$450,000.
Amount that the U.S. Air Force is spending for a three year study of blogs.
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32 Responses to “$450,000.”
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And for all their trouble - and taxpayers’ money spent - the study will recommend that blogs, particularly progressive ones, are threats to national security and should be banned from USAF personnel.
(But propagandists like Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Coulter, and Hannity will be given exemptions based on the Administration’s inherent Art. II power to lie like a big dog, demanding that everyone say woof.)
July 2nd, 2006 at 9:09 amI have to say “I can’t believe this is true”, just for fun.
Won’t the real reason they want this information be to know when things don’t show up in the blogs at all or are just being ignored, to judge the effectiveness of their operations by?
They must rate credibility by userid. That database would be a good public service, if they only knew, linked up with their cool software we paid for. They could add this to the “NSA Auto Email Backup Service” and the “NSA Phone Call Transcript Service” they offer now and make some money.
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:03 amYou’d be foolish to think they weren’t monitoring them already (as with everything else).
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:19 amI wonder if they are capable of measuring accurate and honest content verses the dishonest misinformation comming out of the right-wing nuts?
Yeah, I know they hired a right-wing PR firm to do the study.
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:40 amRAWSTORY is reporting that the Bush Administration started the NSA program of taping and recording your telephone calls the day after Bush was sworn in.
The transition team, composed mostly of Shooter Cheney held secret meeting with not only the energy people, but with AT&T to perfect the system of spying on amurkans.
Isnt this a great country, or what? They steal the election in 2000 and then decide that it is important that they listen in on the people to see what they are saying about the theft of the election and the worst president ever appointed by the supreme court.
I hope they got an earfull.
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:41 amRAWSTORY is reporting that the Bush Administration started the NSA program of taping and recording your telephone calls the day after Bush was sworn in.
The transition team, composed mostly of Shooter Cheney held secret meeting with not only the energy people, but with AT&T to perfect the system of spying on amurkans.
Isnt this a great country, or what? They steal the election in 2000 and then decide that it is important that they listen in on the people to see what they are saying about the theft of the election and the worst president ever appointed by the supreme court.
I hope they got an earfull.
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:41 amThe Air Force like the rest of the military use the book “War and Anti-War” by the Tofflers who wrote the “Third Wave” political tome that Newt Gingrich loved so much! In that book is a chapter on Internet Warfare, so the military has been waging war on TP and all the other progressive blogs, including the posters on here like myself! It is a propaganda war to try to undermine the facts and truth on blog sites, to help to keep the Bush Regime in power!
July 2nd, 2006 at 10:57 amThese are the same (and I’ll use the term loosely) “people” who in the 1980s paid $700.00 for a rake, $600.00 for a toilet seat, etc. The study will “prove” that progressive blogs ARE a threat to “national security” and need to be banned. Listening to Lush Limpwrist, Mann Coulter, Bill (draft-dodger chickenhawk)Kristol, and their ilk will be required of all citizens. Break out your tin-foil hats everyone.
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:01 amThe US military, all of it branches, are great, especially the United States Air Force.
Here we go into the wild blue yonder
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:03 amFrom the original article:
Or unless you read them. Dumbass.
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 am‘all of its branches’
Over 1000 Iraqis killed in June.
http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htm
2723 US dead in Iraq/Afghanistan ‘Wars’
The Bush Cabal is responsible for all of them.
The neocons have no one to blame but themselves for this entire mess.
The chickens have come home to roost for the chickenhawks.
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 amWhile that is actually a bargain price, why is the airforce studying blogs? Do my posts effect world weather conditions, thereby altering the conditions the airforce works under?
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:21 amComment by Rebel With A Cause — July 2, 2006
Rebel, at this point, it’s only an allegation by one side in the court filing. We’ll have to wait and see if they can penetrate the wall of secrecy this Administration has raised around its spying programs.
If we can’t get through that wall, the Government will be free to disregard the Constitution, so long as it does so in the name of “national security.”
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:21 amI hate the chaos that the bush regime has hoisted on the world…instead of waging peace, they are destroying it. How utterly horrendous is that? Anyone, with any sense of honor would see that. That is what is frustrating and maddening, that 34% of our population with their narrow minded, war mongering, hateful beliefs, truly think they are the chosen ones. Just remember one thing - their Jesus carries an AK47.
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:38 amIt seems less people are listening to Rush, mAnn, more people visiting TP, raw story….
http://www.rawstory.com/ news/ 2006/ Rightwing_pundits_in_Internet_ratings_freefall_0630.html
Way to go!
July 2nd, 2006 at 12:14 pmHey guys, go easy on President Bush. He’s working hard, and doing a good job. He took an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution, and he has protected us from another attack for almost five years. If that means allowing him to monitor our communications and bank records, is it really so much? If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. If President Bush were doing anything wrong, Congress and the courts would bring him back in line, but they haven’t, so everything must be ok. If he were doing anything illegal, the print and television media would be screaming the news of it in the headlines everyday, but they haven’t, so everything must be ok. If the people thought that wiretapping us and monitoring our bank records was violating our privacy, they would be marching in the streets in protest, but we aren’t, so everything must be ok.
So relax, America, President Bush will make sure everything is ok.
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:04 pm/sarcasm off
“The blog study is part of Air Force Office of Scientific Research’s new Information Forensics and Process Integration research program recently launched at Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.”
Forensics? Are we criminals now?
Anyway, I’d like to be the first to offer Dr. Ulicny a warm welcome to Think Progress.
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:15 pmPerhaps we should all repeatedly link to the stories that mean the most to us, just to help him out.
blogs are godless, and, therefore must be eliminated. there weren’t blogs during world war ii, were there!
and, you are lucky that you have phones, you dogs! jesus never had a phone, did he? are you better than jesus?
michelle is here for a good bleeding…gots t’ go!
kisses,
ann
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:15 pmMessage to the Air Force:
Kindly desist sending my 12-year-old son recruitment packages.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
July 2nd, 2006 at 1:47 pmmadashell, imagine how it will be when he’s 18.
Do the packets come with free postage return envelopes? If so, stuff all that shit into the envelopes and mail it back to them. It probably won’t stop them, but it’s fun with the kids.
July 2nd, 2006 at 2:08 pm:P
hey zooey - and madashell - it just might work…
July 2nd, 2006 at 2:22 pmi was doing that same thing with all the credit card apps i’d get… they’ve stopped coming my way… oh and don’t forget to write “IMPEACH BUSHCO - THESE GUYS ARE CRIMINALS” on the apps and the envelopes… heh…
The original article, by William J. Sharp / Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs:
Blogs Study May Provide Credible Information
(Unlike, for example, that crap they’ve been getting from Cheney and Rumsfeld’s cherry-picked intelligence?)
July 2nd, 2006 at 3:00 pmmadashell,
July 2nd, 2006 at 3:07 pmMake sure you opt out of the “No Child Left Behind” crap that you have to sign at the beginning of every school year.
All of that info goes straight to the military so that they CAN target your child @ 18.
And don’t let them tell you you can’t. It’s baloney. They are just afraid of losing funding.
Just fyi…..
Studying blogs? HILARIOUS.
HOW ABOUT THEY’RE STUDYING WHO IS PARTICIPATING!!!
“It’s the best way we have found to determine who opposes the Bushco takeover of the United States,” said General John Q. Ripper. “It was very convenient for the political opposition to join together in what they call ‘blogs,’ or ‘terrorist action cells,’ as we at NSA like to call them.”
“$450,000 to create a database on suspected terrorist cells, aka ‘blogs’, is a small price to pay for continued and uninterrupted fascism,” the General added. “We all remember what happened in the 1960s and 70s, and it is clear that we can NEVER allow such interference in our plans ever again.”
July 2nd, 2006 at 6:01 pmI suppose the same dumb terrorists who could not have guessed their financial transactions were traceable are also posting their terroristic plans on blogs.
Further evidence that the whitehouse’s Enemy #1 is not the Iraqi resistance; not Iran, not North Korea; but Truth, as it may be discussed in blogs.
July 2nd, 2006 at 6:32 pmSounds like a marvelous beginning to censor web content and target those who publicly dissent.
July 2nd, 2006 at 6:45 pmThey’ve spied on Quakers so, I should not be surprised. But, I am totally po’d about them foolishly spending my money on stupid sh–. I am really upset over the way these bozos in Washington are finding every dumb thing in the world to waste money on.
July 2nd, 2006 at 7:01 pmOf course, this “study” is because progressives have a place to go and discuss and let thier feelings be known. And they are part of the conversation now. So, of course, Washington is scared because most blogs are singing Bushie Boys praises.
As for the blogs. Hey they can go on anyday of the week and read them - like they haven’t already.
And, just in case they are reading I say this: I am more afraid of my Government and this Administration than I am of any Terrorist.
I’ll monitor blogs for half the price. Leave the money in the usual locker at Grand Central Station. Thx.
PS: Has Osama got a MySpace page yet? If so, maybe they should check that? I mean, you never know when he might let something slip…
July 2nd, 2006 at 8:24 pmWhile I personally think the US Air Force is wasting our money, I hope they realize that blogs will be used in different parts of the world in different ways. Just because something like the “Muslim cartoons” episode caused people in the Middle East and elsewhere to re-act the way they did does not mean that we should censor the internet for fear of the same thign happening here. Different Strokes for Different Folks (so on and so on and shooby-dooby-do.) [For the record, I am an Air Force veteran.]
July 3rd, 2006 at 9:04 amGood golly, they’re sorting my punchcards and paper tape?
Um… 21st century. Of course you’re being studied.
July 3rd, 2006 at 1:42 pmDumb-asses. I would have done the study for $300K and would have still made a profit.
July 3rd, 2006 at 6:52 pmThis appears to be using blogs collectively to decide what issues are important and passionate to America - and to predict what political directions the country is leaning towards
They seem to feel that Search Engines do not spider blogs - or the blog posts just do not appear in the Search Engines, so this is in a sense UGC that gives snaphots of the mood of the country
July 6th, 2006 at 12:11 am