Sandy's Blog

My Letter to the Obama Campaign On The FISA "Compromise"

Sandy — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:26:30 EDT

I am a very strong supporter Obama and a great believer in his message of hope and change. Last week, however, I was greatly disappointed by his support of the FISA amendment. I laud the fact that he is against the part of the bill that grants telecom immunity but, as a matter of personal opinion, it didn't seem like FISA needed to be changed. The "compromise" amendment came about because the president violated the 4th amendment, wanted to retroactively legalize his actions, and give the executive branch the ability to do so in the future. To say that FISA needed to be changed because of newer threats or changes in technology seems specious, and a poor justification for lessening 4th amendment protections, if indeed any such justifications can ever exist. I sincerely hope that Sen. Obama gives a broader statement on why he supports the amendment and strongly acts on his stand to remove telecom immunity from the bill. OBAMA 08!

Register Voters in Norfolk, Obama Wins Virginia!

Sandy — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:58:58 EDT

When it comes to the Obama campaign's 50 state voter registration drive, there's a perfect storm brewing in a little corner of Virginia. A voter registration drive, focused in one particular county, Norfolk City County, can have an enormous effect on the statewide result and go a long way toward swinging Virginia's 13 electoral votes to Obama. Here's why:

The race is very close. The Real Clear Politics poll of polls currently shows McCain with a 1.3% lead among likely voters in Virginia.
There is a very large number of unregistered voters in Norfolk City County.
The historical voting patterns and demographics of the currently registered voters in Norfolk City County heavily favors Obama.

By comparing voter registration statistics and census data, there are potentially 70,000 new voters to register in the county. This doesn't seem like that many when compared to the rougly 4.2 million voters registered in the state, but even assuming a high 85% turnout, as in 1992, 1.3% of the likely vote total represents about a 46,000 vote lead for McCain. One would expect this county to vote for Obama with percentages at least as high as the 63% for Gore in 2000, most likely percentages closer to 70% for Obama. If you could register even half of the potential voters, this could result in an additional 25000 votes for Obama, more than half the votes needed across the entire state to close the gap with McCain, all from one county.

So, Obama supporters, if you live in or near this area, or are planning on traveling to a voter registration drive, hit the ground and register Norfolk! This would go a long way toward making Virginia go blue for the first time in 44 years!

Find Low Voter Registration, I'll Donate $10 to Obama!

Sandy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:38:50 EDT

Do you know of a city or zip code where the registration level of eligible voters is less than 60%? An area say, like Ossining, New York? If you do, I'll donate $10 to the Obama campaign either directly or through your fundraising page, if you have one. Here's what you need to do...

Just post, as a reply to this blog, verifable stats, or links to stats, showing this to be the case for a city, town, or zip code. As an example, here is a section from the above (Ossining) link:

FACT: According to the Westchester County Board of Elections, Ossining (10562) has 13,940 registered voters. According to the U.S Census Bureau (2000 report) 24,483 people in zip code 10562 are 18 years of age or older. This suggests only 57% of all eligible voters in 10562 are registered.

If you post such data as a reply, showing a registration level of eligible voters < 60%, and it does not overlap with a previous reply, I'll donate $10 to the campaign! I'll do it through your fundraising page if you have one. The goal is to identify such areas for grass roots registration drives like the one in Ossining.

Hopefully, they'll be lots of areas identified and lots of money donated to Obama too! Good luck and thanks!

The Man Behind "Bitter" and "Scumbag" Gets Defensive

Sandy — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:46:56 EDT

I was recently passed an email exchange between Marc Cooper, the editorial coordinator of Huffington Post's OffTheBus project, and someone who questioned the journalistic standards and ethics of his "star" reporter, Mayhill Fowler. This person also questioned why seemingly reasonable comments about these journalistic methods were being censored by Huffington Post. Here is his reply:

"I want to acknowledge receipt and reading of your letter. We profoundly disagree, you seriously misinterpret my stated positions and -- to boot-- you cast some pretty serious aspersions on my character.

That's fine. And it's your right to do so. But it leaves me with little motivation to give you much of of an extended answer. I am quite comfortable with what both Jay (the co-founder of OffTheBus) and I have written on this matter and which is readily available for reading on the Web."

So what generated such a strong, non-response, viewed as an attack on his character? This coming from a man whose most famous "citizen journalist" shot to notoriety by pretendng to be an Obama supporter and distorting Obama's character? The email is below. For additional reference see Marc Cooper's blog here.

Mr. Cooper

I am concerned about your unconditional endorsement of Fowler's unethical tactics. Clinton's comments elicited by Fowler's "hatchet job" question are really irrelevant to any kind of civil or national discussion. It is the stuff of the National Inquirer front page--and, who really cares whether the NYT eliminated the word "scumbag?" Is this really important in your mind?

However, I really do care about the methods Fowler used to unscrupulously get her "bitter" post. This country desperately needs vision and leadership and you were aware--as was Rosen--that sending her post to Lou Dobbs, equally unscrupulous, could possibly bring down the Obama campaign. Were he a lesser person, you may have succeeded. And, for what reason? Personal glory comes to mind. If the context of that post had ever been brought to the light of day--before you sent it to CNN, it would never have been a story. Ethical standards in journalism do have a place in the national discussion because "hack" jobs or "gotcha" scoops, without any context whatsoever, endanger the very fabric of civil discourse. God knows, we see what Fox News has done--and, continues to do. The "new" media should strive to be better than what we have and that means being bound by some rules.

Rosen calls the new media and citizen journalism "uncharted territory." It is not--not any more so than when the air waves were captured and used to deliver "the news" in what, that time, seemed immediate and magical. It was a different kind of media from print, but radio and tv held themselves to journalistic standards. Radio and tv didn't wallow in their "newness" nor did they look down their noses at print. They followed rules and coexisted and embellished the national dialogue. "New" media is not in uncharted territory. It should also follow the standards of good journalism as laid out in the Society of Professional Journalists. It is a different form of media and should exist within an ethical framework to further embellish and move the national dialogue forward.

There are many of us who believe this--and we are all learning and using the "new" media. There are many of us who have written thoughtful comments about Fowler's tactics and her unconditional endorsement by you and Rosen. None of us have used abusive language or launched personal attacks but our comments have been censored into oblivion by the OTB editors at Huffpo. So, if you contend that there are no rules or standards for your citizen journalists, or if the old rules simply don't apply, why is OFB using the oldest and least democratic rule in the book--censorship of critical opinions?

Take a look at the 37 comments on the LATimes article on Fowler--almost 100% of them are negative toward her and her "scoops." Then, look at comments under her recent pieces- in OTB-maybe 20% are negative but there would be many more if OTB was not exercising censorship From the NYT to the WaPo to the LATimes, readers are aware and disdainful of this woman, her lack of ethics, and the cheerleading done by you and Rosen. Is this really what you intended to achieve?

J D

I know for a fact that what the writer says about censorship on HuffPo is true, probably many of you do too. Mr. Cooper's attitude is that this didn't merit a response, and that basically anyone who doesn't like Ms. Fowler's methods doesn't understand the "new media" and the digital age. If you go to his blog, he refers to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter as one of many in this "dinosaur faction." Do you think we're in a new age where journalistic ethics and standards go out the window? Do you think that a liberal bastion like Huffington Post should be censoring reasonable comment? If you don't, you can see if you can get a response out of Mr. Cooper at marc.cooper@usc.edu. Good luck!

Web 2.0 and Voter Registration: A Key to Victory?

Sandy — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:01:15 EDT

People are well aware that one of the keys to Obama's nomination was the combination of grass roots activism combined with the high tech tools built around the Obama web site. These tools gave people the ability to connect, create events, and make calls to potential voters in upcoming primary states, all with the click of a button.

Now that we are into the General Election, one of the keys to victory is the ability to register new voters. One amazing study done in this regard is located here. With a massive enough outreach to new voters, even Texas becomes a swing state! Toward this end, the Obama campaign began a 50 state voter registration drive in April.

The basic concept of finding unregistered voters is simple: you get a large list of people in the area you want to target and a list of people who are already registered to vote in that area, and you compare the two. Doing this can be difficult in practice, but assuming the unregistered names have been identified, then some of the same tools that were used to contact potential primary voters can come into play. Click on a congressional district in Georgia and get a list of say, 20 names for calling, letter writing, or local outreach. Those of you who made calls to potential voters from the lists on the Obama web site are familiar with the concept. Imagine if millions of Obama supporters had the ability to do this for voter registration as well?

To my knowledge, no one has ever fused a voter registration drive with Web 2.0 in such a way before. Possibly the Obama campaign is working on something similar, if it is possible and the logistics aren't too daunting. If not, hopefully someone will read this and move the concept along, or even begin to build such tools.

Huffington Post: Fame, Censorship, and a Republican Mole

Sandy — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:31:16 EDT

These are the glory days for Huffington Post. Their star "citizen journalist", Mayhill Fowler, has brought them more fame and notoriety than they could have ever imagined. First, she pretended to be an Obama supporter, got into a private fundraiser and, with MP3 recorder in hand, managed to almost single handedly bring down the Obama candidacy with her "bittergate" spin. Now, on the eve of Obama's apparent victory, she pretends to be a fan of Bill Clinton's in order to make another hidden recording, this time of Bill Clinton getting PO'd about the recent unflattering Vanity Fair article. More press coverage for HuffPo and another 15 minutes for Ms. Fowler.

As most of you reading this are probably aware, there was quite a bit of blowback from Ms. Fowler's "Obama as elitist" creation. Huffington Post defended her mightily under the "citizen journalist" umbrella. She was just a blogger after all, whether she was buying her way into a fundraiser pretending to be an Obama supporter, or going on anti-Obama shows like Lou Dobbs to tout her reporting. When it became known that Ms. Fowler was a contributor to Fred Thompson and the wife of a wealthy McCain supporter, she brushed it off and denied any agenda. She gave to Fred Thompson, because he was from Tennessee, like her. She really was an Obama supporter, undergoing an inner struggle as she wrote negative articles about him. See her New York Times interview here.

The blogosphere wasn't satisfied though, many were still outraged. Just look at a sampling of the comments on one her subsequent posts. Pages of comments about her reporting and her ulterior motives. Now looks at the pages of comments regarding the recent Bill Clinton outburst. Notice that there are almost no comments about Ms. Fowler's tactics, motivations, or past articles. No need to wonder why. I attempted to submit one and it wasn't printed. I assume I wasn't alone. Guess HuffPo didn't want anything to taint their latest leap into mainstream media fame via Mayhill. So the supposed bastion of liberalism is protecting any questioning of their star blogger's methods and motivation via censorship. Guess they don't want to kill the golden snake...I mean goose.

Indulge me in a bit of paranoia here, let's suppose there was someone who really was a Republican or had Republican leanings, let's say perhaps a Fred Thompson contributor and the wealthy wife of a McCain supporter. Further suppose they wanted to cause some "chaos", to borrow Rush Limbaugh's term, with the democrats. If they were in a position to get press coverage, they might want to find some remark that could be twisted in order to bring down the leader in the primary race. Maybe use the tried and true tact of making those democrats seem out-of touch and elitist. If this didn't work, it would still be possible, on the eve of the presumptive nomination, to stand on a rope line for Bill Clinton and ask him a question about that "hatchet job" in Vanity Fair. Hmmm...No telling what he might say. Yeah, that'll stir things up. He's already saying crazy things, so why not let him help fragment the party even more.

Now suppose this person could do all this under the cover of being a "citizen journalist" for a well known liberal blog.

OK, maybe I'm delusional, on the other hand, just because your paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

The Mayhill Fowler Agenda: Follow the Money

Sandy — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:16:17 EDT

Mayhill Fowler, the writer at the center of the media frenzy over Obama's "bitter" remarks has a very strange pattern of political contributions which can be seen here

Evidently she contributed $250 to Fred Thompson's campaign in the last quarter of 2007 and then contributed almost 10 times as much, $2224 dollars, to Obama's campaign in the first quarter of 2008. Could it be that Ms. Fowler is a newly minted Obamacan? Most likely not, especially judging from her recent articles (see my earlier post here). Here is a possible scenario:

The tickets for the Apri 6th fundraiser in San Francisco, the event where Obama made the remarks that she spun into the current controversy, were available for a number of weeks before. If she had purchased a ticket or tickets to the event in the weeks before, it would show up as a contribution to the Obama campaign in the first quarter of 2008.

What is a more llikely explanation of her donating habits? That she had a sudden change of political viewpoint from Fred Thompson to Obama in a big way, or that she purchased tickets to a private fundraiser so that she could take Obama's remarks and distort them to help push her real political agenda?

What do you think?

How I spent my Sunday with Obama and the Mayhill Fowler Agenda

Sandy — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:50:30 EDT

I was at the Obama fundraiser in San Francisco that has gotten so much attention of late. It was a small event, maybe 250 people. Having seen Obama speak at large rallies, this event had more of a living room feel, despite the fact that people were packed in like sardines in a large private house. Obama's speech was part stump speech, part relaxed conversation with his supporters.

At the end of this small event Obama took four questions, one of which was from a couple of supporters going to Pennsylvania to work for the campaign. They wanted to know what kinds of questions they could expect to get from people in Pennsylvania. Obama began to answer their question by talking about the cultural and geographic diversity in Pennsylvania. He then proceeded to talk about what kind of attitudes and obstacles they might run into in the parts of the state that had been economically devastated by job loss. He talked about the fact that they would run into great cynicism about Washington or any promise of political change. He talked about the frustration and yes, bitterness, in some of these areas, where people had lost industry and jobs twenty five years before, jobs that never came back. He talked about the culture in these communities and what people had done to cope with economic hardship. This was an attempt both to tell these supporters what they might run up against and what were the challenges for the campaign in the industrial Midwest as a whole. Obama was both giving a speech to the supporters present at the event and a heart-to-heart to this couple that was ready to go door-to-door in Pennsylvania.

Imagine my surprise to see an article in the Huffington Post by Mayhill Fowler describing his answer as "a problematic judgment call in trying to explain working class culture to a much wealthier audience." and his answer being like "explaining the yawning cultural gap that separates a Turkeyfoot from a Marin County." I guess Ms. Fowler thought that, unlike herself, the other attendees had never gone outside the large house in Pacific Heights where the event was held. I grew up working class in Texas. I thought it ironic that Ms Fowler, was attempting to paint Obama as a condescending elitist, while at the same time she was stereotyping everybody at the event with her omniscient insight. In any case, her agenda was clear. Despite Ms. Fowler talking about the people at the fundraiser being middle class in an earlier post, the "rich man poor man" theme fit better with the "Obama as a judgmental elite, talking to judgmental elites" spin. This also seemed to fit with some of her earlier articles where she had described Obama as cocky, arrogant, and even "flirty". What a coincidence that she now writes an article putting another twist on Obama's personality. All she had to do was a sneak a recorder in an small event for Obama supporters and do a little bit of crafty writing and out of context editing. Now Fox News and Lou Dobbs are having a field day.

It was great seeing Obama in a relaxed setting, talking both in detail and inspiring prose, in what was essentially a large living room.

Too bad there were roaches under the sofa.

What Obama Could Teach the Treasury Secretary About the Economy

Sandy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:42:40 EDT

For a stark contrast in thinking about the cause and cure of the financial crisis, compare the recent speeches and proposals by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Senator Barack Obama.

Paulson's plan would intensify the hands-off philosophy that invited the credit crunch. He would make the Federal Reserve a superagency to monitor large financial firms and provide emergency bailouts. He would reshuffle some federal agencies -- but actual regulation would be weakened. The plan proposes, "The Federal Reserve's authority to require corrective actions should be limited to instances where overall financial market stability was threatened." Other regulatory agencies are to defer to the Fed, and to "streamline" -- translation: water down -- existing rules.

Full Story Here

Former GOP senator Weicker endorses Obama

Sandy — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:37:49 EDT

Former Republican senator and Connecticut independent Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. has endorsed Barack Obama for president. Weicker says the Illinois Democrat "has the smarts, quite frankly, to do a damn good job."

Full Story

Obama readies plan to reshape the electorate

Sandy — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:49:58 EDT

Even as he fends off Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination contest, Senator Barack Obama is already turning his attention to the general election, and to an ambitious plan to reshape the American electorate in his favor.

Bringing new voters to the polls "is going to be a very big part of how we win," said Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, in an interview. "Barack's appeal to independent voters is also going to be key."

Hildebrand said the campaign is likely to turn its attention and the energy of its massive volunteer army this fall on registering African-American voters, and voters under 35 years old, in key states.

Full story here

Barack Obama gets former Rep. Lee Hamilton's endorsement

Sandy — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:49:37 EDT

In what could prove both a significant addition to his foreign policy credentials and a boost for the close Indiana primary, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois this afternoon scored the endorsement of former Rep. Lee Hamilton, one of the Democratic Party's leading foreign affairs experts.

Full Story

Loyalty to My Country - By Bill Richardson

Sandy — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:49:57 EDT

Good opinion piece from the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040100885.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Dems, Reps Agree: Obama Tougher Opponent for McCain

Sandy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:22:40 EDT

New Gallup Poll shows that 59% of Dems think that Obama is stronger against McCain, 64% of Reps think Clinton easier to defeat by McCain. Also, 56% of Dems say the effect of the continuing race does "more harm than good".

http://www.gallup.com/poll/105904/Dems-Reps-Agree-Obama-Tougher-Opponent-McCain.aspx

Obama's 'Realness' Excites Crowds in Pennsylvania

Sandy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:14:19 EDT

US News and World Report gives a good report about the reaction of the crowds as Obama continues on his bus tour of PA:

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/03/31/obamas-realness-excites-crowds-in-pennsylvania.html