Friday, November 28, 2008

Is Google rigged in favor of Obama? Or is a right-wing PUMA blogger pulling a techno-con?

As you may know, the PUMA contingent -- which the Democratic party foolishly derides as a mere "fringe" movement -- is itself divided. The Confluence represents the liberal wing of PUMA, while No Quarter represents the libertarian wing-nuts. (Bloody libertarians. They're everywhere.) The right-wing PUMA sites tend to publish the flakier material.

Case in point: Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugged, which relentlessly pushed Techdude's inane hidden-pictures-in-the-COLB thesis. She's a right-winger if ever one existed.

I stumbled across this new piece on Geller's site, which claims that Google has taken extreme measures to make sure that her anti-Obama writings are unsearchable. Yes, the front page of her site still comes up in a Google search, but the pages within the site no longer do. In other words, you can't access her older articles.

Or so she claims.

I thought this assertion sounded goofy, so I decided to check it out. Pamela says that if you try to use Google to do an intra-site search, you will come up goose eggs. The Google-powered intra-site search box is on the right-hand side of her main page. (There's one on this site too, at the very top.) Scroll down to that search box and mark "atlasshrugs2," not "web." Then type in something. Anything.

I typed in the name "Techdude" and -- sure enough -- got a very ominous-looking "Forbidden" response.

How can this be?

One oddity struck me: The name "atlasshrugs2." Why the "2"? Did Pamela arrange it so that the search went not to her own site, but to a non-existent site?

Go to www.Google.com. Type in Pamela Geller's domain name "atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com," then type in "techdude." Lo and behold, you will receive these links. Hit the phrase "More results from atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com »" and you will instantly come face-to-face with a whole bunch of Geller writings. This, despite the fact that she claims that her site is no longer searchable using Google.

Nevertheless, she asks her readers for Paypal donations to help her investigate the Great Google Conspiracy Against Pamela Geller. Cute, eh?

One of the first English-language novels was Samuel Richardson's Pamela. Henry Fielding responded with a parody called Shamela. It's about a lady who pretends to be virtuous even though she is, in fact, quite the manipulative schemer.

15 comments:

lupita from los angeles said...

There is truth to it. I created two anti-Obama blogs called hillarydemocrats.blogspot.com and hearthillary.blogspot.com and I can't access either now. Blogspot is a Google service and I KNOW the username and password but Google continues to say "username and password not found." Even when I request the password and its the same as the gmail account that I get in on it still says the same error. Google is definitely an Obama sponsored censorship service.

Anonymous said...

I googled my alias and discovered I have been places and said things I never knew about.

Like Atlanta

I also discovered that I was recently "slain" which is a bummer because I already paid next month's rent.

Joseph Cannon said...

lupita -- I hated it when Blogger switched its sign-in policy, forcing us all to get Gmail accounts. I don't like Gmail. (You can't open up letters in separate tabs using the right-click function.)

But I finally figured out that to get in, all I needed was the Gmail username (without the @gmail.com). It SHOULD work.

If not, complain to Blogger. I know it is hard to find the address, but there IS a way to do it.

Anonymous said...

I do not view this one PUMA's con job, if it is one, as discrediting the movement. It is only an individual action, which to me does not reflect on the vast remainder of the movement.

However, by your past precedents, Joe, shouldn't you now utterly damn the movement and disassociate yourself from them?

If not, what distinction do you draw in this case, where before you have often, synedoche-style, inferred the characterization of the whole from the part?

XIslander

Joseph Cannon said...

Libertarians suck. How's that?

Anonymous said...

Just tell Pam we made a donation in her name to the Human Fund.

Happy Festivus.

Anonymous said...

I have loads of trouble with Google and blogging......the bots are quirky with the blogs. I first thought it was a conspiracy, but I found a pattern after many attempts to correct it, so I sincerely doubt it is any great googleObot conspiracy.
kc

Anonymous said...

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but sometime ago I read that Google was seeded with money from either the NSA and/or CIA. Plus, I've been tracking for a long time the ongoing anomalies resulting from searches and have noticed many changes. I wouldn’t go so far as to say what is happening is an Obama thing. From what I understand Obama is a TEAM member in the Shadow Government section out of Chicago which the family is directly linked with. Actually Joe, I keep waiting and wondering when people will finally come to realize what is going on. There is another part to this that is most interesting and also threatening. There are currently technical links using state or art technology allowing micro-snooping on all of us at home. It’s currently in place and being used for a variety of reasons, some possibly good but mostly bad. Even if you’re not connected to the Internet at home, what you don’t know is they have access to your system. I’m dealing with this all the time and it surprises me that no one has caught on yet. So it isn’t just a Google thing as it’s a lot bigger than this, better widen your world of knowledge in this area, Joe!

Marty Didier
Northbrook, IL

Unknown said...

I'm an independent radical centrist puma :)

Am I right or left wing puma then? Love this blog, if that helps....lol.

Last Lemming said...

. . .Obama is a TEAM member in the Shadow Government section out of Chicago. . .

I'm glad I'm not alone in finally reaching that conclusion.

Peter of Lone Tree said...

For "Searching" I recommend
http://www.cuil.com/
and/or
http://clusty.com/

Bob Harrison said...

Just get Pammy's pinup calendar and all your doubts will drool away.

I claim to be a Moderate Puma, which means I am mightily confused.

And bored.

1950 Democrat said...

I read Geller's article and you're being unfair to it. From Google.com, just key words like
'Obama Odingo' should bring up articles at her site, without having to specify her site.

Also, what about the odd pattern of her hits and ad clicks going down almost instantly?

I don't accuse Google at this point, it could be some glitch somewhere. But you're being over-hasty accusing Geller of a con. That's a serious accusation for one Puma site to make of another.

Before accusing anyone of malicious action, we should see if the evidence can be accounted for by some sort of glitch. If not, we can't accuse Geller of a con without finding some other explanation for her evidence.

IF all other explanations fail and we must assume malice, better to assume malice by Google (whose leaders are on record as favoring Obama) than assuming malice by a Puma (Geller) who has certainly lost revenue for whatever reason.

And sexism in a Puma site is especially offensive ('pinup calendar').

Anonymous said...

Joe, Pam is NOT a PUMA, she's a ripsnortin' rootin' tootin' right wing Republican.

PatGund@gmail.com said...

I wouldn't call Pamela Geller a Democrat or a PUMA - she seems to stand to the right of Attila the Hun, and she's a dyed in the wool Hillary Hater. (To the point that she's accused the Clintons of the whole COLB mythos.)