Martin Luther King Jr Would Roll Over In His Grave...

     January 18th was, "Internet Freedom Day", something I didn't even know existed until 24 hours later. A celebration of the defeat of SOPA and PIPA. Propositions which would have regulated free speech on the internet. While this is a great thing that these initiatives were defeated, we're a long way from a truly free internet. As part of the celebration a website had posted Martin Luther King Jr's iconic "I have a dream" speech. Within hours though, that speech was taken down from the website Vimeo, presumably due to a "copyright" request from Mr. King's estate, (i.e. his family).

     Apparently it is very hard to find a full length version of his speech anywhere, unless you want to pay his estate $20 for it on DVD. It's my belief that Martin Luther King Jr. is rolling over in his grave right now, because of the way his descendants are prostituting his heritage. That speech was a milestone in civil rights in this country and should be available freely on something like the internet, which didn't even exist when that speech was made. Because of the greed of his family though, it is only available to those who want to pay for it. I've been a staunch advocate for rewriting the copyright laws in this country. They've been hi-jacked by corporations to "protect their intellectual property" and are now stifling true education and freedom of expression. Greed has become the over-riding factor in copyright law, and it needs to be rewritten so that important cultural landmarks don't disappear from the landscape.

Condoleezza Rice: Hypocrit of the Year!

Condoleezza Rice has recently made several statements to the press about the state of affairs in Russia that I find quite offensive. Rice said she hoped the efforts of rights activists (in Russia) would promote universal values of "the rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, and the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state."

I'm sorry, but she must live in a United States of America that I don't anymore. Since 9/11, any person in the U.S. wishing to protest President Bush at one of his public speaking events, have been rounded up by the Secret Service and placed two or three miles away in what they term "Free Speech Zones". Usually a parking lot of an abandoned building surrounded by a chain-link fence. The protestors are told they can have their "freedom of speech" there. The media aren't allowed to film or talk to these people, and of course all you see on TV are people waving "Support Our Troops" signs and signs showing pro-Bush slogans.

Ms. Rice is worried about Russians possibly not having the right to assembly or free speech, yet she hasn't seemed concerned for quite some time about U.S. citizens apparently no longer having those rights!

She also seems to think that the Russian government may be becoming one-sided with all the power being held by one faction of it. Damn! I guess she hasn't been hearing all the talk around this country about how the Executive branch of our government has become too powerful, overshadowing, and even bullying the other two branches of our government (the legislative and judicial branches) into getting what they want. Gee, doesn't Ms. Rice work for the Executive branch of the government? I think she does, and apparently as long as you're the one in charge, it doesn't seem so bad a thing!

I think it's time that our government, and it's representatives like Ms. Rice, start looking at what they themselves are up to and clean house here in the U.S. before worrying about what others' are doing in their own back yards!