Don Powell, President Bush’s Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, gave a fairly uninspiring address. Hardly surprising, given he is an employee of the Bush Administration, but in sharp contrast to the tone of the day so far. Continue reading ‘LiveBlogging: Donald Powell’s Address to Senator Landrieu’s LA Hope & Recovery Summit’
Archive for the 'american politics' Category
Gov. Huckabee was as lively and humorous as ever, focusing on the strong connection between Arkansas and Louisiana and what Arkansas did under his leadership to help the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Continue reading ‘LiveBlogging: Governor Huckabee at Senator Landrieu’s LA Hope & Recovery Summit (Cont.)’
It may be sickeningly corny, but John Georges’ campaign hit it right on the money with this ad. Very nicely put together. You can see where some of that $5.5m is going.
Georges stated early on (Maverick GOP businessman John Georges Running for Governor) he would run a strong internet campaign in the early stages, in a bid to claim a last minute victory.
Georges, and rival Republican Bobby Jindal, have been the most active on YouTube (although they are still only posting rehashed tv ads). Democrats Walter Boasso and Foster Campbell do not yet appear to have set up YouTube channels. This is an intriguing inverse of the national trend, where Democrats have on the whole been the earlier adopters of YouTube.
I was browsing Bobby Jindal’s website this afternoon and thought I’d check out his blog. I’m always intrigued by how political candidates use campaign blogs. They can be the most banal things, but when done right can also be very informative.
The latest entry is this:
Anyone who’s signed up for Jindal’s email updates knows that he’s on, what he calls, his Fresh Start Tour. Although a little odd for a blog entry, I assumed this was an interactive map and therefore excusable as a blog entry. At least I could follow Jindal on the campaign trail. How wrong I was!
I clicked on the map and it took me to the jpeg, no explanation of where Jindal had been and why, no photos, no videos, no nothing. If you don’t believe me you can check out Jindal’s blog yourself. This is surprising considering the rest of the site is awash with news and video of Jindal’s Fresh Start Tour. The campaign has even gone so far as to post an extensive array of photos from the tour on Flickr.
What was even more shocking was that Jindal’s campaign team have posted one of these map images each day for, wait for it, the last 10 days since the tour started! There are no written posts in between despite a number of posts, supposedly from Jindal himself, in July and June.
The maps, the photos and the videos are well and good, but with some simple adjustments Jindal’s campaign team could have made them much more meaningful by combining them as a whole in an interactive map. Regular readers will know I am a huge fan of interactive maps as visual means of telling a political story. Instead, they are left with a disparate array of potentially useful tools failing to achieve their maximum impact.
In light of Google’s announcement yesterday of Really, No Seriously, Easy Google Maps, this is a pretty heinous error. Especially as a quick search reveals there are already various free tools out there for embedding Google My Maps into blogs and websites, such as that provided by Daniel Rubin and Ongopongo. Jindal’s campaign team is not exactly short of money either.
For someone like myself, a political consultant who specializes in utilizing the Internet for political campaigning, this is all very disheartening. No doubt, some wise guy will use Jindal’s substandard online operation as evidence that blogs, photos via Flickr and videos are ineffective political campaign tools. I hope this post goes some small way to explaining why that wise guy is wrong.
Some labor advocates say the blogosphere deserves entry into organized labor, as e-writers increasingly face the same workforce issues as freelance writers in the print world.
Jonathan Tasini, executive director of the Labor Research Association and a former president of the National Writers Union, said on Monday that bloggers “could in fact” join the writers union.” (hattip Beltway Blogroll)
National Journal’s chief blog advocate/correspondent, Danny Glover, has the full story over at Beltway Blogroll.
I’d love to hear the British media establishment’s reaction if British bloggers ever made such a move? I suspect it would be somewhat less charitable!
I am no fan of labor unions, but it does demonstrate how much more mature the American blogosphere is compared to its British brethren.
If like me you’ve never been to Iowa, let alone witnessed the Ames Straw Poll, you’ll really enjoy watching YouTube evangelist, entrepreneur and aspiring journalist, James Kotecki’s coverage of this unique event.
Working as a freelance journalist for the inside-the-beltway paper, Politico.com, James brings his own individual style of political punditry to Iowa, providing behind the scenes coverage, interviews with several candidates and analysis from the Politico’s Chief Political Correspondent, Roger Simon, and Republican Blogger/Reporter, Jonathan Martin.
James’ irreverent coverage is refreshing and provides an excellent insight into what goes into winning the straw poll. I still can’t quite believe so many people travel from across Iowa to vote (yes, I know the candidates bus many voters in, although apparently Gov. Mike Huckabee didn’t), a sure sign of the strength of democracy in the US.
Here’s a taster for you from when James first arrived at the Iowa State Fair:
To see the full series of videos visit JamesKotecki.com. They start on August 10th.
Great work James!
Crossposted at the IPDI Blog.
Congressman George Miller (CA-7) is once again proving himself to be one of the leaders in online innovation up on Capitol Hill. He began the 110th Congress with a press conference in the virtual world Second Life and now he has his own Facebook app - Miller TV.
Building on the idea behind Congressman Jack Kingston’s (GA-1) ConstituentTube Miller TV allows Facebook users to add a video feed from Congressman Miller directly to their profile.
In his first video Congressman Miller asks viewers to send him questions about the Iraq War using online tools such as video, blogs, a Facebook group titled ‘Ask George’ and email. By asking respondents to tag their videos and blog entries with the phrase ‘askgeorge’ (all one word) Congressman Miller’s office can easily find and track the questions.
The crucial difference between Miller TV and ConstituentTube is the enormous extra power provided by Facebook. Instead of disappearing after one blog post Miller TV will be permanently etched on the profiles of many Facebook users for months, possibly even years to come. Good Facebook apps become part of a users everyday routine, which is what makes Miller TV potentially so fantastic.
It will be interesting to see what video Congressman Miller decides to post next. Will it be a compilation of the video questions sent in? How will he account for all the questions sent in via email, blogs and his Facebook group? We will be watching. Check back here for further updates.
How long will it be until we see a political version of the celebrity tracker website, Gawker Stalker? Although celebrities consider such sites an invasion of privacy, could they be beneficial in politics?
The lives of congressional members are already mapped out in minute detail. One of Senator Jon Tester’s (D-MT) first acts on arriving in Washington was to publish his schedule online. It’s not a great leap from publishing written daily schedules to publishing daily schedules on maps. The advent of Google My Maps makes this easier than ever for congressional staff.
Some congressional members would no doubt be squeamish about revealing so much publicly, but many others would welcome the opportunity. It is possible to imagine a group such as the Open House Project taking up this cause and publishing the map on their website. Those congressional members who initially refuse to take part will ultimately be forced to in order to remove the air of suspicion hanging over them.
Could this be the best method of restoring accountability in Washington?
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) took matters, and literally the camera, into his own hands yesterday when he announced he would produce the first video “of a committee hearing from the chairman’s perspective.” Markey, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, made the announcement before a startled audience at the beginning of yesterday’s hearing, titled Digital Future of the United States: Part V, The Future of Video, featuring YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.
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