The despicable John McCain, America's worst senator, has written a new bill that, if passed into law, will make it impossible for any blog to maintain a comments thread, or for any site to host a message board.
In an alleged effort to defeat child pornography, the McCain bill would require a Web site to report any link posted on that site if the link is associated with child porn.
Failure to report even one such link would result in a $300,000 fine.
Since nobody can keep up with all the links posted in blog comments or on message boards, the only sure way to avoid this draconian fine is to shut down such services altogether. Presumably this is McCain's actual intent, with "child porn" used as a smokescreen. Politicos don't like free speech on the Web, since a lot of it consists of criticism of them.
According to CNETnews, the McCain bill also
targets convicted sex offenders. It would would create a federal registry of "any e-mail address, instant-message address, or other similar Internet identifier" they use, and punish sex offenders with up to 10 years in prison if they don't supply it.
Then, any social-networking site must take "effective measures" to remove any Web page that's "associated" with a sex offender.
Because "social-networking site" isn't defined, it could encompass far more than just MySpace.com, Friendster and similar sites. The list could include: Slashdot, which permits public profiles; Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists; and blogs like RedState.com that show public profiles.
Having done his best to stifle political speech on the airwaves and in the print media with the McCain-Feingold bill, McCain now takes aim at the Internet. Yes, the guy is a war hero - but whatever he thought he was fighting for, it apparently wasn't the Bill of Rights.
Free penis enlargement cream - be the one she truly desires!
(That'll be $300,000 dollars, Mr. Prescott.)
Posted by: J. Carson Black | December 13, 2006 at 12:55 PM
So much for President McCain. Even conservatives are tired of his grandstanding. One myth about McCain is that he is some sort of moderate. His voting record is actually rather conservative, despite occasional maverick moves against his party.
Actually, I think ever member of Congress that continues to support the unconstitutional War in Iraq is failing to uphold the Constitution. Because the Constitution cleary states, no doubt about it, that the power to take the nation to war lies with the Congress and a Declaration of War is necessary. Yet they allow this undeclared war to drag on week after week, piling up on year after year. It is truly criminal and an indication of just how far we'ved strayed from being a Constitutional Republic.
Posted by: John C | December 14, 2006 at 06:42 AM
I agree with you, John.
I think George Bush is hellbent to stay the course. He's the kind who's willing to throw himself off the cliff and take everyone else with him. I don't think the Republicans in Congress like him too much at this point - and two years from now, they'll hate him.
Posted by: J. Carson Black | December 14, 2006 at 09:33 AM
HOPEFULLY MCCAIN'LL HAVE HIS CHIPS!
The thing is, this bill'll never work in achieving its objectives: all the openly or visibly paedophilic stuff is there to draw in the curious and, ultimately, create a breeding ground for potential recruits to the paedophile cause.
Your real hardcore, hardline paedophile views themself as a forward looking counter-culture hero, in a position similar to that of gays before they were finally accepted and, as such, conducts all interactions with other such hardcore paedophiles in ways far too stealthy to be impeded by this bill.
The only advantage I can derive from McCain's bill is that it might save a few kids from falling into the clutches of amateur paedophiles, and it'll certainly impede the rate at which the professional, ideologically-minded paedophiles are currently able to conduct their recruiting.
Posted by: aborkwood | December 16, 2006 at 11:50 AM
Pedophile recruiting? Hmm... sounds familiar.
Posted by: Kirby | December 28, 2006 at 05:50 PM