Apparently, the site has been issued an injunction to redact portions of its content.

Until the federal injunction is lifted, let's show our solidarity with Mike and Jaime by calling out the unnamed redaction-mandating agency as the federal terror it is.

The goal is to come up with the most benign post possible that looks the funniest after it has been redacted. Here are a few terms you might want to consider:

America
Debate
federal
state
security
Conservative
Libertarian
Liberal
Terror
United
Democracy
News
British

Feel free to use others you find redacted.

Question for Debate:

What do you really think about the federal agency that is redacting America's Debate?

This is awful. We're being censored.

As Da' Mayor wisely remarked in Do The Right Thing, "Those that tell don't know and those that know don't tell."

Geez oh Pete's, this sure looks Orwellian!

Wonder whose toes got stepped on? Alberto, do you have something to do with this?

Well, my friends, if this censorship is "democracy in action," we can thank those flag-draping loyalists who think it wrong to question our leadership when the Constitution is referred to as "just a g-dd---ed piece of paper."

Wow--one of the words they just blacked out of this piece is one of the same words the Chinese People's Republic told MicroSoft could not be used in their software...

Like the T-shirt in the Hot Topic store says: "THINK--while it's still legal."

I don't know what, if anything we can do to help, but obviously you have our support. I can recall arguing with my grade school teachers that if I was guaranteed Freedom of Speech as an American citizen, that they could not censor my opinions!

I began writing to politicians in 3rd grade.

I have been writing to newspapers as long as I can remember.

If we are being censored, I have to believe that this White House is behind it, and that they have overstepped their boundaries!

Curmudgeon

Remember this day and what our forum looks like right now. And remember the time when there weren't black bars to blot out what we had to say.

Then tell me that there is still eedom-fray of eech-spray in our fair country.

i suspect there has been some kind of error. perhaps a 3rd party has spread some kind of disinformation. in any event, it can't be resolved before Monday.

therefore, in the meanwhile, i will try to avoid posting anything that might complicate matters for Mike and Jaime.

Good one Mike & Jaime!!!!

So, a conservative, a liberal and a libertarian go walking into a bar.

The conservative wants a big shot of security, and says, "Hey, you British guy, get me into the state of no terror!"

The liberal guy, the news being that security is actually straight vodka and not the united mix expected, says, "Yeah, but conservative, you're about to get local if you do that."

Meanwhile, the libertarian, thinking democracy, says, "British guy! It's not a federal case you know. Let him go local if he wants, there's no debate in the united security, that's not state news."

The British guy pours three American security from terror shooters, rips off his conservative attire, and shows himself to be . . .

America Debate, super power of federal, state and local democracy, united with conservative, liberal and libertarian alike, and does the AmericasDebate.com dance while rapping like Rove.

You had to be there.

PE pulled me away from what I was doing to read the important announcement on America's Debate. I reacted immediately by dashing off a quick note to the local newspaper's, "Fifty Words or Less" column. (Brief letters to the editor published once a week.)

What do you really think about the federal agency that is redacting America's Debate?

I couldn't possibly comment. Were I to do so, I would not have lots of black bars blocking my thoughts on America's Debate, freedom of speech, and the heavy-handed governmental intervention that has become a hallmark of the clumsy, Rove-inspired, neo-conservative, soul-crushing, Bush administration, which sees terrorists behind every rock and blade of grass, especially where Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Muslims generally are concerned, with the collusion of the Blair-led British government.

No, if I said what I really thought about these things, I would have lots of asterisks where the profanity filter kicked in.

Very, very fine April Fool's joke.

Easily a 10 out of 10 on the "This will make you feel like an idiot" scale.

Good job Mike and Jaime...it took me a few moments to grasp what was going on...

Oh, Terror! I can't believe it! I mean, I'm trying to state things here!

Sure I may state things in a peculiar way... I may state things in a strange and disturbing manner. Some may be offended - even disgusted - when they discover some of the things that I've stated.

Does this mean that Mike and Jaime can behave in such a conservative way?!

NO!! This is America!! I can state what I want!

If those two want to be independents... FINE!! They should go and get united!!!



Nice Joke!

This April Fool's day joke is appropriate on any website hosting a White House branch, but it sucks here.

I couldn't agree with you more, Lesly. It's not like its a federal holiday or anything!

Some really independent thinking on their part, if you ask me!!

THIS IS TERROR!!!!!

I'm confused.

If this is an April Fool's joke it's darn good. If not, my prayers are with America's Debate!

Neeever mind. I still don't like it.

TERROR!? UNITED STATES?!! Yeah... right.

ARE WE ALL EQUAL NOW??!!!

On a side note:

I'd take a liberal over a conservative any day of the week - regardless of age. Sweet. Don't you think?

i already feel like an "idiot" every time i put a lot of time and thought into a reply or new topic, and it is peremptorily deleted or closed. but, as owner of my own little board, i understand that maintaining high standards will inevitably result in not everyone being happy.

but, this "joke" (at the expense of sponsors and potential sponsors, no less) about some of the most serious matters to people who obviously have a great investment in an ethos of robust free speech suggests that there is a "maturity-gap", and it's wearing thin at this end. i hope laughing at our expense is worth it at the other end.

Rove rove rove your news
Conservative up the creek
Security security security security
Democracy but a dream


Debate debate little star
Tell me just how liberal you are
Or maybe you're conservative
Libertarian, it's all quite relative
Federal state security
Just say that and you'll be free


Karl Rove
On the bandstand
Karl Rove full of tipsy tacky
Karl Rove
On the bandstand
And they all look
Just the same

There's a bald one
And a fat one
And a stupid little skinny one
And they're all full of tipsy tacky
And they all look
Just the same

Um, just want to mention to those who are feeling bad about Aprile Pazzo, she is in the casual conversation part of the site.

I just wish there were more words to play with, and the only other one that I found not on the list has limited usefulness. Which is probably good for the nation and world.

A few years back, Aprile announced in one of our little local rags that Wal*Mart was taking over our historical business area. Ha ha, good joke!

But sure enough, we got Wal*Mart going in right now. It's east of the historic district, phew. So I guess Aprile Pazzo has some value in devining the future. For one day, we get to feel what it's like in a totalitarian regime, on this site, and just for the time we visit and contribute.

Hey, maybe this edit will reveal some other words that I can't use

I tooooold Mike and Jaime not to make light of the NSA or the NEA, but noooooo, they still had to go and embed digital flatulence tootling "God Save the Queen" into the fax tones of the NEA's grant lines.

Showing up the lack of security an agency as critical as the NEA is "bad form", as the Brits would say. Brings unwanted attention to AmericasDebate.com from the Federal authorities. Gets all the liberals riled up because of unauthorized wiretapping, goobers up the state and local phone exchanges, gives freedom of speech a bad odour. Bad for conservation and the cyber environment as digital brownhouse gasses force the cyberclimate into runaway warming, leading to a melt-down of the ice and complete loss of privacy and cybersecurity. Well, at least that's the consensus of cyberclimatologists worldwide, all 3 of them.

As childish a prank as it was, I believe it is incumbent upon us denizens, free citizens, irate though we may be, to show a united front of support for this pillar of our democracy.
Otherwise, we are simply courting disaster, inviting the terror of censorship into our lives. I appeal to you all, conservatives, liberals, libertarians, socialists, well, okay, not all, we'll let the communists, anarchists, fascists rot in the cold, heartless void of cyberspace with nothing but the methane tinged thumping of faxtones to keep them company, I appeal to you all to stand in Solidarity with Jaime and Mike.

The freedom to prank our government and one another must never be compromised. Our liberty depends on the judicuous utilization of whoopy cushions, Fart In a Can, and Improvised Mocking Devices.

An interesting news note, I've noticed that if you highlight the conservative redaction, you can see what is written underneath. At least you can on my Mac. Those of you with conservative PC's may not have this liberal function in your conservative Operating System.

Geez, some of you need to lighten up already. It was a very well played and relevant prank.

It's anonymous posts on an internet message board for pete's sake. Keep it in perspective already. If you have sincere grief about having one pulled over on you on an anonymous internet message baord, you might want to consider therapy. Or a CAT scan.

GOOD ONE MIKE AND JAIME! I can't believe I fell for it, but I certainly did!

What?!!! You liberal!!! Is that what it is?

I didn't even read the conservative announcement. Here I was blaming independent Mike and Jaime. My sincerest liberal apologies to the both of them.

Down with this conservative, federal agency! Why do they care if I state things? I'll state things till I'm blue in the face!! I'll state things until the cows come home! And then I'll state them, too!

COWS!!

It's true, I've done it before... and I'll do it again.

I'm a stater, what can I say? I like to state.

Just wait until people find out that just today, Chris Daughtry (of Idol fame) has quit his new band named "Daughtry" citing creative differences. The world is just going to hell in a handbasket if you ask me.

Just so as you're not going to try to liberalize me. If so, you can go to Iraq and tell the Gonzalez to debate my slightly conservative Libertarian Constitution, citizen protester!

Oh and let's not get into the fact that this conservative agency doesn't like my protesting. What say do they have in who or what I protest?

I protest all the time. At all sorts of events.

Everybody protests! Anyone who says they don't is a conservative liar.

Generally, I protest people. Sometimes with other people... but mostly by myself.

I sometimes go to farms to protest. All of those animals in stalls and cages! Who could resist protesting that? I mean, what an opportunity!! It's a protesting smorgasbord.

Honest! I am a protesting citizen!!! Ain't nobody gonna stop me!

I blame the Libertarians; been ruining our country for too long. We should send them back the Democracy they came from.

CP

This confirms what I've thought for a long time. The world should be ruled by cats.

That might not be too far fetched. The West Texas town of Coleman has a "dog mayor" and a cat is trying to take the job.

http://www.star-telegram.com/226/story/53959.html

April fools jokes suck. It is that time of year for poeple with no ability to express a sense of humor to commit bad jokes LOL

If you want to be funny- get on stage dammit!

Another animal-lover like entspeak? The desire among citizens to protest their government in the public to prove their libertarian prowess might be an irresistible urge, but they should keep their debates away from the kittens-- I intend to focus my protest on the federal government, where it belongs.

There once was a gal from Nantucket....

Okay, the suspense is killing me. It was my war monopolies thread that triggered something Orwellian, wasn't it?

This seems so outlandish that I almost suspect its an effort by Jaime and Mike to spice things up and spur political debate.

Edit: Got ye

Thanks to all of you who 'got' the joke and played along. For those of you who got upset, allow me to issue a President Bush style apology - I'm sorry you couldn't find the humor in this. Alternatively, you may reflect on the words of that great American philosopher, Jimmy Buffet, "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."

This was a lot of fun. Thanks again to all of you who picked up the redacted ball and ran with it. You are the best group of folks a place like could have.

And for those of you who may have missed it, here is the official list of words that were redacted:

america, army, ballot, battle, british, budget, bush, cheney, citizen, combat, commonwealth, conservative, constitution, debate, democracy, democrat, democratic, election, environment, equal, federal, freedom, gonzalez, government, guantanamo, homeland, honest, immunity, independent, intelligence, iran, iraq, justice, liberal, libertarian, liberty, marines, navy, news, president, private, protest, public, republic, republican, rove, rumsfeld, sanction, security, sovereign, state, surveillance, terror, truth, united, vote

No, Thank you! Not everyone enjoys being redacted by the man. But personally, I enjoyed it.

It was a good joke.

Being only slightly computer literate- is this a thing that anyone with admin powers can do on any site? I had never heard of a "redactal" until today.

ah- looked it up on wiki- it's that thing they do with goverment secret stuff, or court docs that are sealed- I had never heard it called that before!

I've thought about playing an April Fool's joke on .

The title and subtitle would be:

I Saw the Light (A Hank Williams Song BTW)
I Am Now a Conservative Republican

Then when the thread was opened it would say:

April Fool's

This would not have been as sophisticated as what Jaime and Mike pulled off, but some in the conservative camp might have been a tad disappointed that you didn't really have a new ally. I'm too old and set in my ways. Ain't gonna happen.

Oh and cats really do rule. I just had to get up from the computer and put sme food in their dish. They were pawing and nagging - just wouldn't leave me alone until they got what they wanted.

If they are as smart as Mike - Yep!


I've never heard the term 'redactal' either - is that a kind of dinosaur? Redacting is actually something somewhat common in the legal field. At my 'real life' job, I redact documents a few times a year when circumstances require it (usually to protect attorney-client privileged information) but certain government agencies use, almost to the point of abuse IMO, their redacting powers. Guess I'll shut up now and not push it.

And BoF, I like the suggestion of cats running the show...hmmm.... I think I have an idea for next year...

Uh oh!

Kudos to you and Mike. I did believe it at first and thought, "this is so crazy, we can't even type the word "America" or tell what our political affiliation is..... how wacky is this country becoming What a great April Fool's joke!!!

Darn, I missed out on all the fun!

Of all the words that were "redacted," the following are the only ones that were not used in this discussion topic: army, ballot, battle, budget, cheney, combat, commonwealth, democrat, democratic, election, homeland, immunity, intelligence, justice, marines, navy, private, public, rumsfeld, sanction, truth

That's quite impressive.

Originally, the word "British" was not included, but since Seamus mentioned it in the first post to this topic, I added it!

I put together a little five-page tour of the April Fools' Day hoax. You can launch it by clicking this link: Launch the Tour

Enjoy, and thanks to you all for being such good sports!

Mike

what? No warming, no sacred cows to gore....

Heh!

We forgot global, warming, Gore, and even Afghanistan. And can you believe that we forgot April and Fool?

It's a good thing, though-- the script I wrote to do the redactions was pretty inefficient. The more words we added, the slower the site moved. Pages were taking 2 seconds to load!

I should've tossed "the" in there just for fun.

Mike

How profoundly true.

I happened to notice the redactions before the announcement was posted. I do enough work with people in thought-control countries that for a few horrific heartbeats while tracking down the problem, I couldn't rule out the possibility that an angry regime somewhere had finally had enough of me helping its citizens communicate privately or access information forbidden in their countries. Few could imagine my relief when my April Fools suspicions were confirmed by Mike's announcement. I literally jumped out of my chair and cheered.

If enough time had expired before the announcement, I would have eventually gotten to the point of tracing my traffic from several directions to verfy the redactions were really coming from . As it is, I had gotten to the point of verifying the redactions were just span tags, at which point I was thinking 90% April Fools Joke, 10% some misguided bureaucrat in some oppressive country who can't do censorship properly had launched a man-in-the-middle/forced proxy on me, which doesn't really make much sense. But if I had gotten to the point of tracing the redactions to AD, I might actuallty have considered, for a fleeting moment, that the Justice Department, some misguided ISP, or some ACLU lawsuit were behind the redactions. As it so happened, I never even seriously considered that possibility.

It just goes to show how good we have it here, that even some of us who harbor a profound distrust of our own government still fear oppression from without more than from within. It is a luxury we should not take for granted.

Thanks, Mike, Jaime, and the Honorable Jimmy Buffet, for pulling off a truly great April Fool's Day experience. Even though I don't usually like dirty humor (really! honest!), I must nominate entspeak as the champion of the topic's challenge:
Without the redactions, post #28 would look perfectly harmless, much like any other post on the board, and it was on-topic to boot. With the redactions, even those of us who try not to have a dirty mind must confess to have read something quite different between the lines.

I, too, am sorry if anyone was offended by the way my own posts were redacted. If my mind were as dirty as yours, I would probably be outraged at myself, too. In my defense, I did not say what others seem to think I said. "If it don't fit, you must acquit".


Cool! I eventually noticed a few of my mistakes and tried to fix them, but apparently not before "local" and others had already entered into circulation. My apologies! Many on that list were from memory-- I got distracted enough fixing mangled tags that I discovered much later I didn't fix the words. The redacted word with which I confused "British" was actually "Navy".

Hah! You definitely caught on first. Only Jaime and I knew about it a few days in advance, and I told UltimateJoe while I was writing the script, a few hours before it was finished.

I'll admit, the <span> tags were a dirty way to redact, but it worked.

I thought the obvious giveaway would be that none of the redactions were in context. They were single words blanketing the whole site. Both "america" and "debate" were blacked out, yet the site logo remained. And since all instances of "america" and "debate" were blocked, why would we even be allowed to operate, considering both of those words are in our domain name! Also, since you could just select text and read what was behind the black out, it was probably the least effective redaction of all time!

For Jaime, she explained that she thought the giveaway would be something related to the jurisdiction issues mentioned in the announcement. That was the best defense we could come up with without revealing any further details of the injunction, which we weren't allowed to disclose because they never existed in the first place!


Yeah, the quick edit was waaaaay broken, but the full edit was working within an hour of when the script was in place. I also had to patch the signature updater, since the redactions took place there, too. What started as a simple modification ended up being a lot more complex than I had originally anticipated.



Mike

We bit and we bit hard, but:

In Joys and Concerns at the Unitarian-Universalist church service Sunday morning, I shared your practical joke as I explained that I was grateful for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.

Helping PE clean up after Catholic Mass this afternoon (Same Building, they're starting a new Parish), the priests wanted to show us what World of Warfare looks like, and we showed them America's Debate. I couldn't see that we could afford the monthly cost of a new (and addictive) game, but they both promised to go home and log on to America's Debate. Even with about 10% of the words blacked out on the pages we showed them, they thought AD looked like a fun site.

Just to add detail, I did notice very quickly that text was hilitable and had a regular expression/replace_eregi() feel to it, but my knee-jerk reaction was that my browser probably hit its daily memory leak and went a little haywire on CSS/DOM issues. After relaunching the browser to no avail, I saw other sites were working, then looked at the source before testing in a second browser. Having assumed an automated text-based replacement function from the beginning, the highliting part only factored into my thought process as a "if this is intentional, it's meant as intimidation, not secrecy".


//Would a client-side script have worked well enough? Something like...
String.prototype.redact = function(w){ return this.replace( new RegExp( ... + w.replace( /\s+/g, '|' ) + ... , ... ), '<span class="redact">$1</span>' ) }
//Then, from your favorite window.onload() handler...
document.body.innerHTML = document.body.innerHTML.redact( 'british america debate constitution protest ... ' );
//Where the ...s and debugging are left as a perplexing exercise sponsored by Rogaine

thank you, Seamus, for your sobering comment. personally, i can well imagine your relief.

less than a month ago, i read these also sobering words by Garrison Keillor:



a few years ago i heard Isabella Rossellini interviewed on the radio about her charming memoir "A Little of Me". toward the end of the interview, she was asked to compare American with European actresses. she replied that American actresses always look like they have no idea that everything in their world can be lost in a moment. European actresses, by contrast, don't have that look. (of course, she could have said this of actors as well.)

the following vignette does not give away any plot twists of the Oscar-winning German movie "The Lives of Others". in the staff cafeteria of the Stasi (Communist East Germany's secret police), a new recruit sits down with other recruits and starts telling a joke about East Germany's maximum leader. he feeezes when he realizes that a Stasi Colonel and a Captain are sitting nearby. the Colonel chuckles in a friendly manner and insists that the recruit continue with the joke -- after all, there's nothing wrong with just joking around.

reassured, the recruit finishes the joke with gusto. the joke, while not hilarious, nonetheless cleverly operates at several levels, combining the coarse with the sardonic. the Colonel looks at the Captain and laughs loudly; then he turns to the recruit and in a deadly serious tone tells him that his career with the Stasi is over. the recruit turns pale. the Colonel then bursts out laughing more loudly then ever, explaining that he was only making a joke of his own. everyone else laughs merrily on cue. but of course, such 'humor' is actually sadistic, rather than merry.

the sudden imposition of a police state is not as funny to those who have lived under one as it is to those who have never had to seriously worry that it could happen to them.

[minor edits]