The Ft. Hard Knox Project

The goal of the FHK project is to assist politically-conservative bloggers, social-networkers, and citizen journalists to navigate the wild, wild world of Web 2.0 more effectively.

If you're interested in learning more about the Ft. Hard Knox Project, here are the links:

• Ft. Hard Knox Main Page and Blog
• Ft. Hard Knox Discussion Forum
• Ft. Hard Knox Discussion Forum Chat
• Ft. Hard Knox Wiki

"Wiki...What?" A Wiki is a user-supported and continuously-evolving hypertext encyclopedia. Thus, by definition, a Wiki is always "under construction." The Ft. Hard Knox Wiki has recently been established within the Wikispaces environment, and it already has some useful articles. Its purpose is to offer an easy way to access tech tips and information, to help conservatives use the Web more effectively.

Using the FHK Forum and Chat Room:

The Ft. Hard Knox forum is hosted on Delphi, so you'll need to register for a Delphi user ID if you don't already have one. Registration for the basic functions is free, and that's all you need to leave messages on the forum or to use the chat room. Prompts will appear when you click on the link. It takes just a minute to sign up!

Updated 7/17/07:

Meet with us on Twitter!

• The Monday night FHK forum chat has been discontinued for now. That's because it's too difficult to get everybody in different time zones all over the world to meet at the same time, especially in the summer when so many people are traveling.
• Instead, we're encouraging fellow conservatives and antijihadist activists to meet with us on Twitter. You can use Twitter both in "real time" for chatting with people who are online at the same time, and as a forum for communicating with people who will be online at other times.
• Click here to view all of our articles about Twitter. We'll have many more articles about Twitter in the future!
• So how do I get started on Twitter? The easiest way is to ask an established user to introduce you to other Twitterers. Whom to ask? Me, of course! Don't be shy. Just go to the Twitter site, register an account, click on my profile at 1389, and add me as a friend. I'll "friend" you back soon afterward. Then send me a message introducing yourself, and I'll begin introducing you to others. I hope to see you there soon!

Updated 7/2/07:

• We'll be discussing the Ft. Hard Knox Wiki during tonight's Forum Chat, so please stop by if you'd like to know more, or if you think you might be interested in working with us!

Updated 6/26/07:

• The main page and blog for the Ft. Hard Knox project have moved to a new address, http://forthardknox.com/
• From the new URL, the Ft. Hard Knox blog can be accessed via a cellphone or PDA browser as well as from a conventional browser.

Stumble It!

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TinyURL for this blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yo8og9

David All shows us what we should be doing with Web 2.0

Here are some "must read" articles from Republican web strategist David All of the David All Group:

• Support your candidates with Slatecard.com
• GOP is playing "catch up" on the Web: Democrats Lead in Raising Money Online
• Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is a client of the David All Group; here are some examples of their work:
  • Kinder unveils new high-tech campaign site
  • YouTube video
• Facebook is the Internet: Facebook Membership Explodes, Users Worry Site Less Private

Stumble It!

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Why it's vitally important to keep up the pressure on the Senate

Over at Pirate's Cove, William Teach warns us about what happens when we fail to keep up the pressure on our legislators:

Demotivation Monday: Immigration Backers Optimistic

In a nutshell, our elected senators and representatives, not to mention the President, all think that they can ignore us. Teach gives several reasons, but this is the one you need to see right now:

Third, the flood of angry calls, emails, protests, etc, probably did recede, as the people who were making them, particularly Conservatives, do not think that they have to continue to say the same thing again and again: they expect Senators to listen the first time.

Problem is, they didn't listen, so you gotta crank up the volume.

We'll make it easy for you. Refer back to our earlier post on this topic, Updated: No, it's NOT too late to stop the immigration "reform" bill! Use the links there to reach out and touch the senators from your state.

Need some more motivation?

Terrorists Use Mexico to Enter U.S.

Open borders means no barriers against terrorist infiltration. And despite what the "reformers" say, it's impossible to do an effective background check on an alien in one business day. Once they get in, it's too late.

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Why Conservatives Need to Geek-Up (Part 1)

If you are not a liberal when you’re 25 you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative when you’re 45, you have no brain.

This saying, sometimes credited to Winston Churchill, seems to hold a bit of universal truth, as does the notion that the young people of a generation affect change, while the older folks lend stability. This certainly seems to be the case when it comes to politics online in the 21st century (allowing, of course, for exceptions such as the Young Republicans clubs and the die-hard hippies).

Web 2.0 technology affects our lives online in the form of blogs, online citizen journalism sites (social news), wiki’s, folksonomies, social networking sites, collaborative bookmarking sites, podcasts, aggregators (e.g. RSS), semantic web, collaborative software, and other online scenarios in which users create and share content such as graphics, news, information, technology, creative writing, software, photos, and videos. The original World Wide Web gave us the opportunity to share information by posting what we had to say, and by reading what others had to say. Web 2.0 takes that concept to the next level, by giving users the opportunity to collectively influence what information is available and how the information is distributed.

Today’s twenty-somethings grew up online, and generally seem to be more intuitively tech-savvy and more comfortable with online collaboration than those of us that are older (“older,” in this case meaning anyone over 35!). It is no wonder, then, that there is a noticeable liberal/progressive majority in the politics discussions of any of the social networking sites, which extensively utilize the newest technologies and the art of collaboration.

Largely due to Web 2.0 technology as well as increasingly interactive search engines, there is a growing body of knowledge online that is taking on a life of its own, and it is very influential. Features such as Google PageRank assure that the majority view of any issue is likely to be the first available information on any given topic. Anyone interested in the accuracy of the information that is being disseminated online, needs to have a voice in this increasingly important global discussion.

As conservatives, we need to understand and utilize Web 2.0 technology if we want this body of knowledge to even partially reflect our values, attitudes, respect for history, and vision for the future.

(Go to Part 2 of 3)
(Go to Part 3 of 3)

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Why Conservatives Need to Geek-Up (Part 2)

(Go to Part 1 of 3)

When I was growing up, if I had a question, I was often encouraged by a parent or teacher to go look for the answer in a dictionary, the encyclopedia, or in the library. Students of all ages have it a lot easier, as they often need to go no further than their closest internet connection, so that they can Google, Yahoo, or Dogpile, or Ask Jeeves for the answers to their questions.

It’s so easy, and convenient. Just type in a few keywords, and voila! Often hundreds of pages of information is instantly available on any given topic. But we don’t sort through all of those pages, do we? I personally almost never go past the first, second, or rarely the third page. So who controls what information populates those first pages?

There is an entire career field dedicated to getting websites promoted to this highly coveted location, called search engine optimization (SEO). There are directories, crawlers, and paid listings. Organizations such as SearchEngineWatch.com offer suggestions online for getting websites closer to that front page, and explaining the hierarchy of search engines.

Google PageRank’s webmaster center explains, “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.” High quality sites, as it turns out, are pages that have a lot of traffic, and have lots of other sites linking directly them. See a pattern? The more links you have to your site, the more traffic you will get, hopefully resulting in more links. There is a compounding effect.

Why do conservatives need to understand this? As we discussed in part one, there is a noticeable liberal/progressive majority in the politics discussions of any of the social networking sites, which extensively utilize the newest technologies and the art of collaboration. This is also reflected in the information that is available online through a typical search.

The compounding affect of the search engine algorithms assures that the majority view will continue to be the majority view. Want to test this theory? Try the following searches in any of the search engines, and see if the first page leans right or left: Iraq war, immigration, or gender.

Curious about where your favorite websites rank on Google? Try this free PageRank checker.

(Go to Part 3 of 3)

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Why Conservatives Need to Geek-Up (Part 3)

(Go to Part 1 of 3)
(Go to Part 2 of 3)

(This Third Installment is by Jenn Sierra and TXPoet, with research assistance from 1389.)

This is the third and final installment of this series explaining why Conservatives need to become more active in the Web 2.0 environment. Part One discussed the generational gap, generally between liberals and conservatives online, while Part Two discussed the how this gap is creating an imbalance of information readily available online through a typical search engine query. We will finish this series by highlighting a few of the major figures supporting Web 2.0 financially, showing how their political leaning is further compounding the imbalance in the information war.

Online social networkers are familiar with Digg.com, the current top social bookmarking site, which has enjoyed unprecedented success in social networking, through its use of bookmarking and syndication, with over 15 million visitors per month.

Where does a site like Digg get funding? Who are its investors? Primary Greylock Partners and the Omidyar Network. The Greylock Partner team is an international investor in primarily technology and medicine, with a special interest in Israel. The Omidyar Network “has invested in a variety of areas, including microfinance, participatory media, open innovation, open source and transparency in government.”
In addition to investing financially, the Omidyar Network is on mission: “Ultimately, we hope that people everywhere will constructively engage with each other to pursue what they care about most, resulting in a global society that is continually advancing social progress.”

If the name Omidyar rings a bell, it’s because Pierre Omidyar is the founder of e-Bay, a philanthropist who is #43 on Forbes’ list of billionaires, and a benefactor of a microfinance fund at Tufts University.Omidyar’s COO is Iqbal Paroo, a Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili, whose interests involve complex healthcare and higher education. He has a long history of involvement with the Aga Khan Foundation (1977-2000), and “From 1977-1980, he served the Aga Khan Foundation as both director of commissioning for the initial phase of the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan,” which has “teaching and research programmes in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom,” the university is billed as “an agent of change” and “an important force for pluralism.”

Omidyar and Paroo are champions for the left’s most sacred causes, and now their organization is one of the primary investors in the largest, most influential social-networking site on the web.

Where is the conservative counterpart?

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Introducing Ft. Hard Knox for Politically-Conservative Web 2.0 Activists

Fellow blogger Ron Goodwyne introduces this new blog:

The project is called Ft. Hard Knox and you can find it at www.FortHardKnox.com. Of course you’ll find excellent conservative commentary and opinion there but that is not its primary purpose. It is designed to combine blogging, wikkis and message boards in one platform to involve people who are not necessarily web savvy.

Some of the authors on 1389 Mobile Blog will be helping out at Ft. Hard Knox as well.

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UPDATED: No, it's NOT too late to stop the immigration "reform" bill!

Here's what you can do:

First of all, to target your efforts, it helps to know who the perps are. So how do we know exactly which senators are most to blame for foisting this on us? Sweetness and Light comes to the rescue with the rogues' gallery:

'Gang of 12' senators key to immigration bill.

Next, head on over to Dumb Ox Daily News for a complete dissection of the nasty innards of this immigration bill, along with a lookup link to give you the email addresses of the senators from your state, and a news roundup on the issue:

Immigration Bill: Still Time to Act on Amnesty Cabal...UPDATED

There's even a phone number for the senate offices. Read the material here and check out some of the links. Equip yourself with the facts, and nobody will be able to put you off with generalities and empty promises. These folks have done the research, so that when you call or e-mail, you'll be loaded for bear!

UPDATE - More information for you:
(Stein hoist to JB's Corner for this extra information!)

• See Amnesty Hotline Information to make it easier to get your call through.
• Also sign Congressman Eric Canter's No Amnesty Petition.

What could be easier?

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Good News from the Hillbilly White Trash Blog!

The good news has just arrived! 1389 is pleased to announce that 1389 Mobile Blog is now part of the Hillbilly Ecosystem.

But this is cyberspace...what do you mean by "ecosystem"?

In the blogging world, an "ecosystem" is a whole environment of related or like-minded blogs whose authors and admins work together to promote one another's efforts so that all of the blogs will thrive and flourish.

That brings us to Hillbilly White Trash, which is a funny and informative blog based in Asheville, N.C. This blog is hosted by Lemuel Calhoon, who describes it thusly:

Commenting about politics, religion, firearms, food, Celtic music, beer, science fiction and the Asheville Vortex. Home of the Hillbilly Ecosystem.

To see the other blogs in the Hillbilly Ecosystem, just look at the blogroll to your right, just below the new sign! Click on a few of them; stop by and visit!

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It's new, it's by William A. Whittle, and it's worth reading now

If you aren't familiar with William A. Whittle and the Eject!Eject!Eject! website, you're missing one of the best writers on current trends from an historical perspective. His understanding of the issues of war and defense is spot on.

You Are Not Alone, Part 1 and Part 2 is a long article, but so thought-provoking, and, dare I say, inspiring, that it is worth dropping whatever else you are doing to take the time to read it now.

Read it, think about it for awhile, and read some of the other articles on Whittle's site. He has an intriguing, and I believe correct, comprehension of the real purpose behind, and need for, those efforts and struggles that so often seem lonely and futile.

Comments are open, both here and on Whittle's site.

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Americans Are Lazy

By DannoJyD

As the Illegal Alien Invasion Amnesty Bill got a major push by the Senate today, it became obvious that Americans were again too lazy to make a phone call to their legislators before this reported debacle took place.

From the Washington Times:

The Bush administration, trying to win an immigration agreement with Democrats, is backing away from safeguards designed to target businesses that hire illegal aliens and to prevent a repeat of the rampant fraud that resulted from the 1986 amnesty.

You won't find much information in the liberal media on how this bill affects the illegal aliens with a Islamic background. They would prefer it if we would forget all about Fort Dix. Instead, you can expect to be buried in propaganda about all of the America-loving Hispanics who just want to have a chance at a better life. You also won't see the signs from the illegal alien demonstrations, carried by the 'undocumented workers', claiming that California and Texas belong to Mexico.

Instead, you can expect news stories like Deal on Immigration Reached, by Washington Post staff writer Jonathan Weisman, appearing Friday, May 18, 2007:

The Bush administration and a bipartisan group of senators reached agreement yesterday on a sprawling overhaul of the nation's immigration laws that would bring an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants out of society's shadows while stiffening protections and cracking down on employers of undocumented workers...

The Senate deal would grant temporary legal status to virtually all illegal immigrants in the country, while allowing them to apply for residence visas and eventual citizenship.

We now know that "bipartisan" means traitors working to overthrow America's immigration laws.

The White House comment line is being flooded with calls from unhappy citizens. This is good. If you haven't gotten in a call yet, please do: (202) 456-1111

Also, if you haven't called your U.S. Senator, the Capitol Hill switchboard will direct you to the correct office: (202) 224-3121.

Hat tip: Ameripundit.com

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The Conservative Ghetto

By Analyze

Being a Conservative on Digg is analogous to living in the Warsaw ghettos of Nazi Germany. We have been relegated to one section of Digg (the upcoming stories) and any resistance is met with extreme counteraction.

As a regular contributor of Conservative articles to Digg, I have been repeatedly buried. I've been keeping records for weeks and average 25 "bury hits" per day. Obviously, there is a systematic and organized group who bury Conservative article. If my submissions are not being buried, Conservative comments outside the ghetto are dugg down at the speed of light. Any attempt to move articles or comment outside the ghetto is met with provocation.

If one disagrees to vehemently they are sent off to the gas chamber—banned forever. Not even their remains (i.e., comments, submits) are visible. I can't even begin to count the number of Conservative friends who have met this fate.

In studying the bury brigade, the bury rate is approximately 5-to-1. One bury is worth 5 diggs. So, for every bury one gets, subtract 5. Consider LittleGreenFootballs.com (LGF). They are the ghetto resistance. As a result, they are also hit the hardest. They will get upwards of 50 buries for ONE article. I've seen as many as 276 buries for LGF over the course of 3 hours. Truly amazing! I did a comparative study of LGF to TheDailyKOS.com (KOS) one day. It was a 70-to-1 ratio. For every 70 buries of LGF, there was 1 bury of KOS.

Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe I should accept my ghetto status. That means we then have to accept that Conservative news will rarely, if ever, make the front pages of Digg and will, therefore, never be seen or discussed openly. Should Conservatives be the muted minority on Digg relegated to the "upcoming news" ghetto? Is that what we truly want to accept?

It is interesting that liberals are quick to espouse free speech and minority rights but when given the power, they become like Nazi Germany. Grant it, most Diggers do not bury but they also don't do anything about it. They are the vast majority of willing accomplices who accept the "rules" without thought. Power in the hands of liberals (at least at this micro level) is dangerous and oppressive. Imagine if they had power at the national level?

Maybe it is time for a ghetto uprising.

Please see the Comments section for this post.

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