(Wired)  Bloggers: If you suddenly find Air Force officers leaving barbed comments after one of your posts, don't be surprised. They're just following the service's new "counter-blogging" flow chart. In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force's public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle "trolls," "ragers" -- and even well-informed online writers, too. It's all part of an Air Force push to "counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force," Captain David Faggard says...

Hat tip to my pal Noah.

Read the entire story here.

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Click here to vote.  As you can see, I’m close to last place right now with about 20 votes.  But hey, it’s tough going up against the list of finalists.  They’re all great.  Right now, Blackfive and Michael Yon are running away with the lead early.  So feel free to send a vote to Milblogging.com.  If you don’t know much about me: I’ve blogged from Afghanistan, Iraq, and I helped film Bad Voodoo’s War.  I also founded Milblogging.com.  More importantly though, I once rescued a family of baby kittens from a burning building.

Now Blackfive and Michael Yon -- I hate to start wild rumors about either, but I hear they cut in front of old ladies in the shopping line at the Supermarket.  And regularly make babies cry. 

For fun.

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You can vote for the 'Best Military Blog' starting Monday, January 5th, on the Weblog Awards website.  Here's the link to the Voting page for Best Military Blog.

Needless to say, I'm a finalist.  So if you plan to vote, feel free to send a vote my way. Or you can also vote for my fellow Military.com writers over at Op-For.  They're finalists, too. 

Although, I hear they like to kick puppies and push old ladies.   

I'm just saying...

For more information on the Weblog Awards and the exact starting time of voting, visit the official website.

Webmaster UPDATE:  Polls are now open.

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(Mudville Gazette)  In compiling the entry below, it occrred to me there may be readers here who don't have a copy of The Blog of War: Front-Line Dispatches from Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Blackfive-compiled collection of milblog entries from what might be called "the golden age". If you're one of those folks I'd urge you to get one.

Reading (or re-reading) these stories you (like me) might be reminded that everything done before "the surge" was not stupid, pointless, and wrong - and you might even come to share my complete disgust with those who now believe otherwise.

Read the entire story here.

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(Stars and Stripes)  On Oct. 10, 2004, Army Spc. Jonathan Santos wrote in his diary that he planned to catch up on his reading while deployed to Iraq.

"I will read ‘The Principles of Writing,’ and then I will write the Great American novel and get hired as a professor at a prestigious university," he joked in the government-issued green log book he carried with him wherever he went.

"But first, I have to make it out of this war alive."

It was his 34th day as a member of a psychological operations unit working out of Al Karabilah, a town in Iraq’s desert west. Four days later, the 22-year-old Guamanian would be killed when a car loaded with explosives plowed into his Humvee.

Santos is featured in a 60-minute documentary called "A Corporal’s Diary," made up of video footage he took of his time in the war zone and excerpts from his journal.

Read the entire story here.

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(RT)  ...the Israeli army has created its own YouTube channel, with an entire department dedicated to blogging on the internet. At the end of the day who wins the war in Gaza will depend as much on what is said here - in cyberspace - as to what happens on the ground...

Read the entire story here.

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(Weblog Awards)  Every day we'll be updating the site with important information and observations about the progress of The 2008 Weblog Awards.

Today we're announcing that the permanent location of each of the 48 polls have been set.  The finalist polls can be reached via the main poll navigation page here.

All comments will be disabled later today.  Discussion is allowed on The Weblog Awards Forum.

As a reminder, the voting starts January 5th, and I’ll be posting all the information here on this blog.  Happy New Year!

Read the entire story here.

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(Associated Press)  Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers have taken their battle to the Internet.

Israel posted video of its attacks on rocket launchers over the past five days on a new YouTube channel to try to show the world the threat against it.

But YouTube temporarily yanked the clips on Tuesday after viewers, apparently supporters of Hamas, flagged it as objectionable and asked that it be taken down. The video sharing Web site restored the video a few hours later, labeling it inappropriate for minors.

"The blogosphere and the new media are basically a war zone" in a battle for world opinion, military spokesman Maj. Avital Leibovich said Wednesday.

Leibovich said the new YouTube channel and a new blog the military is launching are an important part of Israel's attempt to explain its actions abroad.

Read the entire story here.

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(Wired News)  If there's a bright spot in all this, it's the fact that coverage of the "forgotten war" in Afghanistan -- and of the slow-mo implosion of Pakistan -- is getting a boost. Perhaps equally important, a new breed of online reporter has stepped up to continue providing coverage of the Iraq war. The Stelter piece prominently quotes über-milblogger Michael Yon as well as Mike Boettcher, a former Baghdad correspondent for NBC News who now reports at NoIgnoring.com.

Read the entire story here.

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Voting is scheduled to begin on Monday, January 5th, 2009.  Here's the list of military blog finalists:

From My Position... on the way!
The War on Big Tobacco
Blackfive
Michael Yon
This Ain't Hell
One Marine's View
Op For
Army of Dude
Milblogging,com
Knee Deep in the Hooah!

You know what you need to do starting January 5th, don't you?  Get out and vote for the best military blog.  Or, you can just vote for Milblogging.com.  For the past few years I've been trying new things to bring more awareness to the Milblogging.com website and the index of over 2,000 military blogs, and I think winning a Weblog Award would do the job.  I mean because, tagging public bathroom stalls and spray painting subway cars with “www.Milblogging.com Forever!” and “Visit Milblogging.com The World’s Largest Index of Military Blogs” was kind of illegal.  Plus, now I have carpal tunnel syndrome.

To keep updated on this year's awards, visit the Weblog Awards website.

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Per the official 2008 Weblog Awards website, news was just posted that the finalists in all blog categories will be announced this evening.  That's tonight, Monday, December 29^th.  No word on exact time, but this is exciting news.  I’ve been waiting for the list of finalists since Christmas Day.  Who knew, that if you hold your breath, wishes can come true.  My wife said I was crazy for holding my breath because of the dangers.  I showed her! And best of all, no side effects.

Well, I’m off to play with the Unicorns dancing in my Home Office. So perty...

Wheeeeeeee!

Keep updated here.

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(Bouhammer.com)  Bouhammer Note-The following blog is copied  from an email I received thanking me, but more importantly thanking all of you who sent the ETT team stuff after reading this blog from December 2nd.

Just wanted to thank you and all of your readers for the incredible support that you guys have given us. We are literally swimming in care packages, which is great. We had been down to eating MREs for two meals a day due to chow resupply, however with the stuff everyone sent us we put together some ad-hoc meals to get away from MREs.

I know that everyone’s lives are so busy during the holidays and the thought that people took that valuable time to put something together for us showed us the true meaning of Christmas.

Read the entire story here.

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For all you fans of the Weblog Awards out there, if you're interested in learning which military blogs are finalists, guess what? Looks like you'll be waiting even longer.  According to the official 2008 Weblog Awards site, December 25th 28th was supposed to be the announcement date, but once again no information or news has been posted on their site.  It's almost like the folks over there have a hard time with setting and meeting deadlines. 

I have to admit though, I've got some experience with setting and missing deadlines each year when I host and run the MILBloggies.  But I’ve learned a lot over the years, and there's an easy way for the Weblog Awards to sort this date out once and for all.  Allow me to share...Normally, before I even get started with the Planning Phase, I pick an arbitrary date by asking my kids their favorite numbers or reading a Fortune Cookie.  Obviously, if I miss the first date I tack on another month.  Or maybe three or four months.  Sometimes up to six.  Who knows?  It really depends on how my cornflakes align in my cereal bowl that morning. 

I like to set my targets low. 

Really, it's a gift passed down from generations of slackers.

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(Soldiers in the Blogosphere)  Thanks to the Unofficial Coast Guard Blog for pointing me towards a couple interesting pieces about corporate blogs. While the comments on the posts are geared toward the civilian world and "official" blogs, the suggestions are really appropriate to anyone blogging. In this case, I think they should certainly be included in any training for Soldiers who are interested in entering the blogosphere.

The first post is on thenextweb.com which stated, first, that only 1 in 6 people find corporate blogs trustworthy. I'll ask some more questions about perceptions toward official military blogs some other time. For the time being, suffice it to say that this, at its roots, is a problem with credibility!

Read the entire story here.

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It appears we're gonna have to wait a few more days to find out who the 'Military Blog' finalists are in this year's Weblog Awards.  According to the official website, the announcement has been delayed until December 28th.  Now, they were supposed to be announced yesterday, but because of all the work involved in running the awards, we'll need to be patient just a little longer.  I know, I'm sad too.  In the meantime, I'll just sit here and play with my Nintendo Wii my wife got me for Christmas for the next few days.  I'm already undefeated in all the games I got here at home.  Yesterday, I destroyed my youngest son something like 260 to zero in Madden Football.  Honestly, the score might have been a little closer: except my wife had to change his diaper during the third quarter.     

I pause for no one.

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(Soldiers in the Blogosphere)  A story this morning on milblogging.com caught my eye for a couple of reasons: it involved the Army Corps of Engineers (my branch) and it involved what I'll term "defensive blogging". The story is about allegations by the website Levee.org that Corps of Engineers employees left comments "targeting citizen critic using tax payer money" and were "re-writing history" (the news report by WWL TV can be seen here.) I have no idea if this is an organized effort by the Corps of Engineers, but it certainly highlights one way that the military can (and, I'd argue, should) engage the blogosphere - by leaving comments on blogs to correct or complete a story...

Read the entire story here.

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(Pacific Daily News) Guam can listen to the final words of one of its fallen sons on Dec. 29.

KUAM will broadcast a documentary made from the final diary entries and home movies of U.S. Army Spc. Jonathan Santos, 22, who was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq on Oct. 15, 2004.

Santos most recently lived in Guam from 1992 to 1997, between his father's tours of duty in Germany. He graduated from Piti Middle School.

Santos was deployed for only 38 days, but he recorded his thoughts, fears, frustrations and hopes into a worn green journal. The journal and his videotapes were returned to his family after Santos' death.

"So this is my birthday wish," Santos wrote on his 16th day in Iraq. "I wish that this time next year I have left the Army behind me and I live in Los Angeles, CA, in a nice place where I am truly, incredibly and indefinitely happy."

He was killed 22 days later.

Read the entire story here.

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(OhmyNews International) You can't blame Doug Mayman and his fellow crew members of a British Cruiser tank for wanting to keep out of the way of enemy German Tiger tanks in World War II.

A shot from a Tiger's 88mm gun could penetrate the front armor of a Cruiser 2,000 metres away, but a Cruiser's 57mm gun couldn't penetrate the front armor of a Tiger one metre away. (This fact has been revealed only recently. Was it known in 1944?).

Mayman, a member of the tank regiment, the 15th /19th King's Royal Hussars, kept secret wartime diaries recounting his Army life from November 5, 1943 until his return home from Germany on leave on April 21, 1945.

The diaries, already published as a book, Led Soldiers, are now being posted day by day as a blog on the Internet, to the delight of exservicemen - not all of them Brits - and military historians around the world.

These diaries provide a living account of Mayman's conscription, induction and training, leading up to his experiences under fire as his regiment fought its way through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany.

Read the entire story here.

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In case you haven’t been following the progress of Capt G. whose blog Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal was shutdown by the military, a possible book deal was in the works according to his fiancé.  Well, according to Wikipedia and the Literary Agency William Clark Associates, it’s official.

If you have a book idea and need representation, you can submit your own information to William Clark Associates using the online form.

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Screenshot of Levees.org

Is it me? But is there actually anything wrong with leaving harassing comments? Truthfully, part of running a blog is receiving harassing comments.  I suppose if you don't like to hear opposing points of view, you could always move to China.  Or Cuba.  Or maybe the Moon.  I mean, as someone who has served in the Military and strongly believes in freedom of speech, I’ll admit I've trolled a few blogs and websites and got some heated discussions going.  I even change my account names about twenty times so I don't get banned. 

In my defense though, I usually only troll on Friday nights.  Late.  About 11:30 PM.  You know?  When I’m drunk. 

(Red, Green, and Blue)  Many bloggers and webmasters want to check their stats so often it borders on behavior that could be classified as obsessive-compulsive. Fortunately, that is how the folks behind the scenes at the New Orleans-based activist group, Levees.org learned that the harassing comments being left at their blog were coming from computers registered to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Well, maybe they weren’t OC about checking their stats, but after this incident, I’m guessing they are.

Levees.org is a watchdog activist group that is pushing for “a truly independent analysis of the failure of the federal flood protection system in metro New Orleans on August 29, 2005.” The group’s founder, Sandy Rosenthal did some digging into her stats after an unusually high number of comments began rolling into the blog. The comments shared the same general message but seemed to be written by different people.

Read the entire story here.

Webmaster Update:  Sorry, for those of you who want to leave me harassing comments, the Comments section is still broken.  High five!

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