It’s amazing waking up in Brooklyn to see the euphoric tweets and pictures coming out of Libya as people vote in their first free election for more than 50 years.

A few recent picks:

I now feel that the 70 days I spent in prison didn't go to waste ‪#LYelect ‬ ‫#ليبيا‬ ‫#تنتخب‬

One young man at station said he didny sleep all night, can't wait to vote, been at stn since 5am! #Libya #LYElect #Benghazi

93y old lady voting for first time in her life ‪#Gheryan‬ ‪#LyElect‬ ‪#Libya‬ pic.twitter.com/3QyyMVwg

You wouldn't know it, but this man told me after his vote "inside I feel like I am flying" pic.twitter.com/mKk2Sfn4

The purple is election ink, a semi-permanent dye applied to voters’ fingers to prevent double voting. Those inky fingers are something special today.

Few visuals capture the spirit of regime change as much as toppling the monuments of the previous regime. In the case of Libya, revolutionary protesters on YouTube topple a monument to Muammar al-Qaddafi’s revolutionary Green Book.

The future is unwritten!

From Democracy Now!:

“The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control recently declared that American publishers cannot edit works authored in nations under trade embargoes which include Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Cuba.

Although publishing the articles is legal, editing is a ‘service’ and the treasury department says it is illegal to perform services for embargoed nations. It can be punishable by fines of up to a half-million dollars or jail terms as long as 10 years.

Robert Bovenschulte, president of the publications division of the American Chemical Society, which decided this week decided to challenge the government and risk criminal prosecution by editing articles submitted from the five embargoed nations.”

From the Treasury Department itself:

“As you know, the importation from any country and the exportation to any country of information and informational materials, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, are exempt from the Iranian Transactions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 560 (the ITR). ITR, § 560.210(c)....

Nevertheless, certain activities described in your letter would fall outside of the information and informational materials exemption. The collaboration on and editing of manuscripts submitted by persons in Iran, including activities such as the reordering of paragraphs or sentences, correction of syntax, grammar, and replacement of inappropriate words by U.S. persons, prior to publication, may result in a substantively altered or enhanced product, and is therefore prohibited under ITR § 560.204 unless specifically licensed.”

Boy is this ever crying out for civil disobedience from all of us bloggers. I’m not sure if republishing or translating information off the Web is covered by this (since it’s accessible anyway), but posting translations of otherwise published or unpublished material probably would be.

Let the Office of Foreign Assets Control know about it at [email protected]. To complain to the Department of Justice about the issue email [email protected].

Via the Project Censored and Juan Cole