Day by Day Comments on Internet Speech.
Lets get started right away this morning!
As you all know I have been commenting quite a bit on the efforts by government to restrict online speech. Make no mistake about this, these attempts are striking at the very heart of the Constitution more so than the Patriot Act. Justice Scalia noted when the BCFRA (Bi-Partisan Campaign Finance Reform Act) came in front of the supreme court the Constitution's main purpose in the First Amendment is to protect political speech! I think the protections given to speech such as virtual child pornography are debatable with good points on both sides. The fact our courts deem virtual child pornography as more worthy of First Amendment protection than our political speech should make anyone fearful.
As you may be aware Canada is trying to contain the speech of the blogosphere. I mentioned the (don't you dare think I am going to use the word kerfuffle!) controversy yesterday. Essentially Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters is blogging on a Canadian investigation into corruption by the ruling Liberal Party. Parts of the testimony in the case are closed to publication and Captain Ed has a birdie feeding him the testimony and is publishing the facts revealed and the testimony.
Needless to say the investigator and the Canadian government are not too happy. They have prohibited Canadian bloggers from linking to Captain's Quarters!
San Francisco is considering placing restrictions on bloggers who blog on local politics. I know very little about the details but it is scary. So too is the sets of rules the FEC may come up with doing the same for bloggers in this nation.
Anyway onto the Day by Day cartoon!
Source: Day by Day Chris Muir April 5, 2005.
How sad.
Update
As you all know I have been commenting quite a bit on the efforts by government to restrict online speech. Make no mistake about this, these attempts are striking at the very heart of the Constitution more so than the Patriot Act. Justice Scalia noted when the BCFRA (Bi-Partisan Campaign Finance Reform Act) came in front of the supreme court the Constitution's main purpose in the First Amendment is to protect political speech! I think the protections given to speech such as virtual child pornography are debatable with good points on both sides. The fact our courts deem virtual child pornography as more worthy of First Amendment protection than our political speech should make anyone fearful.
As you may be aware Canada is trying to contain the speech of the blogosphere. I mentioned the (don't you dare think I am going to use the word kerfuffle!) controversy yesterday. Essentially Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters is blogging on a Canadian investigation into corruption by the ruling Liberal Party. Parts of the testimony in the case are closed to publication and Captain Ed has a birdie feeding him the testimony and is publishing the facts revealed and the testimony.
Needless to say the investigator and the Canadian government are not too happy. They have prohibited Canadian bloggers from linking to Captain's Quarters!
San Francisco is considering placing restrictions on bloggers who blog on local politics. I know very little about the details but it is scary. So too is the sets of rules the FEC may come up with doing the same for bloggers in this nation.
Anyway onto the Day by Day cartoon!
How sad.
Update
- Guess which cartoon Captain Ed is featuring at Captain's Quarters? Yes this very one! 6:55 am 4/5/2005
- Added cartoon citation. 6:55 am 4/5/2005
posted by Marcus Aurelius at 6:36 AM
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