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Gone, But Not Forgotten? What The Internet Will Look Like Under SOPA Fearsgiving Week Jesus Approves of Waterboarding Beware of Asteroids 
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Idiots In The MajorityThursday, Jun. 19, 2008 11:26 AMFor no reason other than to kiss the asses of the Bush Administration or elevate their corporate donors above the common citizen, Democratic 'leaders' have chosen to capitulate on FISA and its 'telecom immunity' provisions, blocking legal actions against the telecoms for their role in the illegal, warrantless wiretapping program run by the NSA at the direction of President George W. Bush. Forget the egregious violations of the Constitution and protections under the Fourth Amendment against unlawful search and seizure. We are told they were just doing their patriotic duty. And remember that Bush declined to sign the bill when it lacked this provision, negating the argument that this is All About Fighting Terrorism. As the final insult, the FISA provisions may be bundled with the latest war funding measure. So we get a police state and endless war all rolled up into one shiny bit of legislation. Democrats stop the war? Hah. At this rate, I really should vote for McCain, because at least he's honest about it. The Associated Press wants to charge bloggers for linking to AP stories or citing their text. I can understand that if a site is actually syndicating a feed from the AP and reprinting the story in its entirety. But this runs against fair use provisions - reproducing a salient passage, such as a quote (which, being in the public forum, could not be held to be exclusive content and charged for) or a summary line on a bill or political event. I can think of no better way than to lay the groundwork for the death of the news agency than to play gotcha with bloggers. The internet provides the access; AP's move challenges bloggers to develop their own content.
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