It's Bam TV: Barack Obama buys a half hour of prime time on CBS, NBC, NY Daily News.

The Democratic presidential nominee has purchased 30 minutes of primetime TV on CBS and NBC for a massive infomercial that will be broadcast six days before Election Day, sources familiar with the deal told the Daily News. A spokesman for the two networks declined comment.

NRCC cuting back ad buys, Politico.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, after reserving advertising time in 26 Congressional districts, has begun to cancel or dramatically scale back some of its ad reservations across the country. Many of the hardest-hit candidates are among the GOP’s leading challengers.

Hundreds of Conservative Online Activists from Coast-to-Coast, Oct. 10-11

Bloggers and online activists from around the country will be gathering at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA tomorrow for RightOnline, a training conference where they will learn how to use online resources more effectively to change the political landscape on free-market issues such as taxes, spending, and pro-growth economic policies. RightOnline kicks off Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s 2nd national Defending the American Dream Summit – the 1,800-plus crowd of citizens from 38 states around the country make the event the largest gathering in the nation of free-market activists and leaders.

Any bloggers or new media activists interested in attending should e-mail newmedia@afphq.org for free blogger credentials.

Friday Schedule
RightOnline – Internet Training Seminars - 9:00am – 1:45pm

Samsphere (Presented by the Sam Adams Alliance)
9:00-11:30am – Salon K
EM Zanotti & Eric Odom
Samsphere is a new media forum for existing bloggers and e-activists. This provides the opportunity for online advocates from across the country to gather, network, and share ideas.

Online Identity Management Bootcamp (Presented by the Lucy Burns Institute)
9:00-11:30am - Lee
Leslie Graves
A seminar for bloggers, e-activists, and representatives from conservative organizations, with a focus on improving your online presence.

Online Activism Workshops (Presented by the Leadership Institute)
9:00-10:00am - Blogging 101: If You Blog It, They Will Come – Robert Bluey, The Heritage Foundation

10:00-11:00pm - Online Video – “YouTubing” Compelling Videos – Mary Katharine Ham, The Weekly Standard / HamNation

11:00-12:00am - New Media – Social Networking: Getting Tapped In – Christopher Malagisi, Leadership Institute

12:00-12:45pm - Lunch

12:45-1:45pm - Wikipedia – Total Reputation Management – William Beutler, New Media Strategies

Tell America To Google The Facts!

Another Way To Follow The Campaign: Dipity’s Election Center Timelines, TechCrunch. 

Want to follow every Tweet, blog post, YouTube video and Flickr photo put out by the Obama or McCain camps? Now you can follow the campaigns in a handy Dipity Election Center timeline.

On October 7, former Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul sent an email to his list urging financial support for Republican candidate B.J. Lawson (N.C.-4). The result has been an influx of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign.

Excerpt of the email:

During my presidential campaign, we set records and shocked the political establishment with "Money Bombs." Individuals came together and pooled their contributions, large and small, to make a huge splash on one day. And, boy, did the Washington fat cats take notice!

Today, I am asking you to do the same for my friend B.J. Lawson. Will you make a contribution at www.lawsonforcongress.com?

I need B.J. in Congress with me to stand up for liberty and limited government, and against the Patriot Act and Wall Street bailouts.

Lawson is running against Democratic incumbent David Price who has one of the worst campaign websites I've ever seen.

The goal of Ron Paul's email was to bring in an additional $200K to the campaign; but it ended up bringing in over $250K for Lawson's campaign. (Lawson's campaign pushed the rest through their means.)

I asked Ron Paul's political director, Jesse Benton, about the money bomb and why Ron Paul decided to back Lawson. He said:

"The money bomb for B.J. Lawson was a confluence of three factors. First, Dr. Paul has tremendous fundraising appeal and his fans and supporters respond to his requests. His nationwide network is second to none. Secondly, B.J. Lawson is a great candidate, and people recognize that. Finally, Dr. Lawson spent time working with Dr. Paul's national following and developed name ID with them. Put all three together, and thousands of supporters came together to give a tidal wave of small contributions."

Will Ron Paul's extra $250K make the difference in the race? Perhaps. But one thing is clear, a national network of citizens like those connected by Paul can impact a Congressional race outside of the establishment.

Is Ron Paul a modern New Guard for the Right?

DEBATE FACT #5: RATING THE TWO CANDIDATES, JohnMcCain.com.

CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE: Barack Obama Has A Low Lifetime Rating Compared To John McCain's High Lifetime Rating

* Citizens Against Government Waste Gave Obama A Lifetime Rating Of 18 Percent. (Citizens Against Government Waste, "2007 Senate Ratings," councilfor.cagw.org, Accessed 10/4/08)

*Citizens Against Government Waste Gave McCain A Lifetime Rating Of 88 Percent. (Citizens Against Government Waste, "2007 Senate Ratings," councilfor.cagw.org, Accessed 10/4/08

Update: Tennessee man indicted for hacking Palin's e-mail account, InfoWorld.

David C. Kernell was indicted Tuesday on a single charge of accessing a protected computer by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville. The indictment, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, was unsealed Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

I just made a Palin VP YouTube clip to promote the phone banks across the country.  Support your local phone bank.

Palin Power

I fall into the percentage of people who made up their minds on who they were voting for a long time ago. When it became exceedingly clear that John McCain was the Republican nominee for President I threw my full support behind him. Not because I’ve grown up a Conservative Republican or a knee jerk reaction to tow the party line but because as the clear winner of the nomination, McCain is better equipped and experienced to lead this greatest nation through seemingly insurmountable odds than Barack Obama [and Hilary Clinton at the time] could. Insurmountable odds ranging from terrorism, to war, to rogue nations, to the economy, to energy independence and in turn allowing America to continue in freedom, liberty, and prosperity.

It will take nothing less than a miracle for me to change my vote. It is set in stone, inscribed in steel. After me and others like me, there is a percentage of people who make up their mind of who they are going to vote for between the nomination on up through to the end of the party convention. This makes up the majority of voters and I presume it is hard to change the minds of these voters to switch candidates. Now is the time when the campaigns are not trying to sway us so much as they are trying to sway those that are undecided. According to the ANES, American National Elections Studies, since 1948 to 2004 an average of 19.4% decide post convention, an average of 12.3% decide in the final two weeks, and an average of 4.8% decide on election day. In general, ’04 was even below the average.

Both campaigns are trying to reach these undecided voters through different means, one of which is asking help from us in volunteering to fill phone banks and talk to friends and strangers telling them why we are voting for [in our case] McCain.

How do we go about telling others why we support and are voting for McCain? I’ve spent the last several days poring over articles written by or linked from primarily Patrick Ruffini and David All [found in various locations]. It has been a confirmation of what I and others in the Republican party have noticed and have been frustrated about for some time and that is Democrats have been more adept at spreading their message across utilizing new mainstream/cutting edge technology. Using technology to get our message across is something we Republicans need to start tapping in to.

I think I’ve found a way that we can tell our personal reasons why we are supporting and voting for McCain/Palin that can far outreach our neighborhoods and cities, reaching the nation and trickling past our borders. A grassroots ad campaign starring regular Americans like us saying why we are for McCain/Palin. It would be through a little service called 12seconds.tv. What is 12seconds? Think twitter with video, where you upload a video but are limited to 12 seconds.

How would this work? Details can be found at the 12sec.R.ads website but as a quick run through: Record a 12 second video saying why you support the McCain/Palin ticket, e-mail to 12sec.R.ads, follow the 12sec.R.ads channel, and add @12secRads on twitter. Record and send in as many as you would like. If you can say why you are voting for McCain/Palin in 12 seconds, you can have your own ad in support.

You can always try requesting an invite from 12seconds.tv to create your own channel. Any videos that you upload that you would like to be an ad in support for McCain/Palin be sure to include in the tag or description “12secRad”.

I’d like to thank techRepublican for providing the exposure for this endeavor because as described in “How to Get On-Air, All the Time” by Patrick Gavin in Politics Magazine, techRepublican is “…a site dedicated to helping conservatives utilize Internet technology and opportunities…”.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Decision 2008, The Internet Changed Everything, Adotas. 

In 1996, when home Internet access was slow and relatively novel for most Americans, award-winning journalist Graeme Browning released her prophetic book titled “Electronic Democracy: Using The Internet To Transform American Politics” The title speaks for itself, and her book became an indispensable resource for those who were spearheading the online revolution as it pertains to politics.

Hulu's live debate streaming—cable's worst nightmare?, Ars Technica.

Hulu might well choose not to go forward with live, streaming TV for strategic reasons, but it's hard not to see tonight's experiment as a test run for the technology. Why else would Hulu even bother? The debates have been getting wall-to-wall coverage, they will be broadcast on over-the-air TV and cable, streamed from sites like CNN and MSNBC, and covered on the radio.

Here's a tip to all you fans of videos that feature young people singing and chanting praises to Barack Obama: Download them to your computer before they go viral because the videos will disappear as soon as the inevitable wave of ridicule in the blogosphere hits a fever pitch.

Two cases of such viral embarrassment have happened in less than a week.

The first episode occurred soon after The Drudge Report linked to a video called "Sing For Change," which featured elementary-aged children singing about hope, change and all things Obama. The video was broadly condemned. Even the nonpartisan blog PrezVid criticized the "creepy California parents" who made their kids sing words they couldn't possibly understand in political context.

Apparently stung by the criticism, the creator of the video, Obama supporter Kathy Sawada, made it "private" on YouTube. When YouTube users began attacking her in the comments, she deleted most of the comments but made the clip public again. That didn't last long, though. Now it's private again. (I downloaded the original and posted excerpts at Eyeblast.tv just in case.)

A few days later, another video called "Obama Youth" went viral. It features young black men from the Urban Community Leadership Academy in Kansas City, Mo., marching as they chant "Alpha, Omega," a phrase with messianic meaning. The youngsters also rotely recite Obama's "Yes We Can" motto and presidential plans, and they give him premature credit for who they hope to become.

That video began to spread online last week and hit its viral stride over the weekend. Today, the YouTube user who uploaded the video, presumably an Obama critic based on the video description, pulled it without explanation. (I have a copy of that one, too.)

The good news is that once someone pushes the publish button online, it's impossible to put the video genie back in the offline bottle. You can still watch complete versions of both "Sing For Change" and "Obama Youth" on YouTube, and "Sing For Change" already is the subject of parody after parody.

Obama's online October surprise will continue from now until Election Day and beyond.

Today I had the opportunity to call into a bipartisan bloggers conference call hosted by David All and Joe Trippi featuring a question and answer session with T. Boone Pickens regarding the Pickens Plan. You can listen to the audio of the call here.

Right now the United States is importing 70% of its oil from foreign countries costing us $700 billion annually (that number won’t just go away).

The Pickens Plan presents a clear solution to the cut down the dependence on foreign oil, which Pickens is spending $58 million dollars of his own money to advertise. His plan would not only reduce the amount of oil we import but would create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

The United States currently uses natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Pickens proposes we replace that with wind energy. He wants to build over 100,000 wind turbines throughout the “wind belt” (from Texas all the way north to Canada) over a ten-year period.

Pickens was asked: why now? Which is a reasonable question to ask an 80-year-old oil tycoon who could just go retire on a tropical island. Pickens said he noticed from Nixon forward that every president has promised an energy plan, but has done nothing. He understands this is his problem as much as ours.

Pickens made it clear his number one priority is to make sure America is not relying on other countries for oil for generations to come when he told the bloggers “Anything that reduces the dependence on foreign oil I’m for, as long it’s American.”

Pickens also touched on his meeting last week with Sarah Palin. He said their dialogue was mostly energy related and he thought she was qualified to handle energy policy on the national stage, more so than Obama or McCain.

Pickens will be hosting an e-rally before and after tomorrow night’s second presidential debate to talk about energy independence and the Pickens Plan. There are already 400,000 people signed up for it.  To participate you can RSVP here.