BORN ON THE 4TH OF JULY (ALMOST)

It's not really me, it's my blog. A week ago today, I began my blog on AOL two years ago. My wife introduced me to the world of blogging and that's how I got started. I was quite excited about finally having a forum to speak out. As many of you know, AOL gave the big heave-ho to all of its bloggers. If you would like to read past entries, click on the archive link at the bottom of the page.

Thank you to all who read, comment, or both. I always welcome your thoughts.

"Dirk, Joe, Nancy and I just wanted to thank you for helping us out with the 'transparency' thing."

TRANSPARENCY? I'M HELPING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ON THIS ONE!

I was perusing blogs on my reader, and found an alarming, but not surprising, post on NOBAMANATION called OBAMA SEEKING POWER TO SEARCH LAPTOPS, MEDIA DEVICES, MEDIA ANYTIME THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WANTS. This is about something the Obama administration is working on in secret called the ANTI-COUNTERFEITING TRADE AGREEMENT (ACTA). So, I started doing some research. A search of ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, and of course "America's #1 News Site", MSNBC, and not surprisingly, no results. I went digging a little further.

What I found was that the Obama Administration, the European Union, Jordan, Mexico, and other countries are working on a treaty that would allow the search of computer harddrives, Ipods, and other media devices supposedly just for suspected pirated content. These searches could be done without a warrant and without a reason. All of your personal information that you might have would be right there for the government to see. It gets better. ACTA's scope is very broad and far reaching. It also includes counterfeit physical goods, but also "internet distribution and information technology". According to an article on Canada.com entitled, COPYRIGHT DEAL COULD TOUGHEN RULES GOVERNING INFO ON IPODS, COMPUTERS, "The leaked ACTA document states officials should be given the 'authority to take action against infringers (i.e., authority to act WITHOUT complaint by rights holders).' "

According to the document, anyone found with "infringing content" on their device, which could include a cell telephone, would be subject to a fine and possibly having their ENTIRE DEVICE DESTROYED. That's right, over one bit of anything that was determined (determined how?) to be a copyright infringement, you could lose your computer, cell telephone, or Ipod. A bit excessive? You better believe it. Fourth Amendment? Totally gone on this one.

Not done yet though. It gets even better. According to this same article, ACTA proposes new sanctions on internet service providers. This treaty would force internet service providers to hand over PERSONAL INFORMATION pertaining to "claimed infringement" or "alleged infringers". In other words, your personal information would given over on merely an allegation of transmitting or sharing copyrighted material over the internet. The rights holder would no longer have the burden of proof in collecting any evidence whatsoever. It would be very easy to target dissenters including blogs that don't just swallow everything that comes out of Washington. Government control of the internet is something Rahm Emanuel has openly said he wants to see happen. First Amendment? Gone on this one too.

Now these negotiations did not start with the current administration. This started in October 2007 through the OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE. These negotiations have never been made public. The government only acknowledges that the United States is participating in the negotiations. Bits and pieces of the content and nature of this agreement have been leaked, but all requests for information have been denied here in the United States and Canada.

Even though this did not start this year, one of the campaign promises Obama made concerned transparency in government. He never qualified that statement as applying to some areas and not others. Since this is not a matter of national security, but supposedly a "trade agreement", why all the secrecy? Why is this particular "trade agreement" guarded so closely? Why isn't the news media all over this? When known terrorists' telephone conversations were monitored by the Bush administration, the liberal left including the news media went absolutely bananas. This was an infringement on the rights and liberties of law-abiding American citizens. THAT sure made a lot of sense. Watching known terrorists REALLY infringed on MY rights. Whatever. But, have you heard ANYTHING at all in the news about this? Not exactly 6:00 material, and absolutely NO ONE has called Obama out on this one in response to his major emphasis on and promise of transparency.

Since transparency seemed to be a problem on this issue, I, as a good American, decided to assist the President. Glad to be of service.