Hey! Don't Steal That Obama Sign, The World Is Watching
It's become a mini-sensation. After two Obama/Biden '08 signs were stolen from a front yard in Portland, Oregon, scores of armchair detectives all over the world got on the case.
When the second sign disappeared, the homeowner, whose proud user-name is "Poverty Kids' Teacher," fashioned a new one by hand and enlisted her 16-year-old son to set up a camera inside the house to monitor any activity, lest it too should be stolen.
Clever son, now known as SignKid, did better. Having set up the camera, he streamed the vision through a window and out to the world via Ustream.tv and then bingo -- before the family could adjust to their new celebrity status, the view from their living area was being monitored by amateur sleuths in Florida, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Boston, Sacramento, and even further afield in Belgium, Sri Lanka, Greece, Canada and way downunder in Australia.
"Lawn-Cam" is addictive. Despite being set up in a quiet, pleasant neighborhood (one commenter asked "Where's Mr. Rogers?") the camera's beam is directed on to a somewhat bland scene -- a simple little garden frontage with nothing much else visible, other than a three-car garage on the other side of the street.
Viewers have been enthusiastic in their guarding of the DIY sign, many staying online for several hours and calling on their fellow cyber-cops when forced by the call of nature, or ravenous hunger, to temporarily abandon their posts. A robust camaraderie was evident in this thread... "I need to go to the bathroom. Call me if anything happens." ... The response? "One word for you: Depends!")
At one stage, Obama Sign CCTV1 was the 6th most viewed stream on the site. "What are the other 5?" someone asked. "Live executions" came the instant reply.
Of course, politics is never far from mind. This is an Obama sign, after all. When a poster sent off a clumsy typo, a fellow sign-watcher's comment was pure gold: "Boy, you Palin'd the crap out of that sentence..."
Overnight, Portland time, things got a bit slow. Each time a car passed, viewers posted alerts: "Car. Carrrrrr" and when a garbage truck stopped within view in the early hours, the site went wild. But even when there's nothing much happening, the chat is compelling. There's a sense of "We're all in this together..." And "We're all quite mad." Indeed, the phrase "We need to get a life" seems to pop up on the hour.
The home owners, or 'hosts' as they have been dubbed, made an elegant appearance in the early evening of Day 1, bowing to their audience. And one viewer wanted to clone the teenage son: "I have electronics here I can't control."
As AKM said on Mudflats...
"We've seen squirrels, neighbors, passing cars, suspicious kids on bikes. The wind has blown, the rain has come. The sign has been covered in Saran Wrap before our very eyes to shield it from the elements. We've seen the family cat. We've chatted and laughed. And occasionally we've been inundated by trolls. All in all, a very entertaining evening....staring at a sign."
Who needs television?
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My landlord won't allow any sign in the lawn. So I put an Obama sign in my window which overlooks
the building's parking lot.
What would make this really, really funny is for Tina Fey as Palin to sneak in and "steal" the sign.. well, at least that would be funny for me cause I'm a dog and entertainment in Dayton, Oh is just not that plentiful since the last Palin/McCain rally when she was named the veep.
Isn't that a federal offense, to steal signs? It happens to people (regardless of candidate).
Worse, as much as one might dislike the other party, it's a bit antisocial to deface these things. Period.
I don't know but we did have a Democratic party chair call the GOP chair and say that it was and that we were going to prosecute. We also brought some hate mail to the post master and then told the GOP chair about it since the postmaster said the FBI would investigate if we wanted to. It all helped. Just because we don't scare easily doesn't mean we need to put up with it.
Filming your front yard sign? This is hardcore! LOL! When I had my sign stolen, ripped up and thrown in the bushes I wrote a letter to my local paper telling them that the sign was bought by a donation I made to the Obama campaign and for every single sign they stole I would replace it and Obama would make more money. I also said that for every sign stolen I would donate an extra $10.00 in their name. I had an idea who did it, a neighbor I have know and been friendly with for over 12 years, I think he feels guilty now. It's been 3 months and my new improved sign is still standing.
Good Idea! obviously it worked!
Now I don't feel crazy for considering something similar for my sign.
This is a hoot!!!
I live right off of A1A south in the northern end of Flagler County FLorida. At the turn on A1A to get to the mainland and the bridge to Palm Coast there is a big billboard for a Housing community (Hammock Dunes). There were political signs for local politicians there for weeks. On Friday I bought some Obama/Biden signs for $5 each and planted one right next to the others Friday afternoon on my way home. It didn't cover any of the others, I just put it in the line next to the others under the billboard. I didn't go over into Palm Coast Saturday. When I went down A1A Sunday morning all of the signs were gone. I guess mine was the one that broke the camel's back.....
Hah, I used to live right down from you in the northern end of Ormond-by-the-Sea just north of the Publix shopping area. I know exactly where you are talking about.
Not much has changed...
WAY TO GO MUDFLATS AND MUDPUPPIES!
I love this! A grass-root effort to protect a sign. This is a welcome bit of humor in this slime ridden campaign.
gawd that is addicting.
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