Are "they" planning on closing down DU before the election?

[Botany]

I heard something yesterday that "politically active web sites" are being targeted
by a bill now in congress to close them down for 60 days before the election.
"They" want to make sure things are fair.

It was on Air America and NPR ....

Anybody know anything about this little act on our road to a dictatorship?

thanx

[NYCGirl]

1. How will "they" be doing this if the servers are located overseas? NT

[Botany]

9. I am sure that the NSA is working on the needed technology

What I learned in Ohio 04 was we were ready for another Florida 00 .... but
"they" had moved on.

I think "they" see the blogs as real threats to their control of the media.

[CottonBear]

21. Indymedia's UK servers were seized a while back.

I can't remember the exact details. I believe the action was at the behest of the Bush Administration.

[radio4progressives]

42. indie sites located here were also shut down in 2000..

can't remember which ones now. but it was around the time of the time of the r2k convention... in phillidelphia if memory serves..

[smb]

50. This is why...

...McCain/Feingold should be repealed, and its authors (and Dubya for signing it) should be censured.

[MadMaddie]

2. What does closing down websites have to do with fair election....

They want this to pass so the swiftboaters can do their damage in isolation.

I really despise the * cabal!

[MADem]

3. Well, we'll just have to start a knitting forum over at Yahoo

...and talk about anything other than knitting!

[Taxloss]

4. I would imagine that a European internet host

would be getting a lovely cheque from Skinner and normal service would be resumed pretty quickly.

They won't do that. 2nd Amendment.

[WindRavenX]

6. 2nd? You mean 1st?

I see no way how anything in what the OP said would be remotely legal, or even if it would be attempted.

[Taxloss]

8. 1st amendment, yes, my error as a non-American.

As far as I see, that's not the only amendment it breaches.

[WindRavenX]

13. You're right

It breaches, well, as far as I'm concerned, the whole damn spirit of the Constitution :)

[abbiehoff]

40. It's just a piece of paper, you know.

Somebody famous once said that (fairly recently, I think).

[MissWaverly]

47. Oh, you mean the Bill of Suggestions

I am sure that's what the king calls the Bill of Rights. He had someone go over and turn
off Helen Thomas' mike off at the press conference because he didn't like the question
she asked. So much for freedom of the press.

[Goblinmonger]

32. Oh, too bad

I was looking forward to Taxloss starting a miltia and storming DC. That would have kicked ass.

[Botany]

11. I really don't think "legal" is a concern for these people ..

.... it is about power.

[WindRavenX]

16. They still couldn't get away with it

Let's not loose touch with reality.

Something so bold and so obvious would not sit well with the public-- the Bush Admin. is quite good at taking hacks at our liberty when it's subtle.

[Botany]

22. Look I live in Ohio ..

.... i never thought they would get away with stealing an election either. Hell, "they" loaded
19,000 votes in one county after the voting was over and the machines were turned off ....
and not a whisper from the media.

[WindRavenX]

25. yup they got away with it because it was small in scale

Couple thousand votes here, couple of thousand votes here...adds up. Now, if they tried to do something on a larger scale, I'd say they'd have been caught and brought to justice very swiftly.
They're getting away with these things, which is why we must keep an eye on them always. But I don't think they'd ever get away with shutting down political sites- it would be impossible and it would be too blatant.
But I could be wrong.

[abbiehoff]

39. Since when do they care about what's legal?

[nickgutierrez]

5. So the plan is to ensure freedom by stopping the flow of information?

That's... bullshit. The flow of information is essential to the democratic process.

[Warpy]

17. The only way they could get away with this is by imposing

a total news blackout of the election, also. Somehow, I think this is a pipe dream by all those Freeptards who think they're thinking deep thoughts when they try to come up with ways to shut down anyone who points out the obvious--that they're all WRONG.

There would be an ACLU suit and an injunction overnight. If all else failed, I'm sure there are a lot of us out here in internet land who would be overjoyed to hock whatever we have to pay for that foreign internet server. I can think of no better use for the few pieces of jewelry my mother left me. She'd be proud.

[nickgutierrez]

24. We're dealing with fascists.

The idea itself isn't even the point - it's not going anywhere. Even if it does, you're right - of course the ACLU will sue, and of course they'll win. The very fact that the freepers want to legislate political websites - of which I would imagine a strong majority are liberal - means that their idea is to move closer to state control of the media, which is one crucial step along the road to one-party rule and a dictatorship.

[MindPilot]

7. In the interest of fairness and all..

will they also be banning political ads on radio & teevee?

[mzmolly]

10. That must mean they are re-instating the fairness doctrine?

:eyes:

[BlackHeart]

12. Did it happen

in previous elections!?!

Oh I see now, you mean as part of some new legislation.

[Syncronaut Seven]

14. More propaganda

Contingency plans are already in place should this occur.

As an interesting bit of history, research what happened to Pacifica Radio in the months leading up to the 2000 elections. That "They" tried to sink pacifica and it's five powerhouse stations right before the election was no accident or coincidence.

Your concerns are valid, that they would try to deny first amendment rights on that scale is expected. Truth is like acid to these creeps, they can't even have it NEAR them, It's dangerous.

[radio4progressives]

43. Hey There! Another SavePacifica Activist here! WOOT WOOT

which signal area do you hail from?

I'm up here in Bay Area, was involved since the 1999 lock out..

[Syncronaut Seven]

46. KBOO FM, not a Pacifica station but akin to KPFK/KPFA

www.kboo.fm Portland Oregon. :)

[Vickers]

15. So whitehouse.gov will be shut down? senate.gov? house.gov?

:eyes:

These dimwits don't think things through.

[still_one]

18. Do you have specifics?

That can't be constitutional, and I can't believe even most repukes would support that. This sounds like a pure neocon idea

[xultar]

19. We've got the DU Emergency Site. WTF it is private. They can't.

[FreakinDJ]

20. prevent people from seeing another stolen election

Was i not Kosovo that had a contingency plan already in place before the election was stolen?

http://www.theorangerevolution.com/orangerevolution0.html

[CAcyclist]

48. Eh, the orange revolution

That was not exactly the pure expression of citizen revolt it was made out to be in the US press.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

23. The only way they could stop political discussion on the internet

would be to either shut down the internet or arrest all the liberals who are on the internet.

[Love Bug]

26. Here's a link from startribune.com

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/317446.html

"This might be the first time Freepers and Kossacks have agreed on anything.
From the conservative website Free Republic to the liberal Daily Kos, Internet users of all ideologies are uniting in opposition to federal regulation of political blogs.

As early as this afternoon, the Federal Election Commission will publish regulations that, for the first time, could put limits on what bloggers can do and say in support of political candidates.

The FEC is trying to define the line between offering political opinions and operating as part of a political campaign. The full commission is expected to vote Thursday on the regulations.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering two separate bills aimed at a similar goal: clarifying the role of bloggers in delivering political messages and using the Internet as a fundraising tool." <snip>

[Botany]

27. Thanx!

I thought I was dreaming ...... what a bunch of shits.

[buddysmellgood]

31. So what would they do to Fox News? You'd think that would have to be shut

down.

[abbiehoff]

41. No. Fox is fair and balanced...

which I guess means they don't have any political agenda.

[Love Bug]

44. Lordy, I think I figured out why they want to do this

Here's a quote from an American Prospect Online article about the possible candidacy of Al Gore in 08:

To be clear, there is no sign that Gore is preparing for a campaign. His spokesperson, Josh Cherwin, assured me that “there is no ’08 story.” MoveOn’s Wes Boyd notes that Gore has not parlayed his association with MoveOn into a fund-raising list. He has built no personal Web site, and Markos Moulitsas Zunigas, founder of DailyKos, the largest progressive political blog, noted in an e-mail that Gore has made no effort to engage with the netroots save for his association with MoveOn. “I’m personally focused on elections,” he wrote, “and in that regard, he’s yesterday’s news and will remain so unless he decides to reenter electoral politics.”

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=11299

Krikey, they want to make sure Gore, or any other Dem candidate, can't rely on DailyKos and MoveOn's "clout" to help their candidacy. I'm sure this is not a concern for repukes because they'll just cheat anyway, but if these rules pass, DailyKos, MoveOn and even DU will be monitored closely and accused of taking money from candidates in order to justify shutting us down. That's my take on this.

[0007]

28. The people are pissed and no army is big enough or no God

is powerful enough to stop the people.

[Mythsaje]

29. They'd also have to shut down usenet groups...

and e-mail groups.

And find a way to monitor EVERY single website out there. If it came down to it, I'd put another damn message board up on MY website (the server is located in Singapore). I don't have a lot of bandwidth, but it would be SOMETHING.

[Harald Ragnarsson]

30. If they do that they'll take Limbaugh off air too right?

Just to be fair and all. And Hannity and O'Reilly and a dozen others, I'm sure.

Unless they are trying to say those boys and girls aren't political? They just whore for Bush constantly because they intellectually think he's right?

[onenote]

33. ooh ooh ooh - let's all go nuts about this without trying to understand it

And let's toss in the concept of "dictatorship" too, cause that always helps an informed decision.

First, this isn't anything new. The FEC originally proposed exempting the Internet from campaign finance rules, but that decision was struck down by the courts (first by a Clinton appointee to the District Court and then by a two-to-one vote by the appellate court with the two votes cast by Democratic appointees and the dissenting vote cast by a repub appointee).

That meant the FEC had to go back and decide how the campaign finance rules should apply to the Internet. Its been conducting a proceeding to develop rules for over a year in an open proceeding. Obviously, the devil is the details and I have no idea whether the rules they adopt will be too narrow, too broad, or just right. And neither does anyone else, although that doesn't seem to stop some people from launching in with posts claiming the result is going to be an "act on the road to dictatorship."

Well, I happen to think campaign finance laws are a good thing and I don't think leaving the Internet outside the ambit of the law will serve the public's interest in fair elections over time. If you read the story linked in post 26 you might share my concern:

"Reformers also are concerned about situations in which bloggers are paid to advocate a certain point of view, but don't reveal it to their readers, Hasen said.
That's what happened in South Dakota in 2004, when a group of bloggers backing U.S. Senate candidate John Thune, a Republican, relentlessly attacked incumbent Democrat Tom Daschle.
The bloggers were being paid by the Thune campaign, but that didn't come out until Thune's campaign made an FEC filing after the election, which Thune won."

If you believe that campaign finance laws are a bad thing, and some people do, I can understand being upset by the FEC extending those laws. But if you think campaign finance laws are in the public interest, then the idea of extending them to the Internet shouldnt' be upsetting. Again, once the rules are published, it will be possible to have an intelligent discussion as to whether they've gone too far or not far enough.

onenote

[sarcasmo]

34. Does D/U have a yahoo group just in case something like this does happen?

I will put nothing past these Fascists Idiots.

[Yoda Yada]

37. Just in case...

...remember Post #3 :scared: :scared: :scared:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

35. i bet they'd like to close it down today

you can count on NPR for the unvarnished truth.

[onenote]

36. Short answer to the question: No

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2526633&mesg_id=2526900

[ken_g]

38. Pelosi actually supports the more restricting of the 2 bills

Here's a good discussion of what's at stake:

<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/17/12343/5178>

[radio4progressives]

45. That's our very own Nancy "Just Say No To Impeachment" Pelosi ...

Because "Elections Have Consequences" and if we "don't like who is in office we have to get out the vote to elect someone we like"

The Nancy Pelosi who completely ignores her constituents at Town Hall meetings in San Francisco, and dismisses the San Francisco Board of Supes' Resolution to Impeach Bush and Cheney ...

:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:

[Neil Lisst]

49. it's a scheme to treat blogs the same as prohibited paid ads

by various interest groups