PCNAA is censorship & fascist

Been gone long time. Who cares?

I am a little fired up today. And it's not because of the Oil Spill in the Gulf. After 8 weeks and only some progress being made while BP looks worse than some of the sea turtles they've killed.... there's not much I can do to upstage Heyward and Svanberg. They're doing just fine making things worse on their own!

No, I want to blog about something that everyone - EVERYONE - needs to pay attention to. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) has introduced legislation that would give the President the power to shut down parts of the internet in so-called emergency situations.

This bill, S.3480, would "amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and other laws to enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastructure of the United States." This bill has currently been referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Ostensibly, the bill would be for stopping cyber attacks on important and vital government infrastructure. Watch Transformers. Ya know, the part where they're like "shut it down!" and they unplug a server (which makes me laugh... like it would be so easily available and easy to do...) and they all scramble because of DoD information that the Decepticons could get? That may be the situation that is forseen by this bill.

But the reality is, it would probably be used to shut down people who are talking about things the government doesn't like. So this slippery slop brings me to the most cherished piece of government documents: The 1st amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

I consider what I do in the blogosphere to be amateur journalism. I consider what many of my friends who write about conspiracies, vast or otherwise, ludicrous or otherwise, to be amateur journalists. In other words, we study, research and analyze subjects, events, ideas and people but we don't get paid what Anderson Cooper gets paid. We get paid nothing.

I as a Libertarian, find myself at odds often with both parties. So I don't get much love. The government would probably find me dangerous if I owned more guns. But there are always individuals and then there are groups whom the government can deem threats to national security. And for some businesses that require the internet to conduct business, this could be used to destroy them.

So read the bill and decide for yourself in good amateur journalist fashion whether this bill is constitutional or not. Then write someone on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Here's a list of all of them.

• Joe Lieberman, Connecticut, Chairman
• Carl Levin, Michigan
• Daniel Akaka, Hawaii
• Thomas R. Carper, Delaware
• Mark Pryor, Arkansas
• Mary Landrieu, Louisiana
• Claire McCaskill, Missouri
• Jon Tester, Montana
• Roland Burris, Illinois
• Ted Kaufman, Delaware
• Susan Collins, Maine, Ranking Member
• Tom Coburn, Oklahoma
• Scott Brown, Massachusetts
• John McCain, Arizona
• George Voinovich, Ohio
• John Ensign, Nevada
• Lindsey Graham, South Carolina

If it does pass through committee, then write your own senator.

McCain wins big; Dems split vote

So, Super Tuesday has happened.

Mike Huckabee was definitely the surprising force of the night. He started out winning West Virginia which had a convention. This began Mitt Romney's cry that there was some backroom deal between McCain and Huckabee. Here's why: the WV convention is basically run as two rounds of voting. After the first round, when the McCain supporters realized there was no way they could win, moved their support to Huckabee.

I will address this on two fronts. First, there has been some suspicion that McCain has bee n making deals ala Survivor to gain the nomination of the Republican Party. It has been suggested that he asked Thompson, who stood no legitimate chance of winning, to stay in through South Carolina to run interference for McCain. The same thing is believed to have occurred with Rudy Guiliani in Florida. Guiliani and McCain are known to be friends as Thompson is as well. McCain tends to appeal the center and has political friends who are centrists. I'll even throw Colin Powell in there though I've never read that they were friends but I can definitely see the two of them getting along. Hell, Joe Lieberman is running around with McCain!!! Maybe that bothers the conservatives: a liberal Connecticut Orthodox Jew is supporting a Republican.

Second, that's politics!!!! Anyone knows that those things happen. Its the nature of the game. Even though Romney outspent both his opponents by millions, it was all for not. And he cried foul after that West Virginia convention which was the first contest called of the day. What a whiny, little pussy!

Though I will grant this: McCain is winning for some unexplainable reason. He didn't win the conservative vote. The southern Cons went for Huckabee and the Northern cons went for Romney. He won amongst moderate Republicans who are anti-war (which he is not) and those in favor of aboritionrights (which I won't try to qualify him on. He is pro-life but has also been on record saying the alternative would be worse). I like him because he is pragmatic. I like someone who is more concerned with being practical and making sense than satisfying idealogues who want someone to do their bidding. McCain has been rebellious since about the age of 8 and is unapologetically so. I want a president who thinks for himself. The alternative is a government run by committee.

Radio blowhards are just attacking him. Conservative Talk Radio is just plain babble. These village idiots with their radio soapboxes are ranting about how they cannot stand the other side. Rush Limbaugh vilifies McCain for reaching across the aisle to work with the other party. All Limbaugh is doing is proofing the rest of the country right: Conservatives are smug, hateful and cold people who would rather hate their fellow American than learn to live with them.

And I hate (not really, but it sure sounds good) to break it to Conservative Republicans but he is the last hope for your broken down, mean little party. This is the party that gave us Abraham Lincoln who felt that after the Civil War, the north should reach out to help the South and not grind the Confederate states under the northern boot. Somehow, I feel that empathy is missing.

Americans are tired of the "My way or the highway" approach to politics. It is fracturing this country and is leading us down the path of destruction. People are fed up with neo-conservatism. True conservatism, which is what McCain is closer to, is preferable compared to the shit that Bush, Limbaugh and all their ilk keep shoveling down our throats. I think they're poor sports and bad losers just like Romney.

On the Democratic side there isn't really much to talk about. Hillary lost her voice in the days leading up to the primaries. She was fighting a cold. She cried at one point on Monday. When all was said and done, she had won the more populous states whilst Obama had taken the less populous ones but more of them.

The races coming up on Saturday: Louisiana, the caucus in Washington, Democrats in Nebraska, Republicans in Kansas and as well as the Democratic primary in the Virgin Islands which like American Samoa, can vote in primary but has no voice in the general election. On Sunday, Maine holds its Democratic primary in Maine. There will be a Potomac primary is next Tuesday. This is a primary that I am more interested in. It is the states of Virginia and Maryland and Washington, D.C. Look for LOTS of press on that day. it won't be near the juggernaut that last night was but it will be important.

Tidbits: Clinton saying "missourah". She's from Illinois. She should be saying Misery.