Thursday, April 01, 2004

Ashcroft Shuts Down Whitehouse.org

Yesterday we linked here to the funny parody site Whitehouse.org, which was making fun of Lynne Cheney about her lesbian novel Sisters.

Just got a tip from a reader that visitors to Whitehouse.org are now being redirected to the cybercrimes division of John Ashcroft's Department of Justice. Our reader hopes this is an elaborate April Fool's joke by the folks at Whitehouse.org and not what it looks like -- another example of The End of Free Speech in the United States of America.

Evidence is strong that it ain't no joke. Back in early March, Vice President Cheney apparently threatened the creator of Whitehouse.org. Here's an account of what went down, from Geek Muffin, with an internal link to Salon's article:

"Today [March 7] Salon ran a story and interview with the creator of the parody site, John Wooden. Wooden received a letter from Dick Cheney's office last month, ordering him to remove all online references to Cheney's wife, Lynne -- that the references, pictures, and fake biography of her were illegal (showing legal cases for precedent) and that Wooden was breaking federal laws by displaying the presidential seal on his site, and by not making his disclaimer obvious enough."

We're putting the word out on a few other blogs to find out what's happened to John Wooden. Stay tuned.

UPDATE ... Though John Wooden wasn't in jail yesterday, today we'd consider supporting an amicus brief for his immediate incarceration for the crime of unbearable lightness of being, since Whitehouse.org was back on-line last night with an "April Fools!" confession. Bad boy!

Put this guy in charge of the "pacification" of Falluja.

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