"Grassroots for Obama" -- The President wants his supporters to remain active on behalf of his administration's budgeted program initiatives, though some moderate Democrats are uneasy with them. To quote David Plouffe from the Obama website (2/27/09) on the President's budget, "Blueprint for our future:"
. . . This budget isn't just a reflection of President Obama's priorities. It's a reflection of yours.
This is the change you worked for and Americans demanded. But to make sure it succeeds, the President will need your help.
In the coming weeks, we'll be asking you to talk directly to people in your community, to build momentum and demonstrate the broad support President Obama has for this new direction.
Thank you for your continued commitment,
David
A few issues to think about -- The International Herald Tribune (2/29/09) reports that "Newly poor swell the lines at our nation's food banks." President Obama's top two science post nominees, John P. Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, are being blocked by multiple holds by anonymous (Republican?) senators, according to the Congressional Quarterly. There is very little I can do to influence my own Senator and U.S. Representative. They are die-hard Republicans, as you can see from their votes this month on the stimulus bill:
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - Vote Agreed to (60-38, 1 Not Voting)
The Senate agreed to the conference report of this stimulus bill, sending it to the President.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted NO......; Sen. John Cornyn voted NO......
Blogosphere -- Politico.com has an unusual story about US, well, not actually us, but similar to all of us who call ourselves activists. Headlined, "The call of the riled," it is a neat feature by Daniel Libit (3/2/09). It profiles the categories of e-mails from some of us unknowns: The Malcontent, The Expert, The Sleuth, and The Victim. This tidbit is from blogasm: "50% of links on Technorati Top 10 blogs lead to other blogs. Only 4% lead to newspapers" (2/22/09). A member of the Political Voices of Women Blog Community covered the Presidential Address on a Tuesday night. from FDL's Christy Smith "Bloggers as watchdogs: Liberal blogging in a Democratic administration" (2/21/09). And March is Womens History Month. To quote an e-mail I received:
In honor of Women’s History Month (March) I made a YouTube celebrating women leaders worldwide and some of the women who have run for president in the US. It’s particularly for all of the girls who may someday run for president and all of the boys who may someday vote for them, but I hope women and men will enjoy it as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXAfeiyNN6A
Organizations -- Democracy for America is seeing the return of its founder, Governor Howard Dean. Go to their website and leave a "thank you" to his for all he has done for us all over the years. The organization will celebrate its fifth birthday on March 25. Democrats.com has a way for citizens to "Tell Congress we want single payer health care" (2/16/09). The We Campaign reports that the Coen brothers' latest ad, "Air Freshener" targeting the "clean" coal industry, is becoming a big hit. The ACLU of Texas supports the Fifth Circuit suit challenging the Texas legislature's addition of the word "pray" to activities permitted during schools' mandatory moment of silence, because it is already protected in the Constitution.
Actions to take -- In another case (2/11/09) ACLU of Texas wanted help: Please contact the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Justice and request that it conduct a full investigation of RCDC, the Reeves County Detention Center.
Tools to use --
- ProPublica introduced Change Tracker: Tracking Change in Washington (2/19/09). It "watches pages on whitehouse.gov [1], recovery.gov [2] and financialstability.gov [3] so you don’t have to. When the White House adds or deletes anything—say a blog post, or executive order—ChangeTracker will let you know, if you sign up for the alerts.
- Skewz offers regular roundups of articles said to be biased. This one, about activism, is said to have a liberal bias: "DISSENTING JUSTICE: Signs of Life: Human Rights Groups Contest Pentagon Report on Guantanamo Bay."
See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.
Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.
Technorati tags: news news and politics politics activism
No comments:
Post a Comment