e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Quick Hits — February 17, 2009

• Bipartisanship as a political weapon, and the Republican counter-”strategy.”
• The eternal role of the personal in politics.
• At Obama’s first prime-time press conference, a blogger gets a nod, while Biden’s Office Holds Stimulus Call with Progressive Bloggers.
• Winning panels for 2009 Politics Online Conference.
• Top Tweets from the GOP Tech Summit, plus The RNC Tech Summit — Some Thoughts and GOP Tech Revival Earns Some “Amens.”
• Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit, plus Facebook: all your content are belong to us. FOREVER! Protests ensue. In response, Zuckerberg On Who Owns User Data On Facebook: It’s Complicated.
• NBA Streams Live with Facebook, Obama To Appear?
• The secrets of Obama’s success.
• I Have a Blog Crush on the White House, via @veronicaeye.
• Five Ways the Pickens Plan is Using Social Networking to Build Public Support. C.f. Obama’s Not the Only One Who Gets Social Media.
• Gingrich Eager for a Twitter Review Course, while others are Following @dipnote: Hillary Clinton Steps Out.
• Rebuild the [Republican] Party: Hard [Social Media] Metrics for Campaigns and State Parties.
• Ocean.gov — A Modest Proposal.
• MoveOn v. Corporate CEOs, while MoveOn’s Eli Pariser-replacement answers critics online (via tPrez).
• Bev Godwin: A Great Appointment.
• Bloggers as Partisan Activists.
• The Michael Phelps [bong-hit] saga is a classic example of our addiction to feigned outrage. C.f. Whitehouse.gov does not mention the words “marijuana” or “drug policy.”
• Mining The Thought Stream.
• “In 2004, a giant flare from another soft-gamma-ray repeater was so intense it measurably affected Earth’s upper atmosphere from 50,000 light-years away.”
• Old News Brings Fresh Outrage: Reprints of 1930s Nazi Articles Rile German Censors.
• A case that threatens the right of Web sites to link freely.
• Government Web Sites Grapple with YouTube.
• How To Speak Obama: Zadie Smith’s two cents on how 44 mesmerizes.
• The evolutionary roots of Facebook’s “25 Things” craze.
• T-Shirt Hell Staying in Business After ‘Stimulus’ Stunt Pays Off.
• McCaskill Gets It (on Twitter): Authenticity Matters.
• [Emailed, Video] Response to Liberal Groups’ Ad Causes Uproar.
• The G.O.P.’s “Funny” Valentine E-cards.
• Organizing Nationally to Make a Difference Locally. C.f. Dear Facebook Friend, Have a Condom.
• What Was I Thinking? Porn-Star Boyfriend. See above.
• New administration Web sites appear to be “shovel ready.”
• Open It Up — How to Engage Your Base Behind the Scenes.
• Social media “expert” evaluations.
• Recession Obsession — What Does The Future Hold For Online Fundraising?
• Bloggers as Partisan Activists.
• Did blogs make American politics uglier? See the second and third pages (though the whole interview’s well worth reading).
• Top Five Web2.0 Applications that Conservatives Need.
• Pew: 11% of Americans Read or Post Status Updates. C.f. To desire Twitter is the root of suffering.
• Award Winning Social Media Strategies.
• House GOP Overhauls Web Presence.
• e-Politics — The Australian Experience.
• Maryland General Assembly Will Lift Facebook Ban, via TechRepublican.
• The secret of Twitter [success] revealed.
• The White House is Liveblogging.
• Latest Celebrity Rant: Conan Goes Off on Boron.

– cpd

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Stimulus Bill Reminds Us that Conference Committees REALLY Write Legislation

For all the attention paid to the back-and-forth over the House and Senate versions of the economic stimulus bill, the version that REALLY mattered is the one that appeared last: the conference committee report. The early debate and early votes certainly contributed, since they helped set the parameters of what was possible for the legislation (i.e., what the critical players in either body would tolerate), but the votes to send the bill through each body were really prologue, since the conference committee would write the actual final draft that would eventually go to the president.

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