Friday, January 16, 2004

Campaign blogging from Iowa and beyond, coordinated through the Dean campaign, reported by Dave Winer. 4:47:15 PM    comment []

This week's Rhino Times (not yet online) is a keeper. First Johnny Hammer goes with the hot rumor that a newspaper planned for Greensboro is secretly backed by Jim Melvin. "Absolutely not," says Melvin. I was able to obtain Melvin's unequivocal denial by means of a sophisticated reporting technology called a "telephone," which is apparently not yet in use at Rhino world HQ on Market Street. On to page 2, where Hammer reports that the audit of Project Homestead is almost done. "What have the auditors found?," he writes. "(I)t would appear not much." Today's N&R online edition: "The city of Greensboro's audit of how Project Homestead spent more than $5.7 million in federal and local grants between 1997 and 2001 cites numerous irregularities related to the nonprofit’s spending and record keeping." And Hammer once again blames the N&R for some role in causing the death of Michael King, the disgraced founder of the non-profit turned piggy-bank. N&R: "A criminal investigation of Homestead's finances involving city police, the SBI, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development began earlier this fall." Yep, it's a souvenir issue of the Rhino -- I'm going to keep it with my favorite Y2K panic cover story. 4:31:51 PM    comment []

The Bowles Blog: "The coming election in North Carolina will be reported on TV and in the papers as a contest between two fundraising machines who occasionally break into discussing issues... "(W)hen it comes down to it, I would hate to wake up after election day and wonder if I had done enough." 8:50:20 AM    comment []

I've added a banner for the Digital Democracy Teach-In in the right-hand column. Click for more information, then book your reservation -- you don't want to lose by 1% in November knowing you could have learned how to get those last few votes by going to San Diego in February....Last I heard, I'm scheduled to moderate a conversation about online campaigning with some senior Dean staffers. 8:45:57 AM    comment []

The WSJ has a front-pager on Dean's strategy of mobilizing new voters (subscription required). Instead of focusing on winning over swing voters, they're tyring to get additional voters to the polls. In this area, Mr. Dean has a leg up on his rvials. He has demonstrated his strength in grass-roots organzing by using the Internet to raise tens of millions of dollars and build a nation-wide cadre of volunteers. It's hard for some of us to remember, but this is front-page news to much of America. Meanwhile, many more Americans don't read newspapers -- but the news will reach them via personal contact from volunteers organized online by smart campaigns. 8:35:25 AM    comment []