Stalking Horse is a Spoiler

I didn't know there was an official name for a political spoiler until today. You know, the candidate that is similar to another, more popular candidate of one of the major parties. Usually the spoiler only differs in a hand full of points from the main party candidates. In all cases, the spoiler is always, without exception, running for ego driven, self-aggrandizement purposes. Otherwise, they'd focus on getting their "team member" elected and work with the major candidate's administration to get their points of views worked on from within the system.

The bad thing (at least when it's your party) about the spoiler is that they drain away enough votes from their ideological peer to allow the opposition party to win. Think Ralph Nader's affect on Al Gore's chances for United States president in 2000.

Thanks to Anu Garg's Wordsmith.org A Word A Day email, now I know the official word for political spoiler.


Stalking Horse 1

MEANING: noun:

1. Something used to mask the true purpose.

2. A candidate put forward in an election to draw votes from another or to conceal another's potential candidacy.

ETYMOLOGY: After the former practice of bird hunters of hiding behind a horse (or a decoy) until he had reached within close range of prey.
This week's theme: words about government, politics, and elections.


Stalking Horse 2

1. Something used to cover one's true purpose; a decoy.

2. A sham candidate put forward to conceal the candidacy of another or to divide the opposition.

3. A horse trained to conceal the hunter while stalking. A canvas screen made in the figure of a horse, used for similar concealment.

Twitter Helps Us Protect USA Democracy

Use your Twitter Account to help make sure the November 4th election is fair. Anyone with a Twitter.com account can use their cell phones or their computers to send a message and notify voters and election monitors around the country. The main webite page with all the details: http://votereport.pbwiki.com/, http://twittervotereport.com/ and follow Vote Report on Twitter. Tweet the Vote!

Even if you don't want to participate on the backend of setting up or running this project, send any notes about voting irregularities to the universal tag (or hashtag) #votereport. A quick rundown on how you can participate.

Ways to Use VoteReport

• Twitter: include #votereport and other tags to describe the scene on the ground
• For individuals with serious legal issues or someone you know is being prevented from voting
  

- Tweet #EP{two-letter state code} - e.g. #EPNY for New York, #EPOH for Ohio - and a brief message about your problem, and we'll tweet back with next steps. We have a whole coalition of voting experts supporting us.

- Tag for additional issues: #machine - use this tag to signal a problem with a voting machine

- #registration - use this tag to signal problems with the registration process, people being turned away for paperwok reasons

- #wait:time - use this tag to signal a long wait. Add a colon and the wait time in minutes - e.g. #wait:30 for half an hour, #wait:120 for two hours.

• SMS: Send text messages to 66937 starting with the keyword #votereport plus other hash tags (above)
• iPhone: We expect to have an iPhoneApp in the App Store by election day
• Phone: Call our automated system to report about conditions, using any touch-tone phone
• Talk to a human to report bad conditions you've observed, please call our partner 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

If you needed any proof about how effective and powerful Twitter is for leveling the mass media and mass communications playing field, all you need to do is read this Fox News headline from Sunday, October 26th: U.S. Army Says Blogging Site 'Twitter' Could Become Terrorist Tool. The fact that Fox News hates Twitter gives Twitter all the credibility it needs. In case you hadn't caught on, anything Fox News hates or feels threatened by gets labeled terrorist. Too bad for them that they cry wolf too often by throwing the word Terrorist around so much. Now it's a joke whenever they use the word at all.

Twitter Vote Report Mission Statement

On November 4th 2008, millions of Americans will go to over 200,000 distinct voting locations and using different systems and machinery to vote. Some voters will have a terrific experiences, and others will experience the same problems we have been hearing about for years - long lines, broken machines, inaccurate voting rolls, and others will experience problems that we haven't heard about before. Using either Twitter.com, iPhone, direct SMS, or our telephone hotlines, voters will have a new way to share these experiences with one another and ensure that the media and watchdog groups are aware of any problems.

As news outlets and blogs will report on Election Day stories, we are building an invaluable resource for thousands of voters to get immediate help. From questions like "where do I vote" or "how do I make sure that my rights are being upheld," Twitter Voter Report augments these efforts by providing a new way for voters to send text messages (aka tweets) via cellphones or computers which will be aggregated and mapped so that everyone can see the Nation's voting problems in real-time.

Imagine a nationwide web map with pins identifying every zip code where Americans are waiting over 30 minutes to vote or indicating those election districts where the voting machines are not working. Collectively we will inform each other when when the lines too long and ensure that media and watchdog groups know where problems exist.