What a truly brutal election. One rare exception was the crushing of Texas Oil's Proposition 23 in California (see CREDO's campaign at stoptexasoil.org), which proves that even unlimited corporate cash can be beaten back -- if it is disclosed and fought by grassroots mobilization.
At CREDO, we fight hard on the issues, but we don't take sides in partisan elections. As someone who cares about progressive issues, there is no doubt that Tuesday's results will make for even harder times for our country. It is crazy making to realize just how extreme and misinformed much of the new Congress will be.
There is little reason to expect any useful legislation from the Tea Party-dominated House or the dysfunctional Senate. Swing votes in the Senate have really troublesome names: Lieberman, Nelson, Manchin, and Pryor. In fact, this Congress will do damage to anything even remotely progressive.
So let's take a look at what happened and what we can do now. The media, unfortunately but not surprisingly, will be of no use in making sense of Tuesday's results, and even less so in helping chart a course for the future.
There is a lot of evidence that the state of the economy, and employment in particular, drive the results of elections -- and this one was no exception. As the saying goes, "If you think the economy is working, ask someone who isn't." We have an economy stuck in a deep ditch, with corporate profits and bank bonuses soaring while long-term unemployment is at near Depression levels.
The Republicans shrunk the first "stimulus" package and filled it with tax breaks, even as corporate Democrats helped them along, blocking any effort to restructure mortgages in bankruptcies, freeze foreclosures or force banks to lend money. The election outcome was partially baked in early 2009, when the White House preemptively conceded on the scale and provisions of the stimulus package and chose to coddle the banks. To watch this unfold was simply maddening.
Making matters worse were other factors. Among the most damaging were the actions of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which seemed energized by the new President, and took the radical step of rehearing a campaign finance case -- now known forever as Citizens United. In ruling 5-4 that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money for and against candidates, the Court transformed the electoral landscape in a way potentially more profound than its 5-4 ruling that seated George W. Bush as president. As many predicted, the Citizens United ruling unleashed the greatest wave of corporate spending in history, though it's a safe bet to say that their spending in 2012 will make this year's outlay look modest.
In an astonishing turn of events, the right wing was able to kill -- essentially murder in public view -- the organization that registered millions of poor and working class African-American and Hispanic voters in the last six years. I am speaking of ACORN, of course. By editing video completely out of context, and using the right-wing media machine to perfection, Andrew Breitbart was able to convince the mainstream media and eventually Congress, that ACORN was an election-stealing organization that had no qualms giving advice to pimps on how to increase revenues. Fulfilling Karl Rove's wildest dreams, Congress, including most Democrats, voted to block public funding for any of ACORN's laudable and effective housing or tax assistance programs, and ACORN died a quiet death. There would be no millions of new registrants.
Traditions are important in the Senate, but almost always to the detriment of progressive change. The health care reform effort was a victim of Senate conventions. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who chairs the critical Senate Finance Committee solely due to his long tenure, stalled development of a health reform package for many months in order to "negotiate" with Republicans on his committee. They weren't interested in the least, and walked away from the discussions muttering bizarre comments about reforms "killing grandma" and setting up "death panels" because Sarah Palin says so. The behavior of Baucus would be laughable if it were not so utterly destructive.
No matter what one thought of FOX News in the 2008 election, Murdoch's monster went on a rampage over the past two years. Serving as both an instigator and an amplifier for the craziest and most offensive pundits, FOX News misled and misinformed the American people on every issue, and effectively became the public face of the Republican Party. Glenn Beck's show became so toxic and spewed so much venom that one of his devoted fans took it upon himself to plot the execution of key leaders of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, who had figured prominently in Beck's rants. Fortunately, the madman (the fan, not Beck) was stopped before he accomplished his mission.
We could go on, of course, on all the missed opportunities, the cave-ins, the sell outs, and the unpopular and misguided war in Afghanistan.
But the results are in. The House of Representatives is in the hands of the most corrupt Speaker-in-waiting ever, the Tea Party is ascendant, and the U.S. Senate, however dysfunctional it has been, is poised to be much worse.
For those of us who had hopes that the Obama Administration could seize the moment and enact popular progressive changes, this is a bitter pill. And like many, we grieve at the lost opportunities.
But now we need to brush off the dust, suck it up, and plunge back into substantive fights. Politics is not fair -- indeed, U.S. elections are rigged in profound ways! But walking away is not an option at CREDO Action, and we hope you will join us in some of the actions below we think are strategic in the new political landscape:
1. Commit to Taking Down FOX News. So long as FOX News has any credibility within the Beltway, it will be a pipeline for malicious material that will poison our political culture. Join our friends at Color of Change.
2.Tell the Senate to pass the DISCLOSE Act during the lame duck session. We were able to defeat the Texas Oil Initiative, Prop 23 in California, in part because we knew who the enemy was -- having disclosure of corporate contributions brings the enemy out in the open for us to take on and fight. The DISCLOSE Act passed the House and came within a single vote of passing the Senate. One vote. You can join this fight by taking action with Public Citizen at http://citizen.org/disclose-act-action.
3. Keep fighting to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This issue will get resolved during the lame duck session. Take action here.
4. Sign up for the fight for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision by declaring that corporations do not have the legal rights of humans. This may take years, if not decades, but we should start now. Please join Free Speech for People: http://freespeechforpeople.org/.
5. Tell the FCC to use its existing authority to establish and defend net neutrality. Our friends at Free Press are leading this charge: here.
6. Demand that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service investigate the political organizations set up by Karl Rove to launder millions of dollars in secret cash to change the outcome of elections. Act now at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/investigate_crossroads.
7. Defend the EPA from castration by pro-coal interests in Congress. The EPA accomplished almost nothing during the Clinton years because the Gingrich-led Congress used the budget process to prohibit the agency from doing its work. This battle has already started. The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign is a great way to join this fight: http://sierraclub.org/coal.
8. Convince the Obama administration to stop appealing progressive court rulings on matters like the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the state secrets defense against torture and wiretapping. Urge the Department of Justice to change its approach at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/stop_appealing.
9. Urge Democratic senators to do away with lifetime tenure for committee chairs and open up all chair positions to majority vote elections. This will go a long way towards more progressive legislation. Take action with us here.
10. Demand that the Department of Justice enforce the provisions of the national voter registration law that require state governments to offer to register all voters at departments of public welfare and motor vehicles. Many state governments simply ignore these requirements and this is a cheaper and more inclusive way of registering voters than the campaigns of the now dead ACORN. Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to expand voter registration: http://credoaction.com/campaign/enforce_motor_voter.
I suspect you are angry and exhausted at this point. I know I am. But let us not forget that the values and ideals we fight for are greater than any one election. They still endure, and so must our fight. We have a lot of work to do.
Michael Kieschnick, CEO
CREDO Action
Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”
Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.
Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.
So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.
How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.
The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.
So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
What a truly brutal election. One rare exception was the crushing of Texas Oil's Proposition 23 in California (see CREDO's campaign at stoptexasoil.org), which proves that even unlimited corporate cash can be beaten back -- if it is disclosed and fought by grassroots mobilization.
At CREDO, we fight hard on the issues, but we don't take sides in partisan elections. As someone who cares about progressive issues, there is no doubt that Tuesday's results will make for even harder times for our country. It is crazy making to realize just how extreme and misinformed much of the new Congress will be.
There is little reason to expect any useful legislation from the Tea Party-dominated House or the dysfunctional Senate. Swing votes in the Senate have really troublesome names: Lieberman, Nelson, Manchin, and Pryor. In fact, this Congress will do damage to anything even remotely progressive.
So let's take a look at what happened and what we can do now. The media, unfortunately but not surprisingly, will be of no use in making sense of Tuesday's results, and even less so in helping chart a course for the future.
There is a lot of evidence that the state of the economy, and employment in particular, drive the results of elections -- and this one was no exception. As the saying goes, "If you think the economy is working, ask someone who isn't." We have an economy stuck in a deep ditch, with corporate profits and bank bonuses soaring while long-term unemployment is at near Depression levels.
The Republicans shrunk the first "stimulus" package and filled it with tax breaks, even as corporate Democrats helped them along, blocking any effort to restructure mortgages in bankruptcies, freeze foreclosures or force banks to lend money. The election outcome was partially baked in early 2009, when the White House preemptively conceded on the scale and provisions of the stimulus package and chose to coddle the banks. To watch this unfold was simply maddening.
Making matters worse were other factors. Among the most damaging were the actions of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which seemed energized by the new President, and took the radical step of rehearing a campaign finance case -- now known forever as Citizens United. In ruling 5-4 that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money for and against candidates, the Court transformed the electoral landscape in a way potentially more profound than its 5-4 ruling that seated George W. Bush as president. As many predicted, the Citizens United ruling unleashed the greatest wave of corporate spending in history, though it's a safe bet to say that their spending in 2012 will make this year's outlay look modest.
In an astonishing turn of events, the right wing was able to kill -- essentially murder in public view -- the organization that registered millions of poor and working class African-American and Hispanic voters in the last six years. I am speaking of ACORN, of course. By editing video completely out of context, and using the right-wing media machine to perfection, Andrew Breitbart was able to convince the mainstream media and eventually Congress, that ACORN was an election-stealing organization that had no qualms giving advice to pimps on how to increase revenues. Fulfilling Karl Rove's wildest dreams, Congress, including most Democrats, voted to block public funding for any of ACORN's laudable and effective housing or tax assistance programs, and ACORN died a quiet death. There would be no millions of new registrants.
Traditions are important in the Senate, but almost always to the detriment of progressive change. The health care reform effort was a victim of Senate conventions. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who chairs the critical Senate Finance Committee solely due to his long tenure, stalled development of a health reform package for many months in order to "negotiate" with Republicans on his committee. They weren't interested in the least, and walked away from the discussions muttering bizarre comments about reforms "killing grandma" and setting up "death panels" because Sarah Palin says so. The behavior of Baucus would be laughable if it were not so utterly destructive.
No matter what one thought of FOX News in the 2008 election, Murdoch's monster went on a rampage over the past two years. Serving as both an instigator and an amplifier for the craziest and most offensive pundits, FOX News misled and misinformed the American people on every issue, and effectively became the public face of the Republican Party. Glenn Beck's show became so toxic and spewed so much venom that one of his devoted fans took it upon himself to plot the execution of key leaders of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, who had figured prominently in Beck's rants. Fortunately, the madman (the fan, not Beck) was stopped before he accomplished his mission.
We could go on, of course, on all the missed opportunities, the cave-ins, the sell outs, and the unpopular and misguided war in Afghanistan.
But the results are in. The House of Representatives is in the hands of the most corrupt Speaker-in-waiting ever, the Tea Party is ascendant, and the U.S. Senate, however dysfunctional it has been, is poised to be much worse.
For those of us who had hopes that the Obama Administration could seize the moment and enact popular progressive changes, this is a bitter pill. And like many, we grieve at the lost opportunities.
But now we need to brush off the dust, suck it up, and plunge back into substantive fights. Politics is not fair -- indeed, U.S. elections are rigged in profound ways! But walking away is not an option at CREDO Action, and we hope you will join us in some of the actions below we think are strategic in the new political landscape:
1. Commit to Taking Down FOX News. So long as FOX News has any credibility within the Beltway, it will be a pipeline for malicious material that will poison our political culture. Join our friends at Color of Change.
2.Tell the Senate to pass the DISCLOSE Act during the lame duck session. We were able to defeat the Texas Oil Initiative, Prop 23 in California, in part because we knew who the enemy was -- having disclosure of corporate contributions brings the enemy out in the open for us to take on and fight. The DISCLOSE Act passed the House and came within a single vote of passing the Senate. One vote. You can join this fight by taking action with Public Citizen at http://citizen.org/disclose-act-action.
3. Keep fighting to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This issue will get resolved during the lame duck session. Take action here.
4. Sign up for the fight for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision by declaring that corporations do not have the legal rights of humans. This may take years, if not decades, but we should start now. Please join Free Speech for People: http://freespeechforpeople.org/.
5. Tell the FCC to use its existing authority to establish and defend net neutrality. Our friends at Free Press are leading this charge: here.
6. Demand that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service investigate the political organizations set up by Karl Rove to launder millions of dollars in secret cash to change the outcome of elections. Act now at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/investigate_crossroads.
7. Defend the EPA from castration by pro-coal interests in Congress. The EPA accomplished almost nothing during the Clinton years because the Gingrich-led Congress used the budget process to prohibit the agency from doing its work. This battle has already started. The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign is a great way to join this fight: http://sierraclub.org/coal.
8. Convince the Obama administration to stop appealing progressive court rulings on matters like the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the state secrets defense against torture and wiretapping. Urge the Department of Justice to change its approach at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/stop_appealing.
9. Urge Democratic senators to do away with lifetime tenure for committee chairs and open up all chair positions to majority vote elections. This will go a long way towards more progressive legislation. Take action with us here.
10. Demand that the Department of Justice enforce the provisions of the national voter registration law that require state governments to offer to register all voters at departments of public welfare and motor vehicles. Many state governments simply ignore these requirements and this is a cheaper and more inclusive way of registering voters than the campaigns of the now dead ACORN. Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to expand voter registration: http://credoaction.com/campaign/enforce_motor_voter.
I suspect you are angry and exhausted at this point. I know I am. But let us not forget that the values and ideals we fight for are greater than any one election. They still endure, and so must our fight. We have a lot of work to do.
Michael Kieschnick, CEO
CREDO Action
Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”
Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.
Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.
So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.
How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.
The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.
So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
What a truly brutal election. One rare exception was the crushing of Texas Oil's Proposition 23 in California (see CREDO's campaign at stoptexasoil.org), which proves that even unlimited corporate cash can be beaten back -- if it is disclosed and fought by grassroots mobilization.
At CREDO, we fight hard on the issues, but we don't take sides in partisan elections. As someone who cares about progressive issues, there is no doubt that Tuesday's results will make for even harder times for our country. It is crazy making to realize just how extreme and misinformed much of the new Congress will be.
There is little reason to expect any useful legislation from the Tea Party-dominated House or the dysfunctional Senate. Swing votes in the Senate have really troublesome names: Lieberman, Nelson, Manchin, and Pryor. In fact, this Congress will do damage to anything even remotely progressive.
So let's take a look at what happened and what we can do now. The media, unfortunately but not surprisingly, will be of no use in making sense of Tuesday's results, and even less so in helping chart a course for the future.
There is a lot of evidence that the state of the economy, and employment in particular, drive the results of elections -- and this one was no exception. As the saying goes, "If you think the economy is working, ask someone who isn't." We have an economy stuck in a deep ditch, with corporate profits and bank bonuses soaring while long-term unemployment is at near Depression levels.
The Republicans shrunk the first "stimulus" package and filled it with tax breaks, even as corporate Democrats helped them along, blocking any effort to restructure mortgages in bankruptcies, freeze foreclosures or force banks to lend money. The election outcome was partially baked in early 2009, when the White House preemptively conceded on the scale and provisions of the stimulus package and chose to coddle the banks. To watch this unfold was simply maddening.
Making matters worse were other factors. Among the most damaging were the actions of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which seemed energized by the new President, and took the radical step of rehearing a campaign finance case -- now known forever as Citizens United. In ruling 5-4 that corporations have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money for and against candidates, the Court transformed the electoral landscape in a way potentially more profound than its 5-4 ruling that seated George W. Bush as president. As many predicted, the Citizens United ruling unleashed the greatest wave of corporate spending in history, though it's a safe bet to say that their spending in 2012 will make this year's outlay look modest.
In an astonishing turn of events, the right wing was able to kill -- essentially murder in public view -- the organization that registered millions of poor and working class African-American and Hispanic voters in the last six years. I am speaking of ACORN, of course. By editing video completely out of context, and using the right-wing media machine to perfection, Andrew Breitbart was able to convince the mainstream media and eventually Congress, that ACORN was an election-stealing organization that had no qualms giving advice to pimps on how to increase revenues. Fulfilling Karl Rove's wildest dreams, Congress, including most Democrats, voted to block public funding for any of ACORN's laudable and effective housing or tax assistance programs, and ACORN died a quiet death. There would be no millions of new registrants.
Traditions are important in the Senate, but almost always to the detriment of progressive change. The health care reform effort was a victim of Senate conventions. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who chairs the critical Senate Finance Committee solely due to his long tenure, stalled development of a health reform package for many months in order to "negotiate" with Republicans on his committee. They weren't interested in the least, and walked away from the discussions muttering bizarre comments about reforms "killing grandma" and setting up "death panels" because Sarah Palin says so. The behavior of Baucus would be laughable if it were not so utterly destructive.
No matter what one thought of FOX News in the 2008 election, Murdoch's monster went on a rampage over the past two years. Serving as both an instigator and an amplifier for the craziest and most offensive pundits, FOX News misled and misinformed the American people on every issue, and effectively became the public face of the Republican Party. Glenn Beck's show became so toxic and spewed so much venom that one of his devoted fans took it upon himself to plot the execution of key leaders of the Tides Foundation and the ACLU, who had figured prominently in Beck's rants. Fortunately, the madman (the fan, not Beck) was stopped before he accomplished his mission.
We could go on, of course, on all the missed opportunities, the cave-ins, the sell outs, and the unpopular and misguided war in Afghanistan.
But the results are in. The House of Representatives is in the hands of the most corrupt Speaker-in-waiting ever, the Tea Party is ascendant, and the U.S. Senate, however dysfunctional it has been, is poised to be much worse.
For those of us who had hopes that the Obama Administration could seize the moment and enact popular progressive changes, this is a bitter pill. And like many, we grieve at the lost opportunities.
But now we need to brush off the dust, suck it up, and plunge back into substantive fights. Politics is not fair -- indeed, U.S. elections are rigged in profound ways! But walking away is not an option at CREDO Action, and we hope you will join us in some of the actions below we think are strategic in the new political landscape:
1. Commit to Taking Down FOX News. So long as FOX News has any credibility within the Beltway, it will be a pipeline for malicious material that will poison our political culture. Join our friends at Color of Change.
2.Tell the Senate to pass the DISCLOSE Act during the lame duck session. We were able to defeat the Texas Oil Initiative, Prop 23 in California, in part because we knew who the enemy was -- having disclosure of corporate contributions brings the enemy out in the open for us to take on and fight. The DISCLOSE Act passed the House and came within a single vote of passing the Senate. One vote. You can join this fight by taking action with Public Citizen at http://citizen.org/disclose-act-action.
3. Keep fighting to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. This issue will get resolved during the lame duck session. Take action here.
4. Sign up for the fight for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Citizens United decision by declaring that corporations do not have the legal rights of humans. This may take years, if not decades, but we should start now. Please join Free Speech for People: http://freespeechforpeople.org/.
5. Tell the FCC to use its existing authority to establish and defend net neutrality. Our friends at Free Press are leading this charge: here.
6. Demand that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service investigate the political organizations set up by Karl Rove to launder millions of dollars in secret cash to change the outcome of elections. Act now at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/investigate_crossroads.
7. Defend the EPA from castration by pro-coal interests in Congress. The EPA accomplished almost nothing during the Clinton years because the Gingrich-led Congress used the budget process to prohibit the agency from doing its work. This battle has already started. The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign is a great way to join this fight: http://sierraclub.org/coal.
8. Convince the Obama administration to stop appealing progressive court rulings on matters like the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the state secrets defense against torture and wiretapping. Urge the Department of Justice to change its approach at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/stop_appealing.
9. Urge Democratic senators to do away with lifetime tenure for committee chairs and open up all chair positions to majority vote elections. This will go a long way towards more progressive legislation. Take action with us here.
10. Demand that the Department of Justice enforce the provisions of the national voter registration law that require state governments to offer to register all voters at departments of public welfare and motor vehicles. Many state governments simply ignore these requirements and this is a cheaper and more inclusive way of registering voters than the campaigns of the now dead ACORN. Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to expand voter registration: http://credoaction.com/campaign/enforce_motor_voter.
I suspect you are angry and exhausted at this point. I know I am. But let us not forget that the values and ideals we fight for are greater than any one election. They still endure, and so must our fight. We have a lot of work to do.
Michael Kieschnick, CEO
CREDO Action
Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”
Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.
Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.
So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.
How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.
The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.
So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.
eric seiger
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
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Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
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eric seiger
eric seiger
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
eric seiger
Scripting <b>News</b>: Earmarks, deficits, pfui!
Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...
Pulse <b>News</b> Reader Free For iPhone, Android | Download
Pulse News Mini, popular news feed aggregator and reader for iPhone, Android is now free. Download Pulse News Mini for iPhone, Android ....
Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our Xbox 360 news of Kinect doubles UK Xbox sales.
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