OK, enough wet-blanketness.
Sound like a dream? It isn't anymore! Vote Ficus 2000 and vote for a candidate who stands for growth, a candidate who does their part to clean up the local environment by making air easier to breath for you and me, and a candidate with an IQ that's right off the scale! (How many Congresspersons can claim that, huh?) Ficus 2000!
Sick of congressional candidates that are willing to eliminate your freedoms at the drop of a hat? Want a candidate who would never vote for the DMCA? How about a candidate who is absolutely immune to We Must Do It For The Children?
"It doesn't matter how big a #$%! padlock you put on it when the hasp is made out of cheap metal." This has been a public service announcement courtesy of BirdBrain's Nest.
From the report (html version of the essay): "By a French monitoring organization's estimate, 45 countries now restrict Internet access on the pretext of protecting the public from subversive ideas or violations of national security -- code words used by censors since the sixteenth century."
A good overview of the situation. Astonishingly, Wired does not provide a link to the report itself, I had to go find it. It has a breakdown by every country in the world of the status of freedom of the press in that country... for instance:
Grim Net Censorship Report: "Censorship of the Internet by governments is spreading and may become a threat to traditional media liberty, a report on press freedom said on Wednesday.
'The explosion of news and information on the World Wide Web is tempting governments, developed and developing, politically free and not free, to consider restricting content on the Internet,' said the report conducted by human rights group Freedom House."
France French media are free, though radio and television are subject to political influence. The government’s financial support of journalism and the registration of journalists have raised concerns about media independence. Publication of opinion poll results is prohibited in the week preceding any election. Five journalists were attacked by police at two demonstrations. Another journalist was arrested and his offices searched for refusing to reveal sources of his reporting.
''A Dutch member of parliament, Oussama Cherribi, was quoted in January as saying that anonymous Web surfing 'should be a criminal offense, and unlimited anonymity should become a penal offense.'''
Anonymity Threatened in Europe: "The European Parliament is weighing a proposal that would limit the use of anonymous email, saying such a requirement would enhance police surveillance of criminals."