Starting at mid-week, DD’s semi-old “GE & Jeff” tune jumped about 700 views, making it the most popular thing I’ve done, a position formerly held by “That’s Logistics,” a spoof of UPS made after the failed al Qaeda toner cartridge bomb plot. (The latter continually benefits from people looking for the “logistics song” when UPS runs them in commercials. Paradoxically, it highlights that Google search algorithms have made an environment were simple copying and imitation become signally important. While it results in a lot of creative parodies, the main beneficiaries are people who sit in their bedrooms with webcams, brainlessly playing, singing or miming along to whatever current tune is in the charts.)
But I wandered there.
Anyway, “GE & Jeff” was boosted by a post on Crooks & Liars on General Electric, and how it’s used its clout to become a big beneficiary of bank rescue programs.
General Electric, the world’s largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government’s key rescue programs for banks.
At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.
The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.
As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. Public records show that GE Capital, the company’s massive financing arm, has issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program, which is known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, or TLGP.
“Jeff Immelt is also one of the people pushing for the Grand Bargain,” she concludes. “Isn’t that nice that someone so compassionate is looking out for us?”
Formerly, political websites on both sides had benefited from direct ad buys. Now, Google and consultants have put themselves into it as middlemen, taking a slice of the pie by mediating the advertising over unrelated sites and audiences, directed only by information found in cookies.
“Surging spending on online ads has spawned a new generation of campaign consultants, skilled in new targeting tools and less inclined to spend money on Web sites merely because they support a partisan message,” reads the WaPost.
Ads called by the reading of cookies from your browser temporary directory are the cheapest and, from my experience, least effective form of advertising.
It is rationalized thusly:
Zac Moffatt, digital director for Mitt Romney’s campaign, said most of its online ads are bought that way.“We’re not buying a site. We’re buying an audience,??? Moffatt said. “The power of the Internet is targeting.???
“This is happening from both sides of the aisle, but let me say that his excuse is absolute crap,” counters Amata at C&L. “Who do they think their audience is? It’s us, morons. Our readers and others like us are the most knowledgeable and can become great activist assets for any campaign or targeted meme so it behooves these super consultants to make sure to include our sites into their mix …”
“If you’re sick of Google and consultants taking over the world then I’d suggest in the future that all readers should make a mental note and when unions, political action committees and campaigns at the state and local levels, or whoever ask you to help out make sure to tell them to support the blogosphere or you’re not interested,” Amato concludes.
A few years ago GlobalSecurity.Org started a “revenue sharing” program with its bloggers at SITREP, of which I’m the biggest (compared with a variety of nobodies from Rand, Heritage and other places that used to be big names), using Google ads.
Google advertising returned a minimal number of views, half of which — but which were still charged — did not appear to be actual views at all.
That video is here and the ad campaign results can be visualized by clicking on the icon to the right of “view number.” This will unfold a chart of views versus time.
By clicking on “show more events” under “Key discovery” you can see where the ad campaign started — at the letter “I” — and where I ended it, where the line flattens. (It amounts to 65 views by Google’s count, only half of which actually watched for more a second. The music doesn’t actually begin until old-style second film countdown is about done.)
Half of the rise were apparent non-views counted as views. The rest of the rise, from the letter “H” to the end of line, is through views coming from embeds here (and at GlobalSecurity) and native search.
Mitt Romney is very wealthy. Good for him. He could only have achieved his amazing fortune in America, the land of opportunity. The opportunity that made Mr. Romney rich is still out there for the taking.
If you still don’t understand why it’s hysterical, time to go elsewhere. Copy editors wept.
The rest insists the only people who vote Democratic are lazy non-white “bloodsuckers” who spend what little they have on lottery tickets.
It’s beyond offensive:
[The] backbone of the Democratic Party, the ones buying the most lottery tickets, are the ones who can least afford it. Duh. If these mouth-breathers promise not to vote, the GOP should buy them a lottery ticket.
“You might want to note that there is no demonization of the wealthy from Republicans, only Democrats,” he writes.
Yes, readers have noticed Ted. The GOP, those not in the 1 percent, and he ain’t, are the finest collection of bigots and shoe-shiners the rest of the country’s probably ever seen.
The “mouth-breathers” and “bloodsuckers” spend it all on lottery tickets and liquor. Stop attacking your betters, stupid lazy drunks!
If current voter registration trends continue, both the Republican and Democratic parties may have a serious numbers problem.
Since President Barack Obama was elected in November 2008, the number of voters registered as independents or with a third party has surged in several key states, while those registered with both major parties have dropped off significantly. Among the six battleground states that provide monthly voter registration data (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania), all but the Buckeye State report more independent voters than four years ago.
Being an independent would make sense — and only theoretically — in the US if there was a way to mount a third party and candidate.
The new “independent voter” craze is fueled by people who don’t seem to realize things have actually gone downhill since the days of Ross Perot and John Anderson.
DD’s thesis advisor at Lehigh, in the elevator after lunch, in 1980: “John Anderson’s my man.”
That went well.
So when I am informed a vague acquaintance is going independent, or the linked trope — “both parties suck, being just two sides to the same coin, so I’m for neither,” it’s someone who’s a numbnuts.
There’s a clear choice now. Don’t be evil, as Pine View Farm recommends.
“[The] hemorrhaging of party affiliates in key states suggests that voters there are unsatisfied with the traditional Democratic and Republican operations,” reads the piece.
Or just a large group of people who are more stupid but who wish to stamp their feet in petty symbolic group annoyance.
[Perot] talks about his fear of the United States being taken over [in excerpts on C-SPAN].
“If we are that weak, just think of who wants to come here first and take us over, and the last thing I ever want to see is to see this country, our country taken over because we’re so financially weak we can’t do anything and we’re moving in that direct. … We could even lose our country ….
To fluoridated water, the UN’s Agenda 21, newfangled light bulbs, the homosexual agenda? There are so many things…
The Democratic Party is a party of fecklessness. Its politicians can be reliably counted on to often not show up at critical junctures, to inexplicably throw games. Last night was one such big moment.
When the Republican candidate is allowed to get away with claims that he supports education — in the age of Google and instant correction, your teeth almost fall out.
But today Mitt Romney got a good deal more specific, claiming we do not need to hire more cops or firefighters specifically, which would, he said, cut against the interests of the American people. He also specifically named teachers.
Romney made the comments in response to Obama’s presser today, at which the president claimed the “private sector is doing fine.??? Per CNN:
Romney said of Obama, “he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.???
The question arises, from today’s video up top: “Why didn’t you say that last night? Were you sick or just taking the opportunity to choke?”
There’s a lot wrong with Barack Obama as president of the United States. But the guy on the other side of the fence truly represents the forces of darkness. Romney is the spear carrier for a party that is insane.
“She Just a Girl, Eddie,” the only tune I like enough to play more than twice on the new Darkness album, Hot Cakes. Call it a descendant of the “magnificently silly love songs” the band used to do but which are now mostly absent. (Plus it’s a tune you just can’t pull off in small clubs any more than Starz could make “Cherry Baby” work live the way it was recorded in ’77. Check the YouTube tour footage for “Eddie” if ya don’t believe me. Just not quite the same thing.)
Mixed by Toronto Bob Ezrin, famous in the Seventies for giving us Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd, among a lot of other stuff, the album is C+/B- high impact but poppy hard rock.
Nine years is a span. The songwriting isn’t quite up to it, anymore, except for the excerpted tune and a ballad, “Living Each Day Blind.”
The rest is raise-your-fist-and-yell-then-flick-the-lighters-on-the-last song arena rock. It’s tight, busy and perfect sounding but not as memorable as it needs to be except for the amazing voice of Justin Hawkins. Which he works overtime, spoiled by the fact that almost all anyone will recall is that he lets out a gratuitous falsetto shriek about all the guys who wanted to suck his cock back in the day on the initial tune.
That’s a move, or glam rock tableau, good for automatic entry into the Fool’s Hall of Fame in 2012. Why didn’t Toronto Bob say to ’em, “Boys, I’m going to save ya hilarity, which you’ll be the object of, on this one, trust me,” and just bury it?
Without a miracle it won’t get to half a million copies, which is what Permission to Land did here in 2003.
Even “She’s Just a Girl, Eddie” is more complicated than it has to be. Lotsa stuff in it which could be thrown out and the horse would still trot.
Except for the Cult of Cyberwar and selected computer security companies sending out press releases.
I’ve tried to stay away from this one but the media has insisted on waging it.
The greatest denial of service attack in history — until next month or the month after — was aimed at America’s monster banks. And the worst the enemy could do?
In the past two weeks, customers of top U.S. banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co, U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services have reported having trouble accessing their websites, as unusually high traffic volumes appeared to crash or slow down the systems.
No thefts have been tied to hacked sites, but an untold number of customers were not able to pay bills or transfer money from their computers, leaving banks with remediation expenses and customer irritation as the biggest costs.
When customer irritation and trouble accessing websites are the worst things happening, it spoils the soup of previous stories which predict dire consequences for the country when the financial infrastructure is attacked in cyberspace.
Raise your hand if customer irritation accurately describes how you often feel when dealing with your giant bank.
I’m a customer of one of the banks that were targeted.
As I’ve maintained, if you polled ordinary citizens, in depth, on how they really felt about their financial institutions, you would find little regard for them.
We don’t want our financial servants protected from denial of service attacks as much as we want to be protected from the business practices of the banks.
Cyberwar against banks is a two-edged sword, one that doesn’t cut very finely or deeply. While it may be hard on the websites of financial institutions, it’s not optimum for alleged Middle East hackers because banks aren’t sympathetic entities in this country. There is no horrification at the news, perhaps a vague feeling of annoyance. At worst, for those who believe every bit of cant on cyberwar, some unease.
Big banks in this country do not inspire confidence and love in their customers. Many people hate them.
In overlooking this the attackers have probably also put a little too much in the claims from our cyberwar salesmen, specifically the assertion that America could be gravely damaged, or easily brought down by attacking its banks.
So what is resented more?
Middle East hacktivists, or Iran, making your bank’s website run slower, which you may or may not have noticed? An inconvenience?
The candidate has thoroughly incorporated the modern instantaneous connectivity of his iPad into his now-frenetic life, but he downloads only free applications, friends say. He is so rigid about this that he continued to revise his speeches through a cumbersome process of text changes in e-mails, complaining all the while — but refusing to buy Apple’s Pages word-processing program because it costs $9.99. Finally, a senior staffer told an aide to buy it and download it onto Romney’s iPad when he wasn’t around.
Some might applaud Romney’s insistence on freeware as a harbinger of a president who would rein in spending and cut waste.
But he has a car elevator.
The beatings will continue until morale improves. They won’t stop until Mitt Romney is gone in November, his only record being that of a lampoon of excessive wealth who was real, someone you never want to see anything of again.
“Mitt Romney always seems to have kept score with dollar signs,” it reads.
For example, I know of a fellow who, despite winning the birth lottery, had the gumption and smarts to create a highly successful business. After a period of becoming wealthy in his own right, he then decided to rest on his bounteous laurels and run for president.
Trouble is, he can’t relate to anyone now. He is so desperate to be liked by ordinary people that he will say any old conservative thing just to show he is one of the boys.
It is a sad spectacle because it’s such a waste of obvious talent. Instead of investing money in a Swiss bank or the Cayman Islands, he could start another business right here in America, maybe producing special harnesses that could keep dogs safe on the roof of the family car.
No one can survive it on a daily basis. Mitt Romney has won an unusual prize. He’s locked up the allegiance of Heevahava, USA.
A candidate who’s seeking to represent Nashville in Congress posted a photo of his gun and a pointed message for President Barack Obama on his campaign Facebook page …
Brad Staats, the Republican nominee challenging U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper in the 5th Congressional District election, posted the picture of the silver and black Colt 1911 semi-automatic pistol on Friday. Under it he wrote:
“Many people in Tennessee keep asking me about my opinion on Second Amendment rights. Apparently Tennesseans are part of that crazy crowd that Obama says ‘cling to (their) religion and guns.’ Well, then I must be part of that crazy crowd. Here is something that I usually have with me. Welcome to Tennessee Mr. Obama.???
The newspaper contacted the US Secret Service, which normally doesn’t have much to say about its activities protecting the President because, uh, it’s secret:
Max Milien, a spokesman for the United States Secret Service, which is responsible for the president’s security, had little to say about the post.
“We’re aware of it, and we will conduct any appropriate follow-up if necessary,??? Milien said.
After Tennessean.com wrote a story about the post Monday afternoon, Staats linked to the story from his campaign page and wrote: “So the Tennessean took one of my posts and called it a threat to Barack Obama, which was completely taken out of context. My post from Friday was regarding the fact that the UN Small Arms Treaty, passed last week will undermine our Second Amendment Rights.???
Staats’ “original Facebook post made no mention of the treaty,” reads The Tennesseean.
