We have all realized at this point that the Congressional Democrats aren’t listening to us. In fact we have all realized that the only voice they are listening to is that of their inner Barney Fife.
So on the one hand, it is up to us…We The People….to come together and lead the politicians and do all we can to Save The Constitution, End The War, and demand Full Investigations into all of Bushcos crimes. It will take People Power to do that, but the mass of public support we are working to generate must still be funneled through some avenue to effect real change.
Our most effective (but not only) road to doing that still lies through utilizing the only part of our government that we have a shot of affecting: The Democrats. The question is, how do we get them to pay attention?
While we are building and empowering various people powered vehicles and means and networks of opposition and resistance to the current paradigm and the parody of democracy that is our current reality, we also have to try to utilize this one avenue into the workings of the government we have. No matter how fruitless or frustrating it may be, we do know we have some effect.
We know that they read the blogs.
Jane Harman’s responses to Daily Kos proves that at least some of the Dems have their aides reading the major blogs and reporting to them on what we say….so what should we say? And how should we say it?
Obviously criticism reaches them. Should we criticize more? More loudly? More cohesively and, um, coordinatedly? Harsher? Or more reasonable?
Will praise work? Or will that just make them take us even more for granted?
Do e-mail and fax campaigns work? Should we concentrate on key Reps and Senators, or go direct to Nancy and Harry? How bout phone calls?
What other avenues can we pursue? How about the media? Would flooding a news outlet like CNN or MSNBC with e-mails asking for coverage of a certain issue…or criticizing coverage, be effective?
How about a Bloggers Union, as Patriot Daily suggested?
hat else can we do to reach out and organize the blogosphere? We know it has SOME effect, how can we increase that effect?
In perhaps related news..notlightnessofbeing has been using clever methods to get DD noticed, and the first fruits of his labor (besides a steadily growing membership) have appeared!
http://today.reuters.com/News/…
Zwoof’s essay was picked up by Reuters! So again…we are having an impact, both here and on DKos…how do we maximize that impact?
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a couple of days ago too.
To me, that is the most effective way of getting to the insiders, writing stories that link to original news sources like Reuter’s, WSJ, NYTimes, (not just the Headlines found on Yahoo). But that’s not enough your keywords must also match up with keywords in the article.
Basically we bypassed a lot of development work by getting into that particular network.
If we join too many blog networks that demand coding be placed on the home page, it will be very confusing and hard to get the site to load.
Email Campaigns work sometimes but should not be the only avenue. Phone Campaigns can be effective but should not be the only avenue. Blogging is effective but should not be the only avenue. Protesting is effective but should not be the only avenue. Pulling at every straw is the most effective way to bring it all down.
I was concerned about organizing this place more and then I realized you all are doing a very good job. When it is time to organize something we realize it and take care of it. That’s a good dynamic and I feel we have already impacted some things.
More thoughts later…gotta clean the house.
this thinking is essential… we’re here. hey, here i am…
seriously. so now, what do we do about being here?
one thing: be ready for those who think like us but aren’t at the same stage in this reality play… be ready with doable action, resources, links, and hope.
shit. shopping is boring.
there are 5000 TV channels and nothing on.
i am constantly communicating with people who are never in the same room.
i need something to do.
saving the world… the tiny space just around me… seems challenging. and getting one person to do by a million times.
okay. i’m in.
here i am: with the view from my patio of a beautiful stone house and all the snow
Getting them to listen seems to be the first step. And getting them to read this particular site seems to be an important step in getting them to listen.
ask exmearden for permission to print her essay, then signing, and sending, to friends, family, representatives and senators, the dentist, the DNC.
How to get the most basic message of messages past the blockage built against is unreal in its difficulty. The frames we are attempting to smash are often barricades of safety. Core level stuff.
Who will really listen? Who doesn’t already have a staffer with a prepared pat answer? Nancy Pelosi? John Kerry? Claire McCaskill? Howard Dean?
Who will come through the gate and not cave to the lure of money, power, fame?
Democratic Party apologists post, such as this one for example, that one of the first steps we need to take en mass, is to make it as subtle as a ball peen hammer or a club between their eyes that we are no longer listening to them… that it is them that need to listen to us, or lose their power and position.
The election system is not yet broken and corrupted so badly that it cannot be used as that club…
They need to be terrorized into doing their jobs, or marginalized out of political existence if they will not.
A tougher task than rescue work at the Crandall Canyon mine.
See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C…
I’m suspending work on the current congress, who have collapsed the mine on themselves. Turn to 2008 and electing people who will set the country right.
Some things to consider and reply to as your answers could prove to be important to the direction of the site:
1. What writing style do you prefer, what bloggers do you find yourself reading and why? Forget about issues for a second and just focus on style.
2. When you search for information on a news story how do you search? Location, Name involved in story, keywords associated with story. ex: Washington DC, Abramoff, lobbyist
Now, do you incorporate that structure when tagging your stories? If so it will make an almost instant link with the rest of the world searching for info on that story. Which means you win the opinion race.
3. Motivational Blogging – Buhdy’s style is motivational and inclusive. How would you describe your own style?
4. Inviting people to take our content and republish it, included in those packages will be little links for other webmasters to do the same, packages would include Political News, Native American News, Impeachment News, etc. etc. as is starting to be worked out on the Zine.
What special topic would you like to see covered in a news feed or script?
5. Getting into Print, which is as simple as printing off your favorite articles and leaving them around town. There is also a site that will make printable pages of your website for people to print out. It turns the pages into a magazine format instantly. I’ll see if I can find it.
We should also be writing letters to the editor in our local papers and alternative publications. Is there a publication you would like to see more progressives responding to?