Arkansas Media

Everybody Hates The Rotten SOPA Internet Censorship Bill! (Updated!)

November 30, 2011 David Kinkade 3 Comments

PROTECT IP/SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

There they are, your United States Congress, and they are going to stop online piracy NOW!

Ah, and yet…The terrible Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is lurking in the U.S. House of Representatives, and its Senate companion, the also terrible PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011) is sneaking through the upper chamber. This is happening in spite of the fact that so much of America hates hates HATES these proposed bills.

Intended to stamp out copyright infringement and piracy on the Internet, these two bills would transfer unprecedented power to the government to block or shut down websites that facilitate intellectual property violations, such as copyright and trademark infringement or piracy. These proposals would have severe consequences for freedom of speech and due process, and many have warned how, if enacted, they would undermine the very structure of the Internet.

The short video explanation heading up this post, via Lifehacker, is perhaps the best four minute briefing on the bills you could ask for. Go ahead, watch, it’s only four minutes. We’ll save your place here till you get back.

Done? Great. Let’s move on.

Will no one rid of us of these meddlesome bills? Don’t count on U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas’ Second District, or Sen. John Boozman, Republicans who are co-sponsors of SOPA and the PROTECT-IP Act in their respective chambers. Ech, it’s enough to make you wonder what we even have Republicans for when they are willing to sign on to such unaccountable expansions of government power. Then you see that the proposals boast bipartisan support, and you realize we, the people, just cannot win.

My friends, these are wretched laws that need to be strangled in the crib, posthaste, but you need not take my word for it. The reviews are in, and the opposition spans the political spectrum. If this were a collection of Rotten Tomatoes reviews this thing would be tracking lower than that new Adam Sandler movie. (“Excellent topical reference, Dave! Very topical.”—All Arkansas Project Readers). Let’s look!:

Right to Record: Little Rock Case Affirms Need for Protecting Citizens’ Rights

November 9, 2011 Dan Greenberg 6 Comments

On October 29 in Little Rock, a disagreement between an off-duty cop and a civilian at the upscale Ferneau restaurant erupted into a full-scale brawl—and a few days later, a lawsuit. The victim alleges police brutality. Nobody who wasn’t at the restaurant could have any idea what actually happened—except that a spectator videotaped the incident. The victim’s attorney released the video, seen at the top of this post, on YouTube.

The video tells us something, but it certainly doesn’t tell us everything: we can’t know whether we’re seeing a policeman use reasonable force—or going too far.

The fact is that even a video camera may not capture the whole story. The video gives us one perspective and some information, but it certainly won’t tell us what happened before filming started. Maybe a picture is worth a thousand words, but some incidents take more than a thousand words to explain (check out the weirdly compelling comments section at the Arkansas Times post on this affair, which contains a multitude of Rashomon-like multiple perspectives).

However, one thing this incident underscores is the immense importance of protecting citizens who record law enforcement actions in public. Regrettably, we are seeing a nationwide wave of arrests of citizens for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights. As smartphones with cameras become cheaper and more pervasive, this issue will only grow more pressing.

Consider just a few recent examples: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas Media Tagged With: bullying, civil liberties, cyberbullying, Dan Greenberg, first amendment, free speech

The Arkansas Project Now Has Its Own Facebook Page

November 1, 2011 David Kinkade Leave a Comment

Frankly, I'm surprised it's that many.

I’ve long resisted setting up an Arkansas Project page on Facebook, because, ugh, Facebook, but I also recognize that many (some? a few? two?) of you now prefer to conduct all of your interactions with the world without ever venturing outside Professor Zuckerberg’s Magical Connexion Machine.

So to better serve you, I set up an Official Arkansas Project Facebook page. Please go over there and start posting things on the wall explaining how I’m doing it all wrong, so that I can do my usual thing of ignoring your insane gibberish, as I do on my personal Facebook page. That said, I will try to clean it up a bit later. I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you inside the walled garden.

And since this has happened, I now hereby declare Facebook finally over. RIP, we hardly knew ye, etc.

Official Arkansas Project Facebook Page

Filed Under: Arkansas Media Tagged With: arkansas blogging

Bully Pulpit: Will Arkansas ‘Cyberbullying’ Law Criminalize Free Speech?

August 8, 2011 David Kinkade

City officials in Renton, Wash., are scrambling to identify the creator of a series of web videos exposing corruption and incompetence in the city police department. The videos (simple cartoons created on Xtranormal.com and distributed via YouTube) allege a variety of sex scandals, unearned promotions, drunkenness, abuse and more. Here’s a taste (includes some NSFW language, in case you have an uptight supervisor or co-worker in earshot):

The city prosecutor is seeking to identify the anonymous creator of the videos, alleging that, since the purpose of the videos is “to harass, intimidate, torment or embarrass” members of the department, the creator has violated state cyberstalking laws.

And given that Arkansas passed a similar cyberbullying law in the 2011 legislative session, the implications of the case are worth a closer look.

You Should Go Look at the BrockCookTolbertTalkOutlookReport.com!

July 11, 2011 David Kinkade

Let us celebrate and rejoice, for it is a signal day in the Arkansas blogosphere, with the launch of a new joint venture from Arkansas media magnate Roby Brock, conservative blogger Jason Tolbert and Democratic person Michael Cook.

It is called the BrockCookTolbertTalkOutlookReport.com (previously TalkBusiness.net) and promises one-stop shopping for all your Arkansas political news needs. This site has everything: News! Analysis! Issues! Tolbert!

Oooh, here’s a taste!:

“Healthy and civil debate”? By George, that absolutely sounds like a party you do not want to miss! Everyone, let’s head to the BrockCookTolbertTalkOutlookReport.com!

Filed Under: Arkansas Media, Arkansas Politics

Max Brantley’s Medicare Shuffle: A Vivisection

June 13, 2011 David Kinkade

Max Brantley’s political blog at the Arkansas Times consistently intrigues me. Max has a unique voice, with an unusual blend of three qualities rarely found in tandem:

The first (and most predominant) quality of his writing is, of course, barely contained rage.
The second quality is a kind of self-righteous moralism, based on the premise that honest, principled disagreement with Max is impossible.
The third is perhaps the most interesting: it is something like what George Orwell called “doublethink,” hypocrisy elevated to a governing ethical principle.

These three qualities reached a remarkable synthesis in his many recent blog posts about Medicare policy.

TBQ Poll: Dear Heavens, Does It Ever Suck to Be Blanche Lincoln

January 20, 2010 David Kinkade

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Blanche Lincoln?

15% Strongly Favorable

19% Somewhat Favorable (Favorable = 34%)

11% Somewhat Unfavorable

46% Strongly Unfavorable (Unfavorable = 57%)

9% No Opinion

Thinking about the job that Blanche Lincoln is doing as U.S. Senator, would you say you approve or disapprove?

15% Strongly Approve

23% Somewhat Approve (Approve = 38%)

7% Slightly Disapprove

49% Strongly Disapprove (Disapprove = 56%)

6% No Opinion

Roby Brock’s Talk Business Quarterly is out with the latest numbers on embattled Democratic U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, and if you were thinking that Lincoln’s sucky poll numbers had surely bottomed out, well, that just goes to show what you know, because it just keeps getting worse. Fifty-seven percent of Arkansans hold a “strongly unfavorable” or “somewhat unfavorable” view of the state’s senior senator.

Do you think it has anything to do with her support for that reeking turd of a health care bill? No, it couldn’t be that, because that’s just insanely popular, right? Quick, we need someone to explain why that reeking turd of a health care bill is actually a net plus for Democrats, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Over to you, Blake Rutherford!

And another thing: Am I the only one who finds it strange that TBQ continues to use GOP political strategist Clint Reed to craft these polls, when he’s consulting for the campaign for Republican state Sen. Gilbert Baker — who’s a strong contender to be Lincoln’s challenger in November? Just askin’.

(UPDATE: Roby Brock called to let me know that he typically discloses Reed’s affiliation with the Baker campaign, as well as his Democratic contributor Robert McClarty’s affiliation with that of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel—but that he’d neglected to do so in this case. He has updated his blog post with the disclosures.)

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Media, Arkansas Politics Tagged With: 2010 Senate race, Blanche Lincoln

Premature Evaluation: Or, Why Internet Polls Aren’t Worth the Paper They Aren’t Even Printed On

December 1, 2009 Dan Greenberg

As a State Senate candidate, I’ve recently been the subject of a couple of “Internet polls,” in which website visitors are asked to vote for rival candidates. Even to discuss an Internet poll probably grants it too much importance, because there is no relation between actual voter behavior and an Internet poll.

After all, these were polls in which people from outside my district and minors could vote; perhaps more relevantly, someone technologically sophisticated types (which excludes me) might be able to vote multiple times from the same computer — not exactly a scientific gauge of public opinion.

Let’s look more closely at one of these polls. About a month ago, Whit Jones, proprietor of the insidesaline.com news site, polled his readers about the 2010 Senate race in District 22, which included me, my GOP primary opponent Jeremy Hutchinson and Democratic Rep. Dawn Creekmore. When I heard about this poll, I decided to vote once and then focus on more important things in my life: that is, everything else in the universe.

Regrettably, a supporter of mine soon brought to my attention that Hutchinson was accusing me of “robo-voting” in the poll. (Hutchinson made the same accusation in the previous Internet poll that he and I were subjected to; I assume “robo-voting” has something to do with using a computer program that repeatedly casts votes.) I immediately checked the poll, looking forward to an incredibly lopsided vote total in my favor.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Media, Arkansas Politics Tagged With: Dan Greenberg

Senator Gilbert Baker Announces the Hiring of Former Huckabee for President National Press Secretary Alice Stewart

October 21, 2009 David Kinkade

Arkansas Sen. Gilbert Baker, frontrunner in the 2010 GOP primary race to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln, announces today that he’s hired former Mike Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart as his campaign mouthpiece.

It’s all in a news release with a comically long headline, which I liked so much I pasted it in as the title for this post. She’ll be serving as deputy campaign manager and communications director. Full statement at jump.

Alice was last seen here on the Arkansas Project when she was in the running for the executive directorship of the Republican Party of Arkansas. She also has a blog, which updates even less frequently than this one, if you can believe such a thing.

You Should Go To The SPJ Blogging Academy

September 22, 2009 David Kinkade

The monkey! He's typing! You, there! What are you doing on Saturday? Nothing worthwhile, I assume.

Therefore I suggest you look into attending the Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists Blogging Academy: An Introduction to Community Journalism in Little Rock, where they’ll have a bunch of so-called self-styled “experts” on hand to talk about how you, too, can make a name for yourself through a time consuming, non-paying hobby.

It’s at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School (Room 305) from 10 a.m to 2 p.m, and panel sessions will focus on ethics and legal issues, accessing government and something called “blogging best practices.” I’m on the latter panel, so I assume they’ll be holding The Arkansas Project up as an example of what not to do.

Other participants include Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times, Steve Harrelson of Under the Dome and, uh, I forget who else. Hell, I don’t know, let’s say “Jason Tolbert.” OK, so no Tolbert, I’m informed.

And best of all, it’s all free, so get thee to the Facebook page to learn more and get registered.

Filed Under: Arkansas Media Tagged With: Arkansas bloggers, Arkansas blogs