Around The Blogosphere In Less Than Five Minutes

This will be a quick round-up for the day as many blogs are down. Michelle Malkin has the information. It seems as though a number of sites (listed below) have been hack-attacked. After some quick checks, Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs confirms that it was an attack on Hosting Matters, which runs many of the big dogs in the blogosphere, including his own.

UPDATE at 4/28/06 8:43:47 am:

Although LGF is also at Hosting Matters, we were moved to a different network after experiencing a similar attack. (That’s why we’re still up.)

UPDATE at 4/28/06 8:48:17 am:

I may have spoken too soon; some parts of the LGF system are beginning to act a bit flaky.

UPDATE at 4/28/06 9:27:25 am:

The attack reportedly originates in Saudi Arabia.

Did we do something to offend the cyberjihadis out there? Maybe. Take a look at the list of sites (compiled by Michelle) that are having problems:

Instapundit (***Glenn is posting on his back-up site here***)
Power Line
Captain's Quarters
Pundit Guy
Chuck Simmins
Small Dead Animals
Radioblogger
Hugh Hewitt
IMAO
Mountaineer Musings
Say Uncle
Counterterrorism Blog
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Castle Arggh! - John Donovan
She Who Will Be Obeyed - Beth Donovan

I should note that I'm interested in the targets chosen. In addition to the blog sites, Wikipedia is also down. Though I would like to correct Michelle's list. I've been to Captain Ed's site already today, and it seems to be just fine. However, it could be acting sort of flaky like Charles' site. Radioblogger and Hugh Hewitt's site are linked, in a way, because Duane is Hugh's technical producer for his show, and regularly posts up transcripts of interviews. IMAO and Mountaineer Musings are also linked in a way because Frank and Sarah were married late last year. And John and Beth Donovan are obviously connected. But there's no reason for this attack. Almost everyone on this list are sites Marcie and I read daily, and none of them have posted anything out of the ordinary that would have made them targets for this sort of cyberattack. I'll keep an eye on this throughout the day and post updates as they become available.

UPDATE: IMAO is back up and running, and Mary Katherine Ham--guest-blogger extraordinaire--is over at Wizbang.
(11:06 a.m. AZ time)

UPDATE II: Radioblogger is back up, and so is Instapundit. Hewitt and the legal minds at Powerline are still down. (11:20 a.m. AZ time)

UPDATE III: Add Michael Totten and Ticklish Ears to the list of sites down. (11:26 a.m. AZ Time)

UPDATE IV: The guys at PowerLine are back up and running (with nary a word about the Denial of Service; better things to address today) and Hugh is still down, though a page is now in it's place stating that you've reached the page in error, and that page no longer exists. Doubt that, but I'm sure Hugh is busily chewing on someone's backside to get his site back up. (12:23 a.m. AZ time)

UPDATE V: Hugh is back up and running, and according to Michelle, most that are connected to Hosting Matters are, as well. She adds this little note from Stacy at Hosting Matters, which describes the attack late this morning: (12:56 a.m. AZ Time)

Today, 11:46 AM This morning at approximately 10:00 AM Eastern time, we noted a sudden abnormal surge in traffic to the network.

Shortly thereafter, our upstreams confirmed that one of the servers within the network was the target of a massive DOS attack.

We worked with the NOC and the upstreams to further identify the target and steps were taken to isolate that target from the rest of the network.

Recovery on all segments except that target segment is complete. The target of the attack will not be brought back online and will be removed from the main network in the event they are the target of future attacks, so as not to negatively impact other clients.

We are currently working to address clients who may be on that same segment of the network to bring them back online.

Stacy - Hosting Matters, Inc.

The second musing of the day comes from Captain Ed. He, along with Frank of IMAO and Derek of Freedom Dogs have an interesting idea.

It's called the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. And it's a slap in the face of the Left. For far too long, the Left has come after us using the "chickenhawk" argument. That being that if we didn't serve in the military then we should shut up. This is a preposterously retarded argument. I don't have to put on the uniform to know what war is like, or have respect for our troops. And, of course, many on the Left, enjoying the anonymity of the Internet, are "chat-room warriors;" they lie that they served to end debate.

So, these three excellent bloggers hit on an idea. Why not turn the argument around on them? We did the same thing after the Dan Rather debacle when the MSM referred to the blogosphere as a buunch of pajama-clad muckrakers just out to stir up problems. Voila, the pajamahadeen were born. And just like that, we're turning it back on them again; taking away one of their stupidest, insulting retorts to date. As Captain Ed explains:

Our friends on the port side of the blogosphere have had quite a time tossing around funny little nicknames for those of us who support the war on terror and use our blogs to express our convictions about it. We've seen the names here at CQ in the comments section -- the term "chickenhawk" has appeared more than once, and others in the blogosphere have assigned us to a unit called the 101st Fighting Keyboardists.

I've thought about that for a while, wondering what exactly about both epithets appear so fascinating to left-wing bloggers. As a middle-aged grandfather supporting a chronically ill wife, I have few options for doing my part in the war on terror. After 9/11, I spent weeks looking into different options for service while trying to balance my family obligations. Our family found out just three weeks after the attack that the Little Admiral would soon join us, and the implications of terrorism and war weighed heavily on my mind. I resolved to use the skills I had -- writing -- to make the case for fighting a forward strategy against terrorists. Eventually that led me to this blog, but in the interim I argued for a continued muscular offensive against the Islamofascists that had murdered thousands of our fellow Americans.

Is that the same as military service? Of course not. The men and women of the military do the real fighting, and we salute them and support them by supporting their mission. Milbloggers give us the best of both worlds by not only defending our nation and fighting (and beating) terrorists around the globe, but also by reporting on the fight first hand. There is honor in engaging in public debate for policies which we believe are in our nation's best interest as well. For many of us, we know that without presenting our arguments in the national forum, many in the media and the public will quickly overpower the debate and threaten the policies we feel give us the best long-term opportunity to defeat terrorism and the states that fund and shelter them.

Many on the left disagree, however, and often they provide challenging arguments and valuable perspectives on policy and the manner in which it gets implemented. However, many more do little but make ad hominem attacks on those with whom they disagree. They spend a great deal of effort labeling people rather than providing rational arguments on policy, and even the labels they select don't provide much more than amusement.

That's why Frank J of IMAO, Derek Brigham of Freedom Dogs, and I have decided to create -- for real -- the 101st Fighting Keyboardists and adopt the chicken hawk as our mascot. First of all, the term "fighting keyboardist" describes our efforts pretty well, and we think the pseudo-military terminology is pretty danged amusing. Derek himself designed the logo.

And why the chicken hawk? When we looked into it, it turns out that the chicken hawk is a pretty impressive predator. It's the largest of its family. This species vigorously defends its territory, getting even more aggressive when the conditions get harshest. It adapts to all climates. Most impressively, it feeds on chickens, mice, and rats.
Make of that what you will.

Frank, Derek, and I invite you to join the 101st Fighting Keyboardists (motto: We Eat Chickens For Lunch). I'm starting a blogroll and will post the code for other members to display on their blogs. We welcome all of those who feel they qualify for the unit, but especially those who have a sense of humor as well as a sense of purpose. This way, the next time someone refers to you as a chicken hawk for your blogging, you can remind them that as a member of the 101, your talons are your best weapon and that feeding time is near!

When Marcie gets home, I'm going to talk to her about this. The center-right blogosphere is as dominating a force as talk/radio is for conservatives. It's time to send a message to the portside bloggers that this argument is not only patently ridiculous, but ranks right up there for the "Idiotarian of the Year" award. What answer does the Left have for the milbloggers who serve, or outstanding bloggers like Bill Roggio and Michael Yon who embed themselves--at their own expense--to cover the Iraq Phase of the GWOT? Do they call them "chickenhawks," too? Simply because they blog?

I seem to recall a certain veteran whose response to the contractors killed, beaten, and hung in Fallujah was "screw Them." That's Markos Zuniga, owner, operator, and unhinged moonbat of Daily Kos. Markos put on the uniform and served. Does he have a right to his opinions? Sure he does. He served. But it doesn't excuse his side of making nasty ad hominem attacks, and it doesn't give them sole ownership rights to determine who is and isn't a chickenhawk.

I support the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. Whatever it takes to not only win the war abroad, but also at home. We can do more from here, and be a greater asset to the overall war effort than to be over there, in the way, and not doing much good. If you're interested in joining, drop Captain Ed a line at: Captain@captainsquartersblog.com

Publius II