RealPolitix.com – The Non-Partisan Blog about Politics and Technology Archive for September 2008

In 1980 the befuddled and beleaguered reelection campaign of President Jimmy Carter alleged that somehow the Ronald Reagan campaign had stolen a copy of their debate prep-book. This “fact” wasn’t revealed until after Reagan had mopped the floor with Carter in their only appearance together. For days Carter’s hacks insisted that they were the victim of a dirty trick and their friends in the media sold the story for all it was worth. No one ever got to the bottom of the case and some evidence suggests a disgruntled Carter campaign member carried out the trick. Even the columnist George Will was implicated and denounced the rumor as a smear.

Flash forward to 2008 and the game hasn’t change, but the ways and means have. If the internet has done one thing, it has allowed anyone with a certain set of skills to perform their own political dirty tricks. Who needs H.R. Haldeman and the plumbers today? In the last few weeks alone we have allegedly witnessed the college age son of a Democratic official in Tennessee hack into Gov. Sarah Palin’s personal email account. Leftist bloggers broke into the website of television pundit Bill O’Reilly and stole the personal data of hundreds of people that had signed up to pay for special access to his site. Increasingly websites are created that appear to be for one campaign when in fact they are hatchet jobs that dupe the unsuspecting. Yes, politics has always been tough, despite Pollyannaish types that insist that we are meaner now (They should look at the nasty campaigns run against Lincoln), but the internet has opened a new Pandora’s Box that campaigns must now deal with.

Its easy for us to see the great ways that the internet has improved out lives (I have even written about this previously), but there are certainly drawbacks as well. In a very real sense, the internet is like a firearm. Despite what anti-2nd Amendment gun grabbers want to tell you, a gun is a tool and can be used for good or ill. The same is increasingly the case for the internet. The same tool that allows you to access global data in real time is the one that allows a scam artist to sucker thousands with his tempting email offer of riches. The same internet that lets you review the voting records of members of congress is the one that can be used to hack into the email of a political candidate. The same internet that can stream audio and video from any corner of the Earth is the same venue that groups like Al-Qaeda can use to communicate with their sleeper cells. The same internet which campaigns can use to rally supporters is the one that many elected officials refuse to use because Freedom of Information Act requests allow anyone to read almost any email. It is now believed that no sitting American president will ever again use email during their time in office for this very reason. Like all tools, the internet has no soul and is neither good nor bad. It is the wielder of the tool that holds the power.

The one man in American politics that is most closely associated with the smarmy side of the art is Richard Nixon. Perhaps no one better embodies the triumphant highs and despondent lows of the life of a politician. Few realize from what truly humble origins Nixon arose and how he repeatedly overcame obstacles and barriers on his path to the presidency. For as much as Nixon would be associated with dirty tricks and tomfoolery, he was just as often the target of such attacks. When he died in 1994 the internet was in its infancy. One can only wonder what he would think of it today. How would his seemingly fragile ego have been able to deal with the nasty and vile “anonymous” comments that are posted beneath news stories all over the internet? Could he have used the internet to pull off tricks more deceptively devious than the bugging of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate building? The world will never know, but the smart money says he would have used this tool to his advantage. Nixon after all still holds the record for earning more total votes for president than any man (aided of course by running in the general election three times and by winning 49 states over a hapless George McGovern in 1972.) Something tells us too that Nixon would never have let his personal email get hacked, and if it had, he would have responded in a way that the opposition wouldn’t have realized what hit them until it was too late.

The age of the internet is truly something to be thankful for. We must however never lose sight of this fact – no invention, innovation, or idea is ever greater than that which makes them great – mankind.

There is an old adage in the world of business purchasing:  Wait until the end of the quarter to negotiate a purchasing contract.  Companies that haven’t met their revenue goals tend to get “creative” at the end of the financial quarter, trying to land revenue by hook or by crook. Apparently, the same concept is at play in presidential fund raising.  In a “can you top that” world where campaigns claim bragging rights for their monthly donation cache, it makes sense to drive up the take (and the small donor count) by offering an item of value.  I donated $100 to the Obama campaign a couple of weeks ago so I could write about the social experience of my.barackobama.com.  Now they want another $30 in exchange for a t-shirt…

Jonas – Midnight Tuesday, September 30th, is the financial reporting deadline for this month. The resources we have on hand going into October will determine our ability to compete in key battleground states. Your donation today will help fund time-sensitive voter registration and Get Out The Vote operations — which need resources immediately to be effective. Will you make a donation of $30 or more before Tuesday’s deadline? You’ll receive a limited edition Election Day T-shirt. Your shirt will arrive no later than Friday, October 17th, so you’ll have plenty of time to show off your support and remind your friends and neighbors to vote for Barack.

Or you can choose to donate $15 or more and receive an Election Day car magnet. Your support has never been more important than it is right now. You’ll help build the biggest voter mobilization movement in presidential history. Thank you for your support, Obama for America

Hey Folks!

I recently had a great conversation with a social entrepreneur out of the San Diego area, Jimmy Hendricks. No, not the infamous James Hendrix of the 1960’s, but a fellow entrepreneur bridged by passion to do what is right for the world. Jimmy, in his own unique way, is helping me achieve my goal of making politics accessible and exciting again – ideas that are core values to the Piryx mission.

The Web can be home to political debates that cause mountains to crumble at the words and actions by fist shaking, red faced, online community members who’s sole passion in life is to shout to the entire world, not why their candidate rules, but why “the other guy” is scum. Messages on the Web that confess to political hacks (literally) of public official’s emails are only overshadowed by discussion boards littered with virtual yelling matches.

A democratic design community and e-commerce site based in San Diego, Collarfree.com, seeks to reverse the negative discussions surrounding the upcoming elections by providing proactive and positive involvement through a contest titled, “Keeping Politics Positive.”

The contest, which runs through September, allows people to submit and vote on t-shirt designs for Obama and McCain. The talent within the community of more than 5000 users creates shirt concepts and the winning shirts will be available for purchase by shoppers.

The contest aims to not only spark involvement, but also to ignite upbeat and constructive behavior in political evangelists on the Web. Where other communities spend their time berating the opposition, Collarfree expands on their philosophy by requiring all t-shirts be for a preferred candidate rather than against another.

“We wanted a way to promote the election but stay true to our company values,” said Collarfree co-founder, Jimmy Hendricks. “Our company slogan is Fashion for Independent People and one of our core values is positivity, so we created a contest built on that and chose the campaign name, ‘Keeping Politics Positive’.”

Collarfree founders, Jimmy Hendricks and Patrick Dillon call their process “Democratic Design.” They are creating a community that has, among other things, fostered a political playground where no one gets punched in the gut. Through user generated fashion designs representing the beliefs of the designers, they prove that political campaigns can be anything but a war zone.

Collarfree.com is a San Diego based company founded in April 2008. For more information visit @jimmyhendricks on twitter or send an email jimmy@collarfree.com

Co-editor Erick Schonfeld is hosting a roundtable in Austin, Texas this afternoon to discuss the importance and history of grassroot campaigns on the web. Watch below as Ustream broadcasts it live.

Catch Naveed Lalani, Piryx Co-founder and Chief Experience Officer live.

Update: We’ll post the recorded version as soon as TechCrunch makes it available.

Others in attendance:

• Shawn Colo, cofounder of Demand Media
• Owen Van Natta, former chief revenue officer, Facebook
• Greg Lee, CFO Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong)
• Mike Butler, Chief marketing officer HomeAway (formerly CMO of T-Mobile USA)
• Morgan Warstler, CTO & Co-Founder, SaysMe TV Inc.
• Clay Nichols, Chief Creative Officer, DadLabs Inc
• Bryan Menell, Austin StartupBlog
• Naveed Lalani, co-founder Piryx
• Chris Pacitti, General Partner, Austin Ventures
• Greg Bettinelli, EVP of Business Development and Strategy at Live Nation
• Vinay Bhagat, Founder of Convio
• Andrew Busey, CEO of Challenge Games
• Matt Corey, VP of Marketing Golfsmith
• Jeff Dachis, Founder and former CEO of Razorfish
• Jay Hallberg, Founder and EVP Marketing of Spiceworks
• Brett Hurt, Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice.
• Paul Korzilius, Manager of Bon Jovi
• Sean McDonald, Director—Community | Conversations at Dell

Google has launched a new project – “In Quotes“. The tool allows the public to compare quotes from political figures, display key phrases from interviews and speeches they given while on the campaign trail.

It’s currently set to show quotes from the current presidential contenders, Barack Obama and John McCain. It highlights their differences on a wide range of issues.

What Google says about In Quotes

The “In Quotes” feature allows you to find quotes from stories linked to from Google News. These quotations are a valuable resource for understanding where people in the news stand on various issues. Much of the published reporting about people is based on the interpretation of a journalist. Direct quotes, on the other hand, are concrete units of information that describe how newsmakers represent themselves. Google News compiles these quotations from online news stories and sorts them into browsable groups based on who is being quoted.

Similar to article selection and placement on Google News, quotes and their speakers are determined automatically by a computer program and we don’t guarantee the completeness or accuracy of the information you may see. The dates you see represent when the article in which the quote appears was added to Google News. The views expressed in the quotes do not necessarily reflect the views of Google Inc. or its employees.

What is this feature used for?

Compare Quotes allows you to compare quotes from different people in the News about a particular topic. The feature currently allows you to choose and compare quotes from political candidates and other political figures.

How do I choose a different set of people to compare their quotes?

To choose a new person or set of people to compare quotes with, you will need to choose from the pulldown menu displayed next to “Quotes by” on each side of your page.

What does the Spin button do?

When you click the Spin button, the quotes will rotate and the system will display two new quotes for you to compare. This way you will be able to compare multiple quotes about a specific topic from the two speakers you’ve chosen.

Another competing product launched a few weeks back called “SpinSpotter” Their aim is to help eliminate media bias through the use of a tool bar you can install into your browser. Allowing the average citizen to work with them in identifying spin in the media.

Here’s a cool little video that talks about what they do.

What SpinSpotter says about their tool.

SpinSpotter lets you do the following:

• Create your own spin markers to alert others to the spin you discover
• See spin markers created by others, and SpinSpotter’s user-fed algorithms
• Share examples of egregious spin with your friends
• Edit the spin to bring out the truth
• Be alerted when the article you’re reading is really just a recycled press release

SpinSpotter does this by bringing together three key parts:

• An advisory board of prominent journalists from across the political spectrum who set objective rules for what constitutes “spin”.
• A uniquely guided for of crowdsorucing that operates strictly within the rules set by SpinSpotters Journalism Advisory Board.
• A computer algorithm that constantly learns users’ input and leverages that knowledge across all news sites.

Interesting tools, and they’re definitely well overdue. The funny thing is, I remember the google guys chatting about this tool back in 2006. It’s actually pretty awesome to see this idea coming to life after a few years of waiting.

Just a nother reminder folks about the technological revolution occuring in politics!

I look forward to seeing these tools develop over the course of the next few years! Piryx will be there to help lead the way!

I’ve been following this for a while now, and its really becoming an issue near and dear to my heart. The more I hear about it, the more I realize how fortunate we are in the United States. When I watch people like Jonathan Harris from TED.com discuss his idea of telling the stories of the web by searching through thousands of blogs, I can’t help but imagine what story this Jailed blogger from Malaysia has to tell.

Get to know Jonathan Harris. This guy will blow your mind.

The arrest of the Malaysian Blogger As reported by TechDirt.com

Over the last few years, we’ve followed the ongoing efforts of gov’t officials to figure out the whole “blogging” thing. It started off poorly with gov’t officials insulting bloggers and trying to pass a law that would have required all bloggers to register with the government.

After that failed, the ruling party looked, for a bit, as if it might be trying to understand and embrace blogs. It set up an agency just to respond to blogs and even told certain of its own candidates for office that they needed to blog themselves. However, apparently it was the opposition party that embraced blogging much more — and even a few of the bigger name bloggers got themselves elected. In response? The government demanded that ISPs block certain blogs, including the very popular Malaysia Today.

The latest news is that the government has rescinded the ban… but has arrested the site’s founder. That doesn’t seem like the best way to get bloggers on their side.

If Piryx has anything to do with it, we’ll get down to the bottom of this. Life, Liberty, and Freedom are fundamental rights of any person, anywhere in the world. If tech savvy political entrepreneurs are being oppressed anywhere in the globe, we should help them. As the Piryx community grows and expands to truly empower democracy at a global scale, we will help people like these Jailed bloggers obtain the freedom that the internet provides.

An remember folks, this isn’t a partisan issue. Technological freedom, the internet, and the ability to have your voice heard is an issue everyone should embrace.

Much Love, @tomserres.

PS. If you have any ideas on what we can do to help. Send them my way.

President Calvin Coolidge with future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson. Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C.

As the Nov. 4th election draws near, the parties will strive to draw contrasts between themselves as much as possible. Expect to see much wailing and gnashing of teeth over issues as disparate as arctic drilling, socialized medicine, tax cuts, and national security. Perhaps the biggest separation between the two however can be seen in the long running fight between actors and athletes in politics. Few have ever remarked upon this difference, but it gives the American public a good view into how the parties see themselves.

With a few notable exceptions the Republicans have long been the party of the athletes and the Democrats the party of the actors and entertainers. Athletes reside in a world of competition, injuries, adversity, victory and defeat. Each contest contains a winner and loser for all to see. How impolite and unliberal can they be? Many actors reside in a world of fantasy and make believe where increasingly the elite of Hollywood believe they must preach to the uneducated American masses. After all, these are the masses that still celebrate heartland values that are embodied by sports.

Just last week this point was underscored as singer Barbara Streisand hosted a fundraiser in which the illuminati of Hollywood raised over $9 million in one evening for Obama’s campaign coffers. The most ironic fact about the Democrats loving embrace of Hollywood however is that one of the nation’s most popular presidents was once one of their own. Constantly ridiculed as “just an actor” throughout his political career, Ronald Reagan had stared in numerous movies and was the head of the Screen Actors Guild. That didn’t stop California’s Democratic Gov. Pat Brown in 1966 when he told a group of school children that Reagan, his opponent in that fall’s election, was an actor and that, “The man who shot Lincoln was an actor, too.” Unsurprisingly Brown would be defeated in a landslide and Reagan would be on his way to The White House.

The Republican Party has featured a long list of prominent athletes that have been elected to public office. The Democrats can claim former Senator Bill Bradley of the NBA, but the GOP has seen scores of athletes take the often nerve wracking plunge into elective politics. Jack Kemp was a star NFL quarterback that served nine terms in the US House and was later the Secretary of HUD and Bob Dole’s running mate in 1996. Bob Mathias was a Marine and a gold medal winner in the decathlon and was later a Republican congressman from California. NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Largent spent eight years as Tulsa’s congressman. J.C. Watts was a famed QB for Oklahoma and the CFL and also served in congress. Legendary Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne was yet another GOP congressman. Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell was a Major League Baseball pitcher that carried a North Carolina house set for several terms. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado was a member of the US Olympic Judo team. Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky is a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher. Jim Ryun,the first teenager to break the four-minute mile, was an Olympian and Sports Illustrated Man of the Year before serving in congress from Kansas for ten years.

Those are just some of the ones that succeeded in being elected. The list is even longer for those that ran and came up short. Among them, are Phil McConkey, a star of the Super Bowl champion Giants in the ‘80s that just barely lost a New Jersey primary in 1990; NFL Hall of Famer Lynn Swann who ran for governor of Pennsylvania in 2006; former Detroit Lion Brock Olivo who lost a congressional primary this last month in Missouri; Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson who ran for a Maryland congressional seat; Legendary NBA Hall of Famer George Mikan who just barely lost a congressional race in Minnesota in 1956; Long time New York Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson lost a close congressional race from South Carolina in 176; famed Oklahoma football coach Bud Wilkinson who narrowly missed being a senator from the same state in 1964;NASCAR legend Richard Petty who lost a state-wide race in North Carolina in 1996; and dragging racing star “Big Daddy” Don Garlits who came up short for a Florida congressional seat in 1992. Even better known are sports legends such as Roger Staubach, Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Joe DiMaggio, Nolan Ryan, and Reggie White that never ran for office, but used their fame to support conservative candidates and causes.

The Democrats can lay claim to a large pool of outspokenly liberal entertainers. Everyone from Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Madonna, Warren Beatty, and Ben Affleck are voluble leftist that persist in telling Americans how ignorant they remain every time they vote for a non-leftist. Despite these public pronouncements, none of these people have used their fame and fortune to follow Theodore Roosevelt’s quote to become the “man in the arena.” Thus it should be no surprise that the only liberal member of Hollywood that has been elected to congress in the last fifty years was Ben Jones for a few terms in a Georgia district. He was known as “Cooter” on The Dukes of Hazard and served two terms until he was defeated in 1992.

One other semi-famous Hollywood liberal has run for congress and lost. In 1984 Nancy Kulp, who played the homely Miss Hathaway on “The Beverly Hillbillies”, ran for a congressional district in central Pennsylvania. Unfortunately for her former co-star Buddy Ebsen, aka Mr. Clampett, was one of the few staunch conservatives in Hollywood and he cut a radio ad for her opponent that said in part, “Hey, Nancy, I love you dearly but you’re too liberal for me – I’ve got to go with Bud Shuster.” On election day Shuster won 67% of the vote. The battle of “Hollywood vs. The Heartland” emerged again in 2004 when George Clooney’s dad Nick ran for a northern Kentucky district and was defeated by a Republican challenger who had served as a career Army officer. Apparently that service meant more to the voters than Clooney’s endorsements from Paul Newman, Kevin Costner, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. When it comes to Hollywood, Sen. Obama should simply take the money and run.

What do you think of my nickname for Gov. Sarah Palin? Too ridiculous? OK, I’ll just go with SPalin (SPAY-lin).

You see, I’m just trying to make it easier for the tabloids. All that copy.

FACTS:

McCain trashes Obama by saying that he is a “celebrity“. Just another vapid whore trying to use fame, charisma and, *gasp*, oratorical skills to swindle America while McCain claims that SPalin is different and better.

The McCain team lies and distorts Sarah’s phony political role yet even Karl Rove says she is a flash in the pan.

First off, I’d like to clear something up: what is wrong with pointing out that she is attractive? That fact of life, like the Clintons’ functional sham-marriage, is not sexist, it’s just effective.

She’s basically just a sexy woman and, lest we forget, ex-beauty queen, TV sports announcer and the current Commander-In-Closeness-To-Russia of the Alaskan National Guard. Yet her star status is not portrayed in the same derogatory way as Obama! (Another example of how the “liberal media bias” is just another contradictory lie by the actual right-wing media bias. The fact is, the administration is so far to the right at the moment, that the slightest hint of objectivity can be lambasted as “liberally biased” if it is exposes the holes in our government. Get it?)

By the way, the last time I checked, the word “liberal” feels like it comes from “liberty.” But what matters the meaning of mere words? If freedom is not important to you then I can understand why you would hate these people. But if you subscribe to “conservative” thought, do you think we should keep doing what we are doing?

Take away SPalin’s hockey-mom attack-dog in lipstick persona, and you cannot reasonably believe that she has any experience or anything to offer but a pretty face and good ol’ girl charisma with which to stand by McCain’s side.

Wow, it really is like a bad Disney movie.

People say that McCain’s choice of Palin is “smart,” but musn’t they mean only from a Machiavellian standpoint? Such ideas and ways of doing politics is what got our country into the mess that it’s now.

She is portrayed as being more experienced, able, ready and in tune with the people than Obama, when in fact she is everything the McCain camp has claimed about Obama, if not more so.

As a matter of fact, the McCain campaign has done nothing it seems but repackage Obama’s ideas (change, fighting “special interests”, etc) and claim them for themselves, even though, despite his “Maverick” status, McCain is a direct heir to our current Prezidizzle.

When the final votes are counted, chads inspected, and lawsuits settled, we may look back on the campaign of 2008 and find that, if he is elected, the secret to Obama’s success was a couple of geeks who have headquartered their tech company – Blue State Digital – in the most unlikely of places: Inside The Beltway.

BSD was founded in 2004 by refugees from the ill-fated Howard Dean presidential bid.  Over the last 4 years, they have been busy building online community and fundraising tools, and have found a customer base craving this expertise – from campaigns to causes to corporations.  In fact, founding partner Joe Rospars is currently leading Obama’s digital strategy.  According to a recent BusinessWeek article BSD could play a strategic advisory role in an Obama administration.

Obama’s online fundraising capability has been the stuff of legend.  BSD claims to have to have raised $300 million from over 1 million donors for Obama.  Their case study is being written in real time here.

I’ve decided to invest a little cash into the Obama online juggernaut so that I can get the full Blue State experience.  This morning, I plunked down $100 on the AMEX at barackobama.com and set the machine in motion.

Of course there was the “Thanks for donating” email in my inbox the minute I clicked the pay button.  But more impressive was the web page note I got from Susan L. of Florida, who apparently “matched” my donation.  I was given the opportunity to drop her a note about why I donated as well as to exchange email addresses (too creepy for me).

From there, it was off to my very own home within the Obama community: my.barackobama.com.  I’m immediately struck by the elegant design.  Clean, modern, soothingly san serif through and through.  The site appears to revolve around “Making A Difference”.  Like Whuffie Points from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, the site rewards obamakins (obamites? obamanators?) with a reputation based score.  (In my case “1 point” thanks for the donation).

But my reputation can rise!  I can sign up to make calls to influence undecided voters in a neighboring state.  Or I can write a letter to the editor of a Michigan newspaper.  I decided to explore making calls for my buddy Barack.  I’m whisked away to the virtual obama call center.  25 names of undecided New Mexicans have been allocated to my call queue.  Each call I make will gain me prestige in the community, all I have to do is push to talk! (At this point, the author gingerly pushes logout – not wanting to actually do anything to influence the election one way or another).

Sure enough, 10 minutes later I get an email from the New Mexico campaign manager.  He thanks me for making the effort but reminds me that those 25 names have been allocated to me – no one else will get to call them :-(

Gosh, I’m starting to feel bad about dumping out of the program.  And getting all those whuffie points sure would be nice…  I wonder how many I need to collect to redeem them for a night in the Lincoln Bedroom?

Hey Folks!

Great things happening around the Nation this week!

First of all, Piryx Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer Naveed Lalani will be participating as a panelist at the TechCrunch and Austin Ventures Grassroots Round Table. If you’re gonna be in Austin, come help root for Piryx! Let’s change the world of politix folks!

Piryx Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tom Serres, will be beating the streets of DC! His first trip to our Nations Capital! Send him a msg to meetup! Let’s spread digital democracy for everyone!

Amazing things happening in DC. Monday begins OneWebWeek, and it kicks off with OneWebDay and a time capsule ceremony celebrating Digital Democracy! Piryx will be there celebrating OneWebDay, in 2 different cities! Catch us in DC and Austin!

Later in the week, Piryx will be representing at the Broadband Census of America Conference. Somewhere around there, we’ll get in some Interact2008! Yeah buddy! What a ridiculous week this will be!

TONS of great meetings and events lined up for the next few weeks! Stay tuned to our blog for more on our Adventure!

Cheers!