My Dearest Mr. Smith.

While it has been more than a few months since i have last written i do apologize. Not that anybody actually reads My blog, but on the small chance somebody stumbled upon these typo-filled, and grammar lacking rants, in which i have self proclaimed "political commentaries", and even less likely of a chance found themselves enjoying them. I am forever sympathetic. . .

 The Victim of this Blog will be a one U.S. representative Lamar Smith. Who many of you do not know, however you most likely are familiar with the bill that he has most recently introduced to congress known as the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA for short. The bill was supposed to be a anti-piracy act against online copyright infringement.  however after looking simply one page into the bill you could see that it was designed to do far more than that. The bill was designed to simply give the government power over all DNS servers, and search engines, whom held domains within the united states, with the ability to shut them down.For anything they saw a lewd or suspicious which could be in some form connected to a third party sharing site. Also a re-defining of the word "piracy" was implemented in order to stretch the boundaries a little further.
for those of you that do not see the problem with this, i will try to explain. It basically means that if you have a website that advertises for a website, that has a link to ANOTHER website that has illegal downloading, the government has the right to shut that website down and place you under prosecution. If you think about it for just a second, everything in the viral world is connected through one way or another, so anybody that uses Google or Facebook, or Pandora. would be eligible for a 5 year prison sentence.

Activist immediately took a stand once the bill was made public. Amazingly after a long battle of raising the stakes it seems that the anti SOPA/PIPA activists have won the day. On Friday January 20th, Congress dropped the bills in the wake of the largest online protest in history. An incredible 13 million people took time to fill out a petition to implore congress to oppose the bills in order to keep the internet free of censorship.

Now bills like this pop up every now and again and they wont stop any time soon. COICA and the "internet kill-switch were similar attempts to censor what is the epitome of our generations first amendment rights.however none have yet to be successful. THE REASON BEING?. . .

well in my personal opinion its because we have already seen what happens when one of these bills is passed. A very similar act was passed in late 2001 that caused the liberties of many american citizens to be jeopardized. This act was the very infamous Patriot Act. Now without getting into what the Patriot Act is (look it up if you don't already know.) Americans were in fear for their very freedom because of these terrorist attacks, on the Twin towers. Congress leapt at the opportunity to release a peace of legislature that would allow them to have a great deal more control over us then they already had. Americans saw the name and thought, "Hell if its Anti-Terrorism of course im gonna vote for it."
just over a decade later we are all still paying for the foolishness of passing that Act. So when something like SOPA comes out promising to stop the online crime that has been such a large issue today, we Americans take a second to think back, and remember what happened the last time something like this came out.

SO To my Dearest Mr. Smith. . . . the American people have spoken, and im afraid there will be no more attempts at getting us to vote away our very own civil liberties. We have learned from our past mistakes, and at least for now, we will not repeat them. 


Thank you to those who signed the petition, i am proud of you all.

Viva La Twitter?

 In today's society Mass communication has
expanded far beyond what anyone would have every
imagined to be possible twenty years ago, or even ten
years ago. in just over a decade we have gone from
dial up Internet (i know we are all trying to forget
about dial up  am sorry) to having more technology,
and efficiency then was in that computer or that land line, simply in the palm of our hand. Apple has toppled the market with incredible technological advantages,

that other companies merely trail behind them to pick up any left over scraps. As Tech student David

Vorgaeos said "I wouldn't be surprised if my children were pledging allegiance to the united world of MAC,

every day at school in 15 years."

Things like Facebook, Twitter, and myspace ( for those of you that still have a myspace ) have become

simple, and almost, universal tools that the majority of the population uses. With over 600 million users on

facebook alone, a large chunk of the worlds population is simply second away from communicating. granted

we have this ability with texting, and phones, but people don't see why these specific social networking tools

are so key to todays society.

• Social networking sites like Facebook and twitter allow safe, and vast opportunities to communicate with people you otherwise would have never given the time of day. 
• The world is now connected without the supervision of mass media, and governing bodies. 
• People can now talk to people, and learn how the world really works. not how textbooks spell it out. 

Egypt being a prime example of this. Before therevolution in Egypt, many people had not heard news,or

pretty much anything from Egypt in years, for me personally i cannot recall every meeting an Egyptianor

knowing that they had any political significance inthe world what so ever. This was of course due to lack of

recourse's, i turn on CNN or FOX and they wantto talk about the local kitten who got trapped in the tree

instead of riots in Saudi Arabia. Today however, ifgoverning bodies decided to walk into every home in a

small town like Prior Lake Minnesota, and startblasting there guns off and every person in a town, twenty

years ago we here in California or people in theUK wouldn't have heard about it for days if not weeks.

However in the age of emoticons and smart phones,I'm pretty sure every facebook page, and every iphone

would have a message on their screen within minutesof the event and it would probably look something like

this.
FBI DUDES R KILLIN PPL IN MINN :( PLS HLP!!!! FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO TEN PEOPLE YOU KNOW IN THE NEXT 5 MINUTES OR A LITTLE GIRL WITH NO EYES IS GOING TO KILL YOU IN YOUR SLEEP TONIGHT!!!~~~~~~~~~~



not that this is likely to happen, i just used an example. People like Wikileaks.org Changing the world by 


showing corruption and the truth about what is going on in our world, hackers like anonymous showing the 


government that even they cannot hide on the internet. . .



Final Thoughts. . . Our Generation utilizes this great power of communication we have to its fullest extent. far beyond what anyone else in history has ever achieved we have have allowed the world to be united. While governing bodies may change, scenery, and laws alter. The point is that we are all now connected. 

Question. . . . How long until their is a world wide revolution, that all of the fighting takes place from the security of your living room?

Mississipi Governor asked to denounce recognition of Ku Klux Klan founder

        Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is being asked to denounce the recognition of Confederacy

General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Who coincidentally was the founder of the post civil war organization by the

name of the Ku Klux Klan. The local Sons of Confederate Veterans have requested his name to be honored

on a novelty state license plate, in which they may all be allowed to place on their vehicles, and make available

for purchase, state-wide.
 
    Almost hours after the plates were proposed the
local NAACP made their presence known, stating
that "Any individual who was a traitor to our country
and our Constitution should be treated as such," they
have started websites, and Facebook pages
dedicated to protesting, the creation of these plates.
       Many people have voiced up over this issue, and it seems that the issue over the right to create these
plates had turned into whether or not Forrest was a bad person or not. Forrest felt "they had the right idea,but went about it the wrong way," said Mike

Martinez, a part-time political science instructor at KennesawState University. Despite his short stint with the

Klan, Martinez said Forrest's affiliation with the organizationgave it credibility.


         While the obvious issue with this is that honoring Forrest falls under their first amendment rights, and

trying to stop it is unconstitutional. However its not quite as black and white as we would like it to be. In

order to make these plates it has to be state approved, and in order for the state to approve it they would

have to agree with it. Allowing these plates to be made, could possibly send a message that the state of

Mississippi supports the KKK. Now my question is this, where is the line drawn between first amendment

rights and political responsibilities

Ex Prostitute fired from teaching position

Bronx Resident, Mellisa Petro was fired this September, due to a speech she gave on the "Adult Service" section of craigslist. Petro wrote in her speech that she was disappointed that the section had been removed because she used it frequently during her passed career as an escort, and it allowed her to do business safely from the security of her own home. Petro was teaching in the Bronx school district, and some of her co-workers googled her speech. It was immediately taken to the school board. After a hearing, she was suspended from work, which led to a permanent termination. Petro argued that this clearly violated her first amendment rights, however when given the opportunity, decided not to file a lawsuit.

While I can see why the school board fired her, and can only imagine how many complaints and phone calls they received from parents, I'm not sure the school board had the right to do this. She simply stated the fact that she was a escort in a past career. Nearly 15 years ago, in Mexico none the less. which brings up the question: where did the school get the right to terminate her contract? Was she doing anything to endanger the children? Were her students getting less of an education because of her past life? If they don't have a justified reason then I'm sorry, but she should still be working there.

My next question is why not file a law suit? I mean sure people sue over the smallest of things, but this isn't burning yourself with a hot cup of coffee, this is a direct violation of your first amendment rights. Petro has the right, and is encouraged by the nation to take a stand, otherwise who is next? Janitors get fired for being an ex-gang member? Will they let go fire fighters for being a recovering alcoholic?

While I know these hypothetical situations are far-fetched, the point I make is this: your past has nothing to do with your career, and as long as any legal issues don't effect your workplace, than you should never have to be penalized for a past choice. If you ask me, I think a teacher that came from prostitution and made something of herself is a great idol for young girls possibly going down the same path. Especially within the Bronx school district.

Your thoughts?
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