Politics
Entries related to things political.
A New York Moment
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 09/24/2007 - 19:11The New York premier of Michael Clayton draws a crowd of photographers and spectators as celebrities pause on the red carpet. Meanwhile, across the street, the attendees of the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising Conference and Expo drink their AOL provided cocktails while the Mission of Iran to the United Nations sits down to dinner in the Mercury Ballroom.
"The Truth Can Be Adjusted", the signs advertise; a message that is perhaps not missed by either the OMMA attendees or members of the Mission of Iran to the United Nations.
“letting the catchy and snarky become the enemy of the good”
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 11:14As I sat napping on my porch overlooking Fountain Street as it pours into New Haven, my wife came by to adjust the blanket over my knees. She stopped to “gently shake my shoulder and wake me up and tell me I was right”.
No, I haven’t written any brilliant article about the prospects of Britney Spears doing an “insightful portrayal of Nora Helmer in Ibsen's "A Doll's House."” If I were writing that line, I might have suggested Britney, Lindsey and Paris in a modern adaptation of Checkov’s “Three Sisters”. But I digress.
What I am referring to this morning is Colin McEnroe’s brilliant column this week in the Hartford Courant, As Free Speech Fades, My Piles Grow.
Colin’s describes the Doninger case as “a douche bag in a coal mine or a canary in a douche bag” and relates it to the Senate passing an amendment to condemn MoveOn for “letting the catchy and snarky become the enemy of the good” in their advertisement illustrating the flaws of Gen. Petreaus.
Kim told me, “Look honey, your not completely off your rocker, even Colin is saying the same sort of things you wrote in your blog.” Here, I’m referring to my blog post, Responses to incivility, where I compared Avery’s case not only to the Senate’s latest amendment, but also to the tasering of the student in Florida.
Feeling fully actualized now that a noted personality has said something similar to what I’ve been blogging, and having been given an opportunity to indulge in a little self aggrandizement, let me MoveOn to the phrase that caught me attention. (I’ve already repeated it twice) “letting the catchy and snarky become the enemy of the good”.
It reflects part of the reason I’m spending more time napping on my porch overlooking Fountain Street and less time engaged in some of the hand-to-hand verbal combat in the political blogs. There are some great masters of catchiness and snarkiness in the political blogosphere. Yet I also worry that many of the let their catchiness and snarkiness get in the way moving their causes forward.
So, I will keep doing things like putting pictures of my ‘Team Avery’ shirt up on Wordless Wednesday to get all the stay at home moms and homeschoolers to stop for a moment and wonder what is going on with our schools. I know the homeschoolers particularly appreciate that.
One online friend has taken this even further. He named Avery Hero for a Day, and then went on to set up Team Avery on CafePress as another part of the fundraising to help cover the cost of the appeal. Please, buy a shirt, donate, and join us at Poets and Writers For Avery in Litchfield on October 14th.
Yes, the whole case is a bit of “a douche bag in a coal mine or a canary in a douche bag”, but to borrow from Pastor Niemoller, “First they came for the gamers, and I did not speak out because I was not a gamer. Then they came for the Bloggers and I did not speak out
because I was not a Blogger…”
I hope I didn’t just let the catchy and snarky become the enemy of the good. I hope you join the good fight to resuscitate the canary in the douche bag.
More on MoveOn
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 09/21/2007 - 19:06Yesterday, I wrote about the amendment to an appropriations bill which complained about MoveOn. I compared the actions of Sen. Cornyn to that of Superintendent Schwartz in the Avery Doninger case. They both have reacted in ways that have empowered their opponents. In Avery Doninger’s case, people have been contributing to her defense fund. I hope you do the same. In the MoveOn case, they sent an email today saying they’ve already received half a million dollars in response to the criticism they’ve been receiving and hope to break a million. If you can contribute a little bit there as well, please do. I would hope that people look at these two examples before they make a federal case of people expressing contrary views.
While I would not have used the phrase ‘General BetrayUs’ in pointing out that Petreaus appears more interested in his own advancement than in the general good of our country, I think MoveOn is doing an important job of getting people to look at his apparent sycophancy. Conservatives are trying to distract people from focusing on Petreaus’ sycophancy by focusing on a poor choice of words. This is a pretty common tactic and it is not unlike Superintendent Schwartz trying to get people to avoid looking at her anger management issues and financial management issues by trying to focus on a poor choice of words by Avery Doninger.
Yet there are a couple important issues with MoveOn that bear looking at. Many progressives that I know of complain the traditional broadcast format of communications that MoveOn uses. MoveOn sends out all the emails. People have spoken about feeling not heard when they respond, and unless you get to some MoveOn event, you don’t ever communicate with other MoveOn members. Even if you do attend a MoveOn event, the connections rarely seem to go beyond the event.
Yet there is an even more interesting issue that has been brought up about MoveOn. MoveOn uses events, like Sen. Cornyn’s ill-advised amendment, to do effective fundraising. Their emails are also very effective in getting members to contact rules making organizations to express opinions about a proposed rule.
Dr. Stuart W. Shulman, Director of the Sara Fine Institute School of Information Sciences at University of Pittsburgh has an interesting paper, Perverse Incentives: The Case against Mass Email Campaigns where he explores the efficacy of mass email campaigns to federal rules making bodies. It is still a working draft, but it raises several interesting issues.
should we welcome, resist, or seek to steer this drift towards an unreflective and non-deliberative form of click-through democracy?
The quote from the beginning of his paper reflects conclusions that he appears to have already arrived at, that these emails generate unreflective and non-deliberative responses. In his research he has been studying the responses of numerous people to various requests from online advocacy organizations and notes that in most cases, people simply forward the message that has been sent them. In some cases, they add a little additional information.
He spends a lot of time explaining his methodology, but ends up noting that
Nonetheless, MoveOn commenters are most likely to modify their form letters with the types of comments regulators least need to hear, while they are much less likely to focus on core economic or scientific issues that are the statute-mandated basis for a decision.
Now there is nothing to say that MoveOn couldn’t approach its email blasts in a manner that would encourage members to contribute new information from personal experiences that would be relevant to the rule making process. Let’s hope that they move in that direction. We are still finding our way around online advocacy and there are many lessons to be learned. Hopefully people will learn from Dr. Shulman, as well as Sen. Cornyn, Superintendent Schwartz in how better to deal with the world of online advocacy.
Responses to incivility
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 09/20/2007 - 12:30What do you do when someone criticizes you in a manner that you consider uncivil?
- Prohibit them from running for class office, and when the student body elects them anyway, disregard the vote of the student body.
- Drag them away, taser them and attempt to justify your action by saying they were resisting arrest.
- Introduce an amendment in Congress on an unrelated bill appropriations bill attacking the critic.
- Act like an adult.
I’ve been thinking a lot about issues of civility recently. A friend has pointed me to the National Civility Center and I’ve been wanting to write about their great work. My wife just started a thread over on Salon’s Table Talk to:
discuss, civilly and with good humor, the merits and flaws of our candidates. Not a thread for spamming of polls and endorsements or name calling. We all have our favorites, but we're going to have to pull together come summer and get behind the same guy or gal. Share your stories of why you love your candidate, discuss policy differences or similarities, or just chat about the latest fundraiser or canvassing effort.
They are have a lively and civil discussion.
So, what is it with Superintendent Schwartz, the police at University of Florida and Sen. Coryn of Texas? Perhaps it is less about civility, and more about exerting control.
When Avery Doninger referred to the folks at the central office in Region 10 as douchebags, she acted in a manner that I think was uncivil. Her mother dealt with it in an appropriate and adult manner. Superintendent Schwartz and Principal Niehoff reacted in an over reaching and inappropriate manner. People from the area have told me that these sort of actions are typical of Superintendent Schwartz and have suggested that she needs anger management classes. There actions have resulted in people rallying behind Avery and further criticizing Schwartz and Niehoff. In a few weeks, there will be a fundraiser for Avery’s appeal of Judge Kravitz’s ruling. His ruling also invoked the ideal of civility without showing any understanding of how to promote civility.
So, whether or not you can make it to Poets and Writers For Avery, please contribute at http://defendfreespeech.chipin.com/avery-doninger-appeal-to-2nd-circuit. or by clicking on the widget on the right.
Then, there is the case of tasering of University of Florida student who asked some long rambling, and perhaps inappropriate questions of Sen. Kerry. Perhaps the questions were uncivil. Yet Sen. Kerry handled it in an adult and appropriate manner. In contrast, the University Police acted in an over reaching and inappropriate manner. People from the area have told me that these sort of actions are typical and have suggested that local police and elected officials need anger management classes. (Those wanting more details should Google Charlie Grapski and find out about his experiences. These actions have resulted in people rallying behind Andrew Meyer.
Today, I got an email from MoveOn. Personally, I think it was uncivil for MoveOn to have called Gen. Petreaus names. It takes away from the very serious allegations about his inability to provide honest and independent information and about how closely he works with the White House and Republican leaders. I believe that Elizabeth Edwards dealt with it in an appropriate and adult manner. However, Sen. Coryn of Texas has introduced an amendment to a transportation, housing and urban development bill “to specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group Moveon.org.” People from the area have told me that these sort of actions are typical of Sen. Coryn and have suggested that he needs anger management classes. There actions have resulted in people rallying behind Moveon. So, after you’ve chipped in to help defray Avery’s appeal costs, be sure to call your senators and express outrage at people who try to suppress free speech in the name of civility by introducing unrelated amendments to important legislation.
Civility is important. It is too important to allow people like Superintendent Schwartz, Principal Niefhoff, Sen. Coryn and the University of Florida police to try and use it as an excuse to shut down discourse and exert control. Somehow, all of their actions remind me of the great old quote from Mayor Daley, “The policeman isn't there to create disorder. The policeman is there to preserve disorder.”
Updates: Today, I got an email inviting me to the Take the Civility Pledge action on Changes.org. Please consider taking the pledge.
Random afternoon notes
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 14:01I’ve been fairly sick the past few days, so my blogging has been sparser than I would have liked. When I haven’t been sleeping, I have been trying to get through some of my pile of unread emails. In that pile, I found a few things I would like to highlight.
If you think it is bad being banned from running for class office because of a blog post you wrote, consider this:
Nguyen Vu Binh was jailed in Vietnam in 2002 for writing and posting articles about democracy on the Internet and campaigning for human rights
That’s from a fundraising email from Amnesty International. Some people may ask why I’m so concerned about the Avery Doninger case. The abuse of her rights was small compared to what Nguyen Vu Binh encountered. Yet for me, it is part of the same continuum and we must fight for the basic rights of all people, at home, and abroad, no matter how small the abuse is.
Another request I gut was from JubileeUSA. People around the country are fasting right now to draw attention to the issues of third world debt and the role it plays in world hunger. Please, watch this video:
Then, contact your elected officials to urge them to support Debt Cancellation legislation.
Bringing in back home, the Shoreline League of Democratic Women is having a follow up to its State Government 101 forum, State Government 102: Legislation & the Budget Process featuring Reps. Deborah Heinrich, Brian O'Connor, James Spallone. If you live on the shoreline, you should check out this forum.
As I recuperate from my cold, I’ll return to my regularly scheduled rants, reports and other writings.
