U.S. Army Blocks Liberal Web Sites

[Joey Liberal]

If you are a Department of the Army employee, contractor or Soldier, you can visit Free Republic on the Internet. But they have blocked Democratic Underground and Air America. If they were fair, they would either block Free Republic too, or they wouldn't block any of them. But they are not fair. The Dept. of the Army is full of right wing wackos.

[rodeodance]

1. i knew they had fox news broadcasted over there but not the internet stuff

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Not only Fox, but also Fat Boy LimpBalls

[Dave Reynolds]

2. Gotta keep the truth hidden,

give the troops some freeper red meat to keep them in line.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Of course

Can't have them protesting just like with Vietnam. Might actually cause them to leave their new home. :eyes:

[babylonsister]

4. Link, please?

:wow:

[Joey Liberal]

6. No Link

I'm speaking from personal experience.

[kaitykaity]

7. Are you overseas or stateside?

Military or civilian? Are you in the barracks?
How are you getting on now if DU's blocked?

Come on, we need some details if we're gonna buy
this.

[Joey Liberal]

12. You Don't Believe Me?

Military or civilian? Are you in the barracks?
How are you getting on now if DU's blocked?

Come on, we need some details if we're gonna buy
this.
=======
I don't feel that I have to give you any more details. Just be assured that I (and others) were blocked when we tried to listen to Air America via our work PC's today. We couldn't visit DU either. But, Free Republic was not blocked.

[kaitykaity]

14. I'm not allowed to say that. Against the rules, you know.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so short on that
last sentence.

But if you expect any sort of suggestions or
help from a lot of people here who are military
or former military, you'd provide some of the
details I requested.

I was only coming from a place of wanting to
help.

But whatever.

:eyes:

[high density]

17. Have you tried the direct links to the Air America audio stream?

The stream is hosted by Real Networks, so if that was blocked, they'd be blocking a lot more content as well. Could you access the Air America website? It's possible that you're behind a proxy or firewall which won't allow streaming audio or video, or your media players are not configured to use the proxy.

Air America Radio via Real Player: http://play.rbn.com/?url=airam/airam/live/live.rm&proto=rtsp
Air America Radio via Windows Media Player: http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=airam/airam/wmlive/live.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx

[cascadiance]

16. Send a letter to Al Franken or have someone else do it for you...

... and have them investigate this. I'm sure they'd love to get to the bottom of this if it is true and expose the hell out of it. You need to get someone "official" to verify your claim though, especially in this climate. I'm guessing though, that they don't block democraticunderground.com or you wouldn't be posting this message.

[Joey Liberal]

21. Keep Guessing

I'm guessing though, that they don't block democraticunderground.com or you wouldn't be posting this message.
======
Really? Keep guessing, and maybe you'll figure it out. Jeez, no wonder the republicans are in control of everything!

Let me help you just a little, okay? The Dept. of the Army can block whatever they choose on my pc at work, but not my pc at home. I'm posting this from my pc at home right now.

[cascadiance]

22. Hmm... Wasn't clear that you were a "domestic" employee here...

I'm guessing some folks out in the field don't "have" a home computer to post from if they're in places like Iraq.

Sorry about that. I would say, given that this is more the "work" machines you are talking about and not the "24 hour work" machines that some folks might have to use overseas, that a better tactic, in addition to what I just mentioned is to complain that some folks can "waste their time" on FR site to get it turned off too. Get their response back in writing and send that to Air America. If they try to justify it as being something that they don't want to control, then they can get nailed for discriminatory access when it is found that they are controlling liberal sites separately. If they go ahead and turn off FR, then you've helped win a battle in turning off part of the wingnut propaganda spigot! Either way we win.

As others have said, many companies block various web sites from their workplaces, so some of this can be justified if it's not done with political blinders on. The key is calling them out on whether it is just politically motivated vs. motivated to keep people "productive".

[POAS]

5. Do you have a link?

I'd like to print out a news source for this for my reich winger co-workers.

[LittleClarkie]

8. I wonder if they've gotten around to Big Eddie yet

www.wegoted.com

Hey, at least it would be something.

[peacetalksforall]

9. This is a serious breach of rights. Is it verified? n/t

[EVDebs]

11. Operation Mockingbird and "CNN and PsyOps" articles would be

something that DoD types -- Col. Flaggs, like in MASH -- would be having Hershey Highways in their pants over.

It's only after the fact, as with 2 time CMOH winner USMC Gen Smedley D. Butler, that soldiers find out that 'War is a Racket'.

[Last Lemming]

13. As a Contract employee for the Navy

I'm here to say I have no problem getting DU
they have blocked e-bay and Wonkette though...

[murdoch]

15. Blocking web sites at a Fortune 100 company was part of my job

Actually my job was peripheral to it but I know how it operates. I wasn't the one who did the actual blocking but I worked with that team.

Usually there is some company that offers blocking for various things, with tags (sex sites, hate sites, and so forth). Then the organization using it decides what they want to block by tag. The organization can override certain blocks explicitly, and can add new tags.

This sounds like it worked where I did.

[Orangepeel]

18. It might be a matter of getting complaints

maybe nobody has suggested blocking free republic. you can bet that some right winger complained about access to DU and AA. Giving the benefit of the doubt, it might be a matter of oversight rather than unfairness.

[napi21]

19. I suspect this is done on the computers at work.

Although I think they should block all the blog site from Gov't computers, letting in FR is absolutely wrong!

None of these can possibly have anything todo with business, and like it or not, these folks are really supposed to be doing a job.

[Joey Liberal]

20. Listening to Air America did not impact work

like it or not, these folks are really supposed to be doing a job.
========
It's pretty easy to get work done while listening to the radio via computer. What's the difference if we play a CD on the computer or listen to Air America?

In the meantime, the right wingers in the Dept. of the Army can visit Free Republic and who knows what else at work. But Air America and DU are blocked. And they listen to Limbaugh and Hannity everyday on their radios.

[ArkDem]

23. Listening to a cd doesn't require any bandwidth on the network.

[seabeyond]

24. this is how they win/ and how they lose

again, a decade ago......this would have outraged either party

having been competitive a lifetime how i look at much of life. this is a cheatin party. we all know they cheated thru out the elections. they cheat thru lie, just telling blantant lie. they cheat by only their brainwashing gets out. they cheat cheat cheat

they are a party that cannot win with what they offer. they only win with cheating

we cannot win with cheating. we just cant. the cheaper really does always win, lol lol.

so, we have to stop the cheating. the dem party had better start talking and making aware the public in the cheating. that is the only way you can stop a cheater. they wont stop just out of the blue