I’m not at all clear on why this is a good idea:
Linden Lab, the company behind “Second Life,” says it is implementing voice-over-Internet software that will let the thousands of people online at any given moment talk to each other over their computers’ microphones and speakers.
– `Second Life’ gets chatty – Yahoo! News
All that noise is the last thing I need.
It sounds like African Americans are starting to get to know Barack Obama, and they like what they see.
In polls taken in December and January, Democratic African-Americans favored Clinton over Obama by a 60-20 margin. Now Obama leads Clinton among African-Americans by a margin of 44-33 percent. That shift has brought Obama’s overall support among Democrats up to 24 percent, from 17 percent in January. John Edwards holds steady at 12 percent.
Salon has a very interesting article today by Lindsay Beyerstein of Majikthise on why she turned down the job that Amanda Marcotte briefly held with the Edwards campaign. She also addresses what she thinks is a major flaw in their online strategy: by making bloggers “official” you remove most of the value of their independent, outsider voices.
The Edwards campaign wants decentralized people-powered politics. Ironically, by hiring well-known bloggers to manage a destination Web site, it was actually centralizing and micromanaging. Every campaign needs a blog, but the most important part of a candidate’s netroots operation is the disciplined political operatives who can quietly build relationships with bloggers outside the campaign. And the bomb-throwing surrogates need to be outside, where they can make full use of their gifts without saddling a campaign with their personal political baggage.
This entry was also posted at techPresident.com.
I tend to be more interested in “how the web is using them” than “how the candidates are using the web” in techPresident’s mission. So of course I’m fascinated by the John Edwards Is Good website. I like the ambiguity of this slogan. Does it mean Edwards is good… looking, for America, at billiards? It could be any of the above.
When I saw first these 80’s-inspired t-shirts popping up during the 2004 campaign, I took them for nothing more than a smarmy remark on Edwards’ looks from some overly-clever college students. However, it seems that this meme has blossomed into a full-on campaign. While the goal was previously to market the shirt and take pictures of people wearing it in funny places, now the site seems to be semi-seriously promoting the election of John Edwards.
One the things that I found most powerful about Dean for America was how they allowed any interest group to really adopt the candidate and make him their own. Left-handed Rhode Island gun-owning cat lovers for Dean – right on! This is a great way for potential supporters to build community and feel that their interests are represented. Apparently this particular toungue-in-cheek version started with Mark Warner is Good (RIP), and has also spawned Obama is Good which sports all of the same features as John Edwards is Good (JEIG).
The sites have their own Facebook groups (of course), and links to MySpace, etc. They also have serialized, unauthorized biographies of their candidates, but the Obama is Good (OIG) site seems more earnest, while JEIG has a lot of humorous, fictional content and silly pictures. One my favorite features is a comparison of which is better, John or Elizabeth Edwards? (I’m partial toward the latter.)
I couldn’t find an equivalent Hillary is Good site, but it’s just a matter of time. Are there any similar independent and unorthodox campaigns for other candidates?
Can you imagine the US royals (ie: the Bush family) making such a sacrifice? I only have one thing to say about this: DRAFT THE TWINS!
Royal officials announced Thursday that the 22-year-old prince would fight for his country, confirming feverish tabloid speculation about the future of the best-recognized tank commander in Britain. His regiment is expected to set out in May or June for a six-month tour.
– Britain’s Prince Harry to serve in Iraq, 2/22/07
Can you imagine?
(Sadly, EnjoyTheDraft.com is no more.)
Thanks to Sara Donnelly (a.k.a. Sara Susa in Second Life) of the Portland (ME) Phoenix for her coverage of the Avatars Against the War protest. Sara attended many of our meetings as well as the protest and I appreciate her taking the time to learn about what we were/are doing.
(Speaking of what we are doing, we are still holding meetups weekly on Thursdays at 3pm EST. However, I won’t be there this week as I am going to see Cory Doctorow speak at UNC. My co-organizer Andrew Hoppin/Drew Frobozz will be facilitating today’s meeting.)
“We had envisioned doing something small and symbolic until . . . we realized that we had clearly touched a nerve in the Second Life community,” said Ruby Sinreich, a/k/a “Ruby Glitter,” a real-world activist who helped organize the virtual-world rally. “Although we can’t vote in Second Life, we can raise awareness and connect people and show our strength.”
– The Phoenix – Out-of-body politic, 2/7/07
However I have two corrections to Sarah’s article:
Brian Fitzgerald reflects on his personal evolution and a career spent saving the planet upon his 25th anniversary at Greenpeace. He started out as a part-time canvasser in Boston and is now the web guru at Greenpeace International.
I’ve spent 25 years trying to keep in balance the daily doses of despair and the general sense of hope that by making a choice to do something for the planet, people can actually achieve something for the planet. And there are days I believe that mightily, with all my being, and days I cluck with ancient pity at how naive a 49-year-old man can be.
… In short, you gotta be crazy to try. But if nobody tries, game over.
Keep up the great work, Brian. Let’s hear it for being crazy!
![[geek love]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/386992048_235174d19d_m.jpg)
First of all let me say that I have always loathed Valentine’s Day. This goes back to junior high school when I felt like a loser if I didn’t have someone to kiss on that day and continued through college when I pined after a long succession of unavailable guys. in my 20’s I stopped caring, but I still thought the manufactured affection of V-day was for people too lazy to show their love every day.
And I still think that. But I admit that it’s nice to have a partner blogging sweet nothings at me today.
And while we’re on the subject, I want to point readers to the very excellent OutKast song “Happy Valentine’s Day” which includes a slogan I love so much that I put it on a post-it in my office: Cupid will not be defeated!
Speaking of OutKast, I finally saw their move Idlewild last weekend and it was awesome! I remember seeing the trailers last year and thinking “wow, that’s gonna be fun.” But I didn’t hear a peep after it was released. I assumed that the polite silence indicated that it was a dud but I was wrong. This movie is visually and aurally stimulating, well-written and acted, and overall very entertaining.
I have to assume that the radio silence was more because people couldn’t figure out what genre to put it into. The film is way more sophisticated then your stereotypical “black movie” and yet it has no white main characters to pull in the yuppies. This combination suits my tastes just fine, and I hope there is more to come for OutKast on the silver screen.
I hate to write about something while I am still so mad about it, but I just can’t sit still with this any longer.
![[cartoon]](http://www.towncalleddobson.com/strips/2007/2-14-07.png)
I just learned that the other progressive activist blogger (Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister) that was hired by Edwards’ campaign for being a progressive activist blogger has also resigned for being a progressive activist blogger. As I wrote on the I am Amanda Marcotte Facebook group:
I am so damn mad about this. Since when do conservative zealots determine standards for Democratic campaigns?
Edwards should never have validated Donahue’s complaints. This whole thing should have just been an amusing footnote in campaign blogging history a year from now. Instead it has set a horrible precedent which will keep honest bloggers from supporting viable candidates for many years to come.
—
Seriously, who the hell cares what right-wing christians think of Democratic political staffers? Do Republicans care that their staffer are racist, sexist, homophobes? Do we make a federal case out of it? Aaargh!
Wow. This might be enough to tear me away from the televised UNC women’s basketball game against FSU.
Hollywood screenwriter and producer Norman Steinberg, who co-wrote the screenplay for Mel Brooks’ landmark 1974 Western comedy “Blazing Saddles,” will show and discuss the movie at 7 p.m. Monday in 116 Murphey Hall on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Admission is free.
– newsobserver.com | ‘Blazing Saddles’ to be topic of talk
I love Blazing Saddles. It had a huge impact on the development of my sense of humor when I was in high school. (Other key comedic influences included Monty Python and The Young Ones.) So much so that I already own it on DVD. According to IMdB, Norman Steinberg hasn’t done to much else to make me get off the couch. Heels it is!