Ruh-roh. The Democrats made a boo-boo, having to rescind national convention coverage invitations to 20 bloggers, saying – as convention spokeswoman Peggy Wilhide put it – that they "accidentally" accredited more people (50) than the Fleet Center in Boston had space to accommodate. And at least two of the disinvited smell a rat. "If my guess is correct," said INDCJournal.com editor Bill Ardolino, "an after-action review of the content of my site caused them to disinvite me. I always expected they would review the political leanings of the bloggers." The official Democratic National Convention blogger, Eric Schnure, denies the accusation. "Our error," he said, "was one of pure logistics and not political leanings. Take us at our word."…
So far as DearMary.com is concerned, Capitol Hill made an even bigger boo-boo when it brought up the Federal Marriage Amendment (defining marriage as between a man and a woman only) and other alleged anti-gay legislation in spite of a sizeable number of gay and lesbian Congressional staffers. And the site (yes, it's named for Vice President Dick Cheney's openly lesbian daughter) took out an ad in the Washington Blade that all but threatened to out those staffers who lead "closeted" working lives while their bosses back "homophobic" laws. The ad wants to illuminate the "hypocrisy within gays and lesbians on the Hill who work for anti-gay members of Congress…The gay community needs to have a debate: Is it okay for members of our community to help our enemies attack us?" according to DearMary.com national co-chairman John Aravosis, who also denied there was any quid pro quo involved…
Regarding a different and more troubling kind of sexual exploitation, a 13-year-old South Dakota boy stands accused of creating child porn. He's charged with photographing at least four victims ages 7-13 in sexual situations, and authorities are looking into whether another teen might have been involved in the images. On the flip side, one police officer is expected to be suspended and two more are said under investigation for child porn possession, following July 8 raids tied to the disappearance of a Sunshine Coast, Australia teenager. The thirteen-year-old boy disappeared last December 7 while waiting for a bus. Police said none of those interviewed after the raids was implicated in his disappearance and possible murder…
There is good news on the child porn fighting front, however: a nationwide sting to bag child sex and child porn purveyors has produced over 3,200 arrests in year one, the federal government announced July 8. They ranged from the circus clown whose computer was loaded with child porn to a 41-year-old Californian who produced child porn involving a two-month-old girl. "There are so many of these cases that we have to prioritize," said Ohio-Michigan Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge Brian M. Moskowitz. "First we look at cases in which someone is strongly suspected of abusing a child. Then we look at how much access people have to children. Are they in a caretaker position, a position of trust?"…
Speaking of positions of trust, a suspected hacker is said to be working for Microsoft, on search technology. He's Laurent Chavet, a 29-year-old former AltaVista worker who's accused of breaking into the search company's documents starting a month after he left them in March 2002. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted in that case, but Microsoft has confirmed only that Chavet works for the Redmond, Washington software giant, declining to state how long he's been there…
The Federal Communications Commission's chairman, on the other hand, wants to reach out and touch the high-tech community without having to plow through the crowd of Washington lobbyists who usually lurk outside his doors. Michael Powell has launched his own Weblog to encourage the high-tech world to get involved, especially with Powell trying to duck regulating new technologies like Internet telephony and others. And, he said, because Silicon Valley's usual habit of flying under the radar won't keep working for too much longer before someone in the government wants to get his or her hands on it. "Regulated interests have about an 80-year head start on the entrepreneurial tech community when it comes to informing regulators what they want and need," said Powell in his first entry, "but if anyone can make up for that, Silicon Valley can."
