EchoDitto

Ethics being a particular interest of mine, I appreciated Aldon's post on the recent eruption around journalistic/blogging ethics.

I don't pretend to know all the backstory here, nor do I pass judgement, but I hope something good comes of the discussion.

Reporting again from the Emerging Progressives forum...

I've had some intriguing conversations here about the term "progressive" and its appropriateness to define this meeting. While everyone here is being described as progressive, it doesn't feel quite right to me. One person said, "They should have called it 'Emerging Democrats.'" (I had wondered the same thing earlier.)

A couple times, when I've mentioned being unhappy with the direction of the party, people responded by saying how third parties aren't practical, will only hurt the Dems, etc. -- as if I were about to abandon the party. For the record, I'm not. (Sheesh, I'm a precinct chair and am being recruited to run for county chair!) But if Roemer gets picked for DNC Chair, all bets are off...

Okay, so I tore myself away from the socializing going on here at the Emerging Progressives forum in Baltimore to dash off this blog post...

For the last four hours, I've been surrounded by 200 or so intense, brilliant, committed young progressives. There are legends in our midst -- young and not so young -- and I can already tell that the knowledge to be transferred this weekend will be astounding. I'm telling you, it's good for my soul.

A few highlights from tonight's panel:
Malia Lazu of Boston Vote captures everyone's imagination and respect as she riffs on Non-Traditional Organizing. She talks about spokenword poets on streetcorners, speaking about the issues in a language that resonates. She demystifies organizing, saying it's what many of us are *already* doing in our communities, whether or not we're with any campaign. "My boy who works at the club knows more about, and has more influence over, what kids are doing on Friday night than we did on the first Tuesday in November." It's all about connecting with people. And she says the most important part of NTO is the O. It doesn't mean anything if you don't get the lists and call those folks six times before the election.

And it gets better...

Nothing particularly high-minded here, just some humorous images from (and inspired by) our president and vice-president's recent debate appearances.

How the media can, with a straight face, even consider that Bush came close to even touching Kerry in either of the first two debates is beyond me. Leaves me speechless almost.

Here's hoping we'll see some legitimate journalism tonight!

Emily poses the $64,000 question: How do we get all those newly registered voters to get off their duffs and actually VOTE?

Turns out there might be a $200,000 answer. One of the voters who signs up at VOTE or NOT will win $100,000! The friend who referred the winner will win $100,000 too, so pretty please make sure to sign up by clicking here.

[VOTE or NOT is brought to you by the friendly folks at HOT or NOT, a site of dubious social merit. I guess this is their way of redeeming themselves...]

And here's a completely different kind of incentive to vote, taking "participatory democracy" to a whole new level:
Votergasm.

So you can sign up to get some money for voting, or just to get some. Hey, whatever floats your boat. I mean, vote.

Always one to use my person as a billboard, I rarely go without a political T-shirt. My latest favorite is my November 2 T-shirt, of which I own three.

I love watching the looks on people's faces as they rack their brains. Sometimes they ask me if I'm a scorpio. Typically though, they ask what happened on Nov 2, and I tell them that's the day we're going to take our country back. It's a great conversation starter -- much more so than a partisan shirt, I've found.

I'll soon be in very good company because apparently, Yahoo! made a NOVEMBER 2 t-shirt for their avatars to wear. (An avatar is an image that you can use to represent your online self in blog comments, IM formats, etc.)

Once just flat images, avatars are now becoming more customizable and even dynamic. I just learned a little more about the expressive capacity of avatars here.

Of course, you can get a T-shirt for your real-world self, or a set of iron-on transfers, at www.november2.org or click here.

I highly recommend it. You know what they say about scorpios, right?

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

I thought we’d reached a milestone in online political activism when I read this message encouraging folks to “Gear up for the republican convention protests by taking action from home!”

Alongside the now common (yet still powerful) tactic of coordinating letters to the editor, I found this gem:

Help thousands of others disrupt the republican web sites during the convention by requesting downloads and page refreshes. The below web sites will be targeted each day, starting at noon, Eastern, from August 29 to September 2:
www.2004nycgop.org
www.rnc.org
www.georgewbush.com

For those of us who at times can't even break the code of our own password-protected online bank accounts, this opens up a whole new world. You, yes YOU, can be a hacker! But online civil disobedience isn't new anymore. What's new is the scale.

This is the first Presidential election cycle with potentially millions of armchair hacktivists, and in which more than a handful of people would even notice if a party website crashed. Ironically, there are now so many opportunities for online activism, I doubt whether enough people will choose *this* activity to truly stir up any trouble (one of my personal litmus tests for jumping in).

The truth is, I WON'T be hitting those sites.