There Goes the Internet

[randolph]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Indeed... Type 'Obamacare' in Google. The first thing that comes up is www.healthcare.gov. That's not because of any search algorithm at Google. It's because Obama is using your tax dollars to advertise his heath plan.

Tracy, do you have any evidence whatsoever that the government has placed healthcare.gov at the top of a Google search?
Its there because the Google algorithm has detected its popularity as related to a search for Obamacare. Try a search for trannycare and see what happens.

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by randolph

Tracy, do you have any evidence whatsoever that the government has placed healthcare.gov at the top of a Google search?
Its there because the Google algorithm has detected its popularity as related to a search for Obamacare. Try a search for trannycare and see what happens.

I embedded the link discussing it in what I wrote. It's here http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...ts_525959.html

[randolph]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

I embedded the link discussing it in what I wrote. It's here http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...ts_525959.html

Of course, if you type in *.gov you will get a list of government sites. Try typing in obamacare and you a bunch of other sites, not a *.gov site.
I think this stuff about the gov. rigging Google is BS.
If the gov. wanted to influence the pub. about healthcare, surly they would have paid to have "obamacare" at the top of the list of a search.

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by Trogdor

What freaks me out is how the Egyptian government pretty much pulled the plug on the internet, to keep people from twittering and blackberrying and stuff.....imagine if that happens here.

Last summer a bill was introduced by Joe Lieberman to implement Obama's plan of an internet kill switch here. The bill is called Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010. This gives the president powers to turn off parts of the internet in the event of a national emergency. And guess what? The latest version of the bill bans judicial review, so the president is free to define whatever event he likes as a national emergency.

The legislation says that companies such as broadband providers, search engines or software firms that the US Government selects ?shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed? by the Department of Homeland Security.

Joe Lieberman cited the Communist Chinese system of Internet policing as model which America should move towards. ?Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,? said Lieberman to CNN last June.

The government is very uneasy with the fact that the internet permits an alternate and independent form of media that challenges established news outlets that the government has more control over. i.e. Congressman Bob Etheridge was publicly shamed after he was shown on video assaulting two college students who asked him a question. Two kids with a flip cam and a You Tube account could very well have changed the course of a state election, another startling reminder of the power of the Internet and independent media, and why the establishment is desperate to take that power away. In that youtube video, Etheridge repeatedly asks the students "Who are you?". Don't worry Congressman Etheridge. Obama plans to implement an internet ID to protect people just like you.

There seems to be an intentional push in this so called republic of ours to screw the will of the american people and increasingly to centralize power to the presidency. In a Republic, the sovereignty resides with the people themselves. In a Republic, one may act on his own or through his representatives when he chooses to solve a problem. The people have no obligation to the government. Instead, the government is a servant of the people, and obliged to its owner, We the People. Look at our government now. Do you see any indication that this is the case?

[randolph]

The situation in Egypt and Tunisia clearly demonstrates the power of the internet to organize and activate an uprising. Is our pseudo democracy all that different from Egypt? The media and our "representatives" are controlled by special interests. Our resources are devoted to wars and military enhancements to the detriment of our society and its infrastructure.
When will it stop?
Can we stop it?
How can we stop it?
Well, if enough people get pissed off, we can stop it.

[Trogdor]

Originally Posted by randolph

The situation in Egypt and Tunisia clearly demonstrates the power of the internet to organize and activate an uprising. Is our pseudo democracy all that different from Egypt? The media and our "representatives" are controlled by special interests. Our resources are devoted to wars and military enhancements to the detriment of our society and its infrastructure.
When will it stop?
Can we stop it?
How can we stop it?
Well, if enough people get pissed off, we can stop it.

We can stop, if everyone else will wake up, pull their faces away from the TV screen and switch off Idol and celeb gossip shows, and start thinking for a change. Same with political parties.....Republican, Democrat.....liberal, conservative.....they are all the same thing over here, with the same agendas and plans. I'm rooting for the Egyptians, because there's a bunch of people actually DOING something to change their lives in a good way....and cutting the internet and setting curfews won't stop anything, the Egyptian government knows this, and they are afraid.

As I said before, when you give a government so much power, it will want more power....to take away your freedoms in exchange for 'security' (the so-called justification of the oppressor), and I feel that a lot of this 'terrorism' you hear about is caused by governments to have excuses to take away more freedoms. Look back at history, and as I said, any Americans who think this country is immune, just because it's America, shows just how historically ignorant Americans are.

[smc]

Originally Posted by Trogdor

As I said before, when you give a government so much power, it will want more power....to take away your freedoms in exchange for 'security' (the so-called justification of the oppressor), and I feel that a lot of this 'terrorism' you hear about is caused by governments to have excuses to take away more freedoms. Look back at history, and as I said, any Americans who think this country is immune, just because it's America, shows just how historically ignorant Americans are.

If you applied this healthy skepticism and robust view of American history a little more broadly, you might be less prone to falling into lock-step with positions that are promulgated behind the scenes by those who have power and who care nothing about your well-being or your rights -- positions that are against your economic and social interests.

It's a suggestion, offered respectfully in exchange for the fine paragraph I have quoted from you above.

[smc]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

... The government is very uneasy with the fact that the internet permits an alternate and independent form of media that challenges established news outlets ...

There seems to be an intentional push in this so called republic of ours to screw the will of the american people and increasingly to centralize power to the presidency. ...

Well, Tracy, this we can agree on. An exploration of recent (i.e., since the end of World War II) history will demonstrate that this "intentional push" to "centralize power" is not a partisan issue. While the Obama administration may currently be exploring the centralization of power with the Internet, the previous Bush administration sought to centralize power through an unprecedented number of "signing statements" appended to legislation. All presidents use their power of Executive Order to solidify power in the Executive branch of government.

Again, it is not partisan. It is about who the Democrats and Republicans truly represent. It's not the people. It's, well ... remember the Golden Rule: "Whoever has the gold makes the rules."