Cuba Limits Access

Cuba appears to have limited access from within the island to the nation's most-read Web site, Generacion Y, a highly critical blog written from Havana.

The author of the Web site, Yoani Sanchez, complained in a post Monday that for the last few days, users on the island get an error message when attempting to access her site.

I have always found it fascinating that each country can have its own laws regarding something that is supposed to be the World Wide Web.  Understandably it is tough to regulate something on a global scale.  However, valuable information and potential freedoms are being violated repeatedly by restricting freedom of the press and freedom to post on a global scale.  This begs this question, in an arena without borders, is Cuba violating essential rights for citizens in the US by restricting this website for all to see, or just their citizens? 

Wiretapping Part Two

Ben Franklin once said, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Due to the aggressive White House stance regarding the war on terror, in particular, the controversy over warrantless wiretapping on American citizens, it is important to identify the value and use of rights. A right is defined as a political resource or a concept.  Therefore, citizens use rights as a resource to safeguard themselves from intrusion by the government upon essential liberty embodied within the Constitution.  That is, citizens combat this intrusion by using rights in various ways by looking to their representatives for protections or through suits brought through courts of law.  With this in mind it is important to beg the question of how the government should balance rights versus the safety of American citizens, particularly with regard to warrentless wiretapping in a time of war? The very premise of the American society is one based upon rights and these rights set it apart from the terrorists America is at war with.  America’s founders believed that society flourished when individuals’ “unalienable rights’ were made paramount to guard against tyranny.   By eavesdropping on Americans without a warrant, the Bush Administration is violating this essential liberty enumerated in the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.  Their viewpoint that one has nothing to hide if they are not doing wrong violates the founders premise for America and ones individual liberty.  Therefore, by violating these rights the administration is destroying the very thing the government is sworn and trying to protect through the war on terror.  

French court says site cannot grade teachers

A French court ruled on Monday that the spin-off of American sites such as ratemyprofessor.com, Note2be.com is no longer allowed to identify teachers and professors by name.  Thus, essentially shutting down the website.  The teachers that brought suit had the support of their union and argued (I'm not making this up) that the website was an incitement of public disorder and a breech of privacy.

So on this basis the French court should stop all political op/eds that disseminate an authors opinion on the French Parliament.  After all, critiquing politicians too harshly could in fact incite public disorder much like critiquing teachers.  Hilariously enough the union also stated that it was not up to pupils to grade their own teachers effectiveness.  Seriously, the union representative said that.  My question for the court is whose job is it then?  Obviously any sort of critique of the teaching profession will be met with opposition.  Would an outside consulting firm that published their results be a breech of privacy and incite public disorder?  All and all this is a sad day for freedom of speech and press.  Maybe the union should go back and teach that.