Pajamahadeen Rule... rise of the New Media

various FR links | 09-17-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[backhoe]

  The Manifesto of Pukin Dog

 

 The Dawn of New Media

 

 A New Era of Credibility

 

 

A revolution in news

 

 Bloggers knew!

 

 Blogs: Halting the march of the mainstream media  What is happening is that for the first time in decades, if not ever, the power of the mainstream media (MSM) in the United States is being seriously challenged by a mostly ragtag army of outsiders armed with little more than the internet. The age of the blogger is upon us.

 I think of it as a gestalt- the sum of the whole, together, is greater than the parts added separately.

 

 Post 47 and RaTHergate - The story of how CBS was caught perpetrating a hoax on the American People

 

 IUPAT issues apology ( the crying girl )

 Blows the "it was her brother" theory the idjuts  are throwing out there out of the water ... From rintense's original MONSTER thread about this

 

  The Camera Blinks A nation of fact-checkers, a network in denial.  Seen on a blog yesterday:
You can't say 'well, the sentiments were correct.'
That's like saying to the bank, 'Well, he owed me money' after forging a check.

 

  Hayek Smiled: Why Blogging Works

 

 Love Letter to the Blogosphere (Michelle Malkin)

 

 Big Media get smaller - Michael Reagan: The networks' days of dominating America's news are over ... ordinary Americans are more devoted to the facts than Dan Rather and CBS proved to be.

 

 Freepers- Pajamas Up! Stop Congress looting/ price gouging Hurricane Victims!

 

 HELP!!! I need some info on the History of Free Republic!

 

 

Woman wearing 'President Bush You Killed My Son' T-Shirt disrupts first lady's rally  This woman, Sue Niederer, is the same person who confronted Rr. Raoul on one of his Freeps.
Check it out:
http://www.trentonian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11197951&BRD=1697&PAG=461&dept_id=44551&rfi=8 Niederer is supposedly a friend of Code Pink, the virulent anti-American group who promotes socialist-communist causes.

 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Sue+Niederer+&btnG=Google+Search

 Interviews with her via mega LW groups
http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/000585.php

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2004/08/15399.php

http://www.notinourname.net/troops/nothing-12feb04.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0314-02.htm

 

  ***ALERT*** Inconsistencies in Marian Carr Knox's Story ***Bloggers Take Note***

 

  MORE RE: MRS. KNOX [Jed Babbin] Tell us about your SON. Who got special treatment, Mrs. Knox?

 This CBS story has become a soap opera

 

 Burkett Admits in February Weblog that He Saw Killian Documents in the Trash

 

 A Media Watershed

 

 Blogs: Halting the march of the mainstream media

 

 

Blessing or Curse? Top Newspaper Editors Examine Blogs' Role in the '60 Minutes' Uproar  Top Newspaper Editors Examine Blogs' Role in the '60 Minutes' Uproar

Its sort of like a mammoth examining the tar in the pit.

 

 BLOGGERS SCORE CBS VICTORY - Hillary's 1998 Take on Internet Bloggers (Future Free Speech Alert)

 

 

 The collapse of America's media elite. What qualifications exactly, to be a journalist? -- even non-lawyer bloggers with superior research skills – think Captain Ed, Tom McGuire and Polipundit – are going to run rings around "pros" who aren't in a hurry to bring down their favored candidate.

 Who are the real journalists? Hugh Hewitt on L.A. Times editor's comments vs. CBS, Rather mess

 

 

The Fall Of The Big Media (Joseph Farah's Better Than Dan Rather, Folks)

 Big media's fall began with the Clinton Regime. Here was the most corrupt liar ever to occupy the office and the Redstream media attacked the truth tellers instead of the crooks. After watching the nightly news most of my life I stopped watching soon after Clinton was elected.

 

 Smart guys ‘in pajamas’ give CBS a black eye

 

 "Men in PJs" CARTOON... protecting America from the scum of the media

 

 "Pajama People" 3 CARTOON graphics.

 

[backhoe]

Centrist Democrats Ponder How To Counter Netroots

[backhoe]

What's a "Clymers"?

Ahem!

Who is Adam Clymer?
Posted on 09/07/2000 00:39:21 PDT by kattracks
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39b746293af7.htm

SONG PARODY: Old McDonald (Adam Clymer)
Posted on 09/04/2000 19:24:06 PDT by doug from upland
http://freerepublic.com/forum/a39b45946167b.htm

Clymer Responds to My E-Mail!!!
Posted on 09/04/2000 18:45:04 PDT by GOP in Greenwood SC
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39b4502010e0.htm

Adam Clymer's (aka ^ss hole) response to last night's email FReep offers yet another email address
Posted on 09/05/2000 02:05:13 PDT by Elle Bee
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39b4b7493b36.htm
_________________
( Just an Old Keyboard Cowboy, Ridin'' the Trakball into the Sunset...)

Note dates- we've been "the alternative media" since before most people even knew it existed...

[backhoe]

http://wizbangblog.com/

Prominent Bush Critic Gone Missing, Worldwide Manhunt Continues

"George Harleigh" is a widely quote critic of the Bush administration, who famously said, "The very future of this Republic may well rest on whether or not anyone can, or will, stop George W. Bush" has gone missing, and it's feared that he's been eliminated. Harleigh, a retired Political Science professor from Southern Illinois University, is said to have worked in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations.

Foul play is suspected.

Follow the hunt for George at Classical Values.

http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=5614

Look who's underwriting anti-Semitism

Little Green Footballs has been documenting the frequent anti-semitic screeds on Daily Kos for sometime, screeds like this.   But if you check the ad links to see who is keeping Kos afloat, you will see it’s people like Senator Feingold and People for the American Way. Perhaps someone might ask them why.

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[backhoe]

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,204283,00.html

 

The Great Blogosphere Brawl

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

By Wendy McElroy

Weblogs or blogs reveal the emotions churning beneath the surface of hard news. For example, journalists may report which legislation passed the House by what margin, but bloggers will lay bare the ideological brawls that underlie the news item.

Over the last two weeks, the blogosphere has buzzed about a bare-knuckled incident that provides a glimpse at how relations between left and right have deteriorated in some circles.

Right-wing blogger Jeff Goldstein maintains a well-respected site entitled Protein Wisdom. Left-wing Deborah Frisch maintains the south(west)paw blog. She prides herself on attacking 'right-wing nuts' -- or 'wingnuts' in blogspeak -- by posting insults on their websites. (Left-wingers are referred to as 'moonbats'.)

An exchange on Protein Wisdom between Goldstein and Frisch turned so nasty that it landed in the mainstream media. On July 12, Brit Hume of FOX News reported, "Deborah Frisch escalated a foreign policy argument with blogger Jeff Goldstein last week, writing that if 'someone shot you and your 'tyke' it wouldn't slow me down one iota.' She also wrote that she hopes 'no one Jon-Benets' the child -- a reference to the brutal murder of a young Colorado girl ten years ago -- and made disturbing sexual remarks about the boy."

How did a blog exchange escalate into a mainstream news item?

Goldstein and Frisch had been exchanging barbs on his web site for some time, but by July 6, Goldstein had become alarmed by Frisch's continuing and bizarre comments about both his son and wife. At one point, Frisch commented, "I reiterate: If some nutcase kidnapped your child tomorrow and did to her what was done to…Jon-Benet Ramsey, I wouldn't give a damn."

Goldstein established a separate thread on his site in which he collected the comments made under the penname " southwestpaw"; he also revealed the author's real identity.

On July 8, the columnist Michelle Malkin reposted some of Frisch's comments on her own blog. Other conservative sites linked to Malkin and the matter snowballed.

Malkin also nominated Frisch as "Unhinged Academic of the Year." That's because Frisch is an adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Arizona. Or, rather, she was. In backlash against her gleeful and graphic speculation about sexual contact with a 2-year-old, emails poured into the University. On July 8, Frisch 'resigned' her $32,861-a-year part-time position.

(Those amazed by a Professor of Psychologist behaving in such a manner might be interested in another item on Frisch's resume. A few years ago, she was also a director of a risk management program at the National Science Foundation and consulted with the FBI on the psychological underpinnings of criminal violence. See pg. 14).

At this point, Frisch could have publicly apologized, accepted her knocks and exited with some grace. Instead, she reacted in a manner that sad experience makes me view as typical of the far-left. (The behavior of right-wing zealots is no less destructive but different in style.)

First, there was the non-apologetic apology that amounted to a denial of wrongdoing. Frisch denied that her Jon Benet comments were threatening; they were merely a 'sick joke'. She also denied making a graphic sexual suggestion regarding the 2-year-old, claiming the post was changed and attributed to her.

Fortunately, Goldstein publicly documented the post as well as information identifying Frisch as its source: her IP address.

Then Frisch played the victim card. "Some blogs have posted comments that I perceive to be physically threatening. I have contacted the FBI…" Criticizing Frisch is a definite crowd-pleaser on conservative blogs where the practice is called 'shooting Frisch in a barrel'. But it is not credible to complain of being treated in the same manner you treat others.

Next, Frisch tried to elevate the incident into political significance, sending readers of her blog to a newspaper article in which her case was discussed as part of the larger issue of the public nature of private Internet activity. "For those interested in…the larger issues raised by the Goldstein incident (e.g., censorship, self-censorship, academic freedom, freedom of speech, blogging & professoring, etc.), here's a link to an article by Josh Brodesky in today's Arizona Daily Star." [punctuation corrected]

Finally, she converted the entire matter into a left-against-right struggle thus removing personal responsibility. "It is unbelievable that a comment saying I would not care if harm came to your child is such a crime to the rightwingnuts when they've been happy as clams to send American dupes to murder, maim, rape and torture…Iraqi children for four years."

To their credit, some left-wing bloggers have denounced Frisch's behavior as inexcusable. To their discredit, some have rallied around her. For example, a blogger at the influential Daily Kos site entitled his entry, "I will repudiate Deborah Frisch when anonymous conservative cowards stop harassing her."

Meanwhile, the drama plays out. Both the Goldstein and Frisch blogs seem to become inaccessible from one moment to the next. Goldstein's inaccessibility is no mystery. Since July 6, the blog has been repeatedly targeted by 'denial of service attacks' -- that is, an attack aimed at preventing access to a site by flooding it with requests. The blog has just moved to another server; presumably, it can block future attacks.

The failure of Frisch's blog was widely ascribed to similar malice until she explained "SWP is back up and running after a 36 hour erasure due to my using a fake phone number (555 1212) when I registered my domain name."

The sad episode has one happy consequence. It has enriched the English language with a new verb. To quote an innovative blogger, "to frisch" means to write "something on the internet so creepy and offensive that you are forced to quit your job before getting canned."

The blogger used it in a sentence: "Deb really frisched herself…"

So what, beyond bad jokes, can be gleaned from the Great Blogosphere Brawl?

I return to the opening sentence of this column, "[B]logs reveal the emotions churning beneath the surface of hard news." It is not possible to understand the headlines without appreciating what drives this issue into prominence and that attitude into disrepect. The motor is often a raw unrepentant rage that takes no ideological prisoners on either side of the left-right divide.

The rabid them-or-us attitude must not be allowed to guide mainstream advocacy. It should be exposed for what it is: ugly and destructive to everyone.

Wendy McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com and a research fellow for The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of many books and articles, including the new book, "Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century" (Ivan R. Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives with her husband in Canada.

[backhoe]

Voice of Sanity Shouted Down at Daily Kos

A lonely voice cries out in the anti-Israel wilderness of Daily Kos: Daily Kos: Why are people on this board showing sympathy to hezbollah? (Hat tip: Killgore Trout.)  link: 110 comments

Insanity at Huffington Post

If you think Daily Kos is bad (and it is), you won’t believe what’s going on at Huffington Post: US Speeds Up Bomb Delivery To Israel. (Hat tip: Right Brain.) link: 62 comments

#40

sngnsgt  7/22/2006 08:25AM PDT

 

I usually only troll sites like Huff-n-Puff Post, Kos, and the DUmmies for the laughs but, there has been some really hatful shit at all three places lately. Why am I not shocked to find the L³ NOT on the side of America and her allies?

The Protocols of the Daily Kos, Part 9

The anti-Israel insanity is blossoming out of control at the left’s premier “progressive” web site: Daily Kos: When is the USA going to invade Israel? Pt. 2. Daily Kos: The U.S. is now a legitimate military target.  link: 116 comments |

[backhoe]

Daily Kos: Truth = Lies

Our posts about the worldwide terrorist demonstrations are making the Israel-haters at Daily Kos nervous: Daily Kos :: Comments Worldwide Backlash in pictures.   link: 127 comments

#10

Allah's Helper  7/22/2006 08:56PM PDT

 

Worried about us neocon fascists? "Islam Will Dominate" isn't totalitarian at all, nah.  Idjits. Do they think the photos are fake?  Check out the yellow Hizbullah flag and a Nasrallah placard at Toronto's very own "Peace" rally.  'I [heart] NY even more without the World Trade Center' sign ...dare to go to zombietime.com, or my own political march coverages at rayra.net. Learn the truth about the movement you are part of, that you unquestioningly support.

Sad to say, LLL³'s suffer from "Terminal MAD" (Moonbat Attention Disorder). The poor dears stay in an eternal rage about everything, but can't stay focused on anything.

Daily Kos: Truth = Lies

Our posts about the worldwide terrorist demonstrations are making the Israel-haters at Daily Kos nervous: Daily Kos :: Comments Worldwide Backlash in pictures.   link: 127 comments

#10

Allah's Helper  7/22/2006 08:56PM PDT

 

Worried about us neocon fascists? "Islam Will Dominate" isn't totalitarian at all, nah.  Idjits. Do they think the photos are fake?  Check out the yellow Hizbullah flag and a Nasrallah placard at Toronto's very own "Peace" rally.  'I [heart] NY even more without the World Trade Center' sign ...dare to go to zombietime.com, or my own political march coverages at rayra.net. Learn the truth about the movement you are part of, that you unquestioningly support.

[backhoe]

We Got Mail!

Shortly before 1 pm this afternoon, a visitor from Britain using a DSL account at UKOnline discovered Little Green Footballs by following a link from our RSS feed to this post, featuring photos of unabashed Hizballah supporters demonstrating in London: lgf: London Muslims: ‘We Are All Hizballah’.

What he saw moved our British visitor to find our contact form and send two messages, both with a Hotmail address that’s probably phony.

The first, at 12:55 pm, had the subject line: “protest”.

get a life you racist scum, you evangelicist scum.

Short, sweet, and to the point. No idea what the point is, but you almost have to admire the heartfelt emotion. Almost.

Our British admirer spent the next three minutes bashing away at his keyboard (somehow, I’m sure this one’s male) and sent the following message (also with the subject line “protest” — too angry to think of something new, I guess), at 12:58 pm, running the gamut of possible jihadi emotions in an absolutely brilliant stream of consciousness rant, concluding with the mandatory long string of exclamation points trailing off into ones as he prematurely lets go of the shift key:

just by reading some of the post on this blog, shows how arrogant, rasict and bloody pathetic some people are. These scum are thos that have never spoken to a muslim, never interacted with a muslim, yet they chat out of their backside. Just like this racist site which you call a news site. Then you wonder why people say this is not a war on terror but a war of beleifs. Go and wipe the backside of israel, because its this constant wiping trhe backside of israle which is going to be the root cause of all ahte towards the american nation. so go and read a decent newspaper and educate yourselves. go and speak to a muslim, or are you scared he may eat you. Ha ha ha. Have a nice day you bunch of racist scum, crusaders and wierods!!!!!!!!!!!!11

There are probably a couple of new rotating titles in there.

06:18 PM PDT | link: 223 comments | link only
last comment: quilly mammoth 11:14:45 pm 7/23/06
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#11

tigger2005  7/23/2006 06:25PM PDT

 

I guess you can't blame him, seeing as he gets his "news" from the newspapers. Garbage in, garbage out.

" All your wierods are belong  us."

The Protocols of the Daily Kos, Part 10

What’s left to say about the anti-Israel insanity bubbling up from the base of Daily Kos, blooming at times into outright eliminationist rhetoric? Daily Kos: Does Israel Have a “Right to Exist?”

05:57 PM PDT | link: 70 comments | link only
last comment: Jim Rockford 10:15:39 pm 7/23/06
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Finding Nuance

A status report on the Ongoing Journalistic Jihad Against Prime Minister Stephen Harper;

Actually, we pretty much collapsed like a house of cards.

I am also unhappy to report that public reaction to our announced boycott of the Prime Minister's press conferences has not been exceedingly positive. Typical of the many emails our office has received was this one: "Who do you navel-gazing, pasty-faced twits think you are?" And that was from my wife.

Related: Andrew Coyne.

“Nuance” was much on the minds of the travelling press accompanying Mr. Harper to the G8 summit in Russia, apparently in the belief that their own appalling mistreatment might be taken as a metaphor for his dealings with the whole world. “Harper's seeming lack of nuance, empathy and people skills are making his week-long diplomatic foray … an excruciating exercise,” Canadian Press reporter Bruce Cheadle filed from the summit. “Throughout the trip, Harper has distanced himself from reporters. Since leaving Ottawa last Wednesday, he has spoken to media travelling with him only three times, including a brief encounter on the plane.”

As these tantrums of narcissism continue among members of the Canadian press, I'm reminded of a scene in the animated movie "Finding Nemo", (albeit with a slight modification in dialogue);

...me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me ...

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Cheap shot comments regarding any purported physical resemblance between these animated seagull characters and CTV's Craig Oliver will not be tolerated on this thread.)

Posted by Kate at 06:59 PM | Comments (48)

To the individual who signed me up for 'Amateur Teen F_ck' [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Jacoby: Are You a Chicken Hawk?

Jeff Jacoby on the progressive blogosphere’s favorite dishonest slur: Are you a ‘chicken hawk?’

“Chicken hawk“ isn’t an argument. It is a slur — a dishonest and incoherent slur. It is dishonest because those who invoke it don’t really mean what they imply — that only those with combat experience have the moral authority or the necessary understanding to advocate military force. After all, US foreign policy would be more hawkish, not less, if decisions about war and peace were left up to members of the armed forces. Soldiers tend to be politically conservative, hard-nosed about national security, and confident that American arms make the world safer and freer. On the question of Iraq — stay-the-course or bring-the-troops-home? — I would be willing to trust their judgment. Would Cindy Sheehan and Howard Dean?

The cry of “chicken hawk” is dishonest for another reason: It is never aimed at those who oppose military action. But there is no difference, in terms of the background and judgment required, between deciding to go to war and deciding not to. If only those who served in uniform during wartime have the moral standing and experience to back a war, then only they have the moral standing and experience to oppose a war. Those who mock the views of “chicken hawks“ ought to be just as dismissive of “chicken doves.”

In any case, the whole premise of the “chicken hawk“ attack — that military experience is a prerequisite for making sound pronouncements on foreign policy — is illogical and ahistorical. ...

You don’t need medical training to express an opinion on healthcare. You don’t have to be on the police force to comment on matters of law and order. You don’t have to be a parent or a teacher or a graduate to be heard on the educational controversies of the day. You don’t have to be a journalist to comment on this or any other column.

And whether you have fought for your country or never had that honor, you have every right to weigh in on questions of war and peace. Those who cackle “Chicken hawk!” are not making an argument. They are merely trying to stifle one, and deserve to be ignored.

05:40 PM PDT | link: 79 comments

[piasa]

I think the term Pajamahadeen goes back way before that article.

[dinasour]

> I think the term Pajamahadeen goes back way before that article.

Not that I am aware of. I researched this at the time and even asked Jim Geraghty if he had coined the term. He believes that he did.

Do you have any references?

[backhoe]

LGF Gets a Prager-lanche

If LGF seems sluggish it’s because of a sudden large influx of readers sent here by Dennis Prager, who said a lot of nice things about LGF today when I appeared on his show. I’ve turned on the “low bandwidth” version of LGF to take some of the load off the server, but it may be slow around here for a bit.

UPDATE at 7/24/06 11:32:19 am:

Dennis’s producer informed me that my hour-long appearance will be available online in about 8 hours, at The Dennis Prager Show.  link: 64 comments

Welcome Dennis Prager listeners! Take a good look around. Check out the Resources section. Other than Jihad Watch, this is the premiere site for keeping track of the global jihad. Liberal Jews (such as a parlor meeting I went to last night) are clueless when it comes to Islamic Arab fascism and its current effects and goals today...

#61

Owl  7/24/2006 11:54AM PDT

 

OT - Charles Johnson.......I had no idea...

" Today, Little Green Footballs has a readership of more than 100,000 per day. Johnson was also one of the main forces behind the debunking of documents during the Rathergate investigation. An accomplished guitarist, Johnson has appeared on dozens of jazz and rock albums with top artists including Stanley Clarke, George Duke and Al Jarreau. His most prominent work is on the classic Clarke album, "School Days," and on Duke’s hit album, "Reach for It." He also toured with leading jazz artists from the early 1970s through the 1990s, performing all over the world, including behind the Iron Curtain before the fall of communism. "

 

[backhoe]

Charles Johnson on Prager NOW

Click to listen LIVE to Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs on Dennis Prager. LISTEN NOW HERE

Posted by Pamela on Monday, July 24, 2006 at 01:19 PM in Blogosphere: The New Power | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

The Protocols of the Daily Kos, Part 11

Where did anyone ever get the idea that the “progressive” left is a peace movement? Daily Kos: In defense of violence? (Hat tip: Killgore Trout.)  link: 89 comments

#60

Catttt  7/24/2006 02:47PM PDT

 

Nice, peaceful moonbat protestors (not).

Seva Brodsky risks life, limb, and camera against foul-mouthed, grabby, nasty moonbats galore, with no help whatsoever from the police (who were undermanned). Go watch the videos - they will tick you off.

If you see Noah Cohen, Communist and self-loather (here with his wife, Dr. Lana Habash) at a protest - watch him carefully. Not just because he is a Marxist or an extremist of a co-founder of www.onepalestine.org (the other co-founder was deported back to the ME) or because his group can be seen here protesting together with a neo-Nazi group.

[backhoe]

The Protocols of the Daily Kos, Part 12

At the Weekly Standard, Dean Barnett has a great piece on the antisemitism bubbling up from the Daily Kos “progressive” base: Kos, Hezbollah, and Israel. link: 81 comments

#63

Orson Buggy  7/24/2006 07:38PM PDT

 

Just after a crock of shit standard fare report on the problems faced by the Red Cross et al for relief in Lebanon, they are running a "gas prices will go up" report.

I actually caught myself smiling. OPEC is misjudging the market. If prices stay the same, shale oil and sand oil will come into play. As this happens the tech to refine it also will improve and the oil ticks will get their shorts handed to them.

I'll pay more for gas, just sell "ME free" gasoline. Not one drop from those greed bastards. That includes Chavez.

If OPEC thinks that they can influence my opinion with oil prices, well yeah, but only so far.

I had to take my son to Tacoma to get him back to base last night. As we passed the old nuke plant site, he asked about it. I had to tell him his moonbat auntie and many others in the NW went boonbatshit crazy and had them all closed down after 3 Mile Island. It's a shame we don't build a few hundred pebble beds and some hydrogen cracking facilities. We can change the infrastructure in America. We actually have to.

I think that we as Americans will overcome and adapt. We always have and God willing, we always will.

 link: 225 comments

[backhoe]

Biggest Pork Item In History?

Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) got Congress to pass his amendment to the Deep Water Energy Resources Act that had nothing to do with deep water or energy resources. Instead, HR 3496 earmarked $1.5 billion for the Washington DC Metro system, which operates above water in all senses except financially. The Heritage Foundation's Ronald Utt describes the amendment as "the biggest pork earmark in history", and it's headed for the Senate.

I discuss this in my latest post at the Heritage Foundation. Most amazing, the earmark comes because the constituent cities and states involved have little interest in funding improvements to their own system -- so Davis decided to charge every man, woman, and child in America $5 to have someone else ride the bus or train in our nation's capital.

Why, exactly, is this a federal problem? Davis has an explanation that will make you roll your eyes, and the Washington Post editorial supporting it should make you laugh out loud. Be sure to read it, and perhaps point out the folly of this earmark to your Senators.

Posted by Captain Ed at 11:32 AM | Comments (12)

 

Is the fabric of democracy unravelling in Ontario? [More updates]

Posted by Steve Janke at 10:42 PM

Related articles: Technorati Cosmos :: Canadian Blog Exchange

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Technorati tags: Caledonia , land dispute , Ontario Provincial Police , OPP , Ontario , Dalton McGuinty , censorship

After my musings on the disturbing story about how a website critical of the performance of the Ontario Provincial Police during the land dispute in Caledonia was blocked, an even more disturbing comment was posted:

Steve

I am an OPP officer who regularily surfs your site (from home). I know for a fact that the OPP has blocked the Caledonia web site from being viewed from any computer on the Ontario Government network.

The original story alleged that the site was made inaccessible to police computers only. But this comment indicates that all provincial government computers are subject to the restriction.

I'm hoping for more confirmation from other people who work for the Ontario government, in particular those who do not work for the Ontario Provincial Police.

The comment says it clearly. No one who works for the Ontario government -- from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Education to the Ontario Provincial Police -- can access Caledonia Wake Up Call.

Consider this carefully. A website keeps a careful record of the actions (or lack of action) of the OPP, and the OPP somehow removes the ability to access this site from all government employees. Just when did Premier Dalton McGuinty decide to hand the power to make decisions concerning the flow of information over to the OPP?

As far as I know, the Ministry of Health has not blocked access to the Freedom Party webpage that advocates private health insurance. Maybe it's just a matter of time.

Back to the OPP-related website though. Let's consider one very specific, immediate, and practical implication of this. Put aside the unsettling philosophical question of how a police force stung by criticism can dictate internet policy to the government as a whole. Recall that the questions being posed about the OPP are quite valid, and are the subject of court proceedings:

An Ontario judge is again demanding to know why his orders to police to end the aboriginal land dispute in Caledonia haven't been carried out.

Justice David Marshall today called into court representatives from provincial police, the Ministry of the Attorney General, and the aboriginal occupiers.

Marshall is hearing legal arguments about why the protesters remain at the housing development.

"This is a matter at the very heart of the administration of justice," Marshall said in court.

"If court orders can be disregarded the whole fabric of democracy falls to pieces."

Here's the practical question I want you to consider. Justice Marshall and his clerks will be considering the actions of the OPP (actions that have already deeply frustrated the court) and part of their research might include scouring the web for reports of the events in Caledonia, web surfing that will be done from Ontario government computers installed in these provincial court offices.

What if the court decides to follow a link to Caledonia Wake Up Call, then finds out the site can't be reached from the provincial government computer by order of the OPP?

I wonder how Justice Marshall will react.

I bet he won't be too happy. And maybe just a bit more worried about the fabric of democracy.

Update: Maybe it is just the OPP computers after all:

Hi Steve, I work for the Government of Ontario, in a Ministry head office. I'm not sure where "mapleleaf4ever" got his information from, but I can access the Caledonia Wake-Up Call website just fine. As a matter of fact, I'm looking at it right now from my work computer (latest updates are "Jul 24 - Internet Polls" and "Jul 25 - Four Males Arrested in Caledonia Disturbance"), which is directly hooked up to the government network, behind the Ministry's firewall and everything.

Interesting. So there is some confusion about just what is being blocked and where. I'd like to hear from more people about whether the site is indeed blocked, and whether the ability to reach the site has changed over the last few days.

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Alt.Muslim "reviews" Islam: What the West Needs to Know

When I wrote my book Islam Unveiled in 2001, I hoped that thoughtful Muslims would address the points I raised in it, and that we could open up a dialogue that might be useful in illuminating what could be done about the elements of Islam that give rise to fanaticism and violence. In that I was naive. The response by critics to that book as well as to every other book that I have written has consisted only of vague assertions that I am ignorant of Islam, without ever providing a single substantive refutation of anything I wrote.

It's the same with this Alt.Muslim review of the documentary in which I appear, Islam: What The West Needs To Know. Reviewer Zahir Janmohamed seems to think that sneering is a good substitute for argumentation. He raises not a single substantive point to attempt to show that what the movie says is wrong. Posted by Robert at 12:28 PM | Comments (26)

UPDATE: In a related item, Cathy Seipp has thoughts on the media, immigration, and Islam.

[nopardons]

bttt

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Did Big Brother blink?

Posted by Steve Janke at 03:41 PM

Related articles: Technorati Cosmos :: Canadian Blog Exchange

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Technorati tags: Caledonia , land dispute , Ontario Provincial Police , OPP , Ontario , Dalton McGuinty , censorship

The story of the blocked web site is just getting weirder.

Recall this in this posting, word came that the Ontario Provincial Police had blocked access to a web site highly critical of the force's performance during the Caledonia land dispute. A comment from another reader implied that access to the website was not barred only for police computers, but for all Ontario government employees.

Then I get another email from yet another government employee that says that he has no problems seeing the site.

One more twist, and this story might form the script for the next M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Well, get the popcorn ready, because I received that next twist via email from an employee at another Ontario government ministry:

I work for the Ontario Ministry of Finance.

Up until yesterday (July 24) access to the Caledonia Wake Up Call website was blocked.

As of today (July 25) access to the Caledonia Wake Up Call website was no longer blocked.

An interesting coincidence.

Did Big Brother blink?

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ALLAH IS RANKING BLOG-SCANDALS, and Glenn Greenwald's doesn't really make the cut. Naturally, further scandal ensues.

[backhoe]

http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=6686

The Terrible Secret of LFG

Curses! Cox & Forkum have obtained a picture of me, “Charles,”
relaxing in my top secret bomb shelter while oppressing an Indymedia peace activist and accepting my weekly Zionazi bribe! There must be a mole in my lizardoid army! Heads will roll!

Luckily for me, “Charles,” the Morlocks are too concerned with their latest proof that 9/11 was a plot by the Bushitler! They will not even notice! Bwa hahaha!

9:31 AM PDT
email this article

180 comments

[backhoe]

 Jesus. When did blogs become bloodsport?

When the left started getting called out on their lies.

This is scary when people start lobbing death threats at bloggers. For God’s sake, what happened to civility?

Seixon vs. Leopold and Johnson  This is turning into an epic of Frischian proportions.

Allahpundit calls it “the creepiest blog scandal ever,” and that’s a fact. link: 78 comments    (For those of you who haven’t been following this story, some background here and here)  I've always thought that the Plame/Wilsons were just pikers, and pathetic ones at that, but this American Thinker article, along with some of Hitchens work makes me wonder.

Cry Bias, and Let Slip the Blogs of War

Kos, Hezbollah, and Israel-How much of a liability is the liberal blogosphere for the Democrats?

Brave New Worlds

In the comments to my previous post, Brian makes the following observation:

The blogosphere looks like a grade school playground lately.  It doesn’t reflect well on the blogging community.

In a way, he’s absolutely correct:  partisan tensions have grown increasingly palpable, and personal animus seems to be ascendent of late.

But as I noted on Hoist the Black Flag yesterday, there is more at work here than simple playground bickering.  To wit:  beyond a particular individual’s pathology, what the Frisch incident revealed—to me, at least—was the lengths some in press will go to to turn a clear case of boorish behavior into a story about the “cycle of violence” between political opponents; what the Greenwald (alleged) sockpuppetry episode reveals is that many of those being cited as “experts” on issues that will shape public opinion and could, in theory, manifestly impact public policy and law, are in fact puffed up creations of an organized message machine whose goal it is to shape the official public narrative—even if doing so requires behind the scenes machinations.  Because to adherents of such a worldview, anything is acceptable once you’ve decided that it is up to you to fight for the “greater good”—an impulse that I imagine grows even stronger once it joins forces with others who share that same tinpot Machiavellian’s sense of social pragmatism.

And now, with this new story, what we have is several reporters and a former CIA agent using base intimidation that has escalated into a potentially actionable—and quite serious—offense.

So while I agree with Brian that the public discourse is not particularly better for having sunk to its current level, I think it is important to cover these stories nevertheless—particularly when some in the “unified messaging” community are simply unable to keep their true natures hidden.

People who don’t follow politics closely need to see beyond the easy “progressive” bromides about supporting “tolerance” and being against “hate”.

Because the truth is, many so-called “progressives” are absolutely saturated with hate and will tolerate nothing that doesn’t hew to their idea of what the world should look like.  And their impatience is beginning to show.

Best to shine a light on it now than wait until we’re living in another Carter-esque American nightmare, I think.  Because there just aren’t that many Reagans around to pull us back from the hell that the hard left—which is currently wrestling for the soul of the Democratic Party—is likely to lead us into, I’m afraid.

Posted by Jeff Goldstein @ 10:21 AM

40 Comments • 0 Trackbacks

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Leftist Hate Campaign Against Blogger Gets Deadly Serious [Leopold]--You probably

haven't heard of former CIA employee Larry

Johnson...he took up the cudgels on behalf of socialite Valerie Plame...

Now the contemptible Mr. Johnson is issuing threats to conservative bloggers.

Permalink

Is Ex-CIA Agent Larry C. Johnson Threatening A Freeper?

 

[backhoe]

http://www.instapundit.com/

BELTWAY BLOGROLL looks at the Cynthia McKinney / Hank Johnson runoff blog-battle in Georgia.

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http://www.instapundit.com/

WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO COPS that they can't arrest people for photographing them? I think we need civil rights legislation making this kind of arrest illegal. Treble damages, plus the right to civil forfeiture of any police property or equipment used in the arrest. Oh, and respondeat superior liability against supervisors.

 

 A sidewalk counsellor's blog