As the editor of U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor, I once again wish to thank all those readers from around the globe who continue to visit this site. It is with great delight to report that the Monitor this week exceeded the 10,000 page-view mark in its brief three-month existence. In terms of relative magnitude, to you that figure likely doesn't elicit a jaw-dropping response, yet the figure is significant for a one-man, part-time operation taking place at the Shore of New Jersey (and, yes, I intentionally avoided using the term “Jersey Shore” to avoid connecting with or riding upon the success of the popular but moronic TV show of that name—a show that is, unfortunately, filmed not far from my location).
Before I continue, please note that the Monitor never has, never does, nor will ever collect or distribute personally identifying information from visitors/readers. The information I am now sharing via this post primarily comes from Google Analytics, which assesses the general source of traffic to this site (i.e.: country of origin, referring web pages, Internet Service Providers, etc.) as well through the TypePad service that hosts the Monitor. In other words, unless you identify yourself when posting comments (which I encourage people to do), you remain anonymous to me.
Anyhow, having inserted that critical addendum, I first want to express continued thanks to John Young from Cryptome.org, who regularly posts links to Monitor articles. Cryptome, an excellent repository of national security and law enforcement-related information plus hard-to-find government documents, is responsible for driving significant Internet traffic my way.
That may or may not be the reason that a handful of visitors from the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, the U.S. State Dept., the U.S. Dept. of Justice, and a few other federal entities have made their way to the Monitor. It could be that I have annoyed a few bureaucrats along the way by uncovering projects or conflicts of interest that they would rather I keep quiet about.
Ironically, I have gotten quite a few visitors from two sides on opposite end of the political spectrum: FreeRepublic.com on the right, and BuzzFlash.com on the left. It just goes to show that wasteful government spending is a topic of concern for everyone, no matter whether you blame President Obama for the world’s problems or if you seek salvation through him!
Likewise, I welcome the many worldwide visitors whom have made their way to the Monitor. Though the bulk of traffic comes from the U.S., with a growing number of readers from other primarily English-speaking nations such as England, Canada, and Australia, other readers have come from places including Pakistan, Italy, Mexico, Germany, France, India, China, and Russia—with a smaller numbers of visitors coming from places (93 countries and territories in all) ranging from Iran to Sudan and from Argentina to Zimbabwe!
If you like this site, please let people know about it. Simply click the Facebook thumbs-up icon near the top right-hand corner of this page (located near the Amazon.com link to my memoir, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze) and let your friends know about the Monitor.
One final note: if you wish to redistribute Monitor articles, I urge you, for instance, only to post the title, an excerpt (i.e.: the first paragraph or two), and a direct link to the article of interest. I recently discovered that one blog actually took one of my articles, reworded it with a level of creativity emblematic of a lazy, plagiarizing 14-year-old the night before a term paper is due, and re-posted as its own work! The thief actually posted accompanying links to the source documents as if that person, and not I, had painstakingly researched and discovered those resources for the article.
Such copyright infringement will not be tolerated, folks.
So, ending on a more positive note, please feel free to share what the Monitor has to offer, but do so with respect for the copyright owner.
Come back soon, even you folks at DHS!
Congrats, well done. We appreciate all of your hard work.
Posted by: Suzan Robertson | 06/29/2011 at 01:39 PM
Your support and interest likewise is greatly appreciated. I hope to offer more, but at the same time I look forward to securing full-time work that likely will prevent me from daily updating the Monitor. Oh well - we do what we can to survive!
Posted by: Steve Peacock | 06/29/2011 at 05:16 PM