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Posts with tag johnmccain

Spammers Prefer Obama for Spam E-Mails

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Oct 10th 2008 at 8:25AM

Obama and Palin More Popular with Spammers than McCain and Biden
Politics is one of the most popular topics for spam. Don't believe us? Go check your spam folder. We bet that you'll find e-mails about how Obama is a secret Muslim and Sarah Palin hunts moose from a helicopter in between offers for cheap Viagra and penis enlargement systems .

According to a report from Secure Computing, it appears that spammers prefer Obama over McCain and Palin over Biden when it comes to whipping up new spam e-mails. According to the report, Obama is mentioned in spam six times more often than McCain, and Palin gets five mentions for every four spam messages mentioning Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden.

The credit crisis and banking collapses in the U.S. are also fueling piles of spam messages. Of all the financial institutions involved, Chase tops the list, accounting for 25-percent of the banking inspired spam messages. Wachovia, Bank of America, and Colonial are generating plenty of spam in their own right, too.

We're not sure what these things say about the spammers, but as always, we urge you to exercise caution when opening any banking-related mail and continue to be vigilant for phishing scams. [From: Ars Technica]

McCain Remark Annoys eBay Founder

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 6:12PM

eBay Founder Fact Checks McCain

John McCain may have just made himself a powerful enemy. During Tuesday night's debate, when asked about whom he would choose for treasury secretary, McCain made mention of Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay. "Meg Whitman was CEO of a company which started with 12 people," McCain said, which caused Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, to balk via Twitter.

"Ahem. Started with 12 people?," Omidyar wrote, a clear reference to the fact that he started eBay by himself in 1995. Whitman joined in 1998 when eBay already had 30 employees.

We won't hold it against the presidential candidate -- the man is 72. Our grandma is 72, and she can't even remember our name. [From: ValleyWag]

VoteForTheMILF.com Owned by McCain Campaign

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 29th 2008 at 5:10PM

VoteForTheMILF.com Owned by McCain CampaignWe can only assume the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign has snatched up the domain name VoteForTheMILF.com in an effort to prove that they're more tech savvy than they've let on. When originally discovered, the URL redirected visitors to JohnMcCain.com (which just happened to display a video introduction from Palin), but clearly someone at the campaign thought it wasn't such a great idea to insinuate that the campaign considered Palin a MILF.

The address now redirects to the Wikipedia entry for DNS (Domain Name System). The campaign was probably just trying to keep the domain out of the hands of some prankster who might make the campaign look bad.

Check out the WhoIs entry to see for yourself -- Vote for the MILF, owned and operated by McCain-Palin 2008. [From: Jossip]
Engadget

John McCain, Inventor of the BlackBerry?

by Nilay Patel, posted Sep 16th 2008 at 4:02PM



Politics aside, we're totally cracking up that McCain policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eaken told reporters today that his BlackBerry was "the miracle that John McCain helped create" -- dude, BlackBerrys are Canadian.

[Via Wonkette, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Internet Provides New Opportunities For Political Dirty Tricks

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 1:01PM



Dirty tricks used to mislead voters and keep them away from the polls, but new Web-centric attempts to disenfranchise voters are stoking fears amongst voters and activists. In the past, political trickery has relied on phone calls, fliers, and direct mailing, which are much easier to track and prosecute than the new wave of political scare tactics.

Traditional calls, like the push polls in 2000 that lifted Bush over McCain in South Carolina, have been replaced by robo-calls via VoIP that are harder to trace and not subject to the same restrictions land-line and cell phone based political phone campaigns are. Such tactics were turned on African-American voters in North Carolina during this primary season when calls were placed that led voters to believe they were not properly registered.

More familiar online techniques such as phishing, pharming (secretly redirecting traffic from one site to another), and good old fashioned typo-squatting have also made their way to the political arena. The primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton saw hackers redirecting visitors to Obama's social networking site MyBarackObama.com to Clinton's home page.

Experts expect to see spam e-mails giving out incorrect polling locations, misleading information about who can and cannot vote, and even money making and identity theft schemes centered around voter registration.

Of course all of the uses of the Internet in politics are not nefarious. Barack Obama has proven himself adept at utilizing social media and activists have been using it to organize large numbers of people since the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. [From: CNN]

Obama to Announce VP Via Text Message

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 18th 2008 at 12:01PM

Obama to Announce VP Via Text Message, McCain Has Aides Google SMS
It's no secret that Barack Obama has a severe technological edge over his competitor for the White House. While John McCain has been famously quoted as saying he doesn't e-mail and even more frighteningly that he is "becoming computer literate," Obama has leveraged the power of social networking and text messaging to turn himself from political newbie to front runner for the presidency.

The laughable McCainSpace can't compete with the power and size of MyBarackObama, and Senator McCain doesn't even have a text messaging initiative. McCainSpace lacks the user base, flexibility and tools of MyBarackObama, which was one of the driving forces behind Obama's early campaign. Obama also broke out his text messaging campaign early on by sharing news, reminding supporters to vote, and even allowing users to send requests for bumper stickers and ask questions of the campaign via the dedicated phone number.

Obama has put so much faith in his tech savvy supporters that he will announce his choice for vice president, not in a televised address, paper press release, or even e-mail, but by text message first. Those who sign up to receive text messages from the senator's campaign will be the first to know (outside the campaign itself obviously) who will be sharing the ticket with the young politician from Illinois in November.

Anyone who texts 'VP' to the campaign (62262) will automatically be notified when the time for the announcement comes. Conversely, John McCain will be making his announcement for vice president via town crier. [From: NY Times]

Unlike McCain, Most Senior Citizens Surf The Web

by Peter Mychalcewycz, posted Jul 24th 2008 at 1:10PM

http://www.topnews.in/usa/files/John_mccain_returns_to_NH.jpg

When asked by the New York times about his proficiency in surfing the Web, presidential candidate John McCain admitted to being Web 'illiterate,' and relying on his wife for 'any assistance he can get.'

The interesting part about this story isn't the fact that a 71-year-old-man is unable or unwilling to use the Internet. Only 35% of senior citizens (people over 65) are online. However McCain is in the minority when it comes to 'white, college-educated men over the age of 65.' Approximately 75% of that demographic is hip to the Web.

Still, the thing that strikes us most is the immediate responses from the McCain camp after the story broke. Brooke Buchanan, McCain spokesperson, made it clear that the senator was 'fully capable of browsing the Internet and checking Web sites.' She added 'He has a Mac and uses it several times a week. He's working on becoming more familiar with the Internet.' (Maybe McCain's newfound enthusiasm for his Apple computer is a result of getting flack for previously admitting, this past spring, that that he doesn't know how to use a computer, much less the Web.)

Brooke, listen, if he hasn't studied up before now, it ain't gonna happen. He is who he is. He was never running as the tech-friendly candidate anyway, unless you count his 'pro printing-press' agenda(sorry).

The man is a career politician who has seen and achieved more than most ever will. Drop the 'I'm hip and with it' routine. It makes everybody involved look ridiculous. And, might we add, needlessly so. [Source: CNN]

Presidential Debates Held Via Twitter

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 25th 2008 at 5:38PM


We've been talking about this election cycle being the being the true beginning of politics in the Internet age, but if you had told us even just a few weeks ago that the first campaign sanctioned debate between the Obama and McCain camps would be held via Twitter, we would have thought you were crazy. But that is exactly the venue that has representatives from the campaigns facing off in a debate moderated by Ana Marie Cox, a blogger at techPresident.

The 140 character limit that Twitter imposes on its messages does stymie the ability for the campaigns to delve too deeply into policy issues -- not to mention compromising their adherence to the constructs of the English language -- but it also limit their ability to give long winded non-answers to questions.

The debate has allowed the average American (well, the average American with a Twitter account at least) to participate in the discussion in a way the YouTube debates promised, but failed to deliver on. [Source: BetaNews]

McCain Offers $300 Million for Green Car

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 25th 2008 at 7:45AM


John McCain is trying to apply the lessons learned from the X-Prize to presidential politics, and has proposed offering a substantial $300 million prize package to the company that develops a battery that leapfrogs the current technology found in hybrids like the Toyota Prius. That's $1 for every person in the country. McCain also plans to offer a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-emission vehicle sold in the U.S., though there seems to be some confusion as to whether it would go to the consumer or the company. Also unclear is whether the $300 million prize is open to only American companies, which disqualify many businesses with the most advanced engine and battery technology on the market.

Critics have derided the move as a gimmick, similar to the proposal he floated earlier for a gas tax holiday, which would prove to have little benefit for the consumer and would only cost the government tax revenue. They have also pointed out that handing over government money as a prize flies in the face of McCain's stated free market ideals, and past votes in the Senate.

Also of concern is that most current proposals for increasing battery efficiency in vehicles revolve around Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) technology, the same batteries that power our laptops and cell phones. We'd be much more interested in seeing Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, like those used in the OLPC, scaled up to car size, since they can be recharged more times without degrading capacity, and lack the standard Li-ion batteries' tendency to burst into flames. [Source: USA Today, JohnMcCain.com]

McCain Uses Video Game Music In Campaign Ad, Upsetting Composer

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 2:15PM


In what we're sure is a subtle way to try and connect younger voters, the McCain campaign has been using a chunk of music composed by Christopher Lennertz for 'Medal of Honor: European Assault' in a commercial. Lennertz is unhappy about it's use, however, as he is an Obama booster. Unfortunately for Lennertz, the rights to the music belong to the game's publisher EA, and not the composer.

Lennertz did, however, release a statement voicing his dissatisfaction with the McCain campaign for not seeking his approval or even notifying him of the music's use. Lennertz only found out about his music being used in the commercial when he started recieving e-mails from friends and family.
"I would like to think that someone who believes in the American ideals of business and creativity like Sen. McCain supposedly does, would not want to disgrace or inflict any hardship or ill-will on the artists who create in this country by using their works to promote products and agendas which with they disagree."
Lennertz ened his statement by declaring his support for Senator Obama. The full text of his statement can be found here. [Source: Joystiq]


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