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Russell Shaw calls for progressives to unite around whatever Democratic Party nominee for president:

I look at this past week's 5-4 Supreme Court vote against "partial birth abortion." Then I hold up the ages of liberal Justices John Paul Stevens (87), and an increasingly feeble Ruth Bader Ginsburg (74) against the actuarial tables.

I just pray these two are able to serve on the Court until that hopefully blessed morning of January 20, 2009. At Noon on that day, a Democrat will- from my mouse to the Goddess' ears- take the Oath.I'd love for the oath-taker to be Al Gore, or John Edwards, or Bill Richardson. But if it comes down to saving Roe, I'd settle for Hillary. With more campaign funds than her Democratic opponents, her nomination is likely. I can see where Obama will fade, Edwards may need to drop out, and Gore will stay out.At this point in time, though, I can see a scenario that causes ideological purists on our side of the fence to do something stupid that will cause Hillary to fall short, and thus, pave the path for another anti-choice, Justice-appointng [sic] Republican to get into the White House.

Despite the fact that Russell Shaw is echoing radical right-wing (as well as Markos Moulitsas) talking points about "ideological purity" -- a Rovian expression if I ever heard one -- I can see his point. Just this morning, I was thinking about how any of the top four -- Obama, Edwards, Richardson or even Clinton -- would get my vote. And while I know not nearly enough to choose any one above the others, at this point, my sense is that one of them would suffice for me come November next year.
Making that decision so much easier is the fact that the Republicans have so far offered up boobs, bigots and bobbies. Given the radical and, yes, misogynist and, yes again, racist and, yes, obviously, homophobic values at the core of the right wing, I don't see myself voting for any Republican for president any time soon. Add in their modern penchant for fascistic governmental control over individuals -- making the phrase "the party of Goldwater" an oxymoronic joke -- and I don't see myself voting Republican in my lifetime.
However, Congress is a different matter. Do we continue to vote for pro-forced-pregnancy Democrats? How do we, as progressives, in good conscience cast our lot with men (yes once more, I'm afraid) who consider women's right to privacy to be non-existent, women's medical choices to be controlled by politicians, women's health to be a distraction, women's lives to be important only when not distracting from other interests, and women's bodies to be, ultimately, Property of the U.S. Government?
I wonder how many Democratic and independent voters even realize that their Democratic Senator(s) and/or Representative is an advocate of forced pregnancy.
The question is pertinent right now, pre-primaries, while we look at what kind of future we want to forge in the can't-come-soon-enough post-Bush America. Now is the time to ask the questions. Now is the time to choose. Now is the time to push for the progressives that will defend privacy and equal rights and civil rights and human rights for everyone, not just the ruling men who look upon the rest of us as "peasants."
It's not an easy thing, when the Democratic Party, whose vague favoring of progressive values stands out like a monument to all things noble and just when compared with the venal depravity that describes the power centers of the GOP, has such a slim and weak hold upon Congress.
It's all the more difficult when you consider that men claiming progressive values have historically dismissed our alarms about the Handmaid trends happening in our politics -- our politics. And it sure as heck doesn't help that ignorance and willful ignorance on the part of ostensibly well-intentioned men when it comes to issues women face continue.
The demographics are with us, though. More GOP seats in the Senate are up for election next year. Americans in general are suspicious of an overly invasive Government. And, while meaningful statistics are lacking (at least from what I can tell), based on anecdotal evidence there are quite a number of so-called "pro-life" Americans who oppose abortion until the issue comes home to roost in their own families, in their own lives.

So what's it going to be, boys? When you throw women's lives into the mix, does women's equality count as "important shit"?

Or actually, those companies have done it themselves by cooperating with the Chinese government's censorship of the web in order to gain access to the Communist cash cow, the Chinese marketplace.

"The Internet should promote free speech, not restrict it. We have to guard against the creation of two Internets — one for expression and one for repression," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty's U.S. branch, in a statement.

The companies "have violated their stated corporate values and policies" in their pursuit of China's booming Internet market, the statement said. It appealed to them to "call for the release of `cyber-dissidents.'"
Of course, these corporations protest their innocence. But what is this but collaboration:

Yahoo has been the most severely criticized after the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's China operation provided information on e-mail users that was used to sentence two dissidents to prison.

Google has been criticized for censoring search results on its China site. Microsoft has banned terms such as "human rights" from its Chinese Web log service and shut down the U.S.-based log of a Chinese blogger at Beijing's request.More from Search Engine Watch Blog, Lifehacker.

Since this is Amnesty International talking (report in PDF), I can guess at the rumbling knee-jerk reaction we can expect from the radical right. Watch for their claims that it's a good thing how American corporations are helping Communist China oppress its population. After all, that's how Dick Cheney got rich(er) in the '90s.

Something interesting has emerged from last week's skewering of the president and the press by Stephen Colbert: the fact that C-SPAN, the "public affairs" cable network who claims to be all about the people's business, is claiming copyright over the material shown on YouTube (which we linked to here).

Reports the New York Times:

On Wednesday, C-Span, the nonprofit network that first showed Mr. Colbert's speech, wrote letters to the video sites YouTube.com and ifilm.com, demanding that the clips of the speech be taken off their Web sites....

...After the clips of Mr. Colbert's performance were ordered taken down at YouTube — where 41 clips of the speech had been viewed a total of 2.7 million times in less than 48 hours, according to the site — there were rumblings on left-wing sites that someone was trying to silence a man who dared to speak truth to power.

But as became clear later in the week, this was a business decision, not a political one. Not only is the entire event available to be streamed at C-Span's Web site, c-span.org, but the network is selling DVD's of the event for $24.95, including speeches and a comedy routine by President Bush with a President Bush imitator.

And C-Span gave permission to Google Videos to carry the Colbert speech beginning Friday. The arrangement, which came with the stipulation that Google Videos provide the entire event and a clip of Mr. Bush's entire routine as well, is a one-time deal. In other words: ka-ching!

Money talks, and the people walk, people. I'm tempted to add, "C-SPAN wants you to get all the content that corporations can buy from them," but that would be a step ahead.

But what really is disturbing here is that money-making opportunities immediately and completely trumped the purportedly "public affairs" focus of C-SPAN.

So far, Google has refused.

DoJ search requests: Google said no; Yahoo, AOL, MSN yes.

Update: Earlier today, I asked a Justice Department spokesperson which search engines other than Google received requests to provide search records. The answer: Yahoo, AOL, and MSN were also asked to supply search records information, and all complied. Google did not, and that is why the DoJ asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order the company to do so.Of course, the Justice Department would not associate any information it gathers with personally identifiable data. (Of course!) So you porn-loving boys can go on doing what you're doing ... as long as you support the war.

This is actually a comment on MediaGirl's post That Was Then. It's all in the Past but it's too long to leave in comments.

I am thoroughly sick of the Democratic Party. They're zombies. They have no sense of urgency, no fight, no fire, no sense of timing or outrage and no idea of how to work a strategy. The only position they've taken in five years is to grab their ankles.

Why are those idiots saying they probably won't filibuster the most extreme reactionary nominated since Robert Bork? Why didn't they come out swinging after Al Gore's speech today? Why aren't they spitting nails that the man who stole two presidential elections is now ignoring FISA and spying on American citizens?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. They did stand by and let those elections be stolen. You'd think all that legal training could have come up with something after the GAO report came out that showed 2004 was fixed. Or after reporter after reporter proved that Gore won in 2000. But no.

You'd think they'd object to pResident Bush claiming to be a "war president" when only Congress can declare war, and they've done no such thing. They did give Bush power to act if Saddam didn't cooperate with the UN inspectors - but he did. Bush sent troops into Iraq anyway, knowing they had no WMD's. Bush lied to congress in the process, which is a crime. Still no outrage.

Using the mythical "war on terror"- for which the administration has done nothing to prepare except to fill vital positions with cronies and fools- as cover, the administration locked up a US citizen for over 3 years without due process. They imprisoned people who had nothing to do with the war, subjecting them to beatings, torture, and death. These acts, including the torture and rape of children, are so heinous that they defy the American psyche. Our frozen populace immobile with fear and denial, hypnotized by a well-trained, well-tamed media chanting today's Republican talking points as if they were scripture, or even fact, begs for news of one lost girl to drown out the loss of 100,000 people who never hurt an American who wasn't trying to kill them. And in our frosty sleep we lost our right to privacy, to the security of our homes, of our phones, of our own bodies. We are not free, anymore.

And yet the party asks for my money and my vote. They will not act to save the lives of my sisters who will die from unwanted or dangerous pregnancies; of STD's that might have been prevented; of AIDS spread through ignorance and deceit. They'll save a fetus and leave the born to starve. Our young and our old, our sick and our poor are being strangled with debt and red tape. They stood silent as we stood aghast at the death of New Orleans from incompetent, uncaring neglect.

They expect us to vote for candidates that see women as less than human? Who would make me the property of the state? So that courts and Congress and the men in my life determine the use of my womb?

I can't pretend to know the reason - are they making too much money to demand change? Are they afraid of getting a real job? Are they lazy, or blind, or in on the game? Whatever the reason, I'm done.

I say this one last time -

Lose Roe v. Wade and the Women in this country will BURY the Democratic Party.

Not a threat, but a promise we intend to keep. They have until January 24th to decide if I remain a Democrat or not. If they don't filibuster the vote on Sam Alito's nomination, I go to the Green Party and I take as many of my sisters as I can with me.

We've begged. We've threatened. Now, it's time to walk.