Lone Star Democracy Builders Association

The summer has been busy for the Texas Progressive Political Blog Directory, which really needs a shorter name! First a full housecleaning of the old list. Then updates from Vince at Capitol Annex, who had prepared a handout for the Convention in June, plus updates on candidates' blogs, quite a few citizen blogs, and of course the Burkablog. Even the Mark Strama Campaign Academy has a blog. My poor typing fingers didn't know what I had signed them up for!

I enjoy seeing how many organizations - both formal and informal - are starting to use blogs to communicate. Check out our list of progressive organization blogs, especially the Texas NOW Blog (yeah, I helped build it, but that doesn't mean it's not awesome), the ACLU's Liberty Blog, and the Latinos for Texas Blog.

Near and dear to my heart are two new websites, one with blog and one without.

TrueBlueAction.com has a TrueBlueAction blog. In its own words:

TrueBlueAction.com is the website of True Blue Action PAC, a Texas General Purpose political action committee. This PAC is dedicated to building and making accessible tools for activists and candidates and campaigns. The PAC's mission is to fund and maintain the development of tools and the data needed for them to be functional.

At the bottom of the front page are survey forms so you can send in ideas for new tools and any existing tools you've found helpful. If you have any input, fill out those forms or comment on the blog.

The newly launched TrueBlueTravis site is the home of the coordinated campaign. I am quite impressed. It's easy to see what they do and how you can help. GlennM always wants to see what organizations are doing with his donations. Here we can also see the power of our time:

If you were to learn that the voters at 4455 Democrat Blvd always vote a straight Democratic ballot, or that the folks at 6666 Republican Street always vote a straight Republican ballot, our candidates would be saving on average $10 for that household’s mail and phone calls. Every household you ID saves us money and is like making a $10 donation to our candidates. Ten ID’s and you’ve “donated” $100 in savings. A hundred ID’s and you’ve “saved” $1000.

So go help!

Posted by Skye at 8:07 PM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink | Comments (1)

Smack me with a stick. In an e-mail from David Holmes today, he mentioned that the updated TX Democratic Party website had a link to the Dem Grassroots Manual. Lo and behold, it's there!

Kudos to all the folks that put this together. While it may be old-news to die-hard politicos, it sure would have helped me get my feet on the ground when I was starting out as a volunteer a couple of years ago. The glossary by itself is priceless. For new folks winding up at jargon-packed events, it'll be a big help. For mid-timers, I finally learned the difference between Blue Dog Democrats and Yellow Dog Democrats. It also lists the structure of the party, how to get involved, simple things you can do as a grassroots activist, shows sample phone scripts, gives checklists for events, etc. Awesome!

Suggestions for improvement: update the "What has the Democratic Party done for you lately?" section to list successes from recent TX democrats (state and local). And do a jargon-scrub -- things like the "Davis Bacon Act" aren't exactly household terms.

Enough with the whining. I'm very happy the materials are finally online.

Posted by GlennM at 5:31 PM in Our Infrastructure & Texas Organizations | Permalink

SXSW has just put online one of their 2006 Interactive sessions called "The League of Technical Voters", featuring local State Representative Mark Strama on the panel. This session focuses on a new non-profit group that motivates and assists techies to work in politics. That sounds like this group on its better days.

You can download the session in MP3 format and listen at your leisure. More information on the SXSW podcasts is at http://2006.sxsw.com/coverage/podcasts/.

Posted by Ben at 1:33 PM in Austin & How To Communicate & Inspiration & Our Infrastructure | Permalink

The Texas Democratic Party is organized as a hierarchy of county groups which are composed of individual precincts. One of my bits of homework from our recent DemBuilders face-to-face meeting was to find out in what precinct I live, determine who was the precinct chair, and get in touch with that person to find out what I can do to help.

Here in Travis County, you can find out your precinct by looking up your voter registration records online. When I did that, I found that I'm in precinct 259. The Travis County Democratic Party has a PDF file posted on their site that lets you look up the different chairs. In my case, my chair is Reuben Leslie, Jr.

In my case, I then found something very surprising. I did a Google search and I found that my chair has built a precinct 259 website.. This has information about the precinct and the Texas Democratic party, along with specific calls to participate and act. I love it!

I still need to email Reuben and see how I can help, but I'm really glad that rather than being frustrated that nothing was happening, I was able to find a local resource for democracy right in my backyard.

Posted by Ben at 5:10 PM in Austin & Our Infrastructure | Permalink | Comments (1)

Neil the Ethical Werewolf in a post on Ezra Klein's blog:

Suppose you had the money and power to start three small liberal organizations -- 527 groups, think tanks, PACs, ninja strike teams, or whatever. What would they be?

The commenters suggested, among other things, building a dorm for progressive interns in Washington, funding a group to help Democrats work (or attack) the media, and investigating electronic voting machines.

I'm not a big fan of starting more organizations. I think we have plenty of them lying around. But I'm going to play the game for a few minutes.

First, I would start a group devoted to developing progressive strategies for reaching people who don't care about or enjoy politics. I'm one of those people, so perhaps this is a bit self-serving. But I think many people who are overwhelmed or alienated by the ugliness of politics could be allies in public problem-solving if approached correctly.

Second, I would cheat and throw some money at the Public Works project at the Demos Center for the Public Sector:

Public Works is undertaking a deliberate campaign, grounded in the states, to build a vision of governance for the contemporary context that can restore respect for public service, trust in government's protective capacities, and belief in the efficacy of government intervention on behalf of the public good.

I don't believe that there was ever a time in American history when everyone trusted the government and paid taxes willingly, but I do believe our nation's vision of government could use some work. We won't have high enough expectations of it if we don't believe it can achieve great things. My funding for Demos would include one condition: stop using the word "efficacy".

Third, I would fund an organization to work in coalition with groups across the country that organize in low-income neighborhoods. Its goal would be to generate voter turnout that leads to victories for progressive candidates in local elections - then help communities hold those elected officials accountable. Shakespeare's Sister made the point recently, also in a post on Ezra Klein's blog, that the median income of the electorate is much higher than that of the country:

It’s easy to dismiss this line of reasoning with the old “there’s obviously a difference between the Democrats and the Republicans” line, as if that ought to be enough, and for many of us, that difference is apparent. But I have worked with the truly indigent - not the working poor, but families who have been homeless (or are homeless), or have languished generation after generation in the projects - and the differences we may see between the Democrats and the Republicans do not help them. Neither party effectively addresses their needs. They didn’t “do better” under Clinton than Bush.

If we want lower-income people to be engaged, we have to deliver on our promises. And quite honestly, if we want to live up to our progressive values, we'd better care about what happens to people in these communities and be willing to fund leadership development there. Local is the easiest place to see success, and a success story in one community can be used as a teaching tool in the next community.

Posted by Skye at 8:31 PM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink

What are think tanks? Who pays for them? So asks NPR's MarketPlace.

Under The Influence: Think Tanks and The Money That Fuels Them

A Marketplace Special Report with support from the Economist Magazine

Think tanks have become a growth industry. A handful existed a few decades ago. Now there are hundreds of these non-profit institutions. The marriage of multi-millions in private money and once-unorthodox ideas packs a powerful punch. President Bush has adopted domestic policies nurtured in think tanks from private social security accounts to fundamental tax reform. Marketplace explores what donors believe they get for their money, how ideas are bankrolled and promoted, and the thin line between think tank educational efforts and outright lobbying, as well as new efforts to reform the system.

You can listen to this series online, or hear extended interviews with some of the sources in those stories.

Posted by Shane at 2:02 AM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink

I am aware that blogs are not part of daily life for the vast majority of Americans. I do not believe that the development of blogs represents a huge leap forward for human evolution, or that mainstream media will be replaced by blogs.

However, I'm fascinated by the ease with which individuals can now create websites and end up with strangers reading them. People who would have previously been talking to their friends in bars about what the Democratic Party or the President or Wal-Mart should do can now percolate those ideas much further - with luck and a bit of self-promotion. How does this change political discourse?

The writers on this blog and a few other folks (who haven't yet started blogging...) started a small study group after the election to figure out what to DO to fix the mess this country's gotten into. I've been around nonprofits long enough to see a wide variety of effectiveness, and I wanted to make sure that any effort I put in was going to an organization or a project that had a chance of succeeding.

So when I started thinking that we could make a directory of political blogs in Texas, I wanted to make sure that there was a reason for it. Why would a project such as a political blog directory be a useful thing? Is it just because I like making lists?

Continue reading "The Role of Blogs in Politics" »

Posted by Skye at 2:23 PM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rockridge Institute

Lakoff's on the list of folks involved.

Posted by GlennM at 7:56 AM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink

Looks like the Dem website has undergone a major redesign. And it looks like Dean's already putting his stamp on it. For good, in my opinion.

It even has a blog, although open comments can sometimes not be a good thing.

Posted by GlennM at 10:41 PM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink

List of think tanks, conservative, progressive, libertarian, and non-partisan.

Includes liberal Twentieth Century Fund.

And the think tank sponsored by the DLC.

Under "Liberal Think Tanks" at the top, the link is stale. Here's a full list (long!) of the member organizations.

Posted by GlennM at 8:31 PM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink

Here's the current dump of active Texas political blogs that I'm following. I've got a few more in my list, but many haven't been updated in a while. Feel free to make suggestions for other ones to follow, especially blogs with differing views.

• alandwilliams.com - blogging out loud
• Burnt Orange Report
• Instant Runoff Austin
• Lasso
• Off the Kuff
• Redneck Mother
• Rick Perry vs the World
• StoutDemBlog
• Texas Law Blog

Posted by Ben at 1:20 AM in Our Infrastructure | Permalink