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It finally looks like we are going to see some legislation making it illegal for employers to ask employees and possible new hires for their social networking login information:

If the thought of being asked by a prospective employer for your Facebook and Twitter login credentials makes you uneasy, you're not alone. Senator Richard Blumenthal has announced that he's working on a new bill that would prohibit the requests, pointing to the ban on workplace polygraphs as justification for outlawing the practice. The bill would also be structured to take the needs of existing employees into account, although Blumenthal says he's still examining the details.

Speaking to Politico, the senator described the requests as an "unreasonable invasion of privacy for people seeking work," adding that the bill would be ready "in the very near future." The senator is aiming to go beyond proposed legislation in Maryland and Illinois, claiming the practices under scrutiny "go beyond the borders of individual states and call for a national solution." It's worth noting that it's against Facebook's terms of service to give your password to someone else, and while the Department of Justice apparently believes violating these terms is a federal crime, it has said to Congress that it won't prosecute violations

Not only that, but Facebook is also not happy with the practice at all:

Facebook has weighed in on a practice by some businesses asking employees or job applicants for their passwords to the popular social-media site.

Harry Reid might be finally growing a pair. He did something very sneaky tonight:

The handful of Republican members who had planned on skipping President Obama’s jobs address to a joint session Thursday night might have to think again.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled a vote for Thursday to proceed on a measure related to the country’s debt – a can’t-miss vote for most members.

The timing of the vote? Right after Obama’s 7 p.m. jobs speech.

But hooker using, still Republican Senator David Vitter is having a little hissy fit over it:

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who had sent an e-mail to supporters Wednesday trumpeting his decision to skip the speech and host a New Orleans Saints party instead, said Thursday that he would remain in Washington for the speech and vote – but he was not pleased to be doing so.

In a second e-mail to supporters and in messages on Twitter and Facebook, Vitter accused Reid of playing politics by scheduling the debt vote for Thursday night.

In the past I have covered Facebook posts leading to people losing their jobs, but a new article places a whole new twist on this:

Two students have been suspended, and one student has been expelled, over negative Facebook postings they made about a teacher. The individuals are in seventh grade at Chapel Hill Middle School, meaning they are either 12 or 13 years old, according to My Fox Atlanta. The children are accused of violating a portion of the school code that is a “level one” offense, the worst possible: “Falsifying, misrepresenting, omitting, or erroneously reporting” allegations of inappropriate behavior by a school employee toward a student, according to AJC.

Alejandra Sosa, an honor roll student, said she regretted posting a Facebook status calling her teacher a pedophile. She has been suspended for 10 days. “I was just expressing myself on Facebook, because like I said I was mad that day because of what he [did],” Sosa said in a statement. “So, I mean I had no intentions of ruining his reputation.”

Sosa is currently drafting an apology to her teacher. At the same time though, she said her school principal, Jolene Morris, violated her privacy by ordering her to log into her Facebook account at a school library computer. Morris then reportedly read the offending post and ensuing responses from friends before ordering Sosa to delete the posts. As many as 15 children made two dozen posts about the teacher in the Facebook conversation, but their penalties were not as severe (for example, a one-day suspension from school).

Horrible news out of Tucson today:

Gabrielle Giffords, a congresswoman from Arizona, was shot in the head on Saturday at a public event held at a grocery store in Tucson, her spokesman, C. J. Karamargin, said. Others at the event, including members of her staff, were among the injured.

The gunman is in custody and described as a male in his early 20’s. There are also mixed reports on other injuries. I have seen numbers as high as 12, with six dead, including a 12 year old child and federal judge.

Giffords as one of the “targeted” Democrats in Sarah Palin’s now infamous map:

Interesting enough Palin’s people did pull this map down shortly after the news broke, however it still remains on Palin’s Facebook page.

UPDATE:

Here is the statement from Speaker Boehner:

Boehner Condemns Attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

Washington (Jan 8)

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement condemning the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and members of her staff today in Tucson, AZ:

And the wingnuts all get it wrong. It wasn’t some “leftist plot” or outsiders involved:

A volunteer with Rand Paul's Senate campaign has admitted to placing his shoe firmly on the face of a MoveOn.org volunteer outside a Senate debate on Monday night, but insisted that the camera angle of the footage that captured the altercation made the scuffle look worse than it was.

Tim Profitt apologized for the incident in a statement sent to a local AP reporter. But he also criticized the police for not stepping in to calm down the crowd and argued that other supporters had previously warned authorities about the MoveOn activist, Lauren Valle.

Profitt is not, it appears, a random campaign volunteer. As the local blog Barefoot and Progressive noted, the Paul campaign touted his endorsement at the bottom of an ad they had taken out in a Bourbon County paper.

According to TPM the Paul campaign has severed ties with Profitt and the HuffPo adds:

A spokesman for the Lexington Police Department said that "Mr. Profitt is currently being served with a criminal summons ordering him to appear before a Fayette County District Court Judge."

So it appears now that Profitt may be facing criminal charges. Perhaps that explains a sudden Facebook scrubbing. Here’s a cached version of a FB “Rally with Jim DeMint, Ron Paul, and Rand Paul” event from earlier this month:

This is getting beyond absurd:

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.

Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.

The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested. Most all-party-consent states also include an exception for recording in public places where "no expectation of privacy exists" (Illinois does not) but in practice this exception is not being recognized.

So what about traffic cameras, or the cameras in ATM's, or how about security cameras in homes and businesses that can catch action outside their property? This country really needs to get the proverbiale bug out of its ass.

I had almost forgot about this deal between Google and MySpace, a NewsCorp company. In 2006 the two entered into an agreement. Basically Google would get exclusive search advertising rights in exchange for $900 million over three years. MySpace also had to guarantee a minimum amount of traffic.

That was all three years ago and in the world of the internet, that is an eternity. Now things have changed. MySpace was one a thriving website, one of the best known. Today Facebook has taken the lead and MySpace is on a constant downward spiral.

That’s the deal and then there was this news last week:

MySpace, once the centerpiece of Rupert Murdoch’s digital strategy, has fallen “significantly” short of expectations and is jeopardising [sic] a critical $900m internet search agreement with Google.

Weaker traffic means the News Corp division is now expected to receive about $100m less from a deal that had underpinned investors’ confidence in the MySpace acquisition, executives revealed.

So because Murdoch’s company couldn’t live up to their end of the deal now he might be out some big bucks. Perhaps that is some motivation behind Murdoch singling out Google in his search engine rants. Murdoch is now saying that he will be pulling his content from Google in a matter of “months”. I don’t know why he wants to wait. Google has already stated he can do it now.