Going On The Offensive For Ferrer

Only a few days back I read a comment by Heather (DFNYC In The News) on MyDD that was making fun of a "prominent" local Democrat's claim that no prominent Democrat in the city seemed to be for Ferrer. How prominent can he be? I never heard of him.

But Howard Dean is behind Ferrer, and that is the next President Of The United States. I have heard of him. And DFNYC is solidly behind Ferrer with 81% of the votes. And we just so happen to be the largest Dean group in the country. We are the prominent Democrats in town. Don't make us whip up our mailing lists! Nobody quit after 2004, many of them just went into hiding. They are all sharpening their claws, waiting to pounce.

Bloomberg is feeling the Dean heat already. He knows deep in his heart that he can lose. Around the time Dean was last in town, Bloomberg was at a press conference. And a plane was heard in the sky. And Bloomberg said in an exasperated aside, "That is Howard Dean in the DNC corporate jet." That man is so scared he thinks he is facing Dean aerial attacks. But that man is so out of touch, he does not know Dean flies commercial.

I just went to the DFNYC site and there is a message from Heather about another Ferrer-Dean event tomorow. Is Howard Dean Fernando Ferrer's running mate or what? (Dean Was In Town Yesterday) If he is going to keep showing up like this, Ferrer sure is going to cross the line. And it will be nice to have Ferrer as Mayor when Dean 2008 sets up its headquarters in the city. (2008: Some Thoughts)

Join Fernando Ferrer and Howard Dean at the Union Square Farmer's Market!

Meet on the NE corner of Union Square Park TIME: 2:30 pm.

Wow, this is just so cool. I will be there. I am meeting Robet Mayer of Publius Pundit for lunch tomorrow, him and about 10 of his Boston friends. Robert is at the Bentley College in the Boston suburbs. They have some kind of a college break, and they are in town. Robert and I got to know each other through Charlie Szrom of the Students for Global Democracy. Charlie is in Indiana, in Bloomington, where I considered settling down before I decided on NYC. (Bloomington, IN, As An Option, Possibly Moving To NYC) And I get to meet Charlie within a week. He will be in town too for some kind of a scholarship interview. We go sightseeing together. I am so excited about these two and their organization. They speak to the total global democracy messenger in me. This is to do with my Nepal work. (What's Going On In Nepal)

I started this blog entry to chalk up a strategy.

Going on the offensive for Ferrer.

Martha Kenton of the Cesnik 2005 fame is leading the DFNYC effort. (Some Suggestions To The Cesnik Campaign, Eric Cesnik For City Council)

Larry and Dino have some great work going on with their sites. I mean, the Bloomberg ads are offensive. One that I am forced to see - since I don't own a TV - when I am out reading news at the Yahoo site shows this beautiful Manhattan landscape unfurl, and the message is, Vote for Bloomberg. Admire the beauty and vote for Bloomberg. Wow. Not even the pompous Donald Trump would stoop so low.

I just got an email from Dino not long back. Their new site is out, Ferrer Four.

This is what I am suggesting.

Truth On Bloomberg, and Ferrer Four both do great work on policy logic.

I see three big holes in the effort though.

One, we need one site that compares and contrasts the Ferrer management style with the Bloomberg management style. I have not had the chance to dig in and do some research myself. But from the little I know, I can already draw a few conclusions. Ferrer was Bronx Borough President. Bloomberg's disadvantage is that his leadership style is corporate. He cuts some major corners on social expenditures so he can build a stadium. Don't blame him: that has been his life's training. It is hard to change course mid-stream. Ferrer on the other hand has an exective style that is more political. He is more in tune with the common people. He is not a machine politician, rather he is a politician who knows the system, he knows the voters, and their various organized groups, he knows how to work the system. And that is who you want in the executive office.

Two, the three sites need to cross link to each other prominently. Have three button links at the top of each site, on each page at the site.

Three, whip up the DFNYC mailing list to send traffic to these sites after all three sites are up and running. I hear the core DFNYC mailing list is 2400 strong, Tracey told me at the last MeetUp. (Tracey Denton Of DFNYC) There would be a short message that displays the three sites, and briefly summarizes them. And a request to members to forward the email to everyone in the city they personally know, and to request them to do the same. This email viral marketing does not cost a dime, and is more effective and respectful than TV ads. Effective because people receive emails only from people they personally know, respectful because there is an invitation to an intelligent conversation. We are not trying to play mind games like clever ad people, we are talking policy. 2400 people send it out to 20 people each who send it out to 10 people each, that is 480,000. That is half a million people. If our message has oomph, this is all it will take to elect Ferrer. Although I do not suggest not doing everything else we will be doing, that the Ferrer campaign team is doing, with the emphasis on the get out the votes efforts. And be at the ready to handle all that traffic. The sites should not crash!

So Dino, Larry, whip it up, baby.

And do not miss the DFNYC Monthly Mixer with Freddy Ferrer. Tuesday, October 25.

Take Back The City 2005.
Take Back The Congress 2006.
Take Back The White House 2008.

Bloomberg Is No Democrat
Fernando Ferrer

Who Is Leecia Eve?

First time I am coming across her name.

I opened up the Google News page to do a quick search on the Russian guy at Google, Sergei Brin, because a few days back he came out saying Google is not working on an Office competitor which can read like a direct rebuttal to one of my recent blog entries (Google's To Do List Keeps Growing), but then I got distracted.

Can She Be New York's Barack Obama? New York Daily News

I immediately fired off a teaser email to our own DFNYC Leila Warrior Noor, even before I read the news article. Because one of the first thoughts that occurred to me after I met her was that
she meets the Barack Obama profile. He father was Somalian. (Me, Ethiopian) Her mother is Long Island white. Leila is a lawyer. I know, those corporate types. She is cute. She is political, hence the nickname Warrior. She speaks effortlessly. That is how I described Obama after I watched an Obama-Keyes debate on TV. And at the last event I met Leila, I heard Norman Siegel (A Not So Little Norman Fact, A Great Mixer, A Little Siegel Incident) telling her he thought she should run for office. "I don't feel like I know enough."

That is the standard reply of all the power women at DFNYC. Razzmatazz Tracey, Sunshine Heather. (DFNYC In The News, Tracey Denton Of DFNYC) All these amazing people who have this amazing organization going. When women lead things are different. The leadership style is different: these is a much lesser tendency towards hierarchies. The edges are smoother. Women and men are different, if anyone needs reminding. And there are these late 20s, early 30s women whose leadership is totally cool to members twice their age, and more. And not in a polite way either. And it is okay to not run for office. I myself don't see me doing it. Not that it is okay because I am not doing it either.

I have a formal excuse: I am not a citizen. So don't ask for my vote either! That aside, I feel like I can do more for global democracy through Dean 2008 than through any other endeavor. And global democracy is the best gift that can be for the dollar a day crowd, all those cheerful, poor people. Where would you rather be, on the Mall, or inside the White House? I am gunning for the White House, yo! JFK advice: "Never settle for second, when first is available." (2008: Some Themes, 2008: Some Thoughts, Dean 2008)

I mean, I so totally could. I have done it before, I can do it again. (Possibly Moving To NYC) But the question is what is your public service goal, and what is the most effective way to get there. Dean 2008 is it.

Running for office is like deciding to become a doctor, unless you really, really want to do it, don't do it: you are going to be unhappy. So I don't begrudge these power women comrades of mine. But I wish they were a little more militant on gender issues. Expand it beyond the pro-choice talk. How can you be a progressive if you are not aggresive on the gender issues?

Anyways, some from the article on Eve.

.... a four-year star turn as Hillary Clinton's lawyer
.... the bright, confident optimism of an A-student who studies hard and has all the answers.
.... the power pantsuits that are the standard uniform of Clinton's female protégés
.... 41-year-old
.... government and law degrees from Harvard
.... learned the retail side of politics at home: her father, retired Buffalo Assemblyman Arthur Eve, served in the state legislature for more than 30 years and took Leecia on the campaign trail every other year
.... political street smarts and book smarts
.... leaves a lot of time for lieutenant governors to grow bored, restless and ambitious - and that's where the trouble starts
.... In the 1980s, Lt. Gov. Alfred DelBello, who served under Gov. Mario Cuomo, quit after 24 months, citing boredom.
.... The A-student has already held private meetings with Krupsak, DelBello, Stan Lundine and Mario Cuomo, the four living Democrats who once held the position
.... to begin releasing position papers on ways to begin reversing the capital flight
.... thinks she can break the old patterns and become the first black woman ever elected to a statewide office in New York
.... Like Obama, she is betting voters will look past race and vote for a whip-smart candidate with a great smile and confidence to burn.

Come to think of it, Leila did allude to someone of this profile during my first real conversation with her. I now realize. She beat me to it.

2008: Some Themes

2008: Some Thoughts

Family Values

The Republicans are people with a limited vocabulary. They use the family values phrase to cover up their sexism, their homophobia, their social superstitions.

Progressive family values are different from regressive ones. Regressive ones imagine a woman's place to be at home, alone. Career women are hard to digest. Marriage is an institution, a prison. Women should get in and then stop asking questions. And women can not wait around too long to get in.

Progressive family values are not anti family values, they are superior family values. Because women in sexist families must be suffocating.

So there is sexism, there is homophobia, and there is the case of broken down families, dysfunctional families, abusive families, and evil families. Let the social scientists talk. Is it 5%, is it 10%, is it 20%? Show me the numbers. People who themselves might be lucky enough to not be part of such non-existent families should not preach family values upon those less lucky. The family is not always the best option. There are children awaiting rescue. That also applies to abusive husbands. Don't stick to them, get out. Yes, you heard me. But conservatives would rather you stuck around and became a poster child to their failed ideology.

That show me the numbers talk applies to abusive families, it also applies to gays. If only domestic partnership will sail through politically for now, so be it, gay marriages can stay in the works. And I am very much a student of the matter: there is a lot I do not know. And I spend more time thinking about things like vaccinations than gay marriages, much more. But that numbers thing is key. Say if only 2% of the population is gay, then how fair is it for the 98% to push their idea of marriage upon them? Just like how fair is it for those within non-abusive marriages and families to push their stick-around message to those less fortunate? The approach has to be scientific.

The family as an institution has to be reimagined, like the FBI had to be reimagined: a FBI that hounded Martin Luther King was not good for society. That is the progressive challenge. There is no avoiding the topic. And attempts to parrot the conservatives are an even worse choice. They are wrong, they are regressive, they are limited in scope. They want to turn the clock back on gender relations, for one.

Progressives need to go on the offensive, because the conservatives really are anti family values. Their clever talk does not cover up that fact.

People fundamentally hostile to cross-cultural, inter-racial relationships and marriages are not family values people. People hostile to and dismissive of families from other cultural backgrounds are not family values people.

And there are alternate families. Social acceptance has to be cultivated. There is no one right way to do it. Single moms may not be demonized. They need policy level help. And if they down the line wish to no longer be single moms, that would be their personal choice, it is not for the state to preach them dating and marriage. Maybe they just dumped some jerk, and are not in any mood to hook up too soon!

Abortion

If there is a civil war in America today, it is on this issue. Many people on opposite sides are not on talking terms.

This debate has to be expanded way beyond foetus talk. Because as long as the conservatives can reduce it to foetus talk, they get to hide their real regressive agenda on gender relations. This heated discussion is about gender relations, broadly speaking.

Women and progressives who have the guts to talk this issue and organize around this issue should have the same to talk about gender relations in general. And they are everywhere. We deal with them every waking hour. Women are all around us. They are in homes, they are at workplaces, they are out in the streets walking around. It is about personal space, about glass walls and ceilings.

Rush Limbaugh's "feminazis" need to come out of the closet. I never understood that. It is cool to be a civil rights leader, but it is not cool to be a feminist. Why is that? The take back the night people need to come out the closet.

Faith

Same as family. The Republican Party houses all those people and organizations that are fundamentally hostile to people of the non-Christian faiths. These are anti-faith people who need to be exposed. We need to go on the offensive.

The Spectrum Concept

On these topics of family values, abortion and faith, we are dealing with social progressive issues. We have not been too skillful here. And I would like to introduce a spectrum concept. On each social issue, create a spectrum. There would be a scale of 1 to 10. Say on race relations, a 1 would be someone who commits hate crimes. A 10 would be someone whose ideas we might be able to use in the year 2030! They are cutting edge, but not politically salable here and now.

You consolidate 5 to 10. You organize to identify them, and get them out to vote. And if that progressive half of the spectrum does not give us the majority to win, we think of ways to get some of the 4s to move on to 5. We act hostile to the 1s and 2s because they do not deserve any less. We stand amused by the 3s. They might not come along, but the views they hold sure are exotic. And we do not restrain the 10s. Let the dreamers dream. Let them glow like the core of the earth. The plate tectonics need to stay on the move.

We just need a majority, we don't need a total sweep.

The Three Pillars

Overheard In New York

This site is outright hilarious, so original: http://www.overheardinnewyork.com.

Here are some samples:

Chick: You talkin' to me like I'm retarded! I can read between the lines...I can read under the lines and above the lines! But you're talkin' like I have a mental condition!
Guy: Sorry, baby...

--5 train

Overheard by: Brian Vitunic

Guy #1: "Leibovitz, Phederson, Yushuvayeva"--
Guy #2: Whatever happened to Ellis Island changing people's names so we can say them?

--68th & Lexington

Overheard by: Dina Pirutinsky

Queer #1: She's kinda bummed...Her parents split; her dad's marrying another man. Queer #2: Luckily, that's not atypical.

--Elevator, 14th Street & 8th Avenue

Overheard by: zac

Queer: I don't care about my boyfriend like I care about you. I am buying you these things because I love you.

His phone rings.

Queer: Hello?...Aw, I love you, too.

He hangs up.

Queer: That was him.

--Barney's, Madison Avenue

Girl #1: You know when I goes out with a boy, I like to make sure that I am all clean and shit.
Girl #2: I know, me too.
Girl #1: Come to think of it, I like to be clean when I go out with the girls, too...Ya know, one of them always ends up touching ya.
Girl #2: I hears ya.

--2 train

Overheard by: jonathan

Queer #1: We are going to the Kelly Clarkson concert in two weeks, you should come.
Queer #2: I have to go home that weekend. They are having a memorial for my grandpa who died. Maybe I can get out of it.
Queer #1: Seriously. I mean people die all the time, but Kelly Clarkson only comes to New York like twice a year.

--Splash, W. 17th Street

Hobo: You like rap? I started that shit. I did. I started that rap shit. Way before hip-hop. You don't like rap, you ain't shit.

--4 train

Overheard by: Aaron

Chick: Have you ever heard of that website, Gawker.com?

--Larry Lawrence, Williamsburg

Overheard by: Fairest

Chick: Is that woman pregnant and drinking a beer? Oh wait, that's just her gut. Probably from all the beer!

--Yankee Stadium

Old guy: Yeah, here today, gone tomorrow. I want to come back as a Polynesian prince.

--Astoria

Overheard by: sara

AMNew York Guy: Free Spanish newspaper! Assimilation doesn't mean you have to give up your heritage!

--Park Slope

White girl: That's terrible! The only thing I want my kids to be that I'm not is half-black.

--Columbia University

Guy: God, hipsters will nod their heads to anything.

--Central Park SummerStage

Southern woman: Why George, I'm just so proud of yew; I thought yew'd be grossed out by the Blue Man Group.

--Marriott Marquis, Times Square

Overheard by: Beantown Interloper

Old lady: Oh! That's a cute dog, what's his name?
Woman: Billy.
Old lady: Oh really? It's not Rover? Most people name their dogs Rover.

--Foodtown, Sunnyside Overheard by: Nate B

2008: Some Thoughts

Dean 2008

Headquarters

I think it should be in Jackson Heights, New York City. I understand Vermont is Dean's home state, but New York City has many advantages. It is the progressive capital. DFNYC is the largest DFA group in the country. Jackson Heights is the most diverse place inside New York City, and the rentals there would be much cheaper than somewhere in Manhattan. If the headquarters are in the city, it would be possible to rally hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers for most of the work to be done by the campaign headquarters. That volunteer part might be the most important. Also since many old media houses are in the city, we might also get more free air time. It would be easier to fly Dean around the country from here. A lot of political money gets raised in the city. He was born here, he grew up here. This is Dean hometurf.

DFNYC In The News
Tracey Denton Of DFNYC
DFNYC Research And Advocacy Group

Running Mate

People talk about balancing physical geography. I disagree. I think the emphasis should be on human geography. I think Hillary is the obvious choice. Also, the campaign should make it clear it is gunning for Obama for Secretary of State. Both Hillary and Obama are talented superstars who can not run for the top job itself and that is to do with human geography. So we need to flesh it out on the progressive ticket.

Dean-Hillary-Obama Ticket

Strong On Defense

The War on Terror is the same magnitude as the Cold War. That has to be the starting point of the discussion. And that war has to be won. Is there a progressive way of fighting that war? There is. A total spread of democracy is the only real, long term solution. The military option is always on the table as the weapon of last resort, but the conservative militarist ways are self-defeating and wasteful. Instead extending moral and logistical support to indigenous grassroots movements for democracy might be the better way.

Democracy For Nepal, DFN
What's Going On In Nepal
To: DFNYC

The South

The strategy should be to win at least half the states in the South. You have to run a 50-state campaign if you are seriously looking at the White House.

To: The Good White People In The South

Blogalaxy

The Dean 2004 effort was organized around a blog. Next time it will have to be something much more sophisticated, and media rich: a blogalaxy. A superblog.

Core Vision

There has to be a core vision.

The Three Pillars

People you know and meet regularly show up in the newspaper columns. That makes you feel like an insider. I might have finally arrived!

DFNYC in the News

Submitted by Heather Woodfield on Sat, 12/25/2004 - 9:12am.
NY Observer, October 10, 2005 -"Plutocrats of Democrats Go Bloomberg"
NY Observer, October 10, 2005 -"Return of the WASP? Weld, Dean Hope So"
NY Press, September 28, 2005 -Apparently, they haven't figured out that Meetups are now Linkups and that Heather is a short brunette while Tracey is a tall blond.
The Villager, June 29, 2005
Newsday, June 13, 2005

Best Looking whoever

Nydia Velazquez

Who's New York's most delicious politico? Let's consider the suspects. We'll start with former spinster Alexa Hinton, who got the gang of 51 some favorable ink. Her weapon: long blonde hair, blue eyes and the demeanor of a southern belle bemused by big bad Metropolis. It's too bad she left for a reporting gig down south.

Then there's Kathryn Prael, aide to Congressman Anthony Weiner, who shot up from last place to second in the Democratic Primary. Her statuesque frame, dirty blonde hair and Hepburn eyes gave us an incentive to attend as many campaign events as possible.

We're not exactly sure what the State Superintendent of Banks Diana Taylor actually does at work. Mostly we know her as the taller, trophy girlfriend of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. We recall one bizarre conversation in which we was introduced to the power couple as a reporter "born in 1978" and Taylor replied that she was in college that year.

Tracey Denton is our reason for covering Meetup.com's meet-ups. The short brunette with wiry lips that shape themselves into political jargon and manufactured laughs is a fixture at the group's events. So are hordes of reform-minded single men and women in flannel shirts. Unfortunately, Denton seemed unaware of the online group's reputation for launching more than the Dean campaign. We'll be happy to explain it some night.

Our vote, though, goes to the congresswoman who gets around (her district is in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan), Nydia Velázquez. She's young, sexy and rocks a red, rebellious short do. And yes, she does look good angry. After we asked her why her office emailed a press release about a political endorsement—a big no no—she refused to speak to us. She hasn't taken our calls or returned our messages. HOT!

Mr. Dean, as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, uses New York as an A.T.M., of course, but even more directly he has bequeathed us an insurgent political organization in the form of Democracy for New York. That group, an emanation of his unsuccessful Presidential campaign, supports New York candidates of Mr. Dean’s progressive stripe, but so far it has not made much headway in a Democratic Party that is organized along vastly different, often ethnic lines. Recently, Mr. Dean enlisted the prestige of the D.N.C. (such as it is) behind the campaign of Mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer.

“I’ve heard from varying sources that they are upset that she’s not even getting a slap on the wrist for this,” said Heather Woodfield, a registered Democrat and the director of Democracy for New York City, a group of Dean supporters.

Democracy for America, the organization founded by Howard Dean after his presidential campaign ended last year, has endorsed Norman Siegel for public advocate. “I have not seen this type of heartfelt reaction to a candidate since Howard Dean’s presidential bid,” said Heather Alexa Woodfield, director of the local DFA coalition group, Democracy for NYC.

Meanwhile, Democracy for NYC, a political action committee with ties to Democracy for America, voted to endorse City Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

On The Web

• MyDD :: Diaries
• Heather Woodfield - The Lower Manhattan Democracy for America ...
• Heather Woodfield | Democracy For NYC
• Heather Woodfield | The Daily Gotham
• Heather Woodfield's blog | The Daily Gotham
• Heather Woodfield | Democracy For New York
• Heather Woodfield's blog | Democracy For New York
• Elana & Elena's Blog
• New York's Premier Alternative Newspaper. Arts, Music, Food ... .... In addition, I, Heather Woodfield, am the short brunette and Tracey Denton is the tall, ... Heather Woodfield, Director, Democracy for NYC. DE LA SOUL, BABY ...
• Democracy Forum: Americana And Ms. Sunshine birthday girl Heather Woodfield claims her cheerfulness is just a "facade." What a twist. And queen Tracey Denton is all humble about DFNYC ...
• DeanPhotos.com - Faces of Dean Nation from All 50 States :: NYS ... Do I recognize Andrew C. White, whom I believe I met at DeanFest last July - and Heather Woodfield, whom I met in NYC during the RNC and at the PDA Summit ...
• Organization | Democracy Directory Name: Heather Woodfield/Tracey Denton. Meets:. Meetups are monthly, in all five boroughs. For the most current Meetup schedules, go to the "Meetup" section ...
• Midwives : Specialists : Health & Beauty : Manawatu - New Zealand ... Heather Woodfield. -, 0-6-357 0423. Listed in Midwives. Benn Sheryl. -, 0-6-359 5024. Listed in Midwives. Gibson, Lee. Palmerston North 1, 0-6-356 7721 ...
• Majority Report Radio: hour one Heather Woodfield and Andrew Cling, of My Vote Will Count. Raman Kia, singer/songwriter, frontman of Buddahead. Posted by not sam at September 8, ...
• Blog for America Heather Woodfield/DFNYC... and all the folks that traveled here in very cold weather (not as cold as NH last year but still cold). ...
• Blog for America *This* Heather Woodfield? http://dfa.meetup.com/42/members/472597/ ... Yes, that Heather Woodfield. I'll take it as a compliment. --Toscha ... poemless wrote on April 9, 2005 10:37 PM: On a much less serious note, today I was told that Chris looks like my younger brother (not that much younger...) and I look like Heather Woodfield. --Toscha [Link] puddleriver*in*WV wrote on April 9, 2005 10:44 PM: and I look like Heather Woodfield. --Toscha *This* Heather Woodfield? http://dfa.meetup.com/42/members/472597/ clicky [Link] poemless wrote on April 9, 2005 10:47 PM: puddleriver*in*WV wrote on April 9, 2005 10:44 PM: Yes, that Heather Woodfield. I'll take it as a compliment. --Toscha [Link]
• [PDF] Editorial Heather Woodfield demystifies the UDC classification scheme. One of the first things that we’ll ... Heather Woodfield explains why we don’t want your money. ...
• MyDD :: Diaries by strrbr - October 5 Be gentle, this is my first time. by The Muse - October 5 Who Kidnapped the NYC Democratic Party? by Heather Woodfield - October 5 ...
• [PDF] Editorial Heather Woodfield, Information Specialist, explains why an ’N’ is so important ... Heather Woodfield takes us on a journey through time ...
• Yahoo! Groups : HouseRabbits Messages : 3501-3600 of 3876 Woodfield, Heather H.Woodfield@... Send Email, Feb 17, 2004 10:05 am. 3596, Re: WONDERFUL HOUSE BUNNY LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME ...
• [PDF] Cranfield University especially my panel, Barbara Birtles, Anita Beal, Graham Heard, Heather Woodfield. and the DBA 2001-2005 cohort. I would also like to thank my parents, ...
• Heather's Profile My name is Heather. I am the president/CEO of Volcanic Records. ... I love going shopping - DKNY is awesome, especially at Woodfield mall and downtown ...
• Democracy For Nepal (DFN): What's Going On In Nepal
  

Dean 2008

I keep thinking Dean 2008. It might define me. As for money, Bill Gates once famously said, it is not like I am going to buy any more hamburgers or anything. Beyond a point, money is just numbers. And I am confident I can make what I need on the fly. Through online marketing, writing, guest appearances in movies, sitting on the boards of cutting edge tech companies, whatever. Money is no problem in the long run. I don't enjoy spending money, I really don't, and that might never change. I prefer the subway to cabs, and that might never change. The crowd is what I love about NYC. Why would I deprive myself? Ever since I got here, I have been plotting to get rid of my car.

But Dean 2008 might be the best way, the most efficient way, to ensure a total spread of democracy, the best thing that could happen to the dollar a day crowd. I am thinking a deadline here. Say Dean gets into the White House in 2008. And by 2020, every country on the planet is a democracy. JFK set his goal to take the country to the moon. Dean could pledge himself to global democracy.

With that vision, I can see me focusing on Dean 2008 single-mindedly starting from now. I wish there were no term limits. I really would have liked to go head-to-head with George Bush and Karl Rove. I am no Martin Luther King, I am no Mahatma Gandhi, I am Ninja.

I keep having this recurring dream of adding a Pentagon to the State Department. Dean gets into the White House, Barack Obama becomes Secreatary of State. And Obama sets up a peaceful Pentagon. An appendage that is constantly spewing out newer and better tools that grassroots movements for democracy may use worldwide. Both technological and organizational tools. It is war with communications technology. It is the bank robbery gone wrong scene in the movie Heat. This is a heavyweight boxing championship. I am feeling martial.

(Aug 07 '00 They Can Smell Each Other Opinion on Heat)

The next time I meet Dean, I am going to say something like this. "You have seen the James Bond movies. There is James Bond, and there is this old guy, who comes up with cool stuff, guns, cars, watches, pens, that James Bond gets to use to do his work. I am that old man. You are James Bond." Let me do my work.

In 2004, after the Deaniacs got massacred by old media, all Democrats in the field started copying the Dean style, but noone even tried to copy the Dean substance. That substance goes undefined. We have so far only defined it vaguely. Fiscally responsible, and socially progressive is a close approximation, but it does not cut it all the way.

I would like to talk about a One Person, One Vote, One Voice superstructure. Democracy has to be reinvented, like it was invented in 1776, like JFK invented the modern presidential campaign in 1960. Dean gets to reinvent both democracy and the presidential campaign, and then he gets to reinvent the whole idea of governance.

One Person. Every Homo Sapien within the geographical US has the option through DFA to get involved, to contribute, to truly count. Heck, the geographical line might not exist. What would stop an Australian or an Indian from coming online and contributing to our campaign's policy talk on, say, Social Security? Nothing. Our definition of a person is that he or she be a Home Sapien. For now. Them Hindus think non-humans also have souls. So you never know.

One Vote. A vertical hierarchy will have to emerge. We want to reinvent democracy, but we do not wish to invite chaos. There will have to be an organization with hierarchies. The organization will have a total, transparent democracy, and this Ninja preaches a non-violent militancy. But to speed up decisions, we will have the vote mechanism in place. When you can't reach a consensus, you vote, and then everyone gets behind the decision.

One Voice. Each person gets to speak his or her mind. Before you look for where the majority opinion is, you speak up. Preferably blog your opinions. At the one voice level, you don't care what the world thinks, you don't care what your comrades think. All you are concerned with is trying to figure out where you stand, and expressing that stand in the most clear way possible. Step 2 is still to submit yourself to the one person, one vote mechanism, or the consensus mechanism. But step 1 is all about you. And even if you get outvoted, and you still feel you are right, you get to keep polishing your stance, and whatever you say is still archived. It does not get washed away into thin air. Your voice gets archived online if you might so choose.

This superstructure is the democracy we are talking about. And I expect us to be only one step ahead of the competition. That is enough. And I do want us to be imitated. By our rivals within the Democratic Party, and by our Republican opponents. Because if they copy our one person, one vote, one voice superstructure, American democracy goes to a whole different level.

I am not too worried. Walmart is an open book company. When you go inside a Walmart you have seen their entire business model. Kmart and Target and all the rest of them have still not been able to beat Walmart. So don't get alarmed with the total, transparent democracy idea.

Dean 2008 just might clear my head. It might redefine me. It might get me focused like I never might have been before.

NYC is the crown city, DFNYC the crown jewel.

A total spread of democracy through indigenous, non-violent movements that receive maximal external moral and logistical support.

A Not So Little Norman Fact

I only learned yesterday Norman Siegel is Jewish. I mean, how do you know? I can't tell from his first or last name. I can't tell from his looks. There are people in my neighborhood who wear their cap, and have that hairstyle, and the Jewish clothes. That I can tell. But Norman?

All I knew was DFNYC was fanatically behind him. And I watched a debate where he scored real well for the most part: I think he won. And my earlier blog entry was not in any way designed to put him down. It is not adulatory, but I think that entry makes him look like the most deserving of the candidates.

A Little Siegel Incident

I met him yesterday, thanks to Tracey Denton, and I liked him a lot. We made small talk.

"You went to school in Georgia, I went to school in Kentucky."

"Really? Where? University of Kentucky?"

"No, a small school 30 minutes south of there. Berea."

"Oh, Berea. I know Berea. It is a good school."

That practically makes him a southerner. I mean, if he has heard of Berea.

He actually made a comical remark before parting: "Back to private practice!" He had a mischievous smile about him when he said that. I like that spirit among warriors. You give the contest your very best. And if you don't make it, you just dust it off. And move on.

I also learned Lewis is Jewish, the DFNYC Lewis. I can't tell from his looks. And I don't even know his last name yet. Although I am beginning to see a goofy side to him.

If I were on Norman's campaign staff, I would have advised him to handle the Betsy question about her stalker with a little more sensitivity. And post-debate, I'd have engaged in some damage control. I think saying that is being on Norman's side.

And I think he should have done a better job of integrating Tracey into his campaign. Tracey is a major plus. She is a political animal. She is sharp. She is nuts and bolts. She is good at the campaign thing. I have seen her in action. I mean, I have openly talked of her as the Campaign Chair for Dean 2008. Look at it this way. She leads the largest Dean group in the country. It is for a Deaniac to lead the Deaniacs. It would not be a bad idea to have a separate CEO and a CFO, but the chair has to be Tracey. I think. Bobby Kennedy was 35 when he became Attorney General. (Dean Was In Town Yesterday) Check out the photo. She looks like she is the candidate and Howard Dean and Fernando Ferrer are voters she is out to lock in.

And now that I know Norman is Jewish, I don't know what to make of this other DFNYC member's comment that Norman has fought for the right of Nazi groups to do this and that. I have been offered clarification by Tracey that Norman has been for the right of Nazi groups to express their opinions. That is a whole new fact that looks good on him. He is Jewish. He is a fierce civil rights lawyer. So he ends up supporting the rights of Nazis to talk hate. That is gutsy.

And Lewis. I like the guy. He is great. But when the local TV wanted a DFNYC comment on a mayoral debate, they did not get one of the two women Executive Directors. They got the Finance Director, the first male they could find in the hierarchy. To me that is so obviously sexist. It is a glass ceiling thing. I can't choose to not see these things. Although I do have a choice in terms of how I can react.

I feel like we as progressives should openly talk about these things. There is no point in being nice nice and sweeping things under the carpet. The dialogue can be positive. Dialogue is the most productive way to deal with these social schisms.

There is political progressive, and there is market progressive, and there is social progressive. Talking counts. Respectfully talking back and forth.

The Three Pillars

Claiming All The Real Estate For Myself

None of the other members are contributing. So I hereby boot them out.

• jonl
• Aldon Hynes
• Arthur
• Chi
• Rob Dickinson
• Rene' Wood
• David Baker

(When Web Hosting Is No Longer A Problem)