Readers of conservative and liberal blogs appear to inhabit diametrically opposed realities, our recent survey of blog readers indicates.

Compared with conservative blog readers, readers of liberal blogs are 13 times more likely to be “very concerned” about climate change. Liberal blog readers are nearly 6 times more likely to rely on newspapers versus conservative blog readers. Liberal blog readers are also 1.9 times more optimistic about making a major purchase in today’s economy.

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From Portland to London, mayoral races seem to bring out some of the best in understated video giggles.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund grabbed prime real estate today — at exactly the right moment!

As news of the President’s decision to compromise on his controversial birth control announcement unfolded on Daily Kos today (see three screenshots below), Planned Parenthood’s bright pink ads ran right alongside the story. The ad takeover and fully-clickable background skin encourages the active readers of Daily Kos to voice their support of women’s access to birth control.

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Piers Morgan had a little fun last night after Mitt Romney sang “America the Beautiful” at a campaign event in The Villages, Florida. On the heels of the President’s abbreviated rendition of “Let’s Stay Together,” we have to wonder if Romney is throwing down some sort of musical gauntlet. While Romney may not have the dulcet tones of our President, he at least committed to an entire verse.

Will the presidential campaign start looking more like American Idol this year? Life imitating art, man!

So we ask you, who would you text to vote for in Presidential Idol? (Vote in the poll below the videos.) (more…)

Blogads.com’s Political Strategist, Donald Hughes, was in Washington, DC last night for the first State of the Union Tweetup hosted by the White House. Here are some of the highlights from his day… Storified! (more…)

From Bull City to the Capital City

In 2002, George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address was the first to be broadcast live on the Internet. Tomorrow night, President Obama’s White House will be marking another SOTU first with a live Tweetup.

Followers of the @WhiteHouse on Twitter were invited to apply for a chance to visit the White House and join a live online discussion of the State of the Union, followed by an in-person panel with Administration officials. We’re excited to announce that our own Political Advertising Strategist, Donald Hughes, was one of the Twitter users chosen to participate.

Donald often finds himself at the intersection of politics, technology and current events, so it’s no surprise to us that he was picked for this historic event. In the Tweetup application, which asked Twitterers to express their interest in 140 characters or less, he called Twitter the “Woodstock for Millennials.” Like Woodstock, he explained, Twitter is a venue for freedom of expression, where people can share everything about who they are and what they’re interested in.

In addition to their own questions and commentary, the Tweetup participants will also be able to ask questions on behalf of their own followers. So be sure to follow Donald at @DonaldHughes for live updates, photos and an opportunity to participate in the  White House Tweeteup (#WHTweetup) tomorrow night.

In protest of the upcoming vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, the following web sites are unavailable for you to use. Instead, they are using today to show users what censorship really looks like, and ultimately, to encourage people to take action.

Wikipedia

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A post over at Daily Kos alerted us to the Internet Blacklist Bill, which the House introduced today. The bill could hold sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook responsible for user-generated content uploaded to their servers. Post author and Rhode Island state congressman David Segal warns that if the the bill passes as-is, it would:

1) Give the government and private corporations new powers to block access to sites accused of copyright infringement;

2) Criminalize the streaming of copyrighted content;

3) Restrict cloud-based storage services, music lockers, and the like;

4) Create the aforementioned new liabilities for sites that encourage the posting of user-generated content.

“Nobody will want to take that risk,” says Segal, “So these sites and others could be forced to shut down if it manages to pass as it stands.
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Next week North Carolina legislators will debate an amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

We at Blogads believe this amendment and the divisive debate it creates are counterproductive to attracting new business and jobs to our state.

The amendment is a distraction from the important economic issues our lawmakers should be tackling.

And the proposed amendment is just plain wrong.

Our fellow North Carolinians know it, too.

If you are a business leader in North Carolina (CEO, Director, President, Officer), you should sign-on to a letter opposing the legislation. I’ve just done so as CEO of Blogads. To get involved, e-mail with your name, title and company name to John Parker at JohnP /at/ goodwork.org.

photo by Lucas Hale

Today is Primary Day in Virginia, with voters casting ballots for local and legislative races. State Senate hopeful Adam Ebbin, and Delegate candidates Stephanie Clifford and Alfonso Lopez, spent the last couple weeks vying for the attention of local Democrats by running ads on state blog Blue Virginia.

Blue Virginia gets over ~100k page views each month from Virginia’s most fired-up and active liberals. The blog seems like a natural fit for local Democratic candidates hoping to reach the right kinds of voters. I asked Blue Virginia founder Lowell Feld about local politicians buying blog advertising:

What I find interesting is how many Democratic candidates do NOT put up ads on the leading pro-Democratic blogs in their states. I mean, candidates spend enormous amounts of money on direct mail, radio, TV, consultants, whatever, but they don’t think it’s smart to advertise on blogs – and other social media, for that matter – where they can reach the activists – the people who lick the envelopes, knock the doors, make the phone calls, donate the money to their campaigns? I’ve never fully understood that, especially when advertising on blogs is usually very inexpensive, certainly compared to other alternatives.