A New Approach to China

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.

(H/T @PatrickRuffini)

Tracking Moveon.org Emails for the Greater Good

My friend Charles Lenchner has a fascinating new obsession — he’s keeping track of advocacy emails from MoveOn.org and publishing them for the larger advocacy community to check out. The goal? To study an unusually effective list and get an idea of their tactics over time, including subject lines, content, narrative arcs and all of the other elements that go into a successful email campaign.

How a Twitter ReTweet Promotion Really Works

While I don’t work for or with them, I often use men’s and women’s clothing retailer Express as a great example of social media marketing. Formerly part of Limited Brands, which includes Victoria’s Secret, another social media powerhouse, Express only recently started selling clothes online and are relatively new to the Twittersphere. But they jumped in, in a big way, and are doing a great job.

This Will Be the Year Adobe's 2 Million Flash Developers Come to the iPhone

It’s no secret that Apple doesn’t like Flash. It won’t allow Flash apps to run on the iPhone or iPod Touch despite all of Adobe’s cajoling and pleading, and despite the fact that it’s long been working in the labs. The iPhone’s lack of support for Flash is a major inconvenience for both consumers and developers, and is a gaping hole in the iPhone’s arsenal.

But all of that is about to change because Adobe is going to bring its 2 million Flash developers to the iPhone, with or without Apple’s blessing. 

This morning, I jumped on a bloggers conference call with Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11). McCotter is the chair of the Republican Policy Committee, and a few months ago he spoke to the weekly bloggers briefing hosted by Rob Bluey at Heritage.

I was a few minutes late, so I missed the Congressman’s introductory remarks. But they’ll be hosting more of these calls to reach out to bloggers in the future, and you can contact Bettina Inclan at - bettina (dot) inclan (at) mail (dot) house (dot) gov to get the details.

Standard disclaimer - I’m a blogger, not a reporter, so some of these remarks are paraphrased.

2008 Initiatives
McCotter was asked what policy initiatives were on tap for 2008?

We have to bury the past. Our policies became about numbers, not about helping people. We have to bring back the centrality of people to policy making.

On the Democrats

Big government doesn’t stop chaos, it is chaos.
They [Democrats] are intent on taking more peoples’ money.

On Michigan

McCotter stated that Michigan, his home state (and mine) is tracking just like the National Democrats.
The Democrat Governor Granholm has been pushing through tax hikes to “protect government”. And this will backfire against the Democrats politically.

Roll of Political Blogs

They offer the ability to get your message out.

Representative Kingston, among others have paved the way for Republicans in the House to reach out the bloggers.
It’ll be the younger members who really embrace the medium though.

McCotter also said that at the Republican Policy Committee, “We’ve learned from our failure to communicate from every medium we can find.”

Communist China

We need fair trade with free nations.

We should not be trading with Communist China. Trade with that country is imperiling trade with Latin America and other countries. According to recent polls, a majority of Republicans think free trade is bad for the U.S. not because of trade with other countries. It’s because of trade with Communist China.

On a similar note, here’s McCotter speaking on the house floor about China’s decision to ban Bibles at the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing.

Special thanks to Congressman McCotter and his staff for continuing to reach out to bloggers and working to make an impact in the modern world.