Many people look at McCain as a more “rational” politician who can bring the US out of the crisis in Iraq, and not push forward the extreme right-wing agenda of theocracy, legalized torture, and police state measures. Some progressive people even think it might be good if McCain the “moderate” became president. But just in the last months, McCain has advocated sending more troops to Iraq, orchestrated a “compromise” with Bush that resulted in the Military Commissions Act legalizing torture, and warmed up to theocratic Christian fundamentalists as part of gearing up for the presidential race (speaking at
McCain just introduced legislation in the Senate that would clamp down on internet blogs and discussions, and hold websites accountable for actions beyond their control. ThinkProgress.org described how under the legislation:
– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”
– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.
– Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective
measures” – such as deleting user profiles – to remove any website that
is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only
Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author
profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.
This
legislation would creating a chilling atmosphere on internet discussion
sites, and make it nearly impossible for anyone to host open discussion
on their websites without the fear of government reprisal. While
catching sex offenders is used to legitimate this law, it is doubtful
this is its sole purpose.
In Bush’s wiretapped world, government
surveillance on political activity and daily life is taking on new
high-tech dimensions. This past June, a federal appeals court upheld a Federal Communications Commission
decision that allows law enforcement to wiretap Web-based communications, forcing internet phone services to
set-up their communications to enable easy government surveillance. And according to the NewScientist.com, the NSA is “funding research into
the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on
social networks”.
McCain
is now pushing ahead new police state measures that watch over people’s
activity on the internet. This whole police state atmosphere,
justified in the name of “our safety”, must be rejected whether comes
from Bush or more “moderate” voices.
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