Why is Twitter surpassing Facebook in popularity (at least for advocates and dissidents)? Well, for one thing it's a free speech zone. And for another, users have control over their privacy.

There has been much talk about the way the two sites are formatted, the simplicity of one, the flight by the other to imitate it wherever it can; the  way information flows into the stream and trends can be tracked on the front side and not just the back end by employees and advertisers.

As many of us already know, Facebook seems to have earned a reputation for deleting and harassing users who  are outspoken conservatives, including one or two rather high profile ones. This increasingly is earning a reputation for Facebook similar to the unsavory one earned by Google, which routinely hands dissidents over in China to authorities who beat, torture, and murder them.

Speaking of Google, a quick web search seems to demonstrate that liberals aren’t complaining about the same treatment from the Facebook gods. (One can be sure that if there were equal treatment, libs would be first and loudest to scream about it.) By Contrast, Twitter’s speech policy seems far more consistent with the spirit of the internet and free-thinking societies in general. With the exception of direct physical threats, Twitter has been pretty good about staying out of the dysfunctional and pathetic game of political content censorship. In fact, some might argue Twitter is too loose, at times, allowing what may be considered libel to be posted without doing much about it; however, as they say, “sticks and stones…” – and most of us would rather have an open forum than some control freak dystopia where site employees regularly give users they don’t like the feeling of living in North Korea.

The other key difference is privacy. To Facebook, the user is not the customer; the advertiser is and the user is merely the commodity Facebook sells to the advertiser, as others have already pointed out:

This may seem like a bad way to treat customers, but the whole point about Facebook is that users aren't customers. Anyone who supposes that Facebook's users are its customer has got the business model precisely backwards. Users pay nothing, because we aren't customers, but product. The customers are the advertisers to whom Facebook sells the information users hand over, knowingly or not. – Andrew Brown

 It is this philosophy that drives Facebook’s disregard for the privacy interests of its users, as evinced by its oft confusing and oft changing privacy policies. In fact, one look at this startling graph (or this one) – both graphs quite popular on the internet these days – shows quite starkly how Facebook has been pot-frogging its users to the idea of sharing everything with everyone on the internet (and the afore-mentioned advertisers, who then make bank stalking you in every conceivable manner). In fact, Facebook’s privacy statement has gone from a little over a thousand words to almost six thousand in just five years. Does such behavior open Facebook up to potential liability if a user unaware their privacy settings have been changed and opened up to the internet is stalked by not a company but a psychopath murderer? Who knows, but certainly one could wonder whether Facebook’s disregard for its users is reckless and short-sighted.

Enter Twitter. If I were a political dissident, this would certainly be my first choice. I can choose any user name I’d like and give up only as much information as I choose. In fact, there’s very little room in my bio to share much of anything! While Facebook and Twitter both suffer horrible user support, at least Twitter doesn’t seem to me to act as though it has nefarious plans sometimes for its users. Refreshing, especially in this day and age where it seems everyone is scheming against everyone else and has lost the decent sense of leaving others the heck alone. And while both social media sites make it difficult to organize and archive contacts and posts, Twitter is far friendlier to third party tools for doing both.

There are certainly other areas to compare the two sites, but these days when freedom of speech and privacy come at a premium, Twitter is hands-down the better medium for the smart advocate.

The Other McCain has posted a great piece on Lisa Murkowski’s chances of surviving the end of her Senate career. Lisa Murkowski was, as we know, just another RINO the RINOs at NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee) backed against the better and more Reaganesque opponent. One of the other notables (of all people) was political traitor Charlie “the Unicorn” Crist, whom they backed against rockstar Marco Rubio in Florida. (Birds of a feather.)

RINOs are no friends to the GOP and Texas' other RINO Senator - John Cornyn - should not only be removed from serving in any capacity at the NRSC, he should be removed from office. I'll surely be helping the campaign that makes either of those happen when the time comes. For now, another resounding defeat for the RINO clique that hijacked my Party and another WIN for America and those who love America more than their little club.

War is hell and the leaves are dry. Time for blood is almost upon us. We hide our faces from evil but evil will peel back our masks. If we do not confront it in a favorable time, it will find us in its own. Better the war be cold than hot.

Martin recently completed an internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society and is presently working on his Master's in National Security Studies. He holds a BA in International Relations. Prior to his time in London, he spent several months in Washington, D.C., where he attended several events, toured the White House, Capitol, and Pentagon. He is a member of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, the World Affairs Council, and United Nations Association.

IIt’s Fun Thursday. Every month tends to be a boon for interesting search queries that brought people to this blog. June was no departure.  Below is a list of hits ranked by their quantity. These can be fun lists and I publish them as often as possible.

So at the top (sadly), those searching for Flicka the horse wound up at my blog more than any other. Incidentally, these searches are being pointed to my post about the Flicka remake of a few years ago in which the animals were actually mistreated and some died.

Next in line is yours truly, but I redacted my name from the list to avoid the irony of having those searching for me finding me in a list about those who searched for me.  As a rule, I also redact phrases that include a not-so-family friendly term. There were none such this time.

Some of the more interesting searches? Someone wanted to find out if Vasili Mitrokhin, the ex-KGB officer who fled to the West, had documents indicating Carl Sagan was an enemy agent. Go find out for yourself. The rest are emboldened for your quicker skimmer pleasure. Teacher’s comments are of course in red.

flicka horse      

*Yours Truly*    

chomsky          

recession is when your neighbor loses his job. depression is when you lose yours. and recovery is when jimmy carter loses his. This one shows up in nearly every month’s list of top searches. Reagan lives! 

waterworld saga           

joe biden secret service This search found me because of a funny story I had related to me by a friend of a wife of one of Joe’s Secret Service agents.  

flicka the horse 2         

view the cnn pipeline news clip “terri schiavo’s parents” located on the materials tab of your student web site for week eight. state your stance on the terri schiavo case and identify the moral value judgment that influenced you to choose your stance.           

mongoloid child                       

coming back after a horse trailer accident          

spherion skill assessment what to expect          

aclu sex offenders katrina         

iraq unnecessary bush-had-done-nothing           

why france this week wouldn t practice in support of amilka       

beutiful atrocities          

anderson cooper ramada inn hurricane  

mitrokhin archives sagan        

jintao   

alien obama2012          

cchinese it theft cyber attack pentagon dod us companies titan rain Talk about not plugging the dang hole. And this was a serious problem on Bush’s watch. For all you Obamabots out there, stop reading now. It still remains unaddressed, putting us all at risk.       

how many horses were used in flicka 2span style="mso-tab-count:1">  

memoire de vladimir kryuchkov          

border war battle over illegal immigration           

putzin bugger off Because Vladimir Putin is a putz.       

bush achievements constitution

putin i am just a jealous gay litvinenko That would be “Jealous Guy”, and it’s a great video about Russia’s psycho “Putintate”.

pictures beavis and buttheadspan style="mso-tab-count:1">    

espella human zee

democrat double standards

*Yours Truly* myspace

streverse > base64 > rot13 > base64 > morse code to text All your base are belong to my post on fun little ways to encode whatever you’re up to.

where was the original my friend flicka shot

chinese officials torturing

i support israel wristband

hialeah#i=5

oboedīre

flicka a horse

chinese hardware backdoor

hansen dam horse tragedy

what is the penalty for entering mexico illegally? Shootings, hangings, beatings, imprisonment, and other manner of total disregard for human rights.

flaka the hlorsespan style="mso-tab-count:1"> 1

for i am not afraid for i was born for this         

political theory china venezuela chavez hu jintao dominoe effect Obviously a student. Keep at it kid.

quotations from dear john

abeisance

los diablos definition

worker bathroom break urinate  

chinese hardware contains backdoors

blogbats.com

what does the uss new jersey museum tour cover? Basically the USS New Jersey, and sometimes a BBQ, if you go at the right time. Check local listings.

 bush s achievements   

mexican presidential airplane

blogbat

in light of the law being a living body which is constantly evolving how do the personalities actions trends political correctness and the moral aptitudes and ineptitudes of our society influence laws currently being considered both locally within the state you live in and nationally? do you think that our current laws adequately govern the ills of our society? for instance do you think that there are certain social ills plaguing our society today that require tougher laws? on the flip side of that same coin do you think that there are certain laws that are too strict for certain social ills? explain your answers.  Holy Smokes!  

horrors in history          

agent provocateur russian cold war sex Probably linked to one of my posts about KGB tactics, which are of course still very much in use today.

mercy ministries st. louis girls Mercy is one of the best and most worthwhile causes you can support. I’ve known many of the people on staff there and can tell you that your giving makes a huge difference in these kids’ lives. http://www.mercyministries.org

weirdest story  

spherion employee policy dell   

beautiful atrocities        

russia stratfor

james pinkerton newsday father

areas helgstrand

rogue hardware malware

china hardware backdoors

essay soviet intelligence ogpu

clear channel outdoor advertising –largest billboard company in us ... overwhelmingly in support of the new arizona anti-immigration law. ... whe need imigration

stranded calif.  

penalty for entering mexico illegally   

real flicka horse

jimmy carter    

what a harware producer needs to know about china  

spherion policies dell    

laura schultz mercy ministries    

sangar and hitler         

search engine optimization You’re optimized if you made it here.         

the blogesse    

democrats racist hypocrisy       

venezuelan fake document penalties

dell computers employee conflict resolution      

penalty for illegally entering mexico   

sowell nea        

sposa son desprezzata Vivaldi’s Sposa son Desprezzata, a song I probably mentioned at some point.

ronald reagan when jimmy carter loses his     

intitle north korea or intitle dprk or intitle pyongyang or intitle democratic people s republic korea -football -volleyball -sport   

square resistance         

what is dressage Horse-lovers, baby!   

bush administration trade achievements

trusted foundry military cyber attack usb        

noam chomsky holocaust deniers       

putintate          

militant gnomes Probably linking to this: http://blogbat.us/mt/archives/2005/05/travelocity_pre.html       

dell employee performance       

usa vs europe healthcare          

jimmy cater loses his  

penalty for crossing into mexico illegally&                    

fliack the horse Your friend Fliack. Of coarse.

Martin recently completed an internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society and is presently working on his Master's in National Security Studies. He holds a BA in International Relations. Prior to his time in London, he spent several months in Washington, D.C., where he attended several events, toured the White House, Capitol, and Pentagon. He is a member of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, the World Affairs Council, and United Nations Association.

Obama has demonstrated once more to all this week that he’s really just a misunderstood genius man of the people. Like Powder. Need we look any further than the most recent example in which he brilliantly displayed his support for the persecuted people of Cuba by not uttering a word when the regime released several of its political prisoners? I think not! Now to you or me, that might seem like a slap in the face of those fighting on behalf of human rights. But Obama is clevererer…er. Clearly, Cuba’s government is so beyond the boundaries of legitimacy, our Wise Obama has decided to pretend *in a whisper* it doesn’t really exist!  You read that right. And all of this without the need for ruby red slippers to click together.

So my only question is, will there ever be any other president like this? What will we have to look forward to after 2012? Can we go on?

So he ignored the drowning flood victims in Nashville and Arkansas, the human booty being spirited across our border in both directions for a growing worldwide sex slave industry, and a few million people and sea creatures along the gulf. So what? Why hate the man? He’s been working hard to make it all go away by ignoring it since the beginning. So now he’s ready to go global.

Americans shouldn't take it so personally, after all. This man is bigger than just us. He is president of the world, the first post-American president since anyone other than the British awhile back, some Germans, Soviets, Chinese and Islamists began making movies about such things years ago! Now, a few of you might be saying that Obama just sucks when it comes to serving the needs of the people and particularly the suffering and the downtrodden. Or maybe it just miffed him because releasing prisoners from an oppressive communist regime ruins the narrative he's been schooled in since he was a young child (as opposed to an old child). But you would miss entirely what makes him the best president we’ve ever had. What other president has summoned the power of Barney the Dinosaur’s imagination and a new age of harmonious cranial cellular singularity for all? So progressive was he that he did this before the Barney Generation was even old enough to implement such an imaginative approach itself!

And lest you think he is not a man of action, he was meeting just this day with Warren Buffett in order to get more feedback from the common people concerning the progress so far of his savoir faire brilliant illuminated-ness. The two men will no doubt be greatly inspired and refreshed by the evening’s soirée that will also no doubt include an A-List musician or two. He is a wise man to know what he needs in order to be at the top of his game. I wonder if he will have one of those Chicago pizzas flown in at our more than willing expense again. It's hard work being prissydent, which makes it understandable that the manchild would need eight hours of golf a day to cool his jets.

Martin recently completed an internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society and is presently working on his Master's in National Security Studies. He holds a BA in International Relations. Prior to his time in London, he spent several months in Washington, D.C., where he attended several events, toured the White House, Capitol, and Pentagon. He is a member of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, the World Affairs Council, and United Nations Association.