Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Monday, November 03, 2008
Thursday, October 02, 2008
You are my 5 friends and I'm asking you (NOT) to register to vote
Neat video. Glad to see the expansion from the usual politically active entertainers.
My take on it is - If I can't vote (b/c I'm a permanent resident), why should you?
On the serious. Don't forget to register to vote. Use Google maps to figure our you voting place (it will include links where you register to vote in your locality. If you're going to be out of town, use GovoteAbsentee.org.Tags: Election 2008, Obama, McCain, Google, Vote08
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
DC Primary Wrap-up & My YouTube debut
After a little hiatus for the ServiceNation Summit, I'm back at it. More on the summit later, including pictures. While I was in NYC, the post-election drama continued. I will try to provide with a time line from the articles that have been written in the Post and the City Paper. First, the Board of Election & Ethics (BOEE) went on a communication blackout. This was actually not a bad idea, since their attempt to provide an explanation on election night was pathetic. No offense to Dan Murphy, BOEE spokesperson. When the BOEE came out of its self-imposed blackout, it provided some clarifications on the election night debacle but mostly blamed the irregularities on the equipment. However, California-based Sequoia Voting systems asserted that "there is absolutely no problem with the machines in polling places." Instead, the company brought up possibility of human error. Despite the assertion by Sequoia, BOEE stood by the results on primary night. As it now become the tradition in DC after a scandal, Mayor Fenty fired someone and launched an investigation but not before the Ward 2 ANC passed a resolution calling for an investigation. Maybe something will come out of this one. In the middle of all the all this, Cary conceded. He thanked his supporters and staff. He also called on BOEE "take all steps necessary to restore trust in the election results." Cary concession essential ended the post-election drama. However as the post put it,
SO ELEMENTAL to government is the conduct of elections that there can be no excuse for failure. It's important, then, that D.C. officials not minimize the problems with Tuesday's primary. The chaos surrounding the results suggests that there may be bigger issues that need fixing and that, if left unresolved, could undermine voter confidence.
The only good thing that came out of this drama is my debut on YouTube thanks to LooseLips Columnist Mike DeBonis.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Election night drama
Last night, I was nominated to go to DC board of the election to await for the result of the primary. I thought it would a be a cool experience so I accepted. Another volunteer and I headed down there for what we thought was going 30 minutes then off to the victory party. Little did we that the DC Board Of Election & Ethics (BOEE) complete incompetence would keep us there till the wee hours of the morning. To make the long story short; when first set of result came in, everything looked fine. Evans was up 66% to 33% and .54% write-in with 14% of the precincts reporting. When the second set the report came in, something didn't add up. Evans was up 48% to 34% and 17% write-in with 94% of precincts reporting. The second set of numbers estimated that 9000 people in our Ward, more than doubling the numbers from 2004 ( a mayoral election). Having walked around throughout the day, I knew there was a low voter turns out. Additionally, we were not aware of any write-in campaigns going on in our race, so 17% write-in made absolutely no sense. My suspicions were confirmed by Evans' Campaign manager. We went upstairs along with Mara's campaign manager and Schwartz's campaign manager (They were having the same problem). Meanwhile, The AP called the raced, then the post based on the AP the numbers. And from there things went downhill from there. Lawyers came, WaPo came, CityPaper came, Washington Times was called, I think the AP had take back calling the race and people at the BOEE just looked really really really really really bad. The lawyers present requested precinct by precinct report. The BOEE put out three sets of numbers after that but the damage had been done. Everyone was dissecting the numbers and the whole thing was just a mess.
Needless to say, this was an eye opening experience for me. I'm deeply troubled by the city's inability to handle such a small election. By all accounts, the primary in February had a much larger turn and the city failed to properly handle that election as well. As of this moment, I'm shocked, angered, and disappointed. If I had any power, no one at the board of election would have a job this morning (except maybe nice security guards from last night). I really hope Mayor Fenty and the rest of the council take a good look at this. It's ridiculous that the capital of the free world can not manage to run an election smoothly.
As of the writing of this post, we have not yet conceded. we are waiting for the precinct by precinct report and results from the absentee ballots (if they can count them correctly.) I'm headed to NYC for the ServiceNation Summit with Senators Obama and McCain, more on what I learn in this campaign when I get back from NYC.
DC PRIMARY RESULTS NIGHT COVERAGE
CityPaper - Live from the Clusterfuck
p.s. I did not cut my hair for the next POTUS... whoever he is.
Technorati Tags: Cary Silverman,Jack Evans,Patrick Mara,DC primary,DC Board of Election & Ethics,DC BOEE
Saturday, September 06, 2008
4 Days till the election
It’s down to the wire. Since June (actually a lot longer than that for Cary), we’ve been working hard to make the case to Ward 2 Democrats that it’s time for change on the City Council. We’ve had three debates; one in Foggy Bottom, another in Dupont, and another on the Kojo Show on WAMU. We’ve had tons of candidate forums, some at 8 AM and others at 8 PM. We filled out more questionnaires than I care to remember, attended neighborhood picnics, block parties, tenants association meetings and what seems to be every ANC meeting in the ward. Supporters hosted countless meet and greet events as well as fundraisers. We played the endorsement game - got some and lost some. We met some fun people, some interesting people, some skeptic supporters, some enthusiastic supporters and people didn’t care much for us. We’ve walked through part of the city that I never knew existed and rediscovered parts that I had not visited in a while. And of course there was the parade. Everywhere we went and to everyone we met, we made the case for Cary. I think we’ve made a compelling case and put ourselves in a position to win on Tuesday. With a strong GOTV effort, I believe that we can seal the deal. I’m very excited about the election on Tuesday. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could vote. Oh well, can’t have everything at once. If you’re registered to vote in DC, Vote Cary Silverman on Tuesday!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The life Journey of our presidential Candidate on Google Maps
I saw this while reading a TechCrunch Article this morning, so I thought I'd share for with the rest of people not reading techcrunch. Also check out the Fundrace on Huffington Post. Every time politics meets technology to make the process more transparent and easy for the people, I get giddy inside.
Friday, June 06, 2008
My favorite Obama YouTube Vidoes
Over the last year and half, I've looked for various YouTube videos on Obama. Of course some where in complete utter distaste and should prolly be take down, but the vast majority were inspirational and depict the American genius and creativity. Below are my favorite YouTube videos about Obama with a few honorable mentions.
Barack Obama/Bobby Kennedy - Hope
Work to Do Remix
Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video
Barack Obama: Reflections of Bobby Kennedy
Barack Obama: We Shall Overcome
The Obama Dream
The "Obama Movement"
BARACK OBAMA YES WE CAN RAP SONG
Honorable Mention
Baby Got Barack
Sing for Obama Grassroots Music Video
Barack Obama: Poetic Politics
For Obama: "Si Se Puede Cambiar" by Andres Useche
What are your favorites?
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
All politics is local... so It's about time I get involved
Someone once said all politics is local. I don't know who that person is (I suppose I could Google it) or why that they said that, but it turns out they must have been right because people have been repeating it ever since. Since I enjoy politics and all politics are local, I figured it's about time to get involved in local politics. I have thus decided to join the campaign of Cary Silverman running for Ward 2 DC Council seat. We are looking a unseat current 17 yr Council member Jack Evans.. what can I say? Go big or go home. I'm not going to seat and tell you why my candidate is better Ward 2 residents than Mr. Evans, nor am I going to tell you that He will solve every issue facing Ward 2 and the rest of the city. What I will tell you is that he is a person dedicated to the DC neighborhoods and it is reflected in the involvement the years. His presence on the council will be a breath of fresh air and new ideas to what has become an old boys club serving developers instead of citizens (yes I'm talking about the DC council). One thing I've learned so far is that local politics isn't sexy but it matters. It matters because it affects our daily lives, from recycling to schools, from liquor licenses to gentrification and from sidewalk construction to zoning restrictions. The campaign currently has a small staff thus my role will vary greatly. Regardless, I look forward to meeting many of the residents of Ward 2 and making the case why it's time for change in Ward 2 Seat. If you're in DC and would like to meeting Cary Silverman, please join us at a Happy Hour this Wed at Wednesday 6/4 at 1625 17th Street, NW from 5:30pm - 8 PM. If you have any other questions about the Campaign feel free to e-mail henri at caryforcouncil dot org.
Friday, May 23, 2008
The "cynical" future of E-mail Congress
As I announced a few months back I'm now at Be the Change, Inc where I head the efforts in all things Technology (mostly web) with the support of very capable vendors and staff. As part of my role, I help identify technology and develop strategy that will help the organization spread its message and lead to people become invested and take action in our first campaign. To fulfill this part of my job, I've started attending various conferences and Panels around the City. One of the Roundtable that I attend pretty regularly is the Internet Advocacy Roundtable hosted by Center for American Progress Action Fund and lead by Alan Rosenblatt. The Last round table I attend was titled "The future of E-mail Congress - New Solutions Offered and Old Myths Busted"( word doc of the preso) and there speaker was Daniel Bennett who is Co-author of "The Net Effect: How Cyber advocacy is Changing the Political Landscape" and was a columnist for The Cloakroom.
The gist of Mr. Benett's presentation is that he has developed a technique that will more accurately group emails that each representative receives from various advocacy group so that s/he will not waste staff time reading all the emails and will have a better tally of where constituents stands on any particular issue by looking at the total number of emailed received. According to him but unverified by anyone in the room, the system works with 95-99% accuracy and is easy to install and works with current e-mail systems on the Hill. He claims to have tested in some offices with great result and received positive feedback. In plain English, the system group letters according to a token or URL included each email. So any given e-mailing campaign would have the same token. For the techie crowd, see some documentation at http://advocatehope.org/tech-tidbits. Mr. Bennett then called on all the orgs present at the lecture to lobby the vendors to start implementing this new system. He claims that there is no financial benefit to him and I don't have any reason not to believe him. Lastly, Mr. Bennett claims staffer don't read the letters already so his solution would a least make sure they have a accurate count before the vote.
I have two thoughts about this improvement by Mr. Benett. As someone whose organization is trying to lobby congress to get legislation passed, this is fabulous. It's a great tool and we can use to hopefully sway a representative's mind and maybe get to move away from voting along party lines when we can get people from his district to e-mail him or her. As person that has friends that work on the Hill, I know this will make their live easier and they will be a little more efficient while at the office and maybe get a few more things done.
As a private citizen, this "improvement" is outrageous. Call me be crazy but I'd like to think that my representative or his staff would read the vast majority of e-mails and letters that come to them. It's their job! They were elected to serve the people of their district and that includes reading constituent's mail how ever outrageous they are. The Reps and their staff are supposed to do what is good for the constituents and the for the country as a whole. Just because 4999 people emailed about one side of the issue and 50001 email about the other side, doesn't mean the rep should cast a vote in favor of the highest bidder. While I appreciate Mr. Benett's persistence and hard work (he's been working on this solo for 5 years), I think his solution is the wrong way to go. His solution is fixing the wrong problem. I would even go as far as to say it's making Congress worse. We, as citizen and their employers, should not accept the fact Reps don't read our mail or letters. We should def not make it easier for them not to read our letters. While Mr. Benett's claim about staffers not reading mail may be true, I refuse to give in his cynicism and make easier for them not to so. And I sincerely hope others won't either.
Was that too harsh?.......Naaaaaaaaaah.
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