Saturday, July 31, 2010

Standing At 40-60 Now

New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New ...Image via Wikipedia
City Hall: Do New York Democrats Have A Wall Street Problem?
Some think that if Saujani can win at least 40 percent of the vote against Maloney, then it will unleash a flurry of interest in her kind of insurgent candidate: young, tech-friendly and no enemy of Wall Street.
Only two weeks back I did some momentum talk here, and I noted that Reshma 2010 moved from a 10:1 ratio trailing Maloney in mid May to a 3:1 or a possibly 2:1 ratio by mid July. That was remarkable. I also noted that the momentum was not a line graph but a curve graph. I have been proven right. Now Reshma 2010, barely two weeks later, stands at 60:40. The curve gets even steeper with every passing week. We got six full weeks.

With this new number, I can see a debate happening some time in August, or maybe even two. Maloney's political consultants are going to crunch these numbers and they are going to say, this race is competitive now, we can't afford to not debate, no longer. At 70-7, debating is a mistake, at 60-40, not debating is a mistake. This Reshma person can no longer be ignored.

September 1-14: The Niagara Falls Part
Reshma On Track To Taking Over This Blog
Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America
Reshma's Momentum: Line Graph Or Curve Graph
Reshma's Momentum: 70% Vs. 7%, 24,000 Vs. 8,000 Signatures, $2 Vs. $1.2 Million

Reshma Saujani, among the top 10 women to watch in America, Reshma Saujani, the top woman to watch in New York City. (Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America)

Reformed Wall Street: No Longer A Problem (Immigration Now?)

City Hall: Do New York Democrats Have A Wall Street Problem?
Ask anyone on Wall Street to host a fundraiser for a Democrat in New York these days, expect a blank stare. Ask any Democrat to accept a donation from someone working for a bank, investment firm or hedge fund, and expect the same reaction....... They wonder if some Democrats really understand how easy it would be for them to move their firms to friendlier shores, knowing they (or at least the disproportionate 30 percent of the state’s tax revenues they produce) would be missed..... the financial industry has so far this cycle contributed $84.5 million to Democratic candidates, down from $241.7 million the last time around—a 65-percent drop-off largely from disenchanted New York donors. ...... wonders if the government realizes how transportable his business is, or how overly reliant the state is on Wall Street revenues. Because the financial services industry votes too ...... “I think maybe it’s gone too far, the demonizing.” ..... Andrew Cuomo managed to raise an impressive $23.6 million with the help of some very generous people on Wall Street ...... the complex relationship that exists between Wall Street and the Democrats. ...... Cuomo, like practically every elected official in New York, believes he has been successful in balancing his approach to Wall Street, and put some distance between his campaign and the anti-Wall Street mood of many of his fellow New York Democrats. ........ Bankers like to back winners, and in New York, the winners tend to be Democrats. ....... Washington and Wall Street both should temper their expectations of each other. ...... “There’s a reason for frustration on both sides,” Wylde said. “There hasn’t been as much rational dialogue, conversation. There’s tended to be more demonizing on both sides. A lot of the business community feels poorly served by Washington. On the other hand, Washington is suffering under the anger of the whole country that they allowed Wall Street to go too far.” .... Bloomberg’s warning of a mass exodus that would destroy the city and state
Wall Street has been reformed. That reform was so very necessary. It was not a perfect reform bill, but it was a good one. And we can build upon its success to enact further reforms, some of which Reshma has pointed out.

What has not been reformed yet is Congress. It was Congress that made Wall Street bad behavior possible. We take a step in the direction of reforming Congress when we ditch Maloney on September 14.

Despite all the demonization and the lies spread by the Maloney camp, Reshma Saujani has strong credentials when it comes to Wall Street. (Barack Obama: The NRA's Candidate)
  • She has not taken a dime in Wall Street PAC money. That makes Reshma 2010 like Obama 2008. 
  • She has been for Wall Street Reform. After Obama signed the Wall Street Reform Bill, I read the statements by Maloney and Reshma. Maloney is like, and yes, I said hello to Barney, and I winked at Pelosi when I saw her pass down the hallway. Her entire statement is full of such name droppings. Whereas Reshma's statement praises the bill and calmly points out the weaknesses in the bill that will have to be looked into during next attempt. Reshma knows her patient, Maloney does not. Maloney is all fluff. 
  • Reshma has exhibited remarkable integrity in not riding the Demonize Wall Street bandwagon. It would have been the easiest thing to do this year. This show of integrity will put her in a good place when it is time to mend the frayed relationship between Main Street and Wall Street. 
  • Reshma is the national candidate to the tech sector. Couple that with her knowledge of Wall Street, and you are looking at someone who is going to play a decisive role in steering Wall Street's enormous resources into creating the jobs, companies and industries of tomorrow. (Maloney: Stifling Debate, Stifling Innovation, Stifling Job Creation, Reshma Saujani: South Asian Powerhouse, National Candidate To The Tech Sector, Digital Dumbo 18: The Dumbo Loft
Video: The Matrix Reloaded Freeway Chase (watch full screen) (Iran)

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Iran


Iran Democracy
The First Time I Heard The Obama Name

When I was doing what I was doing for Nepal, I had the option to eat into my savings. I want to do for Iran what I did for Nepal. And I am looking for sponsors. I am looking for people and organizations that will fund my work.

To Iran, With Love (3)
There is no peace in the Middle East because Israel is the only democracy around there. When a democracy tries to talk to a neighborhood of non democracies, you get The Mother Of All Culture Clashes. .... Israel today feels an existential threat from Iran's possible nuclear weapons. That threat is primarily political. Russia still had all the nuclear weapons, but once the Cold War ended, America was no longer feeling the threat from those weapons, Europe was not feeling the threat. Israel is not going to feel an existential threat from an Iran that is a democracy...... It is like in the movie The Matrix. You sit in front of your computer, your terminal, and you transport yourself to the theaters of action. You observe and study the reality, the ever changing reality, in all theaters of action, and you propose action plans everywhere you can. You have no institutional authority, noone elected you, you are not doling out money, and so you have to be extra, extra right, extra convincing before people will do your bidding, before people, the key players, will listen to you to do what needs to get done.
To Iran, With Love (2)
I ended up giving a name to the method: nonviolent militancy. Not only are you strictly nonviolent, you are almost all digital. The battles take place on the screen for a big part. But the method is not the message. Unless you have a very high level of political consciousness, unless you have super political instincts, unless your political knowledge is robust, unless you are a disrupter in the best tradition of entrepreneurs, unless you have a firm commitment to the basic principles that underly any democracy movement, you can't do what I did for Nepal. My political credentials were outstanding, and so the technology behind the digital tools I ended up using came to be of service to me. The medium is not the message. On the other hand without the digital medium my work would not have been possible. The Internet allowed me the utter fearlessness that I exhibited at all junctures because it allowed me to be in the safety of New York City without many of the disadvantages of distance.
To Iran, With Love (1)
To: Brad Feld, Subject: Iran And Me (Digital Ninja/Commando)
There are a few steps that the democracy movement in Iran needs to take, the most important is to shift the goal post. The goal can not be to get the existing regime to hold the presidential election all over again. The goal has to be regime change. The goal can not be to take the brutality lying down. The goal has to be to document every act of brutality to bring the perpetrators to justice once a new, interim government takes over power. The goal can not be to keep coming out into the streets. A democracy movement is supposed to last a few weeks at most, not months and years. You shut the country down completely until the regime gives way to an interim government with the mandate to hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year of taking over power.
Happy July 4 Fred Wilson, Brad Feld
I have done this before, I can do this again. I did this for Nepal in 2006. ..... There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006 was a political cyclone. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out. ..... Iran is a low hanging fruit. The hardest part of a democracy movement is getting people to come out into the streets. Well, that has been happening in Iran. This world is connected enough by now that one Digital Ninja/Commando based out of New York City could make that fundamental difference. ..... I ask for 100K and 15 months. That would be enough time. If I succeed, you get to put in another 2.5K each for a 50K bonus to me. This 5K you might put into this is the equivalent of 5 million you might put into Kiva. Democracy is the ultimate fishing net you can give to a people.