GOP Suing Its Only Friends?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 18, 2008 by admin in Politics
Friday, July 18th, 2008The GOP threatens Cafe Press with lawsuits for letting its users promote the GOP.
Hey Republicans! You’re doing it wrong! In the latest example of “just-not-getting-it”, the GOP is apparently threatening to sue CafePress for allowing its users to repurpose the various trademarked GOP images such as the red-white-and-blue elephant and the letters “GOP”. The irony, of course, being the preponderance of images that are IN FAVOR of the GOP. Why would you want to sue your free marketing team? They obviously don’t have any money, I mean, who buys anything from CafePress? Next thing you know, they’ll be suing kids for drawing pictures of Dumbo and reading Horton Hears a Who
FISA: A Big Barack Obummer
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on July 14, 2008 by admin in Politics
Monday, July 14th, 2008How much deceipt will Democratic voters accept in the name of winning?
The passage of the FISA bill in congress last week reminded me of how glad I am that I’m usually able to maintain my ignorant dreams of utopia. This ability comes in handy at times like these, when a politician I thought I really admired so whole-heartedly caves in and signs off on what I consider to be one of the most un-American pieces of legislation to slither through the gutter that is the U.S. Congress. Hey, B.O.! You really let us down on this one! It was only October last year that Obama’s spokesperson Bill Burton said “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies” . October Surprise, indeed. If you want to learn more about the FISA bill, Glenn Greenwald had an informative piece on Salon, and here’s the Wikipedia entry. If you want to take action, you can support the ACLU, which has filed a lawsuit questioning the bill’s constitutionality, or support the EFF, with their Continue the Fight Against Warrantless Wiretapping campaign.
Record Industry Begs World: “Please Stop Buying Music!”
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on June 25, 2008 by admin in Music, Popular Media
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008Why does the recording industry want radio stations to stop playing music?
In the ongoing saga of the RIAA just not getting it, they are apparently tired of suing old ladies who don’t even have computers and dead people and are now trying to kill their oldest and most reliable channel of cheap promotion, radio. Although the recording industry historically was quite happy to pay the broadcasting industry to play music (illegally, in fact – it was called payola), they now seem to think it should be the other way around. Click on the image at left for a detailed flow chart of how the RIAA decides whom to sue.