Now The End Begins Blog!

I have had a wonderful Christian-based blog on my blog roll for some time now, but today I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that a Christian friend on Face Book writes at this terrific blog! It is called Now The End Begins. There are over 24,000 followers on Face Book! The current post there is entitled, "Obama Says He Needs 4 More Years To ‘Finish The Job'."

Here is the description of the blog's content on the front page:

The Betrayal of America


For generations the Bible has warned of the coming End of Days, and you are now living in that time. America, a nation raised up by God to spread the Gospel and to be a beacon of freedom for people around the world is about to be forever silenced by those sworn to protect her - her leaders.

Boy...is THAT THE TRUTH!!! The corruption, crime, betrayal, lies, treason, traitorous evil and ugly sin going on in Washington D.C. over the years has ratcheted up big time over the past 3 years with Obummer in office!!! Speaking of the pResident in Cheat:

My comment there:

As bad as ObaMAO has been (and it’s been REALLY BAD) I still think that he is holding back the worst offenses in order to get re-elected. If he would be re-elected (God forbid!!!), this puppet and his puppet master George (a.k.a. satan’s son) Soros would unleash the worst evil our nation has ever seen. God’s Word tells us “I (God) will bless those who bless you (Israel) and curse those who curse you.” This admin has treated Israel miserably – and unfortunately, we are paying the price for it in our nation today. But God is good! Praying fervently for a godly, conservative Christian to get into office in 2012!

I HIGHLY recommend this blog! The posts are excellent because the author continues to share the TRUTH - something that we often do not get from the media of mass deception!

BIG Hat Tip:

Now The End Begins

Thanks Geoffrey!!!

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In other news:

The Ulsterman Report

WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: There Is A Very Uneasy Peace Between President Obama And The American Military.

 

Gateway Pundit

Good Grief… Even Democrats Are Trying to Tie Their GOP Opponents to Barack Obama - Pro-Obamacare pro-Stimulus former Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Ohio) is hoping to tie his opponent Republican Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) to Barack Obama. Jeesh. Thing...

 

 

Nice Deb

Video: Obama Condemns the “Crashing of the English Embassy” Urges Iranian Government “To Hold Those Accountable To Task” - I’ve been hearing about Obama’s latest dumb gaffe, all day, and was going to let it go – because he sort of caught himself, and tried to correct it with “E...

 

drkatesview

Ruling the World - ©2011 drkate You shouldn’t have to sell your soul, like those who want to rule the world. Open thread.

 

NewsBusters.org - Exposing Liberal Media Bias

Liberal Journalists, Lefty Economists Created Occupy Wall Street Mantra - While protesters only began shouting "We are the 99 Percent," a few months ago, the class warfare sentiment that the top 1 percent and the 99 percent ...

 

Joel Rosenberg's Weblog

WASHINGTON POST EDITORIAL SLAMS OBAMA FOR WEAK IRAN POLICY OF “HALF MEASURES”: Says “President Obama is not even leading from behind on Iran; he is simply behind.” - >> With tensions rising in the Middle East, please consider a generous, tax-deductible ,year-end financial gift to The Joshua Fund. Your prayers and invest...

 

CultureWatch

Recent Readings on Islam, Sharia and Jihad - There are many areas of concern when it comes to standing up for a free and democratic West. One of the biggest threats is posed by the ongoing activities ...

 

Jihad Watch

Egypt: "Hardline Islamists" surge in polls, may have 20% of votes - We tried to tell you. A democracy is only as good as the values that inform its participants. "Hardline Islamist surge in Egypt polls," by Adam Plowright f...

 

The Canadian Sentinel

'Noble' (MSM Thinks So) 'Occupiers' Turn On Obama (Finally!) - Sure took them long enough to protest THE ONE who needs protesting! Story *here*. “Obama is a corporate puppet,” one said. “War crimes must be stopped, no...

 

Frugal Café Blog Zone

Occupy L.A. Squatters Finally Gone, but Not the Disgusting 30 Tons of Garbage, Bottles of Urine, & Other Health-Risk Filth They Left Behind - Got HazMat suit? The squalid OWS tent-city park outside Los Angeles’ City Hall may finally be cleared of the Occupy L.A. squatters, but the staggering am...

 

GINA COBB

The Golfing President Calls Working Americans "Lazy" While He Brings the U.S. More Malaise Than Failed President Jimmy Carter - Obama, who lectures Americans about getting a "little bit lazy," has just completed his 30th golf outing this year and his 88th golfing outing since becomi...

 

protein wisdom

“Jobless Claims Climb Back Over 400,000″

 

"We the People"

Engineering Firm ‘CH2M HILL’ Cut Thousands of Jobs After Receiving $2 Billion in Stimulus

 

Politicons

Department Of Homeland Security Spending $771K To Put Up Cameras In Desert To Track… Jaguars

 

Klein Online

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Egyptian official claims Israeli strike on Iran possible ‘within weeks’

 

Another Look at Obama's SS Number [Update]

Found a good blog that has a post up which asks the question: Whose Identity Did Obama Steal?

Excerpt:

The real owner of the number that Obama confiscated may still be living. Is there an individual that is 121 years old today? It is interesting that the number hasn’t been recorded by the SSA as a death. So who issued Obama the number and buried the real owners name?

So We The People: We have a fraudulent and forged Certification of Live Birth for Obama, a forged or fraudulent Selective Service record, birth announcements that aren’t duplicated anywhere else in the US in any library, inserted pages into a birth index in Hawaii, hospitals that don’t claim him, falsified documents by the Democratic Party, a State record stating that Obama is a natural born citizen, photo-shopped family and self photos, professors stating they never saw him at Columbia University, a phony book that was written by Bill Ayers, no living “real” blood relatives, no records from his Illinois Senate days, no medical records, and multitudes of sealed records. How many of your friends have no documented background? Are they in witness protection?

What else could we think other than this is a man whose ideology is foreign because he is foreign. He can’t relate to us because he isn’t one of us. Anyone that can’t produce a simple document has lots to hide. He said it himself. But when there are multitudes of the same document associated with his name…we have a conman, a thief, and a liar. How many social security numbers do you have? Obama has no less than four dozen!

I have heard this accusation being discussed on other blogs before, but this blog has lots of detail included.

We The People Of The United States.

I have added the blog to my blog roll. Going back over there to read more posts and comments!


Hat tip:

We The People Of The United States


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Also, see this site and post:

Obama Release Your Records: Social Security Doc Dump: New Details on Obama's "Never Issued" Social Security Number Reserved for Connecticut Applicants

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Update 4/17/11:

Also see:

WorldNetDaily: Jack Cashill - Another look at Obama's Social Security number

Excerpt:

This being the case, I asked Daniels to guide me through the data mine field and help me ascertain what we know for sure about the world's best-known Social Security number – 042-68-4425.

"All I can say," says Daniels of 042-68-4425, "is that it's phony and [Obama] has been using it, with it first appearing on his Selective Service document in 1980."

Daniels sent me a copy of the hand-written application of the individual who held the number immediately before Obama's, 042-68-4424. The applicant, Thomas Wood, died at age 19, which is why his information is available.

Wood's Social Security number was issued sometime between March and May of 1977. Obama would turn 16 in August of that year. Wood lived on Glenview Drive in Newington, Conn., the state from which all "042s" applied. Obama lived in Hawaii.

True to form, the left-leaning media set out to undermine the Social Security controversy and ridicule the investigators. Revealing, however, is the weakness of the response.

"Numbers are assigned based on the return address on the request envelope, not residency," crowed Jason Linkins in the Huffington Post as though he had said something meaningful. Linkins suggested two possible explanations, both preposterous.

One is that Obama applied for his SSN as a little boy in Indonesia for no known reason, and the application just happened to be processed in Connecticut for no known reason either.

For the second, Linkins cited the argument of Carole Glibert, in the Yahoo-related "Associated Content." Said Gilbert, presumably with a straight face, "In fact, Barack Obama's dad attended college in Connecticut and in 1977, Obama was college aged; is it beyond reason to consider that he might have checked out his father's alma mater?"

Last time I checked, Harvard was in Massachusetts. The closest town to Harvard in Connecticut is about 90 minutes away, and there is no record that Obama Sr. lived there, let alone that Obama visited his imaginary alma mater and just happened to apply for a Social Security card while visiting.

Daniels also sent me a copy of Obama's Selective Service data. Obama appears to have registered on Sept. 4, 1980, a month after his 19th birthday. The form lists the telling last four digits of his "042" number, "4425."

This is the first use of the "042" number that Daniels could find. She is just not sure it is legitimate. Some have credibly argued that the Selective Service information was forged and backdated once Obama became a presidential candidate.

"They were stupid to use the CT number on the [Selective Service] card," Daniels adds, "because now there is no way for [Obama] to back out of that number."

Other than the 1980 Selective Service registration, the first time Daniels could find Obama using the "042" number was in 1986 in Chicago.


As to how Obama may have secured that number, it is possible that he turned to his radical friends for advice.

"We invented all kinds of ways to obtain false identity papers, and got busy building multiple sets of ID for each of us and for every contingency," writes Bill Ayers of his years in the Weather Underground. "We soon figured out that the deepest and most foolproof ID had a government-issued Social Security card at its heart."

For the record, Ayers appears to have commuted between his wife and children in Chicago and Columbia University in New York from 1984 to 1987. Obama left New York, where he, too, had attended Columbia University, and arrived in Chicago in 1985.

Daniels and Sankey have tracked Obama's many uses of the "042" number in Chicago, in Massachusetts and in Washington. Others numbers appear with the "Obama" name, but Daniels cautions against attributing these numbers – with the exception of those from Obama's college days at Occidental – to the president.

From Daniels' perspective, one felonious use of a fraudulent number is enough. She believes this to be a more tangible scandal than the birth certificate and wonders when someone beyond WND will start paying attention.


Jack Cashill is an Emmy-award winning independent writer and producer with a Ph.D. in American Studies from Purdue. His latest book is the blockbuster "Deconstructing Obama: The Life, Love and Letters of America's First Post-Modern President."

Read more: Another look at Obama's Social Security number http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=275861#ixzz1GuPG6GU1

Audience Grows for Social Media Sites & Blogs

Hope readers enjoyed their Valentine's Day celebrations today! Found some interesting statistics (I know...statistics are usually boring) about how many people visit "social networking sites."

Here's a copy of a report that I received back in late January from Ken Radio via email:

The World Flocking to Social Media Sites

Global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year when users were spending just over three hours on social networking sites. In addition, the overall traffic to social networking sites has grown over the last three years. Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent in December, followed by online games and instant messaging. With 206.9 million unique visitors, Facebook was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month. Time on site for Facebook has also been on the rise, with global users spending nearly six hours per month on the site, according to a new study by Nielsen.


People in the U.S. continue to spend more time on social networking and blog sites as well, with total minutes increasing 210% year-over-year and the average time per person increasing 143% year-over-year in December 2009. Year-over-year growth in average time spent by U.S. users, for both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200% and 368%, respectively. Among, the top five U.S. social networking sites, Twitter.com continued its reign as the fastest-growing in December 2009 in terms of unique visitors, increasing 579% year-over-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009. However, month-over-month, unique visitors decreased 5%.

When narrowed by individual country, with 142.1 million unique visitors the United States had the largest number of social media and blog users in December, followed by Japan, which had 46.6 million unique visitors during the month. Australia led in average time per person spent, with the average Australian spending nearly 7 hours on social media sites in December. The United States and the United Kingdom came in a close second and third, with 6 hours and 9 minutes and 6 hours and 8 minutes, respectively.

P.S. I'm not on my home computer right now and cannot include pictures in this post, so to view charts that accompany the text above, go to Ken Radio.com

Hat Tip:

Ken Radio.com

Obama & His Spam-Bots

There is so much to blog about today! Where to begin?

I will start with Joseph Farah's WorldNetDaily article, Obama's theological Chinese menu,

Excerpt:

"I am a Christian," said Obama. "So, I have a deep faith. So I draw from the Christian faith. On the other hand, I was born in Hawaii where obviously there are a lot of Eastern influences. I lived in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, between the ages of 6 and 10. My father was from Kenya, and although he was probably most accurately labeled an agnostic, his father was Muslim. And I'd say, probably, intellectually I've drawn as much from Judaism as any other faith. So, I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."

The statement was apparently well-considered by Obama, because it bears striking resemblance to an interview he gave the Chicago Sun-Times about a week later.

Yet, what Obama reveals about his brand of Christianity is that it has little in common with what Jesus had to say about salvation in John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

There aren't many paths, according to the Bible – just one. And it tells us even that one path is very narrow. Obama makes the mistake of many who believe themselves to be Christians – that they can pick and choose what they like about the Bible as if [it] were an oversized Chinese menu.

In the interview, Obama says he was raised as a Christian by his mother and grandparents. Yet, his mother, who married two Muslim men, permitted him to be educated in a Muslim school in Indonesia. Then he describes his grandparents as practicing universalists.

The only church he ever attended regularly was the one presided over by Jeremiah Wright – a subscriber to liberation theology, an ideology more in line with the beliefs of Barabbas than Jesus.

And who is Jesus to Barack Obama?

He laughs nervously when asked by the interviewer, then responds: "Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher. And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history."

Of course, Christians believe Jesus is the bridge to God for all willing to accept Him and His substitutionary sacrifice for their sins.

Obama admits in the interview he seldom read the Bible, but relied on spiritual guidance from Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger. He said he had "enormous respect for" Wright and described Pfleger, from whom he has also distanced himself this year, as "a dear friend and somebody I interact with closely."

"This is something that I'm sure I'd have serious debates with my fellow Christians about," Obama says, leading up to another shocker for believers. "I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize," he said. "There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they're going to hell."

The interviewer asks: "You don't believe that?"

"I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell," he says. "I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That's just not part of my religious makeup."

But, of course, that leaves us with the question of why Jesus chose to die for the sins of mankind if, indeed, there was another way to avoid hell.

Then again, see how Obama defines sin.

Interviewer: "Do you believe in sin?"

Obama: "Yes."

Interviewer: "What is sin?"

Obama: "Being out of alignment with my values."

Where does all this spiritual confusion lead? Does it suggest Obama will not win the presidency?

Oversided Chinese menu...HA!! That's funny! Sad, but accurately describes the smorgasbord theology of Obama's spiritual oblivion!

Since when does a Christian label The Great Commission, authorized by Jesus Himself upon his resurrection and shared with the disciples just before he ascended to the Father in heaven "proselytizing"?? That is usually a term used by gospel-rejecting secular-humanist Christian haters! (i.e. like the ACLU and Barry Lynn!) Welp...now we can add Barry Hussein Obama to the list!

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Pat Buchanan also came through with a great article today. In defense of Dobson.


Excerpt:

"(H)e (Obama) is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," said Dobson. "Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the life of tiny babies?"

"What he (Obama) is saying here is that unless everyone agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe."

Dobson has no small point. For in his litany of moral heroes, Barack himself selected no "can't-we-all-just-get-along?" Christians.

Buchanan answers that "can't we all just get along" question beautifully:

Obama, however, is now preaching a kumbaya Christianity where leaders who believe abortion is the killing of the innocent unborn are to set their convictions and cause aside in the name of ecumenical amity.

It is Dobson who, in his intolerance of perceived evil, seems in the tradition of the abolitionists, and Barack who appears more like the milquetoast believers of whom Christ said he would spit them out of his mouth because they were neither hot nor cold and whom Dante consigned to the deepest reaches of hell.

Does social peace require the toleration of manifest evil?

In the Roman Empire before Constantine, Christians accepted martyrdom rather than burn incense to Caesar. Thomas More went to his death rather than assent to the divorce of Henry VIII, declaring, "I am the king's good servant, but God's first."

A disciple of Gandhi, Dr. King is celebrated as a champion of civil disobedience against the injustice of segregation. What would Obama say to massive civil disobedience by those who believe the killing of 50 million unborn children since Roe v. Wade is a greater evil than segregating folks by race in public accommodations?

Would an Obama, who hails the abolitionists and Dr. King, condemn them as divisive? Was not that the charge thrown up at Dr. King?

Dr. Dobson sums up Obama's pseudo-Christianity and horribly inaccurate idea of our Constitution when he quite bluntly stated:

"Barack has a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution if he thinks it requires us to give up fighting for justice because it may be divisive," says Dobson.

Yep....

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The following is a blog post from a blog that I cannot, in good conscience, link to. Why? Because the person chooses to have links to sexually explicit material. There is no copyright notice at the site, so I am presenting it here in it's entirety. If you want to find the blog, you could probably place the first sentences in a search engine and locate it.

The issue is a very important one. It just goes to show what kind of "change" Obama and his minions would want - squelching the time-honored, free speech rights of American citizens on the Internet with whom they disagree.

Frightening...truly scary!!!

Please note. Most of the links being purposely targeted and shut down as "spam blogs" are leftist, Clinton supporter blogs!! I am not including the links to the blogs being discussed. Again, using a search engine will aide you in locating them.

Christine

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When Carissa Snedeker went to log into her Blogspot account Wednesday evening at about 7:30, she had no idea what would be waiting for her. She had created her blog, Blue Lyon, three years ago and up until this point had very few problems posting new content. But this time a message from Google came up when she visited her dashboard.

“This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations,” the message stated. “You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.”

When Snedeker clicked on the link at the bottom of the message she came to another one that told her that her blog “has characteristics of a spam blog” and, because of this, it had been locked. It allowed her the chance to send an “unlock request” but told her she’d have to wait up to four business days before someone at Google could review her blog and confirm it wasn’t publishing spam.

“At first I thought it was just this random thing with Blogger’s spam bots,” she told me in a phone interview. “I thought that perhaps in their looking across the blogger universe, that I got accidentally flagged somehow. Stuff like that happens.”

But a short time later Snedeker received an email from another blogger claiming that a number of anti-Obama blogs had been “hacked” that same night. After some digging it became apparent that several Blogspot accounts had been shut down because of similar spam issues, and nearly all of them had three things in common: Most were pro-Hillary Clinton blogs, all were anti-Barack Obama, and several were listed on justsaynodeal.com, an anti-Obama website.

A “Flag Blog” link sits at the very top of every free Blogspot account. If a person finds objectionable content on a Blogspot site or suspects it’s publishing spam, he or she can click on the link and it will send a notice to Google requesting “human review.”

I spoke to several of the bloggers who had accounts locked and every single one was convinced that it was Obama supporters who had flagged the blogs in some kind of concerted effort to silence them. But when I asked for specific evidence of this, most simply pointed out that only anti-Obama blogs were targeted — a fact that is certainly suspicious but not especially conclusive.

The incident highlights the often-contentious relationship between online Hillary and Obama supporters. Popular sites like Digg.com have consistently posted anti-Hillary links and popular liberal blog Daily Kos experienced a “boycott” a few months ago when several Hillary supporters left the site.

A blogger who uses the pseudonym “GeekLove” (she wouldn’t agree to a phone interview and wouldn’t tell me her real name) said to me via email that when her blog, Come A Long Way, was shut down she thought it was a fluke as well.

“I also felt a little bit humiliated that someone would think to characterize my Blog as ’spam,’” she said. “I had no idea why it would be ’spam’ I assumed it was just some sort of mistake. I did think it was an isolated incident. I requested the Blogger review. I then went to the Hillary Clinton Forum, a place I frequently participate in on line discussions, and I saw Nobama’s post ‘Blogger just shut down my NObama Blog!!‘ Then when other Blogger blogs were affected, I knew it was more than coincidence.”

Like the others I spoke to, she immediately became convinced that Obama supporters were behind the outages.

“I suspect that it was Obama supporters because I think the block was timed to affect blogs prior to the unity event so that we would not ‘rain on the unity parade,’ GeekLove said. “Also, Obama has ads out hiring people with no experience, except the ability to use computers. I presume these are the individuals responsible for silencing any opposition. His campaign has really harnessed the power of the internet and in the process learned to game the system in a way that I find frightening.”

When it comes to butting heads with Obama supporters, perhaps nobody has more experience than Larry Johnson. If his name rings a bell, it’s because Johnson, who worked for the CIA in the ’80s and now does military consulting, was the origin of the famous “whitey” claim. Not long ago he reported on his website that people connected with the McCain campaign are in possession of video footage of Michelle Obama saying derogatory things about white people. However, he admitted that he hadn’t actually seen the video and his two sources hadn’t seen it either. He quickly became a target of bloggers from both the right and left.

Several of the bloggers hit by the Blogspot outage also write at his site, No Quarter, and so Johnson has been watching the controversy with interest. Like the others, he believes wholeheartedly that Obama supporters are behind the “attack,” and he told me in a phone interview that his website had experienced similar problems a few months ago.

“We were contacted by our host in March and they claimed we were draining too many resources,” he said. “They shut us down completely. But when we went in to look at our site statistics it was evident that something else was clearly going on — we were the subject of some kind of spam attack that was putting a strain on the site.”

To ward off such attacks, he decided to go with his own server, a move that he said would make it harder to shut him down. But after he published the “whitey” claims, he had more direct conflicts with Obama supporters.

“The problem with these people who had their Google accounts shut down, they’re intimidated by it,” Johnson said. “They don’t want to get themselves in a situation so they would be identified. Some of these people who get identified, the Obama folks start picking up the phone and calling. I had phone calls into my office, threatening me, saying that you’re going to be fired, let me talk to your boss. I told them to go f*** themselves, because I am my own boss. It helps to be self-employed.”

Johnson and the other people interviewed for this article all agreed that Google was partly to blame for the outages. It was because of the search giant’s “guilty until proven innocent” approach, they said, that allowed the attackers to shut down the blogs so easily.

“My biggest objection is not necessarily that these people did this, but that Blogger had the policy that basically locks you out,” Snedeker said. “In other words you’re guilty until proven innocent, instead of the other way around, and that was what frustrated me.”

“I understand the need if you have some complaints from people that you need to investigate it,” Johnson said. “But you also have to make sure that the person filing the complaint is legitimate.”

An email I sent to Google requesting comment was not immediately returned. Nearly all the bloggers who were targeted by this spam crusade are not waiting around for their accounts to be restored. They’ve flocked to Wordpress and opened free accounts there (including Blue Lyon and Come A Long Way), and they don’t have any immediate plans to return to their original URLs once the dust settles.

What’s perhaps even more notable is that none of the people I spoke to is planning any kind of backlash against Obama supporters. It seemed to me that, for the most part, they just want to be left alone.

“While I am expressing my political beliefs, on Blogger it was a simple push of a button to mark my blog as spam and silence me,” GeekLove said. ” Pushing the button set me back a couple of days and I was unable to post anything during the unity event. The prospect of starting over on another blog was also daunting [and] I briefly, only briefly considered [giving] up blogging. Tactics like this work to silence opposition, why wouldn’t we expect more of that in the future?”

Here is a copy of one of the bloggers who was affected by this spam scam. She decided to leave blogger for wordpress:

June 30, 2008
Bye Bye Blogger
Well, well, well. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Magically, my posting privileges are back. Blogger sent me this email:

Hi there,

On behalf of the Blogger Team, I want to apologize for the recent trouble you've had with your locked blog. Automated spam detection is not yet a perfect science, and although we are constantly working to improve our tools, it appears that our filters have caused some Blogger accounts to mistakenly be blocked from creating new posts.

While we are still investigating, we believe this may have been caused by mass spam e-mails mentioning the "Just Say No Deal" network of blogs, which in turn caused our system to classify the blog addresses mentioned in the e-mails as spam.

Regardless, we have restored posting rights to your blog, and it is very important to us that Blogger remain a tool for political debate and free expression.

So once again, we apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience as we looked into the problem.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Automated spam detection is not yet a perfect science

Huh. Well, don't you think your system should be able to tell a blog with nearly 700 posts and that's been around for oh, say, THREE YEARS, from a "spam" blog???? Let's work on that, shall we? And in the absence of this sort of flagging on YOUR end, how's about a little benefit of the doubt for the next set of bloggers that get caught in your "automated spam detection" maze.

"...we believe this may have been caused by mass spam e-mails mentioning the "Just Say No Deal" network of blogs, which in turn caused our system to classify the blog addresses mentioned in the e-mails as spam..."

Sorry, but no. Not buying it. Whenever the JSND coalition sends out an email, it does not list all of the blogs, but merely directs people to the web site where we are all listed. If there was any spamming going on, it wasn't from Just Say No Deal.

And furthermore, how many flags does it take for a blog to get shut down? One? Five? Twenty? A hundred?

In the meantime, I'm happily settled in over at WordPress. Loving the new blog smell.

HT's: WorldNetDaily

Blue Lyon

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Related Article: Google and the Anti-Obama Bloggers

Blogs Influence Journalists

Statistics can be boring, but I thought that this was very interesting and thought that I would pass it along to Talk Wisdom readers.

Christine

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Blogs Influence Journalists

Blogs are not only having an impact on the speed and availability of news but also influencing the tone and editorial direction of reporting, according to a survey of US journalists by Omnicom Group. New media (social media and blogs) are having an impact on many aspects of reporting, particularly the speed and availability of news. The majority of journalists said blogs were having a significant impact on news reporting in all areas tested - except news quality:

* The biggest impact of blogs is in the speed and availability of news.
* Over half also said that blogs were having a significant impact on the “tone” (61.8%) and “editorial direction” (51.1%) of news reporting.









While only a small percentage of journalists feel that blogs are helpful in generating sources or exclusives, they do see blogs as particularly useful in helping them better understand the context of a story, a new story angle, or a new story idea. Blogs are a regular source for journalists:

Over three-quarters of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.





Nearly 70% of all reporters check a blog list on a regular basis:

* 20.9% reporters said they spend over an hour per day reading blogs
* 57.1% reporters said they read blogs at least two to three times a week
* 71% of journalists have a list of blogs that they check on a regular basis
* 47.7% have five or fewer blogs
* 23.3% have a regular blog list of six or more
* 29.9% of journalists have no regular list

One in five reporters spend over an hour a day reading blogs, and nearly three in five read blogs at least 2 to 3 times a week.





Journalists are increasingly active participants in the blogosphere:

One in four reporters (27.7%) have their own blogs
Nearly one in five (16.3%) have their own social networking page
About half of reporters (47.5%) say they are "lurkers" - reading blogs but rarely commenting.


What Journalists Use as Sources

More than 8 of 10 business journalists (84%) say they have used or would use blogs as primary or secondary sources for articles, according to the a new study by marketing consultancy Arketi. The survey sought to understand the uses of technology by B2B journalists covering various industries.
Overlapping the Social Graph

OpenSocial is Google's new open platform toolset which allows social networking site the ability to connect their databases and users together creating "open standards" so users can access their data on any social network. The project is still taking shape, but it looks like it will give users access to widgets across a bunch of social networks.

HT: Ken Radio

The Rebelution Against Ungodly Culture

Found a great website and blog called The Rebelution.

1 Timothy 4:12 - Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Here is the description of the website and blog authors:

ALEX AND BRETT HARRIS (r-l) are Christian teenagers with a passion for God and for their generation. At the age of 16 they founded what has now become one of the fastest growing Christian teen sites on the web today: TheRebelution.com. They are frequent authors for Focus On The Family's online publication, Boundless Webzine and main speakers for The Rebelution Tour.

Alex and Brett have grown up in a ministry household. Their father, Gregg Harris, is a well-known homeschool author and speaker, teaching elder at Household of Faith Community Church and director of Noble Institute for Leadership Development. Their mother, Sono Harris, is an accomplished speaker and successful speech coach. Their older brother, Joshua Harris, is senior pastor of Covenant Life Church and bestselling author of, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," "Boy Meets Girl," and "Sex is Not the Problem."

Following in the footsteps of their family members, 18-year-old Alex and Brett are speaking out for God with a message to their own generation. Recipients of six national championships in high school speech and debate Alex & Brett are applying their gifts in communication to the challenge of exhorting their peers to stop wasting the teen years and to rebel against the low expectations of an ungodly culture.

I love that last line!

"...exhorting their peers to stop wasting the teen years and to rebel against the low expectations of an ungodly culture."

That's beautifully stated!

In the comment section at the blog, one commenter had some questions:

matthew Says:

January 13th, 2008 at 9:42 am
why can’t a person like Jason feel inspired and motivated without thinking that “God has a plan” for him? why can’t he make a plan for himself, or a plan that benefits the people close to him?

it is clear that Mary Slessor achieved the things she did because _she_ motivated _herself_ to get out of Scotland. Why isn’t her perseverance in Africa a testament to her own will and good nature, instead of a result of the influence of Jesus?

these comments are not put to you as an attack, i hope they will be seriously answered.
thank you.

My comment there is currently awaiting moderation:

Alex & Brett,

I found your website and blog via WorldNetDaily today. What a breath of fresh air to find two wonderful young Christian men asserting themselves in such a positive and productive way! Jesus is smiling down from heaven!

If I may, I’d like to address Matthew’s questions.

Matthew wrote:

“why can’t a person like Jason feel inspired and motivated without thinking that “God has a plan” for him? why can’t he make a plan for himself, or a plan that benefits the people close to him?

The following verses may help explain why Christians give all the glory to God; especially for the proper direction that he gives us throughout our lives on this earth:

Rom 8:27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. (NLT)

Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (NLT)

When our will lines up with God’s will, it is then that we discover our gifts and how to use them in sharing the gospel of Christ as well as the advancement of God’s kingdom on earth.

You wrote:

“it is clear that Mary Slessor achieved the things she did because _she_ motivated _herself_ to get out of Scotland. Why isn’t her perseverance in Africa a testament to her own will and good nature, instead of a result of the influence of Jesus?”

There is a verse in Isaiah that humbles every Christian:
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Here is the NLT version of that verse:

Isa 64:6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.

Because of what Jesus Christ did for us at the cross, we give all the glory to Him. He is righteous. We are not. It is only through repentance for our sin and believing in Christ that our sins are washed away and we are reconciled back to God.

Despite the fact that I am not perfect and make mistakes, it is when I turn to His strength, not my own, where evidence of the Holy Spirit working and guiding me in my life becomes apparent.

What I have found in my own personal walk with Christ is that when I line up my will through doing things that are pleasing to Him; it is not for my glory. It only belongs to Him and is for His glory. I have found that whenever I do things for Him and others that line up with His will for our lives (which can be found in Christ’s words and the entire Bible), rather than for myself, it is then that I experience the greatest satisfaction in life.

Internet Anonymity Destructive?

Back in October, I read a post written by Dennis Prager at TownHall.com which discussed his opinion that Internet Anonymity is as Destructive as Internet Porn.

Personally, I think that internet porn is far more destructive and harmful to our society. However, I get Mr. Prager's point that allowing anonymous comments can also be considered quite destructive; especially when the vitriol starts flying.

He makes several good points in his article.

For example:

1. Until the Internet, in the public's best known venue for self-expression -- letters to the editor published in newspapers and magazines -- people either expressed themselves in a civilized manner or they were not published. And overwhelmingly, even those letters that were not published were written in a respectful manner because the letter-writers had to reveal their real names and their addresses (though only names and cities were published).

Being identifiable breeds responsibility; anonymity breeds irresponsibility.

Before my blogging days, I used to write two, 200 word letters-to-the-editor and submit them to our local newspaper. Every Friday, the paper provided a "faith and values" letter section. I always lamented the fact that I was limited both in content and number of times I could submit a published letter. When blogging came along, it gave ordinary people like me a forum to write posts and content as often as I wanted to. My letter writing days seem so pass'e now, in comparison.

2. The Internet practice of giving everyone the ability to express himself anonymously for millions to read has debased public discourse. Cursing, ad hominem attacks and/or the utter absence of logic characterize a large percentage of many websites' "comments" sections. And because people tend to do what society says it is OK to do, many people, especially younger people, are coming to view such primitive forms of self-expression as acceptable.

Some might argue that anonymity enables people to more freely express their thoughts. But this is not true. Anonymity only enables people to more freely express their feelings. Anonymity values feelings over thought, and immediate expression over thoughtful reflection.

This is certainly a concern. The "flower children" of the 60's and 70's baby boom generation (now known as liberal left loonies) and the young people of today's generation who have been indoctrinated by them in schools and colleges are often found to be much more crass wherever and whenever anonymous comments are allowed in a forum. Just check out The Daily Kos. It was recently outed as a hate website.

My comment over at TownHall dealt with both of these concerns.

Christinewjc writes: Monday, October, 29, 2007 10:26 AM
Dennis' idea makes sense
I think that Dennis' idea makes a lot of sense. It is each individual blog owner's choice to allow or disallow anonymous comments at his/her own blog.

I don't see disallowing anonymous comments as a free speech issue. I see it as common sense. In any other form of communication, a person does not have to allow the conversation to continue if an individual is being foul-mouthed or offensive. Free speech does allow the right to "freedom of association" as well.

Personally, I have learned over the past 3 years of blogging at my own TalkWisdom blog (as well as at the blogs of internet friends) that anonymous commenters do not usually add much to the conversation regarding the original blogpost topic. Many only post to disparage or debase what is being discussed. If a commenter is not willing to at least share his/her screen name and register with a legitimate email, then their views are probably not worth reading anyway. That's just the way it is!

Secondly, they are usually trolls who object to what has been written, but don't have the guts to attach their internet "signature," so to speak, to their comments. This way, if they make absolute fools of themselves via their own written words, it dissipates into blogosphere oblivion.

When someone registers at a blog and then writes something stupid, offensive, mean, ugly, debased or even threatening and does not have the ability to erase it later, then they are stuck with their ignorance forever being broadcast to the entire world. That is certainly to their detriment.

There are over 128 comments posted at the original article link with differing opinions on this. What's your opinion?

Turning Point Broadcast/ Influence of Blogs

Watch the Turning Point Sunday broadcast online!

Today's title:

Slaying the Giant of Anger.

From website:

Facing the Giants in Your Life
from Dr. David Jeremiah
In the journey of life, you're bound to face many giants. When these intimidating bullies come around, will you fight or fall? You can find the courage to defeat your giants through Dr. Jeremiah's series, Facing the Giants in Your Life. These giants include fear, discouragement, loneliness, worry, guilt, temptation, anger, resentment, doubt, procrastination, failure, and jealousy.

RECENT BROADCASTS:
Slaying the Giant of Temptation Sunday, July 29, 2007
Slaying the Giant of Guilt Sunday, July 22, 2007
Slaying the Giant of Worry Sunday, July 15, 2007

*******

This morning, C-span is conducting a call-in segment on the influence of blogs.

Quick!

Somebody call in and say something nice about Talkwisdom!

heh heh

*******

"Daily Kos" Outed as Hate Website

Gateway Pundit:

Well... Too bad for Daily Kos...It looks like the cat's out of the bag, now.

Daily Kos was outed tonight on the O'Reilly Factor- Full Video HERE.

After describing some of the hate speech from the website...Bill O'Reilly says Daily Kos is "like the Nazi Party- It's like the Ku Klux Klan!"

But that's not all, folks!

At Newsbusters, you can View and listen to the smarmy CEO of JetBlue trying to weasel his way out of the questions being asked by Bill O'Reilly's assistant about JetBlue's sponsorship of haters like the Daily Kos at their upcoming convention called "YearlyKos."

HT's:


Gateway Pundit

Newsbusters

LGF

P.S. It is only fair to warn you that if you click on the "Daily Kos" link and scroll down to the whinning leader's post about this news, there is some terrible language being thrown out there.

However, the end of the loonie whiner's post was classic:

And it goes on. You get the point. Irony in spades, layer after layer of it.

But what can you say when O'Reilly runs the most hate-filled television show in cableland, on the Republican Party's premier propaganda outlet?

Really, par for the course.

I'll be back on the job Friday. See you then.

Oh BOO HOO! YOU NINNY!!

O'Reilly's show is the most "hate-filled TV show?" Fox News is a "Republican propaganda outlet?"

Give me a break!!

It's just that socialists never like any information from those with whom they disagree to be made public and given a huge audience as O'Reilly's show has generated.

I just wonder what these people at Daily Kos think of Keith Olbermann? He's probably their poster boy for their radical socialistic propaganda machine.

Ugh!!

Horrendous Story That MSM Won't Cover

I first read about the horrific murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian last night over at Hot Air. In the video at Hot Air, Michele Malkin covers not only the utterly heinous and evil depravity of the criminal murderers, but also addresses the very important question as to why this story has been basically ignored by the MSM.

[Please note: the details are truly night-marish. Be forewarned!]

Snopes.com has established the authenticity of the absolutely incomprehensible brutality involved in the attacks upon these two human beings. The essay there further relates as to why this particular story does not merit MSM coverage.

The reasons are similar to the cases involving two young boys (Jeffrey Curley and Jesse Dirkhising) who were brutally raped and murdered by homosexual men, as well as the story of Mary Stachowicz, who was killed by a homosexual man she worked with because she attempted to witness to him about what the Bible says regarding homosexual behavior as sin.

What do these five murders all have in common? They will never be labeled as "hate crimes" against the victims. Why? Well, Michele at Hot Air and Snopes.com covers it quite well and bluntly tells us the answer to that question.

This is just more proof that "hate crimes" legislation is a false dichotomy that should never be passed by Congress!!!

The proof that false claims already abound from the homosexual community is another reason why it's such a farse!!

I was originally puzzled as to why the Newsom and Christian murders weren't deemed newsworthy. Why was this terribly depraved double-murder ignored while the Duke rape case received such endless media coverage? Dare I say that when the murderous perpetrators are either homosexual or black, and the victims are children or white, it just doesn't fit as "newsworthy" in the minds of liberals who are the obviously dominating presence in the newsrooms across America ? What's more, in their loonie left daft opinion, there is no way that such horrible crimes listed above would merit being labeled as "hate crimes."

Why???

We seriously need to ask and answer that question!

Why are certain crimes worthy of being labeled "hate crimes" and others are not?

There must be something else behind this trend.

Anybody care to guess??

I'll tell you.

The Federal Hate Crimes Bill: Federalizing Criminal Law While Threatening Civil Liberties.

I know what you are thinking. Isn't the left considered the reigning champions for civil liberties? Yes! They are...usually, that is. Except when the liberty being discussed does not agree with their agenda!

But wait! There's more! The ultimate goal is not only to threaten religious freedom, in general, but to target and silence Christians and God's Word, the Bible in particular!!

That's why.

HT's:

Michele Malkin

Hot Air

Snopes.com

Concerned Women for America

*******
More blogposts about this crime:

La Shawn Barber

Also, be sure to read La Shawn's related post Hate E-mail and Hate Crimes

Flopping Aces

Newsbusters

Trackback URL:
http://www.michellemalkin.com/
mt/oct05-tb.cgi/6894

*******
Update 5/18/07

This is certainly terrible news. I didn't want to be called a "race-baiter" or make claims about the murderers that I couldn't back up. However, today I read a comment by a blogger named "Hemrud" over at Flopping Aces. He wrote:

I would like to add just one item, at least one of the perps is a member of the Black Supremist group "Black Gangsta Disciples" which would lead one to think that yes indeed this was a racially motivated crime. Would any MSM reporter say a case involving Blacks tortured and killed by members of a White Supremacy group was not racially motivated? I think not. Further backing this is another report on a organisation, Black Poverty Speaks, that will be "Celebrating the Carjackers" believe it or not!

Here's the link to Nowpublic with more on this story.

HT: Flopping Aces

Also, over at Mark's Chester Street blog, one commentor made a great point and observation:

The Merry Widow said...
Mark-You look in the eyes and faces of the perps, there is no soul, the eyes are dead, and the faces show NOTHING!
This is truly an act of total evil.
And before anyone thinks I'm looking at skin, blow it! I'm looking at expressions and eyes, if the eyes are the window of the soul, nobody is home.
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!

tmw
And what of the families of Channon and Christopher? What Hell are they going through? With what they know their loved ones went through? What justice for them? Who will wipe their tears? Who will weep with them? Who will hold them? Who can erase the images?

HT: Chester Street

When I visited Mark's blog, I couldn't even bring myself to look at the pics of the murderers. But after reading The Merry Widow's comment, I made the unpleasant effort to look at the eyes and faces of those murderers. She was 100% correct in her observation. Their eyes are dead. Their expressions are dead and hopeless. Their actions were nothing but plain evil.

God's Word describes such a state of being:

Jer 17:9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

"Blog Wars" on Sundance

Last night, I noticed that a show called "Blog Wars" was on the Sundance channel. I considered watching it, at first, but then after reading the short description, figured that it was probably an entirely left-wing liberal propaganda presentation.

However, this morning I was checking out the Little Green Footballs blog and noticed a post about the show, "Blog Wars." I was encouraged to read that the writer of LGF (Charles) is featured in the the "Blog Wars" show. Now I want to watch it!

The next showing is this Saturday evening, 12/30/06, at 7:00 p.m. (probably need to check your local listings).

It will be interesting to see whether or not the show is fair and balanced. According to Charles at LGF, there is way to much Kos (a left-winged liberal blogger), but even though the producer couldn't resist giving more airtime to the left, at least LGF gets a voice in the show!

Here are some great comments over at LGF:

"saywhat" has a brief review:

Well, I count myself as one of the unfortunate souls with an incurable curiosity streak having access to the Sundance channel and a tv tonight (hey, I've got 4 kids home for the holiday!).

I'm not sure why Charles felt this program was balanced. It more resembled an excessively long Kos infomercial or an episode of the History/Biography Channel celebrating Kos (by far Markos enjoyed the lions share of attention).

Balanced? In my estimate, the damn thing offered less than 20% input from the entire conservative side. Though I have to admit, Charles your segments were delivered in the calm rational manner I read here.

Michelle Malkin's responses were intellectually sound and her emotions were justifiable but in this programs context - she came off B**chy. Geeez, I never thought I'd say that. Amazing how context can be distorted.

As difficult as it was to stomach the program, I believe there are several frames that qualify as gems for future use. (Allahpundit I hope you taped it!) Specifically the segments with Kos admitting that he and fellow liberal bloggers do not yield the power his readers perceive it to have. His record speaks for itself . . .Kos' endorsement is the kiss of death for any politician.

Many humorous posts:

rebelcub:
Holy Cow...the Kossacks look like they need to be introduced to soap and shampoo.

ntropy:
Markos has to be the most simpering, lisping, weak chinned little !@#%@!^@#$^@ I've ever seen. This show simply solidified that impression.

JammieWearingFool:
I have the Slamdance Channel. We're watching Rutgers right now, but I'll be sure to TiVo it either way.

I'll fart in Kos' general direction when I see his traitorous little bony a**. I went to a Chili's for the first time in my existence tonight so I have a solid supply of gas.

Ha ha ha haaaa!

ec marm:
Kos, ah yes, kos. Wasn't he last sighted in Iran posing as the 12th imam?

"Looking Closely" shares a great point:

In 2004, political bloggers came of age. They propelled Howard Dean from fringe candidate to front-runner. They took on Dan Rather and won. And they charted the course for the "swiftboating" of John Kerry. As the 2006 mid-term elections approached, bloggers were preparing for battle again. Filmmakers James Rogan and Phil Craig's sharp documentary examines how online democratic activism is shaping important elections by focusing on the decisive Connecticut senate race and Ned Lamont's challenge to incumbent Joe Lieberman.
"They" took on Rather and won, but "they" took on Lieberman and lost.

I also notice that Howard Dean is not only NOT sitting in the White House right now, he didn't even make the Democrat cut.

Hmm. . .

Maybe different "theys" are at work here, what do you think?

One of the best:

jed:
100 cheers for Charles in his persistant effort to combat and expose the stupidity, hypocrisy, and hatred for our American way of life by demented utopians.

And yet another great point from "Abu Al-Poopypants":
So.... the Left's greatest blogging successes: Failing to unseat Lieberman, and putting Mad Howie in charge of their party.

Thanks, Kos!

And a final quote from Charles:
Sure, there's way too much Kos, and way too much Hamsher... but at the end, they lose.

It may not be a bad thing that their hubris is so nakedly exposed. So to speak.