Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Friday, January 12, 2007 3:56:03 PM
Late Tuesday I received an invitation to talk to the local Republicans. It turns out that my blog does get read by some of the folks that I would like to see read it.
I titled my talk "While you were out, the Democrats took over the internet." I didn't have a lot of time to put it together, so I am sure I wasn't as polished as I might have been. Even so, I think the outline I used is worth sharing. I handed out 20 packets, and included this outline My comments are italicized.
1. I Blog-Law, Lawyers & Politics http://collandp.townhall.com Handout
Blogs can be dangerous to unwary officials
Blogs become a focal point around which wronged citizens gather
Blogs can cause change that otherwise wouldn't happen
I didn't stress this at all, but it is in the packet.
2. Republicans DO NOT pay attention to the internet.
Sitemeter
I asked how many present had ever googled themselves. A bit more than half.
3. Google Bombs-Artificially increasing the Google Search Priority
Bush the Chimpanzee
Santorum the "Satirical" Gay Sex Term
I provided as handouts the first page of a George Bush search and a Santorum search. Both have google bombs. I showed one (Bush) and talked about the other. I'm not linking them here because I don't want to reinforce them.
4. Wikipedia-Defining the Politicians Dems=Good Reps=Bad
Rahm Emanuel
Bill Ritter
Bob Beauprez
The handouts were the Wikipedia printouts of each of the three politicians. The two Democratic politicians' entries amounted to campaign promotional pieces, though I didn't have the audience look at them. Beauprez, the Republican, had an entry that half way down was nothing more than an attack piece.
(Edited to add: If someone wishes to use this outline to reproduce this talk and my handouts, note that Wikipedia has a feature that allows you to reproduce its appearance on any given day. To use it, go to the "history" tab at the top of the entry and click on the date immediately before the date of my talk (Jan 11) In Beauprez's case, the date you would click on is 5 January 2007. I will be recruiting others to fix this entry, but it will take time.)
5. YouTube Made George Allen into a private citizen
Candidates & staff will be filmed at every event, public and private
Let Saddam's hanging be a lesson of the damage that can be done
I told them that I was happy that Dick Wadhams was coming back because the Allen campaign had made him more sensitive to what was going on on the internet. I also mentioned that his internet guru was now working for Republicans in the Senate. I meant to tell them that McCain had used a blog to communicate this past week, which I thought indicated that he was getting more blog smart.
6. Media Matters-Trying to force Colorado media to toe the liberal line.
I provided them with that day's printout of the home page of Colorado Media Matters and pointed out that they were attacking the Pueblo Chieftan for giving Wadhams positive coverage.
7. Renegade Republican Bloggers
I brought up the subject, but another individual had more information than I did. I did tell them that I thought the guy was using the Holtzman books on both Ritter and Beauprez. I mentioned the Independent Thinking program where this site (which I am intentionally not identifying) was mentioned for the quality of its opposition research.
The next items appeared on my outline, but I didn't talk about them:
1. Maximize Republican Bloggers and DO IT NOW Handout
It takes years to build an audience
Bloggers can be used to define Dems
2. Get a Wikipeda account and fix what you find regularly
With an account, you can vote
3. Deal with Media Matters
4. Assume internet dirty tricks will migrate down to the bottom of tickets
There was general interest in what I had to say. I gave a two minute overview and gave folks a chance to leave. Few if any did. The presentation was five to ten minutes. Afterwards, about five people stopped to get more information. I discovered that in my hurry to prepare this, I had forgotten to put my name and contact information in the packet. Chuck has it.
The reason I am providing the outline and the materials is that this is a message that should go to Republicans throughout the state and nation. The Democrats have taken over the internet.