http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2010/02/25/couwels.florida.gerrymandering.cnn
CNN Report on Fair Districts Florida, Featuring Ron Klein
February 27th, 2010 by David F. Carr
Return of the Public Option?
February 21st, 2010 by David F. CarrHere is hope for all of us who have been finding it hard to get excited about rallying around compromised-to-death health care reform efforts.
The Hill: Public option revival gains steam
Daily Kos: Specter Signs on to Public Option/Reconciliation Push
Politico: Reid would back a public option in reconciliation
Not sure I believe it yet, but glad to see an effort to get something real done.
What do you think? Comeback story, or last gasp?
Workshop: “Is the Web Working for You?” with BlueBroward.org’s David F. Carr, Weds. Feb. 24
February 20th, 2010 by David F. CarrI invite you to join me for this free workshop I will be presenting through the Coral Springs Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, February 24 at 3:30 p.m.
I’ve given a slightly different version of this talk to some political audiences, but really the principles are the same for a campaign as they are for a business. You need to think carefully about how to present the right impression online, through your website, Facebook profile, and email broadcasts. I draw on both my personal experience as a webmaster and consultant, as well as my reporting for Internet World, Baseline Magazine, and most recently Forbes.com.
Update: Will also share some great tips I picked up at this week’s WordCamp Miami conference for WordPress enthusiasts. I’m a fan of WordPress as a content publishing tool that can be part of an affordable, effective solution for small businesses, non-profits, and political campaigns.
RSVP through the chamber, 954-752-4242 or rsvp@cschamber.com
Fair Districts Florida Redistricting Amendment OK’ed for Ballot
January 22nd, 2010 by David F. CarrCongratulations to everyone who worked to make this happen by gathering signatures. Now, we just have to make sure it passes.
From: Ellen Freidin <Ellen@fairdistrictsflorida.org>
Date: Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 4:20 PM
Subject: We are on the ballot!
To: david@bluebroward.org
Phenomenal news! I want you to know before it becomes public that we just received notice from the Division of Elections that, thanks to the hard work and donations of thousands of people who care about our state, our amendments will be on the ballot!!! This is a huge accomplishment and it would not have happened without you!
We cannot thank you enough. Below is the press release we’ll be sending out.
Our work is not over though. Now we must let all Floridians know about the importance of voting for the FairDistricts amendments. We’ll be laying out our plan for victory for our supporters soon, but first we need to staff up and transition from petition gathering to a full-fledged campaign.
Can you chip in whatever you can afford to help fund the transition?
Let’s win this!
Ellen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2010
Redistricting amendments on the ballot: Florida voters earn historic chance to vote to stop politicians from rigging districts
After November passage voters will choose elected officials – not the other way around
Tallahassee, FL – Today, Floridians took a giant step towards ending the incumbent and political party protection plan that masquerades as legislative and Congressional redistricting. The non-partisan group FairDistrictsFlorida.org gathered more than 1,650,000 petitions signed by Florida Republicans, Democrats and Independents from the Panhandle to the Keys. As a result, today the Secretary of State certified Constitutional Amendment 5 for the November 2, 2010 ballot, and is expected to soon certify its partner, Amendment 6. Florida voters now have a powerful opportunity to stop legislators from rigging and manipulating district boundaries in order to stifle competition while perpetuating their own political power.
“These critical reforms will finally end the legalized conflict of interest that allows legislators to design their districts and those of Congress for their own political purposes,” said Bob Milligan, who was elected State Comptroller during the Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush administrations.
Under our present system, there are no rules that limit legislators from drawing districts to favor themselves or their parties. Districts in Florida are bizarrely shaped, often meandering for hundreds of miles or from coast to coast. Communities are carved up so that voters living in the same neighborhood are often represented by different members of Congress or state representatives.
As a result, incumbent legislators almost never lose their re-election bids. Only three (out of 140 up for election each cycle) were defeated in the last six years. How could this happen? Because legislators draw up their own districts for one purpose: to ensure that they stay in office!
Former Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham said, “Florida’s legislators are choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives. There are presently no rules to stop this self protection plan. And when this happens, the voters don’t have a real choice! These amendments will change that.”
With voter approval in November, Amendments 5 and 6 will establish constitutional rules that will:
- Prohibit politicians from designing districts to favor themselves or their parties;
- Require them to make the districts compact and community based; and
- Make it impossible for legislators to draw districts to diminish the ability of minority voters to elect representatives.
“I am so happy that the voters of Florida will finally have the opportunity to vote to put these fairness standards in the Florida constitution. These amendments provide new protections for all voters and especially minorities,” added Representative Perry Thurston of Broward County.
State Representative Darren Soto, Orange County, said, “Today’s certification bodes well for achieving fair districts in the state of Florida. I think that these new protections will be very popular with my constituents as well as all of the voters of our great state.”
For additional information and the exact language of Amendments 5 and 6, please visit www.FairDistrictsFlorida.org.
###
pd.pol.adv. Paid for by FairDistrictsFlorida.org, 2665 South Bayshore Drive, Suite M-103, Miami, FL 33133
Contributions to FairDistrictsFlorida.org are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal tax purposes.
Contributions to FairDistrictsFlorida.org are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal tax purposes.
The CAPITOL STEPS at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Jan 20-24
January 12th, 2010 by David F. CarrI think we all need a laugh at the expense of our politicians about now.
Come see the CAPITOL STEPS at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets available now at http://www.browardcenter.org/capitolsteps
| Date(s): |
Wednesday, 1/20/2010 - Sunday, 1/24/2010 |
| Tickets: | $35, $25 |
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop warns, "The Capitol Steps will cause your sides to split!"
Don’t miss the insightful, irreverent and always amusing humor of Capitol Steps, the talented band of former Senate staffers who satirize the people and places that employed them. Known for their hilarious musical skits of Capitol Hill personalities and current events, their 27 albums and sold out shows keep audiences on both sides of the aisles laughing out loud. They put the MOCK in democracy, and are even funnier than Congress! You’ve seen and heard them on NPR, NBC, PBS, and ABC. Now see them live!
Oh, the things you can do with Kendrick Meek
January 2nd, 2010 by David F. Carr(Reposting from Philip Busey <philip@busey.org> and Grassroots Patriots)
To paraphrase Dr. Seuss . . . Oh, the things you can do with Kendrick Meek as U.S. Senator! Oh, the things President Obama can do with one more solid Democratic Senate vote!
Let’s begin the New Decade doing everything we can for Congressman Meek to win the U.S. Senate. Let us help him get the petitions to be the first person in the history of Florida to qualify by petition. Kendrick will be top of the ticket on every ballot in the State of Florida. Every Democrat running in every election in Florida will need Kendrick to win too. And for Kendrick Meek to win the Senate big. We can do it.
To jump start the New Decade a number of us, including Alan Ehrlich, David Carr, GRASSROOTS PATRIOTS, and the Kendrick Meek organizers, such as Kate Nowak 718-715-6437,kate@kendrickmeek.com and Samantha Shalda 708-638-6836 are planning a neighborhood petition canvass. Please mark your calendar to join us:
Saturday, January 9, 2009, 9:30 am (walk at 10:00 am)
African-American Research Library
2650 Sistrunk Blvd. (NW 6th Street)
Fort Lauderdale, FL
The nail-biting, white-knuckle health care debate in the U.S. Senate is over. But close votes are scary. Compromises are made. We are not yet getting everything we need. Because of the nonexistent margin in the U.S. Senate, reconciliation will force the U.S. House of Representatives to go along with just about everything in the Senate plan.
A Democratic margin in future Senate votes is one reason we need Kendrick Meek in the U.S. Senate. The other reason is he’s a great guy!
Also, please donate to Kendrick Meek’s campaign:
Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!
Phil, 954-579-3932
Registration Opens for Coral Springs Jobs Now! Career Expo
January 2nd, 2010 by David F. Carr
Saturday, January 30th
Registration is now open for this job fair and career expo. Please be sure to share this link with everyone you know in our area who is looking for a job (or a better job) as well as with any employers you know who would be interested in participating.
Visit Marleine Bastien for U.S. Congress on Facebook
December 21st, 2009 by David F. Carr
Campaigns Need to Protect Their Online Identity
December 19th, 2009 by David F. CarrI’m cross posting this from my carrcommunications.com blog because I’ve now run across the problem of campaigns failing to control their own Internet domains several times. Your domain is an important asset that you need to protect for the success of your campaign and (hopefully) future reelection campaigns.
The Danger of Losing Control of Your Internet Domain
One thing that many small businesses, nonprofits, and political campaigns I have dealt with fail to pay attention to is ensuring that they have direct control over the Internet domain associated with their website and email accounts. Often, the domain is registered by a web consultant in the name of the consultant or consulting firm. Or sometimes, with nonprofits, it’s a volunteer who handles the registration and who winds up with the domain in his or her name. Unfortunately, this can cause the organization that rightfully should own that domain a lot of grief if the intermediary turns out to be unreliable, incompetent, dishonest, or just unreachable at a critical moment.
This is where your website and business email both go dead one day, seemingly without warning, because you never got the notices that your registration was about to expire. Or, you hire someone else to revamp your website, only to discover that you can’t “turn on” the new and improved version because you don’t have the necessary password and aren’t recognized by the domain registrar as having the right to access the account.
Your Internet identity is an important corporate asset for you to protect. Failing to do so is the kind of mistake that seems obvious in retrospect but is easily overlooked by an organization focused on getting up and running on the web. (more…)
Read on for more about how to avoid problems with your domain registration.
This is only one aspect of a campaign’s online identity, of course. You also need to protect your website, pages on Facebook and similar sites, and your email account, so that no one who is not you (or an authorized proxy) gets to put out messages that look like they’re coming from you. Think offensive messages, swastikas on the home page. Even after you explain that your site was hacked and it wasn’t really you, you still wind up looking foolish.
Among other things, this means you need to use serious, hard-to-guess passwords for your campaign accounts. Why would you, as a candidate, not consider the possibility of someone hacking your site as a political dirty trick? Even if your opponent wouldn’t stoop that low, you could be the victim of a rogue volunteer who is able to log into your website or your Facebook page or your email account because you used an obvious password like “grassroots” or the name of your first born child. Even outside of the political context, I see evidence of people trying to hack my websites all the time. Bored high school kids download automated hacking tools off the web and set them to probing Internet sites at random, breaking in just for the hell of it wherever they find weakness. So this is an area where it pays to be paranoid because they really are out to get you.
A good password might be based on a word or sentence with some personal significance, to help you remember it, but you need to encode it or obscure it somehow. A couple of suggestions, as outlined in this article on the Microsoft web site, are to take the first letter of each word in a sentence you’ve memorized, so that “My son Aiden is three years old” becomes “msaityo” and to complicate your password by combining upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation characters for something like “M$8ni3y0.”
You have to balance the need for security against what you can realistically memorize. Just don’t make it so obvious that your accounts can be cracked by anyone who has seen you talk and can try plugging a few of your favorite words and phrases into that password blank.
Marleine Bastien for U.S. Congress
December 12th, 2009 by David F. CarrI’m writing to introduce you to Marleine Bastien, who is running for the U.S. House District 17 seat Kendrick Meek is giving up to run for Senate. Though the district is mostly in Miami-Dade, it extends into southern Broward cities such as Hollywood and Hallandale.
I am in this race as a web consultant to the campaign and am just getting to know Marleine, but for years she has been a leader of the Haitian-American community and as a progressive activist. I attended a campaign organizing meeting last week and came away very impressed by the passion of her supporters and how much they believe in her candidacy, even knowing that this is going to be a tough and very competitive race. Her friend Jack Lieberman praised her as someone who has always been there for her community at critical times when her competitors were not.
As I say, she has some very passionate supporters, but she will also need to mobilize voters at the grassroots level to compete against better financed rivals. And of course it would also help if some money would flow her way, even if in the form of small donations.
If you would like to help, please consider donating, signing up for her email list or as a volunteer at votebastien.com, and becoming a “fan” on her Facebook page.
For the record, BlueBroward.org as an institution does not take sides in primary contests between Democrats, and Marleine’s competitors and their supporters are welcome to post entries on this blog, events to the calendar, and so on. This website is as much of an equal opportunity tool for Democrats as I know how to make it.
Still, I’m excited to be part of this campaign. The message below is from an appeal to supporters that went out this week.
From the Desk of Marleine Bastien
My Dear Friends:
After spending the last 28 years organizing and championing issues related to affordable housing, education, employment, women’s rights, and health access, and immigration, I decided to run for U.S. Congress, District 17. Throughout the years, I’ve successfully combined strong advocacy and services to serve families and give them a voice. I developed a team of workers and provided quality services to thousands of families in the district.
Now, I’m ready to continue my services on your behalf in a much larger scale. My life has been one of service. My parents taught me to care for others and give back. I’ve been deeply engaged in the district. I know the challenges facing our constituents today.
I know that you are tired with more of the same. You need fresh ideas, new vision, and new leadership. I’m ready for the challenge.
I want to make sure that government works for you and not for the rich corporations. You deserve to have stable, gainful employment to take care of your family, send your children to college and save for your golden retirement years. Your children deserve the best education so that they can look at the future with hopeful eyes and trusted hearts and not with the dread of a bankrupt, debt ridden, and fearful nation.
I’m entering the race to change the way business is done in Washington. My priorities are to:
* Look for ways to cut government waste that bails out those who wronged us
* End wars with countries that do not threaten us
* Develop training, create new green jobs, foster economic development
* Spearhead the passage of healthcare reform
* Invest in small businesses, quality education and affordable housing
* Create comprehensive immigration reform, including passage of the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) and Temporary Protected Status for Haitians
* Stomp the foreclosure debacle once and for all to help save your American dream
I will put you and your family first, always.
I understand that these are difficult times economically, socially, and politically. However, we need to look to the future and invest now so that our communities will become better later. Please consider making a personal contribution of a minimum of $20 and a maximum of $2400 to support my campaign.
Go to www.votebastien.com to make your donation today or mail your personal check to: P.O. Box 381255 Miami, Florida 33238. Organize a group of friends and encourage them to do the same and so forth. Please call (305)785-3814 to volunteer or organize for “Bastien For Congress”.
Sincerely,
Marleine Bastien
Please contribute to Marlene Bastien for Congress. We need your help in being able to spread our message to voters throughout the 17th Congressional District.
|
or
|
Contributions or gifts to Bastien for Congress are not deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax purposes. Federal election law requires political committees to use best efforts to report the name, mailing address, occupation, and name of employer of individuals whose contributions exceed $200 during an election cycle. An individual may not contribute more than a total of $2400 per election to the committee. Federal law prohibits contributions to the committee from the general treasury funds of a corporation, labor organizations or national banks (including corporate or other business entity credit cards), from any person contributing another’s funds, from a Federal government contractor, or from a foreign national who lacks permanent resident status.