Westboro Baptist Church Up To Usual Sleaze

This video by the nuts at Westboro Baptist Church is the latest in an entirely too long string of sheer stupidity and venomous acts.  If God Hates the World in general, then how much must he truly loathe the scum at Westboro?

Cripes, even the director of this trash is too embarrassed to use his real name.  It's an "Alan Smithee" video!

As Xeni Jardin points out, the last 30 seconds are probably the worst.

Governor Gibbons Has Had His Hands Full This Session

I heard this story from a very reliable source a week or so ago and was about to post it when the whole John Ensign affair hit the fan, so it seemed a little like piling on with randy Republican stories.  I decided to wait about a week and was once again ready to post when the Mark Sanford affair broke.  God knows what will happen next week, so I'll just go ahead and put it up.

Now, to be fair, this isn't about cheating on the wife.  But if your political career was almost derailed because of allegedly playing grab-ass with a Vegas cocktail waitress you would think it would be good practice to, you know, lay off the stuff once you are in office.  Or at least when you are out in public.  But with an approval rating sitting at 10 percent, maybe he has reached the point where he just doesn't give a damn.  After all, he doesn't have Dawn around anymore.

Anyway, a friend of ours was recently at a new south Reno Mexican restaurant when Governor Jim Gibbons and an entourage arrived.  The bartender there apparently was quite familiar with Nevada's Guv as she ran up and gave him a big 'ol lusty hug.  Not only did Gibbons heartily return the favor, but his paws quickly headed south -- the deep south.  So while my friend was getting an eyeful, our Governor was getting a handful.  It obviously wasn't the first time, and probably not the last either.

Well, at least this tail-grabbing incident was consensual.

Somewhere, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin Are Smiling

Another week and another potential 2012 Republican presidential contender falls victim to a sex scandal.

Not that our Senator John Ensign was considered an early top-tier candidate, though on hair alone he could have given Mitt Romney a hell of a run, but South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had the potential to be one.  He was already quite popular with the fiscal conservative wing of the GOP.

But, while the American public as a whole can be pretty forgiving, and we are at least two years away from the official start to the presidential campaign season, I would think this kind of story is poison to a majority of Republican primary voters.  He is probably toast.

Oh, and the movie "Outrage" will probably short-circuit any 2012 run by Florida's Charlie Crist.

Real Dean Heller Taking to Twitter

Maybe they just wanted the account to tweet more.

After taking control of the Dean Heller Twitter account his staff have been quite busy with updates.  Seven today and a few on Monday.  He's even started emailing the Heller E-Newsletter again, with two in the past five days after going months without any.  Heck, even his Facebook page is getting updated more frequently.

All this activity just might add a little fuel to those "Heller vs. Reid in 2010" stories that are floated every couple days in the media.  I wouldn't bet the ranch on it happening, not with the Congressman currently holding a seat on the House Ways and Means Committee. Although seeing him bring up the Sharron Angle scientology link again in a Senate primary race would be fun.

No, it's probably just a case of taking better control of his brand.  Although, to be on the safe side, he should look into acquiring the DeanHeller.info domain name before someone else snags it.  After all, it's available and only costs $0.99 (well, $1.19 with the ICANN fee) on Go Daddy.

Politics Magazine Looks at Heller Twitter Saga

Politics Magazine's Lani Lester has a nice write-up on the Dean Heller Twitter Experiment.  Oh, and make sure you check out the part about Congresswoman Shelley Berkley at the end.

The Great Congressional Twitter-Jacking

Tech President and the Washingtonian Cover the Heller Twitter Experiment

One thing I've learned over the years is that professional writers work fast.  Really fast.

On a whim, I emailed Personal Democracy Forum's Tech President Thursday night thinking perhaps they might be interested in the whole Dean Heller Twitter saga. I heard back within minutes and an hour or so later Micah Sifry not only had an excellent blow-by-blow account up on the site, he also had all the cool screenshots I had thought about doing but was too lazy to.  And, as a bonus, he used the story as the lead in their Daily Digest wrap up.

Likewise, the Washingtonian.com's Sophie Gilbert, whose inclusion of Heller in her "Tweet Beat" led to the end of the ruse, also had her story up and running within hours of hearing about it.  Plus, she already had contacted Congressman Heller's office, leading to this classic ending.

Heller’s staff declined to comment. Presumably they’re too busy scouring the Internet to see what else they’ve missed.

Below are the story links.

Washingtonian.com: Will the Real Dean Heller Please Stand Up?
Tech President: How Rep. Dean Heller Got Pwned on Twitter
Tech President: Rep. Dean Heller's Twitter Imposter Reveals All

How the Heller Twitter Experiment Was Discovered, the Final Chapter

Although I had apparently tricked Senator John Ensign's staff into thinking I was Congressman Dean Heller, or at least the staff member who drew the short stick, I knew my Great Twitter Experiment would have to end.  In fact, truth be told, I was getting tired of having to check Heller's official site for any news that needed to be parsed, tinyURLized and then twittered.  I had thought signing up for Heller's email updates would make it easy.  And it would have, except he rarely sends out emails when he has a press release.  Oh well.

The Holiday Tweets

For some reason or another come Mothers Day I stumbled across a site that mentioned Senator Claire McCaskill was twittering about her Mom all day.  I thought that was a nice touch and, after poking around the site, found a couple more politicians wishing mothers well.  It made sense, I mean what kind of politician would want to forget that holiday.  Not only would they look like a tool, but that's a pretty big constituency to boot.  Then I remembered -- I was Dean Heller.

So I went to his site hoping there might be some proclamation or something honoring the day.  No such luck. I checked Ensign's Twitter account thinking maybe I could see what he was doing and crib a little.  Unfortunately, the Senator's staff had apparently forgotten the day too.  So the question became, "Do I leave Heller looking insensitive to, of all people, Moms everywhere, or break my rule of only using words taken from an official press release?"  Thus, at 1:53 pm PST on May 10 the first non-official Heller tweet was launched.  All 27 characters.

A Happy Mothers Day to all.

Oh, and Senator Ensign did tweet a Mothers Day wish.  About five hours later.

The same situation would occur a few weeks later when Memorial Day arrived. Although Heller was attending a ceremony at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City, I thought something should be said on the Twitter account. Hopefully the following tweet was appropriate.

Let's all take the time today to remember the American men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. They're true heroes.

How Logan Cratty Did Me In

The end would finally come with an honor of sorts.  The Washingtonian's Sophie Gilbert had been running a blog that features "The Tweet Beat: The Best Congressional Tweets of the Week."  In the June 5 edition, Heller makes the cut for, of all things, a tweet about a Pahrump High student, Logan Cratty, winning our district's congressional art contest.

Still, it was an honor even if I actually wasn't the real Dean Heller.  But it also presented a conundrum.  Since this blog tends to cover Nevada politics and, therefore, Heller, it would make sense to do a post about the Washingtonian piece.  However, it would be a little risky since this blog receives daily hits from the House and Senate's IP address.  But what the heck, I thought, maybe it would provoke a response. So I posted.

I guess I'll never really know if it was my post or the original source that finally opened the eyes of Heller's staff, but that Monday morning, June 8, 2009, I went to the Twitter account and my password would not work.  Thus ended the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment.  Gone were the tweets and 600+ followers.  In was the new, and official, Heller Twitter page.  The strange part was there was no notice from Twitter or an email, or direct message for that matter, from the Heller camp.  It just changed with the snap of a finger.

If there is a lesson to be learned in this whole saga it is to be vigilant of your own name or brand, especially if you are a politician. It seems like everyone has been talking about the power of the new social media and its place in politics for a couple years now, yet it's apparent not all have taken notice. 

I could have very easily used the site maliciously and posted something like "It's official fellow Nevadans. I will be running against Harry Reid for the U.S. Senate in 2010." and started a small firestorm.  But I didn't.  Instead, I became a sort of reluctant caretaker who kept waiting for the new shift to finally realize I needed to be relieved.  I just didn't think it would take 163 days.

Part 1: My Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment Comes to an End
Part 2: More of the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment
Part 3: Some Trouble on the Heller Twitter Front

The Google cache of the Original Congressman Dean Heller Twitter account.

Some Trouble on the Heller Twitter Front, Part III

After 11 weeks or so of what had now become the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment, I began to wonder if anybody would ever really notice and pull the plug.  Or even just ask about it.

There were local TV reporters, fellow Congressmen and political activists all following my Heller account, but it seemed to be flying completely under the radar.  I guess it's true that nobody really reads the people they follow.  Eventually, though, someone would.

Heller's Tweets Panned

After the Tweet Congress mention, a few bloggers had picked up that Heller was on Twitter and made some brief mentions of it.  The media as a whole, though, hadn't noticed until the Las Vegas Sun's Lisa Mascaro penned a March 18, 2009, article titled "Outraged or Dull, Politicians Atwitter."  She looked at Nevada's contribution.  The review wasn't so good.

Heller mainly limits his tweets to posting a few news releases and official statements, not quite the spirit of Twitter.

The Ensign Message

Things were back to running along rather smoothly as one, Heller wasn't cranking out a lot of press releases at the time, and two, nobody had apparently noticed the Sun's diss.  But that would change on May 19, 2009, when I received the first direct message to Heller.  It was from Nevada U.S. Senator John Ensign.  Well, actually his staff.

JohnEnsign: Is this Congressman Heller, or someone else behind this account? -Staff

What to do?  I could always lie and respond with a "Yes, and say hi to John for me" or just ignore it and hope it wouldn't go anywhere.  But then I thought, "Why not do what politicians always do so well."

So I answered the question by not really answering the question.  I wrote something along the lines of "Just getting our Twitter feet wet.  Still have a ways to go to match the Senator, though."  Technically true, it was my first Twitter account, and I figured the compliment might help.  I think it did.

Tomorrow:  The end is near and some non-Heller tweets.

Part 1: My Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment Comes to an End
Part 2: More of the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment
Part 4: How the Heller Twitter Experiment Was Discovered

The Google cache of the Original Congressman Dean Heller Twitter account.

More of the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment

Having done the first tweet, in what had now become my Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment, without any signs of being shut down or asked to pass the baton to the real Heller, I realized it meant I was probably stuck posting press release snippets (here's the 6/4 cached version from Google) until someone actually noticed.  That, though, would happen soon enough.

The Blogger's Wife and Tweet Congress

Although most members of Congress don't use Twitter, it hasn't been for a lack of trying on the part of Tweet Congress.  It's an organization that not only posts members' tweets, and tries to cajole those who don't, but is also the de facto clearinghouse for people who want to follow twittering congressional members.  And that's where the next part of the story picks up.

After two tweets, my Heller account had about 15 or so followers.  But that would change on February 26, 2009, when a wife of another Reno blogger took exception to Tweet Congress's assertion that northern Nevada's Congressman wasn't on Twitter.  She contacted the organization and they quickly added Heller to their list.  By the end of the week the account had over 100 followers and would continue to add daily until the account was closed early Monday morning.

The Followers

At first it seemed like Heller's followers were just those who were curious and decided to follow anyone in Congress who twitters.  I would click on their page and in a lot of cases it would be just a singular "I'm giving Twitter a try" or "Goin to bed now" tweet.  In fact, I think an entire civics class from a Nebraska continuation high school was required to follow Heller and Co. as an assignment.  But then the conservative activists started to come in as well as a handful of fellow congressmen.

Up until that point I hadn't been following anyone, since many seemed pointless and others were a little on the extreme side (I'm waiting for the "Do you know who Congressman X follows on Twitter?" hit pieces in 2010), but figured it would be bad form if you shunned your coworkers.  So I made it a point to follow any member of Congress who came across the Heller account.

It was also about this time I began to see some media pop up as followers.  There were a couple national figures, but the bulk were local TV reporters.   In Nevada there were a handful from Reno but, interestingly, not a single newspaper reporter followed.  No Anjeanette Damon, Molly Ball or Jon Ralston bothered.  Maybe they knew better.  Not wanting to call any further attention to the account, I made it a habit to never return the follow with media members.

Tomorrow:  The Ensign inquiry and the media takes notice.  I know I said those would appear in this post but I think I rambled enough today.

Part 1: My Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment Comes to an End
Part 3: Some Trouble on the Heller Twitter Front
Part 4: How the Heller Twitter Experiment Was Discovered

The Google cache of the Original Congressman Dean Heller Twitter account.

My Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment Comes to an End, Pt. 1

It took 163 days, 17 tweets, 645 followers, a John Ensign staffer asking if we were the real deal and even being named a "Best Congressional Tweet of the Week" by the Washingtonian before Dullard Mush's Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment came to an inglorious end Monday, June 8.

Apparently Heller's staff finally realized there was a Twitter account out there in their name. Of course, Sunday's post pointing out Heller's winning tweet might also have been a factor.  That said, the end came surprisingly swift and without notice.  I always figured I'd receive a direct message from someone in Heller's camp asking what was going on, or a notice from Twitter itself, and then turn over the account in good standing.  The big question was when that would actually occur.  But the account just disappeared and reappeared in its new official form Monday.

The Beginning

The experiment began innocently enough December 28, 2008.  I had just read an article about politicians embracing online media, Twitter in particular, around the same time I was hearing about Twitter name squatters.  So, being curious, I checked on Nevada's delegation and, to my surprise, found Heller and Shelley Berkley's names still available (Berkley's still is as of today).  Being in Heller's district I picked his up, as more of a caretaker, figuring I'd be contacted pretty quickly.  But a funny thing happened.  Nobody noticed.

Well almost nobody. Despite nary a tweet, the account was gaining a couple followers a week.  It had been about six weeks when I began to think that having a blank Twitter page might make the congressman look a little odd, so a decision needed to be made --  to tweet or not to tweet.  I chose to tweet.

The First Tweet

But then the question became "What do I tweet?"  I had no plans on making it a spoof site, though an "It's official, I'm running against Harry in 2010" would have been interesting, so I needed something legitimate to post.  Luckily, his site had press releases.

So on February 13, 2009, the first "Dean Heller" tweet was launched.

Just like the bailout, this legislation will prove to be a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. http://tinyurl.com/at96ly

But the problem is, once you do one, you have to keep it going.  Especially when someone opens the floodgate of followers.

Tomorrow:  A blogger's wife's spirited defense, a curious Ensign staffer and the media.

Part 2: More of the Great Dean Heller Twitter Experiment
Part 3: Some Trouble on the Heller Twitter Front
Part 4: How the Heller Twitter Experiment Was Discovered

The Google cache of the Original Congressman Dean Heller Twitter account.

Is Politicker.com Completely Asleep at the Wheel?

God knows PolitickerNV.com has ticked me off in the past.  They stole my content, never responded to my requests to not steal my content and even welched on a $5 bet.  They are the epitome of a zombie site, mindlessly scraping Nevada political bloggers' content with nary an original post, yet are bankrolled by the New York Observer as part of its failed plan to spread Politicker.com-style journalism to other states.  (Note: Apparently they still really tick me off.)

Anyway, the great Politicker experiment has continued to use huge portions of my blog posts, a lot of times the entire post, without my permission.  But, apparently, not only do they ignore my protests, they also don't even monitor post comments for blatant spam.  Check out the comment on this post Politicker copied in its entirety.  Or this one, also copied in its entirety.   Or this one with three spam comments include one featuring "free dogs sex pics."  In fact, I think the only comments on Politicker.com nowadays are porn or Rx spam.

So how completely out of it must a company be to allow this to happen?  Even a lowly Blogspot blogger can set up his account to kick out spam, approve comments or be notified when new ones arrive.  It's not complicated.

Berkley, Heller and the Internet

Two of Nevada's congressional delegation recently had their online presence looked at.  One made the "Best of" and one, well, the opposite.  We'll start with the opposite.

If you are a congressperson in 2009 then you probably don't want to be featured in an article titled "Members' websites stuck in '70s." Unfortunately for Shelley Berkley (CD-1), her site not only made the cut, but also featured these biting snipes.

“There’s enough fonts for a ransom note.”

"The style is pretty awful.  It’s lost in a ’90s aesthetic. I don’t even know if I should use the word ‘aesthetic.’”

Hey, at least Berkley isn't using that annoying "high heel" pointer icon on her official site.

Dean Heller (CD-2) had a better time of it as he made the Washingtonian's Tweet Beat: The Best Congressional Tweets of the Week for his announcing the winner of his district's congressional art contest. For the record, it was Logan Cratty of Pahrump High.

More Bad News for Newspaper Business

Newspaper advertising sales for 2009's first quarter plummeted over $2.6 billion from the same period in 2008.  That's a 28.3% drop.  And while it's all over the place, online ads were down 13.4%, the real killer once again was classifieds. It continued its freefall with a 42.3% drop in sales.

For all the brutal facts, check the Newspaper Association of America and click the quarterly numbers.

I Wonder If the Reno Aces Have Thought of This?

All the Dodger Dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn and Coke products you can handle for just $25!  Oh, and a game ticket to boot.

In either a tip of the hat to America's super-sized appetites or just a need to fill seats, several Major League Baseball teams are offering all-you-can-eat ticket packages.  And considering the cost of stadium food, there are some decent bargains here (especially if you're wont to stuffing your face).

The seats may not be the best (e.g., the Reds' $30 package have you in the $22 mezzanine, but they're at the very end), but you'll probably make it up in volume eating.