Karl Rove

My jaw dropped when I saw the notice from Twitter that Karl Rove was following me. I thought “You must have hit the big time somehow.” Then, “Why would Karl Rove follow me?”

I still don’t know why he is but he is. Maybe he likes to read this blog, though I can’t imagine he would find much on it he would like.

Anybody got any theories?

Unique. President Obama is asking all Americans to send a Tweet to your Senator. You can access the website to send your tweet here.

The instructions on the site are:

We’re calling and writing letters — and now there’s a new way to contact your representatives.

Enter your zip code in the box below to “tweet” one of your senators to tell them to support real health insurance reform this year.

Please use all the hashtags provided so we can track your tweets on the map to the right.

Just below those instructions is a Twitter button. Click it and it will take you to your Twitter page.  There will be the following message already entered for you to send. Just click the Update button and viola your message is sent to your Senator.

Senator John Ensign sent this tweet about 2 hours ago. “The Family isn’t as creepy as the media says. It’ll make sense when Jesus returns on a white horse and the maw of Hell claims your souls.” [Ensign Tweet]

There are more and more search engines one can use. Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Answers, Creative Commons, eBay, Wikipedia, Twitter Search, are all on my computer, and now there is Bing.

I’m going to try out Bing for awhile and see how it works. I use search engines a lot, looking up information I use to write blog posts is a frequent reason I use search engines. I have, for a long time relied on Google, which is probably the grand daddy of search engines. It is hard to beat.

But the browser one uses to surf the internet is closely tied to the search engines. I formerly used Internet Explorer 7 which worked well. Then Microsoft upgraded it to version 8. I upgraded but have found it crashes on me as often as not. So I switched to Firefox version 3.5 which has been much more reliable than IE 8. Google now has another browser called Chrome. I’m going to use it for awhile and see how well it performs.

For one who does a lot of work using the Internet Search Engines and Browsers are important. Researching using Search Engines is really an art. Learning how to construct the search terms takes some thought and planning to zero in on the particular topic being sought.

I spend a lot of time looking for ancestors in my family tree and for writing this blog. I have an interest in such things, many don’t. We’ll see how it all goes.

According to Washington.com, anyway. Here they are:

Schwarzenegger: http://twitpic.com/659a2 – We brought the electric Hummer to the Capitol today. Unbelievable technology, great potential.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA.
GovernorPerry: Just with Rush Limbaugh in Houston for a Michael McCaul fundraiser!! Two great conservatives.
Gov. Rick Perry, TX.
DarrellIssa: And we’ll have fun fun fun ‘till Obama takes our T-birds away: http://bit.ly/5rhbC. Climate change legislation in real American terms
Rep. Darrell Issa, CA.
IRL: Today starts the wk long exercize to see if so fla is ready for a hurricane to rival the one in 1926. Are our emergncy [sic] agencies ready? R u?
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, FL.
Randy_Forbes: Does your woman or minority-owned business need help breaking into government contracting? http://tinyurl.com/lnwfru
Rep. Randy Forbes, VA.
jaredpolis: Also cut ribbon at grand opening of showroom for way cool “blue wood”(trees killed by pine beetles) http://tinyurl.com/ntozqs
Rep. Jared Polis, CO.
SenJohnMcCain: Obama has more czars than the Romanovs – who ruled Russia for 3 centuries. Romanovs 18, cyberczar makes 20.
Sen. John McCain, AZ.
newtgingrich: We have had a wonderful day with liz lev guiding us through both roman and Christian Rome She is so knowledgavle [sic] it is like graduate course
Newt Gingrich.
clairecmc: Kinda funny folks worried about healthcare study being biased and then asking me if I watch Hannity. Hello pot, meet kettle.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, MO.
clairecmc: You say you make Rush look moderate. A little scary, but I’m brave and sincerely glad you’re following. I’m always listening. @JustinHiggins
Sen. Claire McCaskill, MO.
DarrellIssa: Heading on Fox News at 4 p.m. Ill be discussing Obama’s Supreme choice (the judge, not Diana Ross!)
Rep. Darrell Issa, CA.
JohnEnsign: Just toured an embryo transfer facility which helps make our milk and beef industries more productive.
Sen. John Ensign, NV.
bobinglis: Very excited about this primary we’re going to have in 2010. Fabulous opportunity to present conservatism with a smile rather than a snarl.
Rep. Bob Inglis, SC.
clairecmc: Anyone else now getting ads on twitter? Very annoying.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, MO.
GovernorPerry: drove over to Llano yesterday for an event…what a beautiful drive and of course that smell of fresh BBQ at Coopers is pure heaven!
Gov. Rick Perry, TX.
SenJohnMcCain: Tribute & Statue dedication of President Ronald Reagan in the Capitol Rotunda – one of our nation’s greatest President’s & my personal hero.
Sen. John McCain, AZ.
DennyRehberg: I co-chair the House Small Brewers Caucus http://www.iamacraftbrewer…. New taxes will really hurt them. What’s your favorite micro brew?
Rep. Denny Rehberg, MT.
AKGovSarahPalin: We won. Another expensive, time consuming false ethics charge thrown out. Remember the one: I wore my coat w/Arctic Cat logo & was charged?
Gov. Sarah Palin, AK.
DeanHeller: I am pleased to announce Pahrump High School’s Logan Cratty as the winner of the congressional art competition. http://tinyurl.com/o9fe68
Rep Dean Heller, NV.
repmikecastle: Castle launches online help center for Delawareans: http://www.castle.house.gov…
Rep. Mike Castle, DE.
RepPaulBroun: MDToday, I renamed the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Bill, the Wacky-Marxist Tax and Cap Bill.
Rep. Paul Broun, GA.
DarrellIssa: Will you help me stand athwart Bailout Nation’s careening course and yell “STOP”?
Rep. Darrell Issa, CA.

Time Magazine has some articles on Twitter this week one of which is how Twitter is changing the way we live.

They even cover the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds:

Britney Spears: http://twitter.com/britneyspears

Snoop Dog: http://twitter.com/snoopdogg

Dalai Lama: http://twitter.com/ohhdl

John Hodgman: http://twitter.com/hodgman?page=1

Claire McCaskill: http://twitter.com/clairecmc

Lance Armstrong: http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong?page=5

Shaquille O’Neal: http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ?page=1

Arnold Swarzenegger: http://twitter.com/schwarzenegger

David Lynch: http://twitter.com/DAVID_LYNCH

Demi Moore: http://twitter.com/mrskutcher

Ashton Kutcher: http://twitter.com/aplusk

So, if you want to become a follower of any or all these celebrities, be my guest.

Even members of Congress Tweet. Times are changing, fast. Using Twitter is one way to reach younger voters. Old people don’t Twitter—young people do. Politicians are being to learn that if they want to tap into the new generation they have to learn how to communicate with them—and cast away their quills and ink in favor of the modern way to keep in touch with their constituents. Twitter is changing the way of politics.

Twitter is also changing the way America does business.

It took me some time to understand exactly what RT meant in Twitter.  I had tweeted a tweet about something. Then I noticed someone had put an RT in front of my tweet. I wondered why and what did that accomplish. RT means “retweet” in Twitter talk. I had in my head it meant “reply to” but I was wrong.

I tried to figure out what the reply was to me from whomever put the RT in front of my tweet. I never got a message.

Wandering around the Internet I found the answer. Let me try to illustrate just what this RT is all about. Let’s take Twitterer A and Twitterer B.

Twitterer A has 10 people who “follows” A’s tweets. Twitterer B has 10 more different people who “follow B.” That means those people who “follow” Twitterer A get to see every tweet A sends out (except Direct tweets). So when A writes a significant tweet about something of interest, Twitterer B (who follows A) thinks the tweet should interest the 10 people who follow B. Since the 10 people who follow B are different people than follows A Twitterer A simply RTs A’s tweet. That results in 10 more people get to read A’s original tweet bring the total exposure of A’s original tweet to 20, rather than just the original 10 followers of A.

See how a single tweet can become geometically increased to a wider audience?

If I didn’t make sense here, go read The Art of ReTweeting. There you will learn about some etiquitte applicable to RTing.

Imagine that the Nye County Democratic Central Committee used Twitter to communicate with the 9000 Democrats in Nye County.

Actually, I prefer the term “progressives” to using “liberals.” The word liberal is used as negative connotation when conservatives use it.

But that isn’t the reason for this post. Nicholas Kristof, of the New York Times, has an article today which I picked up on from reading his tweet on Twitter this morning. He contrasts behavior and feelings as experienced by conservatives and liberals.

conservatives are more likely than liberals to sense contamination or perceive disgust. People who would be disgusted to find that they had accidentally sipped from an acquaintance’s drink are more likely to identify as conservatives.

[Read more →]

Twitter is an effective means of communicating with Washington politicians, news organization, even C-Span. [Huffington Post] It will even work to increase the ability of communicating with the Nye County Democratic Central Committee. All they need to do is sign up on Twitter, then notify all 9,400 Nye Democrats and ask them to “follow” the Central Committee. Of course the Central Committee has to Tweet something to follow.

I am really impressed with Twitter and its potential uses. I’ve been using Twitter now for almost a month. There is still a lot about it and how to use it that I am still learning. Checking Tweets this afternoon I noted one that promised to teach me something about it. A Twitter for Newbies or Twitter for Dummies. Exactly what I needed. Simple, to the point, about as basic as you can get. So I went there to see what I could learn.

It was a blog, not unlike this, but it is a blog that teaches you things, rather than a rambling political blog like this one I write. The name of the blog is The Tech Advisors-Tech Tips, and Advice. [Read more →]