I wonder if the indictments will put a damper on the playground feeling in D.C.?
Let’s go to TechSoup
It has begun! I just kicked off TechSoup’s week-long web event on Web 2.0 for Nonprofits with a question: who’s blogging and how do you know?
Please come hang out in the TechSoup forums with me today to discuss this and other topics…
Feed the world
Anyone who still isn’t using an aggregator should read Lance’s post on Why You Should Be Using RSS Feeds. It’s brief and helpful.
If you’re still not sure how you might use this, have a look at the feeds I read in Bloglines. You might find something useful there.
The new web for old organizations
Next week, TechSoup is hosting a week-long discussion of the Impact of Web 2.0 on Nonprofits. Now, I must admit that the buzz around this “2.0” idea is getting out of hand, and of course the obvious backlash has already started.
For the non-geeks out there, web 2.0 is a shorthand term to explain the new era of more interactive and individualistic things you can do online. Some of the most commonly cited examples are tagging (del.icio.us), social networks (Friendster), collaboration (wikipedia), syndication (bloglines), and that whole blogging thing. These applications aren’t new, but recently they have become much simpler to use, more accessible, and consequently much more widespread.
The reason I think this is important is that the result of applying Web 2.0 to activism is network-centric advocacy – something I get very excited about. Maybe we should also call it Advocacy 2.0…
So please join us at TechSoup next week. I’ll be co-hosting all-day on Monday. Try the veal…
Where does John Edwards vote?
Yesterday I managed to get a last-minute invitation to get blogger-access to John Edwards after his Opportunity Rocks kick-off speech here in Chapel Hill. I decided not to go since the only questions I have for him are personal, like when are you moving to (near) Carrboro, how do you like it here, isn’t it just for the schools, do you shop at Weaver Street, etc.
Well I turns out maybe I shoud have gone because now I have a serious question: Why aren’t John and Elizabeth Edwards registered to vote here? Is Orange County just another one of your stepping stones on the way to something greater, or do you actually plan to be a part of our community?
Continue reading “Where does John Edwards vote?”
Shock: Miers anti-choice
It should come as a surprise to exactly no-one, but having documentation definitely changes things.
“If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prevent the death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the Texas Legislature?”
Miers, elected to the city council, checked “yes” to this and nine other questions, including whether she would like to have the endorsement of the anti-abortion group’s political action committee.
– Miers backed abortion ban in 1989-Senate papers – Yahoo! News
Americans want Bush impeached
According to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org:
50% agreed with the statement:
“If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him.”
– Poll: Americans Favor Bush’s Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq | Democrats.com
The real scandal
Some information from Frank Rich writing behind the NYTimes paywall, via the indispensable Ed Cone:
Very little has been written about the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG. Its inception in August 2002, seven months before the invasion of Iraq, was never announced. Only much later would a newspaper article or two mention it in passing, reporting that it had been set up by Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff. Its eight members included Mr. Rove, Mr. Libby, Condoleezza Rice and the spinmeisters Karen Hughes and Mary Matalin. Its mission: to market a war in Iraq.
For IKEA-lovers only
IKEA has created a goofy flash website to highlight some of their latest creations. They claim that they “asked 28 designers to explore and experiment…” and some other grand, creative-sounding stuff like “What if the wildest ideas become the wisest solutions.” But I think it’s really just a high-concept way to roll out their products for 2006. And I still don’t want to sit on a rocking chair made out of nothing but metal and rubber bands. 😛
Jack it up
Even since I visited Europe I have felt strongly that gas prices should be at least 5 times more per gallon (or just double current prices). This would discourage excessive driving while simultaneously creating a huge base of funds to support transit and pay for environmental clean up from decades of auto use.
The recent increase in prices has been a good test for how individuals and economies would react.
The number of riders on the Piedmont, a train that runs daily between Raleigh and Charlotte, rose last month by about 1,650 people, or nearly 58 percent, from September 2004.
–Winston-Salem Journal | Regional Briefs
I also read that our regional buses have seen a doubling in ridership recently. I’m trying to find a link to that…