McCain goes after free speech AGAIN


Stop this man before he introduces more legislation
Why does John McCain get re-elected when he regularly tries to violate the First Amendment?

After child pornography or some forms of "obscenity" are found and reported, the Web site must retain any "information relating to the facts or circumstances" of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly.

McCain's proposal, called the "Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act" (click for PDF), requires that reports be submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which in turn will forward them to the relevant police agency. (The organization received $32.6 million in tax dollars in 2005, according to its financial disclosure documents.)

Internet service providers already must follow those reporting requirements. But McCain's proposal is liable to be controversial because it levies the same regulatory scheme--and even stiffer penalties--on even individual bloggers who offer discussion areas on their Web sites.

"I am concerned that there is a slippery slope here," said Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "Once you start creating categories of industries that must report suspicious or criminal behavior, when does that stop?"

The short answer to the question is that it doesn't stop.

Remember that the definition of obscenity has been stretched to include children bathing and photographs of clothed children in the "wrong" pose.

It's not a "slippery slope," it's a black hole.

I have a simple test.

Can this standard be applied to any other publication or broadcast?

Then there is the question of what is and is not obscene. My definition is different than McCain's, and my Mormon neighbors have a different one still. Which one should apply?

We know from past experience that John McCain is all too ready to suppress speech that he does not agree with. This looks no different. He can't be trusted.

Government can't be trusted when it comes to morality and ethics.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - December 14, 2006 at 07:48 AM  Tag


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