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GOP Suing Its Only Friends?

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:37:41 +0000

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. Get a grip, GOP, your existing internal marketing people don’t seem to be doing you any favors, and getting lawyers involved isn’t likely to help.

FISA: A Big Barack Obummer

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:16:22 +0000

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!”

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:49:05 +0000

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.