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Hutchison Campaign Site Contains Hidden Phrase, 'Rick Perry Gay'
Rachel Slajda | July 30, 2009, 6:13PM
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry, both (R-TX)
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A web site for the gubernatorial campaign of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) included hidden phrases including "rick perry gay," a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman discovered today.
Hutchison officials said they used a tool that automatically generated keywords based on popular search terms. Such a tool could drive more web traffic to the site, StandByKay.com.
"We did not know these offensive word associations were being searched for by hundreds of thousands of Texans everyday nor do we condone the computer-generated existence on our Web site," Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky told the Austin American-Statesman. He said the offending phrase will be removed.
Hutchison announced this week she will leave the Senate this fall in order to campaign against Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX). Rumors about Perry's sexuality have been circulated for years.
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johnmccsf
July 30, 2009 7:04 PM
Only steers and queers Private Cowboy
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CogInSystem
July 30, 2009 8:19 PM
This has been a long-standing rumour in Texas politics. The thing is that no one seems to mind (rightfully so IMHO). It's kinda like the video of Perry's DWI stop; it just has no legs. The man's like a duck; everything roles off of his back.
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ARG in Chicago
July 31, 2009 10:57 AM in reply to CogInSystem
And if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
-- ARG
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markg8
July 30, 2009 8:30 PM
Might be? And why is there a picture of Doug Flutie where Governor Haircut ought to be?
I like the alibi, "We did not know these offensive word associations were being searched for by hundreds of thousands of Texans everyday"...and the photoshopped pics of him in gay bars we'll be anonymously emailing around the state doesn't mean we think he's gay either.
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Jyrinx
July 30, 2009 9:01 PM in reply to markg8
Actually it's a perfectly good explanation. People pay good money for automated services to figure out what search keywords people use to find a Web site, then tweak the site's advertised keywords to get the site closer to the top result. If the software found that people were clicking through to her campaign site after searching for “Rick Perry gay” (perhaps she showed up because the site mentions both Rick Perry and gay marriage), it's quite plausible those keywords got added automatically.
(Of course, it's still possible they're lying through their teeth.)
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Cal Damage
July 30, 2009 8:49 PM
She announced she's voting against the 'wise Latina', too. There goes 37% of the electorate in Texas. Plus whatever percent is gay white Republican.
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jzap
July 30, 2009 8:53 PM
It looks like their page has about 2000 hidden strings that they hope the search engines will index. Of those, about 80 unique strings have the word "perry" in them. Viz:
<div id="Layer1" style="display:none;">
anita perry
contact rick perry
email rick perry
gov perry
gov. perry
gov. rick perry
gov. rick perry texas
govener rick perry
govenor rick perry
governer rick perry
governor perry
governor perry texas
governor rick perry
governor rick perry texas
kay bailey hutchison vs rick perry
perry address
perry and kay bailey hutchison
perry austin
perry bell
perry email address
perry governor
perry kay bailey hutchison
perry link
perry perry
perry r
perry rick
perry ricky
perry texas
perrys careers
rick perry
rick perry address
rick perry and kay bailey hutchison
rick perry bio
rick perry biography
rick perry campaign
rick perry campaign contributions
rick perry campaign contributors
rick perry democrat
rick perry education
rick perry election
rick perry email
rick perry email address
rick perry family
rick perry governor
rick perry governor of texas
rick perry governor texas
rick perry immigration
rick perry inauguration
rick perry info
rick perry kay bailey hutchison
rick perry office
rick perry photo
rick perry picture
rick perry public schools
rick perry republican
rick perry school
rick perry schools
rick perry speech
rick perry state of the state
rick perry state of the state address
rick perry sued
rick perry texas
rick perry texas governor
rick perry twitter
rick perry video
rick perry website
rick perry wiki
rick perry yell leader
rick perry youtube
rick perry's
rick perry's address
rick perrys life
rick perrys political party
ricky perry
texans for rick perry
texas gov rick perry
texas governor rick perry
texas perry
</div>
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jzap
July 30, 2009 9:38 PM in reply to jzap
My favorites:
rick perry yell leader [secessionists]
rick perry sued
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readytoblowagasket
July 30, 2009 9:01 PM
Offensive? What's "offensive" about it?
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Minne sconsin
July 31, 2009 10:04 AM in reply to readytoblowagasket
Offensive to your average Republicant, or your average Texas Republicant.
Among testosterone-addled Bible-belt gun-totin' males, being called "gay" is fightin' words. She might as well say he's got a small (Cheney).
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Texar
July 30, 2009 9:45 PM
It doesn't mean he's not a nice person.
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Captain Dan
July 30, 2009 10:27 PM in reply to Texar
But Rick is not a nice person! He is a wingnut Republican.
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VictorLaszlo
July 30, 2009 10:14 PM
This is not a big deal.
It's about optimizing your site's visibility, it's not a judgment call. A lot of people probably do search for "Rick Perry gay."
So this is not a controversy, or it shouldn't be. I'm not going to lambaste Hutchison or her web people for using standard internet practices just because they're a Republican organization.
That would only contribute to the stupid.
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AnswerFrog
July 30, 2009 10:48 PM in reply to VictorLaszlo
"standard internet practices "
It's not. Meta keywords are standard. Hidden divs stuffed with 500 lines of random phrases? = Spam.
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VictorLaszlo
July 31, 2009 4:02 AM in reply to AnswerFrog
OK, maybe I should have said 'common' practice rather than 'standard.' It is sleazy.
But the point is that this is more of a spamming issue than a 'saying Perry is gay' issue.
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AnswerFrog
July 31, 2009 9:22 AM in reply to VictorLaszlo
Just wait til Kay starts her email campaign. I can see it now:
"SATISFY HER ALL NIGHT CIALIS RICK PERRY GAY!!"
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AnswerFrog
July 30, 2009 10:47 PM
Well, the controversy aside, what Kay is doing is called keyword spam. It's bad stuff. It's misleading and pretty tacky, and something I thought had ended in the 1990s. Not to mention Google might catch you and downgrade your site.
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KCinDC
July 31, 2009 10:59 AM in reply to AnswerFrog
Looks like Google already has caught it. The site isn't in Google. Great SEO advice you're getting, Kay!
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Rader
July 30, 2009 10:55 PM
Take it from one who has "gaydar." Rick "Goodhair" Perry is definitely NOT gay. He IS, however, a closeted homosexual and as queer as a two dollar bill. Takes on to know one.
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Texas Aggie
July 31, 2009 10:53 PM in reply to Rader
Now just a second. Why on earth would any Republican be at all upset about a false charge of being gay? After all, that is how Bush won his first election against Ann Richards with the help of Rove. And who knows? Maybe in this case the charge isn't all that erroneous.
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Texas Aggie
July 31, 2009 10:55 PM in reply to Rader
That would be a three dollar bill. I have a bunch of two dollar bills left over from race track gambling. They are quite legitimate.
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semiotix
July 30, 2009 11:10 PM
Well, she just handed her Democratic opponent the first negative campaign ad.
"We already know Kay Bailey Hutchison abuses the <meta> tag. If she's elected governor, what else will she abuse?"
[image: a sad-looking puppy]
"Kay Bailey Hutchison: wrong for search engines, wrong for Texas."
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Mike2
July 31, 2009 12:36 PM in reply to semiotix
Most people may not appreciate that comment, but I just want you to know that it is truly hilarious.
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jeffgee
July 30, 2009 11:49 PM
Moly Ivins is laughing from beyond the grave.
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Grackle
July 31, 2009 1:17 AM
"We did not know these offensive word associations were being searched for by hundreds of thousands of Texans everyday . . ."
hahahahahahahah!
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ejg3
July 31, 2009 3:48 AM
I wonder if the next step will be background music by pictures of Perry from either the Village People or the theme from the Flintstones, particularly the last line.
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Karl the Marxist
July 31, 2009 7:12 AM
Secessionist = OK, gay = bad.
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Legion303
July 31, 2009 8:21 AM
Weird...my WebSpam [tm] software just inserted "Kay Bailey Hutchison vapid whore" into my site. I guess hundreds of thousands of Texans must be searching that phrase.
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Joe Monster
July 31, 2009 8:54 AM
Neat. They just included the text and didn't display it. I'll have to try that.
It's really funny that they disclaimed it in a way that implies Rick Perry's alleged gayness is interesting to "hundreds of thousands."
So everybody in Texas is a dirty asshole with a butt plug hidden in their hollowed-out Bible. Surprised?
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Angry McAngus
July 31, 2009 9:52 AM in reply to Joe Monster
Oh, there's more than "hundreds of thousands" of Texans, so your generalization wouldn't actually include "everybody in Texas".
And, what, only Texans can go to her web site?
If you're going to be insulting, at least be clever.
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Creamy Goodness
July 31, 2009 10:03 AM in reply to Joe Monster
Neat. They just included the text and didn't display it. I'll have to try that.
Don't bother. The Google guys wrote about weighting text by apparent visual size in a paper ten years ago. Non-displayed text is ignored by any search indexer written by people who know what they're doing.
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jeffgee
July 31, 2009 9:01 AM
Sounds like a lesson learned from Karl.
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Colin Laney
July 31, 2009 9:47 AM
In the Alabama Republican primary, Luther Strange, the country club (as opposed to religious right) candidate for attorney general is spreading the story that the incumbent, Troy King, is gay. See http://www.nerve.com/CS/blogs/scanner/archive/2008/07/11/anti-gay-ag-of-alabama-caught-in-bed-with-a-man.aspx .
Alabama politics is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Remember that Karl Rove was managing campaigns here before he was famous, and that close associates of Rove's managed to send the last Democratic governor to prison in a prosecution that lots of folks who aren't yellow dog Democrats think was dubious.
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Way2Blue
July 31, 2009 10:12 AM
I understand he's getting a little condo with Miss Lindsey up in Kalorama.
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crumbrye
July 31, 2009 10:18 AM
Why is it offensive to call someone gay?
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rebop
July 31, 2009 10:33 AM
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Kay is not really so upset to have been "caught" doing this.
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GTFOOH
July 31, 2009 10:43 AM
Damn shame that being Gay is worse than being a racist wingnut!
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boo_lala
July 31, 2009 12:38 PM
According to a very high profile Democrat in Austin, Perry's "liberal side" has been a known secret for years. The Dems never considered (or decided against) trying to make it a "scandal" for political gain.
The reason the rumors actually got some traction a few years ago--according to said Dem--is that that time it was Kay Baily H and Carole Keaton Foghorn-Strayhorn (both of whom wanted to be Governor) who were actively spreading the gossip on the Republican side. So it seemed like it was going to break out of the capitol bubble. According to the Austin Chronicle, reporters were flocking in from all over to see if there was anything reportable.
It got so bad Perry did a big interview with the Statesman saying that there were rumors he was having an affair with a woman--but he wasn't. His wife sat next to him in the interview but did not comment.
He then went on to sign legislation banning gay couples from adopting or fostering (including taking foster children out of same sex couple homes).
He signed the bill in a Fundie church.
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boo_lala
July 31, 2009 10:37 PM in reply to boo_lala
Oops. I misremembered that last part about the anti-gay bill signed in a church. It was an anti-abortion bill and Rick Perry signed it at an Evangelical School.
I think I conflated the two bills because of the anti-gay statements made at the signing.
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NH Bob
July 31, 2009 2:01 PM
So?
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