Barackface

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Digital Cheerleader

Image via WikipediaI have a Google Alerts thing set up in Reshma Saujani's name, and these past few days the number of items that show up in my inbox has gone up dramatically. I get a daily email. The email contains links to news articles and blog posts that mention Reshma. I guess this shows the campaign has hit its final stretch.

This increase in volume might also be a hint to me to focus more on digital cheerleading for the campaign.

I attended the Upper East Side event earlier. And it was very well organized, very well attended. It was good to reconnect with many of the staff members.

Instead of saying hello to many who attended, I focused on long conversations with a few.

These are tough times. The 10% unemployment rate is always the elephant in the room.

Village Idiot Wayne Barrett

This guy should leave Reshma Saujani alone and instead blame me for the nuclear winter, as it is known in the tech industry. I was an early member of a dot com in the late 1990s that flamed out.

Village Voice: Wayne Barrett: Reshma Saujani's Road to Congress? Right Down Wall Street. Let Me Be Your Guide.

These idiots don't seem to realize that now we live in the post Wall Street reform era, and now we need to mend the frayed relationship between Wall Street and Main Street to bring the unemployment rate down.

Reshma Is Bigger Than Hillary

Hillary has the smarts but then so does an engineer, a doctor and an astronaut. I am talking here about political instincts and political kinetics. There Reshma is way out there. In her autobiography Hillary credits Bill Clinton of seeing "connections that the rest of us don't see." That rest of us is primarily Hillary.

Someone like me can cut through political brand names like Obama, Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, Gandhi and look at the essence of a political operative. I am talking at that level.

I got sharp political instincts. And I got super political kinetics when it comes to the digital realm. Look at my Nepal work during 2006. I put all that to the service of Obama 08. But as of today I have atrophied social muscles. And my political kinetics are rusty in the social realm. I have been good at it before and I can reclaim it, I think, but as of today, I am not there.

Reshma has super political instincts and she has super political kinetics. She is a political athlete who is in top shape. The thing about political instincts, either you have it or you don't. I don't think you can go to school for that.

The Clintons belong to a different era. In his autobiography Bill Clinton has said he has sent a total of two emails in his life. He is a telephone guy. The internet is my telephone. Bill Clinton is garrulous. If I am garrulous, I am garrulous through my blog. One big reason Bill Clinton was not slam dunk effective in the 2008 race was because social media had caught up on him. One Hillary quote has her saying she can not think in front of a computer. Me, I can not think when I am not in front of a computer. Well, not true. But I do seem to do a lot of thinking in front of my computer. When I am consuming news online, I am all too eager to fire away an email or a blog post. I take interactive seriously.

As far as I am concerned digital is all the rage. Digital levels out the playing field for me. Digital makes my world global. And I need the world to feel global. Digital is more egalitarian. Digital is a richer world.

You could argue some things don't get old, like saying hello, like when you work a podium or a room. Some old prejudices die hard. True and not true. If the web social is web 2.0 I have long called face time web 5.0. But even there a 5.0 experience that is constantly feeding on 2.0 will have an edge.

Hillary is Reshma's Carter.

Cordoba Controversy: America In Early Stages Of War On Terror
Political Office, Political Essence
How My Grandfather Became Mayor The First Time
My Progressive Political Religion
Reshma Saujani Loves America
September 14 Will Birth The New Woman
Reshma, Obama And The Ground Zero Mosque
Gandhi, Reshma And Tornadoes
Extrapolations To Reshma 2016
Positivity, Excellence, Dark Matter
Rangel Has Gone Radioactive
Charlie Rangel: Motherfucker
The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
Obama, Reshma

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Reshma's Lower East Side Community Conversation

I am blogging today from Boston where I am visiting with my sweet little sister Babita for Rakchha Bandhan. (I Was In Chicago? Facebook Places Messing Up) In NYC it feels like the buildings will all fall down on you. Boston is more manageable. She moved here from NYC over a year ago. Her place is much, much nicer than mine for a similar price. Like much much. Her neighborhood is straight out of the textbook. Mine only a few blocks away looks like I never left my country of origin. A North Carolina dude once told me, the only thing I like about New York is the doughnuts. I, on the other hand, love the city. My love is for the whole package deal, the filth, the crowds, especially the crowds.

I am going to be back in town to attend the Upper East Side community conversation, which is tomorrow.

Last night I showed up for the Lower East Side conversation. It was near the 14th Street and First Avenue intersection. It was well attended. It felt to me like I was seeing Reshma for the first time. I think the town hall format is my favorite setting in which to see Reshma in action, although I think she looks great on TV too. She is an amazing, amazing candidate. She is the most amazing politician I ever met. She makes it sound like Obama's health care reform has been the 1.0 version, and some day she would like to take a crack at Health Care Reform 2.0. Same about Wall Street reform.

The question answer session went great. There were one or two agitated ones, but that is statistical. You have to expect that.

It was good to see the staff again after long. It must have been two weeks since I last saw them, but it felt like ages. Reshma has a wonderful relationship with her staff. I used to hear that about John Liu last year on the campaign trail.

It was good to see Arthur, it was good to see Josh. And I bumped into Nina near 33rd Street when I went for a long walk after the event. She informed me of a major Reshma fundraiser that was taking place this evening. The host was someone who was a major player with Obama 08, yet another piece of evidence that the Obama people are slowly but surely coalescing around Reshma 2010. The Obama 08 people owe me one on this one. And it helps that Reshma is an Obama like candidate.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Cordoba Controversy: America In Early Stages Of War On Terror

Image via WikipediaFirst of all, it is not a mosque, it is a community center. It is not a new idea. That community center has been in that location for ages. They are just trying to put a new building in that old place. It can not be called a Ground Zero mosque. It is not a Ground Zero mosque. It is not a mosque, and it is nothing to do with Ground Zero. The location just so happens to be a few blocks from Ground Zero. But that location predates the 9/11 tragedy.

9/11 killed many Muslims the day it happened. 9/11 has killed many Muslims in the ensuing years back there in the Arab world. Both the Bush soldiers and the Al Qaeda have gone on to kill many innocent Muslims.

But then since when did prejudice have logic? Prejudice by definition is illogical.

The American public opinion on the so called Ground Zero mosque controversy tells me America is very much in the early stages of the War On Terror. We are perhaps in the 1950s of the Cold War, or maybe 1960s. There is too much existent anti-Muslim racism in America for America to make rapid progress on the War On Terror. Politicians avoiding the debate and succumbing to the prejudice are not helping any.

America is going to have to become a non racist country to conclude the War On Terror.

Two major transformations have to take place. All Arab countries have to be turned into democracies, and my method of choice is nonviolent mass movements. And America is going to get rid of its anti-Muslim prejudice and racism.

Politicians succumbing to the prejudice should empathize with those forces that try to bring democracy to an Arab country and have a hard time doing it. Clinging to the status quo of prejudice or non democracy are not exactly forces of progress and change.

Similarly America is going to have to make progress on total campaign finance reform if it wishes to see multi-party democracy and federalism in China.

America is a concept, an idea, a mission. A total spread of democracy is America's mission. That is what this country was born for.

America needed the FDR transformation of its capitalism to be able to defeat communism. America is going to have to work to get rid of its Islamophobia to conclude the War On Terror.

Reshma, Obama And The Ground Zero Mosque

Political Office, Political Essence

Image via WikipediaJimmy Carter was President Of The United States. Bill Clinton was a first term Governor of a small state occupied by "four men and a dog." Their political offices did not even compare. But even then Jimmy Carter was able to see Bill Clinton was a bigger deal than him. Jimmy Carter's political office was bigger, but Bill Clinton's political essence was bigger, and Carter could sense that already. And so he did the natural thing to do, he shit on Clinton. He unleashed a whole bunch of Cuban refugees on Arkansas costing Bill Clinton reelection. Bill Clinton was Jimmy Carter's chosen one. Carter wanted Clinton to feel the pain of an electoral loss. It is not much fun being a one term president. You are not even considered for greatness by historians if you are a one termer.

It can be argued Jimmy Carter was Bill Clinton's Charlie Rangel. (Charlie Rangel: Motherfucker)

Barack Obama has surpassed Bill Clinton in the greatness department. Barack has been wading FDR waters since the passage of health care reform.

My Progressive Political Religion
Positivity, Excellence, Dark Matter

Carolyn Maloney Is The Problem

Image via WikipediaMaloney Should Skip Radio Debate And Create Jobs For An Hour Instead
Carolyn Maloney: Feeling Ugly?
Carolyn Maloney's Newest Lie
Carolyn Maloney's Work On The Second Avenue Subway Line
Maloney Refuses Debate Yet Again
Carolyn Maloney: The Alan Keyes Of District 14
Carolyn Maloney: Chicken
Al Hagan, Carolyn Maloney: Did They Apologize Yet?
Nadler Should Vacate The Maloney Sinking Ship
Hard Fact For Al Hagan: Maloney Failed To Pass 9/11 Health Bill
Organized Labor Bosses Backing Maloney Are Acting Blind And Stupid
Who Is The Congressperson For Ground Zero? Not Maloney
Look Who Is Talking: Carolyn Maloney's Dipshit Lies
Charlie Rangel, Carolyn Maloney And Their Ethics Violations
Carolyn Maloney: Missing In Inaction
Rangel And Maloney Need To Vacate The Premises And For The Same Reasons
Organized Labor Has No Business Endorsing Maloney
Maloney: Stifling Debate, Stifling Innovation, Stifling Job Creation
Carolyn Maloney: The Al Sharpton Of Gender Relations
Ed Koch And Carolyn Maloney: Bush Democrats
The Anti Maloney Brigade
Obama Has No Business Kissing Maloney
Maloney Is Too Ordinary To Be Representing District 14
Carolyn Maloney's Six Sins
Joke Of The Day: Carolyn Maloney
Maloney Wrote A Book Saying Her Best Is Not Good Enough
Maloney's Idiotic Debate Non Stand Can Be Countered Through Use Of Social Media
Debating Is "Stunt" In A Maloney Democracy
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Better Know a District - New York's 14th - Carolyn Maloney

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

Fox News

Maloney Should Skip Radio Debate And Create Jobs For An Hour Instead

This is me feeling Baruch College's pain. This is me feeling the pain of NY1. This is me feeling the pain of the League Of Women Voters. Maloney disrespected each of them and it is still not too late to remedy the situation.

Maloney kept saying she is too busy creating jobs for America to bother accepting debate invitations. Now I know how the unemployment rate went down from 12% to a measly 10%. I want it to go down to 8%. And I want Maloney to not show up for her radio debate on September 7. Because I care. Because I think it is important that jobs are created.

I have always known Maloney is kind of on the old side. But I did not realize how old until she expressed her preference for FDR era technology.

I hereby propose as one of Barack's earliest and strongest supporters in the country that Barack switch from his weekly addresses on YouTube to exclusive radio addresses. Pay homage to FDR, yo. He was a great president. Even Newt Grinch thinks he was a great president.

I am so offended by the radio format of the September 7 debate that I am going to actively campaign for Carolyn Maloney to not show up for the debate. Carolyn, I don't want you there. Stay put in DC, go create some jobs. You have overstayed your welcome. How I know that is because you got a serious attitude problem. Somewhere along the way you acquired senioritis.

If you ask me, I think this whole debate circus has gone way out of hand. Folks, we got a situation on our hands. Are you paying attention?

The Debate Format

The Debate Format

Image via Wikipedia

Baruch Plus Radio Plus NY1 Could Work
Carolyn Maloney: Feeling Ugly?
Carolyn Maloney's Newest Lie
Finally A Debate? Is A Non Debate A Debate?
Debating Is Not About Media Attention To Reshma Saujani
Maloney Refuses Debate Yet Again
Carolyn Maloney: The Alan Keyes Of District 14
Carolyn Maloney: Chicken
Who Is The Congressperson For Ground Zero? Not Maloney
Look Who Is Talking: Carolyn Maloney's Dipshit Lies
Charlie Rangel, Carolyn Maloney And Their Ethics Violations
Charlie Rangel: Motherfucker

So I guess the debate is happening after all. The clock on the Reshma 2010 site has been pulled down. After 100 days Carolyn Maloney has finally agreed to a debate. That is one mean record to have for 100 days.

It is going to be a radio debate, but I think TV cameras will be allowed. And I really hope the whole debate ends up on YouTube. In this day and age, I mean. I am opposed to the idea of physically carrying Maloney to weekly debates as a matter of principle, (How My Grandfather Became Mayor The First Time) otherwise what I would really have liked is weekly debates. But looks like we are getting just that one debate. Maloney is not going to be creating jobs for those two hours. What a loss!

I look forward to the debate. What I am really looking forward to this moment is the event this evening on the Lower East Side. (Arthur Schwartz, Jeff Kurzon, Reshma 2010)

Mainstream Media Kept Saying John Liu Was Losing
An Empire State Of Mind: The Final Countdown
Baruch Plus Radio Plus NY1 Could Work
My Progressive Political Religion
Reshma Saujani Loves America
Carolyn Maloney: Feeling Ugly?
Barack Obama Just Endorsed Reshma Saujani
Carolyn Maloney's Newest Lie

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Mainstream Media Kept Saying John Liu Was Losing

Image via Wikipedia

Last year the buzz was that John Liu was losing. From the New York Times all the way down to mid level magazines, the buzz was Yassky was winning. It was close. It was a tossup. And of course there were unfair comments about John Liu, to the point at one instance John called his opponent "the three headed Yassky."

At the end of the day John Liu won easy. Later in November he got more votes than Bloomberg.

And I am seeing some of the same media bias against Reshma. Several of the print magazines have been putting out articles that are in absolute no resonance with what is actually happening at the ground level.

It used to be Reshma Saujani, Wall Street's candidate. Now it is Reshma Saujani, sure to lose candidate. These remind me of some of the negative articles about John Liu I used to read.

The answer is to keep focused on the fundamentals of the campaign, to focus on new/social media, more on community media.

Although I must say some TV spots have been good.

More than one newspaper article has quoted polls supplied by the Maloney campaign that are months old.

Challenging an entrenched incumbent is not easy. But some of the mainstream media makes that task harder by perpetuating some outdated attitudes.

Arthur Schwartz, Jeff Kurzon, Reshma 2010

Image by cliff1066™ via FlickrI am so looking forward to the Reshma 2010 event tomorrow. (Gandhi, Reshma And Tornadoes) I did 400 push ups already in preparation. I will likely do more. It is good to see Arthur Schwartz as one of the listed names. Slowly but surely the Obama crowd is rallying behind Reshma 2010. A presidential campaign lasts months, but for a congressional race these final weeks are when the coalescing happens. It is now a sprint to the finish line.

An Empire State Of Mind: The Final Countdown
Baruch Plus Radio Plus NY1 Could Work
My Progressive Political Religion
Reshma Saujani Loves America

Arthur is the first person featured in my first Obama video. He was the key speaker at the Manhattan For Obama organizational kick off meeting.

NYC Video: 10 Hours

Another person featured in that video is Jeff Kurzon. The first time I met Jeff was near the Gandhi statue in Union Square. I was not even aware there was a Gandhi statue there until that day. That was the summer of 2007 right before the walks for Obama. Well, Jeff asked for a Gujarati and he got one now: Reshma. (Reshma Is Gujarati Like Gandhi, I Am Bihari Like Laloo)

Crain's New York: An Insurgent's Long Shot: Last year, Reshma Saujani was no more than a foreign-sounding name on a long list of candidates who wanted to run for the seat on the verge of being vacated by Rep. Carolyn Maloney. When Ms. Maloney decided last August not to run for the U.S. Senate, the other would-be candidates dropped out in deference to the incumbent. Ms. Saujani, a 34-year-old hedge fund lawyer, stayed in. .... eliciting scorn from the city's Democratic political establishment, which sees Ms. Maloney as the unassailable matriarch of a district that she helped transform into a Democratic stronghold.... Ms. Saujani has eschewed the more traditional route of first running for a minor office and cultivating endorsements among labor and elected officials to build a base of support. ..... her fundraising prowess ..... “I think we need to have new people, fresh faces running for Congress,” Ms. Saujani says—”people who are passionate and energetic.” ..... Ms. Saujani's campaign has captured the attention of many, including Bishop Mitchell Taylor, the influential senior pastor of the Center of Hope International and the chief executive of the East River Development Alliance. He invited Ms. Saujani, just as he had Ms. Maloney, to speak to his small but fervent congregation in Long Island City. ...... On Jan. 14, 1973, her parents landed in Chicago wearing T-shirts and shorts, with $50 in their pockets. ...... a compelling political biography that has impressed wealthy Upper East Side donors, financial services executives and Internet entrepreneurs. She first demonstrated her fundraising skills at age 28, when she raised $1 million from South Asians on behalf of John Kerry's run for the presidency—an accomplishment that gave her access to Hillary Clinton, whom she supported in 2008. Ms. Clinton later offered her a job in the State Department as a senior adviser on South Asia, which Ms. Saujani turned down in order to run for office. ....... Maloney's $2.1 million in cash. ..... Of about 228,000 registered Demo-crats in District 14—68% of whom are white—37,529 voted four years ago. ..... her opponent has portrayed her as a creature of a greedy industry ..... One of her biggest supporters is Diana Taylor: a lifelong Republican, former New York state superintendent of banks, and the girlfriend of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ms. Taylor is part of a coterie of high-powered women who are advising Ms. Saujani and encouraged her to run on her corporate experience. ..... “She sees Congress as an entry-level job,” says one exasperated Democratic consultant. .... She was twice denied by Yale Law School before getting accepted as a transfer student. Becoming a member of Congress has also been a lifelong dream. If she loses, she says, she will begin her campaign for 2012. “We run the next day in the same race,” she says. “We start the next day.”

New York Post: The Underdog: 35-year-old Reshma Saujani, is generating an unusual amount of interest for an untested candidate ....Saujani, who has never served in public office, has become a darling among the city’s power brokers, including Maureen White, former national finance chair for the Democratic Party; Judith Dimon, wife of JPMorgan CEO Jamie; hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry; and Mayor Bloomberg’s daughter, Emma — all of whom have helped her amass a $1.2 million war chest..... Hillary Clinton, for whom Saujani once worked, gave her campaign an unofficial nod of approval..... Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend, Diana Taylor, is even advising Saujani’s campaign after meeting her and being impressed with her go-getter attitude..... Saujani also has developed a cult following among the city’s burgeoning tech community, with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook honcho Randi Zuckerberg and Gilt Groupe founder Alexis Maybank all tweeting her praises. High profile bloggers like Rachelle Hruska have helped generate buzz among the 20- and 30-something crowd that usually doesn’t follow local politics...... A practicing Hindu, she lives in an East Village rental, and is still paying off some $200,000 in student loan debts after putting herself through school. She works out at Equinox so that she can afford to cave to her favorite temptation: the black and white shake from Shake Shack..... “At age 28 I was one of John Kerry’s top fundraisers in the country,” Saujani said in an interview from her makeshift campaign office on 33rd Street and Madison Avenue. “It’s unusual for a young woman to be sitting with trustees who had been donors for generations. I had never asked anyone for a check before besides my parents.” ...... She’d be the youngest woman elected to Congress if she wins, as well as the first Hindu. She claims she was the first New York politician to come out strongly in favor of the Ground Zero mosque...... it’s when she talks about tech that she becomes most engaged....... “When I set out to run, one out of three of my friends was unemployed, laid off from law firms or media firms, and it wasn’t going to get better until 2013,” she said. “I believe people need to start their own companies. I’ve gone to tech meet-up after tech meet-up and asked people, ‘What is it that you need to start your next company?’ It’s that first $50,000 or $100,000 they need.” ...... Until now Maloney had no particular reason to acknowledge Saujani’s campaign, but after three months of nipping at her heels, Maloney agreed to a radio debate scheduled to air Sept. 7 on WWRL at 11 a.m....... “You don’t expend that political capital for name recognition. You do it to win.”

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

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