1984, 20 Years Late

1984, 20 Years Late -- Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act, from The Washington Post.

"It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, said in a statement. "President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it."

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the case.

Maybe I better decline comment as well. Chilling. But Dave Pollard is Canadian. He comments cogently. It may be chilly north of the border, but it's getting chillier down here.

Who's got the garlic butter?

Who's got the garlic butter?

Taking Back...

Taking Back...

"For far too long, conservatives have claimed dominion over words like 'values,' and 'morality' -- and, in doing so, have helped define them. To their way of thinking, morality only relates to issue of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's time for Democrats to take back control of the concept and expand the definition to include lying, hypocrisy, and callous indifference to those in need."

From Arainna Huffington's weblog, in an introduction to a "guest blogger's" piece by Chuck Gutenson on what could be considered "social Christianity."

"I wish all Americans, and particularly many of my Christian friends, would reflect deeply upon the vision Arianna lays out--a vision which refuses to relegate God to the status of a household god in charge of my personal piety. The Gospel of Christ (literally, the Good News) has individual, personal implications, but properly understood, it reaches far beyond that into every nook and cranny of human existence--public and private."

Now that's my kind of Christian.

Over a Million Strong

Over a Million Strong -- What does a million marchers look like? Like this. And in the same post, we have some real obscenity from Bush flack Karen Hughes, spewing a crassly political linkage between 9/11 and abortion rights...

BLITZER: There is a clear difference when it comes to abortion rights between the president and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry. In your opinion, Karen, how big of an issue will this abortion rights issue be in this campaign?

HUGHES: Well, Wolf, it's always an issue. And I frankly think it's changing somewhat. I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life...Unfortunately our enemies in the terror network, as we're seeing repeatedly in the headlines these days, don't value any life, not even the innocent and not even their own.

Where's the FCC when you need them?

Suffering with Less Sufferage

Suffering with Less Sufferage -- From BWG..."China has disallowed Hong Kongers to elect the chief executive and legislature in 2007." And they're trying to convince Taiwan to stay in the fold with the supposed 2-system system in place in Hong Kong? Sheeeesh.

Connect the Dots -- Stern , Jarvis, and Babylon 5

Connect the Dots -- Stern, Jarvis, and Babylon 5 -- One of the local New Jersey bloggers I read regularly, who has had an excellent collection of posting on the FCC, the American Taliban, and Howard Stern (and on media in general), is Jeff Jarvis. I recently came across Jeff's name again, in series creator J. Michael Straczynski's liner notes of the new Babylon 5 Season 5 DVD set...

For five years, as we struggled to find a home for Babylon 5, we were told that there was no market for a science fiction show of this nature, that the audience couldn't handle a five-year arc, that you couldn't compete with the juggernaut that was Star Trek.

We sold the pilot.

After we produced the pilot, everyone said there was no way we could afford to make the show on the scale necessary for the story, that television EFX weren't up to that level yet, that the market couldn't sustain more than one series about a space station. TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis, weighing in on the odds of us making it to series, said simply, "fat chance."

We got the series...We continued to get renewed...We got the fifth season. We told the story we wanted to tell, and we told it to completion....

Faith manages.

Here endeth the lesson.

I'm glad Jeff was wrong. B5 is one of the best works for any screen -- big or small -- that's been produced.

Stern Ratings Up

Stern Ratings Up -- According to an article in my local paper, after slipping to #2 in New York last fall, behind a Spanish-language copygato, Howard Stern is back on top in Big Apple ratings...

...taking mornings in all of the relevant demographic categories. With listeners 18-34, Stern posted a 12.6 share to "El Vacilon's" 12.1.

The King of All Media has woven rants against the FCC and the Bush administration with his usual raunch and roll, and listeners have responded positively. With listeners 25-54 [I'm still in that group, but just barely.], Stern posted a 10 share, up from 7.9 in the fall.

The share represents a percentage of the 15.3 million available listeners in the New York metro area...

You can count me in as one of those.

Saint Typo of Croatia

Saint Typo of Croatia -- Along with other patron saints of graphic design, Typo is patron of spell checking and Google searches.

How to Trim the Deficit

How to Trim the Deficit -- According to Well Connected - The Center for Public Integrity...

So far in 2004, the FCC has proposed more fines for broadcast indecency than the previous 10 years combined."

Yeah...that's the ticket. Cut taxes, raise fines. Interesting tidbit: Mr. Timberlake's disrobing of Ms. Jackson triggered 530,828 complaints to the FCC. That means how many people "saw" the occurrence and DIDN'T COMPLAIN?

And it Ain't Just the Government...

And it Ain't Just the Government -- From David Wienberger's Joho the Blog: Digital Lock-Down (NPR):

"Put 'em together - DRM, Digital ID and so-called trusted computing - and you have a world that's far more locked down than the real world ever could be. No leeway, no judgment calls, our computers will decide for us. Content companies will be happy, at least short term, because every note, word, image, phrase, every idea can be owned and tracked and accounted for. But the free market of ideas needs to let us play with works, incorporate the images and phrases and ideas into new works of our own. That's how culture grows. And if the Internet - the greatest force in history for growing the public domain - if the Internet ends up bringing on a regime of control that locks us out of our own culture, it won't be ironic...it'll be tragic."

This week I've rejoined the commuting crowd, and heard this commentary on NPR. I thought it made a lot of sense. I didn't catch the intro/outro, so I didn't know it was David. Now I know why it made sense.

Content Regulation

Content Regulation -- Not only does this administration shut down newspapers it doesn't like in Iraq; now it's going after hotel movies, according to a story commented on by Jeff Jarvis...

"The government wants to regulate content in this country. Let's say that again: The government wants to regulate content in this country.
That should be sending a shiver up your American spine. It's not just about the FCC. It's not just about Howard Stern. It's about free speech, people.
First they went after Stern and radio.
Next they will go after cable.
Then they will come after the Internet."

From the article, an interesting point...

"Industry lawyers and top executives contend that the courts should rule that because the tapes were ordered on the Internet, the "community standard" demanded by the law should be the standard of the whole community of the World Wide Web.

"The Internet is filled with ample evidence of even more hard-core or offensive material from abroad, they say, and someone in Pittsburgh should not be able to determine what someone in Hollywood can order."

Hey. Like Jarvis, while I live in NJ, the web is my community. If Ashcroft thinks his buddy Rumsfeld is having a hard time in the Suni triangle after shutting down a newspaper because we didn't like the content, just wait 'til they try to come after the internet."

[Later...] More good commentary...

"The Baltimore Sun article quotes Attorney General John Ashcroft saying that porn "invades our homes persistently though the mail, phone, VCR, cable TV and the Internet." No, Mr. Ashcroft, that's incorrect; Americans persistently invite porn into our homes through the mail, phone, VCR, cable TV and the Internet. According to Eric Schlosser's Reefer Madness, Americans spend between $8 and $10 billion per year on adult entertainment, about as much as on first-run (non-porn) movies. Show me a videocassette that forces itself into an American's home at gunpoint, ties him to the couch, and plays itself, and I will concede that your claim makes sense; otherwise, you're wrong."

...from the Harvard Republican Blog.