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Senator Pat Leahy; Frank Leahy’s the forgotten great Notre Dame college coach of the 1940s.

Mr. Lantos is my Representative here in California and it certainly admirable that he is thinking of the free speech of the Chinese, I wish he would lend his considerable political weight in getting control of our borders before trying a major revision of the Chinese Governments repressive regime. We have 11 million Mexican illegals in the United States or more, no one really knows and our elected representatives with few exceptions and Mr. Lantos is not one of them, thinks that fine. Let me ruin your sleep and digestion for the week, read this http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21309 its out of David Horiwitz’s “FrontPage” blog. We have 11 million or more illegals of MILITARY age here in the United States and the elected officials do nothing. Before we think of free speech for the Chinese, I would hope we would secure our borders first and make sure we haven’t let a 5th column into our country. We are being invaded with the complicity and sanction of the Mexican Government. How many more illegals is President Fox of Mexico thinking of sending over, how many more millions. Read the above article and ask yourself if this isn’t something of major importance. Mr. Lantos, please pay attention to something a little closer to home and something that is getting very dangerous for our country.

i tend to disagree with the opinion that we should expect moral behavior, or force moral behavior from/on google or any other business entities.
to be specific, many usa big business had excellent business ties with nazi germany…does anybody boycott ibm because of that? it’s not a smart thing to do. nor, stop buying ford cars because henry was a staunch antisemite…

There is a huge difference, yadid, with the analogy you make. Google, Yahoo, etc. are inthe information business – about the free flow of ideas. If they were selling cars, that would be one thing,but this is media at its most modern and the essence of democracy. Not the same thing as sheet metal. Wait until you see Lantos’ video interview with Pajamas Media, which we will be posting next week. Maybe you will feel differently.

maybe google, yahoo et al are hoping that internet expression supression (a new acronym is born!) will be the undoing of that nasty regime, just like the arms race was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the russians.

soon the internet is going to be much harder for the odious chinese authorities to police, and will require truly heroic levels of state committment, in the face of diminishing returns.

if i’m right, then the big companies’ long term strategy of hanging in there while times are tough, and while journalists are getting beaten to death by appointees of the state, so that they (google, etc) can hopefully be able to make a difference some years down the road, may not be such a bad one.

“… many usa big business had excellent business ties with nazi germany…does anybody boycott ibm because of that? ”

That was then and it took years for the facts to come to the public’s attention.
IBM could have been shamed if faced with its history but the people couldn’t be bothered. Neither the Europeans who suffered under the Nazi jackboot nor Americans who unwittingly bought the shares.
But people know now what is happening and it is up to them to behave accordingly and stand for the very rights they demand for themselves now “while the iron is hot”.
While the present behaviour of Google and co., has primarily to do with China it could come back to bite Americans.

“Google, Yahoo, etc. are in the information business – about the free flow of ideas”…
they are in the information BUSINESS, we agree then. “..- about the free flow of ideas” that’s an interpretation. further – “free flow of info” is never done in the absolute, there are always restrictions of what can or cannot “flow”. therefore, businesses should work in the limits of law, not morality, imho…

Information appears most useful when its freely shared. This has been one of my longstanding views and formed quite a bit of my career.

However, I find that the view an individual’s (or a corporation) view of information may tend to be less altruistic. Mr. Simon here seems to be pushing for the Freedom of Information. He stands against the Chineese government for trying to restrict the flow of information. He stands against Google for not providing the US government with information. Yet, I recall, not so long ago, a number of posts decrying the evilness of Google because they were going to make books available online, freely. The freedom of information, perhaps lasts only until the proponent fears it may touch their purse.

Information doesn’t want to be free, it doesn’t have a right to be free, nor does anyone have a RIGHT to information. Information simply exists and it is up to the society in which that information exists to determine how information will be handled.

Before WWII most scientific researchers freely shared information and we find huge leaps in the understanding of physics because of this. Since WWII more an more researchers are bound by NDA’s and patent laws. Our society (or at least those that control the laws of our society) have decided that information isn’t free, and everyone isn’t entitled access.

I don’t particularly agree with the decisions of our society, but that’s how it goes.

In China, their society has decided on further restrictions of Information. It too seems foolhardy, but that’s how it goes.

If one supports breaking chineese law and their social rules around information. Then too, they should support breaking US law and their social rules around information.

So, when can we expect to see all Roger L Simon’s books available via Google?

“Sen. Pat Leahy ought to check the record when rushing to their defense; otherwise he sounds like just another reactionary hack.”

Uh, Roger – “Leaky” Leahy is a reactionary hack.