W.the.F.U.

Over one thousand internet experts will gather in Greece this week (30 October 2006) for the first UN-sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting, amid grumblings over the dominant position currently enjoyed by the US.
The four-day forum on the future of the internet opens on Monday in Athens. The event follows the Tunis World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which took place in November 2005, and which nearly saw a rift open between the US and the rest of the world on who should control the internet.
Countries such as Iran and China objected to having the key internet systems managed by the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organisation under tender from the US Department of Commerce.
The US has resisted attempts to modify the existing framework, warning that regimes that do not allow freedom of speech could gain leverage over the internet in this fashion...

Err...hold on here... disallowing free speech? You mean, nothing at all like a 1st world superpower espousing the virtues of free speech, the vaunted 1st Amendment, a country in which the Patriot Act is alive and well, right?

George Bush's Patriot Act gives an ambiguous definition to the crime of “domestic terrorism” that could be conveniently interpreted to encompass civil disobedience. Was Martin Luther King a “terrorist”? Only the defenders of an unjust status quo that is only favorable to them would find the movements for change terrifying. The Secretary of State is now empowered to designate groups as “terrorist groups” or engaged in “terrorist activities” with such vague parameters that groups from churches to political parties to non-governmental organizations could all be susceptible to such a designation. The act now gives the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies much greater access to information transmitted through various modes of communication, including the Internet, without the burden of probable cause. Such powers of surveillance certainly threaten our cherished First Amendment that grants the freedom of expression. Even more frightening is that these and many other powers granted to separate branches of our government without proper checks and balances just reek of potential abuse.

When will America wake up from its deep slumber, and stop gouging out its own eyes with regard to the double standards and hypocrisy of the 'b'ush adminstration? In essence, the Patriot Act allows the US govt to investigate me for making comments - on this blog even - which it deems 'unamerican' or 'of a terrorist nature'. A friend of mine recently wrote to all 100 US senators via email expressing a negative opinion of continued US involvement in its war in Iraq. 2 weeks later, the IRS called him up asking questions... when it never had before. Coincidence? Maybe. But not likely. We live in a country where, yes, you can go ahead and say any damn thing you like - afterall, Americans and its govt believe in inalienable rights of free speech. Just better watch your back...

speaking of wars, how many wars is America going to instigate and fight and continue to lose?

let's see: the War

on Terror

on Poverty

on Drugs

on Immigration

on Guns

So, there's at least 5 home-spun wars (Im sure there's a dozen others) running right now - America losing each one of them. How fucking shameful, pathetic and humiliating. People in power and their regimes start to die off when they forget history... pay attention; 1789 wasn't all that long ago, afterall. Why should the US stop its endless embattlements on 100 different fronts? Why should it stop invading other countries for oil (a limited, polluting resource which will be all but depleted in 20 years, anyway). Why should it give up control of the internet? Why should it stop monitoring your emails and blogs?

Isnt it time for a pardigm shift? Oh, I forgot - we just had one in 2000. Oops, sorry.

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