Judge Rules in Favor of Protecting Anonymity of Website Commenters

Interesting decision by a Gaston County Superior Court judge RE the privilege of a newspaper website NOT to cough up the identity or tracking info for an anonymous commenter on one of their news articles.

At the moment the confidentiality order seems to apply narrowly to print publications with a web presence, but the principle ought to apply generally across Right and Left Blogistan. Ought to.

We say that having been approached in the past by the SBI to give up info on certain anonymous posters to this site. In that instance, we had already deleted the comments as rank abuse and had no way to recover the IP addresses. Thank gawd.

Useful Info

As in "19 Simple Tricks You Need To Know" for Google searches.

Foxx: We Don't Need No Freakin' Reform of Off-Shore Drilling!

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx this afternoon voted against H.R. 3534, the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act, which is the most significant reform of the oil industry in, like, centuries.

The new law would (among other things):

require oil company CEOs to certify that their well designs are safe, that their blowout preventers have redundant systems for all foreseeable blowout scenarios and failure modes, and that the company can promptly control and stop a blowout if the blowout preventer and other well control measures fail.

set minimum standards for blowout preventers.

require that blowout preventers, well designs, and cementing programs and procedures be certified as safe by independent, third-party inspectors.

Who's a tool for the oil industry? Madam Foxx is a tool for the oil industry.

Congressional Republicans Willing To Kill Citizens for Partisanship

Because the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act required a two-thirds majority to pass the House yesterday, House Republicans were able to corral enough votes to defeat the bill. The law would have provided free health care to fire fighters and first responders affected during the 9/11 rescue and recovery. Many of those men and women are debilitated and literally dying from inhaling toxic air. But because Republicans would far rather deny the Democrats any successful legislation, they vote it down. Way to fight terrorism, Madam Foxx!

Then, to show that they're every bit as small-minded and mean as their House colleagues, Senate Republicans successfully filibustered a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks.

These are the creatures who want the American people to put them back in charge.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Coal company executives say they plan to target certain Congressmen they deem hostile to coal, and following the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, corporations are unleashed. An International Coal Group VP, in a letter leaked to the Lexington Herald-Leader, wrote other coal executives: "With the Supreme Court ruling, we are in a position to be able to take corporate positions that were not previously available in allowing our voices to be heard." Allowing their voices to be heard, huh? Which is to say, allowing them to spend unlimited piles of cash smearing the lives and careers of Democrat Rep. Ben Chandler of Kentucky and Democrat Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, just for starters.

From Politico:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has already vowed to invest $75 million in the mid-term elections. And health insurers are also planning to play big in November....

And what minority group in Congress, armed with the sure-fire knee-capper called the filibuster, refused this week to even allow discussion of a disclosure law "which would require corporations and interest groups to identify themselves when they sponsor political ads and, in the case of smaller organizations, to reveal their donors"?

If you guessed "the Republicans in the U.S. Senate," then DING DING DING, you are our winner.

Republicans are struttin' right now, assured in their belief that the American people will want to put American corporations in charge of every freakin' thing in the universe, with the Republicans as their willing toadies.

How To Play Footsie

You have to go look for yourself:

CONTEST TIME! The first person who can guess which shoes in the photo below belong to [ESPN personality Erin] Andrews and which belong to Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) wins a t-shirt.

Numbers for Your Coffee Hour

According to this Census study, and based on 2007 statistics (that is to say, based on numbers gathered prior to the 2008 Bush Crash), 18.2 percent of North Carolina's population, just over 1.45 million people, were without health care coverage. The highest county rate of uninsured is in Watauga at 26.6 percent.

Jordan Push-Polling Against Cullie Tarleton

Why do they always resort to this? Because they can't win on their own merits or virtues.

Jonathan Jordan, the Republican from Ashe County running against Cullie Tarleton, is polling in this district with this choice question: Would you be more or less inclined to vote for Cullie Tarleton if you knew he were an investment banker who had been charged with embezzlement?

Would you be more or less inclined to vote for Jonathan Jordan if you knew he was a sleazebag lawyer?

For the record, Cullie Tarleton was not an investment banker and has never been charged with anything. Plus he's a good man, which is something we can't say for Mr. Jordan.

Romney Slops the Hog

Mitt Romney, once and future presidential candidate and the most boring Republican on the planet, just gave $2,500 to Virginia Foxx, the charm-free battleax of the Republican right.

Romney gets his friends the old-fashioned way. He buys them.