Last Updated on December 4, 2019 by Christopher G Mendla
Some people’s feeewings might have been hurt so the Attorney General of New Jersey has to come to the rescue.
A social networking site, juicycampus.com was set up in Nevada. Ok, so the site is a place where people say not nice things about other people. Guess what folks, the real world is like that. People will get nasty. Just look at politics, Dina McGreevey starts saying nasty things about Eliott Spizter and then it comes out that Ms. McGreevey, the ex NJ Love Gov and their driver were having steamy three ways which might involve NJ taxpayer’s funds. Oh, and no sooner does the new New York Gov get in to replace the disgraced 4k.hr Spitzer that we find out he was cheating on his loving wife and seeing ho’s in a hotel (Guess that’s why it’s called that) again, possibly using taxmoney from his state’s citizens.
So, Fast Forward to the current situation. Somebody in Nevada comes up with a website where people can say mean, nasty and vile things about other people (Sort of like what the New York Slimes does to President Bush and the Republicans on a daily basis). Now, someone gets their pwecious feewings hurt. What do they do? Harden up? Ignore it? Fight Back? No, they run to the skirts of the nanny state. “Oh Please Great Kommissar Attorney General, protect me from the evil bad capitalist website”.
The NJAG now subpoenaes the website operator and the ad provider, adbrite. They are also thinking about been subpoenaing google which had previously provided advertising. This is chilling. Website operators will now be at the mercy of whichever Attorney General is having a slow news day or wants to enforce their own social dream on society by harassing selected websites.
A secondary effect is a chilling one. By harassing the ad providers, AG offices can now start exerting undue control over speech, possibly in violation of the First Amendment. If enough of the People’s Republiks start been subpoenaing (read harassing) the advertising companies, then the advertising companies will have to start becoming thought police. Google already does this to a large extent with their ad programs. Mention too much about guns or shooting in a positive sense on your site and it will stop showing Google ads.
Let me take a minute and say that I personally think that what the website is doing is totally despicable. However, I don’t believe that this is something that the government should step in and do the nanny state thing on. Things like this can be controlled to some extent by the free market.
As far as the AG offices, they are there for only two reasons (1) to further the aims of the party of the AG and (2) to further the career of the AG. Let’s look at some examples of this (3) protect the status quo and donors (players) to the parties.
- The Spitzer case – Do you think that Spitzer never spent a dime of taxpayer’s money while he was having his 5k flings? Do you think you will see the AG look at the spending there? Try shorting your tax payment by 10 bucks and see what happens.
- The Patterson Case – See the Spitzer case above.
- There is a case in Boulder Co. where an ex judge and his lawyer wife took a MILLION dollars worth of properly from their neighbor by claiming that they were entitled to it because they trespassed on the land. So far, the Colorodo AG is sitting on his butt doing nothing (see www.landgrabber.org for details on that outrage)
- I ran afoul of a business organization that was really a front for an insurance broker and ended up in a messy lawsuit because of it. Complaints to the Pennsylvania AG fell on deaf ears. Don’t worry about the complete misrepresentation of their marketing.
The AG’s press release can be found at http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases08/pr20080318b.html
A website that publishes anonymous gossip about college students, some identified by first and last name and dormitory, has been subpoenaed by the Office of the Attorney General and the Division of Consumer Affairs as part of a state investigation into the operation of the college gossip website
Hey, New Joisey – How about investigating how your ex gov put a foreign national in charge of the state’s homeland security… How about investigating if the Jim, Dina, Teddy freeway threeway used any taxpayer dollars to support it? How about investigating how Governor Corzine was speeding recklessly down the highway and tried to blame everything on some poor schmuck in a pickup truck?
Postings on JuicyCampus.com include uncomplimentary references to the physical characteristics, race, ethnicity and implied sexual experiences of students
Gee, too bad Obama’s Pastor isn’t in your state. Hey, now that I think about it, I’m offended by a lot of the stuff he has said. Here’s the website for you to investigate http://www.tucc.org/home.htm. Oops, I’m sorry, investigating that won’t fit in with your agenda now will it. ?
The state issued a second subpoena to Adbrite, Inc., a San Francisco-based online advertising company that advertises on the JuicyCampus.com web site. The state is requesting information about the business relationship between Adbrite and JuicyCampus.com in order to determine how JuicyCampus.com represented its operation to Adbrite, including the types of ads and advertising keywords requested by JuicyCampus.com
Yep, that’s the ticket, Intimidate those who don’t follow your dreams of a socialist utopia. Let’s use the subpoena power of the state to indirectly control how advertising companies run their businesses.
Additionally, the State sent a letter to Google, Inc., to inquire about the company’s prior business relationship with JuicyCampus.com
Oh Boy, you guys are really trying to have http://www.state.nj.us/ come up number one for the keyword “Mafia infested”, “Miserable Failure” and “Corruption Capital of the US” aren’t you. Here’s a hint guys. Don’t go yanking Google’s chain. Yeah, they are pretty liberal at the ‘plex but their net worth is probably greater than that of New Jersey.