Google Wars - The Next Battlefield

Chris Bowers at the prominent lefty blog MyDD describes an ingenious (yet morally bankrupt) idea that may push a few votes into the Blue:

I have tentatively named [this project] Google Bombing The Election.

What
The utilization of Google Adwords and simultaneous, widespread embedded hyperlinks in order to drive as many voters as possible toward the most damning, non-partisan article written on the Republican candidate in seventy key US Senate and House races. The campaign will run from Tuesday, October 24th until Tuesday, November 7th.

Why
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the number one way that voters use the Internet for political action is to search for information on candidates. During the final two weeks of the election, it is reasonable to expect that as many as twenty million voters will be searching for information on candidates online. During this key time, this project will help push the most negative article written by a non-partisan media source on all key Republican candidates to the forefront of any search for that candidate. The negative article will appear both high on all Google searches for the candidates, and as an advertisement that appears whenever anyone searches for that candidate. By giving this article two prominent locations on Google searches for the candidate, and because it will come from a non-partisan source, it will increase the likelihood that the article will be seen and trusted by those searching for information on the candidate.

Well, it ought to work - I have no doubt that a group of lefty blogs collectively have a lot more Google-clout than any individual Congressman's web page.

Are earnest righties interested in pushing back?  I will volunteer to help push a few stories for Chris Shays, in my district, although I will be happy to link to anyone else looking for a little (very little) Google-love.

Comments and trackbacks open as usual.

Comments

[anonymous]

I've been telling you people for a while now that the Left is more than willing to pay people to spam anti-Republican smears.

It doesn't matter that we don't believe a word of it. Me and Google, mercenaries of a feather. We'll spew whatever propoganda you pay us to spew.

[ken]

If it's morally bankrupt, it isn't worth doing. No matter the cost.

[clarice]

I wonder if Pew is right.
I think IT users tend to be more educated and involved and have probably made up their minds before the last weeks of the election.
Pew has been known to fiddle (see their hidden role in the push for the awful campaign finance reform Act).

[anonymous]

If the articles that float to the top of the bowl which contain negative criticism of Republicans are false and unfair, I am sure the American electorate will disregard them and vote a Republican majority for Congress.

[clarice]

I will tell you, however, that the left does this with lots of things on Google. Bumping up their sites and fav hit pieces.

[Gary Maxwell]

I doubt that this will have any effect. For example I use DogPile for all my searches and have for several years now cuz I got tried of Google's manipulations. Better engine and consistently come up with more direct hits to a search.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

This has been a common practice since search engines first came into existence and long before Google was even a thought in the back of some guy's mind. I use Dogpile so that I get entries from all different engines and not just Google. I learned years ago to skip page one and start my search on the 2nd or 3rd page in order to skip those paying for their placement. With retail sites, the best deal and biggest discounts are always on those sites that are struggling for attention, while the products are the same as you find on the high dollar sites who pay for their traffic. I had an online catalog company with over 3000 products. When I started, I couldn't afford to compete with bids on ad words with the big retail sites, so we always ended up on the 3rd or 4th screen. I offered the very same brand name products, but from us, you got 30-40% discounts and free shipping.

Savvy users know to skip to screen 3 or 4, but does this carry over to politics? It would with me, but for the general searcher, I'd don't know.

[Bob]

The problem is that anybody who can be so easily swayed by such articles or stories, won't show up at the polls on November 7th. Tactics such as these are purely wishful thinking, and only adds to the liberal sense of betrayal the day after.

If you look at what makes moonbats tick, you'll see it has nothing to do with critical thinking, but pure emotion. They want Al Gore to be right about Global Warming, not because it'll save the earth, but because it fits into their twisted view of the world... the US, it's Corporations, and humans in general are bad, bad, bad. It's a very convoluted way to go through life!

[Rick Ballard]

"it is reasonable to expect that as many as twenty million voters will be searching for information on candidates online."

There's the sucker bait. The total vote in seventy districts won't exceed fifteen million. Of those fifteen million, twelve million will vote the way they voted in the previous election (Pew would confirm that, too). Open seat candidates do not have a bunch of stories from the past in the first place and "first time" voters in a district who actually want to know something about a candidate are going to go to the candidates' website and make a comparison.

Shays is in about as much trouble as Lieberman and this "spectacular idea" is as smart as running Unready Neddy.

Always remember:

"Pork - it's the real voter's meat".

Shays, Simmons and Johnson have delivered and a pork delivery in a demographically dying district (and state) is greeted with great joy.

[topsecretk9]

Well...MYDD opened a can of worms...Blue Crab calls it turnabout is fair play...i don't know. Still don't thinks it's all that effective.

http://www.rightwingnews.com/archives/week_2006_10_22.PHP#006659

http://bluecrabboulevard.com/2006/10/23/turnabout-is-fair-play-right/

[jwest]

“Well, it ought to work……”

Not really. Just as with any poll showing more than 4 or 5 percent undecided this close to a midterm election, this is simply another liberal fantasy.

Democrats are stuck in a wet dream mode of taking congressional districts that vote 60+ percent republican based on MSM hype. They picture people who would have crawled through broken glass to vote for Bush in ’04 suddenly changing after landing on an unfavorable article in a Google search.

Right.

Midterms are strictly base turnout contests. No one who is actually going to vote in November is still trying to figure out who they are for.

[topsecretk9]

--They picture people who would have crawled through broken glass to vote for Bush in ’04 suddenly changing after landing on an unfavorable article in a Google search.

Right.--

I concur.

[SunnyDay]

Dumb and dumber. Anyone who uses the net on a regular basis knows about google bombs. I think it's worth pointing out, but not worth doing.

[maryrose]

Looks like an increasingly desperate ploy to me. They know the pendulum is beginning to swing the repub way and that foley faux pas netted them nothing so now they are going to pull out all the stops. I for one am delighted to be on retreat the weekend before the election when all the partisan mud hits the fan. I'll probably miss the Oct/Nov. surprise and then be pleasantly surprised on election night.

[SlimGuy]

My guess is sort of thier concept being just trying to add another marginal tactic to the shotgun approach the left seems to be using.

They seem to think each little bit will lead to a death from a thousand cuts

[sbw]

Hmm. Because my opponent is morally bankrupt, I should be morally bankrupt, too, because my morality is higher than their morality even though both are bankrupt.

Or, the end justifies the means. ...

You talk about morally bankrupt! Time to invoke that paragon of moral rectitude -- Richard Milhous Nixon, "We could do that... but it would be wrong."

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Tom -- FYI -- I noticed yesterday that despite the fact that I have trackbacks set to list automatically in my Typepad preferences, that for some reason, starting back on the 14th of October, trackbacks stopped appearing unless I go in and physically approve them. I notice that you have not had any Trackbacks show up publicly on the last few entries and I know you have some because I trackbacked and I've seen you tracked on too many other blogs too. Were you aware that this is happening? Take a look at your "List Trackbacks" page and if you have any with a little orangish bullet, those need to be approved to appear. I've written SixApart tech to ask about this and whether it is a glitch or deliberate on their part, but so far no answer. I tried resetting my preferences and then republishing the entire site yesterday in order to reset my preference for auto handling of trackbacks, but this morning, there were 2 more sitting there waiting for me to check them off as approved.

[maryrose]

OT:
Chafee within 4 points in latest poll and with Carcieri at governor I think Lincoln still has a chance. He'll need more repub money to beat the ninny Whitehouse running on his own dime.

[clarice]

Hush yo mouf, jwest--If the Reps hold their majority it will be because ordinary people worked hard to keep in touch with voters and get them to the polls. That's a lot harder than paying ACORN dopers to make up new registrants and sitting in your parents' basement google bombing, but it's a lot more effective.

[jwest]

Clarice,

I’m still waiting for the union thugs and half-way-house democrat GOTV workers to show up on my doorstep for a last minute appeal to my better senses.

“Yer vot’in democrat, right?”

“Ah, ya. Sure”.

[hit and run]

clarice, in the end that IS the VRWC.

Keep the moonbats thinking that the VRWC exists to keep them battling the VRWC -- even though the VRWC really doesn't exist -- except to propagate the myth of the VRWC -- and in the end, the best way to propagate the myth of the VRWC is to deny that the VRWC exists -- which the moonbats will take as evidence that the VRWC does, in fact exists.

whew.

[SlimGuy]

Sara

I see you also got linked over a Pajamas Media for one of your posts.

Whatever your doing, keep it up!

[hit and run]

Sara Squiggler: Speaking Truth to Pajamas!

[clarice]

Good grief..next think you know, Sara will be charging for autographs!
Smooches , Sara.

[SamuelK]

It is interesting that there are sizable numbers of voters who will actually research their candidates, rather than vote on a straight party-line basis.

This could be an indication that voters are seriously looking at voting against the incumbent that they know, and are at least considering the opposing candidate.

Or maybe voters are just not relating to the barrage of negative ads, and are more interested in what the candidates themselves have to say.

[PeterUK]

How would you like the 2006 Congressional elections to turn out?
Republicans keep both houses
Republicans keep one, Democrats win another
Democrats win both houses

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Check out the poll at Instapundit,going to take a lot of google bombing.

[maryrose]

With 2 weeks to go I'm still sticking with my prediction that repubs hold both houses.
Jay Cost has another excellent article on the predictive power of polls broken down to see if their assumptions are in fact valid. Must read for all!

[BumperStickerist]

I have tentatively named [this project] Google Bombing The Election.

No, Chris, you magnificient idiot, you have tentatively described this project.

What.The.Hell.Is.Wrong. with these people? I thought they were supposed to be the whip-smart, creative freaky-deaky types that make everybody else look like sticks in the mud.

'Google Bombing The Election'

Key-reist.

That's almost Hamsherian in its tin-earredness

Why not get all World War II-y and go with:

Operation Overload

[Sara (Squiggler)]

I operate on the principal that people want honest information or in lieu of that, a recommendation from someone they trust to be objective in their coverage. I don't do a lot of original writing where I put forth my own opinions, but I do spend a lot of time reading those who are more expert at it and when I find something that strikes me as either really right or really really off base, I pick up on it and add my two cents. With that criteria, I try to pick topics that are newsworthy but also have something of interest to me.

For that reason, I have done a couple dozen posts on Irey/Murtha, same on John Kerry or the Iraq War and military issues. I've been doing a post now and then on our infamous California Propositions, that no one ever understands. I'm getting ready to do one on one of our latest on the ballot this year, Net Neutrality. I have zero expertise in this area, but know someone who is an expert and I've picked his brain and intend to present my own opinion, but based on his explanations and recommendations. I don't know what else we can do as bloggers to counterbalance the Google bombers.

It is really nice to get all this attention, but when all is said and done, I'm just a sixty year old single unemployed & broke woman and all I can really offer is life experience. Unfortunately, the nutroots are mostly teenagers and twenty-somethings with no sense of history, poorly educated even if they have a bunch of degrees, and led by some very vocal malcontents left over from 1968. They may know how to manipulate the system in the short term, but we've already seen that their influence seems to stop at the voting booth. BTW, here is a winning platform -- Murtha is now styling himself as the new McGovern. Gag!

[clarice]

OT: The google bombers don't have a chance..LARWYN is guest blogging!

http://faustasblog.com/2006/10/larwyns-post-like-teenage-girls-with.html

[Florence Schmieg]

Almost every poll I see or average of polls is withing the margin of error or under 7 %. That essentially means a toss up. This election is in no way some kind of done deal for the Democrats. That is pure media hype. Get out the vote efforts and turnout are going to be what decides this election in both houses. Ignore all of the junk spouted on the Sunday Talk Shows. Vote!

[Sara (Squiggler)]

I saw the announcement at AT this morning, but haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Thanks for the reminder on Larwyn, Clarice.

[jwest]

Here’s a quick look at one race the poll-quoting MSM are basing their “democrats win” template.

Arizona 8 - Graf (R) v Giffords (D).

Open seat formerly held by Jim Kolbe (R)(Gay). Kolbe won by 24 points in ’04, Bush carried the district by 7 points. This is a border district and Graf defeated a moderate in the primary with his stance on border security.

Polls conducted last month by the local newspaper and one democrat polling company show Giffords up by anywhere from 12 to 25 points. Zogby (no friend to republicans) show Giffords up by 8.

So, we are suppose to believe that in a period of 2 years, a district on the border of Mexico that voted dependably for republicans for decades has suddenly become a liberal mecca. The MSM is convinced that the majority of voters who backed Bush and have been screaming for increased border security have determined that the democrats are the answer to all their problems.

Right.

This is one of the races democrats are putting in the “sure thing” column. I’m sure when they loose this one, Diebold will be blamed.

[Rick Ballard]

Florence,

I wish more people would take the time to actually look at the polls as you do. If you click down that list you'll find most polls were taken betwee the 10th and the 13th - right when the Foley Farce was at maximum damage. It's odd that so little polling was done the week of th 16th. Almost as if the media groups that actually purchase the polls were somewhat intentional in their actions.

I would note that the only election on the board that shows a candidate really consolidating and extending a lead to "sure thing" status is the Connecticut Seante race.

That's the "strength" of the nutroots.

[jwest]

Damn, that was so much fun I thought we would look at another MSM “leans democrat” race.

Florida 13 - Buchanan (R) v Jennings (D)

Open seat formerly held by Kathrine Harris (R)(Nice Tits). Harris won this district 2 years ago by 10 points and Bush carried it by 13. There hasn’t been a democrat elected in this district since God invented dirt.

Polls conducted by admittedly democrat run companies put Jennings in the lead by 3 to 12 points. The geniuses in the MSM have determined that this lead is perfectly understandable due to…well, that’s just the numbers.

Uh huh.

Republicans could have nominated a ’53 Ford hubcap as their candidate and would still win this district. How is it that the media are willing to ignore any semblance of logic in declaring this a district “in play”?

[megapotamus]

This sounds like just the sort of thing the hipster dufi of Google would luv to do... but sorry, voting preferences are not ZAP! set by reading a single article as opposed to another or none. Anyone who uses the net for news has their daily route and their preferences for searching. All this pathetic exercise can accomplish is to accelerate the already rapid erosion of confidence in "news" and expose Google as the DNC outlet it was always meant to be.

[Jane]

OT: Jeff Skilling gets 24 years.

And Lieberman is up by 18 points.

[Rick Ballard]

"And Lieberman is up by 18 points."

The power of the nutroots - I think that the DoD should check them out as a potential weapons system. They seem to be able to kill anything they focus on helping.

[ajacksonian]

Google Adwords? You mean the things I don't even see? You know, Mozilla, Greasemonkey, a couple of scripts... *ads begone*

And on the MSIE side, well, there are a few and Avant works some things... but, since Opera is getting client-side java apps, I might go back to that and use a few Greasemonkey scripts there...

Anyone using Google Adwords for politics is, well, idiotic. This is the media where you get to speak truth to your browser and it will *stop* things you do not want and ads along with pop-ups and new window bombs are top of the list. They go away.

Even the link-farmers will do a better job selling whatever the scam du jour is better than the folks on the Left can make an *instant* refernece source via that and adwords.

Let them go right ahead.

I have a web browser and know how to filter the signal to noise ratio. They disappear as noise. Anyone using the net gets instant *adword blindness* after a week of use. Links to *authoratative* people usually unravel with a technorati or del.icio.us search, or one of the less popular bookmark searches. And anyone not savvy enough to use any of these is *not going to trust the web for information*.

This is humorous and should be encouraged to keep the children busy. And enjoy the temper tantrums when it pays off as well as Ned Lamont has.

And anyone who is too new to the net and can easily be swayed by a single article is someone who would have flipped a coin in the voting booth. They may go *best two out of three* now to compensate.

[hit and run]

The power of the nutroots - I think that the DoD should check them out as a potential weapons system.

Yeah, and maybe DoE can tap that power to curb our dependence on foreign oil.

No, wait. Not much power with a whole lotta pollution.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Speaking of polls and the lack of even a semblance of political understanding by the MSM, let's talk about California and the Governator. When in the last election, 4 of Arnold's proposed Propostions went down to defeat, the national media assumed instantly that that meant Arnold was finished, history. But, anyone who lives in California and has dealt with our crazy Prop system knows that the majority of voters have no idea what the Props are all about, they vote against them as a matter of course because most of them are nothing more than hidden tax hikes. I doubt anyone other than the far left interest groups thinks the Prop system relates to any particular candidate. So, the man who was supposed to be finished, history as far as his reelection chances, is presently up by 17-20 points, the anti-war, tax hike candidate is considered a fool and California will have a Governator for another full term.

[Bob]

’53 Ford hubcap

Possibly one of the last things Ford made that didn't fall apart within 3 years!

[ed]

Hmmmm.

Just report this nonsense to Google. According to their official policies any website that benefits from "google-bombing" gets de-rated.

[windansea]

I seriously doubt that NutRoots are capable of knowing what a non partisan article is

come to think of it, do non partisan articles exist?

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Is there anyone from New Jersey here? This is a race that I haven't followed, but I have seen a debate and also Keane in a couple of interviews. Menendez is a crook and a typical Dem. and I wouldn't vote for him, but Keane is a terrible terrible candidate. What is wrong with the guy? Every time I've seen him, he is saying something designed to turn off voters like me and looks really dumb. I feel sorry for New Jersey Republicans, who might have had a chance to shine, having to decide whether to vote their ticket and get Keane or vote for a crook like Menendez.

[windansea]

Possibly one of the last things Ford made that didn't fall apart within 3 years!

I call BS...I have a 99 expedition that leaps with joy everytime I start her up

[Bob]

windansea... from what I understand automobiles - even SUV are not suppose to "leap for joy"... unless of course it realises it has beat the odds at 7 years old.

[Bob]

realises = realizes even my spell check missed that!

[David]

Hey Tom, CT2 for me. I will wave in your direction.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

John Hawkins at Right Wing News is sending out the following email and asking for support. I would much rather see bloggers pick one or two candidates that they have an interest in and provide solid info, than join this effort. Anyone else have an opinion?

Last night, I learned that Chris Bowers over at MyDD has been organizing a Googlebomb campaign for the 2006 election.

Now normally, I think Googlebombs are kind of dumb. One of the most famous Googlebombs involved making George Bush's name come up under the words "miserable failure." My reaction to that was, "Cute, but so what?"

However, believe it or not, in this case, a Googlebomb could actually have an impact. Think about it. Who would be doing a Google Search on a particular candidate in the final days of a campaign? Probably an independent voter who is trying to get more information about a candidate. And, if the first article he runs across is a brutal hit piece, well, that could be the information that helps him make up his mind.

Would it play out that way in every case? No, but in big districts, if there's particularly damaging information out there, a Googlebomb could have the potential to sway hundreds of voters.

So, what's to be done? Well, in my opinion, we should simply fight fire with fire. That's why I put together a list of key races for Republican blogs to Googlebomb. How do you do that? Simply view source, grab the HTML below, and post it on your blog or in a forum that you frequent. Then, once Google picks it up, the links on these candidates should rocket up charts and help even the playing field for the GOP in the key races.

Senate

Connecticut: Ned Lamont

Maryland: Ben Cardin

Michigan: Debbie Stanbenow

Missouri: Claire McCaskill

Montana: Jon Tester

New Jersey: Bob Menendez

Tennessee: Harold Ford

Virginia: James Webb

Democrat Held Seats

(CO-03): John Salazar

(GA-03): Jim Marshall

(GA-12): John Barrow

(IA-03): Leonard Boswell

(IL-08): Melissa Bean

(IL-17): Phil Hare

(IN-07): Julia Carson

(NC-13): Brad Miller

(PA-12): John Murtha

(WV-01): Alan Mollohan

Republican Held Seats

(AZ-08): Gabrielle Giffords

(CT-04): Diane Farrell

(CT-05): Chris Murphy

(CO-07): Ed Perlmutter

(IA-01): Bruce Braley

(IL-06): Tammy Duckworth

(IN-02): Joe Donnelly

(IN-08): Brad Ellsworth

(IN-09): Baron Hill

(FL-13): Christine Jennings

(FL-16): Tim Mahoney

(FL-22): Ron Klein

(KY-03): John Yarmuth

(NC-01): Heath Shuler

(MN-06): Patty Wetterling

(NM-01): Patricia Madrid

(NY-20): Kirsten Gillibrand

(NY-24): Michael Arcuri

(NY-26): Jack Davis

(OH-15): Mary Jo Kilroy

(OH-18): Zack Space

(PA-06): Lois Murphy

(PA-08): Patrick Murphy

(PA-07): Joe Sestak

(PA-10): Chris Carney

(VA-02): Phil Kellam

(WI-08): Steve Kagen

[clarice]

jwest..I have a vacation place in Fla 13--I can't see a Dem winning there. Ever.

[jwest]

Want to get a taste of what the MSM and democrats think is a “sure thing”?

Indiana 8 - Hostettler (R)(Bible Thumper) v Ellsworth (D)(Bible Thumper Light)

This seat has been held by Hostettler since ’94. He is unique in the fact that he doesn’t accept PAC money, is targeted every cycle, and still continues to win. Bush carried this district by 24 points in ’04, so it’s not considered a democrat stronghold – until this year.

For some reason, the MSM has detected a mass awakening among all the voters in this rural Indiana district. It makes perfect sense to the MSM that, although the vast majority of these people have never voted for a democrat, Ellsworth will take the election by 25 points.

Makes sense to me.

In this atmosphere of the “culture of corruption”, the voters in Indiana will surely dump the only congressman who refuses outside money. If you don’t understand why, you must not have attended an elite university.

[jwest]

Clarice,

I can’t imagine a democrat being served in a restaurant in Florida 13.

It’s not exactly San Francisco South, but if you listen to the pollsters, voters there are ready to trade their Cadillacs for a VW bus.

[Bob]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/Technology/story?id=2596705&page=1>Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections

Looks like ABC News is already preparing the moonbats for election fraud! I'm sure these are the same "scientist" that claimed that the Twin Towers were leveled using explosives!

[Specter]

Naw...just somebody who saw Robin Williams in Man of the Year...

[Syl]

ajacksonian

Google Adwords? You mean the things I don't even see? You know, Mozilla, Greasemonkey, a couple of scripts... *ads begone*

And on the MSIE side, well, there are a few and Avant works some things... but, since Opera is getting client-side java apps, I might go back to that and use a few Greasemonkey scripts there...

No need to get complicated. Simply use a software proxy server---works with all browsers because it rewrites the html even before the browser sees it.

Proxomitron

Pretty much set and forget--unless you want to fiddle. I've been using the same settings for about ten years. LOL

And it's free.

[Specter]

Proximotron at www.castlecops.com

[Syl]

jwest

Maybe Terrye will drop by--I think she lives in Indiana 8. I think she was saying that she thought Ellsworth would win because he doesn't sound like a Democrat and is pretty well liked in the area.

I, personally, haven't a clue.

[clarice]

OT:"In1999, espionage author Christopher Andrew revealed that Soviet archives smuggled by defector Vasili Mitrokhin described an unnamed KGB agent recruited from California Democratic Party circles in the 1970s." Fedora resarched the claim that the KGB had a mole in the California Democratic Party and has unearthed some fascinating facts about former Senator Tunney.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1724508/posts

[MayBee]

I'm just surprised this is what their Blog PAC money is going for. I sure wouldn't want my PAC money being spent that way. Not that I'd give in the first place.

Hey. Shouldn't Mike Stark and his $3,000 project be showing results soon?
I wonder too about FDL publishing. I guess it isn't only Tammy Faye and Jimmy that can coax money out of people's pockets.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

I have an idea. I'll start a fund drive:

Hi, we want you to elect Republicans. We cannot afford to lose a single Republican voter. Please donate today and pay Sara's housepayment so she doesn't move to a RED STATE. This is the most important donation you could ever make.

Makes about as much sense as FDL's.

[Greg F]

ajacksonian,

The best way to kill ads is with the http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm>"host" file. Not only does it block the ads, it also prevents them from setting cookies. The real beauty of using the host file to block ads is you can switch to another browser and it will still work.

Add http://www.funkytoad.com/content/view/14/32/>the LocalHost webserver Homer and you can substitute your own graphic for where the ad would appear.

[clarice]

Take your pick:
Instapundit cites to a report that more people are voting for third party candidates; Reason carries an article saying the Dems haven't a chance--that they have no platform and any pick ups they get are going to be by pro-war candidates and Blaz of the WaPo says the independents are voting Dem.LOL

In the meantime the Dems are busily setting the story of voting fraud and John Fund says the election may be settled by the Courts.

[clarice]

**Balz, not Blaz**

[Sara (Squiggler)]

I am here to say I will never forget all my loyal friends at JOM no matter how famous I get. LOL. @@@@@OFL.

I got the following email a few minutes ago. I had a hard time finding myself, but finally did after scrolling through several screens. And instead of finding either of my last two Insta-launched posts, I found one I did on a Calif. Proposition 87. But hey, publicity is publicity as long as they spell your name correctly, right?

Here is the email:

Hi,

I wanted to give you a heads up that your blog has a link from Time.com's web site, powered by Sphere. To see your featured post, go to www.time.com and look within the story: "California's Big-Bucks Battle Over Clean Energy." Then, look for the orange sphere it! logo and click on it. You should see your post in the first two pages of results.

Sphere is working with Time and other publishers to get great blogs like yours in front of more people. We think this is pretty cool and a great way for people to discover blogs as well as introduce a broader, more mainstream audience to great blog content like yours. If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to contact me at victoria@sphere.com.

We'd like to offer you a Sphere featured blogger badge. You can choose one here:
http://www.sphere.com/fb-badges?topic=featured

Keep on blogging!

Best,
Victoria
http://www.sphere.com

the Time URL is http://www.time.com

The page URL is:

http://www.sphere.com/search?partner=time&q=sphereit:http%3A//www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1549682%2C00.html

My post is the 5th one: Vote No on Proposition 87

[clarice]

The note on how the MSM will handle the next days to the election:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238
Mickey Kaus has some thoughts:
All-Hands-On-Deck MSM Drive for Victory! ABC's The Note has a thorough and knowing outline of "How the (liberal) Old Media plans to cover the last two weeks of the election" to try to ensure the GOPs do not regain any initiative. ...All ABC's Halperin & Co. left out, as far as I can see, is Point #13: Bury the news about the Secure Fence Act (if Bush doesn't bury it first), Point #14 Do not mention the name "Alcee Hastings," and #15: 'Keep Foley Alive!' (though that may no longer be possible, even on NPR). ... 2:58 P.M.

http://www.slate.com/id/2151609/

[clarice]

Sara, Sure---That's what they all say........

[SlimGuy]

I sort of agree with one commentor at another blog I read.

He said that if the dems loose both houses in november we are gonna have to put paint buckets full of valium pills on street corners

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Teddy Kennedy says ask Osama Obama while trying to talk about Barrak Obama. He tried to correct himself, but the old drunk just made it worse the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th try. Fox.

[jwest]

Sara,

It just goes to show you, if you hang around with the right crowd, eventually you’ll become rich and famous.

Clarice is living proof.

[maxx]

Why use Google anyway?

Clusty.com is at least as good as a search engine, organizes results by topic in the left-hand sidebar which can be very helpful and doesn't have all of the issues - China etc. - that Google has.

See what a search for Just One Minute produces:

http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=%22Just+One+Minute%22

I hope you'll never use anything but Clusty again after seeing that result. :)

[Gary Maxwell]

Anybody else just read Jay Cost? Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that he just called Cook and Greenberg et al big fat liars? He never said it and I never saw a knife, but man those guys are bleeding a lot now. He does say if they are right, it will be for the wrong reason. Damning with faint praise. This guy was brilliant last go around. Doctoral candidate in stats I think at maybe Georgetown. Link at RCP, dont miss it.

[Patton]

OK, so liberals will push what they perceive are BAD articles about Republicans.

Stuff like, they support lower taxes, a real war on terror, the NSA wiretapping, the SWIFT program, tough interrogation of prisoners, etc. etc.

Sounds like stuff we would want people to read.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Oh Great! More problems with Chicago.

Chicago Voter Database Hacked

Oct. 23, 2006 — As if there weren't enough concerns about the integrity of the vote, a non-partisan civic organization today claimed it had hacked into the voter database for the 1.35 million voters in the city of Chicago.

Bob Wilson, an official with the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project — which bills itself as a not-for-profit civic organization dedicated to the correction of election system deficiencies — tells ABC News that last week his organization hacked the database, which contains detailed information about hundreds of thousands of Chicago voters, including their Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.

"It was a serious identity theft problem, but also a problem that could potentially create problems with the election," Wilson said.

A nefarious hacker could have changed every voter's status from active to inactive, which would have prevented them from voting, he said.

"Or we could've changed the information on what precinct you were in or what polling place you were supposed to go to," he said. "So there were ways that we could potentially change the entire online data base and disenfranchise voters throughout the entire city of Chicago."

"If we'd wanted to, we could've wiped the entire database out," Wilson claimed.

Tom Leach, a spokesman for the Chicago Election Board, tells ABC News that the problem seems to have arisen because the city's database allowing voters to locate their voting precinct once asked voters for detailed information such as Social Security numbers.

Approximately six years ago, Leach said, when the website was updated — requiring only name and address — city computer experts "never cut the links to the Social Security numbers and the dates of birth."

Leach said he doubted the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project could have disenfranchised voters or wiped out the database, but he and the Election Board were very concerned and had taken steps to remedy whatever problems exist, including bringing in an outside computer forensic expert to verify that the database is secure and to ensure no one had already hacked the database.

There is more at:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2601085&page=1

[clarice]

He is brilliant. The article is great. But he's at the University of Chicago. Go thru his old Horse Race Blog and learn more about polling than you can learn anywhere else. I heart him.

[Patton]

You have to be an utter and complete idiot to fall for the lamestream medias current push for the Democrats. I don't know how any thinking American could watch or read their stuff without first pointing out how completely biased they are.

I would guess those same people would believe that it is mere coicidence that people making news just happens to coicide with their book being published, or their album being released, or their movie coiming out, etc.

The big question now is turnout...

[Rick Ballard]

IN-09 is a "top tier" seat according to MyDribblingDorks. It really should be, considering that it had the tightest plurality of any race won by a Republican in '04, it's a dying district and Sodrel is only a fair candidate.

The Dem has held this seat in the past so he's well known in the district, even if he's not particularly well liked.

Here is what SUSA says in a release accompanying todays poll results:

Since an identical SurveyUSA WHAS-TV poll 2 weeks ago, Hill has lost 1 point, from 48% to 47%. Sodrel has lost 3 points, from 46% to 43%. Hill had led by 2, now leads by 4. Both results are within the poll's 4.4 percent margin of sampling error, but the advantage is with the Democrat. Libertarian Eric Schansberg has gained 3 points, from 2% to 5%, and may be a "spoiler" here, siphoning key Male votes and Independent votes from Sodrel. Hill gets 82% of Democrat votes. Sodrel gets 78% of Republican votes. Among Independents, Sodrel had been tied, now is down 7 points. All of those votes have gone to the Libertarian. Conservatives support Sodrel 5:1. Liberals support Hill 9:1. Moderates go for Hill by a 37-point margin, up 10 points in the past 2 weeks. Hill was elected to represent Indiana's 9th District in 1998, 2000, and 2002. Sodrel, who had lost to Hill 51-46 in 2002, captured the seat for the Republicans in 2004, defeating Hill by one-half of one percentage point.

IN-09 is the 'softest' Republican seat in play and the Democrats are fielding a known quantity with the nutroots throwing all their mighty effort into the fray. A 4 point lead is statistically meaningless against a MOE of 4.3 . The race is a coin toss.

That's the real size of the "Democratic wave".

[Sue]

I am in the 4th district of Texas. Last night, I had a poll call. The caller was with the democratic opponent of Ralph Hall, Glenn Melancon (I had to search for his name. I've never heard of him.) I have seen no political signs. I've not heard one political ad. I've not read one political ad. In fact, I didn't even know that I would be voting for my representative in November. ::grin::

The point of my story...if I have a point...a democrat can't win our district, apparently. ::grin::

[Sue]

Actually, I was not in the 4th until the redistricting in 2003. I was in the 1st district and Wright Patman, Sam Hall, Jim Chapman and Max Sandlin were the reps. We had never sent a republican to Washington, not while I was in the 1st. In 2004, Max Sandlin (a conservative democrat and really okay politician) was heavily defeated by the republican candidate (I would have voted for Max Sandlin, had I remained in the 1st). The 1st district was heavy rural areas, farmers, who tend to vote democrat till they die. Ralph Hall switched parties to win the 4th. Max Sandlin could have, he is more conservative than most conservatives.

[Specter]

OT - Just watched the last debate for Senate in CT. It was pretty lively. But I must admit that I was astounded at the lack of respect the Lamont supporters showed Joe Lieberman. They would not let him speak on at least two different occasions. The party that keeps talking about "free speech" obviously does not believe in it.

It is also too bad that there isn't much support for Schlesinger - he was by far the best. Lamont lost it - was visibly angry when Lieberman accused him of lying in his ads (in response to the question, "How much truth is there in your advertising?"). Lamont answered first and avoided the question. Schlesinger got up and said his ads were 100% accurate (seeing as I haven't seen one yet I don't know). Lieberman got up and accused Lamont of lying and distorting his record. Lamont lost it - he was all red and shaking.

But as I said, Schlesinger was by far the best. His answers were clear and concise and he pointed out his position on issues and what he would attempt to fix things.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

My cousin and her husband own a medium-sized dairy farm in Missouri of about 1000 ac. For years, all they had was network news and I was shocked after not talking to my cousin for a long time, to have her spouting all the Dem. talking points. This was about around the time of the 2000 primaries. I knew that she had been a strong Republican who grew up in a family of Repubs. This change of attitude was disconcerting to say the least, but in the interest of family harmony, I kept my mouth shut.

As we were coming into the 2004 election cycle, I happened to talk to my cousin again at length. She said to me, "you must have thought I'd lost my mind 4 years ago." I admitted I had thought that. She then went on to explain to me the difference. They did not have either cable or satellite avail. to them out on the farm until late 2003. She said, "I can not believe how brainwashed we'd become by only have ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. She then started raving about now getting both sides with Fox.

So, some of those dyed in the wool farmers might be brainwashed rather than true Dems. The other change for my cousin was getting high speed internet after they got cable access allowing her to start using the Net for a wide variety of information, rather than just having limited access email thru an old local dial-up.

[SunnyDay]

Fox news is now taking a lot of the ABC and CNN news radio accounts, too.

[Sara (Squiggler)]

Hillary's debate with Spencer was a blowout for Spencer. He made her look dishonest and stupid. Yet I'm told he doesn't have a snowball's chance to take the seat. Today, because he did such a good job, the Dems are out trashing him and saying he called her ugly, etc. If they thought she'd won, you wouldn't have heard a word about him today.

[Rick Ballard]

"He made her look dishonest and stupid."

Reflecting reality isn't too tough. If he had made her look honest and smart it would be remarkable.

[SlimGuy]

I watched a replay of the debate over the web and his slapdown of her over the removal of Rumsfield was a great shot.

However I think he missed about 8 or 10 chances to do other equally damaging comebacks that he just passed over.

The general impression I got is that Hillary was not really interested in the debate. She seems to exude the air that this was a necessary inconvience as well as the following casting of votes.

[topsecretk9]

Specter...

If you read the lefty blogs, they are blaming the heckling in Lyndon Larouchites and going to gynormous huge pains to explain that they are not aligned with these obscure strange people, so strange to the nutroots they are describing them as if their audience has never heard of this species of alien people...HILARIOUS...

MyDD Stoller say

There were a couple of key moments in this debate. The disruptive hecklers, which Lieberman blamed on Lamont, were actually part of LarouchePAC, a well-known cult-like political movement that has no significant presence inside either party...

Riiiight...Larouche followers really might have a presence in the republican party but definitely no trace in the progressive party...got a bridge too?

Quick 101-

LaRouche has run for the Democratic nomination for President in every election year since 1976, including in 1992 while he was in prison, a record of eight attempts.

Firedogswamp

There were people in the debate hall who were singing and distrupting both Lieberman and Lamont, and they were evidently Lyndon LaRouchites, but Persecution Complex Lieberman of course blamed Ned (it was actually Lamont staffers who tried to kick them out of the hall). The Last Honest Man owes both Ned and his supporters an apology, but nobody is holding their Joementum.

Evidently? Yeah...that really added the play dumb distance, especially since a pre-debate-post was touting --bashing the debate with the Kiss float, bridge number 2?

She goes on to suggest it was Lieberman who was red and shaking.

[topsecretk9]

And Kos's site is down...perhaps he didn't pay his bill?

Internal Server Error

[SlimGuy]

TS9

must have been temporary Kos works now

[topsecretk9]

Stop October Surprises has a few new posts up, one titled "Hey, StopSexPredators, how f****** stupid are you?"

http://stopoctobersurprises.blogspot.com/

Apparently he sent more mail and they opened it agian with same IP...

One mail he sent the subject line was: weller

and notes:

...On a related note, today was an interesting day, members of the House and Senate (staff people of course), as well as, several beltway think tanks have been busy reading this blog.

[SlimGuy]

TS9

I also note his discounting of the NJ connection, it was something I had not considered earlier.

As far as his vpn (virtual private network) point he is correct, that is what I sort of pointed out yesterday about remote login capability.

For example, I have been on vacation in Hawaii and hooked thru servers here at my house to do my email stuff rather than directly accessing some of my mail accounts because of having other stuff locally on my servers at the house that I would need to properly respond to certain emails of a business nature. I would not have that same level of data availability if I just fired up an email program on my laptop to access my messages. Since I was remotely vpn logged in, the email responses would look like I was still at home, even though I was thousands of miles from there.

[SlimGuy]

Too many first time web page owners put a mailto link to some email account they own.

Mostly this is because of the free webhosting site they are using does not allow lower level access.

If you have a true hosted website you can direct that mailto address to an arbitrary email name on the server and automatically forward that traffic to a email account of your chosing but it eliminates having your email address exposed so spambots can harvest the real intended email address.

[topsecretk9]

--Since I was remotely vpn logged in, the email responses would look like I was still at home, even though I was thousands of miles from there.--

This sentence explained more to me then anything. It's just all foreign to me.

[SlimGuy]

This sentence explained more to me then anything. It's just all foreign to me.

Posted by: topsecretk9 | October 23, 2006 at 08:45 PM

Think of it that instead of sitting here at the keyboard, I was simulating the same thing sitting at another keyboard miles away.

Sort of a more complex method than say MyPC or some remote access program.

I could sit at my laptop and have all the resources of my entire local area network at my disposal just like I can sitting here now.

[SlimGuy]

A much simpler example, it is the internet version of call forwarding, but as a two way street.

[topsecretk9]

this Ace commenter Dude was one of the orignal guys who set the honeypot...I think...but has more:

http://minx.cc/?blog=86&post=201702#c981148

[SlimGuy]

TS9

I am still actively following the Foley mess.

As I have said before, I had several places on the net when this story first broke, that poofed almost before my eyes. Some were trying to clean up tracks no doubt. Hits I had would be gone 10 minutes later.

So what I am waiting for at this point is for some of the sites to reappear after the trauma dies down when they feel safe again.

It most likely will not be before the election, due to the things poofing owners.

But I have a bot running on a server here that is lurking in the background that will alert me to any new hits matching my described profile.

We shall see what we shall see.

[MayBee]

Perhaps Jane Hamsher could give Joe Wilson a call if she's having trouble figuring out Larouche supporters.

[clarice]

HEH1 She's busy showing how powerful the nutroots are, MayBee.

[SlimGuy]

Has anyone else noted that since we are on topics other than Foley, our visitors from the other side have been so much less active.

Someone was looking that I imagine was not our other side distracting commentors.

They were just a sideshow.

Someone who was just a lurker was probably very interested in our progress of development. They were most likely looking for potential vulnerabilites they might have to deal with.

I spent a lot of time this evening on another issue which Clarice posted on earlier about an article Fedora had posted over in freeper land.

I am only one person and I can't be everywhere at once.

Each day is a new one with different challenges.

[SlimGuy]

Clarice

Both FDL and Kos have a lot of equity in Lamount.

I haven't read a lot from either lately due to other issues, but I guess they have to be doing some kind of damage control / deflection as to why their boy ain't cutting the mustard.

Also I note Lamount is still writing more checks to his own campaign. Kinda telling about his base of support.