Source: CNET News
It seems like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wants to label websites you would view that contain any of the following:
Depictions of everything from sexual intercourse and masturbation to "sadistic abuse" and close-ups of fully clothed genital regions.
This sounds like I'm describing the law of the day in somewhere like Communist China or even Islamic Iran, but unfortunately, I'm not.
They want to control what you read, what you view, and if I had to bet, what and how you think, too.
I'm talking about fundie-controlled America, or as I now call it, "The New Theocracy, United Fundamentalist States of America!"
Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday.
A mandatory rating system will "prevent people from inadvertently stumbling across pornographic images on the Internet," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at an event in Alexandria, Va.
The Bush administration's proposal would require commercial Web sites to place "marks and notices" to be devised by the Federal Trade Commission on each sexually explicit page. The definition of sexually explicit broadly covers depictions of everything from sexual intercourse and masturbation to "sadistic abuse" and close-ups of fully clothed genital regions.
"I hope that Congress will take up this legislation promptly," said Gonzales, who gave a speech about child exploitation and the Internet to the federally funded National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The proposed law is called the Child Pornography and Obscenity Prevention Amendments of 2006.
This new law, spearheaded by the far-right religious establishment, would come in two waves. The first is a warning label or government-approved "mark or notice" devised by the Federal Trade Commission on each sexually explicit page.
Talk about the mark of an oppressive government. What...we need protection from ourselves? Yeah, right.
Society, in general, thrives and grows in an environment of free expression and the sharing of media. The current U.S. leadership is hellbent on destroying that growth and pushing the "faith-based views" of the minority on the masses.
Heil Hitler (Bush). Is it V for Vendetta time yet?
The second is part would threaten with imprisonment website operators who mislead visitors about sex with deceptive "words or digital images" in their source code. (An example would be using keywords in meta-tags on your website that are not relevant to the content.)
The third would be if these "evil" (ha ha) images or content were viewable with no further actions from one's homepage.
This is a strong attack against the porn industry and artists, for that matter, that dabble in erotic art or alternative lifestyle-based art. Three more strong attempts at controlling the media people digest and the creative power of the people...simply unbelievable.
Marv Johnson, legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union, gets it right when he declares this is a running around of the First Amendment and an attack on people's birth rights to free expression.
A critic of the proposal said that its requirements amount to an unreasonable imposition on Americans' rights to free expression. In particular, a mandatory rating system backed by criminal penalties is "antithetical to the First Amendment," said Marv Johnson, legislative counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Gonzales channeled his best McCarthy impression when he demanded that ISPs fall in line so his illegal and unconstitutional searches will be easier!
During his speech, Gonzales also warned that Internet service providers must begin to retain records of their customers' activities to aid in future criminal prosecutions--a position first reported by CNET News.com--and indicated that legislation might be necessary there as well. Internet service providers say they already cooperate with police and appear to be girding for a political battle on Capitol Hill over new regulations they view as intrusive.
This is a sad, sad state of affairs for freedom in this country.
You now have a government fully supported by religious radicals pushing the fundie (minority) view of life and values on the majority of the free thinking population. You have a government that is giving its all to stifle personal growth, artistic and free expression. Then you have an attorney general who, in the spirit of the SS or other famous secret police forces, is threatening ISPs to aid in his illegal and unconstitutional activities.
All we need now is to drape the Nazi, Russian, and Chinese flags from the White House walls, pull down and burn all U.S. flags, declare martial law, and the neo-conservative-based mind control plans will be complete.
Aren't we, as free thinking people, beyond the point of denying their attacks against our rights, beliefs, and freedoms?
Let's publicly acknowledge the fact and just move forward.
If this pisses someone off, then good...that's the point. It was meant to get people thinking about the horrific events going on right under their own noses. Maybe they will get off their asses and take some action. Start a small freedom-based and rights-based fire that could light a firestorm of change.
I'm a realist, and this is the real fear-based, oppressive world in which we now live.
Tags: [Attorney General Alberto Gonzales], [official government warning labels to be determined by FTC are to become mandatory for sex websites], [attack on the porn industry], [internet service providers must begin to retain records of their customers' activities to aid in future criminal prosecutions], [welcome to 1984], [United Fundamentalist States of America]
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