What is cooler than your new bicycle? Nothing. Every phrase on the site is an example of what a cool person is:
Barack Obama took off when he heard you weren't coming
Barack Obama picked you up at the airport
Barack Obama helped you move a sofa
Barack Obama remembered your birthday
The exact opposite of cool is mom jeans.
[hit refresh once you're there]
What is less cool than your mom's jeans? Nothing. Every phrase on the site is an example of what an uncool person is:
HILLARY BLOCKED YOUR CAR IN THE DRIVEWAY
HILLARY KEEPS INTERRUPTING THE MOVIE SAYING "WHAT DID HE SAY?"
HILLARY FOLDED THE MAP WRONG
HILLARY LEFT ONE SPOONFUL IN THE ICE CREAM CARTON
These sites are user generated content so they keep getting better and better and better the more people submit. hillaryismomjeans has something like 10,000 random phrases submitted so far so you have to at least see it once (and reload it a few times...).
TUESDAY OCTOBER 16, 2007 First baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits Monday
This is the start of an avalanche of applications from the 80 million post-World War II generation born from 1946 to 1964. This lady is the first of the baby boomers, born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946. She will be eligible for benefits after she turns 62 on New Year's Day.
There is some buzz around the net about the Tonkin Gulf phantom attack. I hate to admit but I had never even heard of this before. Here is some basic summary of it from NPR.org:
On Sunday Aug. 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the American destroyer the USS Maddox in Southeast Asia's Gulf of Tonkin.
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara told President Lyndon B. Johnson that a covert strike against North Vietnam two days earlier likely provoked the attack upon the Maddox.
Left, an oil painting depicting the attack.
Right, the three attacking North Vietnamese torpedo boats, as seen from the Maddox.
The U.S. destroyer damaged two of the boats and sank the third. Retaliation by the Americans was limited to attacking those boats that day. The Maddox and another destroyer, the Turner Joy, were then deliberately positioned to draw a second attack.
Two days later, on Aug. 4, McNamara, left, reported to Johnson that an American destroyer in the region was under torpedo attack by the North Vietnamese. That brief conversation was the tipping point for the entire Vietnam War.
Johnson ordered American forces to openly attack the North, and he asked Congress to pass a resolution pre-approving any military actions the president would take.
Johnson on Aug. 4, 1964, announcing that the U.S. will retaliate against North Vietnam for two attacks on American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Later, Johnson and others would learn the second attack, which propelled the president and Congress to enter the Vietnam War, never happened.
So if I get this right:
A United States covert strike against North Vietnam by an American Destroyer ship (the Maddox) provokes 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats to attack back at the Maddox.
During their attack, the Maddox completely sinks one and damages the other two NV torpedo boats and never even gets hit.
Then the Maddox, as well as another American destroyer (the Turner Joy) are deliberately positioned to draw a second attack
The Defense Secretary (assuming that those two ships would be attacked) tells the President that they were under torpedo attack by the North Vietnamese.
Johnson orders American forces to attack North Vietnam
(and gets Congress to pre-approve further military actions)
America assumes that this is a retaliation so the Vietnam war begins - but it turns out that the second attack never even happened and the first attack was provoked...
But that is what justified the beginning of the Vietnam War?
A side by side comparison of Republican candidates and things they are against. Obviously made by a Ron Paul supporter, is it over simplified? I think it's well done
If a Big Mac costs $3.41 in the United States, how much are they in the rest of the world? The most inexpensive = China $1.45. Most expensive = Switzerland $5.20.
This was by far the the best debate this year. All candidates had an equal chance to answer each question - one minute each per question at the start; 30 seconds each towards the end. Much less moderator involvement. Nice job PBS
The transcript of tonight's PBS Democratic primary debates broken out by individual candidate:
Three interesting things of note:
-The general evasiveness was much higher than the last time they got together
-Hillary won the reviled DC Shuffle award a second time in a row
-They all got equal air time because Tavis did a great job
To the rest of the candidates without RSS: One would think that Internet literacy would be a pre-requisite for a Presidential campaign staffer to build your website - guess not - good luck convincing others of your ability to lead the country with the obvious knack you have for picking the right person for the job: Welcome to the Internet.
So I'm in the process of building a page for each of the candidates and thought it would be nice to have their latest official campaign blog post included. So after a bit of coding, I added a little box at the top of each candidate's page that links directly to their blog's most recent post - slick! I'm trying to be cool about it and link to every single candidate and I picked Rudy's candidate page here as a test to double check my mad programming skillz:
So I double check that the link to his latest blog post works. It says Weekly Wrap - Why Rudy and has a URL that looks like this: ( http://www.joinrudy2008.com/index.php?section=6&id=126 ). I click on it but then get completely redirected away to some huge sign up splash page that fills the screen (this one is shrunk way down):
What's this? That's not the article - How do I get out of this and to the article?
Oh I found it - There is only one way out without giving up an email address: so I click on ">> Skip to Main Site"
Then what happens - you guessed it, I did skip to the MAIN SITE ( http://www.joinrudy2008.com/index.php ) - THE MAIN SITE - not to the article I wanted ( http://www.joinrudy2008.com/index.php?section=6&id=126 ).
All kinds of stuff to click on his homepage, fiscal discipline - that looks interesting. Hey wait, why am I on Rudy's webpage again? What was that headline I clicked on again? Wasn't there something that I wanted to read about? - Oh well, I'm already here - might as well click on that polished picture of Rudy maybe - or hold it, look - a shiny red button what does that do I wonder?
Giuliani's website redirects their visitors to a splash page and then forces them from there to Giuliani's homepage. Not caring where the visitor was even going on the site, not caring what even brought the visitor there! This is how ecommerce webmasters increase their conversion numbers in the SHORT TERM because they don't give a shiat if the visitors ever return again - just force each web visitor onto the mailing list and then email blast them until they buy something or get so mad they opt-out. Yikes Rudy!
Not sure what I'm talking about? Go try it: See if you can read their recent article titled Mayor Curt Pringle: Why I Am Supporting Rudy Giuliani for President - Notice the URL for it: http://www.joinrudy2008.com/index.php?section=6&id=17 and watch where they take you in the location bar and see what I'm talking about - how many clicks and how long did it take you to read the article? - Did you EVER find it? I couldn't. That Pringle article is their most recent post on this feed: http://www.joinrudy2008.com/rss/thebuzz.xml which I guess is their blog? Not sure? If I can't figure it out I wonder who can?
This is exactly why I never link to any article from forbes.com - forbes is always 90% pop-ups, splash screens and ads - whatever their short article is about is not even worth the hassle - they've turned into a spam site. Learn from forbes mistakes Giuliani staff.
If it was just some sort of typo in the code I really doubt it; I think it was much more about greed than building a visitor base - a rookie mistake made a zillion times by web masters 5 years ago. I'll give them a bit to fix it but I think I'll have to remove the links to them eventually. If a hyper link does not go to where it is pointing to, then that is intentionally deceiving - SPAM. No one wants to be permanently redirected off to some junk sign up page and then to a start page like that - I don't care what website it is.
That said, still have to give team Rudy props for at least trying - Hunter, Brownback, Tommy Thompson and Gravel don't even have RSS Feeds ( Needed to automatically figure out what their latest blog post was )
UPDATE JUNE 23: Whoa - now it properly redirects you to the article after the email sign up spash page. Better; much much better - well done whoever fixed it - it would still be best without the redirect to the splash page but at least now it eventually goes to the article.
UPDATE JUNE 23: Not so fast hold short... it seems that only links to their /news/pr/ pages work - so the jury is still out on this one..
UPDATE JULY 12: I can no longer stand them doing that - I deleted Giuliani's website from the aggregated candidate feeds page and will no longer update the Giuliani page here with his new content. If they fix it I'll put them back in ASAP. I hated to do it and I went back and forth on it but decided there is no point in linking to an article that redirects somewhere else then somewhere else with no way to get to where you intended and just frustrates the visitor ... That being the case, what point is there linking to them? Why even bother?
WEDNESDAY JUNE 20, 2007 Earmark Transparency
Despite the new Democratic congressional leadership's promise of 'openness and transparency' in the budget process, a CNN survey of the House found it nearly impossible to get information on lawmakers' pet projects:
I have to admit this was clever; doing a parody of the Sopranos episode everyone is talking about. Clinton's announcing her new campaign song in this video (she picked You and I by Celine Dion).
If you don't watch the Sopranos you won't get this - but it's a replica of the final scene - with Hillary instead of Tony. Funny that the best song she could pick is written and sung by Canadians
Where does all this money come from so very early in the campaign?? I don't understand how the so called top three favorites of each party have all this 10++ million dollars campaign money to start with right off?
What makes them a top three favorite in the first place - the money? Who makes them the favorite? - The media? Why? Because they are going to be a big ad spender - or did someone in their party make the call?
Does more money = more sold political favors?
Not sure...
BTW this is old first quarter data but I wanted to get the first quarter snapshot of it in the archives here to compare changes / rankings quarter by quarter
New Hampshire republican debate broken down by individual candidate...
Ability to answer direct questions:
Who among them was most likely to answer the question asked, who preferred giving hollow answers by speaking about a question but never actually answering it, and who avoided the question altogether. The merits of the answers were not evaluated - that's a value judgment for each voter to make:
New Hampshire Democratic debates broken out by individual candidate:
A big thanks to the DC SHUFFLe for the analysis and data
who prefers giving hollow answers by speaking about a question but never actually answering it, and who's given to avoiding the question altogether. I also don't evaluate the merits of the candidates' answers. That's a value judgment each voter has to make independently.
Hillary Rodham-Clinton actually got more than double the number of questions offered to Mike Gravel. What's especially sad about that is Mike Gravel was the most likely to answer clearly while Hillary was the least likely.
You learned twice as much about Mike Gravel as a candidate in about 1/3 of the time it took Hillary to tell half as much about herself...
Direct Questions answered clearly
Additional questions answered clearly
Questions discussed but not answered
Questions avoided entirely
Q1
Has Bush administration's effort to thwart security at home been successful?
Q2
Does the Bush administration deserve any credit that there's been no attack in 6 yrs?
Q3
Do you believe the US is not at war with terrorists?
Q4
Do you agree that the war on terror is nothing more than a bumper sticker?
Q5
Why are the other candidates wrong to vote against recent troop funding?
Q6
Why are you reluctant to say they were wrong and you were right?
Q7
What is your response to the charge of playing politics with the lives of the troops?
Q8
Where, if at all, do you disagree with any of your Democratic colleagues -- Democratic candidates -- on this issue of the troops, the funding of the war, how to get out?
Q9
You want to name names?
Q10
Response to charge by Edwards of failing to lead
Q11
Are the differences minor between you and these Democratic candidates?
Q12
What moral responsibility does the United States have to deal with the scenario: unilateral, quick U.S. withdrawal from Iraq leads not only to an increased civil war, but to genocide in Iraq?
Q13
Can you tell me if the mission we accomplished during our deployment in Iraq was worth our effort and sacrifice, or was it a waste of time and resources?
Q14
Do you regret voting the authorize the president to use force against Saddam Hussein in Iraq without actually reading the national intelligence estimate, the classified document laying out the best U.S. intelligence at that time?
Q15
Do you regret not reading the national intelligence estimate?
Q16
Do you think someone who authorized the use of force to go to war in Iraq should be president of the United States?
Q17
Why is granting legal status to about 12 million people who have entered this country illegally not an amnesty program?
Q18
Governor Richardson doesn't think there needs to be a 700 mile fence. Why is he wrong?
Q19
If you don't think there needs to be a fence, why did you vote for that legislation?
Q20
Raise your hand if you believe English should be the official language of the United States.
Q21
Are the other candidates being honest about the true costs of universal health care in America?
Q22
Response to charge by Edwards that Obama's health care plan is not universal
Q23
What do you think of Senator Obama's plan?
Q24
Can you provide universal health care without raising taxes?
Q25
Response to charge by Edwards that Obama's plan leave 15 mil uncovered
Q26
Was President Clinton's policy of "don't ask/don't tell" a mistake?
Q27
Raise hand if it's time to get rid of "don’t ask/tell"
Q28
Is it time to move beyond civil unions and let gays and lesbians get married?
Q29
How if at all would you use former president Bill Clinton in your administration?
Q30
What would you do to reduce gas prices?
Q31
Are the big oil companies engaged in price- gouging of the American consumer?
Q32
What is your vision on ending major military operations?
Q33
How do you plan on rebuilding the military after such many years of conflict?
Q34
What do you say to Congressman Kucinich, who says he wants to cut the size of the U.S. military?
Question misrepresented Kucinich assertion which Obama noted and corrected
Q35
Are there relics of the Cold War, big- ticket military items that you would cut?
Q36
Why is it that veterans cannot receive medical services at the hospital of their choice?
Q37
Are you satisfied or unsatisfied with VA health care?
Q38
Did Obama do any oversight or know of problems at VA hospitals prior to Walter Reed scandal?
Q39
Would you use force or would you use diplomacy in Iran? / How would you approach solving the problem we have Iran today?
Q40
And if you used diplomacy, what would you do?
Q41
if diplomacy, when all is said and done, fails, then what?
Q42
Is that what you're saying, no military option on the table?
Q43
If you got word from the U.S. intelligence community that Ahmadinejad and his government were on the verge of having a nuclear bomb capable of hitting targets in the region on missiles, what would you do?
Q44
How do you reconcile our security interests with Pakistan with our interest in promoting liberal democracy?
Q45
You've got to give the order yes or no to take Osama out w/i 20 min with a Hellfire missile, but it's going to kill some innocent civilians at the same time: What would be your decision?
Q46
If you were elected president, would role do you think the United States should play in addressing Darfur?
Q47
Would you use force to save people in Darfur?
Q48
What about that idea about possibly boycotting the Beijing Summer Olympic games if China doesn't use its influence to stop the genocide in Sudan?
Q49
Should we have 1 year mandatory govt service and if so, how you plan to make it happen?
Q50
Is it time to bring back the military draft?
Q51
What the definition of rich is on the part of the candidates, but using, perhaps, an income level.
Q52
Do you have a problem with running huge federal deficits again?
Q53
How will you alleviate the deficit?
Q54
What do you say to Republicans who argue your all tax and spend Democrats?
Q55
Would you vow, if elected president, to veto all bills containing earmarks?
Q56
Respond to charge by Gravel that Clinton's balanced budget was funded by raiding social security
Q57
What would be your top priority for your first 100 days?
Questions asked directly
15
18
15
14
11
11
9
11
Questions responded to
15
19
17
16
13
11
10
11
Direct Questions answered clearly
12
9
12
11
10
6
8
9
Additional questions answered clearly
0
0
2
2
0
0
1
0
Questions discussed but not answered
3
5
3
1
1
1
1
2
Questions avoided entirely
0
5
0
2
1
4
0
0
Responds clearly to direct question ratio
80%
50%
80%
79%
91%
55%
89%
82%
Responds clearly to all questions ratio
80%
47%
82%
81%
77%
55%
90%
82%
Empty answer ratio
20%
26%
18%
6%
8%
9%
10%
18%
Question avoidance ratio
0%
28%
0%
14%
9%
36%
0%
0%
The Buck Stops Here award:
Obama
Edwards
Gravel
Dodd
(Zero question avoidance)
Straight Talk award
Gravel
Edwards
Dodd
(highest clear answer ratio)
Penn & Teller award
Clinton
Obama
Edwards
Dodd
(most empty answers provided)
Moderator's Pet award
Clinton
Obama
Edwards
(received the most direct questions)
Good Boy Award
Everybody but Edwards, Richardson, & Gravel
(only answers questions directed at them)
The DC Shuffle award
Clinton
(Most likely to not clearly answer a question)
Put up or Shut up award
No One
(Zero empty answers)
New Hampshire Democratic debates broken out by individual candidate:
