Bloggin da Burgh

It started off as many other days for me and my teammates. We had just completed a new client’s pay-per-click (PPC) campaign for Google AdWords, MSN AdCenter, and Yahoo! Search Engine Marketing (Formerly Overture when it wasn’t as buggy). This client wanted very conservative budgets set up on all three which we did. Little did we know what we were in store for. This morning we awoke, checked on the status of our PPC campaigns and witnessed first hand Yahoo!’s own version of the “shock and awe” campaign or better referred to as “Content Match”. Before you read any further, we advise EVERYONE who reads this and who advertises using Yahoo to DISABLE “Content Match” IMMEDIATELY! This automatically opted in add on to the Yahoo! Search Engine Marketing’s interface is absolutely FRAUGHT with FRAUD and Black Wednesday as many Yahooligans are referring to 4/26/06 quickly established how vulnerable their PPC program was to spammers and spyware all over the place. One of our campaigns which averaged around $30 in clicks over the past 60 months (5 years) wound up with over $1,200 on that single day! Yahoo! search support personnel were absolutely innundated with phone calls and e-mail complaints from simply asking them what had happened to actually threatening class action lawsuits and filing complaints with the CA BBB, the FTC, and the CA State Attorney General’s office.

Currently the NY State Attorney General’s office is investigating this matter. Ken Dreifach, chief of the Internet bureau in the New York State Attorney General’s office, said that entities such as Google and Yahoo can be held accountable for how their affiliates use their content. We recommend filing a complaint with these folks first (http://www.oag.state.ny.us/complaints/complaints.html). I was lead to believe that I was one of the first complaintants to file with the NY attorney general regarding Black Wednesday and I would appreciate others sharing their concerns through comments to this blog (especially any sort of strange activity on their accounts on 4/26/06). I am going to attempt to solicit an attorney to help us launch a class action lawsuit against Yahoo! for these spywares abuses that Yahoo! seems to be ok looking the other way on. Please tell me your story and if you would like to read more on Ben Edelman’s investigation into this newest form of click fraud, please feel free to go to: http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1406/

Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you!

It amazes me why more of my fellow Americans aren’t absolutely floored and flabbergasted by this travesty!

What is going on here?!!

The republicans absolutely blasted Clinton during the whole sex scandal due more to questions about morality rather than it’s actual implications on the white house. Because the republican party which once included names like Abraham Lincoln to it’s roster have become a veritable “Evangelical Sideshow” and live by the spin. Hell, what am I talking about, the whole political process is no longer led by things like honesty and character; it is ruled by who has a better campaign manager and more importantly who has the better lobby. I am not talking hotels here, people, I am talking about “special interest groups” who have taken over the political process.

If this were not the president (Bush) and vice president (Cheney) we were talking about regarding the “outing” of CIA officer Valerie Plame; this would be a case of treason and would end up in someone or several someones facing the firing squad (death penalty). As it is, it is FAR more serious and haneous. If this action is true, Bush and Cheney should be immediately removed from office and placed in a military prison.
How many more freedoms that America has fought to keep over our 200 year history are we willing to surrender?! This president has pretty much thrown away the american people’s rights and freedoms under the veil of fear. Bush has already admitted to spying on Americans and now it appears he may have outed a federal agent working for the CIA because of statements that her husband made. Over politics, Mrs. Plame could have very easily lost her life – What the Fart is going on here?! And while Americans continue to pay $3/gallon for gas (incidentally, it was under a $1/gallon during Clinton’s affairs), and american heroes continue to die over in Iraq (for the Oil industry), all the while our very own “al-queda” groups (US militias-remember the folks that blew up the FBI building in Oklahoma?) continue to grow unchecked. Funny how we went to war over religious extremism in the Middle East (oh wait, it was because Saddam Hussein was a “bad guy”), but the same religious extreme people are taking over the democratic process in America. Extremism is not good whether or not the group practicing it, thinks it is good or not! Do you think really think that Al-Queda thinks they are doing a bad thing? Newsflash, everytime we as Americans are no longer able to make our own choices about what we watch, what we listen to, and what we say-our enemies win. Al Queda is alive and well in the USA only they seem to have infiltrated the Republican party as a whole. Let’s look at the past couple of weeks:

1. Bush knowingly almost allowed Arabs to purchase several of our incoming sea ports known as the “Dubai Ports Scandal”

2. While hunting illegally, Cheney shoots and almost kills his hunting partner, than tried to cover it up.

3. Bush and Cheney appear to have been seriously involved in this CIA leak regarding Valerie Plame.

I’ll tell you what, I’ll take an adulterous president over the above any day of the week – and this may blow your mind, but, I am actually a conservative and registered member of the Republican party. Only difference is, I have an IQ over 100. I voted for Ridge when he was governor of PA, I voted for Specter (and will vote for him every time he runs because he is actually a person with character), and I voted for Bush the first time he ran (I did not make the same mistake twice). Unlike most of you morons out there, I have NEVER simply pushed the “republican ticket” lever or the “democrat ticket” lever – I think anybody that hits that lever should automatically have their votes pulled from the final tally! In fact, they should mix up the candidates on the board so that people actually have to find the names of the candidates that they want to vote for and not even include their political affiliation – pure and simple, if you are too much of an idiot to know background about the candidates, than you are too much of an idiot to be allowed to vote!

Yep, you heard it here first. Any guy out there knows this channel very well because their significant other/girlfriend/mistress is addicted to this station.  These “lifetime movies” feature possibly the worst acting outside of the pornography industry. To this day, I still cannot figure out why it has such a hold on the female population. Oddly enough, this “hold” is a multi-generational one. I have personally witnessed a room in which a teenage daughter, a mom, and a grandmother were glued to the tv and guess what channel was on? None other than the “Lifetime Channel”. I know that many of the female persuasion will simply say that it is similar to the “sports channel” hold on the men of this world, but, at least sports are real and not pre-scripted to be awful (as a baseball fan in Pittsburgh, it is all too real how “awful” sports can be :p).

I guess i’m jealous, because I just don’t get it

Well, just finished watching the show “Bonds on Bonds” on ESPN. Since he began his career as a Pittsburgh Pirate, I feel I can chime in on this. My opinion may be surprising to you. I may be the only person in America who thinks this way, but, I am NOT CONVINCED that Mr. Bonds used any steroids. Barry Bonds is alot of things, but, until I see a POSITIVE DRUG test; I am going to treat him as I would expect most AMERICANS to – INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. It still amazes me to see these people out there thinking that steroids are some sort of magic pill. You think Barry is in good physical shape…you think he is very muscular? He is no more muscular than the 50th man on any NFL roster…oh, but we couldn’t possibly think that the near and dear football sport could be doing something like cheating. How can we as Steeler fans actually get on Bonds, when to a player, the Steelers who won 4 superbowl rings admitted to using steroids….has that tainted your view of those superbowls? I don’t think so. Football is riddled with performance enhancers (may not always be steroids, but performance enhancers just the same) – yet Football is the king of sports in america. Go figure. As far as I know, Rafael Palmiero is the ONLY big name MLB player to test positive for it – anybody remember how many top NFL players tested positive the year they began testing for steroids? There were quite a few more than 1.

1. Bonds hasn’t tested positive for steroids.

2. If he did use at one time before testing was instituted and it wasn’t against MLB rules, you cannot penalize him for it.

3. This guy’s diet and exercise regime resembles that of many NFL players. Funny how nobody wonders how Kimo Von Olhoffen grew so much muscle from his high school days to his college days.

Ok, who is going to be the first one to say, “Here we go again ”

Hold on a second, this is the very first game of the year and a season that goes on for 161 more. While I will not certainly welcome a loss, I was only disappointed in two things yesterday:

1. The bullpen

2. The heart of the order

I was very happy with Ollie’s return and Bay had a very good day, although I think Tracy should move Burnitz in front of Bay…give Burnitz a steady flow of fastballs and the homers will keep coming

I think Oliver Perez is a pitcher of the WRONG era…if he were a pitcher from the 1950s, a time when starting pitchers would throw a fit for being taken out before the end of a game, he would probably be the greatest pitcher of the game right now….anybody else notice that the more ollie pitches, the better he gets? it seems like the first 4 innings for him is like a warmup and if they would just let him pitch he would become great once again….one of the bigger bonehead moves Littlefield has made in his tenure with the bucs (one of many in my view) is that so-called “miscommunication” between Littlefield and Perez during the 2004 offseason where Perez “misunderstood” Littlefield and did not pitch at all during the 2004 offseason instead of his usual routine of throwing in the mexican league – JUST LET HIM THROW, DAVE!

While i’m not real concerned over 1 game, the bucs cannot afford the ever be much more than 5 games off of the pace, because this team lacks the tools to run off huge winning streaks.

I am a Pirate fan through and through, but I am not a fan of Kevin McClatchy or David Littlefield…KM is definitely going to sell this franchise after this year and GOOD RIDDANCE to him…this penny ante little league payroll that he seems obsessed with will never bring a championship calibre team to Pittsburgh…and if DL really did not want to trade Aramis Ramirez to the cubs for nothing, than he should have resigned right there….unless DL improves this team dramatically, that trade will haunt him personally throughout the rest of his career.

I just hope this game isnt an omen of things to come, or it’s going to be a very difficult year to be a Pirate fan.

Looks like the Gov is going to face an uphill battle from the righties. Here is the dickering points in a nutshell. The righties (lead by House Majority Leader Sam Smith, of Punxsutawney, and Republican Appropriations Chairman Brett Feese, of Lycoming County) would rather keep the states current $24.5 billion dollar budget from last year, Rendell wants to increase that number to $25.4 Billion dollars to cover the following:

$552 million in additional welfare spending, including more medical aid for low-income persons and health insurance for children whose parents can’t afford it.  (how dare the gov, actually trying to help the poor and infirmed – what is he thinking )
$224 million increase in the basic education spending for public schools.  (once again, what is Rendell thinking? education…the righties think education is dangerous)
A $50 million increase for pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten programs (helping single moms attain better careers by starting schooling earlier? starting children in schools earlier? those are horrible ideas )
$48 million increase for state prisons (this i do not agree with at all….if anything they should lower the budget $50M – i have the solution to the penal system – McDonalds and Playstations…give every prisoner a Playstation and have an all you can eat McDonalds at every prison and take out all of the weight sets and gyms, etc….fat and lazy prisoners dont riot, fat and lazy prisoners dont rape, and they would probably be less likely to return to prison + McDonalds could feed inmates at far less cost per diem than any state or federally run program)
$38 million increase for special education programs (Gov, are you nuts, helping educate the people who really need extra assistance? Next thing, you’ll be suggesting smaller classrooms )
$20 million “Classrooms for the Futures” plan, putting laptop computers on all high school desks (this idea i dont like unless it means these kids will also be able to take these laptops home….this move would level the playing field a little bit tween the burb kids and the burgh kids:) )
$10 million for a new program to teach science education in elementary schools. (the righties will oppose this measure full force, see righties think the earth is flat and only 6K years old LOLOL)
A mass transit funding increase of 2 percent. (this i do not agree with at all unless it means expanding the T system….PAT drivers are overpaid and are the most surly customer service people you will ever find – most drivers must have been former AT&T employees or something   – seriously PAT is the only jobs i know where you actually are promoted to your highest level of surliness – if they ever expand the T out to Oakland, those slum lords will be running for the hills )
His plan to redirect $35 million of the state’s tobacco settlement money to pay debt service on a $500 million program for biomedical research facilities. (we should not be sattled with a $500M program for these biomed facilities in the first place; let them PAY THEIR OWN RESEARCH! companies like UPMC do not pay taxes on any of their real estate holdings – is that fair? NO! they do not need any more help, let them pay for it themselves! )
Believe it or not, the righties are actually ok with raising the budget $730M to cover an inflation rate of around 3%, so actually, the righties and Rendell are only about $170M apart …woohoo! let me check my math on this one:

25,400,000,000.00 – 24,500,000,000.00 = 900,000,000.00

900,000,000.00 – 730,000,000.00 = 170,000,000.00

CORRECT

geeze, thats alot of zeroes….funny how huge that looks as opposed to saying $25.4B….only $170M separates the two

so both sides will dicker and dicker until the dickering costs the taxpayers about 200,000,000.00 – so much for the difference, because if there is one thing that righties and the right agree on is that dickering gives them a reason to up their paychecks every quarter or so