Have you upgraded? If so, was the decision to upgrade a good one or a long, lonely road to hell? I’m not looking for people to argue about which browser is better. Regardless of your preference, I just want to know if the upgrade on your chosen platform was a good move or not. Register your vote in the side bar in the CD Poll.

A search at the main WordPress site presented WPTouch. This plugin takes your existing content and serves it up in an iPhone-type theme on quite a few mobile devices. The nice thing is, it only serves this up for mobile devices, so your regular blog remains unchanged on computers.

If you would like to take a look, simply point your mobile device’s browser (the author claims compatibility with iPhone, iPod touch, Android or BlackBerry touch) to the default web address, www.conservativedialysis.com, and when the plugin determines that you are connecting with a mobile device it will serve up the blog with the mobile theme.

CHICAGO – Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

The effort is an extension of the blogosphere’s growing power and presence, especially within the political realm, and for many, evokes memories of the early labor organization of freelance writers in the early 1980s.

Organizers hope a bloggers’ labor group will not only showcase the growing professionalism of the Web-based writers, but also the importance of their roles in candidates’ campaigns.

“I think people have just gotten to the point where people outside the blogosphere understand the value of what it is that we do on the progressive side,” said Susie Madrak, the author of Suburban Guerilla blog, who is active in the union campaign. “And I think they feel a little more entitled to ask for something now.”

Alright, let’s look at this proposal a little deeper. These bloggers want a labor union so that they can get health care. Health care, no matter who provides it, costs a lot of money. Most of these bloggers do what they do with little or no compensation. So where, exactly, will this union get the funds to offer a health plan for its members? The only source of income for the proposed labor union would presumably be member dues, and since these people receive little compensation, how could they afford the dues that would have to be charged in order to provide health care?

Next, they want a labor union so that they will have collective bargaining rights. Who, exactly, will they be bargaining with? Most bloggers do what they do from home, answering to no one but themselves. Are they going to try to negotiate with themselves for better hours or working conditions? What happens if hey decide to strike? Will they walk a picket line in front of their home?

Thankfully, there are some people who understand how stupid this idea is:

“The reason I like blogging is that it’s very anarchistic. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and oh my God, you’re not going to tell me what to do,” said Curt Hopkins, the founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

“The blogosphere is such a weird term and such a weird idea. It’s anyone who wants to do it,” Hopkins said. “There’s absolutely no commonality there. How will they find a commonality to go on? I think it’s doomed to failure on any sort of large scale.”

However, this has not stopped the labor unions from jumping at the chance to to increase their ranks:

While bloggers work to organize their own labor movement, their growing numbers are already being courted by some unions.

“Bloggers are on our radar screen right now for approaching and recruiting into the union,” said Gerry Colby, president of the National Writers Union, a local of the United Auto Workers. “We’re trying to develop strategies to reach bloggers and encourage them to join.”

Other than being a new source of revenue for Union bosses, I have no idea what the bloggers could bring to the union.

If you think about all of this for awhile, it does make sense. Liberal bloggers are the ones who are seeking unionization. These bloggers sit at home and post to their blogs and comment on their friends’ blogs all day, but almost none of them earn any money doing this. As is normal for liberals, they believe that their efforts are worthy of some sort of compensation, but they can’t derive that compensation through the free market. So, they decide to organize a union and then they will use the union to demand various and sundry benefits from whomever they can.

The only problem is, they don’t really have anyone to make these demands of. As a blogger, they work for themselves mostly. There is no corporate office to go after, no “deep pockets” to plunder. However, blogger Susie Madrak has an idea where some of the money should come from:

Just got off the phone with another reporter. I told her no, I wasn’t specifically trying to get bloggers to join a union but rather, I was looking at any and all vehicles through which bloggers could affiliate and thus get affordable health insurance. No, there really wasn’t anyone we could bargain with about wages and working conditions, and yes, I did think we deserved support as opposed to someone who blogs about, say, model trains, because after all, we raised lots and lots of money for Democrats last year and targeted it into key races – namely, that our strength was in making local races national, and sending financial support their way.

I said my primary goal was finding a way to help bloggers who needed it without compromising their independence because after all, independence is what makes us credible.

Oh, I just can’t wait to see what she actually writes.

First, I’m glad that she realizes some of the absurdities of proposing a union for bloggers. It seems her big goal is to get health insurance for bloggers, and she thinks that liberal political bloggers deserve support because they raise money for Democrat candidates. She doesn’t say it outright, but this seems to hint that some of the money for this health insurance would come from the Democrat Party. She also says that she doesn’t want to compromise their “independence,” but if they’re getting money and support from the Democrat Party just exactly how independent can they be?

All in all, I don’t think this idea has a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming reality, but it may be fun to watch them try to make it fly. If a union does manage to emerge, I predict that it will suffer the same fate as Air America, and for most of the same reasons.

This will probably put the Mac Zealots into hysterics!

Via Gizmodo

I’m excited to see this. While I am far from making up my mind on whom I’ll support in the 2008 Election, I’ve like almost everything I’ve heard Fred say regarding what he would like to do.

Now, if only he’d give me some link-love and put Conservative Dialysis on his blog roll.

P.S.: Please vote in the new CD Poll in the sidebar.

ENOUGH OF THIS BACKDOOR COMMUNISM. RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT, THE REAL CONSERVATIVE! http://deanberryministries.net.

AND I’LL BET YOU MONEY THIS BLOG IS FUNDED BY THE JEWS/ISRAEL LOBBY (EDOMITES: THEY’RE DESCENDANTS OF ESAU, NOT JACOB.)

I’ve been accused of many things in my life, some of them true, but I have never been accused of being, or mistaken for, a communist. I’ll give him a pass on his first sentence as he might have been referring to Miller.

As for being funded by the Jewish/Israeli lobby, I’d better contact Laurence right away, because if he has been sending me checks I haven’t received a single one of them.

By the way, did you happen to notice that the commenter didn’t say anything about what Miller said in the video?

The next comment, which is actually a trackback, at least addresses the content of the post. If you follow the link, you’ll find nuggets of wisdom such as the following:

The conservative blogosphere is in a tizzy over Dennis Miller’s gripping takedown of Senate leader Harry Reid. You can listen to him yourself, but you’re better off not to. No, really, it’s that bad. Here is a man who at one time could be considered funny but who now has to limit himself to a two minute skit on a half-rate conservative attempt at The Daily Show.

It’s funny but I used to think he was humorous. Back in the mid 90’s he was all about libertarian ideals and telling it like it is. Some time since then he’s turned into just another conservative shill specialized in bad jokes and stilted, needlessly overcomplicated rants.

Dustin, the author of this screed, seems to have a memory problem. I’ve been watching Dennis Miller do stand up for years, and he simply has not changed his style. His comedy has always been about obscure references to literature, history and pop culture being combined with long metaphoric statements. Actually, the only thing which has changed is that Miller supports the War on Terror, which is of course why Dustin and his fellow leftists now think he’s stupid. It’s Liberalism 101: As long as you believe the same as the rest of us liberals, you’re a good guy. Once you jump the fence on anything you are the devil incarnate.

Finally, someone named Mutaman left the most intelligent comment:

Who’s Dennis Miller?

It figures that the smartest statement came from someone who doesn’t even know who we’re talking about.

After a long vacation, Rachel Lucas has returned to the blogoshpere. Rachel, you were sorely missed and your return can only mean good things.

Do yourself a favor and add her to your daily blog reading.

If you use Firefox, you want this upgrade. Many new features and faster performance make this the best release yet. Also, it now includes a built-in spell checker. Perfect for people who blog.

If you’ve never tried Firefox, now is the time. Although newest version of Internet Explorer has finally incorporated tabbed browsing, nobody does it better than the Mozilla folks. You’ll appreciate its speed and ease of use. Once you try Firefox, you’ll hate using any other browser.

Newly released e-mails allege U.S. government officials pressured a leading Internet authority into voting against creating a kind of red-light district for adult Web sites.

The apparent involvement of the U.S. Department of Commerce, President Bush’s chief political operative Karl Rove and others is significant.

If true, it means the U.S. government violated terms of a complicated arrangement it has with ICANN, the Internet authority that voted 9-5 two weeks ago not to OK the .xxx proposal.

What ICM Registry, the company that proposed the top-level domain, wanted was permission to distribute Web addresses that ended in .xxx to be used exclusively by adult entertainment sites.

The proposal won support from Wired Safety and Wired Kids, the Internet Content Rating Association and other child-safety groups because of the way it was expected to make it easier for authorities and parents to police the Internet.

Detractors said it just would make it that much easier to find porn.

ICANN voted it down 9-5, after seemingly being on track to approve of the effort.

Since the ICANN vote, ICM Registry has made public e-mails, here in PDF form, between members of the Department of Commerce, various other branches of the federal government and ICANN.

The company had asked for the communications earlier under a Freedom of Information Act request.

After discovering many of the e-mails had been redacted, ICM on May 19 asked a judge in Washington, D.C., to force the Department of Commerce to fill in the blanks.

ICM says the e-mails show how the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce, was subjected to intense pressure to intervene on behalf of the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, two socially conservative lobbying organizations.

Source

Preventing the creation of a top-level domain which would make it very easy for parents to prevent their children from straying onto objectionable web sites is not the thing a conservative administration wants to do. No doubt groups like Focus on the Family want to rid the Internet of pornography altogether, but the Internet is not owned by any one government so that just isn’t possible. The very best you can do is make pornography easily identifiable so that people who choose to do so can avoid it. The creation of a “.XXX” domain would do this.

Is it just me, or has the Bush Administration lost it’s ability to use common sense?