Posts filed under 'Elections'
- Update: MoveOn Targets McCain Aides.
- Obama: Smear emails “not just a random sort of viral thing”.
- Racist Secret Service E-Mails. Oof. I mean really, oof. Stupid enough to think, even more stupider to email.
- How to spot Photoshop chicanery.
- Why is this site password protected? Burt Edwards wants to know.
- Can Bob Barr Tap Into Ron Paul’s Movement? C.f. Libertarian Bob Barr Hopes to Scoop Up Ron Paul’s Internet-Driven Support and Ron Paul Supporters, What Are Your Plans?
- MoveOn picks winner of Obama ad contest.
- Does his ad buy prove his critics wrong? Obama is online this week in WV, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania….
- On the Dangers of Hacked Computer Networks and Inadvertant Nuclear War.
- Unjustifiable Carnage, Uneasy Alliances, and Lots of Self-Doubt: What Grand Theft Auto IV gets right about gangland and illegal economies.
- Obama Looks Ahead to Oregon Primary in E-mail Push.
- How the Web Contest Predicted the Real Thing.
- Top Four Essentials of eCampaigning. C.f. The Essentials of Online Advocacy Begin With Email (e.politics sez, you better f*cking believe it).
- Why I like the Google Video Player.
- Quantcast Helps The Media Planner. Improve your advertising plans with free site demographics.
- Clinton Going Down, While the Web Dreams of an Obama Win.
- Another political PowerPoint, this time Clinton’s. See Politico and Wired.
- New Google Service Makes Web Pages Social.
- How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime.
- Air Force Colonel Wants to Build a Military Botnet. Or not.
- The indie-rock fall and rise of R.E.M..
- OMG! WARNING: Over the top, offensive humor! Note comment: “Godwin’s Law: As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”
- Obama’s online organization.
- Volunteers asked to help find dead spacecraft on Mars via online photos. Check out the size of those pictures!
- Republican Slogan Borrowed From Antidepressant. The jokes are too obvious to bother making.
- Concharto: Wikipedia for history/geography nerds. via GeoDog.
- The peak oil culture wars.
- Space porn! Virtual telescope brings the cosmos to your desktop.
– cpd
May 13th, 2008
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- Update: The Obama Camp Dials It Forward. Post-primary conference call plays it subtle, while all is well in ClintonLand.
- McCain Launches Spanish-Language Website. Wonder how the Minutemen (no, not THE Minutemen) will feel about THAT one?
- Bury bad news with online press releases. Somebody forward this to Hillary Clinton. C.f. Craigslist Ad Of The Day.
- The critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin. From gin to sitcoms to lolcats, via Henry Copeland.
- Bunches o’ Studies and Stats on Nonprofit Marketing.
- How-To: 10 Tips for Launching a Solid Podcast.
- Two new guides to presidential online advertising from Clickz, Online Presidential Display Ads Leading to the 2008 Primaries and All Primaries Are Local: 2008 Presidential Campaigns Buy Local Online.
- The Tale of the E-mail. Hillary and Barack’s constrasting post-Indiana/NC notes. C.f. She’s Still In, And She’s Still In To Win.
- Pew Study Confirms Cell Phones Rule.
- Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth.
- Right now, I’m watching the President of the Utah State Senate on my desktop. Julie, you had me at “desktop.”
- Google Reader is becoming more of a social networking application.
- Twitter Post Rescues Jailed Journalist, but Egyptians ignore Facebook call.
- How the White House lost 5 million e-mails.
- Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao’s Poem Follows Olympic Torch’s Route Online.
- Matt Stoller on how liberals rule the web, and The Baltimore Sun on how Matt and friends raised 400K for Donna Edwards. Via tPrez.
- Phantom Obama Vote Appears on NJ Voting Machine.
- Web Ads from Left and Right Advocacy Groups Signal More to Come.
- Media criticism in context: “Yes, it would be nice if the press spent less time on inanities and more time on how candidates planned to actually run the country. But this view of the media is just too simplistic.” Via Salon.
- North Carolina Radio Host Reports Anti-Obama Chain E-Mail Distortion As Fact. C.f. Pennebaker: Clip Doctored, about the Mickey Kantor video distortion. (also via tPrez).
- Union-organizing emails get employees of a social networking site fired! Sent around by Michael Whitney.
- Clinton’s and McCain’s Gasoline Tax Holiday Reimagined as a Phishing Scam.
- National Intelligence Agency Breaks Out RSS Feed.
- 6% are Natural Born Clickers.
- Twitter frenzy! Using Twitter for Your Organization, Use TwitterFone For Easy Voice-To-Text On Twitter, and Political Junkies Congregate and Comment on Election Results Through Twitter. Plus, 5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence and The Bivings Group Does Twitter.
- Yes, a Montana cattle ranch is using banner ads combined with search ads to sell their premium beef via the internet.
- 10 Valuable Tips for Shooting Web Video. Via Frogloop.
- Google, YouTube and the city of New Orleans try to host their own presidential forum. Via Mike Allen.
- Video: how primary-season attacks have been amplified in the general election.
- FBI Targets Internet Archive With Secret ‘National Security Letter,’ Loses.
- Harold vs. Markos. Not everyone wants a unified Dem ticket.
- META Keywords are Legally Dead.
- Be very afraid: Engineers find ‘missing link’ of electronics. Robots take next step toward world domination.
- A minute and a half with Shana Glickfield…is enough to spark any man’s dreams.
- Clone-tool war on nipples continues. Complete with tragic casualty figures.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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So, if the Indiana and North Carolina results mean that the Democratic primary process is truly almost over, how will we spend our time? And more importantly, how with the cable news people spend their time? The networks have created enormous structures based around breathless coverage of developments ranging from the mundane to the trivial, and now there will be a distinct shortage of grist for the mill. These folks will now have all kinds of time to make mischief, i.e., elevate things even MORE meaningless into the heights of the public discourse. Cable news too often illustrates the truism that more is not always better…better shoot your television now.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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Yesterday, e.politics saw by far the most articles read via RSS on a single day ever, according to Feedburner. Analysis: sounds like everybody else was up late waiting for Lake County, Indiana, too. At least you guys could kill time better than the poor bastards stuck on camera — hours of nothing were a cable news producer’s nightmare. Though I gotta get me one those wall-sized touchscreen video displays with a Google Earth overlay like John King was using on CNN — that’ll impress the chicks, buh-lieve you me.
– cpd
May 7th, 2008
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Read Scott Martin continues doing yeoman’s work over at his political Ad of the Day site, and with Indiana and North Carolina in mind, take a look at how Obama’s been pushing voter turnout. His paid search ads on “Indiana primary,” for instance, have been pushing early voting in the state, while Clinton’s are generic and point to her main website. Also, check out the display ads each is running: again, Obama’s ads are focused on helping people get to the polls, while Clinton’s are general fundraising spots. As in other examples of his online campaigning, Obama’s strategy is more focused than Clinton’s and also more of-the-moment. How much it helps, we’ll know soon.
Freed from the pressure to win votes immediately, McCain can sit back and work on differentiating himself from the Dems — well, at least from Obama. His online display ads are hitting the gas tax moratorium hard, with a petition for list-building. Thinking about the Fall? Not a luxury the Dems can afford much of, at least for another agonizing month.
– cpd
May 5th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
I hate to risk alienating my new BFF Mark Zuckerberg, but has Facebook’s moment in the sun as a hot political tool passed? And if so, what does that tell us about the future of social networking sites for online political organizing, and even about the future of Facebook itself?
We’ve now seen more than a year of intense use of social networking sites by the U.S. presidential campaigns (and even longer use by issue-advocacy groups), which gives us a solid base of information and experience to judge just how effective Facebook is as a political tool — both for organized political campaigns and advocacy groups and for individual political activists. The verdict? Facebook has not lived up to a lot of its initial political hype, and for reasons that are perfectly natural considering what kind of a site it is. The crux:
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May 4th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
As the Democratic primary process grinds on, the candidates’ supporters are using just about every electronic tool available to swing the race their way. Two cases in point from the Obama side: super.del.egates.us is a wiki-based contact list for voters to use to reach the precious unpledged delegates to the Democratic Convention, while Yrmomma4obama aims to help young voters (and those too young to vote themselves) to use text messages to persuade their friends and family to jump on the Obama bandwagon.
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April 27th, 2008
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- Espionage Against Pro-Tibet Groups, Others, Spurred Microsoft Patches.
- New Freedom, and Peril, in Online Criticism of China.
- In every measure, Obama clobbers Clinton online. Also, Barack Obama Takes Lion’s Share of Online Video Viewerships.
- Obama Uses YouTube To Lobby The Public After Losing Pennsylvania.
- Notes from the eCampaigning Forum 2008.
- Cuddle Parties: When Touchy Feely Goes Goofy.
- Why Democrats Rule the Web.
- Smug Alert in SF. Thanks, Slate
- Lost in the Smoke-Filled Room: Unexpected Talent. On the benefits of a primary process. C.f. The Primary ‘Bounce’.
- Government to Seek Terrorists in World of Warcraft: The Full Proposal.
- Welcome to the high-tech age of consumer jihadists. Suggested by Burt Edwards.
- Look Ma, I’m on CIA.gov.
- Anti-war site lets you spend $3 trillion your way.
- Obama’s GOP Shadow.
- Laughing Baby vs. the YouTube Commenters. C.f. The vile state of Internet discourse knows no borders.
- Colbert Snags Clinton, EdWORDS and Obama in One Cast.
- Fight, prefrosh, for social justice — via e-mail.
- Newspaper Ads Drive Online Research, In-Store Purchases.
- Online Advocacy — Using Petitions for List Building.
- Obama Talks About (Internet) Rumors.
- MTV News Still on the Edge of Political News. Kurt Loder rides to the rescue one last time.
- Twitter Away Your Life With Social Networking. And, Is Twittering Sustainable?
- The Twittering Class and the Primaries.
- Tips for success in a Web 2.0 world.
- Do Progressive Techies Have a Google Blind Spot?
- Drive additional web traffic with email.
- Facebook Chat — distraction or benefit?.
- Sick Profits Video Contest. User-generated content goes to the doctor.
- Despite Negative Press, Facebook Is a Powerful Agent for Social Change. But wait: 51% of Donors ‘Not At All Interested’ in Social Networks.
- The New Guards: The Players. A look at potential Republican MoveOn equivalents. C.f. MoveOn.org Asks McCain To Drop Pastor Who Blamed Victims For Katrina.
- EEN’s Avatars Campaign Brings Online Marketing to Life. Online/offline connection.
- Huckabee to follow in Robertson’s footsteps? Yet another independent audience?
- Radiohead Launches Social Network.
- Nerd alert or sublime beauty? Full Earthrise and Earthset in Hi-Def, from the Japanese Kaguya lunar orbiter. I can see my house from here! Via Space.com.
– cpd
April 24th, 2008
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Along with Dennis Johnson, Karen Jagoda and Morra Aarons-Mele, I had the pleasure of giving a presentation this morning on congressional and local online campaigns for the assembled journalists at the Knight Digital Media Center’s symposium, Election ’08: Unleashing the Cyber-watchdogs (i.e., after a week of luxuriating in the California sun, it was time to sing for my supper and justify the trip). My notes are below; if they’re too cryptic, drop me a note for details.
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April 24th, 2008
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If you want to keep up with the county-by-county numbers from the Pennsylvania primary, the Times has you covered — they’re updating their online map as information comes in. It’s a nice Flash application that pops up the percentages as you mouse over each county, and is a terrific example of the way the ‘net can really add to political coverage. I’ll take solid data like this over talking-head blather any day of the week. Update: Pennsylvania Election Results, Mapped Alongside Voters’ Race, Age and Religion.
– cpd
April 22nd, 2008
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The Times is reporting heavy turnout across Pennsylvania so far, as has been widely predicted:
Election officials were reporting extremely heavy voter activity in many of the state’s 67 counties throughout the morning, starting with long lines reported even before the polls opened at 7 a.m.
“Let’s just say it’s very busy,” said Joseph Passarella, the director of voter services for Montgomery County, sounding a little harried. “Our phones have been ringing since 6:15 this morning and have been ringing nonstop. We’ve never had a primary election this busy.”
Tonight should be fun! And despite all the wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth about the prolonged Democratic primary season, how can it be a bad thing for democracy (and for Democrats) to have this many people this fired up?
– cpd
April 22nd, 2008
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This just in from a Drudge Report Siren Alert email: “Controlled excitement is building inside of Clinton’s inner circle… Developing… CLINTON INTERNALS SHOW 11-POINT LEAD IN PA.”
Ah, sweet spin…you gotta love phrases like “controlled excitement,” particularly the day BEFORE the primary election, when there’s still time for a campaign to hope to get late-deciding voters to jump on the bandwagon. The online tie-in, of course, is both the Drudge Report’s involvement itself (remember those mutterings earlier in the election season about a Drudge/Hillary connection?) and the more general vast explosion of channels for distributing a message (see pro wrestling, below). Obviously we have no way of judging the validity of an internal poll whose methodology is opaque, and the Clintonistas have every incentive to get out a positive message at this critical point in their candidate’s political life (Update: they’re denying it). So, who knows how valid this story is. Still, think about the 1988 presidential campaign: it was only 20 years ago, but in media terms, it now seems like an ancient, remote and alien era.
– cpd
April 21st, 2008
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How The World Works noticed an interesting little eddy in the endless flow of globalization today: popular Chinese search engine Baidu is featuring a cartoon Barack Obama and donkey combo fishing for voters(?) on its front page this month:
HTWW’s Andrew Leonard notes that Obama joins a short parade of HomePage Heros on Baidu, though it’s a mystery why:
How the World Works is unclear about how the Obama campaign managed to convince a Chinese search engine to join the Barack bandwagon, but if you want to read all about Obama, in Chinese, you can click on the drawing and immerse yourself. My own very rough translation of the headline on that page reads: “The black son/child” Obama — he can do anything!”
E.politics also notes the computer mouse attached to the fishing net — metaphor alert. For more, see the HTWW piece on Salon. BTW, does this make Obama an actual Manchurian candidate now?
– cpd
April 7th, 2008
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- Trust in Peers Trumps the “A-List,” Study Finds. Definite implications for political marketing.
- Act Blue’s Record Take. They’re raking it in for candidates.
- Online Call Tools and the 2008 Campaign.
- Detroit Mayor Is Charged With Eight Felonies. Much to his surprise, text messages are stored somewhere. C.f., TXTmob Subpoena Shows the Hazards of Using Technology to Protest.
- French President Caught Monitoring Blogs: Mon Dieu!
- Voter Relationship Management: The Constituent Is the Customer. A look at the available tools, from the point of view of business CRM.
- With the Internet Comes a New Political ‘Clickocracy’. Jose Antonio Vargas’s new gig, writing think pieces (nice work if you can get it).
- In 2008 campaign, the Internet packs a powerful political punch. Frank Davies overview piece.
- Kenya: What a laptop and a video camera can do.
- Calling all women who tech and talk. Regular e.pol reader Jeanette Russell says, “Hey Ladies!”
- Local bandit eludes Indian police AND Google Earth. But he still can’t get his mom elected.
- Broad Concerns About Internet Voting. Guys are worried, too.
- “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has finally figured out how to raise funds on the Internet”. But still, a lot less than Obama.
- Chinese Authorities Place ‘Wanted’ Posters For Tibetan Rioters On Web Portals. Also, China Destroys Tibet’s Sacred Environment. When wrecking your own just isn’t enough.
- Over 1.3 Million Petition Signatures in 10 Days against Chinese actions in Tibet. China to petition-signers — um, yeah, we’ll get right on that.
- Magic Spy Smart Phone.
- Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig Bets ‘Wikipedia’ Approach Will Transform Congress.
- McCain Girls Are Your New Jalopy. And more than a little hard on the ears.
- Raffle craze strikes innocent presidential candidates.
- Republican videos attack congressional democrats.
- The Press and Political New Media.
- Obama Utilizes Internet for Success.
- Cuba Lifts Restrictions On Personal Cellphones.
- Citizen Huff: How Arianna became the Matt Drudge of the Left.
- Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate.
- Blogger’s Rights, via Burt Edwards.
- Website changes political climate. Reaching the young online.
- The Message Box: the Zone to Stay on Message. Fun with diagrams.
- Color-Coded Threat Level System In New Colors for Spring!
- Clinton’s Wiki-Warrior.
- Air America Host Suspended for Clinton Remarks. YouTube strikes again.
- Clinton Floats Delegate (Online) Petition.
- Obama inspires an online art explosion. “The Web has become a rich canvas for artists and candidates who know how to connect digitally.”
- Micha Sifry gets the Download from Joe Trippi.
- Democratic Lawmaker Vouches for Bush Administration’s Secret Plan to End Cyber War. See also DDoS Packets are Two Percent of Net Traffic, Report Says.
- Ed Markey’s Subcommittee has hearing on Virtual Worlds. He really looks stunning in that WoW Orc outfit.
- Latest sign of the impending Apocalypse: New Kids on the Block are reuniting.
- Science Link of the Day: “There you have it: the world’s most sensitive eyes allow them to be simple! And smash things! And it’s worked for 400 million years.”
– cpd
April 3rd, 2008
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Want to read more e.politics but suffer from a shortage of blonde? Never fear — Associated Press reporter Libby Quaid has a good article out today on John McCain’s daughter Meghan’s blog, McCain Blogette, and includes a couple of solid quotes from a phone chat we had last week. For instance:
“Voters seem to make decisions ‘based on personality at least as much as policy,’ Delany said. “And if a blog gives them a view into someone’s personality that they didn’t have before and helps to create a personal connection, that may help to turn the casual visitor into an actual supporter.’”
Of course, McCain Blogette beats us on one significant front — here in the e.politics bunker, we rarely hand out style advice, and for good reason: I fear we shall never reach the esteemed height of “Best Dressed Blogger” in her pages. Back to the AP article — note Julie Germany’s deft “US Weekly” reference.
– cpd
March 27th, 2008
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Post-Politics Online/pre-SXSW Quick Hits extravaganza.
- Does Good Design Matter? Todd Zeigler’s excellent follow-on to our Politics Online panel. C.f. lots of POLC coverage at Capitol Valley and Tech Daily Dose.
- Trusting Politics 2.0 Can be Difficult in Local Elections.
- Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind.
- Online Video Audience to Hit Critical Mass in ‘08. “Nearly 80 percent of US internet users will watch online video at least once a month in 2008.”
- News and Media US Website Visits Up Sharply. Lindsey Lohan softcore locked in deathmatch with political coverage. C.f. Obama: Bigger than Britney.
- How-To: 6 Tips on Writing an Actionable Press Release. Basic but useful.
- Historically, Most Online Communities Haven’t Stuck. Facebook and MySpace: do not forget the lesson of Ozymandias.
- Crowd Enabling, the Obama way. A mighty bold claim: “Even if Obama fails to achieve his goal of becoming President of the United States, I predict he will have a deeper and more powerful understanding of the American people than anyone in the history of politics.”
- Did the Clinton Campaign Doctor Obama Footage to Make Him ‘Blacker’?
- Spying Fight about Emails, Not Phone Calls, DOJ Reveals.
- McCain’s Unfiltered Blog. Straight conversation.
- Hillary’s pop culture problem vs. Did SNL Save Clinton’s Campaign?
- Is the Obama Campaign Really Different?. Or is he the new New Coke?
- ObamaCycle: A Craigslist for Obama Campaigners.
- Hillary’s Classy Tweets to Ohio and Rhode Island. Not sure “Tweet” and “Classy” belong in the same sentence.
- Air Force Launches Recruitment Campaign Touting Cyber Command. Check out the gee-whiz landing page, and also the fact that the Air Force has blocked access to many (most?) blogs.
- Obama Reaches 1 Million Donor Mark. Check out the comments on Micah Sifry’s article about it.
- Obama does not read blogs. No wonder he has time to run for president.
- Quote of the week: “‘It’s a love tap compared to the Wu-Tang fist of fury that’s coming at this guy in the fall,’ said Rick Wilson, a Republican media consultant.”
- Heather Havriskey interview with George Carlin. A must-read for anyone interested in writing or the creative process.
- Facebook Launches Band Pages. “MySpace also might start to get worried — I’m sure I’m not the only one who uses that site solely for auditioning bands.”
- New Source for News Vetted by Scientists. A peer-reviewed take on social news.
- The Charms of Wikipedia.
- Are Liberals and Conservatives Different Species? The Answer is Yes.
- Extended rant against microsites. Not sure if I agree, but it’s worth reading.
- A Whole Toolbox of Contention.
- ETech: Lessig Calls for Geeks to Code Money Out of Politics.
- Wanted: A More Digital Congress.
- Inside Obama’s Ground Game.
- Hillary’s Rapid Responders.
- Obama Lawyer Crashes Clinton Call. With audio!
- Politico 2.0: Ruffini Blogs, Twitters, Crowdsources Obama Donations. Via tPrez. C.f. Josh’s take on the candidates’ post-Tuesday splash pages
- Flickr and TechSoup to hand out free Flickr Pro accounts to nonprofits.
- Facebook changes political affiliation choices. Michael Whitney and Nancy Scola are not impressed.
- Over 1 million people have seen Robert Greenwald’s anti-McCain online videos.
- Geeking out before checking out: Spacecraft photographs avalanches on Mars. Don’t miss the accompanying Earth/Moon family portrait, taken from Mars orbit — such a cute couple. And, dig the new European automatic robotic space truck. Finally, some good advice for the Coast Guard, and a Farewell to the Dungeon Master.
– cpd
March 6th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
Update from the Politics Online Conference: some quick numbers from Patrick Quinn of PQMedia on how candidates are expected to spend their money online in 2008. First, online spending should total roughly $73 million at all levels in the ‘08 elections. Second, email marketing is still dominates expenditures, taking up 62% of campaigns’ online spending. Web development is next on the list at 27%, with display, search and video ads taking up the remaining 11% of online budgets. For comparison, the 2004 numbers were 74% for email, 19% for web development and 7% for ads.
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March 5th, 2008
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