Bah! Who Cares About So-Called ‘Rights’! This Is An Election!

We’ve been covering the anti-Myspace bill introduced by UPS man and U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, for a while now, and it’s time to give someone else the floor.

First, a bit of background: Fitzpatrick’s bill, officially the (yuk yuk) Deleting Online Predators Act — DOPA, I presume? — would force schools and libraries to block children from viewing social networking sites, such as Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, etc. It’s unclear if this would block social networking sites that are more about, say, photo sharing, like Flickr.

Anyway, obviously this bill is trying to stop children from being the victim of old dirty men trolling for them online, or something, and that’s fine. Naturally, of course, it does nothing really to stop the problem of child predators, but it makes for nice election year press, doesn’t it?

Some of that nice election year press comes, conveniently, from Bucks County Courier Times columnist J.D. Mullane, who wrote about the issue today, specifically Fitzpatrick’s Democratic opponent, Patrick Murphy, who blasted the bill:

I told Murphy it was a blunder to talk about “constitutional rights” when the issue is protecting children from pervs.

It’s OK to be high-minded on all that “rights” jazz when you’re trolling for votes during primary season. But when the general election season begins, as it has, it’s best to respect the family-oriented sensibilities of the suburban heartland, which defines most of Bucks County, but especially defines where I live, Levittown.

In my house, children have no “constitutional rights.” I am the law, judge and jury. My word is final. Three weeks ago, I was at the top of my game in this role during an incident that involved, coincidently, MySpace.com.

With Mullane on the case, no predator is safe! And neither are your rights!

A blunder in race for Congress [Bucks County Courier Times]
May 19: Rhetoric On Anti-Myspace Bill Reaches New Levels