The weblog platform Blogger, which started the Blogosphere phenomenon and was eventually purchased by Google, has blocked publication of several weblogs that oppose the candidacy of Barack Obama for president. In each case, the owner of the blog was notified that the blog had been reported as a “spam blog.” Such blogs, with automatically generated commercial content, are not allowed on Blogger.

In fact, none of the blocked weblogs violated the Blogger agreement — all had content personally composed by the owners. All they had in common was a specific political focus. This oppression of the free speech of one political class of weblogs is a tremendous black eye for Google, which already has a bad reputation among bloggers because of its cooperation with Chinese government censorship.

All of the weblogs targeted are part of the Just Say No Deal coalition, which has one simple slogan — NObama. From their central coalition website:

We are a coalition of millions with one thing in common: NObama. If you thought you were aone, you’re wrong.

This is a fairly large coalition, and filled with passionate political activists who post frequently and write thoughtful content. While the only requirement is opposition to the Obama candidacy, most members are Hillary Clinton supporters. As the steward of the coalition’s central website notes:

Just Say No Deal is not affiliated with any political campaign, has not endorsed any candidate, and contrary to rumors – is not funded by the GOP. I should know…I put it on my credit card.

[Miami-based public relations consultant Diane Mantouvalos organized a conference call among about 40 bloggers to start the coalition, according to a WaPo article.]

Stop The ACLU Blog first reported this on Sunday afternoon:

Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Sites on its Blogger Platform

It looks like Google has officially joined the Barack Obama campaign and decided that its contribution would be to shut down any blog on the Google owned Blogspot.com blogging system that has an anti-Obama message….

But the first comment under that post explained the problem in a nutshell:

The problem with blogger is that a group of people with an ax to grind can report any blog as spam and after enough complaints, it’s automatically suspended until a real live human being can get around to examining it. If enough complaints are registered with blogger, you might get a response within 5 days but it takes a concerted effort. This is a huge problem with blogger and something google needs to get a handle on.

None of the affected weblogs have been able to add new posts since June 25. These are the weblogs that we know have been blocked:

• Blue Lyon — moved to WordPress
• Come A Long Way — moved to WordPress
• Hillary or Bust — moved to its own domain
• McCain Democrats — remains dark at the time of this post
• NObama Blog — moved to WordPress
• The Political Lizard — created a new Blogger location, trying to stay one step ahead of the Obamaniacs
• Reflections in Tyme — remains dark at the time of this post

Other Blogger-based weblogs opposed to Obama have been flagged as spam prior to this. These include

• Uppity Woman
• Pan Metron

They continue to fight to stay on Blogger, by repeatedly going through a word recognition verification program to prove that their blogs are not spam.

Uppity Woman has been struggling:

Anti Obama Blogs Locked Due To False “SPAM” Reporting — Updated June 27

My own blogger “unblock request” was completed for the third time again this morning. It was completed the first time on June 3 and the “verification” that it was listed mysteriously disappeared on June 17. I filled it out again on June 17. The “verification” for that request was gone this morning. So I have submitted the “request” again….

…I can honestly say that the word verification I have to go through to write a post is horrendous and the worst I have ever seen. Sometimes I have to try a half dozen times. I no longer have “autosave,” so everytime I want to save my work, I have to verify and then “save as draft”. Then I have to reopen the post and go through the same process to save or publish. Blogger just isn’t worth it.

Uppity Woman has opened an alternative location on WordPress.

Pan Metron reports:

Obama and the politics of intolerance

Having been involved in online communities discussing this year’s political race for over a year, it is clear that the Obama camp has never been about tolerance or playing fair. They have ostracized and belittled supporters of other candidates, written threatening e-mails, and worse.

Plato said “the measure of a man is what he does with power”, so it is instructive to see how these zealous Obama supporters behave now that they have won the nomination. The measure is alarming: they continue to be intolerant and to use dirty tactics to suppress, rather than debate, alternative viewpoints.

I found this out first-hand last week when some Obama zealots repeatedly flagged my blog as “spam”, taking advantage of a weakness in blogger.com’s architeture to illegally prevent me from publishing new posts on my own blog. The reason is, presumably, because I have posted criticisms of the duplicity of Barack Obama and the underhanded tactics of his supporters.

Ironically, I hadn’t really been posting that much lately. I was mulling things over. Could I really vote for John McCain? And what about all those Democrats whom I respect who are now rallying around Obama – could they be trusted to keep the causes I believe in alive even though they’re working to elect a purely Bonapartist, power-hungry Chicago politician?

The answer comes not from above nor from my conscience, but from the dirty move by Obama supporters to suppress my blog: hell no. I will, I reaffirm, never support this candidate or the corrupt and abusive minions who are frothing at the mouth for him. Shame on them, on all of you who pull dirty tricks for power. What happened to the politics of “hope” and to the sentiment that this is not a “liberal America or a conservative America” but the “United States of America”? You never gave a damn about that, it was all pandering. You deserve to lose and lose big….

Blue Lyon has moved to WordPress, commenting:

It appears that Blogger can’t tell the difference between a spam blog and one that’s been around for three years and has nearly 700 posts.

The Political Lizard took a different tack, creating The Political Lizard Annex, another Blogger website, noting at the original location:

THE LIZARD IS UNDER ATTACK — This blog has been temporarily shut down because Google has fallen victim to unscrupulous Obama supporters.

Other NObama folk, secure in their own domains, take notice. No Quarter comments:

Obama Thugs, In League with Google, Bully Bloggers

Give the Obamabots credit. They are clever at exploiting loopholes and finding ways to shut down opposition voices. Come to think of it, the Soviets were pretty good at that kind of information control and intimidation as well.

BuzzMachine has this to say:

Nobama blogs kerfuffle

The fear online has been that false information could be spread. It’s another fear that speech can be silenced…. The point … is that rogues can cause trouble.

Our fellow conservatives at Rhymes With Right began good coverage on Saturday:

This hasn’t gotten any MSM play …. the Obama “No Dissent Express” bus to Hell has driven over a number of PUMA bloggers this week — as a number of them were mysteriously shut down/blocked by Blogger as “spam blogs” after multiple reports by other users….

Why raise this issue now? Because I can imagine a similar effort against pro-McCain blogs come September and October. These people have no scruples against silencing members of their own party — why would they respect the free speech rights of members of the GOP?

It’s true that we here at American Daughter are mostly conservative political activists. And the bloggers affected by this current attack favor different legislative approaches to governance than we do. But as conservatives, we are deeply committed to free speech and open discussion as the foundation of an informed electorate. To see so many intelligent voices silenced is just as hurtful to us as it would be if they were fellow conservatives.

Addendum: There is also extensive coverage at Bloggasm where the writer conducted phone interviews with several of the affected bloggers.