I must not have a knack for collecting many small dollar donations. Yet another proof that I am not exactly a politician. I am extremely political. But I am not a politician. For one, I don't seem to enjoy hanging out with the herds of them. I am more comfortable with people emailing back, tweeting back.
Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs: a hypomanic episode..... symptoms include grandiosity, an elevated and expansive mood, racing thoughts and little need for sleep.... He can work 96 hours in a row. .... a thin line separates the temperament of a promising entrepreneur from a person who could use, as they say in psychiatry, a little help. ..... just crazy enough .... “If you’re manic, you think you’re Jesus. If you’re hypomanic, you think you are God’s gift to technology investing.” ..... Instead of recklessness, the entrepreneur loves risk. Instead of delusions, the entrepreneur imagines a product that sounds so compelling that it inspires people to bet their careers, or a lot of money, on something that doesn’t exist and may never sell. ..... Next Zuckerberg Syndrome — the urge to find another Mark Zuckerberg before he starts another Facebook. ...... He does not socialize. He no longer reads books, nor does he watch TV or movies. He works from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week. ....... Jobs is also routinely described as a despot and control freak with a terrifying temper .... He is a gifted software engineer but a terrible driver. (“I hit things,” he says.) He’s perfectly at ease negotiating with V.C.’s, but has had just one girlfriend .... “I want to build the game layer on top of the world.”
Image via WikipediaThe 2010 mid-term election is like FDR's mid-term election of 1938.
Wall Street Journal: The Carter-Obama Comparisons Grow: it's time for the president "to get rid of those teleprompters and connect" with voters. Another of Mr. Obama's clear errors has been to turn over the drafting of key legislation to the Democratic Congress: "That doesn't work even when you own Congress," he said. "You have to ride 'em." ..... Mr. Obama, like Mr. Carter in his 1976 campaign, "promised a transformational presidency, a new accommodation with religion, a new centrism, a changed tone." .... Pat Caddell, who was Mr. Carter's pollster while he was in the White House, thinks some comparisons between the two men are overblown. ..... the president's ability to pull himself out of a political tailspin is hampered by his resistance to seek out fresh thinking. ..... Democrats need no reminding that Mr. Carter wound up costing them dearly in 1978 and 1980 as Republicans made major gains in Congress.
"Walter Mondale himself sees a parallel," starts the Wall Street Journal article. Now I know who to listen to. Mr. Reagan Landslide.
Wall Street Journal: Summers to Step Down:Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appears to be the last of the top "economic principals" who came into the White House with Mr. Obama. GOP, Tea Party Unity Spells Defeat For Obama: Tea party voters have been incited to political action by the policies of the Obama administration and the Pelosi-Reid Congress. These include a heretofore unimaginable federal spending spree, a failed package of stimulus programs, a government takeover of our health-care system, and the Democrats' insistence on raising taxes, particularly on job creators, even though job creation is our country's greatest need...... Sen. Lisa Murkowski lost the GOP primary in Alaska to Joe Miller. Now she's launched a write-in campaign to get re-elected. Top Republican Cites Concerns for GOP's Senate Chances: while Republicans could seize control of the U.S. House, "the chances of a [GOP] majority in the Senate may not be that great .... Bill Clinton said the tea-party's popularity is understandable in this environment. The movement "reflects the feeling of a lot of Americans that they're getting the shaft" Primary Shows Divide Among City Democrats: Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Queens Democrat, said Ms. Saujani "built a campaign on being pro-Wall Street, and I think the problem was that's not where citizens are. Even New Yorkers understand it's in their best interests to reform Wall Street.''..... According to internal polling data from the Maloney campaign, 20% of residents in the district said the financial industry was their primary source of household income. Yet the same polling found that 75% felt the industry needed more effective regulation.
The Onion: Poll: 1 In 5 Americans Believe Obama Is A Cactus
Say No to Ahmadinejad's presence at UN General Assembly September 23
Ahmadinejad does not represent the Iranian people
September 23, 2010
September 20, 2010
Union for Advancement of Secular Democracy in Iran (UASDI) is planning protest actions against Ahmadinjed's presence at UN General Assembly.
Schedule of the Events
Actions
1. Rally @ UN: Caravans from several cities have been organized to arrive at the UN on September 23rd to protest Ahmadinejad's presence at UN General Assembly. We are calling on all freedom loving Iranians in North America as well as freedom loving Americans to join our protest of Ahmadinejad's appearance at the UN General Assembly and join us in calling for the establishment of a secular democracy and abolishment of all forms of discrimination in Iran. [1] Date: September 23, 2010
Time: 2:30-5:30 PM
Place: 47th Street and 1st Avenue
Rally media contact: Farid Ashkan 718-309-1996
2. Sept 23 Presentation of collage to United Nations asking for end to torture and execution in Iran.
When: Sept. 23 @ United Nations annual assembly
Where: 47th St and 1st Avenue
Agenda: 2:30-5:30 keynote speakers and presentation of 3,000 plus signatures from citizens of US and Canada
Who: Thousands of citizens of US and Canada rally to protest violation of human rights in Iran during Ahmadinejads visit to the U.S.
Demands from United Nations to be read aloud in front of United Nations building, as stated below
On sept. 23 thousands will gather in front of United Nations building (47th St. and First Ave.)
We call upon Secretary Gen. Ban Ki-Moon and High commissioner Navatnam Pillay to take urgent measures to protect human rights of Iranian citizens:
• To appoint special Envoy for fact finding mission on the condition of political prisoners to investigate claims of torture and cruel conditions in Iran's prisons.
• Meet with Members of Bar Association in Iran investigating their restrictions and inability to defend their clients.
• Transmitting urgent appeals and communications to the Islamic Republic of Iran to release all political detainees.
Collage media Contact:Negeene Mosaed 760-217-6001
3. Aerial Advertisement: A small airplane will carry a banner against the Islamic republic and Ahmadinejad along East River (New York City] from 5-6:30 PM on September 23rd.
Media Contact: Kourosh Parsa: 203-570-6964
4. Rally @ Hilton East Hotel: Ahmadinejad and his entourage are staying at this Hotel.
Date: September 23, 2010
Time: 7-8 PM
Place: 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue
Across Hilton East Hotel
Rally media contact: Kourosh Parsa: 203-570-6964
5. Promotion Video: While the 6 minutes promotion video is in Persian, it portrays the human rights violations in the Islamic Republic in the past 31 years. The 6 minutes video is a human rights violations indictment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrhR8lRgAlU
Video production media contact: PanteA Bahrami: 1-646-575-3690
6. Mobile Billboard: A truck will be driving through New York City downtown area on September 23rd between 9 AM-4 PM to publicize our campaign against Human rights violations in Iran. Call our media contact for truck route in New York City:
Mobile Billboard media contact: Mehrab Z. Dero 404-483-0256
7. Petition: UASDI is asking the delegates from different countries at the UN General Assembly to refuse to honor Ahmadinejad's presence at the UN by boycotting his speech to the General Assembly.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/boycotahmadinejad/
Contact: Jaleh Behrouzi 703-340-7726
8. Campaign Website: www.uasdi.com
9. Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=122700294447032&ref=mf
Union for Advancement of Secular Democracy in Iran (North America)
(The Union is composed of Iranian-American and Iranian-Canadian organizations and groups from across North America, who have a shared belief in, and advocate the principles of democracy, the separation of religion and state, and the full implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Iran.)
For more information on upcoming actions in New York City, Please call 404-483-0256
Media Contact:
404-483-0256
uasdi.action@gmail.com
I believe this has to be the next big grassroots push for the democracy movement in Iran. Urge people to shout Allah O Akbar from their rooftops every night from 10-10:30 PM. We have to do this until we hear the shout from most homes in all towns and cities across the land of Iran.
Then it will be high time to ask people to come out into the streets all over again.
But before we do that, we have a lot of political homework to do. A revolution needs a purpose. A revolution has to have a goal. A revolution needs an action plan.
The Iranian diaspora has to get organized. The global netroots/grassroots has to get organized. We need to raise money, lots of money. There are enormous logistical details involved.
Mousavi has to come around to the new goal. The goal no longer is to hold again the fraudulent elections. The goal now is regime change. This Iranian regime has to make way for a new interim government that will hold elections to a constituent assembly. That is the new goal. The Iranian diaspora has its political work cut out to rally the Iranian diaspora around that new goal. The political organizations inside Iran have to come around to this new goal.
There is no point in calling the people out into the streets before this basic political homework is done. Maybe even the shouting from the rooftops can wait a little while. Let's get down to the political work. Let's get it done.
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 spectrum
Of 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).
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.
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 rightsNGOs, 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.
