Sunday, February 15, 2004

2004 Presidential Election The John Kerry machine rolls on taking the Nevada and District of Columbia caucuses yesterday. Thanks to Taegan Goddard for the news and links. It looks like the Dean campaign is coming to an end according to Taegan Goddard. If it's so I want to say that I'll miss them. Hopefully Dean supporters will go on. What a breath of fresh air they are in Presidential politics. Juan Cole analyzes the issue of military service for both President Bush and John Kerry. Says Cole, "So it is all right if Bush wants to debate Kerry on social issues like who gets how many tax cuts. But I'd advise Bush to drop the Vietnam issue with regard to Kerry on similar grounds. Bush never fought in a war. We don't know how he would do on a real battlefield. He may or may not have been as distinguished a warrior as Kerry. For all we know, the experience of seeing his buddies die uselessly in the mud might have driven him so to speak into Jane Fonda's arms, as well. Bush and his spinmeisters have no standing to criticize Kerry in this regard. You have to take a stand on principle and suffer for it before you get that right." 8:28:14 AM

Denver Listens Mayor Hickenlooper is serious about involving citizens in a dialog about Denver's future. Here's an announcement from Councilwoman Marcia Johnson's e-mail list: Denver Listens MAYOR JOHN HICKENLOOPER wants TO hear YOUR IDEAS ON HOW WE CAN ACHIEVE OUR FIVE GOALS BY 2007! Achieve the highest customer service rating in the country Create 25,000 private sector jobs Make Denver an even better place Make Denver City government an even better place to work Live within our means ATTEND THE LISTENING SESSION IN YOUR AREA FROM 5:30 TO 8:30 pm TO PROVIDE INPUT ON GOALS AND HELP IDENTIFY BUDGET PRIORITIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 - Tuesday March 2 - Southeast - Temple Sinai, 3509 S. Glencoe St. - Tuesday March 9 - Central - Tivoli Center, Turn Halle, 1342 10th St. - Wednesday March 10 - Southwest - SWIC Center, 1000 S. Lowell Blvd. - Tuesday March 16 - Northwest - Academia Sandoval, 3655 Wyandot St. - Wednesday March 23 - Northeast - Clayton Foundation, 3801 MLK Blvd. PLEASE R.S.V.P. AS SPACE IS LIMITED E-MAIL: Denverlistens@ci.denver.co.us VOICE MAIL: (720) 865-9074 Food and refreshments to be provided FOR UPDATES VISIT: www.denvergov.org/denverlistens City Council - Marcia Johnson Web: www.denvergov.org/councildistrict5 Email: Lynn.Pressnall@ci.denver.co.us Questions: City Council - Marcia Johnson, District 5 What they really want to know is how they can get Coyote Gulch to sign on as the official administration weblogger. Well, maybe not. Everyone send e-mail to lynn.pressnail@ci.denver.co.us and congratulate her on getting Councilwoman Johnson's e-mail list working. 8:13:02 AM

Denver November 2004 Election John Walsh has the first candidate weblog for the November election! From e-mail from the candidate today, "FYI, we've started a campaign Weblog on my campaign site. It's stil in its infancy, but thought you'd like to know." What a good start for a candidate weblog. He pasted in the text of an e-mail that he sent earlier in the year. The last two entries are interesting. In one he's educating potential caucus attendees. The other includes details about an upcoming Denver Democrats debate. That's the right idea Mr. Walsh. Let people know where they can come and meet you and let them know what it will take to get you on the ballot. Welcome to the world of weblogs Mr. Walsh. Don't forget to post often yourself as the campaign moves on. Two criticisms of the weblog. First you need an RSS feed for syndication and second you need a way for other bloggers to post to specific items. We call the latter permalinks. You can modify Radio Userland or Moveable Type and get this functionality inexpensively without having to code it yourself. Your weblog can look the same as the one you've crafted. As your weblog grows in content your readers will need help keeping up with new content. As the campaign goes on the discussion around the issues will be helped by allowing permalinks to content. Using permalinks you'll be able to point people to prior posts around an issue. 7:53:36 AM

NationalAtlas.gov Well for all of you GIS junkies here is an interesting website called National Atlas.gov. They present GIS data on a variety of topics including Potential Active Volcanoes. Thanks to Channeling Cupertino for the link. 7:33:21 AM

Digital Democracy Teach-in One of the books that Mayor Hickenlooper recommended to his new cabinet last summer is titled The Tipping Point. Jay Rosen has written an analysis of Joe Trippi's speech last Monday that the Digital Democracy Teach-in entitled The Tripping Point. Are the things that Howard Dean's campaign pioneered really signaling a sea change in politics? Lawrence Lessig thinks that we may have a revolution simmering. Quoting Mr. Rosen, "That was the tipping point, in the story Trippi told to E tech. Net politics had done a lot, and confounded the establishment. But it was still immature, only half developed." Former Chief Blogger for the Howard Dean campaign, Matthew Gross, has started a weblog, Deride and Conquer. 7:09:00 AM

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