Thursday, December 14, 2006

McCain Proposes Thrilling New Levels of Interactivity Between Bloggers, Federal Officials

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 14, 2006. McCain said that America should deploy 15,000 to 30,000 more troops to Iraq to control its sectarian violence and give moderates within the Iraq's democratically elected government the stability they need to take the country in the right direction. (AP Photo/Sabah Arar, Pool)
This exciting tale comes via Think Progress: John McCain, seen fresh as a daisy today in Iraq, above, thinks that the era of constant coddling and protection of child molesters by the blogosphere has gone far enough, thank you very much. Thank goodness for brave warrior John, who has introduced legislation which makes the following delightful promises:
  • 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.
Sounds like loads o' laffs! And, obviously, this proposed ability for the government to aggressively fine bloggers couldn't possibly be abused or employed for partisan purposes. Phew! I fact, I can't image the following happening at all:
  • Blogger A, let's call him "Freeper", doesn't like Blogger B, let's call him "Kos", at all.
  • Freeper uses one of his many ghost email addresses to create an account at Kos's blog.
  • Freeper playfully inserts objectionable material deep within the bowels of the diaries at Kos's blog.
  • Freeper dutifully informs federal officials of the objectionable material he has "found" on Kos's blog.
  • Hapless Kos, unaware of Freeper's clever shenanigans, is fined $300,000 and kicked off the internets.
It'll be like a superexciting web-based cat 'n' mouse game! I can't wait! Sounds totally like a bucketload of fun!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, remember a couple-three years ago when everybody was saying "hey, that John McCain, he's all right for a Republican!"? Well, I think we can now see that really, he's just all right compared to other rat b**tards.

Lulu Maude said...

Thank heavens McCain is out of his lil' closet. Once I espied him happily inhaling GWB's armpit essences in a Republican waltz, everything became clear.

Straight talk express, indeed.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but Freepers don't do that. We had to kick DU people off our board who kept posting vomit porn on FR all the time until the Admin mods found an ISP killer. Your example stands as valid, but it's been our experience that Lefties usually have much less respect for internet private property rights than they claim.

One time Freeps did vandalize DU, iirc, was after 2002 win when Freeps planted an image on DU mainpage that said "All Your Senate Are Belong To Us" after Senate switched back to Pub control that election night.

As to Kos, the difference between Freep and Kos is like day and night. Obama put it best when he said that Kos continues to fail to surprise him. There are only so many ways you can say the Seven Words You Can't Say On Television.

BTW, we could have told you about John McCain in 2002, but you folks wanted Campaign Finance Reform, didn't you? That only helped George Soros gain further control of your party.

Peteykins said...

Um, if you're trying to convince me that there are idiots on both sides, you're a little late.

My point is that McCain's proposed legislation is an unenforceable morass. And McCain knows this full well, but this bid will make it seem like he "cares for the kids".

Anonymous said...

Which is why I think he's a rat b**tard. This is all positioning for the Republican primaries -- Mitt Romney's doing the same thing. For all the time that his focus was on Massachusetts politics, Mitt was the leftiest Republican you coud ask for. But now the he's on the "national scene" he's become suddenly very conservative, flipping his position on a number of issues.

McCain's strategy this time out is to throw out all these impractical ideas that will sound good to the delusional conservative base of the GOP. Sad fact is nobody seems to be able to get ahead on that side without being a liar, because nobody crazy enough to actually mean that stuff is ever going to pass muster; they'll be too obviously batsh** in other, more demonstrable ways.

Anonymous said...

While I am willing to discuss the ramifications of policy, I would also like to add a little fashion sense here. McCain looks like someone told him it's okay to wear pyjamas in public.

While I have nothing against sweaters in general, wearing a shirt with a collar underneath is not too much to ask.

Peteykins said...

That's what makes him a MAVERICK, Matty.

pissed off patricia said...

What's the matter did gay marriage and flag burning lose traction? So now they jump on bloggers? Of course everyone knows that bloggers are the new enemy of political lies.

McCain seems to be flinging his own sh*t to see what sticks

Anonymous said...

Personally, I thought the outfit was photoshopped prison garb done by our Princess. (Blue is county jail, Orange is prison. At least last time I was in)

Anonymous said...

This could be his new "man of the people" look.

Hey, at least the combover's intact...

Anonymous said...

But why does his cheek protrude so? Does he chew tobacco? Hope it's not some kind of tumor...

Carmen Sutra said...

The bloggers are just Step One. This proposal is designed specifically for the authoritarian wing of the GOP who want to make us all informers for the police state a la Orwell. Mention ratting out your neighbors and watch them swoon as blood rushes to their tingling naughty bits.
I have no intention of joining the police force involuntarily.

Anonymous said...

there is something simple, brutal and wrong with the president, but it's understandable given his silver spoon background. How he simply cannot empathize with the people on the recieving end of the nasty stick he weilds. For McCain though it's a bit different, and in my view less excusable, as a person whom has served in the military and been a POW he does have full knowledge of the crushing pain he is willing to put people through so that he may do his ultra right through the primary, pivot to the center for the general election dance. It's macabe and senseless, and will be his political demise.

Anonymous said...

Insert is a funny word.

Anonymous said...

Still photographers are not John McCain's friends.

His face looks better than it did right after the surgery, but he looks old, grey, bald and craggy. Dick Cheney at least has the grace to look old, grey, bald and baby smooth, though he does have those aggressive looking lower teeth.

We know that senators are much too busy to actually write the laws they put forward, but is it too much to ask for them to at least read them and think about the consequences? They can't all be as clueless about the 'Net as George Bush and Tom DeLay seem to be.

Anonymous said...

But of course nobody would ever do anything like that(insert baby elephant porn) to Tom DeLay's blog.

And what about links? Would a blogholder have to check every link?