Free Republic

Seven days left. If you want to do something worthwhile vote for Valour-IT blog as "Best English Weblog." Valour-IT has a very worthy project: "Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, helps provide voice-controlled and adaptive laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field. The experience...

Vote For Free Republic As Best Online Community!Free Republic is behind Daily KOS by only a few votes! Vote For Stop The ACLU As Best of The Top 250 Blogs!Help me out, I'm running a close second place to a lefty feminst blog!

Iran's president launches weblog Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has joined a burgeoning international community - by starting his own weblog. BBC News Monday, 14 August 2006, 10:21 GMT 11:21 UK The launch of www.ahmadinejad.ir was reported on state TV, which urged users to send in messages to the president. Mr Ahmadinejad's first posting, entitled autobiography, tells of his childhood, Iran's Islamic revolution, and the country's war with Iraq. The blog includes a poll asking if users think the US and Israel are trying to trigger a new world war. There is a postform for users to send in questions...

OK FRiends and PW's, we are here and we are cocked locked, and ready to rock.

GLENN Reynolds isn't just the author of "An Army of Davids." He's a living, breathing embodiment of the book's attractive and persuasive thesis as summarized in its lengthy but informative subtitle: "How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths." In August 2001, Reynolds was a respected but relatively obscure law professor teaching at the University of Tennessee, a college better known for its football program than its brainpower. Then Reynolds, who had been haunting Slate's reader forum "The Fray," started Instapundit.com, which took off like gangbusters after the 9/11 attacks. Reynolds linked...

LOS ANGELES -- Commentator Ariana Huffington apologized to readers for a blog posted on her Web site on March 13 that was attributed to actor George Clooney but was actually a compilation of his views. Huffington acknowledged on her Web site Saturday that she was "blinded" to the issue of assembling a blog in which the source of the material wasn't clear, as was the case with Clooney. "I now realize that I made a big mistake in posting a blog without clearly identifying that the material in it didn't originate as a blog post, but was pieced together from...

Wonders of wonders, the Washington Post finally but somewhat unobtrusively turned back on their blog. No doubt after getting "tons of emails" about it. But from what Jim Brady said and the recent turning on the blog back on doesn't make any sense.

Described by Reporters Sans Frontieres as "the biggest prison for journalists in the Middle East" -- where, in the last six years, 41 daily newspapers have been banned -- Iran has long lacked a public forum for independent voices. But it hasn't been immune to the user-driven web revolution. In April 2003, Iran became the first government to imprison a blogger: Sina Motallebi of the popular weblog RoozNegar.com. (Despite anti-censorship public outcry, the Iranian government still uses extensive filtering to block out Internet content deemed inappropriate.) It seems that as the regime has tried to crack down on "immorality," dissent...

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday confirmed that it took down the blog of outspoken Chinese journalist Zhao Jing, saying that it was complying with China's laws. Blogger Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN Beijing bureau chief now a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, first reported that Jing's blog was taken down New Years Eve by Microsoft's blog-hosting service MSN Spaces. The blog has been replaced with the message, "This space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Zhao, aka Michael Anti, is among a number of Chinese bloggers that have grown in popularity...

The explosive growth of youthful, irreverent online diaries has alarmed Iran's hardline Government THE MUSIC OF Eric Clapton was banned in Iran this week. Broadcasters were ordered to cease playing “decadent” western songs and stick to “fine Iranian music”. Not content with denying the Holocaust, Israel’s right to exist, and advertising hoardings featuring David Beckham, Iran’s hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has now denied his people the chance to listen to Layla — cruel and unusual punishment indeed. But if Iran, under the repressive rule of the ultraconservatives, is silencing the sound of Western pop, in another area of its culture,...

Lawrenceville, GA (Dec. 7) – Congressman John Linder (R-GA) announced that he has launched a “blog” on his Seventh Congressional District Online Office site. A web log, or blog, is basically a web page that serves as a public journal that is updated on a regular basis and reflects the personality and goals of the author. A number of studies indicate that over a quarter of Internet users in the United States read blogs because they provide an excellent outlet for people to convey their views on issues being debated across the nation. In announcing the blog, which was launched...

Monday, October 17, 2005 Love is never having to say you are sorry A few years ago I let the world know a secret of mine -- Tipper and I were the real-life inspiration for the book "Love Story" by Erich Segal. Unfortunately, in a bit of rewriting of history, he disputes this, even claiming not to know us! It hurts that he doesn't remember the long walks we had, or the ice skating in central park, or when I got my first real six-string (I bought it at the five-and-dime), and played it til my fingers bled. That was...

MATHEWS -- The Mathews High School class of 2000 voted Erin Crabill "Most Unique." Now she's at the periphery of the mystery surrounding the death of Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Behl, whose body was found in a shallow grave on land adjoining property owned by some of Crabill's family members. Crabill was known by Benjamin Fawley, the man considered a suspect in Behl's death, according to friends and Fawley's Web log. Fawley, a self-described amateur photographer, is in police custody, but not because of Behl's disappearance. Investigators following leads that he was seen with her the night she vanished...

DOVER — The Delaware Supreme Court dismissed a Smyrna councilman's attempt to unmask an anonymous Internet poster Wednesday, reversing a lower court's decision. Smyrna Town Councilman Patrick J. Cahill and his wife Julia alleged in a September 2004 Superior Court suit that four anonymous posters to a Web log — or blog — defamed him by claiming he had an "obvious mental deterioration" and implying that he was homosexual. The Internet free speech case is the first decided by any Supreme Court, which could give it national importance, said the attorney representing one anonymous poster. "The Delaware Supreme Court recognized...

In the past, the experiences of war have produced poetry and novels and memoirs. The War on Terror is different: we're seeing through a new set of eyes, a new kind of literature. In real time, on the Internet, officers and enlisted men and women are chronicling the war on weblogs. As the number of blogs continue to rise dramatically, blogging’s advent – the effect of which has been likened to that of the printing press on the Reformation - is giving the world the opportunity to experience the world’s latest war – the War on Terror – first hand....

WASHINGTON — Army officials this week issued new warnings to soldiers about posting personal stories from combat zones on the Internet and taking photos at overseas bases, saying those actions could jeopardize troops’ security. The list of prohibited activities includes taking photos of Defense Department facilities, posting any official Defense Department information and releasing information detailing job responsibilities. “Whether it is a family Web page or a personal blog, safety and security measures must be strictly observed,” the message said. “Sensitive DOD information must not be divulged to the public at large for national security reasons.” The message also notes...

Court hears Del. blog case; Smyrna's Cahill claims libel on Web site postings By Drew Volturo, Delaware State News DOVER - The Delaware Supreme Court waded chest-deep Wednesday into an Internet free-speech case, seeking to strike a balance between one person's right to free speech against another's claims of libel. Smyrna Town Councilman Patrick J. Cahill and his wife Julie filed the suit last year in Superior Court alleging they were defamed by four anonymous posters to a community issues Web log - or blog - on the Internet. The expletive-laced postings lambasted the councilman, claiming he had an "obvious...

Hello Fellow Freepers, I am posting this because forum is the biggest, most active place I can think of to help out a fellow Texan and the Katrina survivors at the same time. I posting this letter from fellow Texan Scott Chaffin, a gentleman who lives just up the way from on the rambling river known as "the Arms of God", El Brazos de Dios, who would like to utilize the resources he has at his "tiny bidness." He writes : Dear Sweet, Clean Texas Members of the TFG Blogroll, You might or might not know that I have a...

About four years ago, I became extremely disturbed at overhearing conversations my grandchildren were having at a large family gathering – conversations that were obviously being fueled by poisonous attitudes being inculcated in them about America by their public school teachers. I wrote them a letter as a first step in a campaign to try to undo the harm being done to them and to their country. That letter developed into an e-mail discussion group – and then into a weblog. To read the letter, go to my site and enter the words - to my grandchildren - in the...

High court to hear blog suit; Smyrna councilman claims anonymous defamation By Drew Volturo, Delaware State News DOVER — A lawsuit seeking to identify anonymous posters to an Internet Web log will be decided in the Delaware Supreme Court, a case some say could set precedents for free speech online. The case, filed last year by Smyrna Town Councilman Patrick J. Cahill and his wife Julia, alleges that four anonymous posters to a community issues blog "defamed" the councilman and his wife in late 2004. Blogs are electronic public forums that allow residents to post their ideas, opinions and comments...

WASHINGTON — Free speech advocates are frustrated with a host of American companies they say have been collaborating with oppressive regimes in countries like China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to help them filter and monitor the Internet activity of their citizens. Big technology names like Microsoft, Yahoo! and Cisco have been criticized roundly in recent years for providing foreign governments with the tools they need to crack down on Internet use, but critics say they have not been able to do much more than complain. "These companies' lack of ethics is extremely worrisome," said Lucie Morillon, the Washington representative of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran has among the strictest Internet censorship in the world, blocking access to sexual content, political websites, information on women's rights and "blogs," a study by Internet researchers showed. The OpenNet Initiative, a partnership of researchers from Harvard University, the University of Toronto and University of Cambridge, noted that Iran uses technology from the US company, Secure Computing, calling the firm "complicit" in the censorship. But they said that Internet content controls "have support at the highest levels of the Iranian state." The researchers found some 34 percent of tested websites blocked. "The Iranian state has effectively...

Internet censorship is increasingly common, says technology commentator Bill Thompson, but making small gains in freedom may be enough. "We shouldn't be surprised to learn that the Chinese authorities have finally turned their attention to weblogs and decided that they have to be censored. After all, a government that has put so much effort into controlling the free flow of information was hardly going to ignore a publishing tool that is easily accessible by 78 million net users. Now anyone in China who wants to blog has until 30 June to register or face criminal sanctions, and according to the...

CITIZEN WEB: Blogs, Political Websites Broaden S.C. Media By Dan Cook Mike Green is a staunch conservative, but he isn’t too pleased with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham these days. “I am a Republican, I voted for Lindsey Graham, I even campaigned for him in Greenville,” Green asserts. But Graham’s work toward brokering a compromise in the Senate fight over President Bush’s judicial nominees has Green reeling, and on May 20 — four days before Graham joined with Senate moderates to avoid a showdown — Green declares himself “hopping mad” over Graham’s reluctance to push for ending the Democrats’ ability to...

On May 19, 2002, police in Henderson County, North Carolina investigated an incident where a rock had been thrown off an overpass damaging a rig traveling on Interstate 26. Earlier that day, Gerald Velardi had written in his weblog "I'm going to trash some s**t tonight, maybe my damage will be shown on the news." Velardi was arrested for the crime of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and sentenced to no less than two years in prison. At trial, the prosecutor brought up Velardi's weblog during cross examination. On appeal, Velardi argued that this evidence was...

By ELLEN SIMON, AP Technology Writer GREENSBORO, N.C. - It's a journalist's job to ask questions, but they're usually aimed at outsiders. At the News & Record, a 93,000-daily circulation newspaper in Greensboro, reporters and editors are asking tough questions about the paper itself. The biggest questions: If the paper needs to change to survive, what changes should be made? What can it do, especially online, to make itself the electronic equivalent of a town square? Seeking the answers, the paper has launched an audacious online experiment. The News & Record's Web site features 11 staff-written Web journals, or blogs,...

Going into the 2004 election cycle, just about everyone said the Internet was going to change politics. But no one was sure how. Now we know. The first signs of change came from the Howard Dean campaign. His campaign manager, Joe Trippi, used the Internet, and meetup.com and moveon.org to identify and bring together Bush-haters from all over the country, and raise far more money than anyone expected. ....The right blogosphere's greatest triumph came after CBS' Dan Rather reported that Bush had shirked duty in the National Guard and the network posted its 1972-dated documents on the Web. Within four...

(New York, January 6, 2005) -- After testifying to a presidential commission about their torture during detention, a group of Iranian journalists have received death threats from judicial officials under Tehran chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch is extremely concerned about the safety of the journalists, whose testimony to a presidential commission, tasked with investigating mistreatment of detainees, provided detailed information on their torture and mistreatment while they were detained, without being charged, by secret squads operating under the authority of the judiciary. “We want the Iranian government to know that the world is...

Leftists Stealing Votes That Don't (Really) Count? In a matter of only hours, two left wing blogs - Kos and Atrios - went from the bottom of the pack of blogs and suddenly pulled ahead by a pretty fat margin in the Best Overall Blog category in the Wizbang Weblog Awards. I have a deep suspicion that (ahemm) someone rigged the poll. There is a huge possiblity that someone could have nixed the system, and after roaming at Kos and Atrios, Atrios hasn't even advertised himself in the Weblog Awards! I humbly ask that Mr. Alyward, chairman of the Election...

Sunday, December 5th, 2004Vote 'A.B.G.' (Anyone But Gleeson)Dear Friends,Sorry I haven't written anything on my site for a month. I've been wallowing in sorrow (and chili cheese fries) over the stolen 2004 election.Is stolen too strong a word? I think not. Consider this map of Ohio, the state which saved Bush's bacon. Mmmmm, bacon.I'm sorry, what was I saying? Read that back to me. Ohio, right.That map, my friends, proves no fewer than 67,148 counts of people having to wait in line to vote. Sometimes, in the rain. And when they finally reached the polls, at least 29 were...

Sean Gleeson gets my vote for the 2004 Weblog Awards for his now famous Scooby-Rather cartoon. If you agree, visit the link above and vote for "The Gleeson Bloglomerate." If you haven't seen it yet, here it is again...

My research partner Barbara Kaye and I are professors at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and University of Tennessee-Knoxville. We are conducting an online survey that examines the motivations for accessing the Web, weblogs, chat rooms, bulletin boards and other Internet resources for political information. Our survey has been approved by the University of Tennessee institutional review board and is being conducted for academic purposes only. We are specifically looking for individuals who connect to online political information to fill out our survey. Survey URL: http://apps.ws.utk.edu/politics

Sometimes success can spoil a good thing. A soldier with the Stryker brigade in Iraq who posted riveting online accounts of combat in Iraq has apparently made his last post, abruptly closing a Website that drew an untold number of readers. CBFTW—the pseudonym of the online diarist, an enlisted soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat Team—won a following for his frank, profane and often funny take on the life of a soldier in Iraq. He chronicled the tedium of a lengthy deployment and the occasional moments of sheer terror, including a vicious, but largely unpublicized,...

As the title says, I was wondering if anyone has a list of conservative web logs by people at the Republican National Convention, or by those who have sources behind the scenes at the events. TIA.

BAGHDAD — A year ago, few Iraqis had ever had access to a computer, much less used it to communicate to the outside world. Now, Internet cafes seemingly dot every block in Baghdad, and new ones open often. That has led to a new phenomenon here: bloggers. "We suffered for years under Saddam Hussein, not being able to speak out," says Omar Fadhil, 24, a dentist. "Now, you can make your voice heard around the world."

Stephen Yellin posts a minutiae-filled analysis of Senate, House and gubernatorial races across the country almost weekly on Daily Kos, the most-trafficked liberal political blog on the Net. Other posters laud his thoroughness and debate his conclusions. He has landed a spot as a political operative with a major Democratic presidential nominee. He's walked precincts, volunteered for campaigns and run for office. He is also 15 years old -- too young to drive to his local polling station, let alone cast a vote there. Yellin is just a sophomore in high school, but in the blogosphere he is already a...

<p>On a modest street in the flats of Berkeley there's a little yellow bungalow behind a shabby fence. It's one of those places you expect to find a pit bull, but instead you find a bright young mayor of a city of about 70,000 liberal activists, writers, kibitzers, kidders and some folks who clearly have a lot of time on their hands.</p>

Google, the world's largest search engine, is being deliberately thwarted by an orchestrated campaign of Bush hating bloggers. Google operates on a set of established algorithms, which rank pages on how other web pages refer to it via links, which is why this juvenile campaign has worked to the point where you can type "Miserable Failure" in, hit "I Feel Lucky" and go to the White House Biography of President Bush. A new low surely, but sadly this campaign season, not unexpected. I would suggest letting Google know that its search engine is being deliberately manipulated by those who must...

&#8203; &#8203;&#8203;&#8203;&#8203;Today, Bush-Cheney ’04 launched its official blog offering the latest news and views from outside the Washington “Beltway” and from Bush-Cheney ’04. (If you're wondering what exactly a blog is, here's a quick primer.) Each morning we will update you on the day’s top stories as well as give you a quick summary of what Bush-Cheney ’04 has planned for the day. We’ll also help you follow President Bush and Vice President Cheney. We will regularly deliver breaking news notices of when President Bush, and members of his team will appear on TV and action alerts to guide your...

Check out the DNC's new weblog, Kicking Ass. Learn the latest outrages from the Bush administration and how Democrats are fighting for you.

  POLITICS Dean's Blog Builds Support Despite a Lack of Personal Input The former Vermont governor has a slick and informative Weblog, but if you hope to glean some insight about the man, you might be better off shaking hands with him in person.Anyone who has visited a magazine newsrack in America this week knows the mug of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. The centrist-turned-populist candidate for U.S. president had pulled off the triple threat in campaign PR: Dean is featured on the cover of Time, Newsweek and above the banner on U.S. News this week. If you wanted to read every recent...

Meet "Chief Wiggles." "Chief Wiggles," whose real name is withheld for security, maintains a Web log about experiences in Iraq. chiefwiggles.blog-city.com The name is a pseudonym set up for security purposes. The man using it is a Utah National Guard soldier stationed in Iraq whose Internet journal — a "blog," in the parlance of Web surfers, which is short for "Web log" — draws thousands of readers a day. His writings and the photographs he has posted of himself and fellow soldiers give a vivid, first-hand account of everyday life for an American interrogator who has been questioning Iraqi prisoners....

Operation Expanding Freepdom continues to grow by leaps and bounds with new Freeper blogs coming out of the woodwork and joining our network everyday. I can barely keep up! Thank you to everyone who has participated so far, and if you want to know how to start your own blog, read on or click here, here, or here. Despite sensible voices like Andrew Sullivan, James Lileks, and Glenn Reynolds, blogging is being portrayed as the medium for left-wing candidates and activists. Therefore, I'd like to begin a feature where we spotlight leading examples of conservative activism in the blogosphere....

Earlier this week, a Free Republic Blog Directory, or Blogroll, was established here on Free Republic. The goal of this effort is to spotlight key weblogs written by Freepers from a conservative, pro-Bush perspective -- and to expand Freepdom to include the fast-growing "blogosphere." Hence the name: Operation Expanding Freepdom! The response so far has been great. Here's the very latest listing of Freeper blogs, including those started as a result of the original thread. If your blog isn't on this list, REPLY TO THIS THREAD with your blog's address. Cathryn CrawfordWilliam McKinleyRegnum CrucisMichael KingFederal ReviewThe View from ArlenImalMHGinTNAnna Z.The...

On Friday, I wrote a piece asking why Freepers don't get more involved in reading and writing blogs to expand Free Republic's influence in a growing medium that needs more conservative, pro-Bush voices. The response was phenomenal. Click here to read the original thread, "Are Freepers Still Winning the Online War?" One of the ideas that grew out of that thread was to start a Free Republic Blog Directory, or blogroll, as bloggers call it. From time to time, we will list all Freepers with blogs on threads like this to draw attention to their fine conservative writings. All Free...

In what is becoming on of the only blogs any thinking individual need check day in and day out. Links to the best thinkers in the world. The Daily Blog: The KMC Blog.

On April 19, Hossein Derakhshan, a young Iranian living in Toronto, got an alarming e-mail from a friend of his in Tehran. The friend, Sina Montallebi, wrote that he had been summoned to appear before the religious police. The next day, Mr. Montallebi became the first person in history to be jailed for the crime of keeping a Weblog. "They did it to frighten people," says Mr. Derakhshan, who came to Canada two years ago. The story of the Internet and the mullahs is a fascinating study in how technology can subvert even the most repressive of regimes. In the...

The graduate student arrested in yesterday’s hostage stand-off at a Cleveland university, after killing one student and injuring two other people, Halder was a very active and outspoken member of the loony left anti-war crowd. Charles Johnson, on his weblog, is on top of this story with the linked posting and more.

the truth The truth according the far left: All celebrations in Iraq are staged. All weapons, suicide vests, etc. found in Iraq were planted by the CIA The Bush administration planned and carried out 9/11. No plane ever crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Republicans killed Paul Wellstone. The POWs were all faked/staged to get public sympathy. Bush is responsible for the anthrax attacks. Everything is a Zionist conspiracy Everything is a Right Wing conspiracy Bush is responsible for the demise of the unicorn, the burning of Rome, the popularity of boy bands, the poor defense of the Mets,...

WHERE DO THEY GET YOUNG MEN LIKE THIS? Martin Savidge of CNN, embedded with the 1st Marine battalion, was talking with 4 young Marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had been telling the story of how well the Marines had been looking out for and taking care of him since the war started. He went on to tell about the many hardships the Marines had endured since the war began and how they all look after one another. He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders and they could use...