By Marilyn M. Barnewall
NewsWithViews.com
July 25, 2010

On July 18, 2010, it was announced that the Obama Administration had shut down 73,000 blogs hosted by Blogetery.com. News in the blogging world originally said the blogs were deleted under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed in 1998.

I’m quoting Dave Nalle at Dave Nalle's Blog. He says “Critics of this action believe that first amendment rights and due process should be respected and that the burden of proof should fall on the government to identify and punish only the actual wrongdoers rather than shutting down thousands of innocent sites to get a few malefactors.”

Another report denies that government action closed down all these blogs. It says the Intellectual Property Czar’s office and Digital Millennium Copyright Law may not have been responsible. Instead, an online magazine with al-Qaeda ties and article content about terrorist activities was at fault for the 73,000 blog closures.

According to this second report, the FBI’s only involvement was requesting user information about several sites and using a criminal code provision that doesn’t require a warrant. Reports say the owner of Blogetery.com or its provider over-reacted and began deleting blogs.

The only problem with the second story is that neither the FBI nor any other law enforcement group contacted the Blogetery owner. The people who shut him down won’t tell him why. It makes this second report sound like “Tell the public it’s terrorist related and they’ll be scared out of asking any questions” rhetoric.

My blog was with Google’s Blogspot.com, not Blogetery. Google, which owns Blogspot, deleted my blog on July 20, 2010. The reason it was removed is important – to you, and to me. The material it contained proves a man who paid $14,129 in erroneous civil tax assessments in 1992 was arrested for non-payment of those taxes in 1993 and was sent to prison for 22 years in 1995. My blog contained a copy of his 1992 cancelled check proving he paid the tax. It is frightening to realize that if “they” don’t want evidence of someone’s innocence made public – yours or mine included – they just hit “delete.”

Regardless, the cancelled check reproduced on the blog proved Lee Wanta in 1992 paid an assessed (not proven) $14,129 civil tax imposed by the State of Wisconsin. Governor Tommy Thompson’s minions said he hadn’t paid it and prosecuted him. The back of the check clearly shows the State of Wisconsin cashed the check in 1992, when it was written. While in prison, a vast fortune Wanta earned – and I emphasize the word earned – for the American people got stolen. Hmmm… No wonder they wanted him in prison!

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