Man, this #dontgo thing certainly does seem to have the Rs fired up, at least the Rs who are on Twitter. If you’re not quite sure what’s happening, some Republican congressmembers are staying on in the House even though it’s out of session and the TV cameras are off, relying on the ‘net to get the word out. Their goal? Protest the lack of a vote on offshore drilling for oil and gas. The micro-blogging tool/social network Twitter was the most prominent tool used at first, along with live-streaming video, though some of the activists involved have just created a site where you can learn more about what’s up (quick work, guys).
Paris Hilton and “genius” are rarely seen in the same sentence, but here they are. You may have heard of the video below, but you really oughta check it out for yourself:
Not bad at all! Well shot and clever, with some nice digs back at Ol’ John (“thanks for the endorsement, White-Haired Dude”). And a hell of a lot better than McCain’s Paris Hilton/Britney Spears/Barack Obama/famous-people-suck original. Thank you to the internet for allowing us this kind of exchange…we ALL have the potential to affect the system — all we gotta do is come up with content that people (or at least the right people) want to see. Note: being hot, blonde, famous and oh-so-bad never hurts.
Nancy Pelosi Talks Tech at Netroots Nation. An interview with friend-of-e.politics Sarah Burris.
Why the French love Obama — note the guilt-soothing motif again, and also the fact that Robert Capa’s D-Day photo editor(!) is discussing a Paris Obama meetup. Via Chris Cosart.
Okay, I’ll admit it — I’ve opened a lot of constituent mail in my time. My time in the Texas Legislature, that is: in 1991, as a wet-behind-the-ears 22-year-old (emotional age: closing in on 16), I started work for The Honorable Elton Bomer (D-Montalba), Texas State Repesentative, District 11. I was an Administrative Assistant, which was theoretically the senior staff position in the office, but for much of the four years I worked for Bomer, I was his ONLY staff member.
Even when I wasn’t alone, in an office that small, we all handled constituents’ cases and answered their letters, and I got A LOT of experience talking to folks in the district about, well, just about everything. And I mean EVERYTHING — we got calls about child custody battles, SSI/Medicaid benefits, fence disputes, cattle diseases, landlord problems and what Rush Limbaugh had said that day. For folks in our district (particularly the ones who had discovered the 1-800 number), we were assistants, counselors, advisors and sometimes therapists — a most educational experience all around.
