my community hospital blocks left-wing sites beginning with the word

[Mend]

"Democratic". My husband was just in for surgery and we could not get DU on our computer...limpballs came thru fine, as did anything repuke. They messed up on Huff-Po and Bart Cop so I am guessing the magic potion word to make a site disappear is "Democrat/Democratic". Michael Moore was blocked as well. ALL the tv's were tuned to fox news. Can you imagine eating in the cafeteria (the food was bad enough) and watching a giant screen with brit hume. The only good thing was the tv was showing that the large religious man who apparently didn't share his food with the hungry had ridden on ahead to the big Wal-Mart lunch counter in the sky.

[Atman]

1. It helps them build their market

Imagine how many otherwise healthy people get sick while watching Fox News in the waiting areas and cafeterias.

.

[lonestarnot]

8. They had that fox shit on at the xray joint I was in the other day.

I am reluctant to give the name as could invade my privacy expectations LOL, but I will tell you they have it on all the time at Coulter Cadillac in Phoenix Arizona. I can access the channel changer so I just switch the fucker.

[ooglymoogly]

44. They have faux on all the monitors at my local hospital also

and in the recovery room. I'm betting that, that is where faux gets its bogus ratings. I just had appendicitis and had to go in for an operation. I had to ask the nurse to please change the channel, turn it off or knock me out with pain meds. Just add up all the hospitals prisons and govt buildings in the county and vuala you have super viewer ratings

[AX10]

2. Feel free to tell us the name of the hospital.

[mitchtv]

3. Name that hospital!

email address if possible

[Mend]

7. I have removed the name to protect our privacy....but you guys saw it and

please know it is really happening there.

[ooglymoogly]

46. If you can tell us the name of the corporate bastards who

own the hospital I'll bet they will get lambasted and maybe even a new suit.

[Mend]

48. I will find out tomorrow...I am calling our local Dem party. I truly thought

the community owned the hospital...not for profit.

[ooglymoogly]

62. ours used to be community owned but now like most hospitals

it is owned by a corporation.

[pstokely]

67. Could be community owned, but run by a for-profit group

[lonestarnot]

4. Fuckers! I would have ordered up the first ambulance the fuck outta there!

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. You would have done some hospital blogging first!

Now you know that's true. :rofl:

[patrice]

5. If they receive any kind of public money, that may not be legal.

I get on them at my mother-in-law's assisted living place and make them change the channel now and then. I feel like I'm helping some of the workers, people of Color mostly, when I tell them nicely that Fox lies.

[FogerRox]

6. Email the DNC, I smell a lawsuit

[Mend]

10. I will start with my local Democratic Party. Anyone can go into the lobby

with a laptop and try. This is the same lobby that has a big signed picture of george sr as he was briefly a patient there.

[whistle]

9. Now rushing toward the single republic party system

[lonestarnot]

11. OMG How could anyone stay in a place that had net access with a bar on DU?

Fuck that! I'm a one man riot about to happen.

[Mend]

15. it was an emergency admission and he got discharged after emergency

surgery just as soon as he could, almost a week...btw, his internal medicine doctor is a Democrat. It is amazing how much we have learned to accept living in a right-wing stronghold. I am happy to report, the car flags and "w" stickers, which were on almost 80% of the cars for years, are gone, all gone.

[illinoisprogressive]

12. I would lodge a complaint. I bet many feel like you.

[Cha]

14. I thought nurses, at least, were well

aware that the bushits are killing everything that is good in this country.

I don't know what the fucking hospital's problem is with Democracy but you better believe if I had to be in one I would get what I wanted on the net/and or tv.

[earth mom]

17. Watch out-some nurses are rethugs.

I was talking to a nurse I know and stated that health care should be accessible to everyone in this country-just like Canada. And she totally went off! I was STUNNED. My thought-though I didn't say it at the time but wish I had was-"if you don't give a fuck that people are sick and can't get health care, then why are you working in a profession known for healing and compassion?!"

Like :wtf:

[Lost-in-FL]

23. Hospitals are bations of the GOP

Many of the Doctors and Nurses I work with are Republicans. I think the reason she went ape shit on you is because accessible Health Care would only hurt Healthcare workers and healthcare coorporations (which are run by former healthcare workers). As a Health care worker I am well aware of that fact, my pay would suffer greatly. Healthcare is already a tough field to work and high wages is what is keeping it alive. If someone thinks this statement is wrong please send a link my way!!!

[earth mom]

27. I was surprised because years ago I was close friends with a couple of nurses

and never heard that kind of crap from them. I always respected them and the tough job they had to do-so this womans reaction was totally out of left field to me.

Thanks for explaining her reaction to me. :hi:

[Lost-in-FL]

32. What's sad is that the GOP uses

the Public School system as an example on why Healthcare for everyone is a bad idea. I found out about this fact while taking a course on Healthcare (for my Baccalaureate degree in a Health care related field). A freeper went on an on about it. They think they will be as underpaid as teachers and law enforcement and that is why I believe many in the medical field (Nurses and Doctors seem to be very sensitive to this) drink the Kool aid and vote Republican.

I work in healthcare and earn a decent living but I am well aware that if I hurt my back one day, or get sick and I am not able to work and pay for my medical care I would be in deep financial trouble even with a good career. I knew a doctors who's family was ruined because he had to leave their career due to long illness. Being a professional doesn't pay if you become ill. This is why I believe in a Healthcare reform, because I won't have to care of how much my pay would be hurt cause at the end, my health costs are paid for.

[Bjorn Against]

57. You are probably partially right, but it would depend on which workers you are talking about

I don't think going to a Universal system would have a huge impact on the pay of nurses or other assistants in the health care field. Their pay is fairly moderate as it stands and it is doubtful that most of them would take a cut. For doctors on the other hand it probably would make a difference. They would still get paid a lot, but probably not the astronomical figures many of them are taking home right now. And obviously the HMOs, insurance companies, and pharmaceuticals would make less as well.

For the vast majority of people however universal health care would be economically beneficial.

[likesmountains 52]

42. High wages??? Geez...I've been a critical care nurse for 30 years and my daughter makes

more than I do at a desk job...I have lives in my hands every day...and get paid less per hour than my hair salon charges for a haircut!

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. I am a teacher and I am sad to report there are repukes in my profession too

I can honestly remember when all teachers were Dems. But I think some of the younger ones drank the koolaid. They believe in vouchers and think No Child Left Behind is an honorable law.

I know, makes me want to :puke:

[doni_georgia]

53. Dems are in the minority at my school

Most of the teachers at my school are right-wing, evangelical, Kool-Aid drinking repuke zombies. Not a day goes by that I don't get forwarded some wingnut propaganda on school email. Of course I always respond to all - pissing everyone off. I am about as popular as a turd in a punchbowl. But the handful of liberals (I think there are about 12 of us out of a staff of 100) at my school always thank me for my replies - of course they never let on to the goose-steppers that they disagree with them. ARGH!

[wildhorses]

40. i know more republican nurses than i do democratic nurses

of course i live in a very red state...ymmv

[w8liftinglady]

52. I am a nurse.Most of my friends are apolitical/uninformed

They think I am a crackpot :)

[Cha]

59. I guess I'm mostly going by

the nurse who lives down stairs who was giving me an earful about how bad the bushits were before the 2004 election. I gave her a Kerry/Edwards bumpersticker and she still has it on her car!

I actually know a couple of librarians who bought bush's bullshite and that's called sucking up to the hand that slaps you down.

[Double T]

16. Hospitals are greedy money monger corporations which are typically owned and operated........

by rethugs. The chances for a Democrat's recovery under these conditions are slim to none, thus accelerating the decline of the Democratic population.

[TommyO]

18. I would absolutely complain to the hospital administration

about this blocking of sites. If the provide internet access to their patients, no legal site should be blocked at all.

[Davros]

19. Use this workaround

This may not work but judging by their lack of intelligence it could help. Go to a translation website like babelfish :

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Where it has the box for translate a webpage, put the page's address here and choose to translate from Danish to English. This is only to allow it to work. You will be able to get to DU or any site this way depending on how sophisticated their firewall is.

[Mend]

22. I will go to their lobby and try it in the next week or two, thanks. eom

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Does that really work?

I may try that at work. I can go to DU but not youtube.

[FloridaJudy]

36. Watch out!

IT can monitor your website visits.

I almost got in trouble for visiting "sexually explicit" websites at work. Lest anyone think I was watching porn, these were respectable medical sites that actually used words like "penis", "vagina" and "breast", that rang some weird alarm in the IT department. What makes this particularly surreal was that I employed in the Women's Health and STD clinics at the time.

[Lost-in-FL]

20. Is it a private or public hospital? If public... write Congress n/t

[entanglement]

21. I've observed that TVs in business establishments are tuned to Faux News more often than not

:shrug:

[Lost-in-FL]

24. In the hospital I work it is patients...

who change the TV to FOX NEWS. I haven't being able to lock FOX News from the TV. I have tried a few times when I'm not busy but can't get to find a way.

[JeffR]

28. Ah, Florida!

When people ask where I'm from, these days I'm inclined to mumble while looking down at my feet...

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. I am a Kansan

and I sympathize.

[JeffR]

31. My sympathies back

:hug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. You need some of these

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002220590_foxblocker26.html?syndication=rss

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

35. Bill Maher once said, "I used to say what's with all the crazy shit happening in Colorado, but now

it's Florida..."

Thanks for relieving us Coloradoans of the "most bat guano crazy state" title.

:pals: MKJ

[pstokely]

41. The drivers license bureau in Columbia MO had TVs tuned to Faux

This was run by private management as a favor by Baby Blunt

[lpbk2713]

33. The irony probably goes right over their pointy little heads ....

when Faux Noise flashes "Fair and Balanced" on the screen.

[FogerRox]

34. This deserves more rec's and a kick

[knitter4democracy]

37. Hmm. I got into DU just fine at our hospital when I had surgery.

It must be one of the administrators there. I would complain mightily, even writing a letter to the editor (I know our hospital admins watch those carefully).

[Obamarama]

63. Bronson Hospital, right?

Yes, I have accessed DU and other progressive sites there many times. I wonder if the same is true of the hospital on the other side of town?

[knitter4democracy]

66. I don't know.

I haven't been to Borgess or BCHS or Oaklawn, though Hubby covers the latter two. I would think so. Bronson's not exactly run by liberals. ;)

[intheflow]

38. I had a similar thing happen at the public library here in Mississippi.

Turns out it wasn't "Democratic" that they blocked, but they had a profanity blocker on. So even if all DU ever wrote was "Dick Cheney told Patrick Leahy to fuck himself," DU would be blocked. Try pulling up the page for the Democratic party. If that doesn't work, then you have cause to file a grievance.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

39. My local Bank of America has big tv and was told that FOX was the first choice

they changed it to CNN on my request

[Cleita]

43. If it's your community supported hospital you have a right

to ask your city manager, county board of supervisors or whoever is making those decisions to change their ways. They have an obligation to be elected officials for all their citizens, not just the ones who installed them.

[Horse with no Name]

45. I found this on my hospital

DU is blocked, however, Free Republic, Drudge, Conservative Underground, etc are not.
I would complain but we are not allowed to use the computer for those purposes anyway.
But it sucks.:(

[Mend]

51. exactly!!!! rush limbaugh comes through but not Michael Moore....and as a

patient (a paying one not that that should matter) in a not for profit community hospital, I think this is so wrong.

[salin]

61. I recently started using a wireless broadband modem

as fast as broadband in most places, and in others still much faster than a regular modem - but I am always using *my* system on my laptop and thus am not subject to blocks. I sometimes take my laptop to work, if I know I am going to be there late - so that I can set up my laptop to look at DU and news during quick breaks. (Since I don't get "paid" for the extra hours - I don't feel like I am using employer time - and I am certainly not using employer equiptment.)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

47. I Would Think There Has To Be Some More Rational Explanation Such As Standard Filtering Software.

Many companies have standard filtering that they use and it is a packaged item. They aren't biased towards wings of politics, it just happens that some of the sites we like are on the master block list due to whatever criteria the filtering uses. This is common and not a conspiracy.

I don't know if that's the specific case you are experiencing in the hospital, but I'd think that to be far more likely than an actually specific and intentional 'democratic' keyword filter implemented solely by the hospital itself. Not saying it couldn't be the case; just that it would seem to be immensely improbably and unlikely. Why would they go through such lengths? For what purposes? Just wouldn't make sense. I'm sure the explanation is harmless.

[Mend]

49. then why rush limbaugh.com comes through and not michael moore...I

will look into it again and have other people go to the lobby but I swear..No DU and yes for repuke sites.

[davsand]

58. It could be they filter for specific words and phrases.

They might also have a porn filter in place that attempts to limit specific color ranges (like flesh tones) that would appear with high frequency in a porn site.

There is an open source filter package out there that the local school was using on the internet access. The Jr High ran into trouble with it when they were attempting to do a research project for a WW2 project. Academic sites about WW2 were blocked by this software because they had a high frequency of specific words like Nazi and references to weapons.

The original settings on the filter were zero tolerance for hate speech and violent content. Nazi has a pretty strong connection with hate speech AND violence, thus it was on the pre-set list of words to screen for. Hubby had to go in and manually re-set that entire list so the kids could finish the research they needed for the project.

If the hospital computer guys set up a filter on the internet use (which would be a reasonable thing to do if it is a public use situation) it is possible that they used a package like the one I'm talking about.

As for FAUX news on the TV sets, I will tell you that I've spent an awful lot of time in waiting rooms in any number of hospitals with my Dad. What I have noticed was that the TV channels are often picked by the people sitting in that waiting room, and frequently those are older people who (demographically speaking) tend to lean further right than younger voters.

I dunno--it could be some policy in place, but it could also just be a series of unfortunate events.

Hope your husband is feeling better!


Laura

[FormerDittoHead]

55. As a webmaster / computer guy I have to agree. I seriously doubt this whole thing.

For example, go to Google, type in "Democratic" - but he didn't do this so we won't know.

The fact is that is so many unanswered questions, I just can't take any of these conclusions. Every week I get a call from a client who describes the problem in terms which don't really represent the real problem.

This account is typical. There are so many other possiblities it's not funny, and to see the discussion go this long without more technical specifics is foolish.

on edit PS:
I know this may sound treasonous, but believe it or not, The Democratic Underground isn't that well known to the general population. We barely get a mention even on liberal talk radio.

[seabeyond]

50. my heart doctor had on fox. my pressure ALWAYS was low. this time up. i dont know why

but when he came in i told him always i am way below normal. my guess is cause he had fox on in the waiting room. just looked at me, confused. smart dude.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

54. Did you do a search for sites starting with "Republican"? If it screens those also, then

you would not have grounds to complain, since it allows political sites without the party names.

[THUNDER HANDS]

56. you know why hospitals are GOP friendly?

tort reform.

[DoctorStrangelove]

60. What other places to you read DU from?

I am curious, from how many different places is DU read -- at work, coffee shops, ???

[stirlingsliver]

64. Does Your Doctor Know About This?

Does your doctor know about this situation?

If not -- you MUST tell her/him.

If s/he DOES know -- then I would get another doctor as soon as possible -- and I would tell the current doctor why s/he is being fired.

[Mend]

65. appt. in two weeks. He is a Democrat too, so I will talk about this with him.