bud” Marchant an email asking if the program is affiliated with the college. A day later, Stone’s aide followed up with more questions from the second-term legislator…

Two days after the first email, “The Rant” was off the air.

Look at all the big government oppression here: Stone wants government to stick its big nose in local decision-making and, when someone complains about it, here comes the censor.

The GOP’s America, where you can use guns to protect your freedom to shut the hell up and do as your Republican overlords say.

Irony is dead: pro-gun control sign censored because of a lack of permit

Democrat and Chronicle:

The gun control sign on Lake Road in Webster, [New York] has been covered up because it violates the town’s sign ordinance, according to the town codes enforcement officer.

There is a four-by-eight-foot billboard on the lot at 185 Lake Road, where John Kohut’s house used to stand. It reads, in red block lettering, “HOW MANY DEATHS WILL IT TAKE ‘TIL WE KNOW TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE DIED?”

It was first put up in January and stayed there until earlier this week, when it was covered by a black tarpaulin on which someone spray-painted, “CENSORED.”

George Winter, the town’s code enforcement officer, said the town looked into the sign after someone complained.

It’s pretty clear that people complaining didn’t have a problem with the sign itself, so much with the message. I’m sure these lunkheads think they’re patriots nd they are wrong.

“Second Amendment = sacrosanct. First Amendment = some stupid Bob Dylan song or something. Cover it up,” is not a patriot’s reasoning.

Griper Blade: EPA Protects Industry from Regulation

Go to the Environmental Protection Agency's website and you'll find this; "The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people."

Turns out, under the Bush administration, this is no longer true. Let me go ahead and fix that statement to make it more honest; "The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect industry from regulation. Since 2004, EPA has been working for a less restrictive business environment for the American and international corporate world."

Under the Bush administration, the EPA has been a non-enforcement entity, existing solely to pretend that some environmental protections are in force. The EPA doesn't waste a lot of time enforcing the law or regulating industry -- despite the fact that that's the agency's entire purpose.

The latest scandal (or what would be a scandal if the media focused on things that actually matter) is that the EPA is covering for industries that not only harm the environment, but harm people who happen to live in that environment. For the record, that's everybody.

The Bush administration is undermining the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to determine health dangers of toxic chemicals by letting nonscientists have a bigger -- often secret -- role, congressional investigators say in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

The administration's decision to give the Defense Department and other agencies an early role in the process adds to years of delay in acting on harmful chemicals and jeopardizes the program's credibility, the Government Accountability Office concluded.

At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine if they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses.

A new review process begun by the White House in 2004 is adding more speed bumps for EPA scientists, the GAO said in its report, which will be the subject of a Senate Environment Committee hearing Tuesday. A formal policy effectively doubling the number of steps was adopted two weeks ago...

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Diss Bush or March at Peace Rally and You're on a Watchlist

Watch what you do, folks. And watch what you say...

Raw Story:

A top Constitutional scholar from Princeton who gave a televised speech that slammed President George W. Bush's executive overreach recently learned that he had been added to the Transportation Security Administration's terrorist watch list. He shared his experience this weekend at the law blog Balkinization.

[...]

"i was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list," he said.

When inquiring with a clerk why he was on the list, Murphy was asked if he had participated in any peace marches.

"We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," a clerk said.

Murphy then explained that he had not marched, but had "in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution."

The clerk responded, "That'll do it."

Hey Bush, screw you. I'll drive.