Senator McCain no Choice for President

Senator McCain no Choice for President

The more I learn about presidential hopeful Senator John McCain (R. Arizona), the more convinced I am that he is not only a poor choice for the job as president, but as a politician and senator he is from another planet.

In December of last year, McCain introduced the Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act of 2006, an act designed in theory to protect our nation's many exploited children, but in all reality is nothing more than a thinly disguised piece of legislation aimed at limiting bloggers and their right to free speech as afforded by the First Amendment of our Constitution.

In his speech to Congress, McCain stated "The Federal government has in place a system for online companies such as Internet service providers to report images to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Center is directed by law to relay that information to Federal and State law enforcement agencies. This reporting system has been successful, but it is in need of several vital improvements. This bill would enhance the current reporting system by expanding the range of companies obligated".

Now don't get me wrong, I am certainly not advocating the right for anyone to manufacture and distribute child pornography, but this act was merely created as a way for Senator McCain to get his "foot in the door" for which allows for the regulation of "grassroots lobbying" and defines such as "the voluntary efforts of members of the general public to communicate their own views on an issue to Federal officials or to encourage other members of the general public to do the same".

While this section endorsed by McCain has subsequently been struck from the bill, it would have allowed Congress to "require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big "K" Street lobbyists", according to Richard A. Viguerie, columnist for the Washington Post. "Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself," McCain's proposal would have introduced legislation making it legal to fine bloggers up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on their comment boards.

This is nothing more than an attempt to impede our rights to free speech as afforded us by our Constitution, and McCain knows it. It's no secret that Senator McCain has aligned himself with anti-bloggers as evidenced by a May, 2000 commencement address he made to the graduating class of the Reverend Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, where he stated "When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed, and wiser than anyone else I knew. It seemed I understood the world and the purpose of life so much more profoundly than most people. I believed that to be especially true with many of my elders, people whose only accomplishment, as far as I could tell, was that they had been born before me, and, consequently, had suffered some number of years deprived of my insights…It's a pity that there wasn't a blogosphere then. I would have felt very much at home in the medium".

What is McCain is saying here, that in his youth he felt so highly of himself that he felt the need to criticize any and all of those around him with any knowledge, and having the opportunity of using the "blogosphere" as today's society does, would have been his way of doing just that? Not only is this offensive to anybody with a blog or website, it's wrong of him to insinuate that those people with blogs only use them as a way to demean others, spread child pornography or endorse terrorist actions. It is certainly true that there are people who use their blogs as a way to push beliefs not popular with others, but haven't authors been doing that since the invention of writing implements? McCain's insistence of censuring bloggers and internet users amounts to nothing more than modern day book burning and is much in line with the way State Controlled Communist China regulates their citizens from world wide access, and any internet use is monitored by state officials which have banned such words and phrases as "Mao Zedong" and Chinese Government" as being too sensitive to include in writings by it's own people.

It's good to see McCain is still maintaining that "eloquence and wisdom" from his youth and no longer has an "infatuation with self expression".

The people of the United States would be doing an injustice to themselves and the rest of the world if they endorsed this right-wing's zealot in his bid for the presidency, and the people of Arizona should seriously consider whether his time as a senator has come and gone.

Jennifer Parcell, True American Hero

Smith a Hero? No. Jennifer Parcell? Yes
The Stupidity of American Hero Worship
by Brian C. Noell

There are times when I am truly ashamed of many of my fellow Americans.

I work mainly out of my home office when I write. That is where I am the most comfortable and productive. My desk faces the picture window allowing me brief little breaks to gaze out and reflect on my thoughts. Usually when I do write, I always have a radio or television on, not because I am watching or listening but more for background noise than anything else. Usually they are on some news station, and I am half listening to them, but as a rule I am usually not very interested in their content, preferring instead to read the news, whether it be over the internet or in newsprint.

A lot of Americans died yesterday, most of whom have names I have never known, and whose names I will never know. They were fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts and some were children of other Americans. But in the course of my writing yesterday I couldn’t help but hear the news of the passing of two Americans in particular.

Every news network in America informed us yesterday of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, with many running a news crawl on the lower part of our television screens informing America of the latest updates on her death and the investigation that was to follow.

Smith, who was born Vicky Lynn Hogan in Houston, Texas in November of 1967, is best known for being a former Playboy Playmate of the Year in 1993 and will be remembered most for her marriage to 89 year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall, thirteen months prior to his death in August of 1995. She subsequently battled Marshall’s heirs for her half of the billionaire’s estate, pursuing his fortune all the way to the Supreme Court. More recently, Smith gave birth to a baby girl in September of 2006, only to lose her grown son Daniel Smith later that same week while he was visiting her in the hospital. She also had her own reality television show known as “Anna Nicole Smith: Exposed”. Since her death yesterday, three men have come forward to claim paternity of her daughter, the first being Howard K. Stern, her attorney; photographer Larry Birkhead, and oddly enough Frederic von Anholt, 64, husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Many of you may think that I am heartless and cold, but who the hell cares about Anna Nicole Smith?

Anna Nicole Smith was nothing more than a two-bit, gold digging, “B” movie sex starlet whore, who got to the top because of her over-sized breast implants and her marriage to a man who was a billionaire and two steps away from death. It sickens me that the major television networks of this country or the world for that matter, as well as the newsprint people have devoted so much coverage to this shining example of American stupidity, and degradation. America should hang their head in shame for ever producing someone of this caliper, and for putting her on a pedestal for everyone to admire. Frankly the only media coverage that should be devoted to her should be the front page of the National Enquirer, and a ten-minute segment on Entertainment Tonight, right before they segway to an ad for penile dysfunction.

As I said earlier in this column, we as Americans lost a true hero yesterday. Nobody knows the name of Jennifer Parcell. Jennifer was a 20 year-old marine corporal whose life came to sudden and tragic end while defending her country in what the Defense Department has described as a “supporting combat operation” in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. I wish I could share more about her life, and I will share what I have found, but when I was doing research for this column earlier today I found over 6000 articles related to Anna Nicole Smith using the search engine Google. I found twelve for Parcell.

Jennifer Parcell, a Bel Air, Maryland native graduated from Fallston High School in 2004. In January of 2005 she followed her older brother Joseph into the Marine Corp. Joseph has been a Marine since 2003. For a month both Jennifer and Joseph were stationed together in Iraq until their tours of duty separated them.

Based out of Okinawa, Japan, Jennifer was a member of Combat Logistics Regiment 3, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force. She loved boating, scuba diving, yoga and music. She was a math wiz in high school, and received six medals while serving with the Marine Corp, one of which was the Humanitarian Service Medal, for the work her and her unit did following the earthquake that ravaged Pakistan last year. She also was the sponsor of a young African child through her church’s missionary undertakings.

Which one of these two women would you be proud to stand next to, call a friend, and more importantly an American?