USING DEAD PEOPLE TO TROLL FOR E-MAIL ADDRESSES

I wandered over to this National Review page a few hours ago and saw two versions of this ad:

Note the fine print at the bottom: PAID FOR BY THE DAVID HOROWITZ FREEDOM CENTER. When I clicked, I was taken this petition page, copyrighted in the name of FrontPageMagazine.com:

On November 5, 2009, a radical Islamic terrorist, Nidal Malik Hasan, massacred 13 American soldiers and wounded 29 more at Fort Hood. Instead of recognizing it as a terrorist attack, Barack Obama categorized it as "work place violence" effectively denying soldiers who lost their lives that day the military medals they are due for their heroic service -- specifically the Purple Heart.

The military has a long record of properly honoring those who are killed in the line of duty -- a record broken with the Fort Hood Massacre. The military awarded 78 medals after Pearl Harbor was attacked. After September 11, 2001, it created a new medal to recognize all of the heroes that died or were injured in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The men and women of Fort Hood deserve recognition for their sacrifice! Help right this wrong today.

Sign the Petition

I see petition ads all over the place, particularly at right-wing sites. They don't offend me much -- if you can't figure out that the advertisers are asking for your opinion in order to plant a few tracking cookies on your computer and obtain your e-mail address, well, you probably also think three-card monte is legit. Caveat emptor and all that.

But as techniques for obtaining user data go, this one seems particularly loathsome. I don't care about the specifics of the political posturing -- these people were brutally murdered and you look at their deaths as a marketing opportunity?

I didn't think I could find David Horowitz more reprehensible than I already did, but my opinion of him has hit an even lower low.