Quick Hits — October 9, 2008

• Update: MoveOn Grows Up.
• Bloggers Fact-Check Prez Candidates. C.f. High-Tech Analysis Obscures Presidential Debate and Public Submitted Thousands of Debate Questions Online, Not Millions (more on the debates here shortly, Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise).
• Tennessee Student Indicted for Hacking Palin E-mail. C.f. The Curious Case of Palin’s Inbox. Update: Tennessee Student Accused of Hacking Palin Account Involved in Another Computer Intrusion Years Ago.
• The New Organizers, Part 1: What’s really behind Obama’s ground game.
• Online bank customers create damaging ‘silent runs’. Why bother standing in line while you’re crashing the financial system? C.f. “Lending money to poor people doesn’t make you poor. Lending money poorly to rich people does.” Or, try Social Media In An Economic Downtown.
• Obama has sizable edge in TV advertising — six-to-one in Indiana, with $3 million bought on Monday alone. A state breakdown is here, and note that many are aimed at young voters. And they’re being paid for (at least in part) by a surge of new donors.
• The GOP goes back to its ugly roots. How the email smears helped McCain — by preparing the ground for subtle buzz. C.f. The Problems with the Ayers Attack, previewed in a new online video.
• John McCain as Fred Sanford.
• Swift Boat Watch: WakeUpWalMart.com.
• Social Media is NOT a conversation.
• Obama Releases iPhone App, but Why? C.f. I’ve Got the Obama Campaign in my Pocket.
• (Sarah Palin is) Not My Gal. I’ll defer to the Ladies on this one.
• Twitter in Congress: Now Approved, Easier to Follow.
• Viral Tweet Test Results Part 1: Trending Topics and Forking URLs.
• Email’s role in person-to-person persuasion.
• Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media. Via Iain2008.
• Why the Google-Yahoo ad deal is bad for the Web.
• The New York Times and the rules of war.
• Data-Mining for Terrorists Not ‘Feasible,’ DHS-Funded Study Finds.
• Red Dawn as cultural artifact. I saw it in a theater full of East Texas high school kids on a Friday night when it came out…
• Decision 2008, The Internet Changed Everything (e.politics sez, maybe). Via TechRepublican.
• Bloggers Get Insight on the Pickens Plan from the Man Himself. BTW, natural gas is still a fossil fuel — we burn it all, we flood the air with C0₂ and water, both greenhouse gasses. Just wanted to bring that up.
• Seize the moment! Use petitions/campaigns with media moments.
• Thoughts on How to Respond when Huckabee Spreads False Emails.
• More of Romney, Less of You.
• Interesting Back Story on @matthewstoller Getting Punched In The Face.
• Air Force Will Fight Online, Without Cyber Command. But SAC is back!
• Are We Breaking the Law or Being Broken by Technology?
• YouTube Commenters Hear Their Own Gibberish.
• Today’s Installment of Selfless Journalism.
• Page Rank is the Ultimate Measure of Online Influence.
• Congressional servers buckling under bailout bill messages. Includes a dangerously reasonable reply to the “don’t just spam congress” article from DIA’s Jason Z. C.f. It’s Time to Stop Spamming Congress.
• How the Turtle Got Its Shell.
• Straight guys [heart] cats — “one of those works of journalism that leaves its readers dumber than it found them.”
• Axelrod zings McCain over internet t-shirt sales. C.f. ‘That One,’ Now in Four Sizes.
• Obama’s October Surprise: Viral Embarrassment. Online moments that live forever.
• Speaking of: Naughty America Is Building An iTunes For Porn.

– cpd