Political Pop-ups, and Follow the Money

finelinebob writes "Now we know why Bush wants broadband for everyone: The Republican National Committee plans on bringing the campaign to Internet pop-up ads. From the article: 'Internet experts said that Republicans have entered a new realm of campaigning. Pop-up and pop-under ads of any variety haven't been around long, and little data exist to suggest how voters might respond to uninvited interruptions.' Okay, folks -- get your pop-up blocking browsers now!" While you're waiting for your first pop-up, pop on over to a website that tracks campaign contributions: vVF4N writes "Fundrace 2004 lets you enter any street address and see what people at or near that location have contributed to a presidential candidate, along with their addresses and occupations. The data is based on reports that campaigns regularly file with the Federal Election Commission. You can also look up a name and get the same information. The Washington Post (registration required) has more. Find out who your friends and neighbors are contributing to."

Comments

follow the money

[ashot]

looks to me like a very interesting graphical representation of voter contributions, it seems a little scary though that I can access the name and address of everyone in my zipcode who contributed x amount of money to x candidate; I can see why it is necessary to keep these records public, but I can also see some potential for mis-use. Anyone else have this thought?

Re:Pop ups

[TomV]

or: As well as using the internet to rally and energise the American Public into voting for them, they are going to use it to further alienate and annoy everyone outside the US without a vote in the US elections with pop-ups? Are they that out of touch that they believe these pop-ups are actually going to be limited to US voters only?

Fundrace 2004 = VERY VERY SCARY

[mumblestheclown]

for those arguing for 'accountability' in political donations, consider this.

Jane works in a law firm. Jane likes dennis kucinich. Jane's boss, a partner, likes GW Bush.

Jane's boss can only contribute up to the maximum personal limit of $2000 or whatever it is. But, he can strongly suggest to jane and others that it might be in jane's career interest to do the same.

now, the boss can check up on jane with this handy web site. of course, nobody has forced jane to do anything, but still, the boss can check up to see what kind of 'team player' she is.

this is TRULY scary. do a search of your loal neighborhood and see how many lawyers' names come up.

Just hope they don't do it in Switzerland, too...

[DrYak]

Alienating the Americans ? How about alienating the Swiss ?
Each couple of month, in Switzerland we're supposed to vote about a dozen of laws, laws change and other subjects.
Just imagine the desktop mess if swiss politician start to make pop-up like the american : not just two pop-ups for two candidate, but dozens of pop-ups about pro and cons for each subjet.
Now THAT'S going to make a big wreckage on the desktop ! I think people will start to hate democracy... or make Mozilla the official nationnal browser for it's ad-blocking...

Our Favorite Characters

[Ridgelift]

Gee, this Fundrace thing is fun...and kinda scary. Especially if you normally don't want people to know your home address. Here's some of the giving habits of our favorite cast of characters:

Bill Gates - CEO Microsoft - Republican
Steve Ballmer - President Microsoft - Republican
Hilary Rosen - Consultant & President RIAA - Democrat
Jack Valenti - President MPAA - Democrat
Darl McBride - President SCO Group - Thankless Bastard