IT'S ON!

My new blog is up...

Here's the address

http://endstandards.blogspot.com

Come check it out

So that didn't last long...

I've already started building my new blog...

A little less politics, a little more computer stuff, a lot more random thoughts.

I'm still toying with the name, but right now i'm leaning towards </Standards> . I'll explain what it means if I go with it and I'll let everyone know where its located at as well.

Thanks
HRYK.
(oh yeah, that anonymous bullshit just might end too)

Done Dundee

If you haven't noticed I haven't blogged for weeks. I'm gonna be done, I got a wedding to get through and that whole graduating and going to law school thing too. I want to thank everyone who linked to me, especially Wes and Ryne.

I'll most likely start blogging again at some point in the somewhat near future. Wheter it be political or not, I don't know, but I doubt I'll be able to keep my opinions to myself.
Peace out.

State of the Union

So I missed the live speech, watching the rerun right now...

First thought: anyone else notice who Kerry was standing next to? Sen Tim Johnson. I got nothing more on this, just an observation.

PS. I'll keep blogging sporadically at best for the next couple of months.

Dem's idol collected coin too

As just about everyone should know, the dems in SD have been making a big hubbub about a couple of SD rep bloggers who were paid as consultants for the Thune campaign.

It looks like Kos, the democratic bloggers equivalent to God, was also on the take, not just on the take... Selling his airtime.

zonkette: Financially Interested Blogging:
On Dean’s campaign, we paid Markos and Jerome Armstrong as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients.

While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment -- but it was very clearly, internally, our goal.

This is all over the blogosphere, everywhere. But not on the SD dems blogs. The SD conservative bloggers were willing to openly discuss Thune's payment to two DBA members, one even openly criticized them. Whether we agreed or not we were not afraid to talk about it.

Come on Ben, Come on Todd, what are your thoughts?

I'll take it...

Trent Dlugosh has a post challenging SD bloggers to take an oath here.

"'Jeffrey Dubner, from the online site of the American Prospect, suggests commentators take an oath:
'I swear that I have never taken money -- whether directly or indirectly -- from any political campaign or government agency -- whether federal, state, or local -- in exchange for any service performed in my job as a journalist (or commentator, or blogger, or whatever you think I should be called).''

I am willing to take that oath. I challenge all other South Dakota bloggers to do the same, left and right both."

Sure I'll take the oath, I don't think it is necessary, but I'll take it. Blogs are journals of opinion, not news sources. Does Mr. Dubner or Mr. Dlugosh expect me to take the Hypocratic Oath that a doctor would if I intend to pull out a tooth, or apply a band-aid? I know what the SD left blogs are trying to do, and they're doing a decent job at making people believe that these blogs purported to be news sources so they should be judged the same way as news sources. The fact is they didn't and they shouldn't. Regardless of who was paying their bills.

E-file shenanigans

/. has a post about taxes (slashdot? taxes? huh?) that got me thinking about something. Here's their quote

Slashdot | Tax Time Again: Any Linux Solutions? -
As a Linux user, I've used Intuits Turbo Tax On The Web in the past but I don't like paying someone $20 to $30 to submit my forms. For the last few years I've been filling out the forms by hand and mailing them for $0.37 instead. Call me cheap. The IRS has a target of 80% of all taxpayers using e-file in the near future. Does anyone know where the 'free and open' solution is? Do we need to petition the IRS? Currently the IRS seems to be protecting their 'approved e-file partners' profit margins in the name of a security layer. (I call shenanigans!)" So how will you be doing this year's taxes? I'd settle for a good PDF editor to neatly complete the IRS's PDF forms.

Good point. Why can't we get a secure free .gov site to file our taxes electronically? too many eggs in one basket? Last year I did mine online through a site called taxslayer.com I was happy with them last year and I will use them again this year. Last year my filing fee was waved because, well, I'm a full time student who doesn't make that much money (If was free last year anyways, I don't see anything suggesting it would be offering the same deal this year).

Like the /. post says, it should not cost me 20-30 bucks just to do something that I am already required by law to do anyways. If taxslayer won't offer the same deal they did last year, I'm going to be spending .37 cents as well, and make some johnny pencilpusher try and read my hand writing. bwaha, bwahaha, mbwahahahahaha ya, that's my evil laugh... what of it?

Abourezk and Fonda, a match made in hades

THAT TITLE IS JUST A JOKE, DON'T SUE ME FOR LIBEL.
I REALIZE NEITHER OR THEM ARE ACTUALLY THE DEVIL.

I'm sure many of you have heard this story a while back. Former SD Senator Jim Abourezk (yes, that Abourezk) sued a website that was run by a teenager in Pennsylvania for libel after the youngster put him on a Traitor list (www.probush.com". Well recently Hanoi Jane Fonda was added to Abourezk's lawsuit. The RCJ has a story about this site.

Rapid City Journal: Site won't fight adding Fonda to suit -
An Internet site that calls former U.S. Sen. James Abourezk a traitor will not legally oppose adding Jane Fonda and another woman to Abourezk's lawsuit against the Web page, according to court documents.

Abourezk, who's of Arab descent, was a Democratic U.S. senator from 1973 to 1979 and now practices law in Sioux Falls.

He accused ProBush.com of libel for putting him on a "traitor's list" for criticizing President Bush.
...
Abourezk, who seeks $2 million in actual damages, $3 million in punitive damages and a retraction, had been critical of the war in Iraq. He was part of a four-person delegation that traveled to Syria and Iraq in 2002.

ProBush.com has said in court documents that the First Amendment protects political statements such as those on the Web site, labeling the list "satirical and politically expressive."

Atop the "traitor list" page is this statement: "Parody. Not to be taken seriously. These ‘traitors' are not legal traitors of the United States."

I'm pretty sure that Larry Flint cleared up this whole constitutional protection for parody a while back. His case set precedent protecting parody about politicians that is much more harmful to their character and prestige than simply putting his name on a list on the internet.

And while i'm on the subject had anyone from South Dakota, or anyone else who might deal with Mr. Abourezk profesionally, even heard of the site Probush.com before Abourezk sued? I sure hadn't. I'm willing to bet that the only way Abourezk found out about this list is by googleing himself one day.

This lawsuit is ridiculous, anyone with even a minor understanding of the law knows that. Even Mr. Abourezk and his co-council in the case (and author of at least 3 blogs), Mr Epp, know that it is ridiculous. This lawsuit was simply brought forward to try and strong arm this teenager. That's how these things work, Abourezk figured that the kid couldn't afford an expensive lawsuit and would have to cave and remove Abourezk's name from his list. It's a good thing that there are groups out there that stand up for the true meaning of the constitution (not like the ACLU) and help the kind of people like the defendant's in this case.