Tuesday, August 31, 2010

One Detail Missing In AP Article On Reshma

Rupert Murdoch - World Economic Forum Annual M...Image by World Economic Forum via Flickr
This Associated Press article has covered all the major points about Reshma Saujani except one, and that missing detail is a big one.

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

That big missing detail is the several months old internal polling numbers that the Maloney 2010 camp has been providing to the oh so eager media people that shows Maloney is at 70% and Reshma is at 7%. Those poll numbers are so old, it is like saying John Edwards won in Iowa. But those Maloney provided numbers have been recycled by mainstream media relentlessly. I wish Maloney all the false confidence in the world (Send Maloney An Absentee Ballot In DC), but I want the media people to get back to their commitment to fairness and accuracy in reporting.

I mean, what the! This article is the Associated Press engaging in yellow journalism. This article is full of lie after lie after lie. The first lie is the headline itself.

No, Maloney is not a pro Wall Street reform candidate and no, Reshma is not an anti Wall Street reform person. Maloney has no clue how Wall Street works. If you want her to take the lead on Wall Street reform, I would like to perform your next surgery. Grant me the honor. (Joke Of The Day: Carolyn Maloney) And if you think Maloney was the architect of the recently passed Wall Street reform bill, remember that guy who landed on the moon? That was me. (Credit For Credit Card Bill Goes To Barack Obama, Carolyn Maloney's Work On The Second Avenue Subway Line)

Maloney was raising money from Wall Street PACs w-h-i-l-e she was working on Wall Street reform. After the ethics committee is done with Rangel, mark my word, it is going after Maloney. (Rangel And Maloney Need To Vacate The Premises And For The Same Reasons)

Maloney sits on a personal fortune of 20 million dollars. A-l-l of that is Wall Street money. Reshma has a student loan of $100,000. If she is that person that skimmed the country of trillions like Maloney 2010 has been telling the media, why did Reshma not pay off her student loans?

Maloney has taken half a million dollars from Wall Street PACs. Reshma Saujani has not taken a dime. Let me crunch the numbers here. Give me a minute. Okay, done. My calculation says that makes Carolyn Maloney the Wall Street's candidate, not Reshma Saujani. (Barack Obama: The NRA's Candidate)

Yes, Maloney voted for the Wall Street reform bill. Of course she did. She is a checkbox Democrat. That is what checkbox Democrats do. But Reshma actually knows what is inside that bill. And she has come out saying the bill is a big step in the right direction, but it does not do enough.

Calling Reshma the Wall Street's candidate is like calling a brown person a terrorist just because he is brown. What's wrong in that picture? Intelligent people don't do that. (Wayne Barrett: Suspicious Package, Al Hagan: Capable Of A Hate Crime)

Vision? Maloney has no visions. Maloney is a nightmare. (Yes, Maloney Is A Crook) What competing visions are you even talking about?
The Associated Press: NYC House Race Boils Down To Wall Street Visions
If I were Rupert Murdoch - wait, who owns AP? - I'd fire this Beth Fouhy person like yesterday. (Tea Party Astroturfing)
Terra: Halle: The Kate Spade Shoe All the Power Ladies Want
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Send Maloney An Absentee Ballot In DC

Panoramic view across Queens, New York, taken ...Image via Wikipedia

Carolyn Maloney has been missing in inaction. (Carolyn Maloney: Missing In Inaction) She claims she has been too busy in DC "creating jobs" to bother showing up for debates. Only a few days back she told a Queens newspaper that if she did not have an opponent in the primary "I would not be here today talking to you."

She has stayed far away from her district. She has stayed far away from New York City. She has been holed up in DC like you might think a war was on and bombs were raining in on London.

I fear she has been so busy in DC "creating jobs" she might not even show up on election day, September 14. My compassion says mail her an absentee ballot right about now. She might not even show up to vote.


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Obama Needs To Ride The Reshma Insurgency Wave To November Victory

With his family by his side, Barack Obama is s...Image via Wikipedia

This year the face of change is Reshma, not Obama. And Obama needs to ride the Reshma insurgency wave all the way to victory.

Barack Obama Just Endorsed Reshma Saujani
Hillary Clinton Just Endorsed Reshma Saujani

The discontent on the ground is real. The disaffection is real. The hunger for change is even more real than it was in the 2008 season. Back then change was about changing the tone in Washington. Now change is about taking the unemployment level back to 5%. Now change is about tectonic structural changes to the economy. Now change is about explaining the huge debt and deficit. Change is about saying there is no going back, there is only going forward. Change is about saying it is a woman's time now. She is ready.

Obama needs to place his congratulatory phone call to Reshma a-t her victory party (September 14 Will Birth The New Woman) and invite her to accompany him across the country on and off for the next six weeks. (Sep 15 - Oct 31: Obama-Reshma Should Crisscross The Country)

Reshma more than anyone else in this country today is best positioned to talk the talk on how the unemployment rate in this country is to be brought down from its current 10%. And that 10% is average. Some places the figure is more like 50%.

Barack Obama: The NRA's Candidate
Reshma Saujani Is The Second Stimulus Bill This Country Needs

The tea party "insurgency" is froth. (Tea Party Astroturfing) The real insurgency this year is the Reshma Saujani insurgency. Her insurgency is about fundamental Congress reform. (Perfect Time For Congress Reform, Charlie Rangel: An Unrepentant Motherfucker)

Obama brought change to the White House. Reshma will bring change to Congress. Reshma is the real deal.

This November election is a very real contest. It is not at all obvious which side will win. It is like the Barack-Hillary tussle all over again. The Reshma insurgency wave is the wave to ride. Victory is nowhere close to guaranteed, but I believe it is possible. But the arc does not bend on its own.
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NY1, NY1, NY1, NY1, NY1



Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman and Chris Hugh...Image by TCDisrupt via FlickrThe highlight of my Reshma 2010 community conversation in Queens yesterday evening (Roosevelt Island: Community Conversation) was the news that NY1 has decided to call Maloney's bluff and is slated to give Reshma Saujani a 30 minute slot. They invited Maloney. She declined. So they have decided to give Maloney's share of time to Reshma. Now that's what I call courage. Courage on the part of NY1. This was so necessary.

For me it has not been about the first Indian American woman running for Congress thing. I have been too individualistic to bother joining the Indian American community in this country so far. So far I have followed interest groups. For me it has been about Reshma's political talent.

And now we are about to see the turning point. (We Intend To Swamp Maloney: The East Side Is Going Electric)

I give the credit for this wonderful move to Brian Lehrer. He did something really innovative. And that is how the dam burst. (Brian Lehrer's Message To TV Journalists In Town)

How am I going to watch this though? I don't own a TV. I hope they put out the whole segment on YouTube.

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Monday, August 30, 2010

Powell, Rangel, Harlem

New York Times: Powell vs. Rangel: Testy Remake After 40 Years: About 30 years ago, Representative Charles B. Rangel invited a 19-year-old summer intern named Adam Clayton Powell IV into his office at the United States Capitol for an emotional conversation: He had run a bruising primary campaign in 1970 to unseat Mr. Powell’s father, he acknowledged, ending the career of a celebrated Harlem politician....... These days, it is the younger Adam Clayton Powell who is trying to take Mr. Rangel out. And he is making no apologies. ..... relentlessly attacking the 80-year-old lawmaker ..... has called Mr. Rangel’s conduct “corrupt,” described his bid for a 21st term as “pointless” ...... After blithely ignoring his six rivals for the last year, or tersely dismissing them as unqualified, Mr. Rangel has started to take unexpected jabs at Mr. Powell ...... The attacks, however, have only raised Mr. Powell’s profile in a contest awash with personal history and deep-rooted family rivalries. Mr. Rangel has held his seat for 40 years, but the streets of Harlem still echo with the name of Mr. Powell’s father ....... his father was something of a god in Harlem ..... “Charles Rangel became part of the system. He embraces the political trade and the political games, and he rejoices in the backslapping and connections.” ...... Mr. Powell cultivated a loyal base of voters that he felt Mr. Rangel, the darling of Central and West Harlem, had overlooked: the Puerto Rican and Hispanic voters in the district’s eastern section. ...... Mr. Powell conceded that the relationship with the intern was “inappropriate” ..... “If the worst I have is a violation because somebody thinks I had one too many, I will take it,” he said of his conviction for driving while impaired. ..... The campaign has about $20,000, compared with $500,000 for Mr. Rangel ....... at 62, Joyce S. Johnson “should be planning her own retirement, not Charlie Rangel’s retirement.” ..... Powell introduced himself to three women on the sidewalk. Each urged him on. ..... “Keep it in the family,” said one of them. “It’s time for a change,” said another. “What goes around comes around”


I guess Harlem is seeing some high drama.
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Roosevelt Island: Community Conversation

Roosevelt Island Red bus #2 sits at the Roosev...Image via Wikipedia
WCAX.com: Newcomer Using Obama Political Model For NYC Race: Nine-term New York City Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney may have a real fight on her hands.... 34-year-old newcomer Reshma Saujani (RAYSH'-mah SAW'-jah-nee) ..... Saujani's trying to build a multiethnic coalition of young and new voters, much as President Obama did in his 2008 campaign.

Yesterday was yet another beautiful summer afternoon on Roosevelt Island. I am glad I left fashionably early. I was dropping by a friend's place before the event, but the dude was asleep when I showed up, the wife said, I lingered for about 15 minutes in his living room, then I left. I decided I was going to pop up on Roosevelt Island early and stroll around for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, however long before the event. But the F train took forever to show up at 14th St, and I got to the event barely on time. On the platform I met an Indian guy from one of the tech events years ago. We had been sitting on the same bench a few seats from each other half an hour before we saw each other.

Community Conversation: Upper East Side
Reshma's Lower East Side Community Conversation

The community conversation was at Trellis Diner, 549 Main Street. Someone whose home is very close to my home in Nepal - only a few villages away - lives in a fancy apartment on Roosevelt Island. I believe he got it for half a million dollars in a down market. I am a Madhesi in Nepal. He is the first Madhesi to work at the United Nations.

I organized a Madhesi picnic on the island last year right before my sister moved to Boston from NYC.

The event was well attended. The room was overflowing. During the final 15 minutes I found myself standing in the back giving my seat away to one latecomer after another.

I think Reshma has been running a post social media campaign, something I might be missing out on. I have been emphasizing creating YouTube versions of Reshma's HuffPo articles, but I have been missing out on this important detail. There was the old media style. Then came along new media. The most important innovation of Obama 08 was not that it used social media but that it got people to meet each other in person. Reshma 2010 has taken that one step further. This has not been about Reshma supporters meeting each other in person. This has been about Reshma meeting all her supporters in person. She has had close to 250 house parties. She herself has talked to thousands of voters on the phone.

She is a fighter, she said in the spirit of a refugee immigrant. And she is. She wears the cheerfulness of a fighter.

The most touching moment of the evening for me was when this black guy in a wheelchair showed up late. He is the one who got me standing. Until then I had a chair. I mean, he did have his own chair, a fancy one too. But his chair took away the space that my chair had had. He talked of how Reshma had responded to her letter, and had emailed him back personally, and had called her up. I remember talking to you on the phone, Reshma said with misty eyes.

I am voting for you, he said.

Reshma has already been providing constituency services like she were already in Congress. There are people who are calling her office because they called Maloney's office four times, five times, and no one responded.

I met one blogger - Rick - of the Roosevelt Islander. I had only visited his blog for the first time a day or two ago, and there he was. He remembered me from a comment I had left at his blog. He is a lawyer by training, and an avid blogger on the side. Being a blogger is like being a lawyer or a software programmer, I said to him. More people in America make full time incomes as bloggers than they do as lawyers or as software programmers. That is according to a Wall Street Journal article from months ago. And there was this lady sitting right next to Reshma. She made a comment about Bill Green that made me think. Hmm, looks like she read that same comment that I read at the bottom of an article online yesterday. Ends up she was the one who had left that comment.

Reshma's style is to pack her day. When she shows up for an event, and she is the punctual type, there is a clear end. There is a cutoff time. She is done talking to everyone, and now she has to leave. I noticed that same thing at the April event when I met her in person for the first time. And I noticed it yesterday.

Me, I am the lingering type. For me one event is two events. After the formal event is over, the informal event begins. I have to hang around and squeeze that last ounce of talk from some of the last people who are still there. These are perhaps people who did not talk during the formal event, or someone who talked at length and I want to make them feel like I really listened to what they had to say. So I lingered.

When I did that lingering at the Upper East Side event, the first person I talked to was this guy who had given a speech when it was his turn to ask a question. The impression he left was maybe he was that one hostile person for the day. When I met him up close instead I found a die hard Reshma fan. Someone who is overflowing with his enthusiasm for Reshma. He talked at length because he was trying to make sure Reshma was going to touch on all points in her race against Maloney.

The final community conversation is at 7:30 PM at Holiday Inn, 39-05 29th Street, N/W 39th Ave.

Subhash Chandra BoseImage via Wikipedia

The British finally said, okay, so you can have your independence, but you are going to have to give us Subhash Chandra Bose, dead or alive. Reshma gave Obama 08 its first scare, I gave Hillary 08 its last scare. Charlie Rangel, DL21C, Hillary 08 ganged up. But that was oh so long ago. We are all Obama people now. I am so looking forward to November. I want my president to defy history one more time.
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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Tea Party Astroturfing


New York Times: The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party: Rupert Murdoch.... the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans...... given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy ...... the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. .... the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president. ..... Only the fat cats change — not their methods and not their pet bugaboos (taxes, corporate regulation, organized labor, and government “handouts” to the poor, unemployed, ill and elderly). ..... The other major sponsor of the Tea Party movement is Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks ...... Under its original name, Citizens for a Sound Economy, FreedomWorks received $12 million of its own from Koch family foundations. ..... Koch-controlled foundations gave out $196 million from 1998 to 2008 ...... free promotion 24/7 from Murdoch’s Fox News, where both Beck and Palin are on the payroll. ...... Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial ...... inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda ....... the new kid on the block, Alaska’s anti-Medicaid, anti-unemployment insurance Palin protégé, Joe Miller. ...... t has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a “slush fund” ...... Do any of the Fox-watching protestors at the “ground zero mosque” know that Fox’s profits are flowing to a Obama-sympathizing Saudi billionaire in bed with Murdoch? As Jon Stewart summed it up, the protestors who want “to cut off funding to the ‘terror mosque’ ” are aiding that funding by watching Fox and enhancing bin Talal’s News Corp. holdings. ..... Franklin Roosevelt’s triumphant 1936 re-election campaign pummeled the Liberty League

The New Yorker: Covert Operations
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Total Transparency With My Iran Work

IranImage via WikipediaI am going to keep all my work transparent except in those rare cases when people I might communicate with might not want their identities revealed.

My goal is to raise $100,000 for my Iran work, and I am going to publicly state how much money I have raised at my main Iran Democracy page. So if I have raised $500, I am going to say I have raised $500. If I have raised $50K, I will say so. I want to raise the money through the netroots/grassroots.

But the key part is not the money. I need the money, so go donate. My PayPal ID is paramendra@yahoo.com. Donate $100 now! But the real action will be the political moves I will make. My style is to stay digital, stay transparent. With a transparent blog post, all interested individuals anywhere can chime in. Having to email people is not the style of a mass movement.

I intend to apply to Iran the principles I applied to Nepal. I believe those same principles can be applied everywhere where there is no democracy. The principles can be applied to Burma. But a democracy movement is a highly dynamic situation and it is imperative you mutate as the virus mutates. You have to be one step ahead of the virus to be able to win.

The basic principles have staying power, but their applications will be slightly unique to each country, to each theater of action. The thing about total transparency, all digital is every interested person will have the option to contribute to the conversation. Everyone who wants to discuss strategy can. And that is important.

When you do the work in a transparent fashion, you are much more likely to be able to go out there and collect the information you need. More than 99% of the information is going to be publicly available. But with your transparent work you build credibility and so when you have to make a phone call, or when you have to email a person or organization, you are more likely to get a response.

Your digital, transparent work gives you the digital persona that you need to be effective.

I am seeking no formal leadership position. I have no desire to launch an organization. I have no desire to join any existing organization. My ways are those of the digital ninja/commando. I necessarily have to work solo. Although I am constantly seeking page hits for my blog posts. I want to feel like I am functioning in a sea of people.

What are the principles that I seek to apply? They are quite simple actually. They read more like a plan of action.

The first step is to enter into debate and discussion with the Iranian global diaspora and all the many global netroots/grassroots organizations and online groups that have sprung up in support of the democracy movement in Iran. You want to achieve a broad agreement as to the goal of the movement.

The goal is not to request the mullahs to hold re-election. Because that was the goal the last time around, the movement crashed and burned. It failed.

The goal is to shut down the country completely until the people in power bow out and make way for an interim government that will hold elections to a constituent assembly. Those currently in power may not be part of the interim government, but they will have the option to organize political parties and contest the elections to the constituent assembly. But even that only applies to those who did not perform barbaric acts against peaceful demonstrators, either directly or through order.

All acts of atrocities are to be documented and all such perpetrators are to be brought to justice by the interim government, either at home or by carting them off to the International Court Of Justice.

Once you achieve a broad agreement on the goal of the movement, you work to build a large global organization, organizations of organizations, umbrella organizations, small and big organizations everywhere, more the merrier.

Then you work on the logistics. A mass movement is like sending an army into a country to invade it. There are numerous logistical details involved. And all those have to be thought out in advance. You need communication gear. You need digital equipment. You need medical services in place for those in need, for those injured, for those dying and dead. You want to create funds for the families of those martyred.

Then you work to build the domestic organizations. That includes all political parties that will join the interim government. The interim president has to be decided on before the movement can be launched. That person need not be in Iran right now.

Then you ask the people to come out into the streets and stay out into the streets until the goal of regime change is achieved.

That is the basic roadmap, and it can be applied everywhere, not just in Nepal, not just in Iran.

A big reason, perhaps the biggest reason why you want to keep as much work transparent as possible is to send out the message that the same work can be done everywhere else too. The global netroots/grassroots has the power to spread democracy everywhere, and it has that power now, today. The basic principles can be applied everywhere.

For the next theater of action, I don't have to the prime mover/shaker. I don't even have to be involved. People committed to the basic principles and to democracy can do it with or without someone like me.

Transparency is about crowdsourcing democracy movements. You want dictatorship after dictatorship to fall like a house of cards. It can be done.

I am in love with America's mission. America was born with a mission. That mission is a total spread of democracy. But the beauty of going the constituent assembly route is democracy does not feel like an American export. If the constituent assembly in Iran decides to declare it an Islamic republic by a two thirds vote, I will be like, so be it. I will disagree with the proclamation, and I would hope there would be a future amendment to the constitution, but I will be okay with that. It is just that I don't see a popularly elected assembly going for anything but a secular republic.

(Please donate $100 or more to my work for Iran democracy. You can send the money over PayPal to my PayPal ID paramendra@yahoo.com)
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Facebook And Iran


Go where people are already gathered. Facebook is that place online. And so here I go. I posted a link to this blog post on the walls of each of these below. Four is a good enough number to start with. That is more than 10,000 people to begin with. And I also emailed to the people running the pages/group when I could harvest them.

democracy.wins@gmail.com, SecularDem@gmail.com

In the case of the group, I sent a Facebook email to the administrator. She looks like she is not even 20 yet.

Facebook Group

Democracy In Iran: Administrator: Jamie Scott

Facebook Pages

Secular Democracy For Iran SecularDem@gmail.com
Democracy And Freedom For Iran
We Want Democracy In Iran democracy.wins@gmail.com

Once you visit the Facebook pages/group, it feels like websites are so 1996! Facebook is where the action is now. That is where you would go to meet people.

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Iran Democracy Organizations

Tehran, Iran: City Theatre. Pahlavi era archit...Image via WikipediaCalifornia Society for Democracy in Iran info@californiasdi.org
Iran: Political Organizations

Iran National Front (USA) Contact@JebheMelli.net
Iran National Front (Washington)
Iran National Front (Europe)
Iran Liberal (Sweden)
Milliun info@melliun.org
Mossadegh.org fondation@mossadegh.com
Nehzat-e Moghavemat Iran iran_resistance@hotmail.com

What My Email Says

info@californiasdi.org, Contact@JebheMelli.net, info@melliun.org, fondation@mossadegh.com, iran_resistance@hotmail.com

Hello. I can do for Iran what I did for Nepal. I need you to fund my work. For now if you can raise $2000, that is $400 per organization, that will allow me to work full time for a few weeks, and I can raise more money on my own based on that work.

My PayPal ID is paramendra@yahoo.com

Sorry I missed out the first round. Your street show was impressive, but your revolution was politically immature. If I can work full time towards it, I think we can have regime change by the end of 2011. The goal has to be an interim government that holds elections to a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution from scratch.

Insallah! (God willing) On to Azadi! (Freedom)

The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
Iran


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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Iran Feelers To The CIA And The California Society For Democracy In Iran

I sent out a feeler to the CIA through its website several weeks ago. I have not heard from them. I guess that is a cold track. Today I have sent out an email to the California Society For Democracy In Iran. I am not positive they will respond.

CIA
California Society For Democracy In Iran

When they awarded Albert Einstein the Nobel Prize, it was not for the Theory Of Relativity. It was for something much more benign called the photoelectric effect.

I have a really hard time getting people to take my butterfly effect talk seriously, even when the same also impacted a presidential election in this very country. It only works when the conditions are optimum, which is rare, but it works. And the optimum conditions can be created over time.

The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
Iran

At first I was hesitant regards to the CIA. But then I figured, what the heck. It is not like the regime in Iran is ever going to think I am on their side in the first place. Besides, what I was shooting for was open intelligence, information that is publicly available to anyone. Right now I am thinking it is a no go. I don't get to raise money, I don't get to put in the work for Iran. And that is how I end up with the tech sector. (Larry Ellison)

I have beat Bill Clinton two times so far, and I was hoping to beat him a third time. But I guess perhaps not. My calling perhaps is in the tech sector. I really like this Reshma video where she is making fun of Indians who change their names to Bobby and Nikki. But even this talk does not go far enough for me.



I am the Bobby Kennedy Hillary talked about. I am the reason why Hillary did not become Vice President although she really, really wanted to. Charlie Rangel was not sitting next to Hillary at the Democratic Convention in 2004, but he was in 2008. That did not look good, not good at all.

Iran, Iran, Iran

Iran ethnicity distribution map of 2004Image via Wikipedia

I have been meaning to put in a little more work into Iran than I have so far. Reshma 2010 has been a "distraction!" Much of what I have wanted to say, I have already said. I knocked on some doors, made some calls. I have blogged. I have gone to some events. (Reshma On CNBC)

Working on a democracy movement is a different mindset. It is more intense. The ground realities are different.

My tech blogging is blogging. But my political blogging is more digital activism. It is like transporting yourself to the various theaters of action, like in the Matrix movies.

My tech blog was really picking up traffic, and then I seemed to have switched my major focus over here to this political blog. I should go back some and ride that traffic wave. I had also started to get very many text link ads. I get enough of those and I will have become a pro blogger.

Maybe I am a startup guy after all. I had started to say politics was my baseball, not my career. It still is not. But it has taken a bunch of my time in the recent weeks. Or maybe I am a blogger dude. That would be a good thing to be while I wait for my green card. And then I would have the startup option. Things will have "thawed" more by then.

I am going to the community conversation events tomorrow and the day after, I think, perhaps, maybe. (Gandhi, Reshma And Tornadoes) After that the Google Alerts on the Reshma Saujani name will drive my tempo. I hope I get some of my own work done. Less politics, more work.

I really should look some into Iran. District 14 is not in dire straits. Iran is.

I am the butterfly effect guy. That is a very different tempo from the nitty gritty of an American political campaign.

The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
Iran
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Nikki, Bobby, Reshma



Sepia Mutiny: Interview w/ Reshma Saujani At Netroots Nation

Maloney's Fantassy: That Reshma Had Not Run

Queens Chronicle: On The Record With U.S. Rep. Maloney: Maloney said she first decided to run for Congress when her work in the New York City Council made her aware of the connection between federal money and city improvements..... “You can’t really do that much as a city. You are very dependent on the federal role for big-ticket items such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing ..... Bill Green was a powerful member of Congress, and I remember I had no money and I only had one piece of campaign literature, and my theme was: who needs a congressman who votes against the economic interests of our city? And I did one of my famous graphs that goes: Bill Green goes to Congress, aid to the city goes shhhhhhhh,” Maloney gestured with a plummeting hand. ...... Originally from North Carolina, Maloney speaks with just the hint of an accent..... Maloney even authored a book entitled: “Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Why Women’s Lives Aren’t Getting Any Easier — ..... Of her co-sponsored 9-11 healthcare bill, which would provide healthcare to all first responders, she said, “It’s the least we can do as a grateful nation.” ...... When asked who has inspired her most, Maloney said, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat who grew up in Manhattan and represented New York in the Senate was her favorite politician. “He was just a brilliant legislator, a brilliant scholar ... I could tell you Pat Moynihan stories all day.” ...... Though this is the first time in many years that Maloney has faced Democratic opposition, she said she was “rather pleased that I have an opponent, because if I didn’t have an opponent I wouldn’t be here meeting you.” She believes in the Democratic system, and if challenger Reshma Saujani hadn’t entered the race, Maloney said the Democratic Party would likely have sent her to campaign for other candidates. Besides, campaigning has “forced me to look at my record and I have sort of enjoyed it.” ...... the nation’s largest housing projects and one of the richest communities in the country ...... of all the things Maloney said, by far the most memorable was an old adage she repeated when asked about her opponent, 34-year-old Saujani.Without a hint of anger or bitterness, Maloney said, “As my father used to say, before she tells you what she’ll do, ask her what she’s done.” ..... in a year with strong anti-incumbent sentiment, Maloney is giving her campaign all she’s got, hoping voters don’t decide to give someone else a chance to try as hard as she has. ........................................................................ (Reader Comment: Carolyn Maloney ran against Green in the first election after the borders of the district were redrawn to include RI and Queens. These areas were (and are) heavily Democratic. Green failed to adjust his campaign strategy; for example, he never personally set foot on RI during the race until Election Day. .... Green actually got more votes than Maloney on the Upper East Side, but lost the race to Maloney because she carried both RI and Western Queens--the areas Green had NEVER represented. It wasn't that much of an upset, given the change in demographics that the redistricting brought about. ..... On Election Day, Green was advised that the turnout on RI was strong and that it looked as if he was going to lose to Maloney because of that. He came to the Island for the first time and BEGGED people going to vote to cast their ballots for him. He repeatedly violated the law about staying X feet from the polling place while campaigning. ..... Maloney won. She did so because the inclusion of RI and parts of Queens gave the district FAR more Democratic voters than it had had previouslly.
What has Reshma Saujani done? She scared Barack Obama six months before Hillary Clinton scared Barack Obam with her victory in New Hampshire. That is what Reshma Saujani has done.
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We Intend To Swamp Maloney: The East Side Is Going Electric

I think we are doing 50-50 right now. I can feel it. I can smell it. It is in the air.

Some time around the radio debate on September 7, and possibly even earlier if the TV journalists in this town can prove they are entrepreneurial, the East Side is going electric. (Brian Lehrer's Message To TV Journalists In Town) The new women on the East Side are going to come out full force for The New Woman. And that is how we are going to swamp Maloney.

The techies and the brownies - my name for Indians - are going to pad the victory margin, but they are not going to be the reason Reshma wins on September 14.

The New Woman's victory is going to come from the new women on the East Side.

Mark my word, the East Side is going electric.

September 14 Will Birth The New Woman


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A President Is Like A Political Billionaire

Extrapolations
Extrapolations To Reshma 2016
Larry Ellison


There are about 50 or so billionaires just in this city, although I know the name of only one of them. (Independent For Bloomberg) But there have been less than 50 individuals who have gone on to become President Of The United States. Becoming president is a big deal. Such a political office has never existed before. The office is at once utmost powerful, and benign. Jimmy Carter looks so harmless hammering nails into Habitat houses.

Becoming president is a bigger deal than becoming a billionaire. And I talk in money terms because people on average understand money better than they understand power. I know power like Bill Gates knows software. But I have to use the money metaphor. I am being nice.

To become president is like becoming a top billionaire. But to become a president like Lincoln is to possibly even become a trillionaire. The world of business has never seen a trillionaire. The world of politics has seen a few trillionaires. Gandhi and Lincoln might be the only two so far.

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