The Boston DA Vs Twitter

Dec 24th, 2011

The Boston District Attorney has apparently subpoenaed twitter for a huge amount of personal information corresponding to citizens that tweeted about that city's Occupy Movement.

CLICK IMAGE FOR BETTER VIEW  via

To the left is the cover page of their request that twitter violate the privacy of thousands of users.

Privacy SOS reports:
"On December 20, 2011, Twitter revealed to the targets that Assistant District Attorney of Suffolk County (Boston) Benjamin Goldberger had subpoenaed their account information in a document dated December 14, 2011. ADA Goldberger asked for:" 



They targeted not only specific users, but also all personal information related to several hashtags. Twitter did do the right thing. Instead of honoring the ADA's request or their demand that the subpoena be kept secret, they went public and contacted the individual targets directly.

Josh Holland writes:

"It's not Syria or Bahrain, it's Boston."

He also suggests that citizens contact ADA Goldberger and "ask him what his office is up to," with the caveat, "but you really should keep it polite -- he seems pretty litigious."

Mr. Goldberger is attempting cast a net wide enough to expose the IP addresses of anyone who had the audacity to speak about a political issue.

It's not just bullshit. It's seriously frightening bullshit.

The Twitter Supremacy...

Oct 5th, 2011

To be fair, an individual from Andy's team told me to basically suck it and stop being a "doofus" and asked if I cared that #tcot is never trending on twitter. Actually, I do. The entire concept of faking what is billed as an open and free internet community is bullshit. Anyway... Here's what's up.

The conservative, troll-brigade has been having a jolly good time on twitter today, making fun of the Occupy Movement by using the hashtag #OccupyWallStreetMovies. At the same time, #OccupyWallStreet, a hashtag being used by supporters and detractors alike has failed consistently to trend for the last three weeks.

At 3:40pm CST 10/05/11, we began an experiment. We opened and refreshed windows using both tags simultaneously. Here are the results 45 minutes later.

First, the #OccupyWallStreetMovies screengrab

Now, the #OccupyWallStreet screengrab at the same time

And, lastly, the "trending" screengrab at the end of our little experiment

Don't Feed The Trolls - Occupy Movement Edition

Oct 3rd, 2011

Some observations. For a large portion of this afternoon, comments under the #OccupyWallStreet thread on twitter were mostly coming from naysayers, challengers and some very rude trolls. The thing is, they all kept harping on how the Occupy movement needed to "go get a job." So... why were they the ones tweeting?

Hmm. Anyhoo, I kept seeing this charming fellow. He harped. He bitched. He moaned. And then? He tweeted this.

I couldn't resist. I had to ask.

Cue the internet's version knuckle-scraping spittle-dribble

Gosh. I had so many problems with that on grounds of reason and basic interpersonal skills that I couldn't stop laughing. I mean laughing. Like when you are a stoned teenager type-laughing. Before I could respond, he brought a "friend." Aww. Dig the avatar.

Again. Some questions cannot remain unasked.

Cue crickets... Alas, they have given me no more to work with.

In any event, don't try this at home.

Don't feed the trolls.

Borowitz on Libya

Aug 22nd, 2011

As the hunt for Gaddafi continues, Borowitz chimes in...

Quote Of The Day 2

June 10th, 2011

"The left and the right live in parallel universes. The right listens to talk radio, the left's on the Internet and they just reinforce one another. They have no sense of reality. I have now one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet."
-- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) discussing modern communication in 2009

Breitbart Can't Get Enough Weiner

June 1st, 2011
Not necessarily safe for work. HT to Jenni for humor support.

Since I pointed out yesterday that Breitbart is fixated on Weiner, Andy has gotten even more excited. He really loves Weiner. He is definitely behaving like a guy who has been waiting for this particular Weiner his whole life. Perhaps this Weiner completes him. One thing is certain, he is going to ride this Weiner as long as he can. After all, this Weiner thing is getting bigger and bigger.

And all this breathless excitement is over... this weener?

We still don't know if this is, in fact, Weiner's weener. All we know for sure is that it is somebody's weener. Let's say that, just maybe, this is Weiner's weener. Frankly, we all got a much better glimpse of Marky Mark's weener back in the day and it was on the side of a third of America's buses.

Maybe Stewart is right, and Weiner's "d**k is just not that big."

SO. How do we prove it? A lineup?

Sigh. I can't take all this spectacular salaciousness but I will say one more thing...

I am secretly longing for Dick Armey to come to the defense of Weiner. I think Andy's head would explode.

Desperate For Scandal

May 31st, 2011

Remember when the Breitbart media nexus devoted every single link on multiple sites to former Sen. John Ensign's (R-NV) affair, the subsequent payout of $100,000 in hush money and possible violations of federal law?

Neither do I. 

Remember when Breitbart devoted every single link to former Gov. Mark Sanford's (R-SC) wild adventure in extramarital intrigue on the taxpayer's dime?
Neither do I. 

This is because the very suggestion that provable Republican malfeasance would ever get that level of play from the so-called "Bigs" is absurd. Fast forward to "Weinergate." In case you've missed this unfolding bit of strangness, here's a recap from Politico:

"(Rep. Anthony-D)Weiner, who has represented part of New York City since 1998, says online hacking led to a close-up shot of a man’s underwear being sent from his official Twitter account Saturday night."

So far, this is pretty much all we know. Enjoy the following screenshots from Andy "The Journalist" Breitbart.

Screenshot of Breitbart's Big Government site 7pmCST 5/30/2011

It gets even better...

Screenshot of Breitbart's Big Journalism site 7pmCST 5/30/2011

That's 38 out of 40 "news" links devoted to this. 28 of those links say the word "weiner" in one form or another. Oh, and there are also two links peddling Andy's latest "book." 

We don't know if Andy simply went nuts publishing the word "Weiner." Frankly, we don't even know whether this is Weiner's weiner. 

Way to go, Andy. Way to go.

Some Tweet

May 5th, 2011

Hat Tip to Kim

When Cliché Is Essential

Jan 28th, 2011

Mother Jones posted this as the tweet of the day. A clear response to Mubarak's unnervingly detached statement regarding the current upheaval.