Silencing the soldiers and cutting off their lifeline to sanity

So all we hear is the bizarre happy talk Georgie tells us? It's too late for that, so why shut down the blogs and censor emails? That horse has long since left the barn.

“The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops’ online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.”

What will it do but cause more anger and frustration?

Update: 5/4:

To the Army's 1st Information Operations Command, the "media" is just another threat -- along with "al Qaeda," "hackers," and "drug cartels." Military bloggers are even lower than that: just poor saps looking for a "therapeutic" way to get out their feelings. No wonder the Army has put out new rules that could very well kill the sites off.

Don't blame Bud

He just told you what was coming:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - One of the eight fired U.S. prosecutors warned the White House of the controversy that was going to come over the firings months before they happened. In an e-mail, Bud Cummins warned the Justice Department five months before the firings about the controversy after finding out he was going to be replaced by a White House appointee.

Cummins was replaced by a protégé of Karl Rove.

Cummins e-mail was amid documents sent Friday to the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

The firings have prompted many to call for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Cummins said he was trying to protect himself with the e-mail. He said he had nothing to do with the ensuing controversy over the handling of the firings.

Gay, gay and gay!

Eight times in an email makes it dump worthy?

Telecom New Zealand has apologised to Gay Hamilton after her e-mail was bounced because it contained the word gay eight times. The automatic reply Ms Hamilton received stated that the e-mail was not suited for "business-like communication".

Website designer and lesbian, Gay Hamilton had sent the largest public company in New Zealand an e-mail to their help desk via e-mail, asking if she was able to receive their broadband services in her Nelson suburb.

Lenska Papich, spokesperson for Telecom, has said that e-mails are usually only monitored internally, and the words are blocked to help reduce harassment cases by threatening disciplinary action. "Our systems internally detect a number of words, including both the words gay and heterosexual, that could be deemed as inappropriate for use at work." Telecom refused to list the other words that are blocked.

I didn't know New Zealand had thought police.....