Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Pelosi Should Pass Election Reform To Keep Job
The Huffington Post: Election Reform As A Way To Put Republicans On The Spot: pass the Fair Elections Now Act, which likely to be voted out of committee next Thursday .... 165 co-sponsors and at least 40 more supporters, would give matching money to candidates who agreed to raise only small donations. It even has three Republican co-sponsors. ...... So far in this election cycle, House and Senate candidates have raised $1.2 billion dollars, and the money arms-race only grows. ..... Under the proposed Act, a candidate who raised small donations from at least 1,500 small donors contributing no more than $100 each for a total of at least $50,000 could get matching money, at a 4-to-1 ratio ..... As much as $3 million in public financing would be available -- enough to be competitive on most House races. The money wouldn't come from tax dollars, but from a special levy on the auctioning of broadcast spectrumOf all things Pelosi could do between now and the November date, this would top the list. This is smaller than immigration reform and bigger than doing nothing. This is just the right size thing to do.
And with Charlie Rangel sleep walking to jail time after Bill Clinton sent out a robocall on his behalf right before the September 14 primary, the Dems badly need something that shows they stand on the side of politically clean. This bill would be it.
Pelosi can't do the stump speech thing that Obama does. That we should leave to Obama. But this House thing is Pelosi territory. She can get this done just like she got health care reform done and she got finance reform done.
The Dems need this bad.
The fear is not that the Tea Party might out think Obama. They have no plans to out think. Their plan is to numb the American people to not think anything. Their plan is to use racially coded language and imagery to get the American people to think that perhaps the guy in the Oval Office is not one of us.
If the Dems can turn this into an election about ideas and the future, that will lead to victory.
Obama does not need a victory in November. The Dems losing in November puts him in a better situation to win reelection in 2012. It is the American people who need Obama to win, who need Pelosi to be able to keep her job. And this election bill will help.
The Huffington Post: Obama Challenges Tea Party: 'Specifically, What Would You Do?': Obama, in no uncertain terms, accused the movement's members of refusing to talk in specifics. ..... We had two tax cuts that weren't paid for, two wars that weren't paid for. We've got a population that's getting older. We're all demanding services, but our taxes have actually substantially gone down." ..... What you can't do, which is what I've been hearing a lot from the other side, is we're going to control government spending, we're going to propose $4 trillion of additional tax cuts .... Obama does seem to operate at his best when facing inherently adversarial questions (recall the positive coverage he received for going to a Republican conference in Baltimore during the height of the health care debate).
Claiming A Netroots/Grassroots Leadership Role With Iran Democracy Movement
I am doing that. I am claiming a leadership role.
There is no election for this leadership role. I have no plans to launch an organization, or a NGO. It is just me and my digital tools. But what I do requires more than internet access, way more. I am the only digital ninja/commando of my kind on the planet. I have a track record. I have done this once before.
I have come up with a set of principles, a suggested road map. It worked in Nepal, it will work in Iran. It will work everywhere where there is no democracy. That road map is no secret sauce. All my methods thrive on openness and transparency. I want to clone myself many, many times and get those clones busy for the cause of democracy everywhere. That is the idea. What I have done is special, but it is no secret. It can be done again and again and again. Others can do it. That is the idea.
Total Transparency With My Iran Work
The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
My methods are like in the Matrix movies. You use the Internet to transport yourself to the many theaters of action. When I was doing the democracy work for Nepal it felt to me like I sat on the central committees of all political parties in Nepal. Members of all political parties were on my mailing list. I had penetrated all the media houses, and the human rights NGOs, and the diaspora organizations. And to top it all, I had a very public blog. You did not have to be on a mailing list to access that.
There can be no compromise on non violence. We have to stay non violent. And there can be no compromise on the goal of regime change to put in place an interim government with the mandate to hold elections to a constituent assembly. But other than that we have to seek allies everywhere. We have to reach out to governments and media houses and any and all. People anywhere regardless of who they are can support the cause of democracy in Iran.
My claim to leadership is the principles and the road map I have to offer. It is that I have my super political instincts and kinetics to offer. All I really have is my ability to persuade people to do what needs to get done, in very public conversations where they always have the option to talk back. I have my ability to ride the waves of human action when people on their own are already doing what needs to get done. I have my ability to stay around like a watchdog, just in case. And I have the ability to step aside once the work is done.
Iran
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