August 26, 2003
Howard Dean for president
So I caught Howard Dean's speech to his supporters tonight in New York, on CSPAN2. That's it. I'm officially on board.
I've been wavering between Dean and some of the other candidates (chiefly Kerry) because I wasn't sure about Dean's electability. I'm now prepared to write that off as misguided Big Media conventional wisdom. I wanted to see evidence of my friends David Weinberger and Mitch Ratcliffe's claim that Dean will bring more people to the polls by speaking from the heart rather than the double talk of conventional politicians. Tonight, I saw it. I wish everybody can see this guy.
Things may change -- New Hampshire is still five months away -- but New Media Musings is officially endorsing Howard Dean for president and Gen. Wesley Clark for VP.
Flypaper said:
Great information on Wesley Clark's potential candidacy at Political Wire today.
jj said:
CounterPunch
August 9, 2003
Mean, Mean Howard Dean
He's Regressive, Not Progressive
By JOSH FRANK
Media pundits have been rattling their cages over Howard Dean's so-called progressive agenda, but how wrong they've been. Dean's back seat criticism of the Bush Administration's case for war should enlighten us to the fact that this ex-Vermont Governor's leadership skills are lacking. Prior to the dubious war on Iraq, Dean exclaimed he supported a multi-lateral invasion, but hardly questioned the disinformation spewed from the White House about Iraq's threat to our national security. And to top it off, Dean may well be a Zionist. His unwavering support for the Sharon regime in Israel calls into question his quest for peace in the Middle East. Dean's alignment with the pro-Sharon lobbying firm, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is a stark indicator that this Presidential hopeful's vision for the Arab world is glaringly similar to that of team Bush.
Some Democrats have even been comparing Dean to George McGovern--who back in 1972 lost the Presidential race by a landslide to incumbent Richard Nixon. McGovern was a true liberal Democrat, and many claim that his progressive policies cost him the election.
But what progressive policies could cost Dean the 2004 election? Could it be his support for the death penalty? Maybe it will be his praise of the outlandish Welfare Reform program Clinton and Gore mustered through Congress. Or perhaps it'll have to do with his recent remarks that Iraq simply needs more troops for the ongoing occupation. He sounds a lot like some prominent Republican spinsters on that one. Someone should ask Howard Dean if he remembers a little country called Vietnam.
How in the heck did he get labeled a progressive anyway? What radical changes is he proposing? His rhetoric is simplistic, and his populist mantra is reminiscent of Gore in 2000--passionate, but toothless. For example, he'll say he's for 'grassroots democracy,' but won't support campaign finance reform. He will also beat his chest over 'universal healthcare,' but he won't back any 'sweeping reforms.' How can we have universal healthcare without drastically changing our for-profit medical industry? Who is he kidding?
As for his Israel position, his own website exclaims that the United States should 'maintain its historic special relationship with the state of Israel, providing a guarantee of its long-term defense and security.' Not only has this centrist politician forgotten the Vietnam monstrosity, he blatantly ignores the thousands of Palestinians that have perished at the hands of the brutal Israeli military machine.
Dean is also a neoliberal. He states that he knows 'what it takes to generate economic growth,' and that he 'will work tirelessly to put the American economy back on the road to prosperity.' What Dean really means is that he is willing to disregard environmental safeguards and worker's rights, as long as the wheels of economic capital start churning.
No wonder then that Dean supports the expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). But you won't find much information about this in his campaign propaganda. He wants the progressive vote, so his conformist stances are blatantly spiced up in hopes his supporters will follow blindly. He calls for structural change, but being a centrist, Dean won't endorse repealing any of these repressive agreements.
In the first unofficial Democratic primary, Dean won MoveOn.Org's online poll, garnering 44% of total vote count--this coming from an activist organization. Seems that Howard Dean fooled these lefties into believing he's one of them.
So as he leads the pack of Democratic contenders, keep in mind that Dean is no progressive. He just wants your vote. And like most politicians he'll say what he needs in order to get what he wants. Supporting Civil Unions back in Vermont is one of his only plus marks, but that shouldn't entitle him to outright ownership of your vote. Don't let him fool you into thinking he's anything more than regressive. He's simply not.
JD said:
Gee whiz, looks like the Ralph Nader crowd (or whoever you're supporting) still hasn't learned its lesson yet. I suppose you'd prefer four more years of Bush. Give me a moderate Democrat over the hard-right policies of the current administration any day.
Clark bests Bush in blind-bio match-up
Interesting new national poll results out today. DraftWesleyClark.com commissioned John Zogby, one of the nation's most respected pollsters, to conduct a poll to assess the viability of a Clark candidacy. The poll included several "blind bio" questions, in which subjects polled were given biographical descriptions of the candidates, rather than just names. (Zogby used this technique in the last election, to predict the rise of John McCain well before it happened.) Key findings:
• "Clark vs. other Dems" -- Clark comes in first in a blind-bio match-up versus six key Democratic candidates (Dean, Kerry, Edwards, Lieberman, Gephardt, Edwards, and Graham);
• "Clark vs. Bush" -- Clark wins 49.4% to 40.2% in a blind-bio match-up versus President Bush among a national poll of likely voters.
For details, see here.
Students set up a storytelling site
Bruce Joy, a self-described resident mad professor in Melbourne, Australia, emails to say he discovered my article last fall on digital storytelling and that he and some university students have opened a community storytelling website called BotWot.com. (BotWot stands for "Best of times, Worst of times.")
He invites creative people to send along stories, poems, or other material. Writes Joy: "It's free and we're keen to develop this to be something more than most writing sites as it creates a fictitious tropical island known as BotWot off the Eastern coast of Australia. Castaways are welcome to take up residence!"
An RSS feed for bloggers on the campaign trail
I had meant to blog this yesterday: Dave Winer has created an RSS feed to make it easier for bloggers to cover candidates on the presidential campaign trail, right up through the New Hampshire primary in late January.
Google, the search engine that could
USA Today takes a look at Google, which celebrates its fifth anniversary Sept. 7. The search engine is expanding to embrace news and blogs, and is expected to produce up to $800 million in revenue this year. Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.
The Onion is no joke
Business 2.0 investigates how the jokemeisters at the Onion have managed to build a serious business with its combination of sardonic, topical humor and diversified media model. Thanks to a management philosophy which owes more to its cheapskate alt-weekly roots than to go-go dotcom thinking, the Onionís annual revenues are now $7 million. Subscription or registration required to access the article.
Mix, Burn & R.I.P.
Janko R–ttgers has a new book out, Mix, Burn & R.I.P.: Das Ende der Musikindustrie (The End of the Music Industry). It's available only in Germany, alas.
Dean readies ad blitz more than year ahead of election
Update: Tonight marks the end of Howard Dean's Sleepless Summer Tour. A Dean rally in New York will be broadcast live on C-SPAN2 at 10 pm Eastern, and may be rebroadcast at 11 pm on C-SPAN.
Howard Dean's campaign is getting hard to resist. From today's NY Times:
Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont whose long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination has surged to the top of several recent polls, plans to broadcast a new television commercial in six states beginning Friday and expects to raise $10.3 million during the second quarter, his campaign announced today.
Incidentally, you'll notice that I'm including very few New York Times articles in the subject archives at the right (a few may have slipped in accidentally). This one, for example, won't be listed in the Politics archive. That's because the Times' links go dark after a week.
Searching for legal news
SearchEngineWatch.com carries an article today about how to search out legal news on the Web. Featured sites include FindLaw, Law.com, Tech Law Advisor and LawMeme.
Maybe Californians arenít the wacky ones
A columnist for the Santa Cruz Sentinel looks at East Coast media and concludes: Maybe Californians arenít the wacky ones.
