Illinois Mayor Claims Anonymous Bloggers No Different Than 9/11 Terrorists; Says Anonymity Is A First Amendment Challenge
from the the-federalist-papers,-anyone? dept
Perhaps if you're an elected official in the US, you should be required to take a basic history lesson. Michael Scott points us to the story of how the mayor of Mokena, Illinois (where?) has apparently become so fed up with anonymous people online that he's declared that "bloggers" were just like the 9/11 terrorists who flew planes into buildings. In clarifying, but not backing down, he claimed that he's really talking about anonymous bloggers and commenters, not "bloggers" as a whole. Later, in discussing it further, he claimed that "this is the greatest First Amendment crisis in this country's history." I'd say that the mayor of Mokena is a bit prone to hyperbole.Phil Kadner, from The Southtown Star newspaper, who has been covering the mayor's comments, has a great response at the end of his writeup (the last link above):
I told him about the early days of newspapers in this country, when Founding Fathers such as Jefferson and Hamilton actually paid people to write scandalous articles under false names about their political enemies. Somehow the country survived and democracy thrived.And so, the mayor of Mokena gets a history lesson on the First Amendment from the press that the First Amendment enables. There's something nice about that, though, you would have hoped the history lesson would have come sooner.
Ultimately, you have to have faith in the wisdom of the average person. That's what the First Amendment really is all about.
Let everyone have their say, and the public decides who to believe. It was a radical idea then and still is today.
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Filed Under: anonymity, free speech, mokena
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C'mon...
Nowhere, that's where. Seriously, Mokena isn't worth writing about. Ever. It's farm country. They don't have 15k people within their limits. And it's basically Indiana. They're most famous resident in their history is Terry Boers of the Boers and Bernstein sports radio show on The Score (which is awesome).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokena,_Illinois
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Blocked for two years, then taken down in just 30 minutes a disastrous result of Internet Blocking policy
http://ak-zensur.de/2010/09/looking-away.html
To anyone who thinks looking away is a better solution there it is prove that not even for taboo things that works.
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http://hackaday.com/2010/09/29/magnets-capable-of-brain-hacks/
ps: TMS - transcranial magnetic stimulation
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i also remember
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Re:
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Of course, the govt will probably find a way to give corporate lobbyists, special interest groups, and certain govt employees who promote a certain viewpoint transparency exceptions where they get to keep anonymous while everyone disagreeing with the govt and big corporations stay transparent.
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Re: i also remember
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threat
America has seen worse threats, if memory does not mislead me.
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There's a;ways a way
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Re:
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Don't be too hard on the guy
Those that would give up freedom for security, deserve neither. -BF
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Re: C'mon...
I realize we're talking about a mayor in a "podunk" town in the middle of nowhere, not unlike Chicago, but with fewer people. However the unfortunate fact remains that every mayor has instant access to the town Councils and to their city (or county) District Attorneys. The problem with ignoring small town stupidity (favoring large town stupidity) is that a dangerous precedent (in ordinance or court decision) can just as easily, perhaps even more readily be made in a rural area as it can in a cluster fuck of a big city.
Call them sheltered or ignorant if you must, but you can be sure big city mayors are not above taking "a good idea" from their "farm country" counterparts.
Having lived in many environments, my experience gives me the opinion that there are at least as many idiots per capita in urban areas as there are anywhere else. Like everyone else, they just stand out more in the country.
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@9
YOU don't get people will say nad speak htere minds more when they dont have to report there:
address
telephone number
TRUE NAME
Color of the underwear they are wearing
etc...
FREEDOM is what its aobut to speka ones mind in an opinion sense.
THE USA gov't has always been about control
ergo vietnam
ergo UNpatriot act etc.
I would add that since 2000 where the number of violent gun deaths was around 16000 in the usa it has now reached a number up around 32000 PER YEAR
that is a half a million or more people dead form the attitudes of the american ideal.
DO you think without anonymous we would be speaking of this or i would?
Would they let me? Would there be repercussions to what i speak of?
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Re:
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Inside Job
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Re: Re:
As the North Tower collapsed on September 11, 2001, heavy debris hit 7 World Trade Center, causing damage to the south face of the building. The bottom portion of the building's south face was damaged by debris, including damage to the southwest corner from the 8th to 18th floors, a large vertical gash on the center-bottom extending at least ten floors, and other damage as high as the 18th floor. The building was equipped with a sprinkler system, but had many single-point vulnerabilities for failure: the sprinkler system required manual initiation of the electrical fire pumps, rather than being a fully automatic system; the floor-level controls had a single connection to the sprinkler water riser; and the sprinkler system required some power for the fire pump to deliver water. Also, water pressure was low, with little or no water to feed sprinklers.
After the North Tower collapsed, some firefighters entered 7 World Trade Center to search the building. They attempted to extinguish small pockets of fire, but low water pressure hindered their efforts. Fires burned into the afternoon on the 11th and 12th floors of 7 World Trade Center, the flames visible on the east side of the building. During the afternoon, fire was also seen on floors 6–10, 13–14, 19–22, and 29–30. In particular, the fires on floors 7 through 9 and 11 through 13 continued to burn out of control during the afternoon. At approximately 2:00 p.m., firefighters noticed a bulge in the southwest corner of 7 World Trade Center between the 10th and 13th floors, a sign that the building was unstable and might collapse. During the afternoon, firefighters also heard creaking sounds coming from the building. Around 3:30 pm FDNY Chief Daniel Nigro decided to halt rescue operations, surface removal, and searches along the surface of the debris near 7 World Trade Center and evacuate the area due to concerns for the safety of personnel. At 5:20:33 p.m. EDT on September 11, 2001, 7 World Trade Center started to collapse, with the crumble of the east mechanical penthouse, while at 5:21:10 p.m. EDT the entire building collapsed completely. There were no casualties associated with the collapse.
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If not, they should keep it
The amount of times that governments get mad at people for pointing out the truth and thus try to shame that person....and use it thru despicable excuses....is terrible
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Are we being too hard on this guy?
To him, these things may really seem the same.
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Re: i also remember
An Iraqi major in the Interior Ministry’s emergency force, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he isn’t authorized to make statements, was part of the American-Iraqi patrol, which was searching for smartphones in a neighborhood where a quarrel had escalated to the use of Blackberries. He said he was stepping out of his patrol car when the tweet occurred.
“All I remember is a chirping sound from my iPhone and being thrown into the air,” the major said from his hospital bed in Jalula, where he was being treated for anonymous comment wounds. “I saw American soldiers lying on the ground. Some were dead. We were terrified about what to do. I was watching Americans run left and right, taking cover.”
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Just a suggestion
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AND?
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Re: C'mon...
Reminds me of a Lewis Black bit:
"The Taliban isn't interested in killing you, you idiot! Look where you live! You're already dead!"
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