Senator Lieberman
© Reuters/Mike SegarU.S. Senator from Connecticut Joe Lieberman pauses during remarks at news conference in Stamford, CT, January 19, 2011.

Terrorist suspect Jose Pimentel had a blog on Blogger, owned by Google. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) wants Google to add a "terrorist" flag so readers can label terrorist content.

Lieberman sent a letter (yes, on paper, but that's the best way to show the United States Senate letterhead) to Google CEO Larry Page taking him to task because "Blogger's Content Policy does not expressly ban terrorist content," and some other details. Lieberman goes on to point out that YouTube, also owned by Google, does ban terrorist content. He adds, quote, "Google's inconsistent standards are adversely affecting our ability to counter violent Islamist extremism online." So Blogger could hold back terrorists if it wanted to?

Unfortunately, Lieberman doesn't define what he considers "terrorist content" or whether deleting posts with such content is within the purview of Blogger or the First Amendment. Google, not surprisingly, has yet to comment. Wonder if Larry Page still wished he had Eric Schmidt to handle such political fun and games.

Lieberman abuse
The good senator should be flagged for infecting the American public with mind-staggering stupid.
michaelty on news.ycombinator.com
Nice little end run around the Constitution there, Joe. The government can't suppress free speech, so just strong-arm the private sector into "volunteering" to do it.
slb on talkingpointsmemo.com
Don't forget this guy is the Chairman of the Senate Committee for Homeland Security, a committee specifically tasked with defense against "cyber" attacks. Sleep well tonight kids.
dashiel on theverge.com
Don't tell Joe that the The Anarchist Cookbook is available on Amazon...
imkmu on talkingpointsmemo.com
General political abuse
Ah Congress. Always aiming for that perfect ZERO approval rating when single digits isn't low enough.
ck2 on news.ycombinator.com
Can we get a dumber-than-a-sack-of-potatoes flag?
Wild Willy on talkingpointsmemo.com
Can we get a "moron" flagging button on senate.gov while we're at it?
vidarh on news.ycombinator.com
This is what happens when dealing with politicians whose technical knowledge ended with black-and-white TV. Sigh
rob.hoffman on theverge.com
Let's just skip right to the "children report your parents for unpatriotic speech" button and be done with it.
noonespecial on news.ycombinator.com
Such fun
"A Google spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment." Waiting for the laughter to die down. May be awhile.
DF2691 on talkingpointsmemo.com
/s, right? That is BONKERS.
Matous Vales on theverge.com
So that's what was missing from the Internet to finally stop terrorism.
typical runt on news.
ycombinator.com
This would seem much funnier if Lieberman wasn't the chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, since ideas like this could be taken seriously in Washington.