Category: politics

All things political, great and small.

King’s struggle: still fighting, McCain: still full of it

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Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of America’s conscience, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s blog we are posting remembrances and reflections on King’s legacy for the on-going struggle for justice. Color of Change has really been taking up the modern civil rights mantle, with their activism around Hurricane Katrina, the Jena 6, and the Angola 3. Today they sent out a refresher to keep us real on John McCain’s record on civil rights and on honoring Dr. King (or not.)

As John McCain heads to Memphis on the anniversary of Dr. King’s death, it’s worth noting his record on the issue of a holiday in King’s honor. When he was a Congressman in 1983, McCain voted against creating a federal Martin Luther King Holiday and his home state rescinded recognition of the holiday in 1987. While he has claimed his position has ‘evolved’ and that his original vote was ‘wrong’ his record of support for racist individuals, and his consistent votes against civil rights legislation belie that claim. And he has employed controversial individuals on his own campaign whose own nasty comments about Martin Luther King undermine McCain’s claims of inclusivity and evolution.
– JOHN MCCAIN: WRONG ON KING HOLIDAY

Five aspects of effective networks

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I’ve been doing a few presentations lately that include the basics of network-centric organizing, so I thought it would be helpful to post a refresher here. With props, as always, to Marty Kearns from whom I learned a lot of this.

Update 6/25/10: Here’s the latest version of my presentation on network-centric thinking: https://lotusmedia.org/how-to-keep-thinking-like-a-network

Update 5/22/08: Now you can watch the presentation, which makes very little sense without me talking.

Five aspects of effective networks

  1. Strong social ties
    • Personal relationships
    • Trust
    • Awareness
  2. Dense communication grid
    • Online & offline
    • One-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many
    • For example
      • Blogs, forums
      • E-mail, IM, SMS
      • Face-to-face
  3. Common story
    • Shared values
    • Collective narrative
  4. Culture of sharing
    • For example
      • Data, information
      • Skills & expertise
      • Money
      • Space
  5. Network awareness
    • Feeling like a member
    • Knowing what the network is for

Here are some more resources to learn more about network-centric organizing strategies:

  • Earlier presentations on this topic: https://lotusmedia.org/advocacy-20-the-slideshow (slides) & https://lotusmedia.org/ruby-goes-to-class (video) &
    https://lotusmedia.org/civic-engagement-and-technology (with helpful links)
  • Blogging tips: https://lotusmedia.org/so-you-wanna-start-an-advocacy-blog
  • Network-centric approach to politics: https://lotusmedia.org/the-political-cluetrain
  • Background reading: https://lotusmedia.org/network-centric-reading-list
  • Marty Kearns’ widsom: http://advocacy20.org & http://netcentriccampaigns.org

… and more in my “Advocacy 2.0” category on this blog: https://lotusmedia.org/in/nptech/advocacy/

White women for Obama

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The NPR News Blog asked “Why Does Clinton Turn Some Women Voters Off?” Here’s my answer:

I am a 36-year-old white woman in the fuchsia (sp?) state of North Carolina. I used to love Clinton when she stood for strong, independent, professional women as a First Lady who wasn’t going to be staying home and “baking cookies.”

As a politician, though, I have grown disinterested as her policies veer more and more toward the center-right. Her support for the war cinched my distaste for her. I would never vote for a Republican over her, but I would take just about any other Democrat including Barack Obama.

By the way, I heard on NPR this morning that older white women were especially inclined toward Clinton. Not so in my family! Both grandmothers told me last night they are excited about Obama and voted/are voting for him in their respective primaries (NY and TX).

Twittering about the caucuses

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Last night I sort-of half-assed live-blogged the caucus results, but I did it on Twitter instead of on my blog. Here’s a collection of my caucus tweets from the last 16 hours, you can also read them at http://twitter.com/ruby.

Deleting literally hundreds of messages in my inbox about Iowa. 22 minutes ago

@mistersugar I think Huckabee is the most Bush-like candidate in the Republican field, especially re: religiosity. AR seems coincidental. 27 minutes ago

@levjoy Fuck yeah! Kucinich has a lot to say and nothing to lose. about 12 hours ago from twitterrific in reply to levjoy

CNN: Biden drops out! about 12 hours ago

Sounds like Stevie Wonder on at Obama HQ. about 12 hours ago

Thinking of how I was inspired the first time I heard Obama speak (at the 2004 DNC). Now I find him sort of… affected. Less authentic. about 12 hours ago

OMG I think they’re also playing U2 @ Obama party. Nice to see his daughters for a change. Michelle’s dress is a bit distracting. about 12 hours ago

Huck: “This election is not about mii, it’s about wii.” about 13 hours ago

Chuck Norris on stage with the Huckster, who is speechifying now. about 13 hours ago

CNN confirms: Dodd is dropping out. about 13 hours ago

Continue reading “Twittering about the caucuses” →

lag4peace: Don’t Iraq Iran

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FOR's virtual office Tomorrow a large coalition of activists is organizing a series of events in Second Life to raise awareness about preventing a war with Iran. I’m really excited about it and I will be there most of the day helping out as a media contact. This event also inspired me to add some Iran info to the virtual office for my organization the Fellowship of Reconciliation (seen at left).

There is a whole day of events, but if you don’t want to be there all day, please come and check out the keynote and opening rally at 11:45am EST. It will be at the Commonwealth Assembly Area which can hold over 300 avatars (a lot for SL!).

Full info about the day of events is below. Sorry to post the entire press release, but this info doesn’t seem to be online anywhere else.
Continue reading “lag4peace: Don’t Iraq Iran” →

Blogs and politicians

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Brad Miller I haven’t been blogging here much lately, but I’m still at it at work and on OrangePolitics. I’ve also been busy with lots of other things like this: Brian and I are hosting an informal gathering for local activists and bloggers to meet US Congressman Brad Miller. The main topic will be blogs and politics, but Brad also loves to talk about science and I will continue to bend his ear about peace and militarism issues.

If you’re on Facebook, get details and RSVP here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6180362982

If not, check out the deets below:

Continue reading “Blogs and politicians” →

Love the soldier, hate the war

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In honor of the holiday, I want shout out to my two favorite veterans: Jonathan Kuniholm: Iraq veteran, engineer, co-founder of the Open Prosthetics Project; and Stan Goff: veteran of numerous conflicts from Vietnam to Haiti, author, blogger, founder of Insurgent American, and co-founder of Bring Them Home Now.

I don’t believe either of them shares my view of militarism, but they have both learned the high cost of war both personally and societally. I appreciate their dedication to serve not just this country, but this planet.

Hey, I’m a video blogger

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I tried making some videos for election day as an experiment, and I think it went pretty well.

The first one is 16 minutes, I made it in my office with iMovie and my laptop’s built-in camera. I made 3 more with nothing but my cellphone (a $50 Treo 680) as I attended the victory celebrations of some of the candidates. They are shown here in reverse order:

I am loving http://blip.tv for how easy they make this.