Techno D-Day

It was a techno D-Day, a techno D-Day, out on Omaha Beach.
Where the troops believe in the life of freedom.
This is all about free speech. - Joe Strummer

In reaction to the arrest of Julian Assange, front man for Wikileaks, "hacktivists" began symbolic attacks upon Swedish government sites, Mastercard, Visa, Paypal and others today. In England (correction: Holland) a 16-year-old was arrested for hacking in connection with the actions.

Actions such as the arrest of the 16-year-old just demonstrates how those who are trying to stop Wikileaks simply don't get it. Wikileaks is not just a one man show run by Assange. He is merely the public face. Calls for Assange to be prosecuted on various charges such as espionage, etc. demonstrate a clear lack of understanding of the information age. Assange is only the messenger. He is but a soldier. This is about free speech and freedom of the press.

Efforts to stop Wikileaks have come from various corners over the past couple of weeks. What these attempts to silence them have done is to produce the exact opposite effect. Mirror sites have been proliferating and more hackers have rallied to the defense of Wikileaks. The free speech and free press advocates have been united in a common cause.

The world has changed. Everything is public now, whether anyone wants it to be or not. World governments must accept this reality, multinational corporations must accept this reality, every single individual must accept this reality.

A battle has begun. The battle is between the old way of doing things, with secrets and hidden information and the new way, where everything is dragged into the light. Even if Assange were to go to prison, nothing can stop what has begun. The beaches have been stormed.

Assault on Free Speech

If you have been looking for the WikiLeaks documents today you likely received a message that the server is not responding. What has happened is that the U.S. State Department has put enormous pressure on various companies and now WikiLeaks domain name - Wikileaks.org is no longer functional.

For a country that is allegedly committed to free speech and a free press the U.S. government is acting completely contrary to that ideal. Threatening to charge Julian Assange, WikiLeaks public face, with espionage is only the tip of the iceberg. Amazon, formerly hosting WikiLeaks, has now kicked them off their servers.

Aside from the sheer stupidity of trying to remove information from the Internet (this genie is never going back in the bottle)the idea of official government censorship of the press is abhorrent. A democracy depends on citizen's knowledge and access to information.

The truth about WikiLeaks is that little of importance that was not already known or suspected was revealed. The hue and cry is more about the embarrassment this is causing for world leaders than any threat to security. Really, what have we learned? The Saudi's are two faced with other Arab nations? Silvio Berlusconi is a vain, corrupt egomaniac? Karzai's brother is a narcotics trafficker? Diplomats sometimes collect information? Gasp and swoon. Anyone unaware of these things hasn't been paying attention anyway.

WikiLeaks is now available at the domain WikiLeaks.ch. Happy reading lovers of a free press.

American Enterprise Institute: One Giant Leap Towards GroupThink

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) fired David Frum earlier this week when he wrote an article criticizing the GOP's approach to health care. Stating that their strategy had back fired, Frum was fired simply for stating an opinion. The substance of Frum's remarks are irrelevant. The issue is that an alleged think tank would fire one of it's fellows for analyzing a political event. In essence, he was fired for doing his job.

Frum's real offense was that he questioned the conservative movement. When so called policy institutes and think tanks will not allow deviation from a particular party line they are no longer legitimate organizations.

The American Enterprise Institute has lost all credibility.

The Right to Say "Fuck" (and "Grass-Mud Horse")

I usually try to avoid profanity in my columns, but sometimes an expletive is the only word that will do.

This is about Free Speech.

The protection of free speech is what differentiates a free society from a repressive one. In the United States, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution unequivocally guarantees its citizens the right to free speech. All speech, with no exceptions. It is about the protection of offensive speech and the most extreme cases. That is the whole point. No one has a problem with polite, happy speech. It is impolite, offensive speech that upsets others that requires protection. It is also impolite and offensive speech that garners attention and forces change. Polite speech gets one ignored and pushed to the back of the bus.

In China, there is currently a phenomenon surrounding a creature known as the "grass-mud horse," that is squarely aimed at censorship. The Chinese government, in an effort to suppress dissent, is actively involved in efforts to censor what its' subjects send or receive on the Internet. The grass-mud horse, a mythological creature, is completely innocuous in written Chinese and therefore evades the censors. However, in spoken Chinese it apparently sounds similar to "fuck mother." This phrase has become the rallying point for many dissidents in the country and a nationwide joke. Would the phrase be so effective it it sounded like "gosh darn?" HELL NO!

In the U.S., speech that criticizes government has long held the greatest level of protection. Those who founded this nation were aware that the speech deemed most offensive is that directed towards those in power. As a result, protection of the right to speak against power is a necessity. This protection extends to all speech, sacred and profane. Agreeable or disagreeable. It has been said that a measure of ones dedication to free speech is the willingness to defend the right to be heard even of a point a view with which one vehemently disagrees.

When individuals begin to pull their verbal punches because they are worried about being offensive or impolite, the whole point of free speech has been lost. The very fact that there are certain words banned from use on radio (thank you George Carlin) television, and the Internet demonstrates their very power. Again sometimes only an expletive will do.

The late comedian/social critic Lenny Bruce said it best: "When you take away my right to say 'fuck,' you take away my right to say 'fuck the government.' " And that my friends, is the point of free speech.