Thursday, March 06, 2003

Congress questions FCC copyright plan. Democrat Rep. Howard Berman, whose southern California district borders Hollywood, said he was worried that the FCC could veer in a direction that might mandate "fair use" rights that would not be favorable to the entertainment industry. "I'm opposed to the FCC attempting to...limit the exclusive rights of copyright holders in its broadcast flag rule making," he said. [CNET News.com] Translation: I am opposed to citizens having any rights with regard to intellectual property. Thanks Howard, for selling your constituents out for a few hundred thousand dollars of media company money. At least you're consistent.   9:18:12 PM

Going to war. I'm a reasonable person, and I vote. I want to understand the European point of view. Tell me what you'd do here. You've drawn a line. You've said that Saddam must disarm or be disarmed. You did say that, there was a UN Security Council resolution, the vote was unanimous, not vetoed by France, Russia or China. Okay he didn't disarm. Now what? [Scripting News] Dave's absolutely right. The French, Germans, Russians, and Chinese all voted for Resolution 1441. But now they're not comfortable about the consequences of what they've voted for, so they're backpedaling. Furthermore, they lack a valid plan for bringing about the disarmament of Iraq. Supporting inspections without a deadline is not a valid option - seven years of inspections have proven that. The Iraqi Regime seems to understand only one thing: force. I do not think the time has come for war. It is clear to me that diplomacy still has a ways to go in resolving this problem before we can cast it aside as failed. But as long as the Iraqis feel they can use the split between the Security Council members to its advantage, they will not truly cooperate (they may not cooperate in any case, but we still do not know that at this point). Without a resolution requiring concrete, specific actions by the Iraqis, I think we can safely assume that they will not be disarmed without force. Unfortunately, it appears that the anti-war camp would rather have the status quo - which includes the suffering of the Iraqi people at the hands of sanctions and a brutal dictator.   4:38:08 PM

It appears that at least North Carolina Republicans are closing ranks around Howard Coble: Another North Carolina Congressman, Richard Burr, is now criticizing Senator John Edwards for Edwards's recent criticism of Howard Coble's comments supporting the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Burr, who is thinking of running for Edwards's Senate seat in 2004 (while Edwards simultaneously runs for President), is "outrage[d]" by Edwards's criticism, and thinks that Edwards owes Coble an apology. "My outrage," says Burr, "is over a member of our delegation taking a shot at the dean of our delegation without checking out the facts first." [IsThatLegal?] Ah, the Republican Party's dirty little secret rears its ugly head once again. Apparently, rather than facing the fact that the Republicans have a lot to learn about living in a multi-cultural democracy in the twenty-first century, they have chosen to dig in their heels on this issue. Some simple lessons for our Republican friends: It is not acceptable to lock up an entire group of people based solely on their racial background. Putting people behind barbed wire and machine guns is not the proper way to protect them from racism. When someone makes comments which are not only historically flawed, but borderline racist, it is okay, in fact, it is essential to criticise them for those remarks regardless of whether they are a member of your party or of your Congressional delegation. My outrage is over the fact that the Republican party only seems to have the courage to confront racism in its midst when they know that not doing so will cost them votes. Apparently, since they've already written the West Coast off, it's not important to respect the feelings and personhood of many of the people who live in that region.   3:48:15 PM