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Hillary Clinton Watch: Hillary Blog Ads on Center-Right Blogs
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Hillary Clinton’s Blogads on Center-Right Captain’s Quarter’s and Power Line today
Hotline: Clinton’s Ads On Conservative Websites
Lefty bloggers are raising questions about the strategy behind Hillary Clinton’s blog banner ad by – she’s on conservative websites like Townhall, Power Line and Captain’s Quarters. MyDD’s Matt Stoller wonders: “Why do people like HRC, no matter how often it becomes clear that wingnuts hate us, seek approval from wingnuts?”
Righty Bloggers, like Flap, ask the question as to why TownHall, Captain’s Quarters and Power Line would ACCEPT the ad placement?
Flap just could NOT do it.
And won’t, if offered.
Too hypocritical for me – but to each his own.
Contacted about the buy, Clinton nat’l spokesman Phil Singer tells Hotline: “We’re on some conservative sites because we’re not ceding any territory. We take nothing for granted.”
Right, more like sticking it in the eye of the RIGHT blogosphere. But, the LEFT will probably care more than the RIGHT and read more into the advertising move. The ads are “CHUMP CHANGE” in any campaign.
Now, this brings me to a topic which needs vetting here. Yesterday I missed Hugh Hewitt’s kind words about Flap’s Pro-Rudy Giuliani self-generated blog and the Giulinai Blog for which I also write.
Flap is NOT being paid by the Giuliani campaign and to this date has sold one Blog Ad to the Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee. None of my family members are compensated by Team Giuliani, the GOP or any other politician or issue committee. This Blog is self supporting and I alone control which ads will run.
Flap is pleased that Patrick has cleared the air over at Ankle Biting Pundits. Disclosure is important in all things blog-political but carping between ourselves in the center right WINGNUT blogosphere is self-defeating.
Maybe Hillary has a strategy?
You think?
Update:
Dean over at Hugh Hewitt seems to have a different take.
Sorry Dean – don’t think so – ad commissions, traffic?
How about defending Salem Communications accepting the ad in the first place?
Previous:
Hillary Clinton Watch: Out of Africa – Or Not Ready for Prime Time?
Hillary Clinton Watch: Saturday Night Live – Trouble with the Hollywood Media Left?
Hillary Clinton Watch: Clinton – I’m “IN TO WINâ€
Technorati Tags: HillaryClinton
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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Patrick Ruffini Hired For Giuliani Presidential e-Campaign
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Washington Post: Giuliani Hires E-Campaign Expert
As Dan Balz and I wrote in today’s Post, presidential candidates on both sides are focused heavily on bolstering their Internet presence through a variety of new tools, including video, podcasts and even online video chats.
To brainstorm and implement these new innovations, the campaigns are chasing after a small group of people in their 20s and early 30s versed in the language of the new media.
One of the real “gets” on the GOP side of that world is Patrick Ruffini, who served as the Web master of President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign and then served in a similar role at the Republican National Committee. Ruffini gained recognition in national Republican circles for his blog, which was one of the first serious attempts on the Republican side at building an online community.
Ruffini has signed on with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani‘s presidential campaign as an e-campaign adviser. The hiring is only the latest sign that Giuliani is serious about a run for national office in 2008.
As Flap said the first time – the Giuliani campaign is the REAL DEAL.
Stay tuned as web efforts become more readily apparent…….
Others Blogging:
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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Florida Return for Giuliani This Week
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Latest Angus Reid Poll Has Giuliani Beating Clinton 53-42
Rudy Giuliani Watch: California LIKELY To Move Presidential Primary to February 5
President 2008 Watch: Newsweek Poll – Giuliani and McCain Beating Hillary ET Al?
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Latest Post-ABC Poll Giuliani Leads
Rudy Giuliani Watch: ARG Poll – Giuliani Leads 7 of 8 States Including California
Rudy Giuliani Watch: New Hampshire Events Scheduled Next Week
Technorati Tags: RudyGiuliani
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Daily Kos Watch: Iran Has A Right To Attack Israel
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Bear Flag League Watch: The New Year’s Eve Brunch
From the Left: Little Miss Attila, Darleen Click, Cal Tech Girl, Mr. Cal Tech (partially hidden), Tammy Bruce, The Pirate, The Interocitor.
Some Bear Flag League Bloggers met yesterday for some end of the year festivities. The meeting place was The Dish in La Canada, California.
Others talking alot of USC football and politics were:
Boi From Troy, Gay Patriot West and Fox News Contributor Tammy Bruce.
The Four Grand Conservative Blogress Divas displayed their Tiaras:
We missed you Rusty……
Dr. Rusty Shackleford from The Jawa Report….
and XRLQ.
Stay tuned for more Bear Flag League social events in 2007.
Happy New Year!
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Bear Flag League Watch: BFL Hangin’ Out @ Little Miss Attila’s
Technorati Tags: BearFlagLeague
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John Kerry Watch: “Lonely” Photo a Hoax?
TPM Muckraker has some questions about the Lonely Kerry photo posted by Scott Hennen and linked by Power Line and Flap.
Tell us Scott Hennen……
Michelle Malkin answers the question here.
The photo is REAL………
Technorati Tags: JohnKerry
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Time Magazine Person of the Year Watch: Flap and All of US
In this photo released by Time, Inc., in New York, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006, the Dec. 25, 2006 “Person of the Year” issue proclaims that “You” are Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Time, citing the shift from institutions to individuals as part of the criteria for selecting their “Person of the Year,” has named anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web as their 2006 winner.
AP: Time Magazine’s Person of the Year: You
Congratulations! You are the Time magazine “Person of the Year.”
The annual honor for 2006 went to each and every one of us, as Time cited the shift from institutions to individuals – citizens of the new digital democracy, as the magazine put it. The winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web.
“If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people,” said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time’s managing editor earlier this year. “But if you choose millions of people, you don’t have to justify it to anyone.”
The magazine did cite 26 “People Who Mattered,” from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to Pope Benedict XVI to the troika of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
And Stengel said if the magazine had decided to go with an individual, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the likely choice. “It just felt to me a little off selecting him,” Stengel said.
Indeed……..The blogosphere and internet is much more significant than Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-Il.
In fact, the blogosphere and internet media may well be those dictators downfall.
Thanks Time Magazine! You finally got ONE RIGHT!
Captain Ed says Time’s Award for this year was a Suck-Up Version.
At least, however, they made a decision and selected someone. The entire point of a Person of the Year is to acknowledge that some people play larger roles in history. Naming all of us may make us feel good about our anonymity, but in the end it’s either pandering to millions of readers or a refusal to take a stand on anyone. Choosing everyone is an abdication on the entire purpose of the project.
Even Salon did better than that — but not by much. In a year of so much turmoil and such electoral drama, they selected S. R. Sidarth, the opposition researcher for James Webb that got himself notoriety by being the target of George Allen’s weird “macaca” moment. It’s a silly selection by an unserious publication, perhaps much more demonstrative of Salon than it could possibly be of 2006.
Flap thinks Ed needs to chill out. After all this is time Magazine, what do you expect – something profound? Or accurate?
Others Blogging:
Technorati Tags: TimeMagazine
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Cox & Forkum Vs. Day By Day
Cox & Forkum: Weblog Awards 2006
Like last year, we are being beaten by Chris Muir’s Day by Day. Fortunately he is a friend as well as a nemesis. We had some fun with Chris’ characters last time round (see here and here). This year we decided to employ some of his T&A tactics, but the results are mixed. In case it isn’t obvious, we grafted the head of Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei onto the body of Day by Day‘s Jan. Kind of an Ayatollah Jan. Or a Bearded Lady. At a minimum, we have the transgender Islamist votes locked up.
VS.
Go to the Weblogs 2006 Best Comic Strip site here and please vote your conscience.
All of the artists are excellent and Flap is happy to showcase their work.
Technorati Tags: Cox&Forkum, DayByDay
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Blogosphere Watch: Selling Your Blog-Soul to the Company Store
Politics as Usual (Click to zoom in on graphic)
New York Times (Via Althouse): New on the Web: Politics as UsualAfter the Virginia Democratic primary, for instance, James Webb hired two of the bloggers who had pushed to get him into the race. The Democratic Senate candidate Ned Lamont in Connecticut had at least four bloggers on his campaign team. Few of these bloggers shut down their “independent†sites after signing on with campaigns, and while most disclosed their campaign ties on their blogs, some — like Patrick Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits — did so only after being criticized by fellow bloggers.
The trend seems certain to continue in 2008. Potential presidential hopefuls like Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain already are paying big-name bloggers as consultants, and Julie Fanselow of Red State Rebels said on her blog she would entertain job offers from Howard Dean, Barack Obama, John Edwards or Al Gore.
“This intersection isn’t going away,†Jerome Armstrong of MyDD, an elite blogger hired by campaigns, wrote earlier this year, “and I hope more and more bloggers are able to work to influence how campaigns are run.â€
Here is a listing of some of the most influential bloggers who went to work for campaigns this year, what they were paid according to campaign disclosure documents, and praiseworthy posts about their employers or critical ones of their employers’ opponents.
Will it be
importantMANDATORY for Presidential campaigns to have experienced bloggers working the blogosphere for their candidates?You bet – A media expense just like an assistant press secretary and/or media advisor.
Will they be able to get a way on the cheap and whore out established independent bloggers who blog about politics?
Doubtful
There is nothing inherently wrong with hiring established bloggers to work a campaign.
But, there must be DISCLOSURE.
And for the record again, Flap pays for this blog and has received NO money from any candidate, business, product or cause.
I do run some ads and bleg for donations.
NOTE TO GOP campaigns – you MUST pay more for blog media relations.
Stay tuned…….
Technorati Tags: blogosphere
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Internet Censorship Watch: By Pass the CENSORS With PSIPHON
CBC (Via Michelle Malkin): Tool to circumvent internet censorship set to launch
Researchers at University of Toronto plan to introduce a software tool on Friday that aims to help people in countries that censor the World Wide Web.
Psiphon (pronounced sigh-fawn), a web-based utility, lets individuals in a country that censors the internet sign on to a server that gives them secure access to web pages anywhere, bypassing government restrictions.
Its creators plan to launch the software at the Protect The Net conference at the university’s Munk Centre for International Studies, where psiphon emerged as a project of Citizenlab. Researchers at the facility examine the relationship between digital media and politics around the world.
“We’re aiming at giving people access to sites like Wikipedia,” a free, user-maintained online encyclopedia, and other information and news sources, Michael Hull, psiphon’s lead engineer, told CBC News Online.
Citing countries such as China and Iran among some 40 countries that censor the internet, Hull said that the way in which access to information is cut off is troubling.
“My problem with it is that there’s no transparency. Someone is making an arbitrary decision and there is no way to appeal it, even if you feel like you’re doing nothing wrong,” he said.
A good concept but Flap is positive that China and Iran are already working on a blocking hack to this software.
Psiphon works by letting people in uncensored countries download the free software to run a secure, encrypted server or node in the private network. The server administrator would pass the connection information to friends and family in censored countries – psiphonites – who could then log in through a web browser and navigate sites without restrictions.
Totalitarian governments fail with free speech discourse and freedom of expression.
Stay tuned……..let’s see if this works.
You can download the software here.
Flap agrees with Michelle: SPREAD THE WORD.
A new Canadian software tool aims to help people in web-censoring countries like Iran, where this woman was on the internet in a cafe in Tehran in August.
Technorati Tags: Psiphon, censorship, freedomofspeech
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Mark Steyn Watch: America Alone – A FLAP Surprise
When Flap returned home this evening after a hard day of practicing dentistry (not really!) I found my new copy of Mark’s America Alone in the post.
I greatly anticipated the book’s arrival since the content followed up on a speech that Flap covered in this blog last December.
Previous posts include the following:
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Bear Flag League
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Dinner
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Reception
Mark Steyn @ The Claremont Institute Dinner: The Departure
Mark Steyn Honored at The Claremont Institute’s Sir Winston Churchill Dinner
And please note the nice headshot photo of Mark:
This is a cropped version of this photograph of Mark and Claremont Institute President and ballistic missile expert, Brian T. Kennedy:
The photo was taken in Mark’s suite at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel after his acceptance of the Winston Churchill Award. As I blogged previously he was gracious to discuss current events with a number of us, including PrestoPundit, from The Bear Flag League for hours.
So, what does this stroll down memory lane have to do with Steyn’s new book?
Look at this scan of America Alone’s back FLAP:
Look it is Flap’s photo!
I am very flattered and have written to Mark and Regnery Publishing, requesting a photo credit. Mark’s assistant, Victoria Ayrsmith, has written me back and will pursue the matter tomorrow.
In the meantime, Flap is STOKED and PUBLISHED – well sort of…….
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Technorati Tags: MarkSteyn, AmericaAlone