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You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / The BlackOut

The BlackOut

by John Cole|  January 18, 201212:44 pm| 79 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Science & Technology

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I have to say, I think the blackout is a great idea, and we would be participating but for the fact that I have no idea how to remove everything, and on top of it all, I’m not sure that if I did get everything blacked out, I’d be able to get it back up tomorrow. So we are participating in spirit only. I suppose we could have a white out, and I could just post 1600×1900 pictures of Tunch.

At any rate, I think the way you can tell if something like this is working is by how loud certain people squeal. As Mistermix noted, Dodd is pissed (and that explains why he was at the Golden Globes), and that is a good thing. The more these corporate hacks scream bloody murder, the more you know the pressure is working.

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79Comments

  1. 1.

    Valdivia

    January 18, 2012 at 12:47 pm

    Did anyone else notice Murdoch and his wife big as life at the Globes? What was that about???

  2. 2.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    You could just post a whole bunch of front page posts with no content, and then sit back and watch how people manage to troll even that.

  3. 3.

    Luthe

    January 18, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    Are you sure 1600×1900 would be big enough to picture all of Tunch?

  4. 4.

    The Moar You Know

    January 18, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    I want to know why Franken is pimping this nonsense.

  5. 5.

    gaz

    January 18, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    @different-church-lady: Salon already goes there

  6. 6.

    MikeJ

    January 18, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Because he’s a Hollywood guy and he’s over 50.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    Here’s what I think we really ought to do: there should be a month long blackout. Because by the time two weeks went by we’d all completely forget why we thought this stuff was so indispensable in the first place.

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack

    January 18, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    Maybe you could just change the blog’s “theme color” to black in solidarity, à la Sullivan’s green for the Iranian revolution.

  9. 9.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    @Luthe
    @gaz

    so many wins, so few internets…

  10. 10.

    Ron

    January 18, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    I think most sites just added some javascript. Wikipedia isn’t “down” and if you turn off javascript you can access the site as usual.

  11. 11.

    Dr. Psycho

    January 18, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    I had to settle for making the front page of my blog and my Yahoo groups turn black, because I couldn’t figure out how to actually shut them down.

    Oh, well — nobody reads my blog anyway. :{ )

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    Cole, I need to talk to you about your ads: one page ago there was an ad for full figured women’s fashions. One page later there’s an ad in the very same spot for a weight loss program.

    I don’t need more cognitive dissonance. Knock it off.

  13. 13.

    MikeJ

    January 18, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    @Ron: Yet another reason why I’m happy to use noscript.

  14. 14.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    @Ron: Once again turning off all the “helpful” stuff helps.

  15. 15.

    Rommie

    January 18, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    How many copyright infringements would large-size Tunch photos bring in under SOPA? Lucasarts? Aspen, CO?

  16. 16.

    barath

    January 18, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    Um…he doesn’t control the ads…

  17. 17.

    quannlace

    January 18, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    @different-church-lady:
    Really. I thought people were always screaming about how inaccurate, unreliable (and lefty-lefty) Wikipedia is. So why bleat about a one-day black out being ‘abuse of power.’

  18. 18.

    dance around in your bones

    January 18, 2012 at 1:03 pm

    @MikeJ: Yeah, I went to Wikipedia to see what a blackout looks like, and everything came up just fine. Then I realized ‘Ah, good ol’ NoScript’.

    I’ll stay off the site in solidarity anyway.

  19. 19.

    schrodinger's cat

    January 18, 2012 at 1:03 pm

    So we are participating in spirit only. I suppose we could have a white out, and I could just post 1600×1900 pictures of Tunch.

    Want!

  20. 20.

    scav

    January 18, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    TEST: ■■■■■■■■

  21. 21.

    MikeJ

    January 18, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    I don’t need more cognitive dissonance. Knock it off.

    You’re at the wrong pineapple for that.

  22. 22.

    scav

    January 18, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    ■■■ ■■■’■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■.

  23. 23.

    Legalize

    January 18, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    @different-church-lady:
    Well to be honest, most of Cole’s posts are content free anyway. Hello!

  24. 24.

    MikeJ

    January 18, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    BTW Cole, I’m disappointed. All this talk of blackout and no mention of The Damned?

  25. 25.

    Satanicpanic

    January 18, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    No point in blacking out your site. Everyone here already knows about SOPA. Blackout should just be on sites that apolitical people use- Google, Wikipedia, etc.

  26. 26.

    gaz

    January 18, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    @scav: wheel of fortune?

  27. 27.

    Satanicpanic

    January 18, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    Oh, and boy was I wrong about Chris Dood. Can’t believe I donated to him AND John Edwards in 07. At least I never voted for Nader.

  28. 28.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    @barath: HE WOULD IF HE USED THE BULLY PULPIT!

  29. 29.

    scav

    January 18, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    @gaz: ■■■! (I suddenly want to do wheel of fortune in morse code. “I’d like to buy a dash?” GSD my mind scares me.)

    ETA: To be extra clear, a weak attempt at a personal google-esque blackout — and golly isn’t that logo recognizable even in a glimpse of blue.

  30. 30.

    PurpleGirl

    January 18, 2012 at 1:12 pm

    @quannlace: It’s Chris Dodd who’s claiming it’s an abuse of power. To my knowledge no lefty person or blog is claiming that.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    @Satanicpanic:

    At least I never voted for Nader.

    Not yet.

  32. 32.

    gaz

    January 18, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    @Satanicpanic: I voted for Nader.

    I live in a state that will always go blue though. I just wanted the green party to get some of the popular vote. I’ve never even liked Nader, but I voted for the guy.

  33. 33.

    HRA

    January 18, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    I vote for Tunch white out.

  34. 34.

    PurpleGirl

    January 18, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    I’ve recommended people to read the blog Making Light. To see what they did this morning for the day go here:

    http://nielsenhayden.com/503_sopa.html

    Patrick NielsonHayden works for Tor Books (owned by Macmillan, which supports SOPA) and Teresa NielsonHayden consultants for Tor.

  35. 35.

    gaz

    January 18, 2012 at 1:20 pm

    @scav: I got what you were doing. I even tried highlighting/selecting the text at first to see if it would reveal something dirty, but I see you just did the characters and not any kind of color tricks..
    speaking of which, I wonder…

    testing….

    Edit: darn, style attribs are stripped =(

  36. 36.

    scav

    January 18, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    @gaz: ahh. jo nicht so clever. just a character code monkey.

  37. 37.

    Satanicpanic

    January 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    @gaz: I can see that. I know a guy from Florida who did though, and he seems to think it’s funny. Maybe not coincidentally, he doesn’t live in the USA anymore.

  38. 38.

    Benjamin Franklin

    January 18, 2012 at 1:31 pm

    Issa and Cantor along with Wyden (reconstituting his rep) are the lanyards of hope for denying SOPA?

    Politics doth make strange bedfellows.

    btw; Ever noticed Wyden’s uncanny resemblance between “Hell on Wheels” bad guy called ‘The Swede”?

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    January 18, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    A song for Satanicpanic:

    http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=7WYq3iON8KQ

  40. 40.

    me

    January 18, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: The Wyden-Ryan thing got lots for press for a few days then disappeared. Hopefully Wyden got smacked down for that.

  41. 41.

    Jack the Second

    January 18, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    IMO it’s not useful for a political blog to black out. Balloon Juice, et al, are informing people 365-ish; blacking it out one day informs people less rather than more.

  42. 42.

    slag

    January 18, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    @different-church-lady: Those aren’t his ads; those are your ads.

  43. 43.

    gaz

    January 18, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    @different-church-lady: i missed this before. LOL!

  44. 44.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    @slag: I refutiate those ads! I refutiate them 1000 times!

  45. 45.

    Gust Avrakotos

    January 18, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    …..and when not Liberal Greewald sides with Republican Ron Paul against the black out because he’ll say it can’t be controlled at the state level or whatever the fuck, so will supposed Not Republican Cole. Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.

  46. 46.

    AxelFoley

    January 18, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Maybe you could just change the blog’s “theme color” to black in solidarity, à la Sullivan’s green for the Iranian revolution.

    I dunno. Once you go black…

    I don’t think Cole is ready for that.

  47. 47.

    scav

    January 18, 2012 at 1:44 pm

    @Jack the Second: Not exactly. More isn’t necessarily better — see multiple 24-hours news channels. Spending one day focusing on one single important issue may be very worthwhile.

  48. 48.

    ornery_curmudgeon

    January 18, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    I liked Nader and wish we’d been able to see him debate Bush.

    Don’t know if the current Democratic Party was worth destroying and scapegoating one of the great Progressive activists of the 20th Century … but I am damn sure it was unnecessary. And all that Nader-hatred did was divide and rig the progressive movement for ongoing circular destruction.

    Wait, you say, progressives are not divided or rigged for circular destruction! Yeah wait for it. I’ll say it again: I respect Ralph Nader.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    January 18, 2012 at 1:49 pm

    @AxelFoley: Bow chicka wow-wow!

    /been there

  50. 50.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    @ornery_curmudgeon:

    Don’t know if the current Democratic Party was worth destroying and scapegoating one of the great Progressive activists of the 20th Century

    Probably not. But then again, neither was his own damn ego, which is the thing that actually did the job in the end.

  51. 51.

    jl

    January 18, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    Is the full size pic of Tunch up yet, or is that the normal white background for the blog? I can’t tell.

    Cole needs to post an update.

    And we really should have lots of Tunchpic today, as Cole double dog dare promised 1000 percent, fer sher.

    I will check back, Cole.

  52. 52.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    January 18, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    @Rommie:

    How many copyright infringements would large-size Tunch photos bring in under SOPA? Lucasarts? Aspen, CO?

    So because Tunch is large, white, round and distorts gravity Lucasarts claims John is plagiarizing the Death Star?

  53. 53.

    slag

    January 18, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    @different-church-lady: That’s OK. I refudiate the barrage of Newsmax and Ron Paul ads I get whenever I come here. It’s my own fault, though. I’m the one who clicks on them. I refudiate the ads I frequently click on!

  54. 54.

    Satanicpanic

    January 18, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    Who’s hating on Nader? I just said voting for him would have been a bad idea. I didn’t know that in 2012 this was still controversial.

  55. 55.

    AxelFoley

    January 18, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    @Yutsano:

    @AxelFoley: Bow chicka wow-wow!
    __
    /been there

    ROFL, do tell.

  56. 56.

    different-church-lady

    January 18, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    @slag: Wait… you can click on those things?

  57. 57.

    kpete

    January 18, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    TUNCH!!!!!
    I come looking for him
    what a magnificent creature

  58. 58.

    joes527

    January 18, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    @Benjamin Franklin: Issa and Cantor are the good guys. Franken is one of the bad guys. This isn’t blackout day. This is backwards day.

  59. 59.

    The Moar You Know

    January 18, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    I didn’t know that in 2012 this was still controversial.

    @Satanicpanic: This will remain “controversial” until the last soldier that George W. Bush sent to Iraq or Afghanistan dies of old age.

    Because the brutal truth is that without Nader, those kids wouldn’t have been sent off to die so that W. could one-up his daddy.

  60. 60.

    MikeJ

    January 18, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    @joes527: Issa, the sponsor of the Research Works Act which would allow companies to take federal money for research and keep the results secret?

  61. 61.

    Danny Wagz

    January 18, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Whitening-out the site here would be easy enough; post pictures of Gingrich all over the place, or just link to Santorums’ home page.
    Oh, that’s right. Nevermind.

  62. 62.

    CarolDuhart2

    January 18, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    Public Domain Blog

  63. 63.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 18, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    @gaz:

    Interestingly, that was Nader’s original goal…to allow people not satisfied in blue states with the blue party to register a protest and help out the Greens.

    Then Nader reneged on that, and started operating in contested states, like Florida.

    With tragic results. Over 4,000 dead servicemembers, and hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis, a direct result of his ratfucking operation in Florida.

    Also, too see @The Moar You Know:

  64. 64.

    Djur

    January 18, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    @Gust Avrakotos: Yeah, Greenwald sure loves him some SOPA.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    January 18, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    @ornery_curmudgeon:

    Don’t know if the current Democratic Party was worth trying to destroying and being scapegoatinged by one of the great Progressive activists self-absorbed self-promoters of the 20th Century … but I am damn sure it was unnecessary.

    Fix’t.

    Fuck Ralph Nader. He’s no progressive, whatever the hell that may mean. And I know for damn sure that he’s no liberal.

  66. 66.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    January 18, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    @ornery_curmudgeon:

    I have trouble respecting the man who went on Fox News to suggest that Barack Obama might be an Uncle Tom. I give him props for his earlier work on behalf of consumers – but the most recent incarnation of Nader has been unimpressive.

  67. 67.

    joes527

    January 18, 2012 at 2:35 pm

    @MikeJ: The list of other ways in which Issa is evil is too long to bother with, but he has come out against SOPA.

    I am not saying that Ron Paul Darrell Issa is better than Barack Obama Al Franken.

  68. 68.

    Ron

    January 18, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    @dance around in your bones: Wikipedia itself isn’t trying to prevent people from using it. In their FAQ about the blackout they explain how to access Wikipedia during the blackout.

  69. 69.

    MikeJ

    January 18, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    @joes527: I didn’t think anyone would be so silly as to think Issa was in general better than Franken. My link was to demonstrate that he’s not even better on freedom of information.

  70. 70.

    slag

    January 18, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    @different-church-lady: I usually close my eyes when I click on them. So I feel less dirty. But yeah…it’s all part of my grand scheme to bankrupt the Republican establishment one click at a time. Clearly a long-term plan.

  71. 71.

    gaz

    January 18, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: While what you say is true, I sleep just fine, knowing that the ONLY thing I did was give the green party some of the popular vote.

    Had I lived in FL, which I do not, and never have, (and never will) I would have voted blue.

    But I didn’t.

    No harm no foul. If there’s something I missed WRT to this, let me know. Otherwise, I’m just fine with my decision. I had no control over what happened in florida. Hell, I even live as far away from FL as I can, while still being in the continental US. heh.

  72. 72.

    Zifnab

    January 18, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    @joes527: He and Wyden have come out with a watered down version of SOPA/PIPA that they are pushing as a compromise resolution.

    I should also note that Issa represents a sizable chunk of Silicon Valley, and has been taking big dollar donations from anti-SOPA industries. So no matter how you cut it, he isn’t exactly on the side of angels even if his opposition to the legislation is helpful in the moment.

  73. 73.

    Tonal Crow

    January 18, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    If your server supports /.htaccess, you can backup your existing /.htaccess (if any) and index.html, then add Redirect directives to send all requests to /index.html , which you can then change to a boycott page. Like this:Redirect /trolling https://balloon-juice.com/index.html
    Redirect /trolling/abl https://balloon-juice.com/index.html
    Redirect /trolling/matoko-chan https://balloon-juice.com/index.html

    To undo the changes, just restore your old .htaccess and index.html.

  74. 74.

    Naive and Sentimental

    January 18, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    A lot of webcomics joined in, but you know it’s mostly an excuse to skip an update :p
    The ones I saw from my usual Wednesday read through
    Winter Melody

    XKCD

    Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

    Chainsaw Suit

  75. 75.

    Skippy the Wondermule

    January 18, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    This is not the blackout you’re looking for ….

    It’s a Jedi mind trick, folks.

    View the page source, it’s all still there :-)

  76. 76.

    Nutella

    January 18, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    @Naive and Sentimental:

    Oatmeal did a special comic for today. Very special.

  77. 77.

    harlana

    January 18, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    I suppose we could have a white out, and I could just post 1600×1900 pictures of Tunch.

    you’re saying that like it wouldn’t be awesome

  78. 78.

    Linkmeister

    January 18, 2012 at 6:19 pm

    There’s a WordPress plugin which sends your visitors to the SOPASTRIKE.com website. I’m using it and hoping it turns itself off at midnight EST as promised.

  79. 79.

    elftx

    January 18, 2012 at 8:50 pm

    @AxelFoley:

    and here I was thinking..Blazing Saddles Forever !!!

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