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Weblog Team
Jock Gill
Jon Lebkowsky
Dana Blankenhorn
Jeffrey Fisher
Adina Levin
Peter Kaminski
David Reed
David Weinberger
Paperless Papers
"...To Dare Mighty Things..." by Michael Cudahy (written specifically for Greater Democracy)
The Internet Constituency by David Weinberger
Open Spectrum FAQ
Why Open Spectrum Matters: The End of the Broadcast Nation by David Weinberger
Nodal Politics by Jon Lebkowsky
Societies of Cooperating Cognitive Solutions, a weblog post by Jock Gill
Is Money Killing Democracy in America? by Jock Gill
Resources
Howard Dean Meetup (first Wednesday of each month)
Blog for America: The Official Howard Dean Weblog
Center for Democracy and Technology
Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network
Archives
August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Get a Job!In his latest "Mike's Message," Michael Moore notes the Republican message to demonstrators in Minnesota:As Ron Eibensteiner, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, left the event in St. Paul, he was met by hundreds of demonstrators. Being the dignified, freedom-loving, compassionate conservative we all wish we could be, Eibensteiner leaned over a police barricade toward the protestors and yelled, “GET A JOB!” Moore notes that ...in the past year, 700,000 people were added to the list of unemployed. The number of people out of work for half a year or more is up 28%. Thanks to “Welfare to Work” (and Bill Clinton), July of 2003 saw 43.8% of the unemployed lose their state support even though they still could not find a job—a record high. Since Bush took over the country, roughly 2.5 million jobs have simply evaporated. They're just confused, I guess... and Bush and the neoconservative Republicans that own him are confused about other things, as well: “Democrats and their allies,” Bush’s campaign chairman Marc Racicot wrote to super-rich Republicans, “will have more money to spend attacking the president during the nomination battle than we will have to defend him.” Obviously Bush and his team have a problem with math that extends beyond the $400 billion deficit we’ll have by the end of this year (and the projected $6 trillion deficit we will have amassed ten years from now under Bush’s guidance). If you look at the campaign fundraising so far, you see that Bush has already raised $35 million. The closest Democratic candidate, John Kerry, doesn’t even have half that. Does the Bush campaign know something we don’t about where the Democrats are hiding all that money? [Link]
Friday, August 29, 2003 Britt Blaser on Michael CudahyAfter we published Michael Cudahy's stirring message yesterday, Britt Blaser posted this eloquent reflection on its meaning. [Link}The highest courage would be to purposely alienate yourself from the peers with whom you have worked hard and won victories and whose respect you have earned. To do so on a matter of principle is the rarest form of courage. src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/uuuUScCc2YhV.js"> Discuss Britt Blaser on Michael Cudahy NOTE: Michael Cudahy's Republican political management and press relations responsibilities have ranged from the 1980 Reagan/Bush mid-western presidential effort, to the 1980 George Bush for President campaign, as well as the Andrew H. Card, Jr. gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts. He also worked as National Communications Director for the Republican Coalition for Choice. Mr. Cudahy's full bio is at: < stratfocuscommunications.com/principals.htm#Michael%20Cudahy >
Wednesday, August 27, 2003 "... To Dare Mighty Things ..."by Michael CudahyOver the last 15 years this country has witnessed the emergence of the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party. During this time traditional Republicans have been deeply concerned by the serious deterioration of respect for established party principles by GOP leaders. A great party once firmly rooted in the thoughts and policies of visionary presidents like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower has lost touch with its history. My political career started with Barry Goldwater at the age of 12, progressed through Gene McCarthy, Bobby Kennedy, Pete McCloskey, Gerry Ford, George H.W. Bush, Elliot Richardson, Bill Weld and my work as the National Communications Director for the Republican Coalition for Choice. In addition to this work there have been many other candidates and campaigns waged in an awful lot of places that I remember only for their bad food and uncomfortable motels. I knew Lee Atwater and watched the development of "wedge politics" flourish from Lee through Ron Kaufman, Charlie Black, Rich Bond, Mary Matalin, and Karl Rove -- with the considerable media help of Roger Ailes and Stuart Stevens. For those not familiar with the theory of "wedge politics," its basic concept is to drive wedges between different political interest groups -- using fear and intimidation as its primary tools. This process drives many people away from the voting process, while motivating the targeted groups with negative tactics and fear. It is easy to scare an electorate who remembers a better -- easier -- time, and then blame the current state of national affairs on: Democrats, Hispanics, Afro-Americans, Muslims, women, gays -- take your pick. The end result is that candidates employing these tactics often win elections, but find themselves in an impossible position to govern as a result of the ill will generated in the electoral process. One need only reflect on the reprehensible and personal attacks employed by the George W. Bush campaign in the 2000 South Carolina primary against Senator John McCain to get a sense of how "wedge politics" can be effectively and viciously employed I respected the fact that Lee admitted before his death that "wedge politics" was one of the most damaging tactics ever developed and apologized for the effects it could have on the American political process. In a Life magazine article written shortly before his death from cancer in 1990, Atwater said that, "Long before I was struck with cancer, I felt something stirring in American society," he said. "It was a sense among the people of the country -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- that something was missing from their lives, something crucial. I was trying to position the Republican Party to take advantage of it. But I wasn't exactly sure what 'it' was. My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood." As we have all witnessed, Republican media strategists have been very effective at scaring the living daylights out of the citizens of this country, and driving down overall turnout. It is a process which, if not stopped soon, may very well become impossible to reverse. And then -- we might find ourselves well down the road to being a Banana Republic governed by strutting, angry ideologues -- interested more in maintaining their political power than in enacting thoughtful bipartisan policy. In a famous anecdote often told about President Eisenhower, he was asked prior to his first run for President whether he was a Republican or a Democrat. His answer was, "I am an American." This country is hungry to put an end to the partisan warfare that has consumed this nation for the last 15 years -- at least. That hunger, and a deep discontent with the status quo keeps reasserting itself. It raised its head in '96 with the hope that Colin Powell might run. It reemerged with the McCain insurgency, and I believe that it will finally succeed with the candidacy of Howard Dean. This is not a question of party registration. It is a matter of right and wrong. It is a question of thoughtful policy development that addresses the needs and problems that are facing the majority of people in this country. I have campaigned all over this country and I have enormous confidence in the basic common sense of the American people. I believe if you speak to them rationally they will listen. I am convinced that one of the reasons that the Dean campaign is gaining such traction is because unlike everyone else they have thrown the rule book away and are beginning to intelligently address the problems that are threatening the nation. I also believe that they understand that they represent a potential home for millions of disenfranchised traditional Republicans who -- like myself -- are no longer welcome in their own Party. Governor Dean projects a complete unwillingness to be afraid, and that is the key to taking these people out. From what I am hearing from friends inside the Republican Party, they are deeply concerned by the Dean campaign because they do not know how to deal with it. I guess I would say to people who have been terrified by President Bush and his administration, "do not be afraid of all Republicans, because there are millions of Republicans who are wonderful caring people. Citizens who embrace the traditions and policies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower......reach out to them.........and create a radical center where all of us can work together -- even when we disagree." Please do not tar us all with the same brush. Like all Americans, we love our country, its values and the principles that have made it great. Equally important, we are committed to the vision of the founders of our party who believed, in the words of Abraham Lincoln that, "This country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it." You should also know that those of us who dare to suggest to Republicans and Independents that there is a better way -- have been threatened and harassed. Recently I was challenged by a family member as to what my deceased father, a lifelong Republican, would think about my working for a Democratic candidate for president. My answer was that I did not know what he would think either, but then I was not sure what he would think about the world that we live in. What would he think about a world where intelligent, hard working people can not get a job because they are over the age of 45 -- because it costs corporations too much money to employ them? What would he think about a world where health insurance and health care costs my family of four $17,000 a year? What would he think about a government led by a Republican president that is prepared to deficit spend to the tune of $500 billion a year or spend $2.5 trillion over a five year period on a war in a country where we do not belong, while 51,000,000 working people go without health insurance? This country finds itself in a position where "failure is simply not an option." Like the people who are worried by the policies of the current administration, I too am concerned as to what would happen were Bush/Cheney or more accurately Cheney/Bush and Karl Rove got their way for another four years. It is of grave concern to my wife and it is the reason she has encouraged me to return to the business -- because she believes there are tools and relationships I can bring to the fight that can help Howard Dean become the next president of the United States. But that success will come much easier if there are welcoming hands reaching out to us. There is a quotation from Sun Tzu's Art of War, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Well I believe we have the advantage of knowing them and ourselves, and they are clueless as to what is going on in Burlington and across the country. I resolutely agree with President Theodore Roosevelt when he said, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." It is my hope that we can organize this effort with the sentiments expressed in the final paragraph of Lincoln's first Inaugural address: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Discuss "... To Dare Mighty Things ..." NOTE: Michael Cudahy's Republican political management and press relations responsibilities have ranged from the 1980 Reagan/Bush mid-western presidential effort, to the 1980 George Bush for President campaign, as well as the Andrew H. Card, Jr. gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts. He also worked as National Communications Director for the Republican Coalition for Choice. Mr. Cudahy's full bio is at: < stratfocuscommunications.com/principals.htm#Michael%20Cudahy >
Banana RepublicansBy Dana BlankenhornThere are days when, politically, I'm optimistic. Bush's approval is down in the low 50s, his re-elect number in the mid-40s. Howard Dean, a decent man and an adept politician, is drawing big crowds and big money from small people. But then there are days when, politically, I'm more depressed than ever. Bush's approval rating remains over 50, despite a Vietnam-like war (in that there is no exit strategy), despite a faltering economy (and a deficit that will choke our kids). What are people thinking? But that's not really what depresses me. I'm depressed about the way politics is being played by the Right, as a zero-sum game, as a life-and-death struggle. I'm frightened by Dittohead rhetoric come to vivid life. I'm frightened of rules changed in Texas, Republicans who changed the rules threatening Democrats with arrest to keep power, not in Austin, but in Washington. I'm frightened by rich men in California pushing a recall on behalf of a Dunderhead who was a personal friend of the Nazi Kurt Waldheim, hoping he can then move the state to them. I'm frightened by men like Judge Roy Moore of Alabama, deliberately provoking a fight he cannot win just to divide people and win higher office. I'm scared because there seems to be an entire generation of polemicists and politicians on the right who seem to have forgotten, or who have chosen to ignore, the basic lesson of democracy. That is you fight hard, you fight fair, but mostly you fight clean because it's everyone's system. Compromise is at the heart of that system. Compromise is what the Constitution is based on. But today the rightists in power think the system is just a cover for whatever-you-can-get-away-with, that the purpose of power is to crush "the other" and grab everything for yourself. ... continued ...
Friday, August 22, 2003 The $100 Million Problemby Dana BlankenhornHoward Dean continues to move along. He's now leading other Democrats in the polls, leading in the money primary, and he has 300,000 volunteers working for him around the country. But, like a high-tech start-up that suddenly hits $100 million in revenue, he risks peaking, and falling back. I have studied these problems for years close-up. When I started covering technology, in the 1980s, Atlanta had a number of high-tech powerhouses, Hayes and Crosstalk and Quadram among them. All failed to reach their goals. None could crack the $100 million puzzle. There are two requirements here which seem at first to be contradictory. You have to scale, gain some structure, literally grow a bureaucracy to serve your organization's needs. At the same time you have to keep your nerve. If you get careful you lose. Dean's problems in growing his bureaucracy are illustrated by his recent "spam" scandal. As best as I've been able to learn someone on his staff hired the brother of the notorious spammer Walter Rimes to do some e-mailing, forgetting that any e-mail price which is too good to be true undoubtedly is. The apology, when it came, took a limited hang-out route. (http://dean2004.blogspot.com/2003_08_17_dean2004_archive.html#1061240976283 46051) The anti-spam activists I contacted were spitting mad, especially since it came just a month after a similar problem at the volunteer Dean for Texas group (http://www.unicom.com/chrome/a/000294.html). (They didn't catch the difference between Texas volunteers and the campaign headquarters. Nor should they have to.) The second problem is with Dean himself. It's one thing to emphasize different aspects of your record as you come to appear electable. It's quite another to offer mush when your supporters are demanding steak. This has become increasingly evident in Dean's recent foreign policy statements. It's not what he says but how he says it. (http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/001116.html) In trying to be "Presidential," he is letting Bush off the hook where he is most vulnerable. Dean opposed the war, and is constantly hammered on it. But he doesn't oppose the occupation. He wants it to succeed, with the help of the world community. And he has failed to draw the sharp distinction here, stating clearly and in words of one syllable that the international community won't work with Bush, that his unilateralism has made him anathema to the world's people, and only new leadership has a hope of finishing the job in Iraq. Instead we get this "I call on the Bush Administration" and blather on how the Bush Administration should "redouble its efforts to internationalize the military and civilian presence." Redouble? Excuse me? This is not the time to be timid. Despite all Dean's efforts, despite Bush' sinking poll ratings, Bush would still crush Dean if the election were held today. (http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=728 ) You let Bush off the hook on Iraq, in the name of keeping the nation united, and you unite it on behalf of your political enemy, at the cost of your political life. You're not running against John Ashcroft (http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=stopashcroft&JServSe ssionIdr010=2h826on1pp.app7b), you're running against George W. Bush. He's the man you must destroy, because he will do everything to destroy you. What Democrats want is a candidate who will hit Bush, hit him and hit him and hit him, non-stop, between now and the election. They demand a war for the soul of the country, win or lose, a real crusade to take this country back. That is what Howard Dean promised. This is what he must do, every day. And if he needs inspiration, he should just go to Wall Street. Did Bill Gates ever let up on Novell? Did John Chambers ever let up on 3Com? Did Andy Grove ever feel sorry for AMD? Not for a minute. If they had they would be as remembered as Dennis Hayes and Leland Strange and Les Freed, the Atlanta entrepreneurs I mentioned at the top of this item. You go for the throat or you get yourself choked. You build discipline within your organization or it withers away. These are the keys to beating the $100 million problem. These are the jobs now facing Howard Dean and his campaign.
Thursday, August 21, 2003 Dialing for Dollars in the Middle EastAccording to Ted Rall, MCI Worldcom is getting a sweetheart deal from the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, squeezing out an experienced local competitor that was already on board establishing its market. [Link]The Pentagon's rush to protect WorldCom from a scrappy Bahraini-based competitor, Batelco, which has built cell networks in the Middle East, has exposed yet another unholy alliance between corporate America and the Bush Administration. Demonstrating the brand of lightening-quick entrepreneurship traditionally treasured by free-market-loving Americans, Batelco raced into Iraq after the U.S. invasion and installed cell towers throughout Baghdad. With half of land lines out of service and Saddam's 1990 plan to build cell towers stymied by U.N. trade sanctions, Baghdadis welcomed the new service. But the CPA shut down Batelco and threatened to confiscate its $5 million of equipment. Now the CPA is now prohibiting companies more than 10 percent owned by foreign governments from bidding on civilian cell business in U.S.-occupied Iraq. That eliminates Batelco and most other Middle East-based telecommunications companies and, according to analyst Lars Godell of Forrester Research in Amsterdam, leaves MCI with "a head start." src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/DVQiaRhvNB5.js"> Discuss Dialing for Dollars in the Middle East
Tuesday, August 19, 2003 FireGriles.comRemember James Watt? The current state of the Department of the Interior is probably worse than it was under Watt - if you assume that Interior's charter is to protect our lands, rather than organize plunder that will leave us with diminished natural resources and a few fat cats that have transformed national treaures into cash flow - into their pockets, of course. Well, we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore! Several U.S. environmental groups have organized FireGriles.com to recall the Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department. Why Griles? From the site:WHAT: Griles is a "former" oil, gas and coal lobbyist who is now the second-in-command at the Department of the Interior -- the agency in charge of protecting our nation's natural heritage. He has led the charge to weaken the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, while pushing for an increase in mining and drilling on our public lands. src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/7gNw38rScVBae.js"> Discuss FireGriles.com
Monday, August 18, 2003 National Security & Intelligence for a Greater DemocracyBy Robert David Steele, CEO, OSS.NetThomas Jefferson had it right when he said that "A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry." Daniel Patrick Moynihan also had it right when he recognized that excessive and inappropriate secrecy is a threat to democracy and open governance. As a former spy, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. national security community, I understand both the good and the bad of secret intelligence and secret deals to fund very expensive weapons systems that have no justification in reality. In 2000 I published my first book, ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World, with a Foreword by Senator David Boren (D-OK), today the President of the University of Oklahoma. That book catalogued all that was wrong then and remains wrong now, with the U.S. intelligence community. Despite the fact that the book was one of fifteen independent intelligence reform books published in the two years prior to 9-11, neither Congress nor the Clinton Administration wanted to entertain substantive intelligence reform legislation. In 2002 I published my second book, THE NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE: Personal, Public, & Political, with a Foreword by Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS). I had realized that government is incapable of achieving deep reforms-only the people can demand deep reforms, and to be successful, the people must understand global threats, they must understand the "connectivity" of all elements of national power and national strategy, and they must instruct their political representatives as the urgency of both reform and a shift to an open intelligence paradigm, a network model for national security instead of the old industrial secret closed model. Of all the candidates now running for President, I believe that only Howard Dean understands the open society, open intelligence, open systems, networked model for national security and intelligence. However, I also believe he needs our help. I propose a "Readers for Dean" program that uses the Amazon.com book review process to identify the top ten books relevant to every issue area-books that reflect a nuanced understanding of the challenges facing America, and the open networked solutions that must be collegially implemented across party and cultural lines. I propose that Greater Democracy sponsor a Virtual Library across all these issue areas, and that we help the Dean campaign and policy staff by being their readers-in some cases, by responding to urgent calls for input on an overnight basis, "reading in", writing summative reviews, and essentially being a Citizen's Intelligence Analysis cadre for the Challenger. Examples of relevant book reviews can be seen at www.oss.net. Clicking on the NewsSorter and selecting Book Reviews will show only book reviews. I offer up all that I have done, and volunteer to do directed books on demand, if Greater Democracy will sponsor Readers for Dean and a Virtual Library helpful to the Challenger. If we help Dean harness the distributed intelligence of America and the world, we help ourselves take back the power. Reading rocks-let's show what power reading can do. src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/9es5LzcjpNv5c.js"> Discuss National Security & Intelligence for a Greater Democracy
Friday, August 15, 2003 "Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in White House": Greg PalastGreg Palast associates the massive east coast power outages with energy deregulation or "regulatory reform," wherein power companies avoid breaking the rules by ... dumping the rules. [Link]Is tonight's black-out a surprise? Heck, no, not to us in the field who've watched Bush's buddies flick the switches across the globe. In Brazil, Houston Industries seized ownership of Rio de Janeiro's electric company. The Texans (aided by their French partners) fired workers, raised prices, cut maintenance expenditures and, CLICK! the juice went out so often the locals now call it, "Rio Dark." src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/5aUrjqt53ic5.js"> Discuss "Power Outage Traced to Dim Bulb in White House": Greg Palast
Friday, August 08, 2003 George W. Bush "Action" Figure Those of you who actually completed military service will be outraged to see this action figure offered for 40 bucks by KB Toys, especially if you know Bush's military record. Bush's cynical attempt to reinvent himself as a military hero given his avoidance of Air National Guard duty when it was his time to serve is one more significant episode of dishonesty from an administration that evidently feels it can substitute show business tricks for competent government. [Link] src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/yjvcbRp5XHL.js"> Discuss George W. Bush "Action" Figure
Thursday, August 07, 2003 One of Many MeetupsMore about the appeal of the Dean campaign: Greater Democracy reader Ron Sheridan sent this after last night's Howard Dean meetup:I've been to 4 Meetups at the Knitting Factory on Hollywood Blvd in "Hollywood," but tonight's meetup was the best. There were only about 100 or more people there however... The crowd was primed and reacted viscerally to any piece of red meat thrown their way. There was not a rowdy participant in the house. No animus-laced bellowings. The crowd seemed almost calm. But under the surface brewed something powerful. They reacted to comments made by a short parade of run of the mill Dean supporters with a voice that was steady, strong and full of resolve. There was a palpable sense of the power in the Dean campaign in that room tonight. I am so glad I attended. src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/SyG8S9mhQ7Cm.js"> Discuss One of Many Meetups
Deanspace Volunteers Want YOU!This is for those of you who are somewhat tech-proficient... you read this, you'll know who you are.Greetings Adventuresome Testers We, formerly the Hack4dean working group, and current inhabitors of DeanSpace.org have been very busy indeed. No, the Dean campaign web-community “node” software is not ready – but we are ready to start testing it anyways! We are looking for a handful of dedicated test groups to start setting up their sites using our latest code hot off our CVS. The tools are more than functional enough to support campaign communities, but not all of our modules are usable yet. If you think you are interested in being part of the adventuresome test team I ask that you please familiarize yourself a little bit with our development community and software first. * The first thing you need to do is head over to: http://www.deanspace.org/ and make a user account. * Next you should start reading over our “books” - About: http://deanspace.org/node/view/4 - gives a rough overview of the project - Manual: http://deanspace.org/node/view/5 - will be the user manual to use our tools. * When you have decided that this is something you want to do, please sign up for our Drupal Admin mailing list. You can use this web form to do so: http://deanspace.org/ezmlm. I would also recommend you sign on to our other mailing lists - more information is on this site: http://deanspace.org/node/view/92. * Then you should announce who you are on the mailing list, and start playing with the test code available for download at: http://deanspace.org/node/view/75. Ready for the fun to begin? If you have any questions feel free to email me: zrosen at uiuc.edu. src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/au6wJC58XrJm.js"> Discuss Deanspace Volunteers Want YOU!
Wednesday, August 06, 2003 Messenger, Medium, MessageBy Dana BlankenhornWhat is going on with this Howard Dean thing? Why has he "caught fire" and why do attacks on him seem to bounce off like they did off Ronald Reagan? It's a combination of message, medium and messenger. Start with the message. It began with the phrase, "What I wanna know..." followed by a string of charges that George W. Bush has misled us and Democrats have laid down before him. Then it ended, "I want to represent the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party." The place went nuts. There isn't a lot of policy in that message. There isn't any "ultra-liberalism," certainly, as we have all since learned. There is the question, "is this trip really necessary," followed by a call to arms. Whatever your views you have to admit we need a strong Democratic Party, just as we need a strong Republican Party. That is how we get to choices, that is how we get democracy. When one party gets too strong, we tilt toward totalitarianism. When there are contradictions between reality and rhetoric, Americans rightly start to smell that tilt, and we instinctively resist it.  Dean's policy message, it turns out, is pretty conservative, with a small "c". Don't spend money you don't have. Don't start wars you can't finish. Make sure you can drink the water and breathe the air. Give everyone equal rights and expect equal responsibility. Lead the world, don't try and rule it. Even in my lifetime this was the heart of the Republican ideology - the "McCarthy-McGovern" idea of "sex, drugs, rock and roll," (if that's what it was) died out a long time ago, in AIDS and overdoses and car crashes. Dean's message is pure Capra-corn, like the movies of Frank Capra. It is non-ideological. It is purely pragmatist. The more you learn of it, the simpler it gets, even as you see the world it applies to becoming more complicated. This is in contrast to the incumbent, whose ideology is rigid, book-like, and whose rhetoric gets more juvenile when problems get more difficult. How about the medium? The IN, in the word Internet? It stands for intimate. This medium brings intimacy like nothing has since the printing press. It is a true two-way medium, like the telephone, yet it can broadcast in a scaled way. But for the broadcast to be heard, and responded to you need, not permission, but attention. You get attention through conversation. This is what blogging offers. A broadcast message gets individual responses, which are broadcast below it, and followed by intimate, one-on-one e-mail. There's more here than a call to give. You are not part of an audience, you are in the game. Even I, an anonymous middle-aged author, unknown practically to his neighbors, have found my ideas accepted and acknowledged on the Dean blog, my letters broadcast to a vast audience. You can get that, too. Then there are the Meetups. Meetups bring the intimacy of the Internet into the real world. Many are a bit like church services. People testify to how they came there, they are welcomed and validated. There are projects (like this letter), there's a collection plate and then there's a celebration. You go out, as at church, empowered, enlightened, befriended, whole again. You are no longer just part of a political audience, you're an American again, with your own voice. It's transforming, something that has not existed in our politics for a century, since the days of torchlight parades, political barbecues, and town hall meetings. Finally we come to the messenger. Howard Dean is short, his smile is a bit goofy, he has a thick neck, and he looks stiff (because a vertabra is fused). But Howard Dean has two things every other Democrat you've met lacks. He has governed, so he knows what it's like to be an executive, not just a legislator. And he treats us like adults. He doesn't say, "I was against the attack on Iraq, and we need to get out." He says, "we were wrong to get in, but we must finish the job." He doesn't offer something for nothing, he says if you want services from government, even wars, then you must pay for them. When was the last time a politician treated you as a grown-up? One example will suffice. It was a hot, stuffy barnyard-like set Senator Tom Harkin had set up, in Iowa, for his "Hear it from the Heartland," a venting session where Democratic voters could quiz candidates, one on one, and hopefully hear what they wanted. Someone asked Howard Dean, for probably the fourth time that night, about health care. Politicians alternately blame doctors, insurance companies, drug companies, trial lawyers or government for the mess, he said. But the biggest reason why Americans pay 50% more for health care than other people is they can't handle death. Dean told of how his son once needed an appendectomy, and he found himself transformed into a father demanding everything technology could provide to save his kid. He told of an elderly patient with a fatal prognosis, whom he could offer only expensive treatments to prolong life a few weeks. "The whole family would be called in, from around the country, and 95% of the time the answer was the same - they wanted nature to take its course," he said. The personal bond of doctor to patient, and doctor to family, is what we need to break our denial. Howard Dean was a practicing family doctor for a decade, and his wife still is. This was an audience of older folks. They looked down, stared at their hands, they stopped being political flunkies, they listened hard. But science has limits. Life ends. Much of what we spend on health care is wasted. Someone ought to change that. But someone can't. Only we can. Only we have the power to make the hard decisions. Only we have the power to take control of our politics back from sloganeering politicians. We have the power and if we don't use it someone else will. "The great lie spoken by politicians on platforms like this is the cry of 'elect me and I will solve all your problems.' The truth is the future of our nation rests in your hands." That is what an American President should sound like. That is Howard Dean. Message, medium, messenger. That's the Great American Restoration. Every four years we Americans have the opportunity to revolt. When "a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." That's from the Declaration of Independence. Or, as they say in New Hampshire, live free or die. We have that opportunity, right now. It's called an election. And now you are called to choose the path we're on, or a new path. Millions have died to give you this choice. Use it wisely. Dana Blankenhorn dana@a-clue.com Progressive Strategies Business Strategy analyst http://www.progstrat.com http://www.corante.com/mooreslore Get A-Clue.Com Free http://www.a-clue.com src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/AnWuMDxY3Za.js"> Discuss Messenger, Medium, Message
Monday, August 04, 2003 Don't Let Bush (and Cheap Labor Conservatives) Cut Overtime PayThis is from the Howard Dean Campaign:We’ve launched a petition drive to stop the Bush Administration’s gutting of basic workers’ rights, and we need your help to spread it around the larger community. This has been an incredible week – your work, and the work of the grassroots supporters all across the country, put Dean on the cover of Time and Newsweek -- an extraordinary, historic moment in primary politics. We all know that would never have happened without your work. The Dean campaign is not just about Dean and his message, but about the way you are taking back politics and literally changing the structure of our democracy. Now take that people-powered Howard power and apply it to stopping Bush from gutting the core rights of workers. http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=save_overtime George W. Bush starts his month long vacation tomorrow. While George W. Bush vacations, more than 3 million unemployed people are having a sleepless summer trying to find work. Now the Administration has put overtime pay at risk for more than 8 million Americans. Please sign the petition at the following link -- we'll deliver it to Elaine Chao (Secretary of Labor). http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=save_overtime You can find links to more information at the petition site. After you sign the petition, follow the link to the AFL-CIO website and stand up with workers all across this country by sending a message to Congress to stop this Administration's attack on America's workers. Governor Dean said (a few weeks ago) of Bush’s treatment of worker’s rights: “Once again, President Bush is siding with big business at the expense of working families. The Administration’s proposal to deny overtime pay to millions of American workers is offensive. As President, I would reverse it. A new proposal nearing final approval by the Department of Labor would limit overtime pay to an estimated 8 million workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute. These changes to Fair Labor Standards Act regulations would affect emergency medical technicians, paralegals, licensed practical nurses, draftsmen, surveyors, journalists, cooks, dental hygienists and health technicians, among many others. This is only the latest in a series of anti-worker policies put forward by this Administration. They dismantled the ergonomics rule, fought an increase in the minimum wage, supported legislation to erode the 40 hour workweek and now they want to cut overtime pay.” Please join him, sign the petition, and show your support for the basic rights of workers and their families. Thank you so much. src="http://www.quicktopic.com/23/wCBfsZR6fMmkX.js"> Discuss Don't Let Bush (and Cheap Labor Conservatives) Cut Overtime Pay
Sunday, August 03, 2003 Defeat the Right in Three MinutesConceptual Guerilla's Strategy and Tactics is the site we've been looking for... the guerilla delivers a few talking points to inoculate against the neocon virus. The right gained power by reframing thinking within the U.S. through repetition of simple expressions of their perspective repeated over and over again. Conceptual Guerilla's evident mission: create and propagate a set of talking points for the rest of us.
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Friday, August 01, 2003 The Search For MemingRecently I have seen a number of posts aimed at creating a "meme," a slogan, a formula, that will turn public opinion around on George W. Bush and the Republican Party.They're "cheap labor conservatives," pipes one. Bush is "a phony," pipes another. I'm not arguing with either formulation. After all, I have one of my own. This election is about values, their short-term values and our long-term values. (So there.) But the search for a meme is wrong. It plays into the Republicans' hands, because whatever meme they choose will get 10 times the budget of anything we can come up with. It also distracts from the real task at hand. That task is to change minds. Here are a few practical ideas aimed at doing just that: 1. Listen. Listen at the water cooler. Your friends know who you're for, and what you're against. Instead of talking, listen. What do your co-workers say, especially those who are supporting Bush but might be termed "squishy?" That is where you will find the GOP memes that resonate. That is where you will find what you have to fight. And that is where you can test some things. 2. Go to church. I'm not talking about some Quaker or Universalist Church, my friends. I'm talking about a God-fearing, fire-breathing mega-church. They can't stop you. Talk to the congregants. Again, listen. And while you're in there, if it's legal, have someone flyering their cars. 3. Get local. Find a meaningful issue in your community that can swing people against their local Republicans. This is vital in the suburbs. Get people negative about local Republicans and they will listen to a pitch against national Republicans. 4. Sign Up Others, One By One. When you convert someone give them something to do. Get them to do something from the list above, a little something. Emphasize that they are there to listen, not to argue. Create witnesses. Notice that there is no media in this campaign. There is no free media, there is no paid media. There are no bumper stickers, no buttons. (OK, maybe some flyers.) This must be a campaign of mouse pads and shoe leather. Accent on the shoe leather. Activate those you can activate, talk to those you can persuade, listen to the rest and let them find the memes you need. For this reason, I am presently a little bit disappointed with the Howard Dean campaign. They have had some great stunts aimed at raising money, and that has made him a "front-runner," even (to some) THE front-runner. But that's not the game. The game isn't the nomination, it's the election, an election in which we will have no support from the air, an election we can only win on the ground. So I have suggested, in my usual modest way, that the Dean Team create some stunts aimed at getting many more people to the campaign's Signup page, at www.deanforamerica.com/signup. Right now, without marketing, it's drawing 2,000 new names per day. That sounds great, but it's 60,000 per month, 720,000 per year, and only 900,000 between now and Election Day. That won't do it. What can we do to increase that rate? The Search For Meming Recently I have seen a number of posts aimed at creating a "meme," a slogan, a formula, that will turn public opinion around on George W. Bush and the Republican Party. They're "cheap labor conservatives," pipes one. Bush is "a phony," pipes another. I'm not arguing with either formulation. After all, I have one of my own. This election is about values, their short-term values and our long-term values. (So there.) But the search for a meme is wrong. It plays into the Republicans' hands, because whatever meme they choose will get 10 times the budget of anything we can come up with. It also distracts from the real task at hand. That task is to change minds. Here are a few practical ideas aimed at doing just that: 1. Listen. Listen at the water cooler. Your friends know who you're for, and what you're against. Instead of talking, listen. What do your co-workers say, especially those who are supporting Bush but might be termed "squishy?" That is where you will find the GOP memes that resonate. That is where you will find what you have to fight. And that is where you can test some things. 2. Go to church. I'm not talking about some Quaker or Universalist Church, my friends. I'm talking about a God-fearing, fire-breathing mega-church. They can't stop you. Talk to the congregants. Again, listen. And while you're in there, if it's legal, have someone flyering their cars. 3. Get local. Find a meaningful issue in your community that can swing people against their local Republicans. This is vital in the suburbs. Get people negative about local Republicans and they will listen to a pitch against national Republicans. 4. Sign Up Others, One By One. When you convert someone give them something to do. Get them to do something from the list above, a little something. Emphasize that they are there to listen, not to argue. Create witnesses. Notice that there is no media in this campaign. There is no free media, there is no paid media. There are no bumper stickers, no buttons. (OK, maybe some flyers.) This must be a campaign of mouse pads and shoe leather. Accent on the shoe leather. Activate those you can activate, talk to those you can persuade, listen to the rest and let them find the memes you need. For this reason, I am presently a little bit disappointed with the Howard Dean campaign. They have had some great stunts aimed at raising money, and that has made him a "front-runner," even (to some) THE front-runner. But that's not the game. The game isn't the nomination, it's the election, an election in which we will have no support from the air, an election we can only win on the ground. So I have suggested, in my usual modest way, that the Dean Team create some stunts aimed at getting many more people to the campaign's Signup page, at www.deanforamerica.com/signup. Right now, without marketing, it's drawing 2,000 new names per day. That sounds great, but it's 60,000 per month, 720,000 per year, and only 900,000 between now and Election Day. That won't do it. What can we do to increase that rate? — Dana Blankenhorn
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