Over the past week or so, I'd noticed an increase in mentions of Gordon Smith. Not anywhere specific, just here and there. We're bombarded with Smith-Merkley ads all night long on tv, which is expected and not a big hassle thanks to tivo. But it seemed like I'd been seeing pro-Smith rhetoric in the strangest of places, though I couldn't peg exactly where. Then, today, I finally paid attention:
(more examples after the jump)
It seems that Freedom's Watch has invested heavily in targeted Google Ads over Merkley's Georgia gaffe. Georgia on HuffPo, Georgia on my DKos feed, Georgia on my mind (h/t James Taylor). I assume others aren't getting these same Merkley ads, but are you seeing similar ads in regard to Senate races?
To combat said massive Freedom's Watch purchase, consider donating to Merkley on ActBlue's Kossacks for Merkley. We went down to the local Democratic Party office to meet the man a month or so back as part of his 100 Towns tour (Tillamook #53!). It was a pretty standard meet and greet, but he didn't mention a thing about my cause du jour: net neutrality. I knew he was for it, but I wasn't sure if he understood it.
So I asked something along the lines of "One of the key issues in my mind these days is that of net neutrality. I make my living online, and I'm concerned of the implications there may be on my businesses. I know you support net neutrality in theory, but I want to know if you can explain to the rest of these folks (20 or so mostly older, predominantly white democrats) why its important to them."
His response was great. First some pandering, "Well, I'll do my best. Feel free to jump in and fill in the gaps if I get something wrong." Then he addresses the rest of the crowd and gives essentially what I was hoping for. I don't remember his precise words, but he touched on the idea of corporations paying for privileged network access and the idea that you and I should have the same level of access available to us as the corporations do. The "why it matters" boiled down to class equality. I would have liked a little more of the technical ramifications, but all in all, I was pleased.
More ads (click for full size):