Internet Censorship, USA Angers China, and More in Chad’s Steaming Pile

Here are just a few things in Chad’s Pile that you will hear on Lubbock’s First News this morning. Give Chad your feedback on the steaming topics.

1. Mayor Tom Martin & Stone Gate Golf

Mayor Tom Martin will join LFN today to discuss the latest out of the City of Lubbock. He will join us from 7-8am and take your questions on the air. Later today, I will be out at Stone Gate Golf Course from 11a-1p for our KFYO Lunch Rush. Come listen to Rush Limbaugh and grab some lunch from the Stone Gate Diner. Stone Gate is located at 110th and Indiana.

2. Censorship (link)

Should the internet be censored? The big internet companies are coming together in order to try and prevent legislation known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the Protect IP Act from being passed. According to Digital Trends:

These pieces of legislation, which have strong bipartisan support in Congress, as well as backing from the Motion Picture Association of America, a variety of Hollywood union organizations, and even Master Card and Pfizer, would require technology companies and Internet service providers to block access to any website that the entertainment industry believes “engages in, enables or facilitates” copyright infringement. In essence, these bills, if they become law, would allow for broad Internet censorship. And companies like those listed above would be required by law to do the censoring.

While those who wish for greater ways to fight copyright infringement say the legislation is good and necessary, opponents — who stretch far and wide — say the legislation will stifle innovation online by changing the entire nature of the Internet as we know it, and further warn that this could be the beginning of the “Great Firewall of America.”

What are your thoughts?

3. China isn't happy (link)

A new U.S. Marine Base in Australia is not what China wants, but this week President Obama announced it was going to happen.

“We are deepening our alliance and this is the perfect place to do it,” said Mr. Obama, speaking in a steamy air force hangar to about 2,000 people, mostly Australian troops in green camouflage uniforms but with 55 American Marines salted among them. “This region has some of the busiest sea lanes in the world.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama announced that the United States planned to deploy 2,500 Marines in Australia to shore up alliances in Asia, but the move prompted a sharp response from Beijing, which accused Mr. Obama of escalating military tensions in the region.

The agreement with Australia amounts to the first long-term expansion of the American military’s presence in the Pacific since the end of the Vietnam War. It comes despite budget cuts facing the Pentagon and an increasingly worried reaction from Chinese leaders, who have argued that the United States is seeking to encircle China militarily and economically.

“It may not be quite appropriate to intensify and expand military alliances and may not be in the interest of countries within this region,” Liu Weimin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in response to the announcement by Mr. Obama and Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia.

What do you think about this?

These and many more topics coming up on Friday’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App.