What are the chances that sites like this one will be shut down ?

[kentuck]

Skinner probably had no idea when he started DU that it would ever come to that point? But is it remotely possible that there is something happening about which we are not aware? Is it a possibility?

[burrowowl]

1. They won't for awhile

Better people at their computers than in the streets.

[skylarmae]

4. okay, you two, you're really starting to scare me...

seriously...

[Bluebear]

7. Remember when they shut down the Bush site to non-Americans?

A couple days before the election? Things like that are very easy for them to do, for "National security/Patriot" reasons.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I think it is likely we'll all see the internet privatized and priced out

our range. And sites like this will be shut down under the Patriot Act.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Support Cobb, Nader, and Badnarik as they pursue recounts!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[bacchant]

11. I know what I'd do if I were them. "Them" being a crime syndicate posing

as a government. I'd move quickly to silence the net.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Actually, Pointdexter's baby Total Info Act was privatized and

everything we type here goes into a big computer network in VA somewhere.

And no, I am not kidding.

So perhaps the 'net will stay up because "they" believe in the old "keep your friends close but your enemies closer" adage.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Support Cobb, Nader, and Badnarik as they pursue recounts!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[djeseru]

3. It all starts now:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041107/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_insurgent_strategy

"Insurgents" using the media, then to "Murkin-hating libruls" using the media, and so on...

[shamrock]

8. Ha.........

we need a bumper sticker that says "I'm NOT a MURKIN....I'm an AMERICAN"

[lovedems]

5. My husband asked me the exact same thing this morning.

Kind of a "don't be surprised" moment. :scared:

[flowomo]

6. that's just baseless paranoia....

[n2mark]

9. With regrets

I believe this to be highly probable.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. There's always a possibility of such a thing happening...

...if the US is attacked again. They could say terrorists are using sites like DU to communicate w/ one another, and *pop* the plug on us.

They can do anything - they're a dictatorship now...:(

[seabeyond]

13. hey kentuck, havent seen you for a while. i say, the reason

coup didnt work this time, (though it did with theft) but in support was because of the internet. darn it, they didnt realize how effective it was. so i think their next step has to be to get control of that. the only way i see that is take it down

[Cleita]

14. Dilemma for them.

If they closed this site down for terrorism or whatever excuse they concoct, they would also have shut down the Free Republic and other RW sites as well.

Their more common M/O is to buy everyone out until they control most of the discourse like they did with the cable news. I think that's what would happen. So if Skinner doesn't sell, the website is probably safe enough.

[Donna Zen]

15. Absolutely

Does anyone here really believe that the regime will submit to our challenges? Not likely given their obsession with suppression. The net organized 10,000,000 protesters world wide without a single mention on the corporate-whore-media.

Now does that sound like anything they want to see happen again?

I would imagine they will 1) accuse and sue 2) privatize 3) claim national security.

[Keirsey]

16. DARPA

Here's who is watching you (quoting a forever-unnamed source):

"except for the folks at DARPA, who are incorrigibly spooky. Seriously. It's like talking to an office full of unmedicated schizophrenics on their very worst days -- only the DARPA people are mean-spirited. They take a very strange view of the world and its inhabitants -- and the role that technology can play in solving the problem of people being people."

Where Big Brother Snoops on Americans 24/7

By TERESA HAMPTON & DOUG THOMPSON
Jun 7, 2004, 00:34

Customers of the Bank of America branch at 3625 Fairfax Drive in Arlington, Virginia, often wonder about the Arlington police car that is always parked in front of the building in the next block.
...
Actually, if the woman knew what was happening inside the nondescript office building at 3701 Fairfax Drive, she might think it really does matter because the building houses the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s Total Information Awareness Program, the “big brother” program Congress thought it killed
...
“When Congress cut the funding, the Pentagon – with administration approval – simply moved the program into a ‘black bag’ account,” says a security consultant who worked on the DARPA project. “Black bag programs don’t require Congressional approval and are exempt from traditional oversight.”

DARPA also hired private contractors to fill many of the roles in the program, which helped evade detection by Congressional auditors. Using a private security firm like Cantwell, instead of the Federal Protective Service, helped keep TIA off the radar screen.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4648.shtml