Father of the Year

I like this guy's style, though I have to warn you you'll hear some bad language.  A 15-year old girl decided to slam her parents on Facebook, thinking her parents wouldn't see her rant.  Boy was she wrong.  You gotta watch the whole thing so you don't miss the happy ending.

Got a Conservative Group on Facebook? Not for Long

Oh, you'll still have your group, but you'll lose all your members:

 Facebook still ugly, annoying; now also fascist -- If you've got a Facebook group and you're not a liberal, get ready to start all over. TheDC's Neil Munro reports: "Facebook’s managers are deploying a new software upgrade that will dismantle myriad groups of like-minded political activists unless they get a special software-key from the company. But Facebook managers are providing very limited information about which groups are being favored with the new key, prompting some activists to complain about possible political favoritism among Facebook managers, and many other activists to experiment with techniques and tricks to get the needed upgrade-key... The new software-upgrade will automatically archive all groups. Once archived, each group’s past activity will be still be visible on Facebook, but the groups’ administrators will lose access to their lists of group members. That means the administrators lose contact with everyone in their groups, and will be forced to recruit all those members again – unless Facebook provides them with the special upgrade software." Well, it should be easy enough to keep Facebook from trashing your groups. Just don't express political opinions that differ from those of Facebook's administrators. 

I know of one conservative group with 60,000 members that is not being given the opportunity to upgrade. They'll have to rebuild that group from scratch. Meanwhile, some relatively small but less politically incorrect groups are being allowed to upgrade.

I've got a little experience with that myself. I created a group a couple of years ago for Southern Gospel Music Artists that has 466 members. I was given the upgrade for that one. I belong to another small group of 67 members that's made up of people who all used to attend the same church. That group was also upgraded.

However, I started a group several years ago that was intentionally politically incorrect: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Lights, a satirical group to promote my fondness for colored Christmas lights that currently has 595 members. It was also a chance for me to poke fun at the NAACP and their race-centric activism.  Facebook has not offered me an upgrade for that one and I think I know why.

We'll see if they change their mind.

Email Scam of the Day

Haven't done one of these for awhile.  I got this in the mail this morning:

Dear Customer.

A Spam is sent from your FaceBook account.

Your password has been changed for safety.

Information regarding your account and a new password is attached to the letter.
Read this information thoroughly and change the password to complicated one.

Please do not reply to this email, it's automatic mail notification!


Thank you for attention.
FaceBook Service.

The email came complete with an attachment that probably has some sort of virus attached to it. I love it when I get email like this written by someone who clearly doesn't speak much English. Very entertaining.

Big Brother, or Perhaps We Should Call It Big Teacher, Wants To Monitor Your Kid's Facebook Account

It's amazing how easy the government is able to find new civil rights:

Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.

There has only been muted opposition to this far-reaching policy among the professionals and advocates in the education sector, most of whom are heavily reliant on funding and support from top-level education officials. The normally government-averse tech-sector is also playing along, and on Mar. 11, Facebook declared that it was “thrilled” to work with White House officials to foster government oversight of teens’ online activities.

The only formal opposition has come from the National School Board Association, which declined to be interviewed by The DC.

The agency’s threats, which are delivered in a so-called “Dear Colleague” letter,” have the support of White House officials, including President Barack Obama, who held a Mar. 10 White House meeting to promote the initiative as a federal “anti-bullying” policy.

The letter says federal officials have reinterpreted the civil-rights laws that require school principals to curb physical bullying, as well as racist and sexist speech, that take place within school boundaries. Under the new interpretation, principals and their schools are legally liable if they fail to curb “harassment” of students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or in private conversation among a few youths.

So, now your kid has a civil right not to be bullied on Facebook and somehow your kid's school is supposed to be able to monitor the messages your kid sends and receives on the service (not to mention text messages on the kid's phone).  How are teachers and schools supposed to do that?  Will the government abrogate privacy laws to allow schools open access to kid's computer and phone records?

This is another classic overreach by the federal government.  No one thinks bullying is a good thing, but schools are not parents and there has to be a limit to what information schools can access about your kids.

Of course, if your kid is being bullied you can always show him this video of a kid in Australia who finally had enough.  And yes, sometimes violence IS the answer.

Is Social Networking Helping Us Communicate More...or Less?

This person thinks we're losing actual human communication:

The way in which people frantically communicate online via Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern madness, according to a leading American sociologist.

"A behaviour that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological," MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes in her new book, Alone Together, which is leading an attack on the information age.

Turkle's book, published in the UK next month, has caused a sensation in America, which is usually more obsessed with the merits of social networking. She appeared last week on Stephen Colbert's late-night comedy show, The Colbert Report. When Turkle said she had been at funerals where people checked their iPhones, Colbert quipped: "We all say goodbye in our own way."

Turkle's thesis is simple: technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.

Like anything I think it matters how you use the technology. I do see a lot of people walking around with their heads down scrolling through stuff on their smartphone rather than watching what they're doing (such as the lady that walked into the mall fountain because she wasn't paying attention). However, for me, social networking has provided an opportunity to keep up with people I rarely see.

Take for instance the annual trip to the Rockport Gospel Music Festival. There are people who I see there every year, but in the past knew little or nothing of what they did during the time between Festivals. Now, thanks to Facebook, I can keep up with them and easily touch base in ways I never did before. The same is true with many relatives who live in other parts of the country.

No doubt the whole thing could get quite addictive for some people, but all-in-all I think social networking has provided me with much more communication than I had before.

Huntington Beach Wants to Tag Your Photo on Facebook

But only if you're a repeat drunk driver:

Police in a city ranked top in the state for alcohol-related traffic fatalities might soon be trying a new tactic to keep drunken drivers off the road: Electronic shaming on Facebook.

In a contentious move that has raised the hackles of privacy advocates and been met with resistance from a police department fearful of alienating residents, a councilman in Huntington Beach wants police to begin posting the mug shots of everyone who is arrested more than once for driving while under the influence.

“If it takes shaming people to save lives, I am willing to do it,” said Devin Dwyer, the councilman behind the proposal. “I’m hoping it prevents others from getting behind the wheel and getting inebriated.”

Dwyer initially wanted the police department to post on Facebook photographs of everyone arrested for DUI in the bar-laden beach town just south of Los Angeles. He has watered down his proposal — now only repeat offenders would be featured on the virtual wall of shame — in hopes of winning support from the rest of the seven-member council, which is set to vote on the issue Tuesday.

I doubt that this will have any real impact on the number of drunk drivers in Huntington Beach. I have no particular objection to it, I just don't think it will have much effect.

What if Jesus Had Been Born When Social Media Existed?

If you're a Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, or other social media user, you'll enjoy this:

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Follow HolyCoast.com on Facebook and Twitter

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And Twitter will be big on election night.  Most of the updates you'll get from me as the races are decided will come out via Twitter.

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Congress on Facebook

Maybe it's time for the "Dislike" button:

Washington (CNN) - Facebook, the popular social networking site, launched a "Congress on Facebook" page Thursday. The new page highlights innovative uses of Facebook by members of Congress, lists members' official pages and publishes news and information about Facebook and Congress.

"More than 300 members of Congress use Facebook in an official capacity to communicate and connect with their constituents and we're excited [to] showcase some of the most innovative uses of our platform on Capitol Hill," Tim Sparapani, Facebook's public policy director, told CNN in an e-mail.

The new page has a robust "resources" tab full of information that members of Congress can use to start or maintain their own Facebook pages.

Because it lists all the official House and Senate Facebook pages, the new "Congress on Facebook" is also a one-stop shop for Facebook users who want to connect with their representatives on Capitol Hill.

On the main landing page, updates will be regularly posted with interesting stories about Facebook and Congress. Facebook will also use the new page's newsfeed to publish stories about legislation the company supports.

The new page is similar to the "Facebook and Government" page, which is used to showcase innovative uses of the social network by various departments of the federal government and to provide news and information about federal agencies.

I think I can skip that one.

Dem Senators Want to Control Facebook

How far reaching does the Democrat congress want to be?  Four Democrat Senators, Chuckie Schumer, Al Franken, Mark Begich and Michael Bennet think Congress has a right to control Facebook, the social networking site used by millions of Americans.  You can read their letter to Facebook management here.

They don't think you're smart enough to control your own use of the service and determine your own privacy settings.  I'm surprised we can even breathe on our own without some Democrat telling us "In.....Out....".

Actually, I think this story goes a little deeper.  After all, just look at Al Franken's profile photo:

No wonder he wants to control other people's access to his information.

Health Care Headline of the Day

h/t Instapundit:

FACEBOOK LINKED TO rise in syphilis.

I think I see a potential growth industry here - mouse condoms (computer mice, not four-legged mice). Wrap your condom around your mouse and you can practice safe computing.

If You Tweet You Can't Have a Seat

In the jury box, that is:

No tweeting or status updates in court or deliberation rooms. Judges have been increasingly instructing juries to stay off Facebook and Twitter -- and don't use the Internet to investigate the cases, according to Joseph Rosenbaum, a Reed Smith partner, who chairs the firm's global Advertising Technology & Media Law practice.

Social media and access to search the Internet from anywhere have begun to change the rules in the U.S. court systems. County and city courts have begun to post rules outside each courtroom instructing people not only to turn off their mobile phone to eliminate the noise from obnoxious ringtones, but to keep people from writing blogs and posts.

Judges have started giving juries instructions to stay off social network sites. As jurors come on to the jury and during the trial, "judges have begun to tell them they cannot surf the Web, do their own independent research and communicate with others via social media," Rosenbaum says. "They take the 'don't communicate and don't read the newspapers' language we use to hear and moving it into the digital age."

Some courts have contemplated banning bringing mobile phones and personal computers into courtrooms, Rosenbaum says. While today a ruling might get thrown out of court if someone tweets or blogs during a trial, at least one state has considered taking criminal action against the jurors.

Can you imagine if Twitter had been around during the OJ trial?

OMG!! OJ tried to put on the gloves AND THEY DIDN'T FIT!! ROFLOL!

Maybe a little Twitter commentary from the jurors would help speed up these trials.

The CPAC Straw Poll Does Have At Least One Important Use

First, this from Don Surber:

So Republican Congressman Ron Paul and his minions were able to stuff the CPAC ballot box and make him appear to be the leading candidate of his party for the 2012 presidential race.

When announced, results were booed by most of CPAC’s crowd of 10,000 or so.

It’s 2008 all over again, when these same people stuffed every online poll foolish enough to include him in its choices.

Ron Paul hasn't a chance to win either the nomination or the general election. While a handful of starry-eyed young conservatives still think he's the bees knees of politics, I can't wait for the day when they wake up and realize he'll be 77 on election day in 2012. Even if he were to survive the primary (and survive..period), America will not elect a 77 year old president, I don't care what his ideas and policies are. Not in this day and age. I don't care if he can turn water into wine. I don't even have to deconstruct his political stands to know that much.

The Paulistinians (or Ronulans or Paul Bearers as they are also known) are true believers in the religion of Paulism, and I can't for the life of me figure out how he's managed to attract such a cult-like following. In my view, those who are giddy with glee today over this silly straw poll and actual believe Ron Paul should be the candidate in 2012 are applying about as much brainpower to their electoral choice as the truthers and the birthers apply to their pet cause.

Consequently, the CPAC straw poll has proved useful to me in one way - it's allowed me to clean up my Facebook friends list. Just as I drop anyone who promotes 9/11 truther or Obama birther nonsense, I've started dropping Paulistinians who are convinced he's the only guy for the country. Those people simply aren't clear headed enough for me to want to read their status updates or other thoughts anymore. Time for them to go so I can make room for people who aren't part of a personality cult.

The GOP Doesn't Need a Presumptive Nominee...Again

For some odd reason the GOP has a habit of nominating for president whoever's "next". That's how we ended up with Bob Dole in '96 and John McCain in '08. Melissa Clouthier has a good piece on Facebook encouraging GOP voters to avoid that trap again:

After George W. Bush left office, the presumptive nominee was John McCain. McCain was a relatively weak candidate but he had suffered a humiliating loss to Bush, and he was consoled with the notion that he'd get the backing of the Republican establishment this time.

Once McCain got the nomination and lost, who was second and who stepped back and waited his turn? Mitt Romney.

So now, Mitt Romney quietly raises money. He helps guys like Scott Brown get elected behind the scenes. He tries to avoid too many specific questions about the health care situation in Massachusetts.

And here comes CPAC. He's won the Straw Poll how many times?

Here's the thing: If Romney lost to a guy like McCain, what makes anyone think that he has what Americans want in their president this time around?

The Republican Party needs to stop king making. They need to stop throwing their resources behind the guy who has "waited his turn" and start looking for the nominee who is right--both literally and figuratively.

There should be no assumptions when it comes to who should be leading. The establishment folks have consistently screwed up in both message and messenger.

The Republican Party needs new blood. The people who watch, need to keep an open mind.

2012 isn't around the corner but the politicians are laying the groundwork now. Hopefully, no one is presuming the mantle. Our next president needs to earn the presidency the hard way and prove he or she has what it takes to lead the country.

Exactly.

I tend to think that the availability of other means of communication, such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, will tend to keep the establishment GOP from simply anointing whomever they want. The voters and the grassroots activists will have a lot more to say about things in 2012.

Dragging the GOP Kicking and Screaming Into the Internet Age

People like Patrick Ruffini and Mindy Finn are trying to do just that, and today they write about the successful Scott Brown campaign and what it will mean for future voter efforts:

Scott Brown's supporters became fans of the candidate on Facebook, where they commented on his status updates and uploaded their own photos. The Republican Senate hopeful took to Twitter, using the #masen hashtag to let his followers know how the race was going. His campaign powered its field operation through targeted online ads and Web-based spreadsheets, and raised $12 million from 157,000 individual donations in the last two weeks of the race. After he won last week, his team live-streamed the election-night party in Boston online.

Democratic candidates don't have a monopoly on online organizing anymore. Brown and his campaign staffers deserve the credit for proving this, but it's a reason to celebrate for us and our new-media colleagues, too -- we've been working to get the GOP into the Web era for the past decade. We've been laughed out of high-level campaign meetings, told that online budgets are the first thing to go and informed that having a Facebook page is "unpresidential." And it wasn't until recently that people stopped asking us to fix their computers.

But we've always had faith that the rightroots could organize for victory, as the netroots had on the left. It just needed some nurturing. And now that it's launched Sen.-elect Brown in Massachusetts, the online-organizing playing field is more even than it's ever been in the past 10 years of American politics.

From the beginning of the race, Brown's campaign knew its candidate was a long shot. To have any hope, his team needed to get his message directly to voters. This populist approach -- and the hope for a 41st Senate vote against the Democrats' health-care overhaul -- inspired the rightroots to latch onto Brown's campaign through blogs, Facebook and Twitter. This paid off in an overflow of volunteers and contributors from across the country and a nearly five-point victory.

It's not as though GOP organizers woke up last fall and realized they'd better learn to use this Internet thing. Our party is out of power -- and the party out of power has the stronger incentive to innovate. If it doesn't, the base will. Netroots protests dragged the Democratic Party into the 21st century kicking and screaming in 2006 and 2008. Frustrated with the president and health-care reform, the conservative "tea party" movement has done the same for the Republicans in the past year.

There's much more at the link.

Voters and wannabe activists no longer need to wait for marching orders from party officials. The modern communication tools we have today make is possible for just about anyone with a computer to impact a race, whether it be a push on Facebook, Twitter, a blog, or any number of other options. I'm sure this drives the old guard GOP nuts because these activists can shape the campaign message without their high-priced help.

The Tea Party movement shows just how powerful the average voters can be when they get mad and decide to act on their own. They've changed America this year and managed to do it without any help from the people who think they own the campaign business.

Can there be risks associated with all of that? Sure. Movements led by average folks can go dangerously off track without some solid supervision, but that supervision doesn't have to come from party professionals. Citizens with solid common sense can be just as effective at guiding the message as anybody who makes a living at it.

The successful candidates of the future will have a robust presence on the web, both in terms of interactive websites, Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts, campaign blogs, you name it. Candidates who are more in tune with the people are going to campaign better and govern better.

Don't Forget Twitter or Facebook

If you didn't follow me on Twitter or Facebook during last night's Massachusetts Massacre you missed a lot of good stuff. If you're on Twitter you can follow along here, or if you're on Facebook I can be found here.

The TSA Might Take Your Next Facebook Profile Picture

Having just spent some quality time with the TSA, this doesn't make me terribly comfortable:

A privacy group says the Transportation Security Administration is misleading the public with claims that full-body scanners at airports cannot store or send their graphic images.

The TSA specified in 2008 documents that the machines must have image storage and sending abilities, the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said.

In the documents, obtained by the privacy group and provided to CNN, the TSA specifies that the body scanners it purchases must have the ability to store and send images when in "test mode."

That requirement leaves open the possibility the machines -- which can see beneath people's clothing -- can be abused by TSA insiders and hacked by outsiders, said EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg.

Maybe they can tag them and add them to your Facebook page. Most people don't keep many secrets on Facebook so a naked airport picture would fit right in.

Black Man Portrays Himself as White Supremacist on Facebook

We're told that white supremacist groups are responsible for much of the threats to Obama. Not necessarily:

An African-American man has pleaded guilty after being accused of impersonating a white supremacist in a fictitious Facebook account to make death threats against an African-American university student.

Dyron L. Hart, 20, of Poplarville, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt to one count of communicating threats in interstate commerce, according to a Department of Justice statement.

Hart admitted creating the fictitious account in November, pretending to be a white supremacist outraged by the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president, the statement said.

He then transmitted a death threat via Facebook to an African-American student at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, saying he wanted to kill African-Americans because of Obama's election, according to the statement.

A court document provided by the U.S. attorney's office said Hart told an FBI interviewer that he intended the threat to be a prank "to get a reaction."

Well, he wanted to get a reaction. I hope he's enjoying it.

Political Cartoon of the Day

H/t Gateway Pundit:
Iran has cracked down on Internet access and there's not much information coming out of there today from the people who have been tweeting the revolution. Twitter and Facebook have definitely hurt the mad mullahs.