election08 – The Nexus of 2024

Hope 1, Fear 0: YES WE DID!

Nov 4, 2008

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From Eluminatus: A change is coming Why be shrunk by fear when you can choose hope? Why be manipulated by hate when you can choose desire? Why settle for singularity when you can have multiplicity? Control is an illusion and influence is possible. Look for meta-level solutions. Avoid false dualities. Change is performative. Worship the…

Why vote?

Nov 4, 2008

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jon

in Personal, political

Why Vote? a Fib, by Gregory K. Vote. Why? Folks fight For this right. It’s not just a word: Vote! It’s how you make your voice heard. Originally published on Gottabook

Blog the vote!

Nov 3, 2008

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jon

in Personal, political

Colleen Mondor, Lee Wind, and my brother Gregory K came up with a great idea for a cooperative blogging project at the recent Kid Lit ’08 conference in Portland: people writing about why they personally think that voting matters.Â Over fifty people wound up participating, and since most of them are writers or reviewers as…

Radio, radio. You’re gonna hear me on your radio. Tonight!

Oct 26, 2008

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jon

in political, Professional, social computing, Tales from the Net

On Saturday, Jon hosted a major organizing conference call that became a strategy session for countering voter suppression nationwide. And, so, in a bit of marvelously self-reflexive irony, with Jon’s help, we’ll be using that same approach to make this hour of our show into a kind of national town meeting of the air, by…

Live from Madison this Sunday: social network activism and the Voter Suppression Wiki

Oct 23, 2008

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jon

in political, Professional, social sciences, Tales from the Net

I’ll be appearing on John Quinlan and Harry Waisbren’s show Forward Forum this Sunday from 8-9 CDT, on the air in Madison and streamed live at WTDY.Â I met Harry working on Get FISA Right, and so we’ll be discussing social network activism in general, looking at some of the experiences I discuss in Reflections…

Help, please, with test data for the Twitter Vote Report (updated with logo)

Oct 22, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Executive summary Please take a minute to help by providing test data for an election monitoring project! Details Momentum on the Twitter Vote Report continues to build — Nancy Scola and Allison Fine’s excellent update from Monday already looks out of date, and as the steadily-growing partners list implies, we’re making excellent progress towards the…

Voter Suppression Wiki: 40,000+ votes at risk in North Carolina, please help get the word out

Oct 21, 2008

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jon

in political, Professional, social sciences, Tales from the Net

Executive summary 40,000 votes at risk in North Carolina; please help get the word out for future action and media alerts, please join theÂ vswiki-alerts Google Group feedback, please, from activists, bloggers and voters about our action alert Details After posts by me on Pam’s House Blend Sunday night and Baratunde Thurston on Jack and…

“e-Deceptive Campaign Practices”

Oct 19, 2008

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jon

in political, Professional, social computing, social sciences

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)’s Technology and Democracy 2.0 report on “e-Deceptive campaign practices” is getting released on Monday, along with a parallel report from Common Cause and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights covering the legal and policy issues.Â Contributors include computer security legends like Peter Neumann (of Bell Labs, SRI and comp.risks fame)…

Action alert: help get the word out about confusing North Carolina ballots

Oct 19, 2008

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jon

in political, social sciences, Tales from the Net

In a classic example of confusing ballot design, a “straight party” vote in North Carolina does not include the presidential contest.Â If you want to vote for a president, you need to make an additional mark in the presidential contest even if you’ve chosen a straight party vote.Â (See detailed instructions in the first comment.)…

SaysMe.tv: see, they really are game-changing

Oct 13, 2008

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jon

in political

Today Blue America, with our partners at SaysMe.TV, is launching a new application that can make everyone a political media consultant– or, better yet, a replacement for a political media consultant. — Howie Klein, Firedoglake, announcing availability of ads for Darcy Burner, Annette Tadeo, Larry Kissell, and other netroots fave Congressional candidates SaysMe.tv, the LA-based…

TWO wikis, saving democracy?

Oct 6, 2008

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jon

in political, social sciences, Tales from the Net

Within an hour after the announcement of the Voter Protection Wiki, we were tipped off that there’s another voting rights wiki in town, and it’s a doozy.Â And sure enough, today SourceWatch is announcing the Election Protection wiki.* From their announcement: Recent presidential elections were marred by controversies and disputes. Scores of individuals and organizations…

Reflections: what I learned during my summer vacation

Sep 22, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Apologies to my friends and relatives for being out of touch this summer…. Rather than going to the beach, I instead hung out in a variety of exotic online locales: my.barackobama.com, Wetpaint, Facebook, and the blogosphere (especially OpenLeft, Shakesville, Pam’s House Blend, and Jack and Jill Politics).Â It was kind of a working vacation, engaging…

A wiki, saving democracy?

Sep 18, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

But what about the votes that donâ€™t count? What about the systematic attempts to erect barriers between voters and the ballot box? What about voter suppression? In order to educate, document and mobilize action, Iâ€™m excited to introduce the Voter Suppression Wiki. — Baratunde Thurston, Announcing The Launch Of The Voter Suppression Wiki – Learn,…

Constitution Day: Can we please talk about it?

Sep 17, 2008

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jon

in political

Constitution Day has arrived without major statements from Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain on the need to restore this country’s commitment to the rule of law. — John Nichols, Constitution in Crisis, Candidates in Denial, The Nation At the risk of showing my age, I grew up with the impression that the Constitution…

Get FISA Right: on the air in St. Paul!

Sep 3, 2008

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jon

in entertainment, political, social computing, Tales from the Net

During the past 8 years, the Bush administration listened to Americans’ phone calls and read their emails without a warrant. If elected President, John McCain would do the same.* – Get FISA Right ad, scheduled to air on Fox News in St. Paul today Update: check out Nick Juliano’s Anti-FISA group targets GOP delegates in…

Get FISA Right gets partisan!

Aug 26, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing

The new ad stars the Constitution as the main player, with the visual featuring a pan over founding documents. One version of the ad takes aim at the Republican Senators, who voted unanimously to extend the powers of government to listen to Americansâ€™ phone calls and read their emails without a warrant; another highlights John…

One Million Strong: this week’s “other” convention

Aug 24, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Even without corporate sponsorships or prime-time coverage, the One Million Strong for Barack Facebook group’s online convention this week is a fascinating complement to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver. Nobody’s quite sure how many of One Million Strong‘s 625,000 members are currently active, probably a few thousand. Unlike a lot of Facebook groups,…

Evan Bayh: “Facebook me.” Progressives: “Sure!”

Aug 21, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing, Tales from the Net

Written jointly with Ronit Aviva Dancis “Evan Bayh for Democratic VP Nominee” on Intrade Prediction Market The last time we heard from Senator Evan Bayh was early July when he voted with the Republicans against all three amendments to strip telecom immunity from the FISA legislation. A month later, here was Max Bernstein’s Can Progressives…

Get FISA Right: “Don’t let our Constitution die” (DRAFT)

Jul 24, 2008

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jon

in political, social computing, social sciences, Tales from the Net

DRAFT! Please see the revised version on OpenLeft. “Weâ€™ve got more than a million volunteers on my.barackobama.com. Theyâ€™ve planned more than 70,000 offline events through the system, made millions of phone calls from home, and formed thousands of grassroots advocacy groups, including one you might have heard about recently.” — Barack Obama, Netroots Nation video…

Mutual guest blogging: intermission and discussion

Jul 17, 2008

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jon

in political, Professional, social computing, Tales from the Net

Second draft, posted on OpenLeft with a different poll. the version on OpenLeft continues to evolve please link and comment there rather than here. Originally posted July 17; revised July 18-19. We’re now at the midpoint of our first, more-leisurely-than-anticipated mutual guest blogging series. Thanks to Melissa, Sara, Pam, and rikyrah for their time, energy,…

Tag: election08