Rep. Markey Warns About Right-Wing Misinformation: Net Neutrality May Be The Next ‘Death Panels’
Rep. Markey Warns About Right-Wing Misinformation: Net Neutrality May Be The Next ‘Death Panels’
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission voted to move forward with regulations to preserve the open architecture of the Internet. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to make our current system’s “net neutrality” official by ensuring that broadband providers “cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications” and are “transparent about their network management practices.” That same day, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced legislation to block the FCC, inexplicably arguing that preserving net neutrality would be a “government takeover of the Internet.”
Yesterday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) held a conference call with bloggers to discuss net neutrality. He and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) have introduced legislation — which currently has seven co-sponsors — to “establish overarching national broadband policy and ensures an open and consumer oriented Internet.” Markey stressed the importance of fighting “misinformation,” invoking death panels and the other red herrings the right wing slung into this summer’s health care debate:
As you all know, a lot is being written and said about what open Internet requirements would mean for broadband investment innovation and consumers. [...]
It’s almost as though some people want to have their own equivalent of “death panels” that we had in the health care debate back in August. That was a red herring that took us off the main point of providing health care to everyone, for a month or six weeks. Now we’ve got that straightened out, but we have to battle hard to make sure the misinformation is responded and responded to in a very brief period of time.
Watch it:
Fox News host Glenn Beck has been fear-mongering on net neutrality for weeks, saying that the Obama administration is trying to shut down freedom of speech. “You have a freedom of speech or the government,” said Beck last week. “You can’t really have both.” He’s been getting his talking points from Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity, who also fueled Beck’s campaign against former Obama adviser Van Jones. Some telecom companies — which, along with the cable industry, is driving opposition to an open Internet — have begun astroturfing efforts as well.
The telecom and cable industries are the ones interested in controlling access to information on the Internet. What the FCC’s regulations on net neutrality would do are ensure that the Internet remains an open, non-discriminatory marketplace of ideas, rather than a pay-for-play system where broadband providers could make certain companies’ sites run faster if they’re willing to dole out large sums of money.
Net neutrality is essential to free speech, which both the Christian Coalition and the Gun Owners of America have acknowledged. From a 2008 testimony by Michele Combs, the Christian Coalition’s vice president of communications:
Consequently, the reason the Christian Coalition supports Net Neutrality is simple. We believe that organizations such as the Christian Coalition should be able to continue to use the Internet to communicate with our members and with a worldwide audience without a phone or cable company snooping in on our communications and deciding whether to allow a particular communication to proceed, slow it down, or offer to speed it up if the author pays extra to be on the “fast lane.”
Free Press has put together a report here debunking some of the myths on net neutrality, and our Progress Report today has more information.
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eBay refuses to allow auction for Roeder’s defense fund.
eBay refuses to allow auction for Roeder’s defense fund.
The Kansas City Star is reporting that eBay has decided to prevent a planned online auction organized to support the defense fund of Scott Roeder, the accused murder of Dr. George Tiller. EBay said that the auction violated its policy against “offensive material” and would not be allowed. EBay made its announcement on the same day the family of Dr. George Tiller issued a personal appeal to the company to intervene and prevent the scheduled auction:
“These materials contain hate messages, glorify violence against abortion doctors who provide constitutionally protected medical services, and instruct on means of violence, including bombing, of abortion clinics,” said Lee Thompson, an attorney for the Tiller family, in a letter sent to eBay on Tuesday and approved by Tiller’s widow, Jeanne Tiller. “We urge you to deny access to the resources of eBay for this reprehensible and vile ‘auction.’”
The decision by eBay followed a week of increasing national criticism. Anti-choice activists organized the auction to help fund Roeder’s defense, and items being donated included “an Army of God manual, a prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons, and several autographed drawings submitted by Roeder.”
Will the RNC apologize for racist Facebook photo?
Will the RNC apologize for racist Facebook photo?
Since Oct. 20, the Republican National Committee’s Facebook page has had a picture of President Obama with a caption reading “Miscegenation is a crime against American values”:
As Raw Story notes, the RNC finally took the photo down today, after readers at Democratic Underground first began discussing it on Sunday. While it’s likely that the RNC “wasn’t aware the racist photo was on their page and it wasn’t produced or posted by anyone at the RNC,” the group had attacked MoveOn.org for a similar incident in 2004. As Chris Harris at Media Matters Action Network notes, when “a web user posted a self-produced web video that compared President Bush to Hitler as part of a MoveOn.org video contest, the RNC acted as if the video had been produced by MoveOn itself.” According to the National Journal:
“This is the worst and most vile form of political hate speech,” Republican National Committee spokesman Ed Gillespie proclaimed. “MoveOn.org should apologize.”
Boyd did just that, expressing “deep regret” that the ads made it through MoveOn’s filtering process, and promising to scrutinize such material in the future. Pariser emphasized that MoveOn had not produced the ads, not aired them, not endorsed them in the voting, and had removed them from the Web site –adding that the RNC had put them on its Web site to score points. Still, the damage had been done.
Will the RNC now issue a public apology?
John McCain — ‘Tech Troglodyte’ And Top Recipient Of Telecom Cash — Unveils Bill To Block Net Neutrality
John McCain — ‘Tech Troglodyte’ And Top Recipient Of Telecom Cash — Unveils Bill To Block Net Neutrality
On Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) became the Republican Party’s lead man on technology issues (and probably made Glenn Beck a happy man) by introducing the “Internet Freedom Act.” The legislation would prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from making sure that Internet service providers don’t create a pay-for-play system where they could selectively block or slow content and applications. McCain called these net neutrality rules a “government takeover of the Internet.” From his press release:
This government takeover of the Internet will stifle innovation, in turn slowing our economic turnaround and further depressing an already anemic job market. Outside of health care, the technology industry is the nation’s fastest growing job market. Innovation and job growth in this sector of our economy is the key to America’s future prosperity. In 2008, while most industries were slashing jobs in the worst economy in nearly 30 years, high tech industries actually added over 77,000 good high-paying jobs. Just this month, Google and Yahoo both released positive earnings reports.
First of all, it’s ironic that McCain cites Google and Yahoo as examples of why net neutrality rules need to be blocked. In fact, both companies have said that without such measures, the “longstanding openness of the Internet” will be threatened. From a letter they wrote to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in 2006:
Until FCC decisions made last summer, consumers’ ability to choose the content and services they want via their broadband connections was assured by regulatory safeguards. … This “innovation without permission” has fueled phenomenal economic growth, productivity gains, and global leadership for our nation’s high tech companies.
To preserve this environment, we urge the Committee to include language that directly addresses broadband network operators’ ability to manipulate what consumers will see and do online.
However, telecoms largely support blocking net neutrality rules, and McCain is a long-time friend of these businesses. McCain was the top recipient of campaign contributions from the telecom industry, taking in $894,379 in the past two years.
Even as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee from 1997 to 2001 and again from 2003 to 2005, McCain made sure to craft technology rules that benefited his campaign donors. He opposed a program designed to provide discounts to schools and libraries to connect to the Internet and supported large telecom mergers.
Of course, the GOP point man on technology issues is someone who, just last year, called himself a computer “illiterate who has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance that I can get.” In July 2008, he said he has “never felt the particular need to e-mail.” As former FCC chairman Reed Hundt has explained, “Basically, John is a technological troglodyte, and proud of it” — and we’re now supposed to trust him to shape the way we use the Internet.
Telecoms, Internet service providers -- they already have a kind of monopoly. The idea here [with net neturality] is to prevent them from abusing that monopoly. ... They want freedom all right. They want to find new ways to charge us more money. [...]Whenever there's a fight on the Internet, it's always good to side with the geeks who built the Internet, rather than the fat-cat telecom lobbyists.
After Twitter shuts down GOP accounts impersonating Dems, party complains of ‘free speech’ infringements.
After Twitter shuts down GOP accounts impersonating Dems, party complains of ‘free speech’ infringements.
Twitter has shut down 33 fake accounts created by Connecticut Republicans meant to impersonate Democratic state representatives. According to the Hartford Advocate, the GOP scheme was designed “to send out posts under the Democrats’ names mocking the liberal tax-and-spend bastards.” Twitter strictly forbids impersonation “intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others” on its site. However, the state GOP chairman is now complaining that Republicans’ “free speech” rights are being violated:
“That’s unfortunate,” was state Republican Chairman Chris Healy’s response when told of Twitter, Inc.’s decision. “I’m not quite sure what the issue is, other than that the Democrats were successful in stopping free speech.”
Healy’s party may have suffered a setback with the loss of its Twitter campaign, but Republicans are still operating the 33 Web sites they created using the names of those same Democratic lawmakers. As far as anyone knows, this is the first time any state party has used such a tactic to mock its state opponents.
Healy is also claiming that Democrats are protesting the fake sites because they’re just jealous: “They didn’t think of it first, so that’s why they’re whining.” But political communications experts say that the sites are clearly unethical and “deceptive.”
(HT: Blue Mass Group)
‘What Up?’ RNC changes the name of widely mocked blog to ‘Change the Game,’ ditches floating Steele character.
‘What Up?’ RNC changes the name of widely mocked blog to ‘Change the Game,’ ditches floating Steele character.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) had a rough day yesterday as it tried to launch the new GOP.com. Visitors noticed telling gaps on the site (such as an empty “Future Leaders” section), significant distortions (like naming baseball legend and registered independent Jackie Robinson a “great Republican“), the accidental disclosure of RNC passwords and files, and constant outages. But one of the most widely mocked parts of the site was Chairman Michael Steele’s blog called “What Up?”
After facing a day of ridicule, the RNC has quietly switched the name of the blog to “Change the Game.” It also ditched the floating Steele figure that would start walking and talking onto your screen. Robinson, however, is still listed as a Republican, and there are still no GOP accomplishments listed after 2004. Despite yesterday’s missteps, Steele said that he was happy about yesterday’s roll-out — especially when the site crashed and no one could access it. “This thing has exploded off the blocks,” Steele insisted. “It’s a good thing when you get another email from [RNC New Media Director Todd Herman] saying, ‘It’s down again.’” Hot Air’s Allahpundit disagreed, however, noting the universal ridicule the site engendered yesterday: “Way to score an own goal, pal, completely needlessly and amateurishly.”
RNC’s New Website Reflecting Steele’s ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop’ Riddled With Errors, Widely Panned
RNC’s New Website Reflecting Steele’s ‘Urban-Suburban Hip-Hop’ Riddled With Errors, Widely Panned
The Republican National Committee (RNC) proudly launched its new website at GOP.com today, saying that it “will promote increased grassroots participation and innovation, better communication, improved platform compatibility and smarter marketing and fundraising tools for the GOP.” When a visitor goes to the site, the first thing he or she sees is a miniature floating Michael Steele walking onto the page with a greeting (similar in style to the old Microsoft Word Office Assistant):
The RNC press release announcing the site highlighted its widgets, tie-ins to other social media networks, and open platform. But here are the real highlights of the site (which is being widely mocked):
– Michael Steele’s Blog Called ‘What Up?’: In his first post, titled “Let me ask you,” Steele talks about how he finds the Internet an “amazing platform” for “life.”
– No Future Leaders: The new RNC site dedicates a section to “Future Leaders” of the GOP, but after it launched, the page was still empty. It has now been updated asking people to submit the names of possible future leaders.
– Misnaming Jackie Robinson A GOP ‘Hero’: The RNC tries to portray the party as diverse on its GOP ‘Heroes’ page (even though there is currently only one non-Hispanic minority serving as a Republican in the House and the Senate and only two percent of blacks identify as Republican), with people of color making up almost half the list. However, one of the people listed as a “great Republican” is baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who actually identified himself as an independent. In fact, Robinson spoke out about the “hatred” he saw at the 1964 GOP convention, where Barry Goldwater won the nomination. He called it “one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life.”
– Lists The ‘Iraw’ War As A Republican Accomplishment: The GOP takes ownership of Operation Iraqi Freedom at its ‘Accomplishments’ page, writing, “Five months later, in March 2003 President Bush ordered 250,000 U.S. troops into Iraw.” (View a screenshot here.)
According to GOP new media strategist Mindy Finn, the RNC vetted all the pictures of diverse faces at the top of the site to make sure they’re all Republicans.
The new site is even being ridiculed by conservatives, with Jillian Bandes writing at Townhall.com, “Is Michael Steele’s New RNC Blog Really Called ‘What Up?’ Yes. Yes it is. ::head hits keyboard::.”
Secret Service investigating Facebook poll asking ‘Should Obama be killed?’
Secret Service investigating Facebook poll asking ‘Should Obama be killed?’
On Saturday, a user on Facebook posted a poll asking, “Should Obama be killed?” The blogger GottaLaff spotted the poll yesterday and called the Secret Service, which has now launched an investigation. “We are aware of [the poll], and we will take the appropriate investigative steps,” said Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman. “We take these things seriously.” Facebook has taken down the offensive poll and disabled the third-party application that was used to create it. Barry Schnitt, Facebook’s spokesman for policy, also told ThinkProgress that the company was following up with the developer to make sure that the application has “better procedures in place going forward to monitor their user-generated content.”
FCC Commissioners Respond To Right-Wing Attacks On Lloyd: ‘He’s Not Working On Fairness Doctrine Issues’
FCC Commissioners Respond To Right-Wing Attacks On Lloyd: ‘He’s Not Working On Fairness Doctrine Issues’
One of the far right’s newest targets is Mark Lloyd, the Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer at the FCC, who has previously served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Michael Savage has called Lloyd a “neo-Nazi” and “piece of garbage,” adding that Lloyd’s title is “code word for the KGB.” Glenn Beck has dubbed him Obama’s “diversity czar” who wants to “clamp down on my freedom of speech.” At issue is a CAP/Free Press report Lloyd co-authored in 2007 called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio,” which argues for more localism and diversity in the media.
At yesterday’s House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on FCC oversight, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) decided to carry the right wing’s water, objecting to the “strongly opinionated” Lloyd:
The information from Mr. Lloyd would indicate he’s not for putting Fairness Doctrine back in, he’s just for a whole different scheme that gets to the same outcome. I hope we don’t have a government speech czar in place that’s going to drive a whole different mechanism through the rule-making and challenging the licensees.
FCC Chairman Genachowski strongly defended Lloyd, unequivocally stating that the commission will not “engage in any censorship of broadcasters or anyone in the media on the basis of political views and opinions.” He also underscored the importance of promoting media diversity:
Diversity is another area where for a very long time there has been — I think there still is — a bipartisan consensus that it is an important objective of the communications policy in the FCC. The diversity goals are mentioned in hundreds of FCC decisions, they’re explicitly mentioned in the communications act, the Supreme Court has acknowledged it’s a role, and the idea of having diversity as an objective of the FCC and having staff focused on it seems to be a natural extension. [...]
He’s not working on Fairness Doctrine issues, he’s not working on censorship issues, he’s not working on these issues. He’s working on opportunity issues, primarily now around broadband adoption, focusing on making sure that broadband is available to all Americans.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps stressed that Lloyd is highly respected in the communications community and was instrumental in facilitating the DTV transition by reading out to non-traditional stakeholders. “[W]e want a place of intellectual firmament and different ideas” at the FCC, but “we rely on the judgment of the organization and the people at the top of the organization to make intelligent decisions about where we’re going,” said Copps. “As for the personal characteristics of this particular individual, I think they are of the highest, and I, for one, am pleased he’s at the FCC.” Watch it:
So basically, the right wing — following the lead of Rush Limbaugh and Beck — is distorting a report on media diversity to fear-monger about a doctrine that few support and attack a man who will have nothing to do with implementing policy at the FCC.
Obama Administration To Preserve Bush-Era Policy Of Intrusive Laptop Searches
Obama Administration To Preserve Bush-Era Policy Of Intrusive Laptop Searches
In June 2008, a federal appeals court ruled that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers can search travelers’ laptops and copy their entire contents without probable cause or “reasonable suspicion.” CBP officers “can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States,” including information from laptops and other electronic devices. A CBP official dismissed growing public concern regarding this draconian policy at the time, saying the policy is akin to simply searching one’s backpack (it’s not).
The Washington Post reports today that the Obama administration will largely continue this policy:
The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search — without suspicion of wrongdoing — the contents of a traveler’s laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections.
The policy, disclosed Thursday in a pair of Department of Homeland Security directives, describes more fully than did the Bush administration the procedures by which travelers’ laptops, iPods, cameras and other digital devices can be searched and seized when they cross a U.S. border.
Privacy law expert Peter Swire noted a number of problems with this severely intrusive policy, namely that it limits privacy, free speech and business secrets, sets bad precedent for other more untrustworthy regimes throughout the world, and could discourage foreign travel to the U.S.
Obama administration officials say that more protections have been put in place. In one new “oversight,” CBP officers “should now generally take no more than 5 days” to conduct searchers (more than enough time to copy the entire contents of large hard drives). Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the new policy “strike[s] the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers.” Civil Liberties advocates disagree:
“Under the policy begun by Bush and now continued by Obama, the government can open your laptop and read your medical records, financial records, e-mails, work product and personal correspondence — all without any suspicion of illegal activity,” said Elizabeth Goitein, who leads the liberty and national security project at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice.
The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Electronic Frontier Foundation mobilized action campaigns last year calling on citizens to urge the federal government to abandon this policy. The Post reports that according to DHS data, “[b]etween October 2008 and Aug. 11, more than 221 million travelers passed through CBP checkpoints. About 1,000 laptop searches were performed, only 46 in-depth.”
FACT CHECK: The Right-Wing Smear Campaign Against Mark Lloyd
FACT CHECK: The Right-Wing Smear Campaign Against Mark Lloyd
Since the FCC appointed Mark Lloyd as the agency’s Chief Diversity Officer/Associate General Counsel on July 29, conservatives have made him their new target in the ongoing campaign to baselessly warn about the reemergence of the Fairness Doctrine.
The most absurd attacks have come from pundits like right-wing radio host Michael Savage, who has called Lloyd a “neo-Nazi” and “piece of garbage” intent on closing down “conservatives in the media.” He said that Lloyd’s title — Chief Diversity Officer — is “code word for the KGB.” For the record, Lloyd has a distinguished career on communications policy issues. Most recently he was a vice president at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He taught communications policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as general counsel to the Benton Foundation, worked as a communications attorney at a major D.C. law firm, and has nearly 20 years of experience in journalism.
The right wing’s main problem with Lloyd is a CAP/Free Press report he co-authored in 2007 called “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio.” The report’s authors explicitly state that they do not think the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated, and Lloyd has since said that he has “no plans or interest” to resurrect the law. Nevertheless, conservatives are insisting that that goal is really Lloyd’s secret plan.
Unfortunately, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has agreed to do the far right’s bidding. Last week, he wrote a letter to the FCC objecting to Lloyd’s appointment:
Simply put, I strongly disagree with Mr. Lloyd. I do not believe that more regulation, more taxes or fines, or increased government intervention in the commercial radio market will serve the public interest or further the goals of diversifying the marketplace. I am concerned that despite his statements that the Fairness Doctrine is unnecessary, Mr. Lloyd supports a backdoor method of furthering the goals of the Fairness Doctrine by other means.
These claims by Grassley and the right wing are misguided and based on a fundamental misreading — that may be either accidental or deliberate — of the report. A look at some of these myths:
– MYTH #1: Conservative voices will be kicked off the air. The report actually argues that telling radio broadcasters what to put on the air is inappropriate. What the report advocates for are policies that promote local programming, so what’s on the air is responsive to those communities and their advertisers, as opposed to national syndicators and large station group business models. Right now, the regulatory structure pushes out locally-owned, minority-owned, and female-owned stations. Grassley’s fear of “diversifying the marketplace” will not necessarily create more progressive talk radio; it may even get more conservative. It all depends on the on the location and interests of the community.
– MYTH #2: Lloyd wants to impose more taxes and fines on broadcasters. Grassley’s conception of taxes and fines is convoluted and out of context. The report argues that if broadcast stations don’t want to do local programming, they can pay a fine and get out of doing it. That money would go to the local public radio station for local programming.
– MYTH #3: Progressives secretly want a return to the Fairness Doctrine. Even Grassley admits that Lloyd never advocates a return to the Fairness Doctrine. Why? As Lloyd has explained, the Fairness Doctrine “never by itself fostered coverage of important issues in a way that spoke to the diversity of interests in local communities across our country. In the late 1960’s, the supposed golden age of the Fairness Doctrine, the Kerner Commission reported the failure of mainstream media to report on minority communities.”
Approximately 91 percent of weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and just nine percent is progressive. However, “43 percent of regular talk radio listeners identify as conservative, while 23 percent identify as liberal and 30 percent as moderate.” Much of this imbalance was created in the wave of consolidation after the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which “removed the national limit on the number of radio stations that one could own.” What progressives like Lloyd are advocating is not more liberalism, but more localism.
Baucus agitated by people ‘with YouTubes.’
Baucus agitated by people ‘with YouTubes.’
The New York Times has a profile today of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), who has frustrated progressives over his handling of the health care reform process. Protests at town hall meetings across the country have been captured and posted online, but such technology has seemed to elude Baucus:
After speaking at a preventive-care conference here last week, he was swarmed by protesters. Or, in Mr. Baucus’s words, “agitators, whose sole goal was to intimidate, disrupt and not let any meaningful conversation go on.” There were a couple of people in the crowd “with YouTubes,” Mr. Baucus added (meaning cameras), and he posited that the agitators were paid and probably from out of state. (“I could just sense it,” he said.)
Right-wing bloggers at annual conference admit to being ‘outgunned’ by progressives.
Right-wing bloggers at annual conference admit to being ‘outgunned’ by progressives.
ThinkProgress and nearly 2,000 other progressive bloggers and activists are currently in Pittsburgh for the annual Netroots Nation conference. Speakers at the event include White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, Gov. Howard Dean, and President Bill Clinton. But also going on in Pittsburgh is the RightOnline conference for conservative bloggers:
The RightOnline conference starting tomorrow morning at the Sheraton Station Square will have about a quarter of the 2,000 attendees at the liberal conference in the convention center, and only about 20 speakers to the 400 at Netroots. …
Right-wing activists know very well they are being out-gunned by the left online, which is precisely why they are holding the conference. They held the first RightOnline convention in Austin, Texas, to coincide with last year’s Netroots Nation meeting there, too.
Erick Erickson from RedState said that on the right, the focus has been “on punditry as opposed to activism.” “It has been focused on bloggers trying to be the next Rush Limbaugh or the next columnist, not on urging readers to call members of Congress or go to tea parties,” he added.
New Fox Conspiracy: Cash for Clunkers Will Allow Gov’t To Seize ‘All Of Your Personal and Private Information’
New Fox Conspiracy: Cash for Clunkers Will Allow Gov’t To Seize ‘All Of Your Personal and Private Information’
Appearing on Glenn Beck’s Fox News show last week, Fox anchor Kimberly Guilfoyle proposed the latest right-wing conspiracy theory about the Car Allowance Rebate System (commonly referred to as “cash for clunkers”) — that it is a secret plot to allow the government to control your computer:
GUILFOYLE: They are jumping right inside you, seizing all of your personal and private information, and absolutely legal, Glenn, they can do it [...] They can continue to track you, basically forever, once they’ve tapped into your system, the government of course has, like, malware systems, and tracking cookies, and they can tap in any time they want.
Watch it:
Guilfoyle may be worried about the “Terms of Service” on a government site. But as Hugh D’Andrade at the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, these agreements do not give the government the right to tap into your system “any time they want.” “Moreover, the law has long forbidden the government from requiring you to give up unrelated constitutional rights (here the 4th Amendment right to be free from search and seizure) as a condition of receiving discretionary government benefits like participation in the Cars [sic] for Clunkers program,” adds D’Andrade.
The Guilfoyle-Beck conspiracy theory has been making rounds at both conservative blogs and conspiracy websites.
It joins other conservative attacks against the CARS program, which has been so successful that it has spurred the first increase in sales from any U.S.-based automaker since November 2007. The House recently voted to add an additional $2 billion to the program, and the Senate is expected to vote this week on replenishing its funds.
REPORT: A Statistical Analysis Of Policy Trends And Abnormalities In Sarah Palin’s Tweets
REPORT: A Statistical Analysis Of Policy Trends And Abnormalities In Sarah Palin’s Tweets
After stepping down on Sunday morning, Sarah Palin posted her final Twitter update to her @AKGovSarahPalin account, which had close to 125k followers. With Palin’s refusal to specifically address her post-gubernatorial plans, speculation has run rampant over what she intends to accomplish out of office. She is reportedly considering joining the ranks of the esteemed talk radio punditry.
An analysis of Palin’s Twitter activity in the weeks leading up to her final @AKGovSarahPalin update on Sunday may provide the best insight into what issue most concerns the former vice presidential nominee.
A comprehensive analysis of Palin’s last two months of Twitter updates (May 26-July 26) reveals that she mentioned energy 53 times out of 400 updates, far more than any other single issue. That is nearly 4 times as many mentions than the economy, and just short of 11 times the mentions of health care. A word cloud based on her Twitter activity reinforces the fact that Palin has been focusing her efforts on leading the GOP’s opposition to clean energy reform. Here’s a chart tracking Palin’s tweets:
Some of Palin’s energy policy insights:
Attacking Cap-and-Trade: “DC plan for Cap & Trade (huge tax) hurts AK’s potential to supply more than 20% of US energy incl nat gas pipeline, see WashPost OpEd today” 9:16 AM Jul 14th
Drill Baby Drill: “Alaska’s role is to provide domestic energy leading to less reliance on foreign sources…” 10:11 AM May 27th
Drill Baby Drill Pt. 2: “Disappointed Congress once again voted to keep Americans dependent on foreign energy by keeping ANWR closed.” 5:39 PM Jun 10th
Drill Baby Drill Pt. 3: “EIA estimates US energy consumption will INCREASE by 44% in next 20 yrs. We MUST utilize our local energy sources. http://tinyurl.com/lesekh” 3:17 PM Jun 12th
Drill Baby Drill Pt. 4: “Great comments re safe offshore drilling by Lt Gov Parnell published today, asks Interior Dept to use tools in hand to meet court’s concerns” 6:43 AM Jun 17th
As Think Progress noted recently, Newt Gingrich has been touting Palin as a conservative leader on energy issues. On July 13, Palin wrote an op-ed slamming the cap-and-trade measure as “an enormous threat to our economy,” in spite of her previous support for capping carbon emissions. And last week, MoveOn began airing ads calling Palin “the new face of Republican opposition to clean energy.” Palin continues along the same tired Republican trajectory on energy: continued dependence on fossil fuels combined with subsidies to the oil, coal, and nuclear industries.
Watch it:
Twitter blocked on White House computers.
Twitter blocked on White House computers.
The Obama White House has an active Twitter feed, with more than 763,000 followers. However, not all administration staffers have access to the service. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told C-Span this morning that “Twitter is blocked on White House computers”:
CSPAN: By the way, are you personally twittering?
GIBBS: No, for some reason, Twitter is blocked on White House computers, so — I have to say, I’m on camera enough that I think people have a decent sense of what I’m doing minus twittering.
Watch it:
Carl Malamud, President of Public.Resource.org, wrote on Twitter, “Disabling twitter in Obama whitehouse.gov like disabling telegraph in Lincoln whitehouse.gov, rotary phone in Bush. Need to stay current!” Last month, Mother Jones’ David Corn reported that “White House aides working on new media do have access to Twitter on their office computers,” but for security reasons, other staffers are blocked.
If you’re not currently sitting in the White House, please follow ThinkProgress on Twitter.
Sen. Specter posts on Twitter that he hearts Joe Sestak, then immediately deletes it.
Sen. Specter posts on Twitter that he hearts Joe Sestak, then immediately deletes it.
Sen. Arlen Specter’s official Twitter page had a post up yesterday at 4:42pm ET using the heart symbol — <3 — to express his affection for his Democratic primary challenger:
The Tweet was deleted after just a few minutes, but it can still be accessed via Tweleted. The next tweet from Sen. Specter simply noted that he, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), and Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) spoke at a labor rally in Pittsburgh. ThinkProgress contacted Specter’s Senate office about the deletion, but a spokesperson said that the campaign was responsible for the Twitter page. We have not yet received a response from the campaign staff.
The post yesterday was a most unlikely and accidental typo. The intended message was "& @JoeSestak & @USRepMikeDoyle speak at labor rally on Saturday: http://bit.ly/XxxNj" With the link leading to a YouTube video of the labor rally in Pittsburgh on Saturday. When we went to highlight the incorrect text, we accidentally clicked update.
Coleman urges Republicans to be more tech-savvy by competing on the ‘ethernet.’
Coleman urges Republicans to be more tech-savvy by competing on the ‘ethernet.’
Over the past few months, improving their web presence has become a hot topic for conservatives. At a debate earlier this year, candidates for the chairmanship of the RNC boasted about the number of followers they had on Twitter and friends on Facebook. Yesterday, in an interview at the Conservative Heartland Leadership Council in St. Paul, former Minnesota Republican senator Norm Coleman inadvertently highlighted the “tech gap” between conservatives and progressives when he encouraged conservatives to compete with progressives on the “ethernet“:
“In the end, we need to compete, as I’ve said before, we need to compete in each and every kind of forum,” said Coleman. “And whether it’s on the ground traditionally, or today it’s in — it’s in the ethernet. It’s in the — you know, it’s online. It’s in the blogs, it’s Twitter, it’s Facebook, and the next iteration.”
Watch it:
(HT: Minnesota Independent)
O’Reilly: Protesters who use the Internet to organize are just like child molesters.
O’Reilly: Protesters who use the Internet to organize are just like child molesters.
Thousands of protesters have gathered in London ahead of the G20 summit, many of them angry over a multi-million-dollar pension paid out to a failed executive at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Host Jon Scott asked Bill O’Reilly what he thought of “these nuts,” and O’Reilly said “the Internet’s driving this kind of stuff” — including protesters and, apparently, child molesters:
The Internet’s driving this kind of stuff. … There was always this crew, this anarchist crew, these people can’t fit into society, they’re angry for whatever reason, they want to cause trouble. They’ve always been there. But now they’re coordinated by the internet, now they can talk to each other. It’s like child molesters, you know? I mean, child molesters have always been around but now they got a place to go and gather and do their evil deeds.
Watch it:
O’Reilly has never been a fan of the Internet. Last fall, he decried its well-known liberal bias, and he frequently lashes out at bloggers and the blogosphere in general. No wonder he said he “doesn’t really go” on the Internet.
Iran considering the death penalty for ‘offensive’ bloggers.
Iran considering the death penalty for ‘offensive’ bloggers.
Al Jazeera’s Nazanin Sadri reports that Iran is considering a new law that would allow the death penalty for “offensive” bloggers:
Under a strict interpretation of Islamic law, Individuals can be sentenced to death for two main categories of crime. The first is murder. The second is known as ‘fasad,’ which means spreading mischief or undermining the authority or stability of the state. What that constitutes is open to interpretation. In the past it has been applied to rape, adultery, drug-related offenses, and homosexual behavior. Iran now wants to introduce the death penalty for bloggers who write about and promote illegal activities.
Watch Sadri’s report:
According to the report, there are about 60,000 active bloggers in Iran, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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