Parrot Cage

Boycott Google

As Google gets its bling on with the evil Chinese government, there is actually a suitable response that takes little to no effort--the only kind of response most Americans seem capable of.

Students for a Free Tibet are calling for a boycott of Google on Valentine's Day.  This boycott should also extend to Yahoo and MSN search engines since they dropped trow for Chinese tyranny long before Google turned bitch.

We're now proponents of icerocket.com, which seems quite an effective search engine; although, we know little about their business model other than the fact that they are still too small for any government to want to grease.  We don't evn know if they've rolled over for Alberto Gonzalez yet.  Until they do, they'll have our support.

Scratch that, turns out Google is evil

We reluctantly sang Google's praises in resisting the Justice Department's cluster-fuck web search investigation. 

But, after rebuffing one totalitarian-oriented government, Google has turned around and french kissed perhaps the most evil government in the world, perhaps the most evil post-WW II government.  Google has bowed before China's murderous, authoritarian, and euphemistically communist goverment in their demands to filter all search results.

We are not comforted that Google execs wrestled with this tough decision. 

Since Tiananmen Square, China has been wooed and cuddled by Republican and Democratic Presidents, by Republican and Democratic Congresses.  After butchering untold thousands of peaceful protesters who dared to stand up for freedom, the World Trade Organization and the United States Congress rewarded these murdering tyrants with trillions of dollars in trade. 

While our politicians told us that business with China would ultimately result in a tidal wave of freedom, they were wrong.  Instead, China has become a capitalist's wet dream.  Where could you go to have your products manufactured expertly for pennies, with no possibility of labor disputes... ever?  China's ruthlessness is a classic example of a government being run like a corporation.  And now they own us, literally.

There's a reason why Cuba is vilified and China embraced.  There are reasons why we would invade Iraq under the banner of freedom, meanwhile fellating a government that makes Saddam Hussein look like a boy scout.  China makes certain people in this country rich beyond their wildest dreams.

China's tyranny has figured out how to maintain an evil empire, how to survive where Stalin and Lenin failed: buy off the fat cats and you can continue fucking over the little people. 

Fuck Google.  We don't care how much money they'll make.  We don't care what good they pretend they'll do with all that money.  Nothing can redeem a deal with the devil.  And no devils get more evil than the Chinese government.

Google Fights Evil

Okay, we've been mad at Google for their sleazy AdSense program which ultimately allows them to profit from blog advertising without actually paying bloggers who advertise for them.  We understand: with their stock prices going through the roof, you gotta make money.  Yeah, bullshit.

But, just when we were ready to shun Google, they came and reminded us why they aren't really evil.  The Mercury News is reporting that Google's been fighting the certifiably evil Bush Justice Department who want some of that sweet Google data on what the American public has been searching for.  Allegedly, old John Ashcroft wanted to revive a law which the Supreme Court struck down.  Yeah, we don't understand either.  Why are they devoting resources to a law that doesn't exist?  Oh yeah, because they're Republicans. 

But don't believe it.  The subpoena for Google's databases isn't really about a dead law.  And Ashcroft's successor Alberto Gonzalez isn't simply conducting statistical generalities to readdress the Supreme Court with.  No, this is undoubtedly about mining web searches with corresponding IP addresses.  In the hands of the Bush White House, nobody will be safe.  This Justice Department demand is far more egregious a violation of our civil liberties than all the fascism of the Patriot Act.  Such data can be used against political enemies very easily, and it's not just about pornography.

You may say that we're just being paranoid, that the subpoena doesn't include IP addresses, only URL's.  We cannot know how this data will be transferred to the government.  Such large scale databases will be difficult and perhaps costly to sort into non-intrusive data.  Besides, why would they need search engine databases to determine whether porn sites are easily accessible to minors?  Why not saddle up to a search engine and see for yourself?  No, this is way too fishy. 

At best, this move by the Justice Department is a dangerous foot in the door--and that's all the Republicans have ever needed to justify any crime they feel righteous enough to commit.

Google is doing the right thing, for all of us.  Are all corporations this brave and this good?  Well, no, apparently not.  Every other search engine corporation rolled over for Ashcroft/Gonzalez and surrendered the information which we entrusted to them.  AOL, Yahoo, MSN... they all sold us out.  Fuck those bastards.