Friday, February 04, 2011 Twitter GC defends users’ right to speak freely By Shannon Green, Corporate Counsel

The revolution will not be televised, but tweeted. Make that the revolution will not be tweeted, but Speak2Tweeted. Following a government shutdown of most Internet and mobile cellular service in Egypt last week, Twitter, Inc., declared freedom of expression—and by extension tweeting—to be a human right. In a Jan. 28 blog post titled “The Tweets Must Flow,” Twitter general counsel Alexander Macgillivray and co-founder Biz Stone defended their mandate to protect Twitter users’ right to speak freely—and touted social media as not only fun but powerful. The post went up as mass demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak broke out across Egypt. Over the weekend, Twitter teamed up with Google and SayNow, a company Google acquired just last month, to establish @Speak2Tweet. The account created a workaround for demonstrators to continue tweeting even though they were offline. Via @Speak2Tweet, anyone with access to a landline can leave voice messages, which are instantly posted on Twitter. “Like many people, we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground,” said Ujjwal Singh, the co-founder of SayNow, and Abdel Karim Mardini, Google’s product manager for the Middle East and North Africa, in a joint statement Monday. “Over the weekend, we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection,” the statement said. “We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.” Macgillivray could not be reached for comment, but a spokesperson for Twitter issued the following statement on the company’s involvement in the Egyptian protests: “Along with the rest of the world, we’re watching closely as the events in Egypt develop. We’re humbled by the way the people there have used Twitter to communicate with each other and people around the globe. We’ve always believed that the open exchange of information can have a positive impact.” “Speak2Tweet has changed the game,” said Brad Shear, a lawyer and social media expert based in the Washington, D.C., metro area. “Shutting down the Internet is not enough,” said Shear. “Now you also need to shut down telephone landlines.” He said that it’s very difficult for countries, even those with limited political freedoms, to cut off all forms of communication without simultaneously destroying their economy. “If you can’t communicate with the outside world, there are implications,” said Shear. Instead, technology must be embraced and utilized. “You can’t silence the messenger,” said Shear. “You must engage with your detractors and try to find common ground.” Social media has enabled large groups of people to discuss their anger collectively and engage in political crowdsourcing in countries where citizens don’t typically have political freedoms, said Shear. In his blog, Shear on Social Media Law, which is part of Law.com’s blog network, he wrote that where the Iranian Twitter Revolution failed to achieve its immediate goal of peaceful institutional change in 2009, it may have inspired the current Social Media Revolution in Egypt. It appears Egyptians have learned a lesson from Iran’s failed Twitter Revolution and pre-planned to try to create institutional change via social media, said Shear. “It appears that the Egyptians knew exactly how Mubarak would react,” he said. They knew he would shut down the Internet and would refuse to communicate with the demonstrators through social media. “Mubarak should have engaged his country via social media and set up a dialogue because by shutting down the Internet he only proved that he is a dictator that does not want any dissenting opinion,” said Shear. “Therefore, these actions have only emboldened his detractors and demonstrated Mubarak is not capable of change.” “It’s very cool, but also very scary what all this technology can do,” said Shear. “It’s a very exciting world,” he said. “The sky’s the limit.” As of Wednesday, mobile and Internet service had been restored in Egypt and Speak2Tweet had almost 10,000 followers. Mubarak’s refusal to immediately step down from office caused violence to escalate. (Mubarak has said he won’t seek re-election in September.) According to The Associated Press, on Wednesday Mubarak supporters charged into Cairo’s central square on horseback and camels and others threw firebombs at anti-government protesters. Three people died and 600 were injured. Shannon Green writes for Corporate Counsel, a Daily Report affiliate. Read more at www.dailyreportonline.com

Dr. Seuss does Star Wars

This is a little project that, as is often the case, started off as a throwaway doodle. With a little encouragement from my friend Tom Dougherty, (link on the right) I turned it into several drawings. What’s fun is that the Star Wars universe really blends with the goofy, strangely-named world of Dr. Seuss pretty easily. I have a couple more of these up my sleeve which I hope I can get around to soon. Stay tuned, and enjoy! Read more at themightyadam.blogspot.com

Since Obama is expected to arrive in the afternoon on November 6, and will travel by road to the Taj Mahal Hotel, the entire stretch from airport to the hotel will be under heavy security. The officer said, “There will be no vehicular movement on Western Express Highway at that time. Traffic on roads leading up to the highway will also be stopped. All buildings flanking the entire stretch will be sanitised. However, there is no threat from the snipers as the President will travel in a bullet-proof car with 4.5-inch thick sheets, which are impenetrable for any gun.” Obama’s personal security staff itself will be huge, and it has already started making its own arrangements in Mumbai. “A team of secret service agents has already arrived, and has surveyed the areas of his stay and the roads and places on his itinerary,” the officer said. To ensure fool-proof security, the President’s team has booked the entire the Taj Mahal Hotel, including 570 rooms, all banquets and restaurants. Since his security contingent and staff will comprise a huge number, 125 rooms at Taj President have also been booked, apart from 80 to 90 rooms each in Grand Hyatt and The Oberoi hotels. The NCPA, where the President is expected to meet representatives from the business community, has also been entirely booked. The officer said, “Obama’s contingent is huge. There are two jumbo jets coming along with Air Force One, which will be flanked by security jets. There will be 30 to 40 secret service agents, who will arrive before him. The President’s convoy has 45 cars, including the Lincoln Continental in which the President travels.” Since Obama will stay in a hotel that is on sea front, elaborate coastal security arrangements have been made by the US Navy in consonance with the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. “There will be US naval ships, along with Indian vessels , patrolling the sea till about 330-km from the shore. This is to negate the possibility of a missile being fired from a distance,” the officer said. Read more at economictimes.indiatimes.com

Meet the Muslim Superheroes who are Ready to Indoctrinate American Kids

However, no matter how edifying the comic books may be for Muslim families, it is bizarre to see the President of the United States endorsing such religiously-inspired products, because they upheld the “teachings and tolerance of Islam.” The POTUS should normally be upholding the Establishment Clause of the Bill of Rights, and not be promoting a particular faith, but this president seems to think his desire to create good feelings in Muslims over-rides his need to abide by the First Amendment. The endorsement of Naif Al-Mutawa and The Ninety-Nine can be watched below:

This disparity is one of the worst things affecting society at present. Christianity and Judaism do not get featured in mainstream media, but Islam is not only depicted in all strands of the media, it is being promoted by a president who seems to have forgotten what he swore to uphold when he entered office.

If Obama can promote Islam, he should also publicly promote Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and every other faith. The fact that he does not is a very worrying development in politics. The separation of church (and mosque, synagogue, gudwara and ashram) and state has been a guiding factor of American political life since the time of Jefferson. To promote one faith above another is shameful. The president’s official endorsement of The Ninety-Nine has legitimized it and given it enough impetus to be broadcast to the masses.

The doctrines and considerations of the Founding Fathers were written down after great debates and lengthy consultation. They have lasted for so long because they have proved the worth of their meaning and purpose. After only two years, one individual seems to think he can dispense with two hundred years of historical precedent. Such political hubris is usually followed by electoral nemesis. Read more at www.familysecuritymatters.org

e description “Murderous bastards” then

A national disgrace: I defy you murderous Islamic Bastards (Bumped to top)

I am outraged by this story:

[O]n the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is… moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity… in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab.

I am not alone in my outrage. And I have the following demand to make of “moderate Muslims” who claim that Islam means an “internal struggle” and say they have come to America to become Americans

Image copywright Jyllands-Posten Read more at datechguy.wordpress.com

It is impossible to read Dirty, Sexy Politics and come away with the impression that you have read anything other than the completely unedited ramblings of an idiot.  This being a professional website for which I have a great deal of respect, I searched for a more eloquent or gentle way to accurately phrase the previous sentence – but could not find one.  Read more at newledger.com

A mistake has been made in the Oval Office makeover that goes beyond the beige.

President Obama’s new presidential rug seemed beyond reproach, with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. woven along its curved edge.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.

Except it’s not a King quote. The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington.

For the record, Theodore Parker is your man, President Obama. Unless you’re fascinated by antebellum American reformers, you may not know of the lyrically gifted Parker, an abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the end of slavery, though he did not live to see emancipation. He died at age 49 in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.

A century later, during the civil rights movement, King, an admirer of Parker, quoted the Bostonian’s lofty prophecy during marches and speeches. Often he’d ask in a refrain, “How long? Not long.” He would finish in a flourish: “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

King made no secret of the author of this idea. As a Baptist preacher on the front lines of racial justice, he regarded Parker, a religious leader, as a kindred spirit.

Yet somehow a mistake was made and magnified in our culture to the point that a New England antebellum abolitionist’s words have been enshrined in the Oval Office while attributed to a major 20th-century figure. That is a shame, because the slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was so eloquent in his own right. Obama, who is known for his rhetorical skills, is likely to feel the slight to King — and Parker.

My investigation into this error led me to David Remnick’s biography of Obama, “The Bridge,” published this year. Early in the narrative, Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, presents this as “Barack Obama’s favorite quotation.” It appears that neither Remnick nor Obama has traced the language to its true source.

Parker said in 1853: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”

The president is at minimum well-served by Parker’s presence in the room. Parker embodied the early 19th-century reformer’s passionate zeal for taking on several social causes at once. Many of these reformers were Unitarians or Quakers; some were Transcendentalists. Most courageously, as early as the 1830s, they opposed the laws on slavery and eventually harbored fugitives in the Underground Railroad network of safe houses. Without 30 years of a movement agitating and petitioning for slave emancipation, Lincoln could not have ended slavery with the stroke of a pen in the midst of war. Parker was in the vanguard that laid the social and intellectual groundwork.

The familiar quote from Lincoln woven into Obama’s rug is “government of the people, by the people and for the people,” the well-known utterance from the close of his Gettysburg Address in 1863.

Funny that in 1850, Parker wrote, “A democracy — that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.”

Theodore Parker, Oval Office wordmeister for the ages.

Jamie Stiehm, a journalist, is writing a book on the life of Lucretia Mott, a 19th-century abolitionist and women’s rights leader. Read more at www.washingtonpost.com