Ok, I know people are going to say “What the hell is a political piece doing on SMR?” Let me break it down.

Lately I have seen a ton of sharing on political pieces ie; Obama Care, Financial Regulatory Bills, Tea Party Movements, Australian Government Web Censorship, and this got me to thinking; “WTF PEOPLE!”

I live in Kentucky, and unfortunately Mitch McConnell is the head of the Republican Minority. Every time I turn around Republicans are blocking bills and playing dumbass political games for their lobbyists and pissing me off. The Democrats are also not providing the leadership we elected them to give. Now I have got to hand it to President Obama, he has come in literally bitch-slapped the body politic. HE NEEDED TO!

He currently has introduced a bill to regulate the way big banks do business. He wants to make sure the American People, (the same people who voted him into office I might ad) don’t get screwed by big banks. Mitch (I’m a jackass McConnell) rallied his Republican troops to block the bill. So the SEC, down party lines, brings Goldman Sachs up on fraud charges. “Why?” you might ask, I’ll tell you why.  A Hedge Fund Manager named Jon Paulson created a shitty investment made up of mortgage bonds he knew would fail. Goldman Sachs then agreed to sell this investment to investors, then both Paulson and Sachs bought insurance against the shitty investment, when it failed, they raked in the dough.  The investors, ranged from other firms to Mom and Pops. So basically they were sold crap and not told it was a turd, and lost their money, that’s where the fraud comes in.

Now Rep. Leader Mitch McConnell believes we don’t need regulations. Shit, Really? So Mitch, you are ok with big banks screwing your constituency? Wow? How the hell do you keep getting elected into office? All I hear out of the Republican Party is “Block, Stop, Cut, No way, Hell no.” and the dumbass Tea Party movement is so uneducated to these facts, they remind me of a bunch of seagulls from Finding Nimo looking at Sarah Palin going “Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine”.

Where does it end people? Is it kicking President Obama’s ass? I don’t think so, I believe he is getting dis-heartened from time to time, but he keeps coming out swinging. Are his ideas always popular? No. But maybe, just maybe his ideas and methods are something the US Body Politic has been missing for a while. Big banks need a good smack on the ass from time to time. Banks need to be regulated, all this money they waste could have been put back into the economy on shit that wouldn’t fail. Goldman Sachs paid out 16 Billion in bonuses in January and another 5.4 billion in April. Wow Really? 21.4 Billion? If that doesn’t make you turn your head twice then something is absolutely wrong with you.

I have heard a ton of bitching and moaning about the health care bill. The Tea Party Activists would quote things in Obama’s Health Care bill that weren’t EVEN THERE! I believe if more people would actually sit down and read these bills and legislation, then maybe they could pass judgment. If you haven’t read it, don’t bitch about it.

Australia, damn I feel sorry for you guys. The government is wanting to block over 10,000 websites from the country. The list is growing by the way. What your Governing body has no clue about is how their filter will drain the bandwidth of an entire nation. Hell Anonymous won’t have to continue their DDOS attacks, once that filter is in place, good luck getting to any website at all.

People of the world, do yourselves a favor, don’t just vote for someone, know what they are all about before you cast your vote. Don’t guess, get involved with your local party, be you Republican, Democrat, or Independent. So far the people we are putting in office at certain levels of Government are grossly under-qualified. In a democracy it should be ‘For the people, by the people” not “For the lobbyists, by the money”. So when you cast a vote think about this, would you let the guy flipping burgers at McDonald’s perform a heart transplant on you?

So what’s the point in all this? Get involved, don’t pretend to know, actually find facts, make a sound educated decision before you vote, and for God sake, quit bitching if when you have no clue what  you are bitching about.

Today I noticed in my facebook suggestions that a good friend of mine IRL had finally created an account. After trying to add him, though, he wrote me a message revealing how he mainly intended to use FB for family and very close friends. This of course I was totally cool with, and wrote back as such, but it got me thinking about all the people who become a steaming pile of butthurtedness when others don’t use social media the way they want everyone to use it.

This is what burnt me out about twitter. Back in the day, twitter was actually used to talk about yourself and your life. Now twitter is more of a link sharing service, which I would be fine with if I didn’t have to deal with a bunch of assholes telling me I can’t tweet about my breakfast. Cream of wheat is delicious and nutritious, to hell with you if you don’t find that fascinating; someone on the internet will.

Social media is built with an unparalleled level of versatility and customization. I think that intimidates people who lack intrapersonal strength and security in their identity. So, instead of having the balls to just do what they want regardless of external feedback they seek to control the actions of others so their actions are justified. This makes for a very uncreative echo chamber rather than a social atmosphere of authenticity. That’s why we end up with jackoffs on twitter who complain about my cream of wheat; underneath their bitching and shallow attempts to control is the hollow, bromidic shell of a truly uninspired soul.

So rock on, my antisocial FB friend; you are doing the word a great service by doing your own thing.

It’s everywhere from CNET to GAWKER. Facebook has yet again released the “stupid” in the biggest screw up since Beacon.  So why is anyone surprised by this? I have said it before and I’ll say it again, once Social Networks open the gates and are no longer a gated community they also let the stupid pour in, in both mind, users, and application development.

I am so close to just killing my Facebook account. Not only am I tired of the stupid apps status updates, now I have no way of setting my own privacy levels. Facebook, you know who you sound like right now? Microsoft when they released Vista (crap). You have taken the stupid road, the short bus if you will. You have gone down the “We know what is best for you” path. Guess what, I know what is best for me and what I want. Setting my own degree of privacy should be an option PERIOD!

I’ll give it to you that Facebook is worth millions, they have a ton of money. I am also really beginning to understand something. When companies get big and all they see is the bottom dollar, they get dumber. It all becomes more about their advertisers and who they can please. Well you seem to have forgotten something Facebook. WE are the ones who made YOU. YOUR USERS! NOT your advertisers. Not the morons who created the stupid apps. WE did.

So Facebook enjoy the revenue you are going to get out of the less technically educated. The ones who will play the stupid apps and the crap ads in your sidebar. One day you’ll wake up and realize, you’ve become Myspace.

I think we should go back to the drawing board on Friendmenow.com.  What do you think Brian? You game?

UPDATE! Gawker has released a Restore your privacy on Facebook Manual

Via SocialNomics

Having Social Media as a hobby can be sometimes a little invasive. Like most techies and internet lovers, I subscribe to a lot of trade magazines.  The magazines come to my home and quickly end up in the rest room. I mean come on, who can honestly not say they do not read in the rest room?

I am not the only person who suffers from this affliction.  I have had discussions with a lot of Social Media enthusiasts,  who say if something is going well, and “It’s going to pop”, they carry the laptop or smart phone into the rest room to monitor their contents progress.  *cough* Gerri *cough*

So, back to my original point. I tend to read trade magazines in the restroom, and I really start getting into an article. The articles are usually well written, and just long enough for me to finish my business. Here’s where the problem happens to be.

As a long time user of Social Media, you tend to get to know people. You see them in the Social space all the time. Now at the end of this well written article in this trade magazine, what do I see? I see a familiar face staring back at me in the small author bio. Come on man! Now it seems that this person has invaded my private time. A person I know from the Social Space has written an article that intrigued me during my private time.  Seems kinda weird me.

I am not saying I read these persons articles while only in the rest room. I stumble across articles all the time in print publications that friends of mine have written, not only there but on the radio as well.

I have a nice long commute everyday, so I usually listen to NPR when I am not blasting music. During these trips as Social Media or “New” Media has begun to take it’s strangle hold on society, more and more stories about Social Media are making the news at a national level. It’s always fun to hear a Social colleague on the radio. So far it has happened about three times.

So now my question, is Social Media too Social or has being connected become less private?

I found this gem on the Digg home page. Gotta love it!

Wow seriously Kanye? You go up on stage and take the mic from a 19 year old girl, during her VMA acceptance and disrespect her like that? What the hell were you thinking?

If you don’t know what happened I invite you to crawl out from what ever rock you are under and check the headlines.

Last night at the MTV Video Music Awards Taylor Swift won for “Best Female Video”. Then Kanye’s dumbass jumps on stage, takes the microphone, and says this award should have gone to Beyonce. Taylor Swift, a 19 year old girl, basically had her moment crushed by a jackass.

Kanye later apologized on his blog. ON HIS BLOG? Who  wrote the apology for him? Had he any guts he would have apologized on stage that night.

Well now people may be wondering what does this have to do with Social Media? He he heh. Kanye is getting trashed on the net right now. Go to Twitter and search the tag #boycottkanye. Yeah, it’s gotten ugly. This isn’t the only thing going on.

Last night on a site that will remain nameless as per Rules 1 and 2, decided to become Facebook fans of Kanye West, once they did they proceeded to call him an a$$hole and some other terrible things.

Kanye you opened up a can of worms. It’s time you realized you should not let your mouth write checks your butt can’t cash.  You, pissed off the internet. I hope you have a good PR rep. This stunt might get you attention, but it’s NOT the kind you want.

Facebook has attracted the dumbasses. I knew it would happen. They click on every app and ad then their PC gets highjacked with a virus that DDOS’s the shit out of Facebook and Twitter and God only knows what else.

Facebook is not Myspace. Quit clicking on sparkly farie gifs and dumbass apps. (Stupid motherfucker sent you a beer. Send one back?) Fuck your beer, fuck your gifs, and fuck you. It’s fucking morons like these that ruin the web for the rest of us.