Category: Doug Ross

Did SiteMeter Commit Suicide?
UPDATE: It’s Working Again, But Unfortunately, My Traffic Sucks

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As of right now, it’s dead. Donald Douglas at American Power and Doug Ross at Director Blue both report that the best, easiest-to-use traffic analytics site failed to renew its domain registration, an error that would require a special kind of stupidity.

Let’s all say a prayer that they can get it fixed, because without SiteMeter, I feel like I’m blogging blind.

People talk about other analytic software as being technologically superior, but here’s the thing: SiteMeter allowed sites to make their traffic data public in real-time. This permitted apples-to-apples comparisons between sites, which was especially helpful information for entry-level bloggers trying to figure out how to grow their traffic.

You could not only know what your own site traffic was at any time, but you could also see who had more or less traffic, and whose links were driving traffic to other sites. Some bloggers (foolishly, IMO) set their SiteMeters to private, as if they were embarrassed to reveal their traffic data, or as if they failed to understand the value of transparency. “No shame in my game” has always been my attitude, and I simply can’t understand why anyone would attempt to conceal their traffic data as if it were a proprietary trade secret.

Constantly checking SiteMeter is a deeply ingrained habit for many of us, an addiction classified as a symptom of Blogger Mood Disorder by Professor William Jacobson,  (See also “Site Meter Envy” and “Sitemeterenfreude.”)

There was a time when Technorati was also useful as an analytic tool for bloggers, but they “improved” it until they ruined it,  and if SiteMeter has now managed to commit online seppuku, this would represent a real loss to the blogging community.

UPDATE: Linked by Ed Driscoll and Charles G. Hill and now — without explanation — SiteMeter is working again, which is depressing, because my traffic sucks so far today.

Ignorance is truly bliss sometimes . . .

 

What’s Bigger Than the Cato Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and AEI?

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TheOtherMcCain.com — at least according to The Top 150 Conservative Websites list compiled by Doug Ross, based on Alexa rankings.

We’re at No. 68, ahead of the Web sites of those three think tanks, and closing in on such traffic monsters as Hannity.com (#64), MarkLevinShow.com (#60) and AnnCoulter.com (#58). I’m also pleased to see that the list includes such of our blog buddies as Wintery Knight (#150), Sundries Shack (#137), Moe Lane (#135), Legal Insurrection (#99) and The Lonely Conservative (#96).

However, notice that Ace of Spades HQ is included at #28 on the list only as part of the whole mu.nu universe, an oddity that casts in doubt the accuracy of the rankings, as does the ranking of PajamasMedia.com — including Instapundit — at #16, below Mediaite among others.

Well: Go read the whole thing. If Doug’s gonna go to the trouble of compiling a list like that, the least you can do is read it! (And you might want hit his tip jar while you’re over there.)

CAIR Loves ‘Em Some LGF: ‘Glad to See That Chaz Is Now Marketing the Caliphate’

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Doug Ross: “It’s come to this: CAIR now tweeting links to LGF.”

“Breivik was deeply involved in the ‘counter-jihad’ blogosphere and UK far right groups . . . Breivik boasted online of his discussions with the English Defence League (the anti-Muslim group praised and supported by US bloggers Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller), and with ‘Stop the Islamisation of Europe’ — the European branch of Pamela Geller’s ‘Stop the Islamization of America’ (listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center).”

Johnson’s dhimmi-fication could not be more complete if he joined the Gaza flotilla and composed a jazz-guitar anthem, “Ode to St. Pancake.” The fact that he’s citing the SPLC and getting re-Tweeted by CAIR pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Of course, tu quoque: “Norway Shooter a Charles Johnson Fan,” Pamela Geller says, and she also notes that Oslo massacre suspect Anders Behring Breivk had been rejected from Stop Islamicization of Europe, as SIOE’s founder told Reuters.

Pamela further notes — and screen-caps, in case CJ tries to put it down the memory hole — Johnson’s own comment (about 11:30 a.m. PT/2:30 p.m. ET Friday):

“The simultaneous attacks sound like Al Qaeda to me, as does the scale of the bombing.”

And that was after some witnesses had already been quoted in the press saying the Utoya shooter was blond. Continue reading CAIR Loves ‘Em Some LGF: ‘Glad to See That Chaz Is Now Marketing the Caliphate’ →

Sully: Israelis ‘Got Their US Media Mouthpieces’ to Criticize Obama’s Speech

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“So it’s pretty obvious that it was the Israelis who immediately got their US media mouthpieces to spin the speech as some sort of attack.”
— Andrew Sullivan, May 20

Doug Ross called attention to this rather disturbing accusation: U.S. criticism of President Obama’s speech was not really of domestic origin, Sully says, but rather was the result of Israeli manipulation.

Sullivan makes specific mention of Matt Drudge, Fox News and Mitt Romney. Which of these, or which others, does he outright accuse of being “mouthpieces” issuing “spin” at the behest of Israelis?

My own response to the speech was to aggregate the reactions of others, and I noted that Max Boot of Commentary, Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and John Tabin of The American Spectator all initially saw Obama’s speech as very Bush-like. William Jacobson was immediately critical, as was Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, but there seemed to be a delay before John Podhoretz and Omri Ceren came out with negative reactions.

It may be fair to suppose that some of Obama’s critics took their cue from Israeli sources: “Let’s see what Bibi says” is a reasonable stance for those who profess friendship for Israel. But that is a very different thing than Andrew Sullivan’s depiction of Israeli puppeteers secretly pulling the strings of their American media marionettes.

You can’t just casually drop that kind of accusation into a post and then walk away as if you hadn’t said it.

UPDATE: Jeff Dunetz sees widespread use of the “Jewish media manipulation” meme on the Left.

UPDATE II: Linked by Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom — thanks!

UPDATE III: Linked by Moe Lane, although I’m pretty certain it’s spelled “Joooozz!”

Your Irregular Rick Moran Update

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You may have asked yourself, “What’s Rick Moran been up to lately?”

Or perhaps you’re now asking yourself, “Who the heck is Rick Moran?”

Circa 2009, Smitty would occasionally kick Rick around a bit just for fun, but that was then and this is now, and Smitty’s found more lively amusement in Afghanistan lately. So in case you’re a longtime readers with a long memory who pines for the old days of Moran-bashing, here’s an update:

Thursday, when Obama visited Ground Zero, Jake Tapper of ABC News sent out this Tweet:

One minute to air and they decided to take the flag down from the live shot! http://twitpic.com/4tv4br

This created instant outrage among conservative bloggers, who interpreted Tapper’s message as saying that someone — the stage managers for Team Obama, perhaps with politically correct motives? — had decided to remove the U.S. flag from the background of the president’s appearance.

Au contraire, as it turns out that Tapper sent that message after the president had already come and gone from the Ground Zero site. What Tapper was complaining about was that workers cleaning up the site after Obama’s appearance had removed the flag right before the post-event “live shot” in which Tapper would be interviewed on-camera to give his report of the event.

In other words, the workers had deprived Tapper of the camera-friendly background he had hoped for — but this took place after the presidential event. The flag had been present throughout Obama’s Ground Zero appearance.

Meanwhile, however, the misunderstood Tweet caused a huge blow-up on the blogosphere, regrettably handing Oliver Willis of Media Matters a “nyah nyah” moment.

So where does Rick Moran fit into this narrative? During the flag brouhaha, Doug Ross had used the phrase “Marxist left” to describe Obama’s supporters. This led to a stern lecture by Moran, which Doug Ross describes for your edification.

Me? I had nothing to do with any of that.

My coverage of Obama’s appearance at Ground Zero was pre-empted by a much-needed nap. I get in less trouble that way.

You should hit my tip jar.