Conffederate
Confederate

August 01, 2008

Obama's Netroots Supporters Continue "Blog Burning"


Let's Party Like It's 1933.

Tell me once more how progressives love free speech.

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 bulls**t as it appears that someone does not approve of the idea of free speech especially when the speech doesn't conform to their ideas.

Online activists thought to be loyal to Barack Obama are once against using Google's software tools to target rival political blogs for elimination as spam blogs. This occurred earlier this year when Democratic bloggers with a preference for Hillary Clinton also found themselves locked out of their own blogs, all because of spurious and apparently orchestrated claims that these blogs are spam blogs. Pro-Obama activists were blamed for those attempts at censorship as well.

Like John at Argghhh!, I don't think for a second that the Obama campaign has any official knowledge of this attempt to hamstring or terminate rival political viewpoints, but as Obama once won an election by exercising procedural tricks to have his rivals thrown off the ballot, it is certainly in line with the kind of character he has displayed in the past.

Update: Republican revolt in "Pelosi's Politburo."

Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats fled the House of Representatives, turning off the microphones and the lights as Republicans continued to debate energy policy without them.

They seem to be having loads of fun with it:

Rep Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) just pretended to be a Democrat. He stood on the other side of the chaber and listed all of the GOP bills that the Dems killed.

He then said "I am a Democrat and here is my energy plan" and he held up a picture of an old VW Bug with a sail attached to it. He paraded around he house floor with the sign while the crowd cheered.

Update: Drat! Another good 2-minute hate down the toilet.


08/02/08 Update: As noted in the Instapundit link above posted yesterday, the lockout is not targeted at specific sites, but is widespread.

From Blogger's Blogger Buzz:

We've noticed that a number of users have had their blogs mistakenly marked as spam, and wanted to sound off real quick to let you know that, despite it being Friday afternoon, we are working hard to sort this out. So to those folks who have received an email saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can't post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.

I jumped the gun when I accepted emailed claims from some of my fellow bloggers without verifying them independently , and I apologize.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at August 1, 2008 12:30 PM
Comments

Curiouser & curiouser.

I don't call 'em 'googlag' fer nuthin'.

I throw stones at the donkey & poke the googlag alligator with sticks all the time, and I've never been bothered by googlag, blogger, or the obamanator.

But, I'm just a no talent hack in my own little blogger backwater.

All Blogger blogs have a link to 'flag' offensive blogs, much like a famous do-it-yourself video site has available. Flag wars are pretty common on that site to bury what one finds offensive.

My guess is that Concrete Bob got 'flagged' by the far left tantric BDS infants who love to practice that particular style of tolerance & free speech.

We on the right simply call it 'hypocrisy'.

Posted by: locomotivebreath1901 at August 1, 2008 01:06 PM

I'm informed that Joshua pundit has also been hit -- http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at August 1, 2008 02:07 PM

Not to play devil's advocate, but it can't hurt if we can get a proper investigation done into this. Not sure how that would play, but if we could get Blogger to name names, a lot of this could be deflated.

Otherwise, this is some serious Star Chamber-Lite happening.

Posted by: Andrew the Noisy at August 1, 2008 03:15 PM

I hate to say it, but, I think it would be best for all those on Blogsnot to get back up running, create something at Wordpress.com, and either do a redirect, or show the link to the Wordpress.com site. This kind of thing has been happening too much.

It seems almost impossible to take a jihadi blogsnot site down, but someone who disagrees with the Messiah? Toast.

Posted by: William Teach at August 1, 2008 04:32 PM

I got one of those warnings too. They claimed my little blog was a spam blog.

The Obama Brown shirts must be going around harassing everyone who isn't in lockstep with them.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at August 1, 2008 04:46 PM

Thanks CY. Looks like Blogger has unlocked mine.
Of course, I have three more I can post at, so it really wasn't a big deal if one gets shut down.
However, the fact that it can happen at all is chilling enough.

Posted by: cb at August 1, 2008 05:00 PM

Why are Obama supporters thought to be responsible? Why not right wingers, possibly reprising Nixonian dirty tricks?

Posted by: twitley at August 1, 2008 07:21 PM

Simply amazing.

Posted by: Snooper at August 1, 2008 07:31 PM

Didn't Jack Boot Thug Nazi Pelosi do the same thing today?

Posted by: Snooper at August 1, 2008 07:32 PM

Our original site, Death by 1000 Papercuts @ Blogger got shut down early this morning.

Same MO, Same message from Blogger, almost 24 hours later and NO RESPONSE to several of my increasingly-heated emails.

They want to play? They better hope and pray some real hackers don't get pissed off or you'll hear them squeal like it's [fill in appropriate year.]

Posted by: mondoreb at August 1, 2008 08:35 PM

Why are Obama supporters thought to be responsible?

Because they talk about doing this kinda thing on their own blogs?

Posted by: Purple Avenger at August 1, 2008 08:43 PM

Uh, twitley? Why in the h*ll would we want to get the blogs of people on our own side shut down? Heck, we do not even try with liberal blogs. The ones we go after are those of Islamists.

Posted by: William Teach at August 1, 2008 08:50 PM

"Because they talk about doing this kinda thing on their own blogs?"

Linky, linky, or the accusation's stinky...

Posted by: President Merton Muffley at August 1, 2008 09:15 PM

"The Obama Brown shirts must be going around harassing everyone who isn't in lockstep with them."

Yep, they must be. Hahahaha

Posted by: angryflower at August 2, 2008 12:34 AM

Blogger's sign in page has a post up that its a system glitch and not some conspiracy and they are working to fix it.

Posted by: goat at August 2, 2008 12:36 AM

I look forward to seeing your correction featured prominently at this post, rather than just a vague link to another page at the very bottom.

Just like you corrected your post about all the Vietnam war criminals who should have been prosecuted but for that Obama spokesman who covered everything up etc. etc...

You did correct it, didn't you?

Posted by: skylark at August 2, 2008 03:51 AM

So first you make an unwarranted accusations on the basis of absolutely no evidence. When you're demonstrated to be full of it, you walk back our accusation with a line and a half of milquetoast, "sorry, I just believed what I was told by some guy" at the bottom of a two page screed that came complete with an image of Nazis burning books.

Next time, try applying basic reasoning and a little investigative effort before you start making accusations.

Posted by: Pete at August 2, 2008 08:38 AM

I may not agree with your political stance, and your condemnation was a touch too much really... but unlike some here, I do appreciate the apology and correction.

Sadly, too many other mistakes and miscues in politics are missing that... "the apology"... and too many pundits, politicos, and yes, bloggers seem to live in terror and fear of the words "I Was Wrong" when proven so...

I suppose this is in hopes of being able to say they have been infallible with their information or that they can claim that their "poop doesn't stink"...

So to you and all the other political bloggers on Blogger (Right and Left) who are 'fessing up that they jumped the gun with blame, I thank you...

Posted by: Matthew James Didier at August 2, 2008 09:02 AM

You guys are beyond parody. Thanks for the laughs!

Posted by: Ken Lowery at August 2, 2008 11:03 AM
Why are Obama supporters thought to be responsible? Why not right wingers, possibly reprising Nixonian dirty tricks?

Frankly? Because they were though to have been behind a similar situation noted in this article in the New York Times. At the time, anti-Obama blogs were thought have been targeted on Blogspot roughly a month ago, and Google "would not explicitly rebut the idea that it had been tricked" with he blog shutdowns. When emails started coming in again yesterday that another round of shutdowns were hitting anti-Obama blogs on Blogspot, it was easy to make the assumption that the culprits were back up to their old tricks.

That assumption turned out to be wrong, for which I apologized.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at August 2, 2008 12:18 PM