July 17, 2006

Bloggers Deride Senator Stevens

"The Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes," said Sen. Ted Stevens during a June 28 committee session. Stevens will not soon live down the ridicule in the blogosphere for his explanation of how the Internet works.

"Andrew Raff -- a self-described "underemployed law graduate" in Brooklyn with an interest in the Internet and intellectual property -- set the words of Stevens's jeremiad to a folky tune. Raff created a page called the "Ted Stevens Internet Fan Club" and posted the song there.Three days later, Raff got an e-mail from the MySpace administrator, saying the song had been removed because of a violation of My Space's terms of service...One of MySpace's many monitors found the "Ted Stevens Internet Fan Club," saw there was a song on it and assumed copyright violation. Without further investigation, the page was taken down and the e-mail violation notice was sent to Raff...

Alerted to this, MySpace checked out the situation, found the mistake and reposted the song at http://www.myspace.com/tedstevensfanclub ."

Protecting a Senator? Or Just Enforcing Copyright Law?

Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2006

Bombay Bombing Blogs

India’s financial capital was shocked by a series of bombs set off on the Western Railway in Mumbai.  Immediately, friends and family began to search for their loved ones only to find jammed phone lines, unreliable cellphone service, and rejected SMS messages.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 30, 2006

Indonesia Earthquake Help Blog

In quick response to the earthquake that shocked Indonesia, the Indonesia Help blog sprang into action.

The Indonesia Help - Earthquake and Tsunami Victims blog sprang up in the aftermath of Saturday's earthquake in Indonesia to collect online information and resources from aid to donations and latest news.

http://indonesiahelp.blogspot.com/

 

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 25, 2006

$100 Laptop's Latest Makeover

The first working prototype of the $100 Laptop for developing nations was unveiled at the Country Task Force Meeting on 23 May 2006.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

Net Neutrality Debate Rocks

Rock group R.E.M. has joined Moby and a growing list of musicians pushing Congress to protect the Internet.

As lawmakers on Capitol Hill introduce a bill aimed at preventing broadband providers from abusing their power, people and groups continue to speak out as to where they stand on the net neutrality debate.

Rock group R.E.M. has joined Moby and a growing list of musicians pushing Congress to protect the Internet. The group finds allies in the Save the Internet Coalition made up of non-profits, small businesses, bloggers, church affiliates and video gamers. The group’s online petition  already boasts almost 700,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, resistance to such new laws is also growing. Several of the world's largest hardware makers sent a letter to Congress decrying new Net neutrality laws. Two Republican senators, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, also sent a letter  to their colleagues warning them not to be "duped" by advocates of network neutrality.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 05, 2006

Blogosphere Debates Colbert Speech

The Blogosphere is buzzing with talk of Stephen Colbert's controversial speech at the White House Correspondents Association dinner. 

Bloggers have weighed in on the speech from both left and right, deliberating whether Colbert’s speech was funny or not. Others focused on the mainstream media’s delayed reaction to reporting on Colbert’s performance. A group of pro-Colbert bloggers have started ThankYouStephenColbert.org  as an online place to say “Thank you” – so far 48,000 have.

You be the judge – you can read a transcript from the show here  and NBC has a video of Colbert’s speech here.

Related Articles:
Punchline Politics: Colbert, Bush and the Blogosphere
After Press Dinner, the Blogosphere Is Alive With the Sound of Colbert Chatter

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 29, 2006

Internet Driven Revolts in France, U.S.

As students and workers across France organize demonstrations on blogs against a bill  that would make it easier for companies to hire and fire young people, immigration protesters in the U.S. are using the Internet to organize.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 23, 2006

Did He Say Blog?

"One of the things that we have to value is that we do have a media. There's blogs, there's Internet, there's all kinds of way to communicate which is literally changing the way people get their information."

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 21, 2006

ePolitics Buzz Brief - Voices of Dissent Online

The Internet is flexing its "dissent" muscle again, proving to be a powerful tool of opposition from Belarus to Syria.

Syrian Voice of Dissent Stays one Step Ahead

(Australian IT) IN Syria, where the state regularly exercises censorship and stifles domestic criticism, the internet has become a vehicle for dissent. The electronic medium has pushed the limits of what is acceptable but at a price. Cyber-rebels who have broadened the political debate could be preyed on at any time and thrown in jail for proselytising to 's internet audience of more than 500,000. (March  21, 2006)

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,18536347%5E15318%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Belarus Protesters Turn to Internet

(BBC) In the wake of ' presidential election, which the opposition says was rigged in favour of President Alexander Lukashenko, critics of the government are struggling to spread the word about their protests. Most of the independent press has been forced out of business. TV is entirely under state control. The internet has provided an outlet for independent reporting. (March  21, 2006)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4828848.stm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 16, 2006

Bloggers Try To Reach Journalist's Captors In Iraq

The Internet is adding new momentum to the campaign urging Iraqi captors to release freelance reporter Jill Carroll.

U.S. bloggers are linking to public service announcements airing on Iraqi television. They feature an appeal from Carroll's mother and one from the politician she was trying to meet before kidnappers ambushed her. They also include references to her love for Iraq and show interviews with Iraqis who say they have come to regard Carroll as one of their own daughters.

Read, "Bloggers Try To Reach Journalist's Captors In Iraq"

http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181503696

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 09, 2006

Fasting for Internet Access in Cuba

Cuban dissident, Guillermo Fariñas,  who has been on a hunger strike  since January 31st, continues to demand free access to the Internet, while his health deteriorates rapidly.

For an in depth look at Fariñas' struggle, read PoliticsOnline's Sound off Piece written by Rafa Rubio, "Cuban Journalist Fasts for Right to Unrestricted Internet Access" http://netpulse.politicsonline.com/soundoff.asp?issue_id=10.05

And for the latest update on Fariñas' condition read:

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-03-08T225842Z_01_N08251514_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-RIGHTS-CUBA-INTERNET.XML&archived=False

More information on the Internet in Cuba from Reporters Without Borders:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10611&Valider=OK

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 06, 2006

Pakistan Blocks Bloggers Over Cartoons, Bush?

Over the last few days, Pakistani bloggers have repeatedly reported being blocked from accessing popular blogging web sites, yet the motives are still unclear.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4771846.stm

Another theory, on Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwith Blog is that the bloggers are being blocked because of President Bush's visit:

http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/acarvin/view?PostID=11675

In response to the censorship, Pakistani bloggers have begun a  "Don't Block the Blog" Campaign, visit the campaign website here:

http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 20, 2006

China Dominating the Headlines

The internet continues to buzz about China, with several new articles speculating about the role of the Internet in the communist country.

Three articles about China hit the press today, taking three very different perspectives.



First, The Guardian argues, "China is in the midst of a guerrilla war, a conflict against the world's biggest censor that is very much in keeping with the information age. In the 1940s, Mao's communist rebels used hit-and-run tactics to sap the morale - and eventually defeat - the numerically superior but morally bankrupt nationalist forces. This time, it is journalists, bloggers and dissidents who are probing the defences of a more powerful but equally despised enemy: the propaganda department of the Communist party."



The Washington Post focuses on the role of Wikipedia in China. The reference site has been blocked in the country in spite of citizen protests.



The Chinese publication Interfax China takes a lighter spin on things with the summary of results of a survey conducted by one of the nation's leading consulting firms. The article claims that although 52% of white collar workers in the country maintain blogs, "Unlike western bloggers who often focus on news and politics [they] see complaining alongside office and personal gossip as their priorities, according to the survey."

Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 25, 2006

Censorship of Chinese Internet Escalates

US-based tech companies choosing to cooperate with Chinese authorities' attempts to curb web-based dissent is nothing new. Now Google has announced plans for a new search engine in China that censors material deemed objectionable by authorities there.

Google claims that its users will prefer limited access to content to no access. The new Google.cn will include notes at the bottom of results pages that disclose when content has been removed. Senior policy council Andrew McLaughlin has publicly pronounced the company's desire to comply with the Chinese government's regulations, adding "In deciding how best to approach the Chinese - or any - market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interest of users, expand access to information and respond to local conditions." Google's actions seem to be in keeping with the previous precedent set by American tech companies operating in China: Like Google, both MSN and Yahoo have come under attack by bloggers and human rights activists alike for censoring the Chinese versions of their sites, including blog tools and email services.



Reporters Without Borders (RWB), an international human rights organization, argues that Google's revised search engine is "making it easier for Chinese officials to filter the internet themselves," and called the company's actions immoral. A handful of American politicians have also jumped into the fray,  threatening to pass laws restricting US companies from cooperating with the Chinese government on censorship.



What do you think? Are Google and the other tech companies operating in China right in taking a "when in Rome" approach to censorship? Or are they missing out on a crucial opportunity to protect the free Internet abroad?



For more information, see Silicon.com's article "Google Slammed for Censoring Chinese Sites."

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 23, 2006

Gore Attracts Blogosphere's Attention

The latest buzz in the blogosphere centers around Al Gore and his stance on wiretaps, spying and a "constitutional crisis."  Read what the bloggers are saying on the left and the right...

The big news on the blogs this week was the return of Al Gore. In a Monday speech the former vice president accused the current President Bush of breaking the law by authorizing warrantless wiretaps and called for a special prosecutor to look into "criminal issues."

http://www.startribune.com/562/story/195839.html

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 18, 2006

Blogger Buys Wesley Clark's Call List

America blogger John Aravosis purchased Gen. Wesley Clark's cell phone records, in an attempt to reveal a dangerous loophole in state privacy laws.

The Chicago Sun-Times printed a revealing article on January 13 that analyzes the growing phenomenon of web-based phone brokers. Top political blogger John Aravosis of AMERICAblog purchased the cell phone records of former 2004 Democratic primary candidate General Wesley Clark. Aravois sought to demonstrate the growing privacy concerns Clark responded to Aravois's muckraking, saying in an interview with the Sun Times that legal remedies are needed to stop companies from selling telephone records. The article further reports that California and New York are the first states to begin considering legislation to combat the loophole in state privacy laws that is allowing this to take place.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 20, 2005

Stranded New Yorkers Turn to the Web

To cope with the big apple's transit strike, New Yorkers are turning to the Internet to arrange rides.

In yet another example of how powerful and useful the Web can be in times of crisis, New Yorkers are turning to the Internet not only to get more information about the strike and the city's contingency plans, but also to arrange rides.

In anticipation of the strike, people all week have been posting on Craigslist, either looking for rides in and around Manhattan or seeking passengers, because the city is requiring vehicles entering Manhattan below 96th Street to carry at least four people. By late Thursday afternoon, pages were filling up with requests and pleas for help.

http://news.com.com/Stranded+New+Yorkers+turn+to+the+Web/2100-1038_3-5997254.html?tag=cd.hed

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 16, 2005

Jib Jab's Latest Jab

The brothers at Jib Jab are back at it, recently releasing their latest jab called "2-0-5."

View the film at : http://www.jibjab.com/Home.aspx

Or read the full story: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5997129.html

Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

Iranian Hezbollah Goes Blogging

Iranian Hezbollah blogs, mostly pro Islamic Republic, are active, diverse and more and more organized. In a Global Voices online blog entry, the author takes a look at some of these blogs to better understand what they are about.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 07, 2005

Internet Forum Attracts Hong Kong Protesters

Some members of an online forum in Hong Kong, used the forum to coordinate their participation in Sunday's democracy march.

The website -- Discuss.com.hk -- claims to be politically neutral but one of its chat room threads posted early this month encourages people to march for universal suffrage. Dickson Cheung Hon-yin, who posted the thread, said the public had the responsibility to fight for full democracy in Hong Kong.

More than 100 people have responded to his invitation to march as a group on December 4 since his message was posted on November 5. He said members of the forum had exchanged contacts in order to plan their participation in Sunday's march.

HONG KONG: Internet Forum Attracts Marchers

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=34348

Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2005

Blog Row on Capitol Hill

Today, for the first time, 10 bloggers were invited to meet directly with Republican House Members and blog from the Capitol.  

For the first time ever, 10 bloggers were invited to meet directly with House Members and blog from the Capitol.  "Members will be stopping in throughout the day to meet with bloggers and discuss the House Republican record of successful economic policies, their commitment to fiscal responsibility, and the details of the historic proposed budget amendment that is expected to reach the floor later this week."

Read the blog reports from Capitol Hill:  

www.blog.nam.org

www.redstate.org

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

Daily ePolitics Buzz Brief: Engaging Citizens

See how citizens around the world are getting involved in Government and Media.

Citizen Participation in the United States

Online Forum Gives Civil Servants a Voice

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32499&dcn=e_gvet

Media Dips Toes in Citizen Journalism

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=93328&ran=143806

Citizen Participation Around the World

The Swiss Perspective on Politics Revealed Online

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=106&sid=6156776&cKey=1129117850000

BBC Ponders Role of User-Generated News

http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/1334

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

Earthquake Help Blog

The folks who brought us the Tsunami and Katrina help blogs have remobilized to aid in the South Asian Earthquake.

News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts after the South Asia Earthquake of October 8th, 2005.

http://quakehelp.blogspot.com/

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Planning Ahead for Hurricane Rita

The folks who brought us the Katrina PeopleFinder project are one step ahead of Hurricane Rita -- they have begun compiling web-based resources that can be deployed to assist those affected by Rita.

Visit the Hurricane Rita help wiki at: http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Hurricane_Rita

Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 20, 2005

Grassroots Activism Gets Organized

Who should online grassroots activists support in the 2006 elections?  Tell Democracy for America who you think the next All-Star grassroots candidate should be.

This week, Democracy for America is hosting an online instant run-off vote to determine which Congressional candidate will receive our first DFA-List endorsement of 2006.

Last week, we held the first round of voting, narrowing the field of 60 Congressional candidates down to 10. This week, we are holding an Instant Run-off Vote to determine the winner.

Results are updated hourly and can be seen at BlogForAmerica.com. Voting closes on Saturday, September 24 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

Vote Here: http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/housevote/

Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

Search Engines Set Out to Find Missing Persons

Don't know where to begin your search for a Hurricane Katrina survivor? Two companies have built specialized search engines to scour the scores of online missing person bulletin boards.

Scores of bulletin boards aimed at finding missing persons have popped up on the Internet since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and two companies have built specialized search engines to help scour them.

Lycos, the 10-year-old search company based in Waltham, Mass., searches at least 20 bulletin boards and missing persons Web sites every four hours to capture data for its service (lycos.com/katrina), while Yahoo retrieves information every hour from 15 large sites and many smaller ones for its engine (news.yahoo.com/katrinahelp).

Engineers for Lycos said they started the site Aug. 31 after noticing the proliferation of places for posting such information. Users initially had to go to each site and conduct a separate search, said Steve Quince, a director of engineering for Lycos. "We're not so much trying to solve the fragmentation as we are trying to accommodate it," he said.

Both search engines comb the Family News Network of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Nola .com (the Web site affiliated with The Times-Picayune, a New Orleans newspaper), Craigslist and the Katrina Safe List by the Cable News Network. Yahoo also scours its own bulletin boards dedicated to cities affected by the hurricane, universities and relief centers.

The online boards started with desperate posts for rescues and medicine drops. But they continue to be inundated with queries from people trying to reconnect with family members - and pets - after being evacuated to other cities.

"This is not just about finding the missing or deceased," Mr. Quince said. "It's about families trying to figure out where their families went."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/technology/12lycos.html

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 03, 2005

Housing Classifieds for Hurricane Victims

The folks at  MoveOn.org, better known for its left-leaning politics, established a unique Web page, HurricaneHousing.org, which is seeking to match those willing to house the thousands of displaced victims with those victims.

"The folks at MoveOn.org, better known for its left-leaning politics, established a unique Web page, HurricaneHousing.org, which is seeking to match those willing to house the thousands of displaced victims with those victims.

While success is not likely to come until victims or their families are able to gain Internet access, postings for available homes, apartments and duplexes are soaring and, as of Friday night, some 77,000 locations throughout the country were listed for victims to choose from."

With the vast number of entries from those eager to help out, offers from Wisconsin try to soften the blow of potentially cold Wisconsin winters by saying,  "It is cold in Wisconsin in the winter," they said, "but the house is warm and cozy." A Green Bay family offering a home for use was more obtuse. "Our winters are actually warmer than you think," they said in their offer.

http://www.madison.com/tct/home/photo/index.php?ntid=52859&ntpid=0

Posted by Buzz Webster at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 01, 2005

Online Lost and Found for Hurricane Evacuees

From rescue pleas to an online lost and found to reunite displaced people with worried relatives, people are turning to the internet for help in Katrina's aftermath.

The age-old tools when searching for a missing loved one, a flier and Scotch tape, would seem to be useless this time, and people desperate for word from sons, daughters, parents or friends are turning to a different kind of lamppost.

"I really need to find my Dad," read a posting on Craigslist.com, a Web site better known as a place to buy or sell or rent, or look for love. The "lost and found" link for the New Orleans Craigslist, normally little used, was flooded yesterday with what is becoming the Hurricane Katrina version of an old-fashioned missing poster.

"I think some of them are being read," said Ava Dezara, 31, who posted the note looking for her father. "There's so many of them, I really don't know." A native of the devastated Ninth Ward of New Orleans, she lives in Reno, Nev., and has not heard from her father, who still lives in the neighborhood.

"I've heard from my sister. Neither she nor I have heard from my dad," she said by telephone yesterday as she scrolled down the growing Craigslist page. "Oh, my goodness, there's tons of them."

Under the heading "Submit Your Own Stories" on the Times-Picayune newspaper's Web site, www.nola.com, were similar messages, reminiscent of the missing posters that fluttered in New York City after the Sept. 11 attacks and throughout Indonesia after the tsunami last year.

But in addition, the newspaper created another category: People Needing Rescue. Dozens of people have posted notices begging the authorities to rescue their relatives from attics or buildings where they are believed to be trapped.

"Please help," one read. "About 400-500 people are gathered at the church on 5069 Willowbrook Drive, 70129 ZIP and are waiting for help. They have no food and water is rising. Please help."

The author, Trang Nguyen, 28, posted the note from Arlington, Tex., yesterday afternoon, and said a few hours later that she had not heard any good news yet. "They're still there," said Ms. Nguyen, whose parents know people from the church. "They've been swimming around, gathering each other in the church area." She said she tried to call the authorities, but could not get through and so turned to the Internet. "That was the only way."

In Indianapolis, Angelnet Johnson, 33, a New Orleans native, said she believed she had better luck getting help for her brother at his home on South Galvez Street. She posted a note yesterday morning on Craigslist, and when she spoke again to her brother, whose phone was working, he told her that help was on the way, she said.

"And when I called back two hours later, it just rang," she said. "I think it must have helped. I just was hoping. I figured if I left it at a news station, that some reporter or somebody would forward it to the search and rescue people."

There is no way to tell if the postings are working, short of anecdotes.

Alex Kehr started a new Web site yesterday devoted to posts for the missing, findkatrina.com. By yesterday evening, the site had almost 500 postings, many with thumbnail pictures of the missing. "I am actually about to start programming a part of the site that allows people to post their success stories," the site's creator wrote in an e-mail message yesterday. "So far I have not heard any stories of people finding loved ones because of Find Katrina. That might be because the site opened today, though."

At Craigslist, some links normally devoted to romantic, personals-ad-style connections, like men and women looking for someone they met in a bar or locked eyes with on a subway, also carried notices for the missing. Other links, like the more-risqué "casual encounters," included two postings yesterday from men apparently looking to turn the hurricane into an opportunity for a date.

"I will give you free shelter in New York and pay for you to get here," said a man identifying himself only as a 25-year-old on Long Island. "I will help you get back on your feet. You can come stay with me if you are a young attractive female that has just lost everything in the hurricane. I live on Long Island and I am willing to open my home to you."

Perhaps less than altruistically, he added, "Please send pic."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01postings.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 18, 2005

Outlines Of A New Politics

Don't tell the folks in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the first primary in the 2008 presidential nomination race might occur on July 19, 2007, officially named "Blogosphere Day" by online activists. Call it the Netroots Primary. How influential will this unofficial preview of candidates' popularity be?

Don't tell the folks in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the first primary in the 2008 presidential nomination race might occur on July 19, 2007. Call it the Netroots Primary. July 19 has become "Blogosphere Day" for progressive online activists. In 2004, these partisans turned their attention to unknown Democratic congressional candidate Virginia "Ginny" Schrader, who was running in an impossibly Republican district. Two days later her campaign was $30,000 richer. (She lost.) This year, Paul Hackett, the underdog Democrat in an Ohio special election, benefited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. (He lost.) If the netroots can flex like that in an off-off-year losing House race, what'll they do for the big race? "It'll be interesting to see Blogosphere Day in 2007," said Chris Bowers, a co-founder of MyDD.com. "It'll be interesting to see who gets the most." He added: "The candidate that will raise the most is the one that doesn't look at the blogosphere and the netroots as just another ATM machine." The experiences of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and now Hackett add up to dollar signs in politicos' eyes. But netroot activists have a grander view of their role. "Real political power and influence is now being wielded through online communities comprising millions of people," Bowers and Matthew Stoller wrote last week in a New Politics Institute report. "And trends suggest that this is only the beginning. Indeed, what we have seen to date are the outlines of a new politics." Online activists say that fundraising comes last, after organizing and message. "If you look at the Hackett stuff, some of the best work came in the form of the message machine," said Markos Moulitsas of dailykos.com, citing blogs that either drove stories or fact-checked GOP attacks. Many old-time operatives, perhaps wondering if the political dot-com bubble is as real as the financial one, remain less interested in new politics than in new dollars. "It seems that campaigns have learned the wrong lesson about the Hackett surprise, with a bunch of campaigns asking to (1) meet with me, and (2) help them raise money," Moulitsas posted last week. "That's a double insult. First of all, I'm not a gatekeeper. I don't decide who is 'in' and who is 'out.' All these campaigns profess love for the netroots, yet none of them seem to be doing anything more to 'reach out' to the netroots than sending me an e-mail." Bowers and Stoller made a number of outreach recommendations that range from commonsensical (hire a "Netroots Coordinator" whose job involves more than online fundraising) to the have-it-both-ways fudging that leaves old-school politicos and media either befuddled or bemused. ("It is important to remember at all times that bloggers are both campaign activists and a sort of journalist ... Treat bloggers like friends and allies, but also realize you are on the record.") And most importantly, stand up. "Our demands are fairly innocuous," Moulitsas told a New Politics Institute conference recently. "We don't care about ideology, we care that you stand together as a Democrat and don't run from the party and don't run scared." Does stout Democratic partisanship automatically mean hard-core liberalism? While conventional wisdom holds that netroot heat requires left-wing passion, Moulitsas pointed to candidates like Stephanie Herseth ("She was running a Republican-lite campaign") as evidence that they'll support any Democrat. "We're diluting the effect of a lot of the single-issue voters and single-issue groups," he said. "It doesn't matter what you believe in, what cause you think is important because if we don't have power your cause suffers." That's fine for House and Senate contests, but the presidency is a different animal - that's not about regaining a majority, it's about the whole leadership enchilada. Time will tell whether pragmatism or ideology triumphs on that level. Whatever the outcome, the campaign has already begun online, where Moulitsas takes monthly, 10,000-respondent straw polls to gauge the netroots. The 2008 election is "going to be ground zero for the activist base to find, choose and promote their favorite candidate," he said. Which brings us back to Blogosphere Day. We used to talk about the "money primary" as the first test of political credibility. But that was when fundraising was a slog to amass enough cash to endure the primaries. Now ephemeral momentum can quickly produce cash (and vice versa). Whichever Democrat gets the biggest funding bump on July 19, 2007, will have passed the new first test and be the frontrunner.

http://www.dcexaminer.com/articles/2005/08/16/opinion/politics/77politics16schlesinger.txt

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

The Crawford Update

Wonder what it would be like to sit  Camp Casey along with Cindy Sheehan as she stages her protest? This blog, updated hourly, keeps viewers posted on the conditions and developments at Camp Casey.

With all the talk about Cindy Sheehan's sit-in circulating on the blogosphere, why not let the event have its own blog? The Crawford update, a  blog updated hourly, keeps viewers posted on the conditions at Camp Casey where Cindy Sheehan is basing her sit-in. It is also a gathering place for links and interviews on Cindy Sheehan's protest. Check out this latest development in the Cindy Sheehan campaign at:

http://crawfordupdate.blogspot.com/

Posted by Buzz Webster at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 15, 2005

Cindy Sheenan: Without Internet, U.S. Would Be a “Fascist State”

The Crawford protester talks with her blog supporters.

Cindy Sheehan, the woman whose soldier son was killed in Iraq and who is now camping by a road in Crawford, Texas demanding a meeting with President Bush, on Wednesday thanked a group of antiwar bloggers for supporting her, saying that without the Internet, America would be a "fascist state."

This is something that can't be ignored," Sheehan said during a conference call with bloggers representing sites like democrats.com, codepink4peace.org, and crooksandliars.com. "They can't ignore us, and they can't put us down. Thank God for the Internet, or we wouldn't know anything, and we would already be a fascist state."

"Our government is run by one party, every level," Sheehan continued, "and the mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government." Sheehan also called the 2004 presidential election "the election, quote-unquote, that happened in November."

The conference call was moderated by Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who managed former Vermont governor Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2003 and 2004. It was also organized by another Democratic strategist, Bob Fertik of democrats.com. (During the conference, Fertik said that for the purposes of the call, he was representing yet another website, the antiwar site afterdowningstreet.com.) Finally, Jodie Evans of the anti-war group Code Pink also took part in running the sometimes-chaotic call. Trippi has posted a recording of the call on his own website, joetrippi.com

Also taking part in the call was Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a frequent participant in progressive political conferences and anti-war events. Schakowsky took part in an unofficial Democratic hearing on the Downing Street Memo conducted last June in Washington. Sheehan testified at that hearing, giving a painful and moving account of seeing her son in his coffin.

On the call, Sheehan complained that she was suffering from a sore throat and a fever after being doused by thunderstorms. But she vowed to stay in Texas. There are only three things that would prompt her to leave, she said: "a good meeting with the president, the end of August, or I get arrested."

http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200508111811.asp

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 10, 2005

Why Rove Must Kill The Internet

A Rove conspiracy theory?

Conspiracy theories are the hors d'oeuvres for small minds. You could ask Howard Dean, the Rev. Jesse Jackson or even Oliver Stone (if you knew his e-mail address). The usual cause of evil in the world, as Dean Rusk famously explained to John F. Kennedy, is that at any given time half the people in the world are awake.
    Nevertheless, sometimes. ...
    Why, for example, are we seeing a spike in the number of new studies purporting to show that nobody much reads Internet Web logs -- or "blogs" -- except the people who write them? Why are dark and sinister forces trying to persuade us that "blogs" are merely the work of unemployed geeks in pajamas (or worse, geeks in their BVDs), sitting around the house with nothing better to do than let fly into the cosmos half-baked opinions on everything they don't know anything about, which is a lot? Could this be the work of Karl Rove, who is trying to prevent the exposure of his nefarious deeds by public-spirited bloggers, who are (just ask any of them) the last barrier between us and ruin?
    Blogdom is big. This frightens evil-doers. The Blogosphere is so big, in fact, that it has even been noticed by the editorial page of the New York Times. By the estimate of Technorati, a Web site that keeps up with such things, there are already 14.2 million blogs, and 900,000 postings are put up every day. All but 11 of them are dedicated to exposing Karl Rove. (The other 11 are dedicated to outing Robert Novak as the outer of Valerie Plame, who baked the infamous yellow cake and blamed the indigestion on her husband.) By other estimates every person in America will have his/her own blog by Halloween, and some of us will have two, having accepted the invitation to "take two, and butter 'em while they're hot."
    So you can see why Mr. Rove is desperate to drop the big one on blogdom. Some of us, in fact, expected this to happen on Aug. 6 -- last Saturday -- since that was the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima's claim to fame. Not all coincidences are coincidental.
    One of the most effective of the Rove exposure blogs is written by one Greg Gutfeld on huffingtonpost.com, which is Arianna Huffington's summer-camp project this year. It's Gutfeld scoops like this one that, abetted by the heat of August, are driving the White House nuts:
    "Right from day one, Karl Rove cemented his link with the religious right, by being born on Dec. 25, 1950, a day many on the right refer to as 'Christmas,' a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (an influential leader worshipped by the religious right). It was no surprise that Dec. 25, 1950 was ALSO the EXACT day Communist forces recrossed the 38th parallel into South Korea. Clearly, Rove was making an [early] impact."
    Mr. Gutfeld follows Karl Rove's life closely, noting what less observant observers would dismiss as trivial coincidences. Wars happened. Rivers flooded. People died. Why? River Phoenix, the actor, died on Halloween. "Where did he die? You guessed it: Los Angeles. The VERY same Los Angeles that Rove had visited ON A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS." And what wonderful advocates for gay "marriage" Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche would have been if Miss Heche had not gone straight: "Only one person on the planet could have orchestrated this sequence of events."
    Sometimes the man once described as George W.'s brain was "conspicuous by his deliberate inconspicuousness." Proof: "In 1979, he did some work on George H.W. Bush's 1980 vice presidential bid. During Rove's involvement [in this campaign], there were EIGHT major plane crashes, including a Western Air Lines DC-10, which collided with a Dumpster truck, killing 72 people in Mexico City at Benito Juarez Airport. One can only wonder what Rove was having for lunch. A burrito? A sizzling plate of fajitas?" His fondness for Mexican food, after all, is well-known.
    The evidence of the Rove finger in assorted frijoles becomes irrefutable. Soon after Mr. Rove joined George W.'s gubernatorial campaign in Texas in 1993, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died. "Rove probably did a little Pirouette," writes our blogging scoopmeister, "not unlike something Rudolf Nureyev might have done, if he also had not died that year. Rove had already been [at work for George W.] for a year, and already a black and a Russian had died. Rove's favorite drink? You guessed it: a Black Russian."
    We could go on, and Mr. Gutman, in fact, does. But by now it's clear that Democrats and their allies are desperate to destroy Karl Rove -- and why Mr. Rove is desperate to stop them, even if he has to destroy the blogosphere to do it.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

Posted by Buzz Webster at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 15, 2005

Call To Oust Rove Hits The Net

As the controversy over Bush advisor Karl Rove heats up, activists have gone online to vent their opinions and rally supporters to action.

 

Several websites have emerged urging Rove's removal, including www.Rovespinkslip.com where users can write personalized "pink slips" to Rove. So far over 15,000 slips had already been filled out.

Howard Dean, veteran of internet outreach, discussed Rove in a conversation with bloggers and journalists Wednesday evening. The call, hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, marked a new strategy by the Committee to increase outreach to online media. In the blogosphere, the debate over Rove has received attention from both the left and the right on sites like RedState.org and The Daily Kos.

Users have been responding to posts about Rove in huge numbers, and the attention seems to have taken a toll on the Bush administration. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll earlier this month showed decreasing faith in the president's personal credibility. The percentage of Americans who believe Bush is ``honest and straightforward'' fell to 41 percent from 50 percent in January.

Call To Oust Rove Spawns Web site

In Call With Bloggers, Online Media, Dean Raises Rove, Ethics

Karl Rove, The New York Times, And The Fifth "Why"

Poll Suggests Drop In Bush's Personal Credibility

Posted by Buzz Webster at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 28, 2005

New Draft Biden Website?

It appears the campaign for Biden'08 has launched.

Here’s an email I was forwarded from Jim Kiss:

I'm joining several colleagues to help Senator Joe Biden gain support for his now forming Political Action Committee ( PAC),Unite Our States(www.UniteOurStates.com), The PAC is designed to support leaders who will help secure a burgeoning middle class while particularly promoting a foreign policy emphasizing a clear,positive,unambiguous defense,intelligence,security,military alternative to the failings and failures of the current administration and based on the belief that American military power is important,but,so too is the power of America's example.This PAC shows great promise to be a significant effort to help elect and re-elect candidates and leaders who deeply believe we need to unite the "red" and "blue" states so that America's leadership can address the profound challenges facing our nation at home and abroad.    You should know that this PAC is not authorized by any candidate or any candidate's committee and does not represent an endorsement of anyone's future intentions…

Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 24, 2005

Person Of The Week - Michael Turk

Michael Turk, eCampaign Director of the Republican National Committee, is Person of the Week for giving PoliticsOnline the inside scoop on the RNC’s latest online activities.

Turk along with Katie Harbath briefed us on the new and improved GOP website and other online activities set to launch in a few weeks.



Some of the new online features will include:

- Combining GOP.com and GOPTeamLeader.com into one website

- Increased focus on online advertising through niche marketing

- Online voter registration drives connected to offline efforts

- More opportunities for candidates to interact with supporters



Realizing that many supporters do most of their work for the RNC on the ground, they hope to empower every offline activity with accompanying online resources.



Turk is a veteran in the online world, and previously served as eCampaign Director for the Bush-Cheney’04 campaign. 



Since Ken Mehlman took the post of Chairman of the RNC, online activities have gone from being a piece of campaigns to the very infrastructure of all operations. So much so, that Mehlman made the decision to elevate eCampaigns to a senior staff position



Turk like Mehlman, believes that there is nobody better to spread the agenda for the party and the President than the individual activists. The goal the new website will be to keep supporters engaged and give them all the information they need to be effective.



Voter registration is a big part of this coming campaign season for the RNC, and will be a test on the effectiveness of the new online activities.



One of the ways the RNC will try to register new voters is through online advertising. Turk admits it’s a challenge to breakthrough to people who are exposed from anywhere to 3,000-5,000 messages a day stating, “People don’t go for generic messages anymore.” He believes the best way to reach new supporters is through online niche marketing. Turk recalled how niche marketing worked well during the ’04 campaign season when the Bush campaign targeted moms online with ad by the First Lady Barbara Bush. Not to mention that last year Yahoo and Google combined had more ad revenues than the three networks



Turk is also working to unite Republican communities online. He doesn’t believe that Meetup is an effective model for people who don’t spend that much time online, and said the RNC will try other methods.



Turk also had some thoughts on why Democrats seem to be better at building communities online. Many Progressives view blogs and other online communities as the place where they can go to talk about issue. This is their chosen avenue where they can interact. However, Republicans have had talk radio for years and continue to use this as their focal point because its still effective. Conservatives use talk radio to engage in the debate, democrats use comments on blogs.



Turk also emphasized that Republicans can build effective online communities, but the communities tend to be smaller and more spread out, which why he’s so excited about the website features at GOP.com -- because it will allow for the first time, the ability for these small communities to connect.



Thank you Michael Turk for the time spent with PoliticsOnline.

Visit GOP.com: http://www.gop.com/

Posted by Buzz Webster at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 10, 2005

Ground Zero For Tom Delay

Over 500 reason's to view this website if you don't like Delay.

Not sure where I got this info, but just passing it along:

Houston-based website, GroundZeroforTomDelay.com, offers over 500 articles that detail DeLay's many ethical issues, his failure to represent the Houston area in Congress, and the mobilization of Houston area voters against Tom DeLay.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 06, 2005

Downing Street Memo

The "nobody died when Clinton lied" crowd is using cyberspace and some new evidence to strike a blow at President Bush.

I recently received an email from the one of the most "active" online activsits on the left - David Swanson. His latest project After Downing Street is causing quite a stir.

Swanson noted that they put the site up less than two weeks ago and within a few days it was consistently hitting over 1 million hits and 10,000 visits per day. C-Span's Washington Journal today covered this as a "blogging phenomenon."

There's also an alliance of bloggers backing the efforts.

Also see the links below if you have no idea what the Downing Street Memo is all about:

Inspired By Kos Dairy, Bloggers Take On U.S. Over 2002 Iraq Planning Memo (Raw Story) In response to U.S. media silence surrounding the official minutes of a pre-war meeting leaked on the eve of the recent British elections, a foursome created a website referencing the memo written in the heart of British government, 10 Downing Street. (May  24, 2005)

'Downing Street Memo' Web Campaign For Coverage (NBC11.com) Some things that happen in Britain we hear about, some things we don't. (May  23, 2005)

The Blog From The Heart Of Downing St (BBC) Events at the centre of government could become clearer for the public with the launch of an independent website which aims to let people inspect exactly what Downing Street has said. (March  2, 2004)

 

Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 20, 2005

Blogging The Election... Iran's, That Is

Jeff Jarvis highlights blogging the election... Iran's, that is

Hossein Derkhshan and others have started a very impressive blog to cover the upcoming Iranian election at Iranscan.net, in cooperation with Open Democracy. Hoder is also working on a new and attractive Persian news site called Rooz.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

Online Attack Ad Stirs Controversy

In case you didn't know - Story of the Week

An online ad debuting on the conservative magazine website The American Spectator turned heads this week, stirring memories of the brouhaha caused by Swift Boat Vet's ads during the 2004 elections.

Outraged erupted early Monday morning when USA Next, calling itself a conservative alternative to AARP, ran an online ad titled "The REAL AARP Agenda," containing two photos-- one of a soldier, covered by a red X mark, and the other of a man kissing his male spouse, covered with a green check mark. The ad was picked up by several bloggers and circulated the Web before appearing on television news reports. It was later learned that USA Next hired some of the same consultants who worked on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's campaign to create the AARP online ad. Responding to the negative attention, USA Next pulled the ad. 

The attack on the AARP overshadowed the associations own attempt at online advocacy this week, with the launch of a new national website designed to help consumers and physicians with information about which prescription drugs work best.  The website, www.aarp.org/ResearchRx, allows consumers to better understand the relative effectiveness, safety and affordability of prescription drugs.

More:

Anti-gay Internet Ad Takes Aim At AARP
Attack On AARP Starts With The Dirtiest Of Politics
Flare-Ups in Battle Over Bush's Social Security Plan

Posted by Buzz Webster at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 24, 2005

Condi Vs Hillary In 2008

The buzz is already reverberating throughout the web.

Both AmericansForRice.com and Hillary.org have started ramping up for the battle.

And you thought the election just ended.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

Inauguration Protest Yields Results

Remember the Not One Damn Dime effort on Inauguration Day to protest, "with those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending?"

Well, here are the results:

A new Bentley College survey conducted by Dr. Christine Williams, Dr. Bruce Weinberg and Jesse Gordon of participants in a survey about the NotOneDamnDime protest on Inauguration Day January 20 has been released.   The 1276 respondents reported their total normal spending for that day would have been $59,729, or $46.81 on average; their reported actual spending total was $8,035.16, or $6.30 on average. The total amount withheld (normal - actual) was $51,693.84, or $40.51 on average. The total number to whom respondents passed along info about NotOneDamnDime was 27,170 or on average 21.3 people, and the  total number of folks they personally knew who participated was 45,899, or an average of 36 people.  63.5% found out about the NODD protest by e-mail and e-mail is the way 56.9% of them in turn told others about NODD, twice the percentage who told others in a face to face conversation.  Results illustrate the power of viral marketing and the potential in online grassroots political organizing.

Thank you Professor Christine B. Williams at Bentley College for passing on this information. And by the way, there's a part II to the boycott.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 28, 2005

Killing Me Softly With His Blog

Typing my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his blog,
Killing me softly with his words,
Killing me softly with his blog.

- If only Roberta Flack lived in Blogistan

It's SuperBlog Sunday in Iraq this weekend, and as expected it's upcoming election has been the hottest topic in the Political Blogoshpere all week. Although much of the online debate has hovered around the expected voter turnout, a heated dispute between to popular bloggers has also attracted a good deal of attention.

The quarrel began Wednesday when bloggers Eric Alterman and Jeff Jarvis met on MSNBC to talk about the Iraqi elections and blogs.  While on the show, Alterman suggested that two Iraqi bloggers might have CIA ties. Jarvis took great offense to the comment, citing Alterman's inability to provide any facts as "amoral" and "rumormongering." The row carried over onto their respective blogs where other bloggers picked up on the debate, spreading the arguement to main pages everywhere.

Jarvis On Alterman

Alterman On Jarvis

PoliticsOnline published a Special Report Wednesday on the Iraq Elections and the Internet. We highly recommend reading it. We'll also be monitoring Iraqi blogs on Sunday, and some more than others, such as Friends of Democracy and Iraq Dispatches.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 20, 2005

Digital Defiance - Inauguration To Be A Mob Scene

Internet Guru Andy Carvin has created a "mobcasting" blog for protesters planning to attend this week's Presidential inauguration in DC. His personal experiment in podcasting and mobile blogging can be found at http://bushprotest.blogspot.com.

From Carvin:

The site is set up so that anyone attending the protest can call a number on their telephone, leave a message and have it posted as an MP3 podcast on the site. For the same of experimental equity, I may set up a similar page for Bush supporters attending the event, but I haven't decided yet.

Some other digital defiance-taking place on Inauguration Day:

• RedefeatBush.com will retire the name ReDefeatBush, with the launch of Left.org, the new entity that will replace it. Creators will also debut a one-hour documentary on the counterinaugural that will have been filmed that day entitled "Left Up to Us."  The video will be shown at (Dream DC's largest nightclub) and to a worldwide audience via the Internet.
• At the "Not One Damn Dime Day" website you can join efforts "with those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending. "

Bush supporters also have a fair share of digital deference :

• Over 32,000 house parties nationwide have been organized through GOP.com's Party for the President page.
• The committee organizing US President George W. Bush's inauguration said on its official website, http://www.inaugural05.com/ , that as of Saturday over  "25.5 million dollars in gifts from private citizens and businesses had been received as of January 14. Just in the past week, 27 individuals and 45 companies gave 7.7 million dollars."
• The YRNC chose inaguration week launch itsr new website - http://www.yrnc2005.com/, marking the beginning of our aggressive campaign to promote the next Young Republican National Convention held in Las Vegas Nevada from July 6 th to July 10th.

UPDATE: Jesse Gordon, Democratic activists in Cambridge Massachusetts and creator of NotOneDamnDime.com sent us this note

On our success: The huge press response to this boycott (200 articles this week, plus several dozen TV and radio appearances by our volunteers) indicates that the mainstream press has learned their lesson from their pre-war failure. We have succeeded in making our voices heard, and people are thinking about this protest and about future policy in the Iraq war.

Our purpose is to incite a more open debate on the Iraq war issue. In 2003 we had 5 million people on the streets in one worldwide rally on Feb. 15 -- and Bush dismissed it as "a focus group." So if he won't listen to millions at rallies, we'll use economic methods instead.

The "wisdom of the streets" at the anti-war rallies before teh Iraq War was to doubt the existence of WMDs and to doubt the al Qaeda-Saddam connection. I published an article saying that, but was by no means particularly insightful -- it was common wisdom. The mainstream press ignored that viewpoint, and the country suffered as a result, rushing headlong into a pointless war based on those two false premises. The Washington Post and NY Times both apologized on their editorial pages for their poor pre-war coverage.

We were proven right then, and we feel now that the voice of the millions of anti-war protestors should be heard again. We feel we're at a tipping point in Iraq -- if we continue along the current course, it will become another Vietnam. The Bush Administration needs to hear the wisdom of the anti-war street to avoid more suffering by US troops.

-- Jesse

Thank you Jesse. We'd love to hear from the other isle, if any Bush supporters want to comment.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 08, 2004

Moore Of The Same: ePolitics Buzz Brief

We’re all over the charts today with random facts you can use to impress your net-savvy friends and family.

MerryChristmasMichaelMoore.com launches just in time, with a conservative Holiday tune (You’ll need QuickTime for the full effect).

Terminator 4 - Davis Goes Postal

First he was recalled, then he was used by Yahoo!, now he’s being drafted. It seems that Gray Davis just might be a contender for the DNC chair, or at least a new blog hopes so.

I’m from Califor.. er, uh Canada

An American t-shirt company based in New Mexico has a solution for their fellow citizens who want to holiday in Europe without having to answer questions about US politics – pose as Canadians. For $25, t-shirtking.com offers the “Go Canadian” package, full of just the kind of things an American traveler needs to leave their country and its politics behind.

Good news for political blogs

Henry Copeland, founder of an Internet company that sells advertising across hundreds of Weblogs, has told Business Week Online that business is good. BlogAds is placing ads on as many as 100 blogs a day, he told. Six months ago, he placed ads for only 10 companies on 20 blogs.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 06, 2004

Benrik Sends Message To Bin Laden

From New Ratings:

Benrik, today released a videotape they have sent to Osama Bin Laden for Christmas via Al-Jazeera. The video contains a Christmas message to Mr Bin Laden urging him to change his life with the help of the book.

"Why should Osama Bin Laden be able to send the West videotapes but not the other way round? We hope that this message of peace reaches him and that our life-changing diary helps him mend his ways in 2005," said Benrik, the authors of the anarchic book "This Diary Will Change Your Life."

The video is posted at http://www.benrik.co.uk/content/osama.asp

Notes to editor: anarchic authors Benrik interfere in world politics on a regular basis. They were behind the www.globalvote2004.org website which received over 1,000,000 visitors in November of this year, and caused a storm of protest in the US by allowing non-Americans a virtual vote in the presidential election.

Posted by Buzz Webster at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 11, 2004

Buffalo Springfield Redux

- Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound

I hear the church bells ringing outside as I write this post. That means it’s high-noon on the East Coast and a ruckus is stirring in front of White House. The folks at ReDefeatBush.com are calling on citizens to rally at LaFayette Park in front of the White House in Washington, DC Today to “protest both the suspicious and highly selective mismanagement of the 2004 election by local authorities in Florida and Ohio as well as the escalation of the war in Iraq with the massacre underway in Fallujah.”

- They police our highways, but should the government police our information superhighways too?

As the Federal Trade Commission convenes a summit this week to discuss cybersecurity issues, the Competitive Enterprise Institute today released a report urging federal regulators to allow the marketplace to develop solutions that will both address Internet security and protect online anonymity.