http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/18/042235&mode=nested Gore and Bush: Equal-Opportunity Censors? posted by cicero on Tuesday October 17, @10:58PM from the affirmative-action-for-censorhappy-politicos dept. There was something absent from this evening's presidential debate, and it wasn't Al's horn-blowing sighs or Dubya's runny-nosed sniffles. What was missing was an appreciation for the benefits of free speech, the perils of blocking software, and the hazards of blaming the world's woes on the Internet. In response to an audience question about "the morality of our country," both candidates talked up rating systems, blamed Hollywood, and recommended having the government help parents who have, allegedly, failed. Al Gore, who likes to talk about privacy, waxed downright Carnivorous over a "feature that allows parents to automatically check, with one click, what sites your kids have visited lately.. if you can check up on them, then you -- that's real power." Quoth Bush, who had similar ideas: "There ought to be filters in public libraries, and filters in public schools, so that if kids get on the Internet, there's not going to be pornography or violence coming in." Bush was talking about legislation currently before Congress that ties filtering to checks from the Feds. Relevant excerpt from transcript: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/18/042235&mode=nested