The George Russell Effect: Is Technorati losing its Authorities?

I know I'm losing authorities on Technorati!  Then again, I've always had a bit of an authority problem.... But here's what's happening:

I created a blog, The Hankster, basically a news aggregator run by a real political activist (me, Nancy Hanks) targeting independent voters and progressive forces, rife with quirky photos, offbeat cultural posts and occasional personal opinions. The Hankster has small, if significant, growing and steady readership. 

Then came Twitter... I twittered the national conference of independents in NYC in January 2009. Twitter helped me report from the field on the various meetings held over the past number of months by the membership of the NYC Independence Party organizations as they met collectively to decide what to do with their considerable political capital in this year's mayoral race (we endorsed independent Mike Bloomberg). And Twitter, to its credit, has a 140-character limit of verbiage! Yea!!

Recently YouTube (or HanksterTube) has hit the political world with storm... And then I started a BlogTalkRadio show at the suggestion of an independent I met on the street...

I'm not saying that we shouldn't use Technorati. But why use Technorati as an authority?  Use Twitter, use Facebook, go by bus by plane by car by train, -- it's the George Russell Effect. Not a lot of cats listenin', lot's of really cool folks diggin' independence...

The Hankster hereby declares:

We will no longer be coerced into communicating through the official channels that get you Technorati authorities!

I rest my case!

Nancy Hanks

The Hankster http://grassrootsindependent.blogspot.com/

Twitter.com/NancyHanks

Facebook

BlogTalkRadio/Hankster

HanksterTube 

Or do it the old fashioned way -- Call me! 646-567-6641 (c) 

New York Times crossword puzzle puzzle

The Hankster received this note from a reader -- thought you would all enjoy it!

Dear Hankster:

The NYTimes crossword puzzle continues to be the most (only) part of the paper with a clue:

Clue 41 Down in the 4/30 puzzle is "Like some primaries"
The answer: "open"

Now if only the crossword puzzle editor would have a word with the news desk...

pg

first 100 days

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Arlen Specter independently changes parties; it's an independent Pennsylvania story
  
• Voting Rights on the chopping block
  
• New York Repubs join Independence Party to endorse Mayor Bloomberg -- Lenora Fulani says why she's supporting Mike
  
• John Zogby: Obama needs independents to succeed
  
• Repub strategist Denis Calabrese: Indies don't think Repubs stand for anything
• Obama's First 100 Days a big success among indies
• South Carolina Repubs reeling from Obama victory - try to exclude indies from open primaries

water torture

h/t to JamesWagner

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Chris Cillizza: Independents made Obama
  
• Repubs having trouble attracting independents, considering Romney again (yikes), lost Arlen Specter, and are probably on their way out.... 
  
• New Yorkers don't like Mayor Bloomberg's overriding term limits, but court upholds the usurpation -- Randy M. Mastro, a former deputy mayor who is representing the plaintiffs, said of the judges’ opinion: While the courts may have found this term limits extension to be within the legal authority of the mayor and City Council, that doesn’t make it right. What the mayor and City Council did here in extending their terms by legislation, and thereby thwarting the will of the voters, was simply wrong and undemocratic. 
• Here's a link to the term limits decision. And another piece here...
  
• That said, Dr. Lenora Fulani explains why she thinks Mayor Bloomberg deserves a third term.
  
• Illinois Gov Pat Quinn's Ethics Commission recommends open primaries

Are Americans ideological???

Yesterday Morning Joe reported on a conversation he had with David Axelrod last night, Axelrod said that Americans are not ideological, and Morning Joe agreed. What do you think?

Politics for the People Lecture: Dr. Omar Ali

"A Brief History of How Independents Have Expanded American Democracy: The Tensions, Turmoil, and Triumphs of Movement-Building"

Saturday, May 9, 2009
2:30 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
New York County Lawyers' Association

Dr. Ali is a visiting professor of history at Vanderbilt University and the author of In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics.and Third-Party Movements in the United States.

From 1776 to the election of Barack Obama, political independents have been on the cutting edge of the American democratic experiment and are responsible for many of the small events that brought about big changes.

On Saturday, May 9th, join Cathy Stewart and special guest Dr. Omar Ali, professor of history at Vanderbilt University and author of In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party movements in the United States for a thought provoking conversation about the role of independents in the development of our country... and the impact we are having in reshaping contemporary politics.

SATURDAY, MAY 92:30 P.M. - 4:00 P.M.
Followed by a book signing with Dr. Ali
New York County Lawyers' Association
Main Auditorium14 Vesey Street
(Between Broadway and Church St.)
New York, NY 10007

Directions:Subway: A,C,E to World Trade Center; N, R, W to City Hall; 2, 3 to ParkPlace; 4, 5 to Fulton Street; M to Fulton StreetBus: M1, M6, M9, M15, M22, M103 to CityHall/Fulton Street area
Seating limited.
Please R.S.V.P. at 212.962.1699
PLEASE BRING A FRIEND!!

Bloggers Unite For Hunger And Hope

I just joined Bloggers Unite For Hunger And Hope -- BlogCatalog/Heifer International's call for the end of world hunger and start of hope on April 29. What they are asking is that you join thousands of other bloggers and write a post about world hunger on April 29. I encourage you to do the same.

Here's my post, and here's what I'm doing about world hunger:

I am talking to everyone about open primaries. The concept of open primaries is a pro-people, pro-democracy, anti-partisan concept that would mean that everyone votes in the first round of voting and that candidates run as people not party representatives. I feel that open primaries is a critical cultural shift that is needed to include the 40% of Americans who are independents in the political process, and to loosen up the death-grip that the 2 parties have on our political process and ultimately on public policy.

That's why I think open primaries is important to end world hunger. 

Would you trust humanity to the Democratic and Republican parties?

Hardly! We've seen their work. It's destructive. It's self-perpetuating. It's cynical.

End world hunger? Beware the baneful effects of party!

Conversations: Morning Joe and Ideology

My colleague Carolyn Kresky wrote in with this idea: Said this morning by Morning Joe reporting on a conversation he had with David Axelrod last night, Axelrod said that Americans are not ideological, and Morning Joe agreed. what do you think?

So, what DO you think?

Let me know!

Talk Talk: Law and Disorder

Personally, I love hearing from Fred Newman and Jacqueline Salit every Tuesday with their thoughts on the talk show talk, current events chatter, news of the day.  I especially like this week's "Talk Talk" for its word-play-fulness and its free-range-i-ness. All the issues, all the time! In a format that ordinary Americans can relate to: conversation among friends! You can subscribe to Talk Talk here, and join me on my weekly BlogTalkRadio show BlogTalkTalkRadio/Hankster, which will launch in August.  "If you have something to say, make sure somebody is listening!" or "If you're listening, make sure somebody is saying something." or "What are they talking about?".. . Well, you get the jist -- Let me know what you think! In the meantime, enjoy: Talk Talk: Law and Disorder with Fred Newman and Jacqueline Salit... Law and Disorder Sunday, April 26, 2009

Every weekend CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, April 26, 2009 after watching selections from "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "The Chris Matthews Show," a Charlie Rose interview and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."    Salit: Well, there are basically two arguments to address what you're pointing to. One is that the information that you get when you torture somebody is not good intelligence. And, two, if we want to prevent it from happening in the future, we have to take a hard public look at why it happened in this last round.   Newman: No we don't.   Salit: Because?   Newman: It doesn't make a difference.   Salit: It doesn't make a difference if you understand what happened and why?   Newman: It doesn't impact.   Salit: Because?   Newman: This is how human beings are. Don't you watch soap operas?   Read Talk Talk in its entirety here.

independent

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• CQ quotes Pew, but they don't quote real independent voters...
  
• Illinois voters and open primaries
  
• New Dem head in California wants to defeat open primaries
  
• California Forward supports open primaries
  
• Will California get a constitutional convention to deal with the budget and political reform?
  
• Golisano, Bloomberg, Independence Party - upstate
  

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• South Carolina Repubs sue to keep independents out of the primaries
• Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham disagrees
• This one thinks parties should close their primaries and pay for them 
• The politics within California's reform movement...

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Political campaigning in the digital age
  
• Repubs holding out on Bloomberg, meanwhile NYC Independence Party moves ahead
  
• Mayor Mike likes Barack
  
• California open primary would help
  
• South Carolina Repubs want to keep independents out
  

Talk Talk: Pirates, Policy and a Pooch

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Every weekend CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, April 19, 2009 after watching selections from "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," "The Chris Matthews Show," a Charlie Rose interview and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."    Newman: When you look at the picture on the front page of the Times where Chavez and Obama are shaking hands, it seems to me that the first thing you see is that two people of color are shaking hands.   Salit: Yes.   Newman: And that overwhelms any of the substantive issues that they may or may not discuss in Trinidad. It's a very big change for them. And for us. That's a big cultural, human, psychological factor.   Salit: I had a similar thought when I looked at the photograph.   Newman: One's a communist. One's part socialist, part capitalist. But they're both people of color. One has enough oil. One has too little oil. But that's not the issue.   Read Talk Talk in its entirety here.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES

• GOP chair moves to block Democrats from voting in Republican primaries (RUDOLPH BELL, Greenville Online)
  
• Primary fight (Beaver County Times & Allegheny Times PA)
  
• West Virginia Repubs want to keep open primary

Democracy & Technology: Power to the People, or Technology to the People?

Have technological advances helped advance democracy? If more people have more technology will we get to the promised land quicker? What's power got to do with it, and who's got it in cyberspace? Listen to internet pioneer Michael Silverton and NYC activist Ryan Brack in a free-wheeling blogtalkradio show with Nancy Hanks of The Hankster.

• The Tea Parties: Republican-engineered, expressing independent views, something Washington ignores at its own peril.... Obama must be mindful of overreaching....

• Newark's Mayor Cory Booker endorses independent Mayor Mike Bloomberg
  

Democracy & Technology: Power to the People, or Technology to the People?

Have technological advances helped advance democracy? If more people have more technology will we get to the promised land quicker? What's power got to do with it, and who's got it in cyberspace? Join internet pioneer Michael Silverton and NYC activist Ryan Brack in a free-wheeling blogtalkradio show with Nancy Hanks of The Hankster.

Sunday April 19, 9pm EDT.

Call-in Number: (347) 884-8634

UPDATE: Your homework assignment: http://michael.silverton.palo-alto.ca.us/packets/?p=959

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES ofr INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Eugene Robinson writes about the "tea bag" protests -- Repub partisans at the helm... 

And there's this report from history professor Joseph Palermo from the field in Sacramento on the political significance of the anti-tax "movement"... 

Abel Maldonado: Tea parties are "hyper-partisan" -- stresses need for open primaries...

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Somehow Steve Kornacki wrote a whole article in the PolitickerNY about New York fusion voting without ever mentioning Mayor Fiorello La Guardia or Mayor John Lindsay.... Fusion is a good tool for anti-corruption forces, a fact that Kornacki conveniently leaves out....
  
• Bloomberg wants WFP but does WFP want Bloomberg? and the Repubs say aye