The Justice Department has subpoenaed indymedia.us for its visitor logs for a certain date. While this raises big flags regarding online privacy, something else happened with this action that is very odd. The recipient of the subpoena was told she could not talk about it unless authorized by the Justice Department – an essential gag order.

Of course news like this would send the right into a full frenzy that Obama is trying to silence the media, even a left-leaning site like indymedia. Here’s Hot Air’s take on it:

Did the White House try to open up a two-front war on the media?   Before the Obama administration launched an all-out battle with conservative-leaning Fox News Channel, the Department of Justice demanded the records of all visitor information of left-leaning Indymedia.us in an remarkable subpoena of a media outlet, for one specific day.  No one can recall any precedent for such a wide-ranging probe into the records of a media website, but it may provide a challenge to a national-security law if the DoJ presses hard enough:

But there’s a problem with this “blame Obama” mentality. The original source of the article is the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and this is what they say about the subpoena:

On January 30th, 2009, Kristina Clair of Philadelphia, PA — one of the system administrators of the server that hosts the indymedia.us site — received in the mail a grand jury subpoena from the Southern District of Indiana federal court. The FBI had sent an email to Ms. Clair a couple of weeks earlier asking where a subpoena directed at the indymedia.us site should be sent. So, we at EFF were ready and waiting to evaluate the subpoena as soon as it arrived. Yet even we were surprised at what we saw. A PDF of the entire subpoena is available here.

And let’s look at when the actual subpoena was signed:

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The title alone might make you think this is some feel-good fairy tale. Well the feel-good part is right, but the fairy-tale part isn’t.

Southwestern Ohio has become something of a Mecca for Tea Parties. On Labor Day weekend of this year a Tea Party was held at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio in which an estimated 18,000 tea baggers showed up. In the lead up to last week’s NY-23 race, John Boehner even brought up this event while talking to John King, which was held within walking distance of his home.

So knowing this, you would expect that any tea party-style candidate would be a shoo-in for local office in this area, wouldn’t you? Well, don’t be so sure:

The reign of the anti-school tax activists on area school boards was a short one

[SNIP]

Fairfield School Board incumbent Arnie Engel, who tried four times to get elected to Fairfield Schools governing board before finally winning in fall 2005, this time finished a distant fourth in the race for three open seats.

In Warren County's Mason School Board race, self-proclaimed "Christian conservative" incumbent Jennifer Miller ended up fifth out of eight candidates vying for three seats.

In the Monroe school board race, fiscal conservative Mike Irwin lost his re-election bid, finishing dead last among five candidates.

All three of the school districts mentioned above surround the district where the big Labor Day Tea Party was held, and they are all represented by John Boehner and Jean Schmidt. They are also parts of the reddest corner of Ohio.

So while Republicans are celebrating their wins in New Jersey and Virginia last week, we need to remember that all politics are local. And you can’t get much more local than a race for school board. Results like these show that when push comes to shove, people really aren’t ready to give the conservatives any more chances.

Rickrolled without internet! The winner of the "If the Internet Disappeared Today" contest; runners up here. Open thread below...

If you have gone to whitehouse.gov since Saturday you may not have noticed any real changes. On the outside this is true, but underneath the hood they just replaced the entire engine and drive train.

When President Obama took over at 1600 Pennsylvania one of the first things he did was order the people who manage the White House website to investigate new software. The outcome was a move from expensive and clunky proprietary software to a very familiar open source system – Drupal.

Now I don’t expect all our readers to know what Drupal is, but actually it should be very familiar. Drupal is the same software that powers Crooks and Liars. The software is extremely robust and can be extended beyond you imagination through contributed modules. In the coming months you will see more examples of this as we start rolling out our latest updated that includes countless new features to better engage you – the C&L community.

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The right has been seizing on the brutal murder of a teen, Derrion Albert, in Chicago by feuding gang members. Reports are that Albert just happened to walk into the fight and became a fatality of it.

This story has been the top story on Drudge for the last day, you know since Obama is from Chicago.

As well as Malkin trying to take a jab at community organizing, and there for Obama:

Community organizing has not stopped Chicago’s teen violence epidemic. The Olympics will not solve this long-festering problem, either.

So if we are going to blame our politicians for murders that happen in their home towns, then can we talk about this?

An 18-year-old man is behind bars and a 17-year-old male is wanted in connection with the deadly stabbing of a teenage girl in West Chester.

Police arrested Khrendon Gray of Springfield Township early Friday morning and charged him with one count of murder. He appeared in court on Friday where a judge set his bond at $1 million.

Gray is accused of fatally stabbing 15-year-old Amber Robinson Thursday evening.

On Friday afternoon, West Chester police issued an arrest warrant for 17-year-old Rashon Martin of Forest Park. The warrant is for complicity to commit murder in connection to the death of Robinson.

This case is very similar to the one in Chicago, an innocent teen being in the wrong place at the wrong time, except for the names and locations.

West Chester is where House Minority Leader John Boehner lives. As matter of fact this happened only a couple of miles from his house. Is the right going to start putting blame on Boehner for it?

Or how about the two charged with the crime. They are from Jean Schmidt’s district. When will Drudge post the headline; ‘Holy Schmidt: Jean Schmidt constituents charged with brutal murder of teenager’

It has been almost three weeks since the murder of Amber Robinson and I haven’t heard a peep out of the right on it. Apparently only the brutal murder of teens in the President’s hometown are worthy of mention. When it occurs close to home for Republicans then they just brush it under the carpet.

As the House prepares to take up a resolution of disapproval over Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during last week’s appearance by President Obama to a joint session of Congress, the wingnuts have found what they claim to be “hypocrisy” on the Democrats part.

This video is from 2007 when Rep. Pete Stark was saying how Bush lied:

Now let’s go back to the current event. The Democrats asked Joe Wilson to apologize on the House floor for his outburst and he flat out refused. It was that refusal that led to this motion.

What happened with Pete Stark? Well something the wingnuts aren’t willing to admit, yet I found out on HotAir – a rightwing blog:

Boehner introduced a censure resolution this morning knowing that the Democrats would have to kill it and symbolically line up on Stark’s side, which they did. That was enough for Pelosi, evidently: after he initially refused to apologize, after the fight-fight-fightin’ nutroots very predictably made it a point of pride that he not apologize, the good congressman has duly considered the Speaker’s rebuke from Friday and … apologized.

So the minority party introduced a resolution of censure, which was killed. But that didn’t put an end to it, Stark ended up doing the right thing and apologizing to the House and President. Wilson is refusing to apologize to the House.

Of course even Hot Air is now jumping on the “hypocrisy” bandwagon. (Note to Captain Ed – check out your own archives first!)

If there is any hypocrisy here, it is on the part of Republicans. They wanted to censure Pete Stark, but couldn’t do it since they were in the minority (remember – elections have consequences). But when it comes to Joe Wilson, they are circling the wagons. They haven’t pushed him to apologize on the House floor, but the Democrats did and he refused.

Also let’s remember what the motions are. The Republicans wanted to censure Pete Stark. That’s the second highest level of punishment in the House, with expulsion topping it. For Joe Wilson, the Democrats are wanting a resolution of “disapproval”, which is the most minor disciplinary action in the House – essentially a slap on the wrist.

So thanks wingnuts for proving that the House’s reaction to Wilson is proper. Hell they are actually letting him off easy. It’s Wilson who is refusing to play by the rules.

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While talking about the dustup between David Letterman and Sarah Palin, Republican strategist John Feehery instantly tried to say that no one made jokes about Chelsea Clinton. Contessa Brewer wouldn’t let that go and stopped him right in his tracks, which led Feehery to try and claim that Chelsea wasn’t 14 when the jokes were being made. Brewer then corrected that and reminded him, complete with finger wag and all, that Chelsea was only 12.

Considering how offended Sarah Palin is by Letterman’s jokes, I am sitting here wondering if she will boycott Rush Limbaugh now. Ok you caught me – I’m not wondering. We all know the answer to that, just like we saw how she never seemed to worry about the “jokes” her former running-mate made about Chelsea. 

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Now we are starting to hear it all when it comes to defending torture. Yesterday FBI agents who were involved in interrogating detainees testified to Senate that these techniques didn't work and that they were able to obtain valuable information using traditional methods. Well that apparently doesn't sit well with Joe Scarborough considering his new line of defense - the FBI agents are "exaggerating".

They're exaggerating their role in interrogating suspects. They are mudding up the facts and what we see here is the FBI trying to undercut the CIA - the FBI has always hated the CIA.

So Scarborough is essentially saying that the FBI is willing to perjure themselves just because of some grudge they have against the CIA. Now I have heard it all.

The Cincinnati Enquirer is preparing to rank President Obama’s first hundred days. In doing so they listed how local lawmakers have voted with the President.

• Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio: 100 percent
• Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio: 86 percent
• Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio: 71 percent
• Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio: 43 percent
• Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.: 41 percent
• Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.: 24 percent
• Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio: 0 percent
• Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky.: 0 percent
• Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio: 0 percent

I think the most telling number there is that of the House minority leader, John Boehner. He is setting the lead for his caucus and they are following in lockstep with him. Even the Senate’s Minority Leader has been able to support the President 41% of the time.

And its in the form of a convicted congressman:

- Former Ohio congressman Bob Ney has started a new talk radio show, eight months after finishing his sentence in a public corruption scandal.

Ney's show debuted Monday afternoon on WVLY-AM 1370, which serves eastern Ohio and West Virginia. He discussed the pirate hostage crisis, the economy and the Obamas' new dog.

In a video posted on the station's Web site, Ney says his radio show is a work in progress and that he expects some negative feedback from listeners because of his conviction in a congressional bribery case.

The six-term Republican from Heath in central Ohio resigned after acknowledging in a 2006 plea that he traded political favors for gifts and campaign donations arranged by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates.

From the big club house to the airwaves. That must mean only one thing. Next stop – FOX news!

Chalk this up as forcing you to become big brother:

Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.

"While the Internet has generated many positive changes in the way we communicate and do business, its limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children," U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said at a press conference on Thursday. "Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level."

Joining Cornyn was Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who said such a measure would let "law enforcement stay ahead of the criminals."

Two bills have been introduced so far--S.436 in the Senate and H.R.1076 in the House. Each of the companion bills is titled "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act," or Internet Safety Act.

So in essence, if you have a wireless router in your home then you would be required to log all access to that router and keep those logs for two years. Why? Because your neighbor might do something bad and use your internet connection to do it.

What has me scratching my head is the situation of failure. What if my $50 Linksys decides to bite the dust after one year? Do I have to store that router for another year to comply with this law?

How about people who have routers without logging, or that has very limited logging that might only keep X number of records and couldn’t possibly store the data for two years? Will these people have to go out and by new routers now?

This legislation will really cause outcries from privacy advocates. Just the idea that some people may have to go out and buy new hardware simply to become a new “big brother” for our government is very troubling.

Dear Minority Leader Boehner:

During Sunday’s Meet the Press, your Republican colleague, Senator John Ensign, said the following:

SEN. ENSIGN: But the other thing, to get back to what Congressman Frank said, is that, you know, we're going to be laying off teachers and firefighters. You know, that's just fearmongering. We're not going to be doing that in any of the states. The states have grown, in their budgets, faster than population growth, faster than inflation for the last several year--actually, probably about the last 15 years. Their budgets are bloated, the federal government's budget is bloated. What we should be doing is cutting back. Instead of just spending money, we should eliminate wasteful Washington spending and also require the states to have some fiscal discipline.

I understand you both share a strong opposition to the stimulus, but I wonder if you also share the same view as Sen. Ensign? Before answering that, let me ask if you have seen the local news, which, in a twisted sense of irony, was published the same day Sen. Ensign made these comments:

Because of budget cuts, the Butler County Sheriff's Office has made a number of changes, including restructuring and job cuts.

These moves — coupled with job reduction in the minimum security jail contracted through Resolutions Community Solutions and the elimination of $500,000 from the budget of the new radio system to come online this year — will save the county about $1.4 million, Sheriff Richard K. Jones said.

Three jobs have been eliminated and pink slips handed out to the crime prevention officer (a part-time position) and two officers assigned to the child support enforcement division. Meanwhile, the number of employees in the information technology division has been decreased from three to two, according to Jones.

(emphasis added)

Now I understand the Sen. Ensign said “teachers and firefighters”, but I think it’s a safe assumption that his thinking would couple police with firefighters under a larger blanket of public safety.

So Mr. Boehner, after reading that the very people charged with protecting your home and family is suffering from severe budget cuts, attributed to our down turning economy, can I ask if you agree with your colleague? Do you also believe that saying localities will have to make these kind of cuts is “fear mongering”.

I will be patiently awaiting your answer.

Signed – your constituent, Jamie Holly.

Open source software is everywhere. It runs not only this blog, but also our servers – as well as a mass majority of the blogosphere and web. The software doesn’t cost anything to use, or even alter, but it has been the foundation of an industry estimated to be valued at $60 billion. Imagine something that is essentially free generating tons of revenue. That idea would make George Bush’s head explode.

Now we are in a new era with a new President and it looks like he is open to taking our governments mindset out of the 90s and bring them into the new millennium when it comes to software choices:

The secret to a more secure and cost effective government is through open source technologies and products.

The claim comes from one of Silicon Valley's most respected business leaders Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

He revealed he has been asked to prepare a paper on the subject for the new administration.

"It's intuitively obvious open source is more cost effective and productive than proprietary software," he said.

"Open source does not require you to pay a penny to Microsoft or IBM or Oracle or any proprietary vendor any money."

You can hear lobbyists from companies like Microsoft flocking on D.C. already to try and stop this. Hopefully they fail, because open source software is the way to go. Supporting a growing industry like this is something synonymous with economic stimulus. Small start up companies that specialize in different open source applications could see themselves grow by receiving support and development requests from the U.S. government.

As if the foreclosures alone weren’t wreaking enough havoc on our economy, we also find out the whole process is starting to hurt our local cities in other ways we didn’t imagine:

Cincinnati wants Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo to pay for what officials say is neglect of foreclosed-upon properties that's worsening blight in city neighborhoods.

The banks own more than 100 properties in Hamilton County.

Representatives appear often in local courts to prosecute foreclosure actions against property owners, the city says in a lawsuit, but don't show up when Cincinnati asks them to maintain abandoned properties titled to them. The city wants repayment for boarding up, demolishing and the other work done to Deutsche and Wells Fargo properties. The suit didn't specify an amount.

It really upsets me when I hear people on the right try to say the foreclosure problem is from greedy people trying to live outside of their means, and we should let them suffer. Sure there are a lot of foreclosures that are the product of people over-extending themselves, but just ignoring that leads to these costs being passed onto struggling local governments. Not only that, but it also effects the former neighbors of these foreclosed homeowners. People sit there and pay their mortgages on time, take pride in their home ownership and try to make something good out of the largest investment they will most likely ever make. In turn, they get rewarded with lower property values, because of a foreclosed house turned abandoned by the bank, now devaluing up their neighborhood.

I got a feeling the lawsuit being brought on by Cincinnati is only the start of it. We will see more cities follow suit (no pun intended) down the road as they realize how much this nightmare is costing them. Then the banks will want to recoup the costs of these lawsuits and having to actually maintain the properties they couldn’t wait to foreclose on. Of course the banks are only worried about their own well being. Why should they worry that your own property value is also being decreased, or that your local government is having to absorb some big costs associated with the foreclosures?

Pandora’s Box is just now opening, and without interaction by Congress, in the form of a homeowner bailout/rescue, we will be facing a vicious cycle that will continue for some time to come and cost all of us more than we could imagine. Until that happens, merry Christmas from the Bush/Republican economy.

(cross posted at IntoxiNation)

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While talking about the new administration, Joe Scarborough was talking them up by saying these aren't the kind of people to "flip you off" or say "f--- you", except there weren't any dashes in what he said. A few minutes later he starts to apologize about it, but Mika didn't think he actually said it. Well it turns out he did and they even got tons of emails about it.

This isn't Joe's first time doing this. Yesterday was the two year anniversary of him dropping another F-Bomb while talking with Tucker Carlson.