Damn winger bloggers

Via Jonco.

Sometimes I feel like an asshole

Don't we all?

I'm a lurker. I read many many blog sites from Bloglines which lets me read blogs without going to them.

I may have opinions about the posts, but feel I can add nothing to their excellent posts, so I keep my thoughts to myself.

All bloggers on my blogroll offer exceptional information. Read many or all of them. I do and encourage you to do the same.

Bloggers may take advantage of the FOIA

Well that's a bit of an overstatement. If a blogger has a large enough readership (not defined) then they will be able to make FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests and such a request "has" to be honored.

Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007 - Amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to prohibit a federal agency from denying a requester status as a news media representative for purposes of determining FOIA request processing fees solely on the absence of institutional association. Requires an agency to consider the requester's prior publication history or stated intent to distribute information to a reasonably broad audience.

According to The Gavel, this bill to amend the FOIA has been passed by the House. Come on Senate.

Why bloggers matter

Not to beat a dead horse, but why are many bloggers picking up on that picture and dismantling it and the MSM aren't? This is part of the evidence the military is offering as "proof" Iranian officials are the bogeymen.

Markings on the Zelzal 2 rocket are in Farsi. On a similar note, Juan Cole crunches some numbers. Result: implausible. Looks like the Zelzal 3 has markings in Farsi too. Here's an anti-ship missile with Farsi on it.

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Just for bloggers

(via indexed)

How bloggers worked the Boston 'bomb hoax'

Mooninite
Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Are you happy now, Bush? You've created a nation of Nervous Nellies.

The latest bomb scare to upset a major US city wasn't the handiwork of the Al Qaeda terror network. This time, it was the Cartoon Network.

It all began Wednesday morning when a transit worker spotted a wired device on a girder underneath Interstate 93. After police found similar devices across the city, they shut down key roads and subway stations and called in federal officials with Homeland Security.

It took most of the day before a worried public would learn that the suspicious devices were merely electronically lit signs depicting a cartoon character known as a Mooninite – and were part of a "guerrilla marketing" campaign by Turner Broadcasting, gone awry. But even as security officials labored to get to the bottom of the incident, a parallel investigation was under way and open to all – in the blogosphere.

Bloggers claim they were the first to suspect that the "suspicious packages" weren't bombs. In fact, some had been blogging about the Mooninite marketing campaign for weeks, given that similar Mooninite signs had been sighted in other cities over the past couple of weeks.

Online investigators

Boston police haven't said whether the blogs or bloggers played any role in their own investigation, but some security analysts say such online social networks ought to be a prime law-enforcement tool during emergencies – or perceived emergencies.

And there's no justice in Boston if the two guys hired to install the devices are prosecuted.

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