Martha Coakley for U.S. Senate! Except on Google ads, where…

I’m building a database of book review blogs (more on which later) and I noticed something..interesting last night. Repeatedly, if I was looking at a book review blog with Google ads in the sidebar, what I saw was an advertizement for Scott Brown, the extremely questionable Republican candidate for United States Senate. Presumably, the ad was keying in on my IP number (which usually comes up as Lunenburg, MA because that’s the “home address” for my ISP). The Scott Brown campaign–or someone who is very invested in seeing him get elected–must have paid a huge amount of money for Google ads that would display based on viewer’s IP address on just about any type of website or blog whatsoever. That’s just a bit…scary.

I’m holding my nose and voting for Martha Coakley, chiefly because I don’t want to see Brown get in. I don’t like Coakley. I voted for Khazei in the primary. Before the primary, I read, in its entirety, the long multi-part Boston Globe series profiling each candidate in detail. I think “debates” are a total waste of time, and don’t accurately indicate how a candidate will perform (except in debates :-p), so I don’t watch those. I’m a bit grouchy that Coakley won the primary. Why is it that women politicians always seem to have the same unpleasant character flaws? Why can’t we ever get a woman candidate that I can actually admire and relate to?

I’ve gotten a lot more direct mail flyers and phone calls from Coakley’s campaign, but this Google ad thing is brilliant (I reluctantly and uneasily concede). That’s the kind of thing that got Obama into office. Coakley’s campaign has seriously missed the boat. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens tomorrow. At least we’ll still have John Kerry! 🙁

I’ve gotten some of those robo-poll calls from obviously right-wing sources, asking about gay marriage and abortion and whatnot. I’ve replied to the polls and really let ’em have it. The more I can wreck the curve on their results, the better! But I even got one on my cell phone last night–it was turned on and charging, and I was very surprised when it rang. I can’t dial out from my house on my cell phone but the phone will receive calls here, weirdly enough. Go figure!