Politics

Politics

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Boston Globe weighs in on Romney Facebook Hacking


Bobby Calvan of the Boston Globe interviewed me this afternoon and wrote an excellent story on the Romney Facebook Hacking phenomenon. Hopefully this will bring out more information!

Visit Mitt Romney’s page on Facebook and you’ll see 11.6 million “likes.” Lee Wolf, a self-described liberal who likes nothing about Romney’s politics, was stunned to hear from friends on the online social network that his name had popped up as an apparent supporter of the Republican presidential candidate.

“I don’t believe in anything he says. He’s not somebody I’d be voting for,” said Wolf, who owns the Lobster Shanty, a restaurant in downtown Salem. “I’m still wondering how it happened.”

Others are wondering, too.

Why Do Obama Supporters Appear In Facebook Ads As Romney Fans? – Forbes


Forbes contributor Robert Hof wrote about the Romney Facebook Hacking phenomenon, though he was reluctant to contribute it to “skulduggery,” pointing instead to Facebook’s quickie diagnosis of fat-fingered mobile users. I’ve already shown that, in my case at least, it could not have happened from Facebook Mobile. I’ve also heard from other victims who don’t even own smartphones.

But what on Earth was the name of a friend, who I know is a vocal Obama supporter, doing on a Romney ad? The answer raises questions about how effective, or at least how accurate, these ads are–not necessarily due to a particular fault by Facebook but thanks to the byzantine rules and privacy features that have developed over years of user outrage and resulting Facebook accommodations.

via Why Do Obama Supporters Appear In Facebook Ads As Romney Fans? – Forbes.

More Dead People for Romney


An inspired wag created a Change.Org petition to have Mitt Romney’s Facebook account suspended. While there’s of course no chance of this actually happening, I did find the following comment from the petition to be interesting:

Terren Braen EASTHAMPTON, MA 1 day ago Liked 0

THEY MADE MY GREAT UNCLE LIKE MITT ROMNEY THE DAY HE DIED. THERE’S NO WAY HE SIGNED ONTO FACEBOOK AND LIKE MITT ROMNEY AS HE WAS DYING. THAT’S JUST SO SO SO RUDE AND ABUSIVE! WHO EVER IS RESPONSIBLE SHOULD PAY THE PRICE FOR THEIR LACK OF RESPECT.

What is wrong with America?

A Facebook friend (ok, acquaintance) posted a link to a sermon by David Jeremiah, saying it was “on the importance of voting and the selection of God fearing leaders.”

I didn’t watch it because the last thing I need is for some self-proclaimed holy man to tell me how to think. This is what drives me crazy about some ministers: some think they can tell you what God wants better than God Himself can tell you. In this case Jeremiah knows who you should vote for because God apparently told him.

The God that Jeremiah believes in sounds to me like a mighty weak one. Does anyone think for one moment that the Almighty’s power could be thwarted in any way by the outcome of an election? Do you think God really cares about such things? Or, do you think perhaps this only serves to stroke the ego of power-hungry mortals like David Jeremiah?
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Facebook stock soars but is it built on fraud?


Facebook’s stock soared today on news that its mobile advertising efforts are paying off. The stock is up 22% over its price yesterday. As VentureBeat says:

After investors jumped on Facebook stock in after-hours trading yesterday, following the company’s mobile-focused earnings report, it’s not a huge surprise to see the stock make another huge leap this morning.

Facebook’s stock is up 22 percent from yesterday, trading at $23.80, as of the time of this post. The stock reached a high of $24 this morning, and it was up almost 28 percent in pre-market trading. Facebook’s stock is still well below the $38 it opened at, but the rise is still a good sign for investors.

via Facebook stock on the rise: Up 22% after solid mobile earnings | VentureBeat.

What does Mitt Romney have to do with this rise in Facebook’s stock?
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Obama-stare puts a spell on Romney – CNN.com

I found this humorous op-ed by Dean Obeidallah to be a pretty accurate synopsis of Obama and Romney’s foreign policy debate Monday night.

The Obama-stare is more than just a laser-like game face — apparently it causes people to agree with him on issue after issue. Obama-stare is more akin to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s use of the Jedi mind trick, or vampires on “True Blood” glamouring someone into saying exactly what they want to hear. Romney agreed with Obama so often I thought Mitt was going to endorse him.

How else can anyone explain why Romney — who is highly critical of Obama’s foreign policy when he is out on the campaign trail — would agree with the president on issue after issue when placed in the same room? Romney appeared as if he wasn’t vying for commander in chief as much as for “agree-er in chief.”

via Obama-stare puts a spell on Romney – CNN.com.

Clickjacking the cause of Romney Facebook likes?


I decided to delve a bit into the hacking underworld yesterday, wanting to learn more about how Facebook users could be signed up for pages they didn’t like. It turns out that a Google search for “facebook clickjacking” returns a lot of results.

I downloaded one clickjacking kit from a site called zarabyte.com and took a look. It includes this line in a file called like.js:

var thehairs = “< iframe id='theiframe' scrolling='no' frameBorder='0' allowTransparency='true' src='http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=" + encodeURIComponent(fan_page_url) + "&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=53&action=like&colorscheme=light&height=80' style='position:absolute;width:53px;height:23px;overflow:hidden;border:0;opacity:" + opacity +";filter:alpha(opacity=" + opacity * 100+ ");' >< /iframe >“;

Basically, it sneaks in an iframe on the page and kicks off the like.php script to “like” the desired page. There doesn’t appear to be anything magic about what this does. If the user is logged into Facebook (in another browser window, for instance), this script should register a like. Futhermore, that like should be logged in the Activity Log as any other like would be.

Based on this behavior, I’m pretty confident that these mysterious Romney Facebook likes aren’t being generated through clickjacking.

Armed Forces Show Overwhelming Support for Obama

The military strongly supports the President, it seems. So much for that myth that servicemembers and veterans always vote Republican.

Foreign policy, military funding and plans for U.S. troops abroad are providing plenty of chewy campaign fodder for President Barack Obama and his GOP rival, Mitt Romney. But fundraising reports shed light on what the armed forces think about the the candidates.

Former Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul received significant support from the military for his strong stance on bringing troops home, and that briefly continued even after Romney pulled ahead as the clear GOP candidate.

Now, though, the military’s support has shifted toward Obama. Romney has consistently received little financial backing from military donors.

via Update: Armed Forces Show Overwhelming Support for Obama – OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets.

What’s up with Debra Goldman’s cash?

Debra Goldman


So after I’ve gotten over the initial shock of the extramarital hijinks allegedly going on between Wake school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone and the revelation that Goldman keeps six figures in cash in her home, I can’t help but be drawn again to the money.

Goldman gives a bizarre excuse for having so much cash:

Police asked Goldman why she kept so much money at home. According to the notes of Detective Joseph Lengel, who referred questions to Bazemore, Goldman said that she began to keep large amounts of cash at home in case of emergency because “she found it very difficult to get money from her bank in order to pay her bills” after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
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