The Associated Press Deficit Disorder

David and Goliath by Caravaggio ca.1600,  Prado in Madrid

When I was a little girl, I lived in a communist country, where freedom of speech was a luxury not bestowed upon it's people.

Now I am a big girl, and have been living for many years in what I thought was the free world, where freedom of speech was no longer a luxury. What was I thinking? What free world, what freedom of speech?

We are being manipulated like little puppets on a string by the MSM. How can these people call themselves journalists? How much can they be bought for? Their salaries paid by their extreme left wing employers.

The New York Times, named by me 'the Leaning Tower of Pizza headquarters', ousts Judith Miller after 30 years with the paper. Why? Because they can no longer bear to stand by her seemingly biased reporting, which was coerced by the Administration. Really? And this is not the normal way their paper is run. No, of course not. The NYT is run by the left, and if there is going to be any biased reporting to do, it MUST be done for the benefit of the left and NOT the right. It did after all take them 70 years to admit it.

From the left bloggers: "It’s day 12 of the French riots but I still haven’t heard anyone say how it’s Bush’s fault yet. Is the left so apathetic about France they cannot cite a simple connection to the White House?"

Europe is waking up to a war with Islam, with the worst riots in France for some forty years, and the French media are censoring riot coverage, with the American media developing an attention deficit disorder, coupled with a sudden attack of Alzheimers.

"Does the American media suffer from ADHD and find themselves incapable of following an important story for longer than ten days? Or do they find themselves increasingly unable to explain the serious and continued violence despite the bribery and politically-correct strategies employed by French security forces"

SC&A: "They are trying too hard to deny the obvious, and for good reason. If there is indeed a religious component, then all the talk of economic and social dysfunction, while real, becomes secondary to an Islamic agenda."

I left a communist country as a little girl, where the newspapers were not worth reading because they  were nothing more than the echo chamber of the government.

Where am I now? In a country I love, that prides itself on free speech, but that free speech can still be bought.

It makes me sad and angry, but glad that the bloggers are having so much success. I hope that we will push our way towards revealing the truth, perhaps coarsening the discourse in the process, but nevertheless better informed in the long run.

It may be OUR truth, but at least it has not been bought!

UPDATE: The New York Times whilst suddenly maintaining radio silence on the French riots, could not resist this story: 'French Police Fear That Blogs Have Helped Incite Rioting' , and CNN doesn't even seem to know where France actually is.

The very cool Roger L. Simon quotes this article and has some more NYT bashing to add. And for those of you interested, Judith Miller's resignation letter, and Bill Keller's letter to her, as posted on her site. Good try, diplomatic, but we all know the truth.

Doug @ Below The Beltway has more, and the latest from Ed Morrissey @ Captain's Quarters:

"The American media finally noticed that the story has continued, however.  The Washington Post offered its first reporting in days on the subject, using the Lyon attack at the city center as its hook. Molly Moore finally broke the silence, at least obliquely, on the "M" word"

Truth Laid Bear features this article as the 6th in the hot topic list on the French riots (constantly updated, so may not show when you follow the link)

The clever Italian-English (US) blog The Right Nation has it succintly summed up: "In the United States, France Intifada is followed closely only at right-wing blogs". You are absolutely right, and btw "Ciao Italia!" (Incidentally the word 'ciao' is a dialect alteration of schiavo (I am your) slave, from Medieval Latin - scalvus. Now don't get any ideas Italia. LOL!)

FURTHER UPDATE: The darling Anchoress has written a great post about the MSM being devoid of noble neutrality, and says in relation to my article:

"She understands in a way many of us cannot, the enormous amount of freedom that is lost by a nation when the press misuses its own freedom to suppress a story (France), or to distort (Plamegate) or to lie (Katrina) or to shield (Kerry, Berger, Clintons…) or to beat-down (Bush) or to raise up (Hillary!).

So when will “journalists” start acting like journalists instead of political midwives, working with a poisoned rag at the ready, trying to determine which infant story will live or die at birth, how they are to be delivered and fed, and which are to be shunted aside and ignored?"

And speaking of The Anchoress I want you all to get onto Aarons Blogger's Deck O' Cards, and vote for her. She is in the lead right now for the Queen of Hearts trophy by a cool 20 points, and we just need one big push to the finish.

Weekend Tracback Link Parties: Wizbang Stop The ACLU The Political Teen, Don Surber Right Wing Nuthouse

Comments

[North by Northwest]

Ah well, might as well repeat myself again... the existence of WMD should never have been allowed to have taken centre stage.

This was the biggest windfall for anti-war factions around the globe and a serious political gaffe committed by the Right for not only allowing it but for adopting it.

It's what'll cut Tony Blair's Premiership short and it's what gives rise to the only seemingly legitimate opposition. BUT IT'S FALSE. IT'S MISLEADING AND ALL POLITICAL LEADERS KNOW IT. IT WAS NEVER THE REAL MOTIVATION AND DRIVE. Decades of genocide, torture and the sum total of ALL imaginable human rights violations committed by Mein Führer Saddam Hussein WERE THE REASONS; hundreds of thousands and counting at the time..

But of course, let's not forget, none of the Führer's atrocities, nor the violation of all UN resolutions combined could have galvanized the collective political will to act. THE DEATHTOLL WOULD STILL BE COUNTING WERE IT IN FACT NOT FOR 9/11.

Now the human element mattered, not just the Oil. And that is where this debate ought to end. But the whole WMD issue is just too juicy a bone to pass up; too much potential for Spin; too much of a sound bite: "Bush lied over WMD; mislead the people; attacked Iraq under false pretense.

Machiavelli, Italian statesman and political philosopher (1532) advised rulers that the acquisition and effective use of power may necessitate unethical methods. Never had he a more committed following, did he!

[jeff Stiles]

Hmmm, and after nearly 18 hours the Ghost remains invisible! :)

[Alexandra]

Ghost,

I agree with you in one sense. I think that journalism ideally should be unbiased and generally non-political, rather than liberal in the political sense. I assume you meant in the 'freedom' sense.

I am a libertarian myself, a word I generally dislike, I prefer to say a liberal conservative if there is such a thing, but I agree with you in the sense that the staunch conservative view is too harsh. However on the issue of the war in Iraq, which I guess you and I will never agree on, I take quite a harsh swing to zero tolerance. The liberal view is simply not going to work with the Islamofascists. I guess if you have read a couple of my recent articles, you know how strongly I feel.

You still have not told me what you think would have been a better alternative to coming down hard on Saddam? Somewhere even you must agree that dealing with evil by turning the other cheek has not worked despite Jesus' preachings to the contrary.

Don't give me rhetoric, give me some concrete answers on this one difficult issue. Despite what you guys are saying Clinton testified to the fact that Saddam had the weapons even way back then.

Did you manage to read those links I mentioned in my comment to you?

[Ghost Dansing]

I wasn't being clear. And good Journalism is Liberal. As a matter of fact, in this day and age, being a good American is being Liberal. Conservatism has become something quite ugly.

Judith Miller, the mousy Bush Administration propaganda mouthpiece forced to retire from The New York Times last week, is hardly an anomaly. American journalism is contaminated by widespread institutional corruption. Miller, who cut-and-pasted the White House's Saddam-has-WMDs press releases into the Times to help build support for the invasion of Iraq, is being characterized as a rogue reporter by the same editors who encouraged and published her tripe. Miller grew incredibly close to numerous Iraqi sources, both named and anonymous, who gave her detailed interviews about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction." A reporter's job is to discover and tell the truth. Politicians, Corporate leaders, Lobbiests and others engaged in partisan spin lie a lot. The Republican Party in particular has mastered rhetoric and spin in an unpredented way. They in fact eschew expertise in any area other than political manipulation.

Like giant squid and sperm whales, politicians and reporters are natural enemies. With the exception of talking to whistleblowers, editors and producers ought to ban reporters from associating with high-ranking government and corporate officials outside the confines of a press conference or a formal interview situation. Press conferences produce lies, not news. What comes out of them should be treated as news only after it has been independently verified.

[Alexandra]

Ciao Roma? Va bene? What's up?

You are doing some great blogging down there, I've been following the site. And brushing up on my Italian, very rusty, but it's coming back slowly. MOLTO 'COOL'!

"All Things Beautiful chiama questo fenomeno:..." Grazia.

I like today's post on Plamegate, and one of your commenters, who simply said: "Vendette?"

Keep in touch Roma! Che ve diamo dopo...

[a.man.]

"Now don't get any ideas Italia. LOL!"

Damn! To be sincere I was starting to get some amazing ideas! :)
Greetings from Rome.

a.man. @ The Right Nation

p.s. Keep up the good work, I love your blog!

[Alexandra]

kstreetfriend,

Wow, what a story...

The elevator stuff is outrageous, the monitoring of the test is standard, the bureaucracy of the social services is unfortunately common world-wide and not exclusive to the African American population, the racial prejudice is a cancer all countries suffer from...however how DOES one deal with the rage?

Reading through your gripes with the present administartion do you think the dems did better in cleaning up Pittsburgh? I am not being facetious, I am genuinely asking.

I'd like to read the Williams article, do you have a url?

Looking through your blog, I think it's a brilliant idea to voice your opinion in print format. At least it's out there and your message is being sent. On the rage point, the writing down of issues, has helped me tremendously in life to air my feelings of hatred and anger. Admittedly it sometimes works and sometimes not, but at least somehow it gets aired without the physical blows.

As for the Birdsong idiot, he obviously has not heard of the internet. What is his email address, I'd like to drop him a line and educate him on the power of the Blogosphere, that got the White House to take meetings in order to calm us down on a recent issue. (You can read it in one of my posts)

[http://www.kstreetfriend.blogspot.com]

Paris riots coming to America. . . What is the plight of America's black males? Consider this.

I write the following because Tom Birdsong, Assistant Managing Editor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on Wednesday, November 9, 2005, said, “No one is going to write about your family’s plight.” Thereafter, Mrs. Estelle B. Richman’s staff (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania‘s Secretary of Welfare) became very rude and indifferent to our emergency situation. In fact, Ms. Richman’s chief of staff, Linda Hicks no longer accepted our calls. Christian Bowser actually laughed about our situation. Inez Titus, became even more stubborn with her unlawful position. The Executive Director for Western Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, Tim Cornell (Mrs. Titus’ supervisor) has yet to return any of our calls.

Nonetheless, a man was shot to death in a cinema lobby shootout after watching gangsta rapper 50 cent’s movie “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” prompting the Loews Cineplex at the Waterfront in West Homestead (just east of Pittsburgh) to stop showing the film. I was there with my family (common-law wife and three minor children). That is, although determined eligible, my family has again been denied the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (“LIHEAP”) federal entitlement for the fourth or fifth straight year. Without heat during the cold winter months a theater provides temporary shelter (allowing my family opportunity to give relatives “a break” from our nightly sleep-overs).

What happened at the Waterfront? Shelton Flowers, 30, of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, was shot three times and died later at a local hospital. Flowers had just watched the movie and got into a confrontation with three men in the bathroom. A fight ensued and spilled out into the concessions area, where Flowers was shot. Immediately, Loews Cineplex pulled the movie as a precaution. The R-rated movie is based on Curtis “50-cent” Jackson’s own life which includes drug dealing, time in prison, and getting shot nine times. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom, Inc., removed billboards for the movie near some inner-city schools after Los Angeles area community leaders complained last month.

Wilkinsburg, just east of Pittsburgh, is a town that was once synonymous with white supremacy. It is a town that had a mere 502 black residents in 1950 when its population hit 31,000, and only 224 more black residents 10 years later. But, over the next few decades, almost like a prophecy, the black population rose to 90 percent. That is, just a little more than 200 years ago Andrew Levi Levy, Sr. named the town “Africa.”

The borough grew from Levy’s land and other plots (such as the curiously named “Pious Purchase,” and others called Rippeyville, McNairsville and Sterrett Township). It was incorporated some 118 years ago and given the name Wilkinsburg after Judge William Wilkins, the Secretary of War under President John Tyler. Nonetheless, many of its current residents still believe Wilkinsburg is no different today than it was in the 1920's when hooded knights of the Ku Klux Klan cavorted. They say whites still control the town with black “puppets” politicians.

While other cities the size of Pittsburgh has seen a steady growth in gun crime, our gun violence trajectory appears to have exploded. Community activists, politicians and crime experts all have brainstorm strategies for stemming violence. The residents here had hoped for a comprehensive plan of action that would have addressed part of the root causes that lead our neighbors to take up guns. But, the answer given is more of the same. The local politicians have taken a page from the George W. Bush handbook (Madison Avenue to sell our reputation).

We have our three rivers, a beautiful skyline, a romantic culture district, a few of the country’s best hospitals, excellent universities, and the like. But, there's never anything mentioned about our blighted downtown business district, the high unemployment rate of black males, increased gun violence, and the growth of conservative republican complacency.

It's no secret any more that economic conditions for blacks in Pittsburgh and its surrounding communities is precarious. Black residents rank low compared to the national average of income, employment, and education. We have chronic problems of gang and drug violence, family breakdowns, soaring incarceration rates for young black males, and abysmally failing public schools. Wilkinsburg residents are, in fact, the best example of the 13 percent of the United States’ (black) population still living chained in by a Bush presidency, with our eyes riveted on the wall of the white media (Madison Avenue) in front of us, where we see nothing but shadows made by powerless leaders hiding behind us.

We could debate endlessly the role of such squeamishness in concealing and exacerbating the problem with race relations in both Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. We could also discuss the minor role played by gangsta rap music. But, what we should consider is how right-wing conservatives, such as Senator Rick Santorum, have convinced so many blacks that shadows from behind (self-indulgent grab for expensive cars, clothes and money of black republican conservatives living in our affluent North Hills neighborhoods) are reality.

Many of the black residents of Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities believe a lot of the Madison Avenue nonsense. They believe things that are just not true. And, the Republicans gets their strength from this.

The bottom line: The root cause of the shooting at the Loews Cineplex is the apparent political cleansing of true democrats from local politics. Gerrymandering and electoral manipulation (just plan “punk ass” democrats) have left the city with zones of endemic poverty, an absence of social services, crumbling infrastructure, and appalling schools. After the radicalized poverty of black America was laid bare in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina almost everyone expected some change from white America. But quickly the Bush administration and the Republican party have lapsed back into policies to further divide America.

In the 1990's white America built prisons to house the disproportionately black inmates it had planned to toss into jail (in the years that followed) to reassure the affluent majority it complacency with race issues. One of every eight black males between 25 and 29 years old is behind bars on any given day according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group that seeks to reduce incarceration rates. If this rate continues, one of three black males born today will be imprisoned at some point in their lifetimes.

A local daily “conservative right” newspaper, “The Pittsburgh Tribune Review” recently feature an article written by Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University. In the article “Ammunition for Poverty Pimps” Mr. William suggested the Census Bureau’s 2004 current Population Survey found two segments of the black community. One segment suffers only 9.9 percent poverty rate and another suffers 39.5. He surmised that one would be a lunatic if they believed white people practice discrimination. He concluded, among other things, that the only distinction between the two segments was marriage. Adding, “If today’s black family structure were what it was in 1960, the overall black poverty rate would be in or near single digits."

I guess Mr. Williams failed to consider the proof that demonstrates blacks are denied opportunities in forms of employment, education and even human treatment. For example, on October 18, I borrowed a little more than $50 to buy a bus ticket to travel halfway across the state for an oral test given by the Pennsylvania Civil Service Commission. I was well dressed in a dark business suit and could have been easily mistaken as a black republican conservative. However, while on the elevator headed for the floor for the testing, a white woman asked me if I was allowed on the floor where the testing was being held. She suggested that because I was black, "I had no business on their elevator." She ordered me off the elevator on a lower floor and said that she would have to call up stairs to let the staff know I was on my way.

Soon thereafter she was advised that I was scheduled for an oral test on the floor I was trying to get to. But, she still refused to compromise. She announced that I wasn't permitted to travel through their office without an escort. Interestingly, it was additionally odd that the State required a monitor to sit in with me during my testing.

Nonetheless, getting back to the LIHEAP issue, the federal entitlement program provides waivers and reduced heating rates to low-income households. It is a federal program that assists those who cannot pay their bills. Eligible households can receive assistance through a direct payment to energy vendors that supply their fuel, or through a crisis component during weather-related emergencies. To be eligible for the program, household income cannot exceed 135 percent of the federal poverty income guidelines: $12,920 for a one-person household; $17,321 for two persons; $21,722 for three persons; $26,123 for four persons; $30,524 for five persons. For larger households, the guidelines increase by $4,401 for each additional person. Homeowners, renters (including those whose rent includes heat), roomers and subsidized housing tenants may be eligible.

I have a good understanding of the program because I was previously employed by Allegheny County as a planner and wrote grant applications for the agency that implements the program. However, in 1989, I was fired in retaliation for organizing a union. The political sub-division said I was terminated for being tardy four times in a four-month period. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission ("PHRC")identified a white female working in the same office as having been tardy 71 times during the same time period and not disciplined. But, the PHRC ruled it was bad management and not discrimination.

Ever since my termination the political-subdivision has found some way to retaliate against my household, i.e., always reaches from any available loophole to frustrate the process and deny my family the federal entitlement. In the past, I have complained to the State, federal government (FBI), courts and media to no avail.

Consider this, when the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan passed through Western Pennsylvania in September 2004, the LIHEAP offered free water heaters and furnaces. Income restrictions were waived allowing the affluent to participate. My family was denied relief because the deed to our house is recorded in our minor son’s name. But, LIHEAP allows renters and other non-homeowners to participate.

The current issue involves Duquense Light Company’s termination of our electric service immediately following the close of last year’s LIHEAP program (March 31, 2005). Although they already had $371 as a security deposit the utility company terminated service and demanded $866.01. And, despite the fact that we didn’t have any electrical service, the next month we received an unexplained bill for almost twice that amount actually due: $1,646.17. Because we are current living on “food stamps” we were forced to go without electric until the start of the 2005-2006 LIHEAP program.

As a “food stamp” participant we received our LIHEAP application early and returned it weeks before the November 7 start. In fact, as we do each year, we contacted Mr. Cornell’s office to advise him of our situation (requested that he process our application to allow the electrical service to be restored on November 7 without a 72-hour wait). Mr. Cornell didn’t respond.

Mrs. Titus, Mr. Cornell's assistant did call on November 7, just before the closing (3:00 p.m.) of her office. She advised our application would be denied - "Duquense Light now demanded $2,600.” To memorialize the outrageous response I requested permission from Mrs. Titus to allow a "three-way" connect with the local media (Channel 4). I called Channel 4 because I was given its “gold medal” for outstanding community service in 1989. However, during the three-way conversation Ms. Titus refused to acknowledge her previous position (Duquense Light demand of $2,600). She would only say our family was being denied the federal entitlement. Immediately, I voiced a complaint to Mr. Cornell’s secretary. She suggested that I call Harrisburg (Department of Welfare’s main office). She provided me the number.

Precious Perry answered the Secretary of Welfare’s telephone. She transferred me to Ms. Richman’s chief of staff (Linda Hicks). Mrs. Hicks promised to have Christian Bowser call before five p.m.. But, it never happened. At 9:00 a.m. the next morning (November 8), I called Mr. Cornell’s office and left another message requesting a return call. I also called Mrs. Hicks again and questioned why Mrs. Bowser never called.

This time, Mrs. Hicks promised to have Ms. Bowser call before 11 a.m.. Mrs. Hicks asked us to “call back if Mrs. Bowser failed to call.” It never happened.

I did call Ms. Hicks at 12:00 noon but she rushed me off the phone. She gave me Mrs. Bowser’s telephone number and requested that I call her directly. I called the number but got Mrs. Bowser’s voice mail. I left a message explaining the situation. Mrs. Bowser never called back.

On November 9, 2005, I called Mrs. Hicks again to advise Mrs. Bowser' failure to call. But, Mrs. Hicks quickly rushed me off the phone again. She said that she would no longer address the issue. She said “communicate with Ms. Bowser from that point.”

Thereafter, I called Mrs. Bowser’s and spoke with her secretary. I left another message. Even more frustrated now, I called the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I spoke with Mr. Tom Birdsong. I advised him of our situation and asked if he would investigate the issue in a “confidential” manner. He said that he would forward the information to Larry Walsh. I informed him that in the previous years I have communicated with Mr. Walsh but nothing was done. I even told Mr. Birdsong that I once connected a Post-Gazette columnist, Tony Norman, and allowed him to participated with a three-way telephone call (allowed him opportunity to monitor a call to prove how rude the LIHEAP program staff was acting). Mr. Birdsong said he would have Mr. Walsh call.

At approximately 4:00 p.m., I was finally able to get Mrs. Bowser on the telephone. She laughed at our situation!

After laughing, Mrs. Bowser would only reiterated Mrs. Titus position, “Duquense Light can demand funds that are not owed.” She added, “Mrs. Titus’ position is final.” She said she would have Mrs. Titus send us a rejection letter.

Immediately, I called Mr. Birdsong. But, he became rude. The conversation concluded with Mr. Birdsong saying “No one is going to write about your family’s plight.”

50 cents, during an interview on ABC’s “The View,” said he was saddened by the fatal shooting: “I feel for the victim’s family in this situation.” He added, “But you know, these weren’t kids. This was a 30-year-old man (who) had a dispute with three other guys.”

I’m older than 30. But, what is rage? How come I’m able to control my anger? Would I have controlled my anger if one of my family members was hit by a stray bullet during the shootout?

http://www.kstreetfriend.blogspot.com

[Alexandra]

Semanticleo,
Couldn't find the link, it seems to be broken?

[Alexandra]

Ghost Dansing,

I am trying to understand what you mean. The main newspapers are controlled by the left, it's common knowledge. Therefore the spin is almost exclusively a left spin. Surely you will not now tell me that these papers are right leaning.

I don't think anyone bothered to discredit the indictment, the man has not been tried yet. The cries foul were obviously being thrown from the left and so was the disappointment that there was only one indictment. But all this is nothing this is the normal rhetoric which exists in the echo chambers all over the world.

If you control the press as you do, you should have nothing to complain about, except on occasion to wonder whether you are being told the news or being spoon fed your own spin. Despite the fact that it warms your heart to hear the Bush bashing, surely even you don't like to be manipulated, and have to sometimes resort to foreign press to find out what the truth might possibly be.

Regarding Iraq. I spent most of my life prior to the US, in England, and believe me not standing up to the IRA would never have stopped them from bombing us whenever it was necessary to make their presence known, regardless of what the government did. You will find that the Muslim attacks will continue no matter what, and a target such as the US and GB would have been targets in any event, they simply now feed the anti-war left with excuses for it.

Chiraq has paid the price for appeasement. It never pays to throw leaflets when someone is throwing bombs. What would have been your ideal? Chamberlain showed us what effect appeasement policies have on history, and zero tolerance is the only way to show that we shall not be moved.

The press have not as yet covered the story today, of another one of 'The Religion of Peace Muslim Community' stunt today in Punjab, India, where 2000 Muslims vandalized 2 Christian schools, 1 convent, 3 churches, some girls’ hostels and Christian homes etc. Then they burned them to the ground, while about 450 Christian families had to flee.

You will wake up to a war one day, and realize it has little to do with what the US and GB have or have not done but everything to do with 'peace loving Islam' wishing to be the dominant religion of the world. If you have time read this, and and this and let me know what you think. Just have an open mind, and allow for information flow, and not be blinded by the blinkers you label as spin on either side.

[Ghost Dansing]

Judith Miller, despite her noble stand on protecting her source, was either a willing culprit or part of a deception regarding WMD perpetrated by the Republican administration.

One does not have to live in a Communist country to manipulate the press, and this Republican administration has no substance outside of its spin.

Dubya's loyalists'recent push to discredit the Libby indictment failed because Americans don't see it as a stand-alone scandal but as the petri dish for a wider culture of lying that becomes more visible every day.

Interestingly, The Times discovered that Mr. Libby had set up a legal defense fund to be underwritten by donors who don't have to be publicly disclosed but who may well have a vested interest in the direction of his defense. It's all too eerily reminiscent of the secret fund set up by Richard Nixon's personal lawyer, Herbert Kalmbach, to pay the legal fees of Watergate defendants.

The Qaeda suicide bombings of three hotels in Amman on 11/9, like the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London before them, speak louder than anything else of the price we are paying for the lies that diverted us from the war against the suicide bombers of 9/11 to the war in Iraq.

The American People are no longer buying the Republican spin.

[wherespiritofecstasy]

To speak generally, which often fawns distain for debate, but is not disdain!, I will say this:

The Internet will follow hierarchial patterns as all things all-ways do. The bargaining chip is the individuals' power, position.

Money, as a form of power (fop), will buy service, options, more ... . Authority/Status, as a fop, will do the same. Guile, Knowledge (See: hacker/phracker), Tech Awareness will also do such as a fop.

So in my opinion, as anything else, the Internet will exist in all of it's manifestations but it will constantly be redfined by authoritative regulation, technological innovation and commerce. All existence is based in movement, e=mc2/velocity/movement, so everything is constantly transforming at least ever so slightly. There is no "none movement."

What is is (thank you dear Bernice S.). The way you feel about the Internet is equally important. If you have Western access but suddenly are under new restrictions (filters) then you may feel oppressed. That is until you study the Internet restrictions in China from the Gov. of China. And if you are a resident of China you may feel "you have the world" compared Rwanda.

So the way you feel/think about the Internet is a matter of perspective. Everything exists paradoxically. So Orwell's metaphor exists always but not in all points of view at all times, not in all realities.

Here's the trick; If you want the Internet, or anything else, to be an ideal then you may suffer the unconcern of reality. Idealism has great voice, in many circles, but below the surface it has limits to power. Cooperation and fairness exist but they are selective. They do not exist, as same for Orwellian metaphor, in all places at all times.

See what I am getting at? It is the way you feel about it. Which is dictated by your beliefs.

The debate is important, so are other~ things, the debate is important.

Did I stop anyone from jumping off the boat??? Hope so ...

[lilly]

If the UN is now going to control the internet or if the FCC is considering regulating bloggers that would be the last straw and last stab into the freedom of speech.

Where has the free world gone? I hope there are enough people who are going to fight for it. Otherwise it will be like George Orwell's "1984" and we will live in a society which is not worth living in.

[antimedia]

Alexandra, I don't think it's any coincidence that the UN now wants to control the internet or that the FCC is considering regulating bloggers. Those in positions of power fear most the power of a motivated and outspoken people. If they have learned anything from history it's to keep people from speaking out.

If this sounds like leftist rhetoric, then that should give you pause, for I am anything but a leftist. The truth is a mighty swift sword. It must be suppressed at all costs. Only in a free society can it not be suppressed directly. Thus the need to infiltrate the centers of power and control the agenda so the truth can still be suppressed.

This time, we must not allow it to happen.

[pseudonymforspiritofecstasy]

Such lake, sky and surface remiss, such horizon, such Swan

My G-d Woman, ambiguity on a Saturday!?! I'm expecting that head to pop up on David's shoulders so directing an arm to flip me a gesture!

[Semanticleo]

Rense.com

Alexandra;

Since there is little hard data on the reasons for the riots there is naught but informed speculation to go by. The above link is not a source I've researched, so I cannot stand by the comments.
But, if there is mischief going on, it is possible that nefarious motives do not spring merely from the left.