Category: Politics

Keep up with bills using OpenCongress

There’s a neat new website out there for all you political junkies and hopefully regular people. Its called Open Congress. Here’s something from their about page:

OpenCongress brings together official government information with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind what’s happening in Congress.

For most people, finding out what’s really happening in Congress is a daunting and time-consuming task. The legislative process is frequently arcane and closed-off from the public, resulting in frustration with Congress and apathy about politics.

Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists know what’s really going on in Congress, but this important information rarely makes its way into the light. The official website of the library of Congress, Thomas, publishes the full text of bills, but we can do much more to inform ourselves and make our government accessible. Now, with OpenCongress, everyone can be an insider.

OpenCongress is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to help make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement. OpenCongress is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation.

They have a blog and sections based on issues, like Technology, which list bills in that area. I’m going to subscribe to the RSS feed of their Congress Gossip Blog.

The General Assembly belongs to the people, not the powerful

HKonJ: Big March in Raleigh Tomorrow
Historic Thousands on Jones Street, aka HKonJ, is tomorrow. Check out this video of Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President of the North Carolina State NAACP.

From the HKonJ website:

HKonJ: The People’s General Assembly

In order to make substantial and progressive change in North Carolina public policy, we need a movement and not a moment.

HKonJ is a call by the North Carolina NAACP to the progressive and civil rights community to come together to support 14-point public policy strategy that will begin to shift North Carolina political action in a way that will more clearly match our rhetoric with reality.

February 12, 2007 is the 98th birthday of the NAACP, in commemoration of a time when progressive whites and blacks came together to fight racial injustice and social inequality. Today, our challenges revolve around the issues of education, health, labor rights, economic empowerment, civic engagement, and criminal justice.

The goals of HKonJ are to:

* Gather 50-100 people from 100 counties in Raleigh before the General Assembly to embrace a 14-point agenda that we demand the legislature to act upon. We will insert the 14-point agenda in every political debate and discussion until they become a reality.

* Remind North Carolina that the General Assembly belongs to the people, not the powerful; to everyday folk, not just those with the money and the influence.

* Create a statewide network of the progressive and civil rights community which we will build in order to promote a progressive agenda and civil rights in North Carolina .

HKonJ will not be a moment, but a movement. This event will bring hardworking, everyday people together and on March 28, 2007 the Second Annual People of Color Legislative Day where we bring hundreds of people together to lobby the General Assembly will be held.

Analyzing Campaign Video Distro Strategies

Matthew Bernius a Visiting Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (I checked the RTI directory for confirmation) has written a interesting blog post about the video Edwards and Obama are using online. Its called a tale of two candidate’s video distribution strategies and it compares and contrasts the two candidates use of online video. He also links to our response to the Edward’s announcement video. Here is the part I’d like to comment on.

These examples highlight an interesting problem for candidates: while YouTube offers tools to manage posting comments, you cannot control what content your page links to. In going to “where the people are,” you leave yourself open to direct commentary from the people. Counter-commentary may be located directly beside your stumping. Contrast this to Brightcove’s promise of control, an interface that does not link directly to intertextual documents. Additionally, even when you find commentary on Brightcove, it is coming from established sources. While you might get criticized it is coming from the media, rather than the people you are trying to reach.

To me the trade off of not being able to control people’s response to your message is a fair one. The fact is the Internet and personal publishing (text, audio, and video) has radically transformed global communication, permanently. You can not stop people from sharing their opinions, online or otherwise.

Some old school campaign advisers and PR folks may think that the main stream media has the loudest final word on truth about politicians. Wrong. Perception is an important factor. Word of mouth effects perception more than traditional media. Why? Trust. People don’t trust corporate media as much as they used to.

The democratization of communication has let loose a giant amount of opinions and facts hereto unavailable to so many people. It balances and counterbalances the spin corporate media has on it. The Internet give us choice and teaches us how to be responsible media users. (previously known as media consumers)

Our future will be full of interesting “battles” between main stream media and the media maker “hordes”. If we look at the math I think its obvious that the billions of users-producers will win over the thousands of traditional media producers. Whether the content is good, bad, fair, or unfair the shear volume of content will tip the scales on who we trust.

So why shouldn’t new political candidates WORK WITH the people who will make media and vote? Working with people builds real grassroots campaigns. Right now Edwards is running a netroots video campaign and Obama isn’t. Your analysis may vary.

Hat tip to Ruby for sending me the link.

Stop Right Wing Democrats

Stan Goff has a article over at the Huffington Post called Unmasking the DLC. Its about the Democratic Leadership Council and pegs just what liberals need to do in America right now.

A strategic imperative for the antiwar movement must be to push for the defeat of any and all DLC supported candidates, and to expose and eviscerate the power of this ruling class committee. This is possible using the communications media available to popular forces through the internet, and combining this networking capacity with aggressive grassroots education efforts.

Check out this great bit of info about the so called New Democrat Movement (aka Right Wing Democrats) over at NNDB.

The right wing current of the Democratic party, characterized by its neoliberal economic policies, support of Israel, desire to increase defense spending, and links to heavy donors and fundraisers.

Believes that “left-wing” positions are not politically viable. Describes itself as “moderate and pro-growth”. Probably responsible for erosion of the Democratic Party’s historical labor and minority base due to support of treaties like NAFTA, lack of support for affirmative action and poverty programs, and their siphoning away of campaign funds from minority groups.

“I’m from the democratic wing of the Democrat Party” –Paul Wellstone, progressive Democrat, criticizing the New Democrat Movement.

“Democrats for the Leadership Class” –Jesse Jackson, progressive black Democrat, describing the DLC.

Support real progressive candidates who have a anti-war voting record! This is the strategic direction we need to put the liberal wing of the Democrat Party in control. Will John Edwards and Barack Obama reject the DLC?

Robert E. Lee Statue, Racism, and Caribou Coffee

Every weekday morning I get coffee at Caribou on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Its near the bus stop I get off at. I’ve been going there for several months and enjoy the coffee.

About one month ago I overhead one of the guys working there talk about writing for The Carolina Review, a conservative student publication at UNC – Chapel Hill. The night before Hardball with Chris Matthews show at Memorial Hall he mentioned writing some critical articles about Sen. Edwards. Coffee Guy said a buddy was going to give him tickets.

Sure enough when we were watching Hardball that night the same Coffee Guy was sitting on the stage with all those students behind Sen. Edwards. He was starring into the camera shaking his head at Edwards responses. I half expecting him to hold up two fingers behind Edwards head like bunny ears. It was a very John 3:13 moment. (If you look about 16 seconds into the YouTube video you can see him. Goto the above Hardball video link.)

So last week I got to talking with the Coffee Guy about stuff. He mentioned his sister lived in Richmond, VA. I told him I grew up there. I mention a bunch of things like I went to VCU. But never did I engage him in a political discussion. I just wanted coffee. I decided to live in peace with a fellow Chapel Hillian. I wasn’t going to hold this man’s political views against him. No problem right?

Well this morning the Coffee Guy said his sister has seen a NAACP protest at the Lee Monument in Richmond. He exclaimed it was a shame. I blurted out, “I completely disagree. I think they should tear down those statues.” The Coffee Guy was surprised and said he was “sorry I felt that way”.

“So should they leave the statue of Authur Ashe up?” he asked. Instead of answering that I asked him to take the race component of the statues out of the conversation for a moment. “Consider the death of all the white people’s husbands, brothers, sisters, daughters, etc. during the Civil War. Those statues are glorifying war and death. That’s wrong.”, I said.

He proceed to question me about it. I told him that I really didn’t want to go there because it might make me not want to come back to Caribou. He thought maybe we could debate it another time when he wasn’t working. I just smiled and walked out.

One of the strongest forms of protest modern Americans can do is deciding where not to spend money. I wonder if the Coffee Guy’s boss values his free speech over the money I spend there every week?

This occurrence has convinced me to join the NAACP. My efforts to appose racism are strengthened.

Historic K(thousands) on Jones Street

Saturday February 10, 2007 a large coalition of people from all over the state will gather at General Assembly Memorial Auditorium in Downtown Raleigh, NC for H K on J. Arrive at 11:00 am. The Program will be at 12:00 p.m. Thousands will march to Legislative Building on Jones Street. Bellow the fold you can read The People’s Agenda, Fourteen Points that the organizers have put together. This is going to be an amazing event. A milestone in North Carolina Politics. Read more about it over at NC Policy Watch. Here are some pdfs to print out and use to spread the word.
HKonJ Flyer PDF
The Peoples’ Agenda – 14 Points PDF
Continue reading “Historic K(thousands) on Jones Street” →

Was I duped by Astroturf?

Astroturf-ing

In politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations (PR) campaigns which seek to create the impression of being a spontaneous, grassroots behavior. Hence the reference to the “AstroTurf” (artificial grass) is a metaphor to indicate “fake grassroots” support.

After I wrote the post Criticize Congress go to jail?, with a link and quote to Richard Viguerie’s cry foul Bora linked to me asking Is this Possible (and True)?.

Mike Dunford, Bora’s fellow Sceince Blogs blogger, wrote in response to Bora’s post, Someone’s Trying to Play Us. In response to another comment Mike wrote Why astroturf disclosure legislation is needed.

Follow? No?

We all need to research everyones claims. No matter how much we may agree or disagree with them. When I wrote the the first blog post Criticize Congress go to jail?, I didn’t even know who Richard A. Viguerie was.

Richard A. Viguerie of American Target Advertising, a direct marketing advertising company, pioneered political/ideological direct mail in the 1960s and 1970s. That marriage of direct mail and politics enabled grassroots Americans to participate in the political process to a greater degree than ever before and built the conservative movement that elected President Reagan in 1980.

Thanks to Kirk for filling me in on that. Mike Dunford does a much better job than I dissecting the legislation in question.

One of the cool things about blogs is I can update a post with more context as I learn about a subject and/or person. Plus other bloggers and the bloggers they know can inform me even more about the topic.

I’m still very concerned about blogs and free speech. People are radically altering political structures. They are using blogs as a new tool of immense individual power. Lots of powerful and moneyed people would love to stop that.

Sorry to use so many questions as post titles but this has been one of those weeks. (see Media hiding opinions behind the question mark? for the joke)

Criticize Congress go to jail?

All the presidential campaigns better look into this ASAP.
Update: Read Was I duped by Astroturf?.

Congress to Send Critics to Jail, Says Richard Viguerie

MANASSAS, Va., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following is a statement by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of GrassrootsFreedom.com,
regarding legislation currently being considered by Congress to regulate grassroots communications:

“In what sounds like a comedy sketch from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, but isn’t, the U. S. Senate would impose criminal penalties, even jail time, on grassroots causes and citizens who criticize Congress.

“Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.

via Slashdot from prnnewswire

How exactly will the Feds determine how many people my blog communicates with? Blogtapping? Its technically feasible.

Read more at grassrootsfreedom.com.

Context

Richard A. Viguerie of American Target Advertising, a direct marketing advertising company, pioneered political/ideological direct mail in the 1960s and 1970s. That marriage of direct mail and politics enabled grassroots Americans to participate in the political process to a greater degree than ever before and built the conservative movement that elected President Reagan in 1980. Viguerie’s effort was so important that John F. Kennedy Jr.’s magazine, GEORGE, included it on its list of the defining political moments of the 20th century. In December 1999, Lee Edwards in a WASHINGTON TIMES column listed Richard Viguerie as one of 13 “Conservatives of the Century.” He is now pioneering the use of the Internet on behalf of conservative free-market politicians and organizations.

The WASHINGTON POST called him the “conservatives’ Voice of America.” He has been credited with forming dozens of conservative organizations and with helping them grow stronger through political action, think tanks, publications, and representation in the U.S. House and Senate, state legislatures and other levels of government.

via PBS – NOW with Bill Moyers

Iraq civilians: 34,452 dead, 36,000 hurt

For a minute try really hard to visualize thirty five thousand people. Hard isn’t it? Next time you’re at a big sporting event try thinking about the life of every person in the space. Imagine how special and different each person is. How happy and full of life each person is. Try talking to a complete stranger. Feel how they live and breath? That’s a lot of humanity isn’t it? Now imagine all those people in the room dead. Completly gone… Its amazing how we can become desensitized to so much loss when its thousands of miles away.

More than 34,000 civilians were killed in violence in Iraq during 2006, a UN human rights official has said.

The envoy to Iraq, Gianni Magazzeni, said 34,452 civilians were killed and more than 36,000 hurt during the year.

The figure is nearly three times higher than calculations previously made on the basis of Iraqi interior ministry statistics for 2006.

via BBC