aspen credit card
Every year, for one day, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad for short, gets the juiciest Web traffic one can expect on Christmas Eve. The government agency responsible for monitoring space for incoming nuclear missiles is also the official tracker of Santa Claus as he travels around the globe delivering presents to the world's children. But why should the government have a lock on holiday pageviews -- especially with a Republican administration that claims to believe in the power of private enterprise?
Naturally, Christmas has been privatized. Google has "upgraded" Norad's old Flash-based tracker with its own 
Valleywag is of course known for its 
The FTC has approved Google's $3.1 billion acquisition, ignoring claims of conflict of interest that could have slowed down the process, like FTC chair Deborah Platt Majoras's marriage to a lawyer whose firm represented DoubleClick in the matter. And that wasn't the only scandal. Google cash paid, indirectly, for a lavish summit in Aspen that three commmissioners attended.
The Progress and Freedom Foundation is a "think tank" -- an intellectual-sounding label for what amounts to lobbyist group. It has received support and funding from Google. Its president gave Senate testimony in support of the Google-DoubleClick merger.
And at its Aspen Summit conferences held at the swank St. Regis Resort over the past two years, the foundation has playd host to three of the FTC's five commissioners: Majoras (Aspen Summit, '06), William E. Kovacic (Aspen Summit, '07), and Jon Leibowitz (Aspen Summit, '06). All three were among the recusal-adverse yes-men who approved Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick by a vote of 4-1 after an eight-month investigation.
To which we can only say: Well done, Google. Larry and Sergey's little startup has gotten over its aversion to evil and embraced the byways of Washington. You think Microsoft isn't wining and dining politicians and bureaucrats at every opportunity? We're not saying that spending a beautiful week at a luxurious hotel in the mountains of Colorado, with Google indirectly footing the bill, had anything to do with the commission's decision. We're just saying that it's good Google has learned how to play the game, instead of trying to make up its own rules.
Politicians will spend $3 billion on advertising in 2008, but online advertising will " will amount to little more than a rounding error when put next to the money spent on television," advertising analyst Evan Tracey told the Wall Street Journal.
About 70 percent of the $3 billion will go to local advertising and most of it to TV, which remains the best way to "drive volume," Tracey said. Meanwhile, he said the Web is only really good for fundraising and grassroots organizing.
"There is not a lot of innovation that goes on in the realm of political advertising," Tracey said. A shame, really. The last innovative political ad we can remember was Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" ad in the clip above. And he won, right?
Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, said he was "dismayed to learn" that the he