Life. Blogged.

Word around the web this morning is that Twitter has been hacked. Several trustworthy sites are advising against using the web-based parts of Twitter. Apparently TweetDeck is not affected, but some 3rd-party services are... Not a lot of details, but the reporting is a nasty virus is behind the issues.

I am growing more and more frustrated with the so-called Net Neutrality nonsense. Net Neutrality is two-fold. The first part is something we can all agree with --- Basically, it calls for ISPs to allow all Internet content to be streamed or delivered at the same speed. As of now, individual ISPs can actually "slow" your connection to certain  sites if it wishes. While this is not as prevalent as it once was, it is an issue.  And I, for one, have no problem with the FCC cracking down on those who "slow" connections.

But it is the second part that is frightening. Google, cell companies and some left-of-center organizations (like Free Press) argue that broadband Internet be reclassified as a type II communication. Why? Because the FCC controls all type II communication. One would think we would want the government to stay out of the business of regulating broadband connections. But Google and other telecommunications corporations want broadband to be regulated the way they are regulated. To create a "level playing field" for Google, broadband connections would necessarily suffer. Rates would necessarily rise.

Worse, it will allow the very political FCC to determine what can be uploaded and downloaded via the "public" type II technology. A right-of-center FCC could ban pornography or gambling. A left-of-center FCC could ban religious sites and those depicting the military. Internet content would fall into the public realm where politicians can determine who gets to see what online.

This is an awful idea. As a conservative, I fear a left-of-center FCC/Washington barring me from blogging about their abuses. But I know this is a two-way street. I want my left-of-center friends to be able to "call out" the abuses of the right online as well. I always have and I always will. I don't just say "free speech" and then kill it when I disagree like the American left tends to do. I want it protected. But there is no place more sacred these days than the Internet.

Sadly, unions are now joining the cause of Net Neutrality. I just read with a deep heart that the Writers Guild of America has now signed on as a NN supporter. The Screen Actors Guild and others appear to be readying themselves to follow suit. As a  writer, it pains me to see the professionals sign on the dotted line that will, likely, end in the end of online freedoms in order to further their liberal masters.

Worse, non-entertainment unions appear to also be readying their members to rally to the cause of Net Neutrality.

What a sad day for America...

That's about as interesting as life will be for the remainder of the day. Sorry...

Well, friends, the Democrats have taken the first step in silencing speech. Under the guise of fighting copyright infringement, the Obama administration, Democratically-controlled Congress and liberal Justice authorities have taken down over 73,000 Wordpress blogs. Instead of targeting site with actual illegal material, these liberal hacks have used Obama's new Internet-control authority to shut down entire servers forever deleting material that even they acknowledge was legal.

Conservatives and libertarian web activists have been warning about this for months. Under the guise of criminal probes, "illegal" activity and tolerance-via-censorship, Obama and his minions have made their first foray into quelling free speech. It is very simple. They find material not to their liking, subpoena the servers the material is on, search for something that can be used as grounds for shutting down a server and cut the cord. It's the easiest way to end free speech without anyone knowing.

It's a dangerous first step, one that even the "evil" Bush and his Republican cronies refused to do. How interesting the President of  hope, change, honesty, transparency and tolerance happily orders this mess.

And it is yet another reason people need to be aware of how radical and dangerous Obama really is.

A lot of those currently in charge would like for you to think that high unemployment was the fault of Republicans. But take a closer look. Unemployment under Republican Congressional control hit a high around 6% in late 2003/early 2004. But when Democrats took over Congress in 2006, unemployment skyrocketed to more than 10%. Weird...

PS. People DO remember giving the Democrats the reigns of power all those years ago, right? 

I have about 40 websites (mostly news and blogs) that I visit every morning before I start work. One of my favorites, a TV-on-DVD site, is blocking my ISP. In fact, the error code seems to suggest that my computer was guilty of some sort of site infraction yesterday. Confused and concerned, I ran a full diagnostic and virus/spy check. Clean as a whistle.

I wrote an email to the one e-mail address I have to the site, but have yet to receive a response.

Anyone got any ideas?

Five Rights the Left Doesn’t Want You to Have
by Jason Rantz (cartoon by Brett Noel)

The far left in this country—politicians, talking heads, celebrities, faux-journalists—love to claim conservatives are stamping out American freedoms. Indeed, you still hear lefties claim President George W. Bush shredded the Constitution to spy on American citizens without warrants. You frequently hear concerns that Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are practicing judicial activism and ignoring the law of the land. And you always hear complaints that talkers Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are using “hate” speech to incite violence against non-believers. 

The left loves the Constitution and freedom—but they only love it when they have the rights and can pick and choose who else gets to enjoy them. The far left in this country, at any opportunity they can, stomp on our freedoms, or simply ignore them, for what they perceive to be the greater good: political correctness, social justice, environmental activism, diversity. They seek to quash our freedoms, while utilizing them for their own purposes.

Here are five rights that the far left in America doesn’t want conservatives to have:

1. Free Speech Rights: The left loves to whine and complain about how evil Republicans are, but they sure don’t want anyone to talk back. On many issues, the left openly tries to prevent the right from speaking out. You need not look beyond what’s going on at our nation’s colleges to see how the left operates.

Often times, college campuses are overrun with Marxist professors and uninformed students who will try to stop invited conservative speakers to even open their mouth and utter a single sentence, without being interrupted, shouted down, or, in some cases, have the entire meeting be taken over by “protests.”

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nutty pro-illegal immigration activist students prevented former Rep. Tom Tancredo from giving a speech. According to ABC News, “Tancredo didn't make it through his talk. In fact, he left campus early after protesters interrupted his speech and broke a window.” Over at University of California at Irvine, the Muslim Student Union repeatedly interrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, leading to eleven arrests. Think these are rare occurrences of over-zealous students so passionate about issues they can’t control themselves? Think again. There is a systematic effort across college campuses whereby liberal student groups repeatedly try to shut down anyone from speaking on campus that they disagree with.

2. The Right to Bear Arms: The left really hates guns—especially when law-abiding citizens own them. The far left thinks people who use guns are mostly redneck, oftentimes violent, and supremely ignorant of what it takes to create a happy society. If they had their way, all guns would be banned and violence would forever cease to exist in our great country. Why, look at Chicago where a ban on handguns was on the books for nearly 30 years. They’ve had no problems—except for the rampant killings by criminals with access to guns. Other than that, the ban has worked great!

What the left doesn’t seem to get—beyond their inability to understand the 2nd Amendment—is that banning gun ownership will not stop violence. Legitimate gun owners who are law-abiding citizens don’t go out shooting people because of a drug bust gone bad, or because the gangbanger down the street looked at their girlfriend funny. Law-abiding citizens use guns for sport and for protection against the bad guys who know how to score a gun illegally and use it against the saps who have local leaders making it too difficult to legally own a weapon.

3. Voting Rights: The left would love other liberals to vote—they may not even mind if you vote a few times so long as ACORN was in on the voter registration action. What they absolutely hate, however, is when conservatives vote because they keep voting in Republicans who will prevent them from passing whatever legislation they want.
During the November elections last year, the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia made headlines for their voter intimidation tactics. Two members in paramilitary garb, holding weapons, shouted racial epithets towards potential white voters. The Justice Department under the Liberal-in-Chief dropped the charges against those involved. Please imagine what would have happened if a WASP in a camouflaged-polo shirt tried to scare away black voters. Obama would have made an example of them.

In Port Chester, N.Y., voters were allowed to vote six times so that the heavily Hispanic population would be able to elect Hispanic candidates to office. Indeed, according to the Associated Press, “Although the village of about 30,000 residents is nearly half Hispanic, no Latino had ever been elected to any of the six trustee seats.… Most voters were white, and white candidates always won.” So in an effort to punish white candidates with a voting base that cares enough to show up to the polls, under the Obama Administration voters would be able to vote multiple times to guarantee that a non-white, presumably liberal candidate, would get elected. Again, please imagine what would have happened if in, say, Detroit, the Justice Department helped make it so more white Republicans would be able to represent the city.

4. Freedom of Press: The left really hates that Fox News has an audience; they loathe the existence of HUMAN EVENTS and writers like me. They actually have the nerve to call out Fox News as being “unfair” and “unbalanced” because the station’s analysts lean right. How often does MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann rant about how evil and dishonest Fox News is, all while hosting a show where he seldom, if ever, has a guest on who disagrees with him? How often did the New York Times shill for Air America radio networks, in a bid to gain them more listeners? Free press is good, so long as liberals can control the message (this is why Obama Administration officials tend to do more interviews with friendly news agencies—they’re guaranteed not to be asked tough questions and are better able to control what news gets out).  

5. The Rights of States. How often are our states shunned for trying to protect themselves against elements that are destroying their economy, their sense of safety or their sense of pride? We have Arizona under assault from the federal government because they have the gall to protect themselves from citizens entering their state illegally.

I’m hardly a state’s rights fanatic because I believe there are reasonable restrictions on what a state can or cannot do, and there is certainly a role for the federal government in overseeing some of what a state does (if my hippie state of Washington tries to ban guns or limit my speech because of some twisted state’s rights argument, I want the federal government stepping in). But, to always take the side of the federal government, the way liberals do, solely to hold on to power—power that would be kept away from conservatives who tend to overwhelmingly advocate for those rights—is petty. I know Senators Chuck Schumer or Patty Murray would love as much power as they can hold on to—because, after all, they know best—it’s just not the way the system works.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Apple Collecting, Sharing, Storing and Selling iPhone and iPad Users "Precise" Locations

Apple Inc. is now collecting the "precise," "real-time geographic location" of its users' iPhones, iPads and computers.

In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified "partners and licensees" may collect, sell and store user location data. 

When users attempt to download apps or media from the iTunes store, they are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions. Until they agree, they cannot download anything through the store.

The company says the data is anonymous and does not personally identify users. Analysts have shown, however, that large, specific data sets can be used to identify people based on behavior patterns.

An increasing number of iPhone apps ask users for their location, which is then used by the application or even uploaded to the app's maker. Apps like the Twitter application Tweetie and Google Maps make frequent use of location data, either to help the user get oriented geographically or to associate the user's action with a specific location (as when a tweet is geotagged).

Apple says in its privacy policy that it uses personal information to "improve our services, content, and advertising." 

On Monday, Apple also rolled out its new advertising platform, iAd, for the latest version of its iPhone operating system (iOS 4). The company may well be integrating the location information into its advertising system -- for instance, to help local shops sell coupons to users in the neighborhood.

The update to the privacy policy did not specify which partners or licensees Apple will share the data with or how long the data will be kept. Apple did not immediately return a request for comment.