In a climate where even the U.S. is antagonistic to free speech on the Web (see Calblog post below), the last thing the Internet needs is management by the U.N.
(Hat tip Glenn. Check out his post for additional links.)
And then they came for the blogosphere ...
Amid the explosion of political activity on the Internet, a federal court has instructed the six-member Federal Election Commission to draw up regulations that would extend the nation's campaign finance and spending limits to the Web.The FEC, in its initial rules, had exempted the Internet.
[...]
But Scott E. Thomas, the FEC commissioner, said his agency's original exemption for the Internet was a mistake and the FEC should come up with rules for Internet campaign ads in light of the $14 million spent on Internet ads in the 2004 campaign.
They'll pry our keyboards from our cold, dead fingers.
It seems everyone in the blogosphere has an opinion on who should replace O'Connor on the Supreme Court after Roberts is likely confirmed. I'll throw in my 2-cents.
Bush promised that he would nominated people in the mold of Scalia and Thomas. I think he fibbed, but has come close enough to just get away with it. He (sadly) isn't going to give us more Scalias/Thomas's, but rather more Rehnquists. The difference is between a judge who will actively roll back the mistakes of the past decades versus a judge who will minimize future harm. That's the reason I still continue to maintain that the war over the judiciary is essentially lost. I think its a shame, but I still can't bring myself to start a revolt over having more respectable "Rehnquists" as opposed to not having more ideal "Scalias" (I suspect others feel the same on this).
So who are my picks?
If Bush doesn't care about sparking an all out war with Democrats (and Arlen Specter-style Republicans), I'd go balls-to-the-wall and send up Janice Rogers Brown.
However, I think the John Roberts nomination shows that Bush will remain careful about trying to thread the political needle with his court nominees. If that is the case, then I 'd recommend Alex Kozinski. Love this guy to death, even though nobody could really say he is a "Scalia-style" judge. I'd say he's an original - and one to cherish at that. He'd be far-and-away the best "compromise" candidate that would throw the Dems off balance during confirmation hearings.
Ironic that the ideal candidate also fulfills the "minority" political considerations while my "compromise" candidate doesn't....
Exhibit 11 in the Coming Legal Superstorm Against Bloggers can be found here.
The truth of my original prediction is sadly on display in this one: The big media personality trying to bully the simple blogger - only because he has the resources to do so.
I have already offered pro-bono services to this gentleman, and I would encourage all attorneys of character to do the same if they have the ability to do so. But please don't do it just because Garrison Keillor is a leftist loon. Instead, do it because you agree with your humble blogger that copyright/trademark law is out of control and needs to be reigned in, in order to protect basic freedoms on the Internet (while other attorneys continue to engage in mental masturbation by splitting hairs about the untenable distinction between "parody" and "satire").
I would have even offered moonbat Al Franken the same service when Bill O'Reilly/Fox News unwisely chose to sue him over the "fair and balanced" title of his book. Using intellectual property lawsuits as a partisan weapon only against our ideological opponents will simply feed the growth of the Legal Superstorm Against Bloggers to the overall detriment of Internet freedoms.
Meanwhile, I will join this blogger in a common cause in order to tell Garrison Keillor and attorney Eric Nelson to kiss my ass....
For a limited time, I will gladly print out pages on my computer that read "A Prairie Ho Companion" and sell such pages to the public for $10 each (with free postage and shipping!). Each page will display the logo in Arial or similar font on beautiful white printing paper.
Hopefully, this will get Keillor to add me to his "cease and desist" letter list (A badge of honor I might add). After all, if its unlawful to sell a T-Shirt with the phrase "A Prairie Ho Companion", then surely it must be equally unlawful to sell a piece of paper bearing the same "trademark".
Leave your request for the "Ho Companion" and contact info (e-mail) in the comments section and I will make arrangements to send you this special gift for the abovementioned price...(I'll take a rare moment to leave comments open on this thread in order to facilitate this business transaction.)
What fools these people are! But they are hardly alone in a legal establishment that has gone simply insane over intellectual property litigation.
Exhibit 10 here.