Quick Hits — June 22, 2008

• Obama Plans National Push on Ads and Turnout. Note particularly the use of consumer data/microtargeting with email and direct mail. C.f. Obama Campaign Dispatching Thousands
• Obama Drops Out of Public Financing; Announces By Email/YouTube. Apparently considered writing each supporter a personal note on a crisp, new $20 bill, but ran out of pens.
• Identifying and dissecting smear emails. Written by friend-of-e.politics Lori Robertson.
• McCain campaign releases facebook game: Pork Invaders.
• Horton ad maker strikes again.
• Republican Dough Raisers Resist Going Grassroots.
• Obama and His Movement: The Internal Battle Begins. The peasants are revolting!
• Obama: Master of Facebook politics. The view from New Zealand.
• Add-Ons to Online Social Profiles Expose Personal Data to Strangers. One reason you don’t see e.politics installing many Facebook Apps (the other is that most of them are annoying).
• Communicating with Congress: How the Internet Has Changed Citizen Engagement.
• How Ron Paul supporters could still make a difference.
• Thoughts on McCain’s “Spread the Word” Program.
• Online Fundraising and the Hype Cycle. Via Eric Rardin.
• Mysterious Hillary4Mccain.com Directs Voters To McCain Campaign Site.
• Advertising and social media: a match made in heaven or hell?.
• Washington Post Reviews Youth to Power. Damn kids, get off my lawn!
• Training helps bloggers hone professionalism. See also Bloggers Get Obama Accuser Hauled Off in Handcuffs.
• Digg Buries Daily Kos. Get it? Digg buries…?
• ‘I’m Voting Republican’ Is Top Of The Pops Online, while ‘Obama Girl’ Celebrates One-Year Anniversary.
• McCain staff makes a funny: “We are having trouble over here figuring out these newfangled internets. We have, however, posted a letter via Pony Express to the Obama campaign asking if they might enlist the services of Father Pfleger on our behalf to help us in setting up our webcams.”
• What’s wrong with Obama’s FightTheSmears.com.
• Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/ing Us. Via my old roommate David Newland, who needs freelance writing/film work if you’ll have him.
• Campaign 2008 And The Internet.
• Blog content takedown notices. The AP’s stupid decision to take on bloggers — you saw they got a guy busted, right?
• PDF preview from Wired’s Threat Level.
• Credit Card Firm Cut Limits After Massage Parlor Visits, Feds Allege. Moralism meets financialism: using data mining to punish consumers for certain purchases.
• McCain Salutes Russert, Obama Makes The Ask.
• How to make a post go viral in four easy steps. Todd Zeigler rides a wave of Twitter obsession. See also What it takes for an ad to go viral.
• Why a scared expression brings a survival advantage.
• Ancient roots of nerd-dom: Romans Used 20-Sided Dice Two Millennia Before D&D. Pardon me while I make a saving throw against geekiness (oops, failed).

– cpd