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Look-Alike Web Sites Hoodwink Republican Donors
Hugh Pickens writes "Shane Goldmacher writes that a network of look-alike campaign websites have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in what some are calling a sophisticated political phishing scheme. The doppelgänger websites have the trappings of official campaign pages: smiling candidate photos and videos, issue pages, and a large red "donate" button at the top and exist for nearly three-dozen prominent GOP figures, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and donation magnets such as Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Allen West of Florida. The only difference is that proceeds from the shadow sites go not to the candidates pictured, but to an obscure conservative group called CAPE PAC run by activist Jeff Loyd, a former chairman of the Gila County GOP in Arizona. 'The only thing they are doing is lining their pockets and funding their own operation,' says Republican political strategist Chris LaCivita. CAPE PAC has a strong Web presence, with over 100,000 followers on Twitter and 50,000 on Facebook and its business model is to buy Google ads — about $290,000 worth, as of the end of June — to promote its network of candidate sites whenever people search for prominent GOP officials. A search for 'Mitt Romney,' for instance, often leads to two sponsored results: Romney's official site and CAPE PAC's mittromneyin2012.com. Once on a CAPE PAC site, users would have to notice fine print at either the top or bottom of the page revealing that they were not on the official page of their favored politician. A dozen donors, including some experienced Washington hands such as Neusner, had no idea they had contributed to the group before National Journal Daily contacted them. 'It confused me, and I do this for a living,' says Washington lobbyist Patrick Raffaniello. 'That's pretty sophisticated phishing.'"
Idiots and their money are soon parted.
But hey, at least this way, they weren't going to as horrible of a cause.
The dirty little secret is that there is less money in fishing for Democrats
Funny how one slashdot article follows another sometimes.
are they advocating more government regulation? Maybe they are just pissed off because its not money in Their pockets
Perhaps some campaign finance reform is in order?
Hey just a quick reminder, election day this year for 3rd party candidates has been moved up to Tuesday November 6th so they have extra time to count handwritten "Ron Paul" write in votes and stuff like that... so if you're voting libertarian party, or really any 3rd party, anyone other than -R or -D, PLEASE show up at the polls on Tuesday November 6th, mkay? And if you're voting for a -R or -D then DO NOT show up at the polls until Wednesday November 7th this year. I'd really appreciate your help and if you could copy this to your facebook and G+ and twitter and all that, I'd really appreciate it as a personal favor. Please make sure that any -D or -R voters you know, won't show up at the polls until the 7th, OK?
TLDR is the voting commission has split presidential voting by party to reduce crowds, all 3rd party voters = vote on Tuesday Nov 6th, and D/R voters please don't arrive at the polls until Wednesday Nov 7th!
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
This leads to something that has always puzzled me about American political parties -- their legal status. Are they non-profit corporations, or something?
I think the official status of US political parties is that they exist as "shut the fuck up and stop asking inconvenient questions, citizen, unless you want to wake up tomorrow to find your family and friends 'disappeared' and your freedoms 'inconvenienced'" entities. I think that sort of entity is defined in the tax code under section Go-Fuck-Yourself.9934-EZ.
Looks like capepac.org is slashdotted, so I can't donate!
Maybe their hosting is through GoDaddy.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
Look-Alike Web Sites Hoodwink Republican Donors
And Actual Democrat Web Sites Hoodwink Democrat Donors...
Don't hate, you'd laugh if it were reversed.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
This guy is going to give PAC's a bad name.
I'm not bothered by your being pedantic — you can't possibly be more pedantic than I am, as I'm about to demonstrate.
Res publica is Latin. I've forgotten most of my High School Latin, but I still know a First Declension noun when I see it.
The Greek name for Plato's dialogue about government is Politeia, which translates as (wait for it!) "Government". When Cicero translated this work into Latin, he titled it Res Publica in order to emphasize the supposed similarity between Plato's imaginary "perfect government" and the Roman Republic. During the middle ages, this was the only version of the book available in Western Europe — few people spoke Greek, and all literate people spoke Latin. Which is why the title in English is The Republic.
If corporations are people, can they get married?
A corporate merger is kind of like marriage. The question is it like a gay marriage or a straight marriage?