Posts Tagged ‘google’

…when writing about Google and China:

As of now (still early morning in Beijing), Google.com.hk is accessible from mainland China although specific search results for sensitive terms result in a browser error – or in other words, are blocked. Same as it’s always been for sensitive searches on Google.com from inside mainland China. This is network filtering and would happen automatically as part of the “great firewall” Internet filtering system.

via Glenn Reynolds who put me to shame.

Oh BTW I’ve been calling Rebecca MacKinnon the free speech diva since I was blogging at Hiwired, to my knowledge nobody else does. They should.

…she points out on Morning Joe that google gets only 1 1/2% of its revenue from China and has struggled there. She must have read this Wall Street Journal article on the subject.

So Apparently google is making lemonade out of lemons here. A pretty smart move.

Then again it doesn’t change the fact that it is the right thing to do so I’ll give them kudos anyway for taking the road less traveled by, as the Journal says:

Google is trying to continue to offer search services to Chinese users outside the purview of mainland Chinese law, a strategy that few other companies, even those who have expressed growing frustrations with doing business in China, are likely to follow. Google appears to be setting itself up to fight China’s rules on its own and to manage what is likely to continue to be a complicated relationship with Beijing as it tries to ensure the government allows it to maintain some of its operations in the country. “This is an elegant solution if it were to hold, but I’m not convinced China will allow this to continue,” said John Palfrey, an Internet scholar at Harvard Law School.

Could it also be that Google sees that China’s bubble might be ready to burst too? If so such a move has even greater rewards long term.

…so blogging might be light.

Lucky for everybody others are on the ball:

Casey Fiano takes a pause from her pro life blogging to remind us of the small annoyances that the Obama administration brings us:

“An international partner”?? This may be an international relief effort — with the United States as usual giving far more than any other country — but that hasn’t kept other countries from flying their flags. France, Germany, and Croatia are all flying their flags, just like every other country. I doubt anyone in Haiti is weeping over the French, German, and Croatian occupations taking place because of it. No one besides Obama is idiotic enough to think that flying our flag means that we’ll be seen as an occupation force. It’s perfectly clear to everyone with a brain that we are in Haiti for one reason alone, and that is to give relief.

Considering the amount of money, time, and manpower we’ve contributed to the relief effort in Haiti, one would think that Obama would be proud to have our flag flying in Haiti. But Obama isn’t a president who is proud of his country, is he? He’d rather apologize for the United States than take pride in it. We are literally saving lives for no gain of our own in a foreign country, and he’s still apologizing.

If we aren’t even allowed to be proud of the country when we are doing a humanitarian mission when will it be.

At the other McCain Smitty has a word about St. Patrick’s day at google:

As a Christian, I’ll venture as a default position that Saint Patrick would be as excited about the attention directed at himself, and not Christ, as, say, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be.
Heaven forbid anything ever be about me personally, in all seriousness.

I don’t know it sure looks like a cross on that G to me and anyways we Catholics don’t have a problem asking the saints to pray for us. After all these guys have proven that they know what they’re doing.

Meanwhile the Washington Monthly bemoans CNN’s desire to try to actually get people to watch them.

This is easily the worst decision CNN has ever made. That the network probably reviewed Erickson’s work before hiring him, and offered him a job anyway, suggests CNN’s professional standards for what constitutes “an important voice” have all but disappeared.

The point here isn’t that it’s disappointing to see CNN hire yet another conservative voice, adding to its already-large stable of conservative voices. To be sure, it’s frustrating, but it’s nothing new.

The problem here is with Erickson himself.

Well Erickson did give me CPAC credentials so that’s a strike against him.

And if you need a sign of spring, look no further than the site of Father Z. He not only give you a taste of the birds of spring he handles the attacks on the Pope exactly the right way:

Pray.

Just pray.

Forgiveness for the haters.

Forgiveness for the failings of all professed Catholics.

Consolation for the damaged.

Courage, health and length of days for the Pope.

And he provides a prayer for those who might not have one handy.

I’ll be back in a bit, meanwhile pop in The Quiet Man and enjoy St. Patrick’s day

They attack anything that facilitates the uncensored passing of information among people they rule:

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced that he now considers Twitter messages and social networking as terrorist threats. He is quoted in this Spanish-language news report as calling for more state control over the internet.

via who else but Glenn.

Meanwhile on the China Google front my favorite Free Speech Diva continues to speak up concerning China. And she describers her dream speech on the subject:

My dream speech would be about how the Internet poses a challenge to all governments and most companies (except those companies like Google whose business is built around that challenge). I would call on all governments to work together with citizens, companies and each other to build a globally interconnected, free and open network that enhances the lives of everybody on the planet, enables commerce and innovation by big and small players alike, makes everybody richer and freer, and improves all governments’ relations with their citizens by making government more transparent, efficient, and thus more credible and legitimate.

I would quote Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in 1759: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

The speech would remind us all that all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that American democracy was built on this assumption. The Internet empowers governments and law enforcement agencies as well as citizens, upstart candidates, and dissidents.

Somebody ought to write a book about that. If you care about free speech then you should be reading Rebecca MacKinnon.

Sean Penn
could not be reached for comment.