The blogswarm started with a post entitled Congress wants to monitor your emails, IMs, etc. In the post I asked the readers here and elsewhere to contact politicians, media outlets, and the ACLU, in an attempt to build negative exposure for this drastic bill, the SAFETY Act. I was truly amazed by the response this call to action received. Although progress has been made, we still have a long way to go.

This post is to thank those of you who participated, and to give a few updates on how the word on this crucial issue spread so quickly.

So, first of all, I want to thank everyone who posted about this issue, contacted someone in Congress or the media, or even told a friend. The hard work of people like you made the story below possible. Thank you.

The article was originally posted Sunday evening at The Seminal, a relatively unknown group blog which focuses on independent media and politics. The Seminal is a new experiment in non-corporate media, and if you haven't checked it out yet, you should now.

Originally posted at The Seminal.

A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.

[It] would require ISPs to record all users' surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely.

The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records. (emphasis mine)

This is a terrifying development and it must be stopped before it gains any significant momentum. Background, Action items and contact information below the fold.

Cross posted at Daily Josh.

News comes tonight from MSNBC that there was disagreement between U.S. and British officials on when to make arrests related to the recent terror plot.

A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

In an attempt to gain the support of suburban voters in the upcoming elections, the House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would prevent access to blogs and wikis in schools and libraries. The stated purpose of the bill, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) is to protect children from online predators. There are two major problems that I see with the legislation.

1. By not allowing students to access social networking sites such as myspace in supervised environments, they are encouraging them to do so when no one is watching. This, in effect, makes it more likely that they will fall prey to online predators.

See also The House Votes to Block Social Sites.

Originally posted at Swing State Ohio.

Dictionary.com defines a pathological liar as "a person who lies to the point of it being considered a disease or condition, an abnormally habitual liar."

Most politicians tend to stretch the truth a bit while they are in office. Whether is is George Bush's assertion that "Iraq has WMD's" or Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," examples can be found throughout American history. The distinction lies in the last part of the definition quoted above: an abnormally habitual liar.

Cross Posted at Swing State Ohio

Subodh Chandra has a new campaign ad that is quickly gaining a lot of attention. The video is a Simpson's spoof that compares Subodh to Apu and Marc Dann to Homer. Click here to view the video.