No, I don't think that the campaign is sponsoring this.
But yesterday anti-Obama bloggers and Hillary bloggers who blog on websites controlled by Google started finding themselves locked out of their blogs. Well, that or there's been a huge hiccup with Google's system - I suppose we should allow for that, too, vice being all Chicken Little about it. But, hey, we're bloggers!
Such as David Marron, of The Thunder Run:
Princess Crabby(!) has been hit, too, as has Information Dissemination - even the Instpundit's Wife has been slimed. The blogs are still up, but the owners (of course, now you know you *aren't* an *owner*, eh?) have been locked out of their offices, so to speak. And if they don't request a review, after 20 days they'll automatically get booted - which is how Google deals with all the spam blogs that infest their domain. Now the little Goebbels' of the Left are deciding who may, and who may not, practice free speech. This from the group that wrap themselves most often in that most inconvenient of amendments, the 1st.Hello All,
Seems someone is scared of the truth as I found this when I went to post this morning.
This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.
This blog will be deleted within 20 days unless you request a review.
Its the same message Concrete Bob received and Rosemary posted for him.
This is bullshit as it appears that someone does not approve of the idea of free speech especially when the speech doesn't conform to their ideas.
I'm always asked: "Why are the milblogs important?" Well we can see the reason why. We get the message out! We can not allow others to dictate the form or content of the message. The message must always be the truth, whether they want to hear it or not.
Regardless of the outcome with Google's review, The Thunder Run is now in the process of purchasing a domain and finding seperate hosting services...I suggest anyone else that uses Blogger to do the same, its something I should have done a long time ago.
With John Donovan's permission I will be posting most of my stuff at Castle Argghhh! until further notice.
David M
Editor: The Thunder Run
Feh. Of course you can post here, David. So can you, Maggie. No worries.
This is being published as a "Denizens" post - so anyone with Castle posting privileges can weigh in and add info. -the Armorer
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Update: Chuck Simmins applies Occam's Razor: Let's not ascribe to malice what is probably just stupidity.
Good advice, and hence why I left open the problem of a Google-based problem! Of course, since the effect of the problem is to render the victims (deliberate or accidental) voiceless - putting up the post does serve as an information-troll... -the Armorer
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I'll take Chuck's advice sparingly in light of the NYT article posted from Thursday: Google and the Anti-Obama Bloggers
Did Google use its network of online services to silence critics of Barack Obama? That was the question buzzing on a corner of the blogosphere over the last few days, after several anti-Obama bloggers were unable to update their sites, which are hosted on Google’s Blogger service.
The bloggers in question, most of them supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and all of them opposed to Senator Obama, received a notice from Google last week saying that their sites had been identified as potential “spam” blogs. “You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog,” the Google e-mail read. (READ MORE)
It seems that anyone that is posting anything remotely critical of the Messiah and is using Blogger is at risk, thanks to Bloggers SPAM and Flag This Blog rules. - David M
UPDATE 2: The list of the Flagged and Locked out continues to grow. Recently added to the list is Flag Gazer a pro military blog if ever there was one with minimal political posts.
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Here's a list of known victims. And Denizen Bloodspite of Techography has more info.
Concrete Bob
Princess Crabby
Information Dissemination
Flag Gazing
Joshua Pundit
Blue Lyon
Come A Long Way
Nobama Blog
Hyper Educated Uppity Woman
Reflections in Tyme
McCain Democrats
Hillary Or Bust
Florida Voters
Political Lizard
Deacons Bench
Paragraph Farmer
Happy Catholic
Vita Nostra in Ecclesia
Catholic Fire
Dr. Helen
Organized Rage
-the Armorer
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I think it is interesting both Thunder Run and Maggies blogger sites are linked from mine. Should I blame you guys, or just accept responsibility? :)
"Once is happenstance, twice coincidence, three times is enemy action."
Pat
I can't figure it out. Is it simply a matter of enemies of the state silencing the good news spreaders?
Hopefully, someone else is caching web content for future reference.
If not, there's an opportunity for an "independent" or Right-leaning consortium.
Yes. Right as Obama was being declared the winner of the democrat primary and Hillary's folks were complaining about Obama and sexism, about 10 fairly popular blogs started getting locked out.
Of course, they took that page out of our efforts to hammer the Islamist websites with the same tactics. never say the other side doesn't learn, either.
I wonder if they coordinated through email or through blog posts? If I have some time this weekend, I'll see if I can "google" these blog names to see if anyone is posting any directives. Then we will know what our own actions should be.
</b>
That is because, just like you and me, they understand that without the 2nd Amendment, the First Amendment is just whatever they say it is. 'They", being the ones with the biggest guns.
<B>The bloggers in question, most of them supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and all of them opposed to Senator Obama</b>
That's just a little bit too statistically pat, don't you think, John? If it was just a more random spread, then we might fault it to some Google hickup, but Blogspot is not known for that kind of "non-random" spread. If you get taken out in that fashion, that means somebody has "flagged" your blog, like they flag your videos at youtube, and Google is now putting the onus on you, the blogger, to prove your own innocence.
On Youtube, they may be able to review 9 minute videos with their man power limitations. By they don't got enough people to review every blog post on a blog, for blogspot, which they recently bought.
Any civilization has the fatal weakness of red tape and bureaucracy. The only alternative is autocracy, where a strong man tells people what to do and they do it. No red tape to it.
This is how come the Left and terrorists are often able to turn our own bureaucracy against us. They don't have a bureaucracy because they don't need one. They don't need to be "impartial". They don't feel a specific virtue to "transparency" that requires "lots of paperwork and books".
We do, and it just so happens that that puts us at risk, for bureaucrats can be turned into dictators, for who guards the guardians?
Whether Google is in collusion or not is currently without enough information to decide. We don't know the names or psychological profiles of the actors deciding things in Google, whether at the top or bottom. It's not specific enough.
We, do however, know the character of the domestic insurgency in America, sometimes even by names like Daily Kos.
Not to mention have to register our blogs... Oh, wait, that's if McCain wins!
As I said in email, this happened to me last year when I ran a blog for Iraq independent embed Bob Calvert. IIRC, it was cleared up in less than 24 hours. It was just a matter of a human taking a quick look and seeing that it wasn't spam; they don't check each post, just the overall blog. You can tell a blog is spam in about 10 seconds (MAX).
When you blog openly, and your bosses know you blog, it does engender some caution.
Usefully so, generally.
Sooo, what's next?
Economic sanctions? Everybody bail from Blogger for a new residence, and when Blogger starts losing ad revenue...
Retaliation in kind? Discover the offender(s) and flag them, several times a day?
TypePad has it's problems (I won't list them all, it would take all day). However, I've never heard of a problem with censorship and TypePad.
"On the Internet, they came first for the Blogspotted Hillarites, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Blogspotted Hillarite;
And then they came for the Blogspotted anti-Obamites, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Blogspotted anti-Obamite, nor the collateral damage thereof;
And then they came for the ISP-hosted anti-Obamites, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a ISP-hosted anti-Obamites;
And then . . . they came for me with the Fairness Doctrine . . . And by that time there was no one not on the left to speak up."
With apologies to Pastor Niemoeller, for while the parallelism works, the magnitude is different.
So much for the Constitution defending liberals. Curious on how this stuff never makes to the newspapers or new broadcasts - almost like nothing is happening if it isn't reported.
Site Meter causing Internet Explorer failure
Traffic measuring tool Sitemeter is blocking users of Internet Explorer from accessing sites using the service.
the problem happens when anybody using Internet Explorer tries to open any sites with the Site Meter code present, and thousands of websites/blogs have been shut off from IE users
Users of Internet Explorer receive the following message when visiting any site with Site Meter installed:
the only known solution at this time being to remove the SiteMeter embed code from the website or blog
Grumpy
This is like that delayed worm attack, similar to how AQ likes to bomb some place, wait for the ambulances and rescuers to arrive, and then detonate the second set of bombs meant to kill the rescuers once they are grouped together.
Effective.