URL mischief crops up on the campaign front
It’s early in the 2012 presidential election campaign, but dirty tricks are alive and well, at least on the Internet.
In the days after President Barack Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden, someone bought a new Internet URL, “GutsyCall.com,” and set it to redirect to Obama’s BarackObama.com campaign re-election website. The reference was to reports that John Brennan, a White House counterterrorism adviser, had characterized Obama’s order to send troops after bin Laden as “one of the most gutsiest calls of any president in recent memory.”
The connection was seized upon by conservative-leaning media, which portrayed it as an attempt by campaign officials to politicize bin Laden’s death despite their assertions that they did not intend to do so. The problem with that assertion? The campaign and the Democratic National Committee insisted they had nothing to do with the URL and knew nothing about it.
Aides at the DNC were angry that writers ran stories on the link without looking into who was behind it. One worker in new media at the party headquarters struck back with some URL redirection of his own. He bought another URL — www.weeklyNOstandards.com — that redirected readers to the homepage of The Weekly Standard, which had written about the URL. The point of buying the URL was to show how easy it is for anyone to buy one and redirect it to another site, and to keep the story from spreading, the DNC said.
The Weekly Standard in turn said it spent yet another $8.93 to buy a new URL — www.DNCcrybabies.com – which on Friday afternoon at least was still redirecting readers to democrats.org, the DNC’s homepage.
“Consider it our little contribution to the slow economic recovery,” the Weekly Standard wrote on its website.
Tweet like an Egyptian — Hillary Clinton tries it out
Young Egyptians, who famously used Internet services like Facebook and Twitter to launch their recent revolution, turned their focus to Hillary Clinton on Wednesday. They peppered the top U.S. diplomat with skeptical questions about longtime U.S. support for former President Hosni Mubarak and what many felt was its slow embrace of the movement to topple him.
Clinton, taking a personal spin at what she has called “21st Century Statecraft”, fielded a selection of some 6,500 questions that young Egyptians posed through Twitter, Facebook and the Arabic-language website www.masrawy.com — and many reflected deep suspicions about the U.S. role in Egypt.
“My question is: Does America really support democracy? If yes indeed, why the U.S. was late in its support of the Egyptian revolution?” one questioner asked Clinton.
“The attitude of the U.S. during the Egyptian revolution was to support the Egyptian regime first. Then, when the revolution turned successful, the U.S. switched sides and supported the Egyptian youth and the youth revolution, and the U.S. said that we learn from Egyptian youth. Why was such delay?” another wondered.
Clinton gamely took them on, stressing that the United States used its influence in Egypt to help press for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and the launch of a reform process that would lead to “an Egyptian model of democracy.”
“So I think that we were walking a balance, because we wanted to be sure that our messages did not push anyone into doing something that we disagreed with, namely violence, which we tried to, in every way possible, prevent,” Clinton said.
Young people think they are invulnerable. They do not understand that if we had moved in too fast it could have triggered a response not only from Mubarak & company but also from other Dictators such as Iran.
Schumer vs. Facebook
Charles Schumer, the senior senator from New York, is concerned about the protection of private information people give to Facebook and other social networking websites. And the Democrat wants new federal guidelines to help members of these online communities keep control over how their personal details “can be shared or disseminated to third parties.”
Schumer (or someone posting on his behalf) says so on his Facebook page. He also posted a press release on his page and echoed concerns about privacy on social networking sites on Sunday at a news conference in his Manhattan office.
Schumer told reporters he wants to make sure private information isn’t given away without the user’s permission.
He said he was prompted to appeal to the Federal Trade Commission after word last week of new Facebook features that allow the sharing of members’ personal information with outside websites.
“Now all of sudden, with rules changing, there are lots of things that you may have never wanted to go beyond your family and friends but do,” Schumer told reporters.
He wants the FTC to set new rules for how sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter can and cannot use all of that personal information submitted by members.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg deflected privacy questions at a news conference last week, saying the changes did not mean that any more information was being shared than before.
Bill Clinton big fan of most things tech
Former President Bill Clinton, who jokes that a cell phone weighed five pounds when he took office in 1993, told a VeriSign event to mark the 25th anniversary of dot com that he’s a big fan of the Web, cell phones and email, but hasn’t yet sprung for an electronic reader.
Clinton marveled at how the Web has revolutionized fundraising for his foundation, which tackles a range of global issues from health problems facing the poor to climate change.
“An enormous amount of what we do is either made possible or leveraged because of the Internet,” he said. “I don’t know what I would do without it.”
His favorite web sites are Politico, Huffington Post, Daily Beast and Firedoglake. But the former president said he also reads the right wing to make sure he’s getting the full story.
He watches Fox News Channel: “They say they’re ‘fair and balanced’ but, you know, it’s tongue in cheek.”
The former president said he loved his iPhone but tries to be disciplined about emailing on the go — and teased his predecessor, former President George H.W. Bush for not being able to resist the lure of the Blackberry.
“He might as well be a teenager,” Clinton said.
Smart power meets smart phones
The State Department is accelerating its push into the Internet, hoping to use web sites, blogs and mobile phones to deliver the U.S. message around the world.
The State Department itself unveiled a new-look web site on Thursday, including a video clip greeting from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and one-click “share” options to deliver the message over Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.
“No one person or country has a monopoly on good ideas. So I hope this website will be a forum for learning, discussion and collaboration,” Clinton said in the clip.
Clinton’s “innovation” advisor, Alec Ross, told a think-tank audience on Thursday that U.S. statecraft would increasingly take place in cyberspace, with special attention paid to messages deliverable over cellphones — which are now the way many people in developing countries access information.
“The times have changed, and these changes require pivots in our statecraft,” Ross said, noting that worldwide the total number of cellphone handsets had jumped by about 500 million to 4.6 billion during the eight months he has been in office.
“Seventy percent of those are in the developing world,” he said.
The new importance of technology, which include the use of Twitter and social networking tools such as Facebook by young Iranians to coordinate protests and report on demonstrations after disputed June presidential elections, are drawing scrutiny across Washington as an element of the “smart power” strategy that elevates diplomacy and development alongside defense as key elements of U.S. strategy.
Obama encourages unbridled Internet in China
Internet-savvy President Barack Obama told Chinese students that he is a big fan of the Web, though he doesn’t Twitter. At a town hall forum in Shanghai, a student who sent in a question by email pointed out that China has a huge online community with 350 million Internet users and 60 million bloggers.
He asked what Obama thought of the Chinese government’s “firewall” that blocks objectionable Internet sites and if he thought the Chinese should be able to “Twitter freely.” “First of all, let me say that I have never used Twitter,” Obama replied. “I noticed that young people — they’re very busy with all these electronics. My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone.” But he added, “I’ve always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I’m a big supporter of non-censorship. This is part of the tradition of the United States.” Obama said a free Internet allows people around the world to think freely and hold their governments accountable. Obama’s election campaign was credited with using the Internet in innovative ways — Facebook and texting — to raise money and rally a huge network of volunteers. Traveling in China as part of a nine-day Asia tour, Obama made a point of highlighting the Internet at the town hall. He took questions from the students in attendance at the event as well as questions submitted over the Internet. The question about the Chinese firewall was one of more than 1,000 submitted by email through the U.S. embassy. At the request of the White House, which did not want to be in the awkward position of pre-selecting a question, Bloomberg reporter Ed Chen, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, chose the question randomly by picking a number and relaying it to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Reuters photo by Jason Reed (a student poses a question to Obama at the town hall-style meeting at Shanghai’s Museum of Science and Technology, Nov. 16, 2009)
Eric i can remember when i met with a bank manager to show him a copy of a business plan to hopefully receive a business loan,the reality is you have not a lot of leverage other than past loan activity or project potential.Obama has an extensive past borrowing history ,and projections of massive reckless spending with a dramatic decline in dollar value.So to suggest that with his cap in hand he can start making demands to the Chinese is so naive.His leverage whether he bows, cringes, apologizes,or dithers, is diminishing by the hour.
White House website gets new look, blog
WASHINGTON – Moments after Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th U.S. president, the Web site for the White House, www.whitehouse.gov, underwent a dramatic metamorphosis, offering a new blog for online readers.
It will serve as a place for the most technology-savvy president in U.S. history and his new administration “to connect with the rest of the nation and the world,” Macon Phillips, director of new media for the White House, said on the site.
The site features a web-log or blog, an online “briefing room” and allows visitors to sign up for e-mail updates on major announcements and decisions, and to send in their own ideas.
As his first official act, Obama proclaimed Jan. 20, 2009 as a “National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation,” calling on Americans to serve one another and come together to carry forward American democracy.
Phillips said Obama also remained committed to his campaign pledge to make “his administration the most open and transparent in history.”
All executive orders and proclamations would be published on the website, as well as all non-emergency legislation, giving the public five days to comment before they are signed by the new president, Phillips said.
Citing Obama’s early work as a community organizer in Chicago, Phillips said, “Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the Internet will play an important role in that.”
Please do more to help our senior citizens to remain in their homes we have seniors in their homes that cannot afford to pay their utilities, pay property taxes, insulate their homes such as windows ect. We need to stop listening to people that would rather be members on a program or team players. Because members just show-up when it’s convient and team players show-up when it’s inconvient and it hurts because it’s good for the team. When Jesus asked for followers to be on his team because they were going to be asked to do things that were good for all and not to be of a selfish nature. Because if you aonly do things that are comfortable for you, you will never grow from being babe rather than a mature adult. We all need to grow to maturity if we are going to make it in life.
Take a snapshot of history during Obama inauguration
WASHINGTON – Where were you when Barack Obama made history being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States?
That’s what the Presidential Inaugural Committee wants to know. It is asking people to take a photo of what they are doing at noon on January 20, 2009, when Obama takes the oath of office and becomes the first African American to serve in the nation’s highest office.
“People all across the country will be gathered together to watch history. We want to see how you will be joining in the celebration of change,” the inaugural committee said in an e-mail. “Share your picture of history.”
The committee is asking that the photos be sent to: http://www.pic2009.org/celebrate.
The committee said it will be posting pictures on its website and may even use some in the official Inaugural book.
Obama has successfully used the Internet as a major campaign tool to raise money, reach out to voters and mobilize supporters.
Photo credit: Reuters/Stephen Hird (Visitors to Madame Tussauds pose next to the wax figure of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, in London January 20, 2009)
im a proudly south african young man of the age of almost 21 and im glad that America came to their senses by letting an african-american man to lead their country…. hussein obama 4 life..
from sipho phineas mothibedi
The First Draft: Friday, Nov 28
If Thanksgiving is over, it must be time for “Black Friday”. The big question this year is — will the traditional start to the holiday shopping season be a good one given the bleak economic picture? Retailers sure hope so, and they have slashed prices and offered incentives to lure shoppers to their store. Terry Lundgren, chief executive of Macy’s said about 5,000 people had lined up outside the flagship Herald Square store which he called “encouraging” though he admitted in an interview on “Good Morning America” it’s been a “challenging period” for retailers like Macy’s. “For retailers, this is the playoffs,” he said. “Starting now through the week after Christmas … We have much more aggressive pricing than we have in previous years.” The state of the U.S. economy is on the minds of many — even al Qaeda. Al Qaeda’s second-in-command published an Internet video saying the U.S. financial crisis was caused by Washington’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. In India, commandos took control of Mumbai’s Trident-Oberoi hotel but battles raged on with militants who were still holed up in another luxury hote, the Taj Mahal, and a Jewish center with about half a dozen foreign hostages.
After two days, the siege at two hotels and a Jewish center neared its end amid gunfire and more deaths. Police said so far at least 121 people have been killed.
Look Al Qaeda is saying things to get the American people to turn on their own fighting men and women because if we are pulled out of Iraq, and Afghanistan they know that it will leave us open for attacks on our own soil so that is what they want, they wont attack us so long as we are over there, because if they do our troops are going to respond with full force destroying anything in their path.
McCain to attend debate, Web ad claims victory already
WASHINGTON – Ah the Internet world, a place where things move very quickly — maybe too quickly in the political world.
Before Republican presidential hopeful John McCain announced he would attend the presidential debate on Friday night in Mississippi, apparently an Internet advertisement slipped out onto the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page with it declaring he won the contest.
Here’s a screenshot of the Web advertisement as posted by the Washington Post in which it claims “McCain Wins Debate,” with him in the foreground and an American flag in the background.
McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the ad posting was a mistake by the Wall Street Journal. Oops.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain boards his campaign plane in Arlington, Virginia, on Sept. 26)
Change you can trust, a slogan that could turn around McCain’s campaign?
Change you can trust contrasts beautifully with change you can believe in.
Everyone wants change, only with a team that we can trust to implement it.
If you’re in a tough spot, you want someone to come to help you that you can trust, not someone you believe may want to help you.
John McCain, polls show, is rated as highly qualified and highly trusted. This slogan, change you can trust, reinforces this message.
It can even be added on to John McCain’s current slogan. Country first, change you can trust. Or perhaps Change you can trust that puts Country first. Or how about Change you can trust that puts America first
It implies without directly saying it that the other side is perhaps a little less trustworthy.
It also reinforces the message that in a time we are facing battle with Al Qaeda worldwide and two conventional wars, John McCain is a commander in chief you can trust to lead us to victory.
There are 30 days left before Election Day. Sarah Palin’s debate performance was good, but it’s really up to John McCain to win.
CHANGE You Can TRUST
CHANGE You Can TRUST to put COUNTRY FIRST
CHANGE You Can TRUST to put AMERICA FIRST
CHANGE – TRUST
COUNTRY FIRST
John, are you listening???
http://strategicthought-charles77.blogsp ot.com/2008/10/change-you-can-trust-slog an-that-could.html
The url http://www.GutsyCall.com now points to the twitter page of Weekly Standard deputy online editor Daniel Halper who originally speculated that the Obama 2012 Campaign had purchased the url.
In addition, http://www.GutsyCall.NET now points to the Wikipedia page for Journalism Ethics and Standards. Owned!