[MD] On the road to serfdom

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
Comment: Another step taken by the Left on the road to serfdom.

[Arlo]
Amnesty International is moving to take action against this 
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6724531.stm). Since Amnesty 
International is a "leftist" organization, I took a step to see who 
is behind the "internet filter initiative". It appears that business 
(Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) are part of the impetus to set up this 
filter. The origins of this initiative appear to be Child Online 
Protection Act (COPA), which was sponsored and pushed by Republicans 
in Congress during the 1990s (Clinton signed it into law).

The Childrens Internet Protection Act (also signed into law by 
Clinton) was also sponsored and pushed by Congressional Republicans, 
including Sen. John McCain. The ACLU (a "leftist" organization) has 
moved to challenge these acts. ("The legislation is drawn from 
proposals by three Republicans, Senators John McCain (R) of Arizona 
and Rick Santorum (R) of Pennsylvania and Representative Ernest 
Istook (R) of Oklahoma." Note: Istook is a "Distinguished Fellow" 
with "The Heritage Foundation", a strong conservative organization)

Another Act, sponsored and backed by Republican Orin Hatch (PROTECT: 
Prosecutorial Remedies and Tools Against the Exploitation of Children 
Today Act) was signed into law in 2003 by President Bush. Another, 
COPPA: Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act, was sponsored 
once again by Republicans under Clinton (who signed it but was later 
overturned by a "leftist" Supreme Court). This was rewritten by 
Republican Lamar Smith and then included in the aforementioned 
PROTECT Act (which was, again, passed by Bush).

The Net Filter is backed strongly in Australia by conservative 
organization Family First ("Family First Senator Steve Fielding wants 
hardcore pornography and fetish material blocked under the 
Government's plans to filter the internet, sparking renewed fears the 
censorship could be expanded well beyond "illegal material".") In 
America, conservative organizations like Focus on the Family have 
repeatedly moved to include "pro-abortion" sites in pornography 
filtering initiatives.

Back in America, two conservative Republicans (Goodlatte (R-VA) and 
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ)) have been behind initiatives to censor online 
gambling sites. "Leftist" groups, such as the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation (http://www.eff.org/) continue to monitor and challenge 
threats to online freedoms and access to information. For a good 
overview of this history of censorship in America, take a look at the 
Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_United_States).

Saying all this is "steps by the Left" is simply inane (to put it 
kindly), but I suppose its more important to blame "them evil libs" 
for everything than it is to actually learn the facts.