In the just plain idiotic category goes S6779, a bill written by Republican New York State Senator Thomas F. O’Mara. The law would give any person, business or organization the right to force the removal from a web site of an anonymously written piece of material unless the true legal name, IP address and street address of the writer is posted along with the original written material and confirmed by the owner of the web site where the content is posted.

The law is necessary, says Senator O’Mara, to protect “a person’s right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting”. Who says people have a legal right to know what other people are saying about them? The Constitution of the United States has no such provision in it, and neither does the Constitution of the State of New York.

In fact, the Constitution of the State of New York may prohibit pieces of legislation of the sort that Thomas O’Mara has introduced. The state’s constitution declares, “The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases: Changing the names of persons…” It seems to be that there’s a good argument to be made that S6779 is a law that forces people to change the names people use for themselves, and is therefore unconstitutional.

Our national Constitution has a little old thing in it that’s called the First Amendment. The First Amendment guarantees both the right to free speech and freedom of the press, both of which would be denied by the censorship facilitated by S6779.

If the New York State Assembly and Senate pass this bill, what’s next? Is there going to be a law prohibiting a spoken conversation without the prior exchange of drivers’ licenses?

Thomas O’Mara justifies his censorship legislation by saying that bullying online must be stopped. Why must online bullying behavior receive especially harsh treatment, while offline bullying gets a free pass?

This legislation seems like an attempt to stifle all speech online. It contains no provision requiring proof of bullying, or restricting the censorship to cases in which bullying is even alleged to be involved.

Besides, the legislation is poorly written, with a loophole a mile wide. It only applies to web sites that enable interactive discussion: “a web site including social networks, blogs, forums, message boards or any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages”. So, even if this bill was passed, “cyberbullying” could go on as before, using web sites where there is no comment or discussion function.

Another idiotic flaw in the legislation is that it contains no restriction on the original date of publication of material. That means that, if Senator O’Mara’s legislation were signed into law, if a person published this poem…

I walk in loneliness through the greenwood
for I have none to go with me.
Since I have lost my friend by not being good
I walk in loneliness through the greenwood.
I’ll send him word and make it understood
that I will be good company.
I walk in loneliness through the greenwood
for I have none to go with me.

…on a blog with a comments section, then anyone could legally force the censorship of the poem. The poem, you see, was created by an anonymous writer over 800 years ago. It would be impossible to find the street address of the writer, and so the poem would have to be removed.

For that reason, I hereby rename S6779 as The Thomas O’Mara Medieval Poetry Censorship Act.

If writing bills like this is how Thomas O’Mara chooses to spend his time in the New York State Senate, why don’t the voters in his district just send him home to avoid further embarrassment?

Starting today, and going all weekend long, Jill Stein, the presumptive Green Party presidential nominee, is going to be out on the streets of Chicago, taking part in the anti-NATO protests there that have been organized by Occupy Chicago.

Yesterday afternoon’s protests saw a horde of bicyclists occupy Chicago streets, and a collection of fit young demonstrators perform a die-in on the blacktop, covered in crude oil under a banner reading Planet Before Profit. A presidential candidate who joins in with this movement isn’t just engaging in Barack Obama’s game of sending carefully coded signals at gala fundraisers that he’s secretly sympathetic with liberal concerns.

Jill Stein is out in the open, actively working to promote the liberal vision. Will your vote be with her, or back in the closet with Barack Obama?

Photo: ArckiiART

The New York Times (you know, “All the News That’s Fit to Print”) refuses to cover it anywhere on its front page, where over a hundred other news headlines sit.

Photo: OccupyWallStNYC

Among the stories the New York Times decides is “fit to print” on its front page — unlike the news of thousands of people taking over Times Square in protest — is the exclusive breaking news that Van Cliburn is going to sell one of his pianos.

Photo: OccupyWallStNYC

North Carolina Bans Gay Marriage but You Can Marry Your First Cousin

In an outrageous attempt to regulate religious views, the state of North Carolina banned gay marriage in their constitution, a document many of the voters have never read.

The law basically bans all unions, marriages or relationships unless it is one man and one women, of the sexes. This means, common-law-marriages between a man and a woman is not recognized either.

The kicker is that you can marry your first cousin in North Carolina, so inbreeding is totally legal.

I thought this had to be a joke, you know, a Southern stereotype kind of thing. Surely a state that goes about banning harmless same-sex marriages can’t be promoting inbreeding, which actually does hurt children.

But no, it’s no joke: marriage between cousins is legal in North Carolina. The National Conference of State Legislatures has researched the issue and found that North Carolina lets cousins marry. Preventing harm to North Carolinians’ tender sensibilities is apparently more important than preventing birth defects.

It’s free to the first person in Vermont who leaves a comment to this post with an e-mail address — the public won’t see your e-mail; I’ll use it to write to you and get your USPS address.

We’ve got more Sanders for Senate stuff for sale on our Vermont politics page.

A generation ago, the Southerners were shouting and screaming that it was God’s will to have laws that outlawed people of African ancestry from getting married to people of European ancestry. Yesterday, Southerners passed a law creating an amendment to the state constitution of North Carolina declaring that only heterosexual couples can get married.

It was an act of defiance against the Constitution of the United States, which bans inequality under the law. The Civil War settled, some time ago, that state constitutions don’t have the right to overrule the national Constitution. But then, maybe the voters of North Carolina never learned about that in school. After all, the South does have the worst educational test scores in the nation.

Oh, I know that’s a mean thing to say, but it’s true. We’re all supposed to hold our tongues and not make fun of the backwards idiocy of the South. We’re supposed to be patient as they fly their Confederate flags, diphthong their way through life, and elect nasty, corrupt politicians into Congress.

When Southerners go and pass laws like North Carolina did yesterday, though, I don’t see much reason to be nice. The fact is, the South is holding the rest of the nation back.

Nationally, the majority of Americans support equal marriage rights for all American couples, whether they’re heterosexual or homosexual. Practically everywhere outside the South, it’s an overwhelming majority of Americans that supports marriage equality.

Just as they were slow to get the message with slavery, it’s the people in the South who are the last people in the country to grasp the idea that making it illegal for large numbers of people to get married does not make for a stable society.

Southerners don’t like to be made fun of for their nasty little regional culture, but then they go ahead and confirm the worst ideas that people have about them, engaging in loud public acts of cruel stupidity. It’s time that the rest of the nation speaks clearly and slowly to the South, so that it can understand: IF – YOU – DON’T – WANT – US – TO – MAKE – FUN – OF – YOU – THEN – STOP – ACTING – LIKE – IGNORANT – YAHOOS.

Other guests, not invited by NATO, will also be meeting – out in the streets. Large numbers of people belonging to the Occupy Movement will be in Chicago protesting against NATO.

Why protest NATO? The reasons range from killing by NATO military drones to massive military spending. NatoProtest.org provides a long list of reasons Americans are upset with NATO.

Actually, Occupy activist projects associated with the upcoming NATO summit have already begun. Yesterday, Dr. Cornel West gave a lecture criticizing Barack Obama’s rather un-liberal policies at the University of Chicago. Tonight, there’s a training session in methods of nonviolent activism at DePaul University, and a meeting going over Occupy movement building ideas. Tomorrow, there’s another meeting organizing housing and food for all the Occupy activists coming to town.

This weekend, the The People’s Summit will be held by Occupy activists. This summit has a rather different purpose than the NATO summit: “To educate our communities about war, austerity, global capitalism, and corporatization in the 21st century, and what it means for the ways we live in this world.”

If you want to participate in the anti-NATO protests in Chicago, but don’t live in Chicago, 99% Solidarity can help. The organization is putting together free bus rides for Occupy activists from many cities to Chicago especially for this month’s protests. Non-violent activist training will be held on the buses en route.

Unfortunately, the right wing Democratic mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, is also planning. Mayor Emanuel has created a long list of new restrictions designed to confine and confound protesters, including the requirement that protest organizers pay large amounts of money to the city of Chicago in exchange for permission to protest. What’s more, although Emanuel initially promised that the restrictions on protest would only be temporary, lifted after the NATO summit, he has since reversed this promise, and declared that the anti-protest measures will now be permanent.

The North Carolina Coalition Against Corporate Power has put out the call for Americans upset at the practices of Bank of America to mount a protest during its annual shareholders meeting, culminating in Charlotte NC on May 9:

Homeowners, students, immigrants, environmentalists, workers, women’s groups, peace activists and more will be in Charlotte, bringing their stories, hearts and communities to the fight against Bank of America and the economic inequality, racial injustice and environmental destruction they have wrought.

Bank of America is:

#1 forecloser of homes in the US,

#1 funder of the US coal industry,

Job killer by letting go of nearly 100,000 workers over the past several years,

Bonus Buster paying its top five executives over $500 million in bonuses,

Saddling students with a lifetime of debt, and

Financing the war machine.

Bank of America, and its profits-over-people-and-planet business model, is drowning our democracy through huge financial contributions to lobbyists that are serving the interests of the 1% and are participating in corporate-funded groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Financial Services Roundtable.

As a global community united for real economic and racial justice, it is time that BoA is held accountable, invest in public needs and services, or face being broken up to achieve the justice we need. Whether you are a community member, homeowner, worker or student, we need to come together to challenge corporate power and create an economy and democracy that works for all of us.

In order to prevent violence at the protests, local ordinances have been created that ban people in Tampa from carrying glass bottles, sticks, and toy water guns. However, people will be allowed to carry concealed guns – guns that fire real bullets. If you’re caught with a bottle of old-fashioned Coca-Cola, you could be thrown in jail, but if you pull a handgun out of a hidden holster, the police will leave you alone.

Bob Buckhorn, the mayor of Tampa, asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to create an exception, for downtown Tampa, to a statewide executive order that allows for the carrying of concealed guns. Rick Scott refused, writing to Buckhorn: “It is unclear how disarming law-abiding citizens would better protect them from the dangers and threats posed by those who would flout the law. It is at just such times that the constitutional right of self defense is most precious and must be protected from government overreach.”

Consider what Governor Scott is proposing as a plan for the GOP National Convention: When protesters start breaking the law, that’s when people secretly carrying guns should spring into action. Scott is suggesting that the protesters outside of the Republican National Convention this year may need to be shot, describing anti-Republican protests as just the sort of situation that concealed firearms are called for. The Governor isn’t merely stating that the second amendment must always apply, while hoping that no one brings a gun to the protests. He’s encouraging gun owners who don’t agree with the protests to arrive in response, ready to use their guns against the protesters.

An odd thing about Governor Scott’s letter is that, while he’s encouraging the use of guns against protesters, and demanding that the second amendment right to carry guns be protected, he doesn’t seem to care at all about whether other weapons are prohibited. The ordinance against sticks and glass bottles is in place because of concerns that they could be used as weapons. But, as weapons, they would be constitutionally protected objects.

The second amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It does not mention guns specifically, but weapons as a general category. The idea of “arms” has always carried with it the inclusion of improvised devices of violence. People can be thought of as arming themselves with sticks and stones, with umbrellas, forks, chains, and all sorts of objects.

It seems quite clear that, if the second amendment does not apply only to militias, but to individuals as well, that it must protect the right of individuals to carry any object as a weapon. There’s no justification in the second amendment for giving guns a special protected status that no other weapon enjoys. So, if carrying guns at protests is to be given constitutional protection, so should carrying sticks and glass bottles.

Yet, Rick Scott won’t stand up for the right to bear weapons that aren’t guns. Why? Probably, it has something to do with the fact that there is no group of lobbyists and political action committees that give large amounts of money to political candidates who defend the right to carry sticks and glass bottles. Gun lobbyists, on the other hand, are quite powerful, and carry a lot of cash.

Even on the level of gun rights, though, Rick Scott and his Republican colleagues aren’t consistent. They support the right of citizens to show up and intimidate protesters with guns, but they won’t support the right of people to carry guns within the Republican National Convention itself. The Republicans have created a ban on carrying guns within the building where the Republican National Convention will take place – and Governor Rick Scott supports that ban on guns.

Why? If guns really make people more secure, rather than presenting a security risk, and if Republican really support the constitutional right to carry guns, why won’t they allow people attending the Convention to bring guns? Why won’t they encourage attendees to bring guns, to make Mitt Romney more safe? It looks like the Republican Party only wants to have guns around at other people’s events, not their own.

Cribbing shamelessly from the OWS notifications page, May Day events in New York City alone include:

NYC MAY DAY 2012 ACTIONS

99 Picket Lines
Midtown Manhattan
Community groups, unions, affinity groups and OWS
more info

Pop-up Occupation with Mutual Aid (unpermitted)
8am–2pm, Bryant Park, Manhattan
Occupy Wall Street
more info

May Day Morning Commute from Brooklyn
8:00am, Maria Hernandez Park, Brooklyn
Free Coffee + Breakfast! MARCH from Knickerbocker to Flushing to Broadway to Continental Army Plaza
Occupy Williamsburg, Occupy Bushwick
more info

Sitting Meditation
8–11am, Bryant Park (southwest corner), Manhattan
OWS Meditation working group

Bike Bloc
9am, Union Square, Manhattan
Strike Everywhere
more info

The Free University: Lectures, Workshops, Skill-Shares and Discussions
10am–3pm, Madison Square Park, Manhattan
more info

Occupy Brooklyn March over the Williamsburg Bridge and into Wall Street
10:30am, Continental Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Occupy Williamsburg, Occupy Bushwick
more info

Building Community Alternatives to Capitalism Day
11am–10pm, LaunchPad, 721 Franklin Ave., Brooklyn
Brooklyn Skillshare
more info

Teach-in: How to Keep Your Cool and Occupy…Understanding Aggression
11am, Bryant Park (southwest corner), Manhattan
OWS Meditation working group

High School Student Walkout Convergence
12pm, Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
more info

Guitarmy: Guitar Workshop and Rehearsal with Tom Morello
Permitted Gathering Space for May Day Festivities
12pm, Bryant Park, Gertrude Stein Statue (east side), Manhattan
OWS Music working group
more info

Call2Create
art events all day throughout NYC
more info

Wildcat March (unpermitted)
1pm, Sara D. Roosevelt Park (East Houston St. & 2nd Ave.), Manhattan
Strike Everywhere
more info

OWS Mutual Aid cluster
1pm-4pm, Union Square
OWS Mutual Aid cluster is hosting a free store, skill shares and workshops on a variety of subjects related to life outside the dominant capitalist paradigm.

3pm May Pole Dance with Movement for Change and the Puppet Guild.

Meditation Flash Mob followed by Kirtan
1pm, Bryant Park (southwest corner), Manhattan
OWS Meditation working group

Day Without Workers/Día sin los Trabajadores: May Day March and Speakout
2pm, 5th Ave. at 54th St. in Brooklyn, marching to 36th St & 4th Ave. to take subway at 3:30pm to Union Square rally in Manhattan
Occupy/Ocupemos Sunset Park
more info

MayDay on D-Block!!
2pm, Houston & Ave D, Manhattan
LES public housing residents & tenants take their struggle to the street! All invited!
Occupy Avenue D

Occupy Wall Street & Guitarmy March (unpermitted)
2pm, Bryant Park to Union Square, Manhattan

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Contingent!
3pm at Regal Movie Theatre, 50 Broadway (at 13th St.) – joining rally at Union Square after
Audre Lorde Project, FIERCE, Queers for Economic Justice, Streetwise and Safe and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project
more info

Solidarity Rally with Tom Morello, Dan Deacon, Immortal Technique, Das Racist, Bobby Sanabria and special guests (permitted)
4–5:30pm, Union Square, Manhattan
May First Coalition, Labor Unions and OWS
more info

May Day Choir Convergence
5:15pm, Madison Square Park (in front of the fountain), Manhattan
more info

Occupy the Rent Guidelines Board: A Tenants’ General Assembly
5:30pm, 7 East 7th St. (outside Cooper Union), Manhattan
Real Rent Reform Campaign

Solidarity March (permitted)
5:30pm, Union Square to Wall Street, Manhattan
May First Coalition, Labor Unions and OWS
more info

JD Samson & MEN Perform
7pm, 2 Broadway

… and here’s the event I find most curious:

After the march concludes, more performances and speakers will start the after-party!

Occupy Wall Street Afterparty
8pm, Wall Street area
details forthcoming…

What happens at the Occupy Wall Street afterparty? You’ve got to be there to find out.