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         I had thought of posting a picture of Rebekah Warren talking with her arms outstretched, the current front-page photo on her site (when I first posted this diary; see below), and titling this post “Hey, I’m using state resources for my campaign!” as the photo caption…but R. Wa might complain that I’m using HER resources if that photo went up. Anyway, without posting a photo, I’ll note that that photo, just like the three other, small photos down the front page, seem to be running off a…University of Michigan account, therefore presumably a UM server, therefore using state resources.
         Is this a good idea?

         The URL’s for the photos are

here (note the umich.edu address for this and other links, denoting use of UM electronic resources, one must assume…also, note that this photo is not on the front page any more–they switched!),

here (current front-page photo as of this posting),

here ,

here , and

here .

         (This is just for educational purposes, to inform the public: I am presenting the links, not actually putting the images on my page. One is usually not supposed to “hotlink” to others’ photos, after all, and *I* am trying to respect some proprieties…)

         So is R. Wa breaking the law, re, e.g., Michigan Compiled Laws 169.257 on campaign finance, by using in any way a public resource or resources for her campaign? …No, interestingly enough: unless she is herself a state body (? !) or is doing something like claiming that UM is officially endorsing her (?? !!), she is apparently not violating the law, from the scuttlebutt I hear. (One has to really TRY to break that law, it seems…)
         Still, I don’t think it’s that careful or ethical for her to use photos on a UM account for her own political campaign; and I think her campaign should run any and all photos on her site from her own server, or Photobucket, or Flickr, or something.
         How is she going to be using state resources in Lansing, if she is using them now to benefit her own campaign at all?

         (Not to mention: the web banners, desktop backgrounds, even a photo of her, see the “Downloads” page of her site, all at this moment connecting to a UM account, when they could be connected to a private account instead. The front-page header and main front-page template do not use a UM account, so the rest of the photos could certainly also be linked to private resources, not state resources.)
         And I don’t find Leigh Greden using any photos from a UM account. (Every photo I could find there is linked to votegreden.com, not to any UM account or other state resource funded on our taxpayer money.)
         It’s nice that now the Warren campaign has changed “leglislative” to “legislative”, but this current matter is far more serious, I think. The sooner corrected, the better…
         (As before, I may have copies, whether through scan, photo, or what-have-you, of some site pages along with the “properties” pop-up giving the U. of Michigan account URL, as proof, if in fact Warren’s campaign corrects the electronic situation.)

         There may be various banks of images you can see, e.g., at

Warren UM headshot bank,

which should yield something like

“Index of ~ebjorn/images/pa/downloads/headshot

Name Last modified Size Description

Parent Directory 23-June-2006 14:59 -

Rebekah Warren Heads..> 23-June-2006 14:59 210k

Rebekah Warren Web H..> 23-June-2006 14:59 31k”

; you can click on these URL’s from there,

Various Warren UM items,

Warren large UM headshot,

and
Warren small UM headshot,

to see some Warren campaign images or image links that might be using UM resources right now.

         Interesting.

         (Here is another link leading to a relevant bank of photo links.)

         Maybe Warren shouldn’t have been so harsh on others, hmm? Take the beam out of your own eye first, like the Bible says…

         Again, coming soon: has Warren alienated anyone from her own campaign? Stay tuned!

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.