First POST: Dealing
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, December 23 2014
As North Korea's Internet mysteriously goes down, doubts remain about the source of the Sony hack; Facebook's Russia dilemma; some big news in open government data; and much, much more. Read More
You Can't A/B Test Your Response to Syria
BY Micah L. Sifry | Wednesday, September 4 2013
Senate hearing Sept 3, 2013. Department of Defense Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Daniel Hinton.
While Congress wrestles with President Obama's unexpected request for formal legal authorization before he orders airstrikes on Syria, it's been fascinating to watch the country's big online advocacy groups try to figure out their own position on the crisis. Should the US bomb Syria in order to punish Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons on his own people, risking a wider American involvement in the conflict and potentially further destabilizing the region? Or should the US stay out of that kind of direct involvement, even if that risks emboldening Assad and could lead to more frequent uses of chemical weapons in the future? These are just some of the hard questions at stake. And what makes any decision even harder is the fast-moving and relatively unique nature of these events. Even tougher for big e-groups like MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which collectively claim about ten million list members, the Syria crisis isn't an issue that these groups were formed to address. Nor is there an obvious consensus "progressive" position to promote, beyond the one these groups were all touting in the last few weeks (along with many others, including some conservative organizations), which was the need to bring the question before Congress. Some people are strong anti-interventionists, wary of green-lighting another American incursion in the Middle East. Others worry about genocide, and don't want to look the other way when mass killings of civilians take place. Read More
Cory Booker Routes Around Capitol Hill Veteran To Win The Tech Vote
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Friday, August 9 2013
Silicon Valley is placing its bets behind business-friendly Booker, and in the process is ignoring a stalwart champion of some of their interests on Capitol Hill Rush Holt. Read More
CREDO SuperPAC's Online Director Joins Democracy for America
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Wednesday, July 17 2013
Andy Kelley, CREDO SuperPAC's National New Media Director, is joining Democracy for America as its online programs deputy next Monday. Kelley will be responsible for co-ordinating all of DFA's online activities, ... Read More
Former Obama Administration Official Raises More Than $1 Million In Bid To Unseat Silicon Valley Incumbent
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Wednesday, July 10 2013
Silicon Valley attorney Ro Khanna, who previously served as a top Commerce Department official in the Obama administration, announced Wednesday that he has raised more than $1 million during the inaugural quarter of his ... Read More
"Organizer," the Software Company That Wants To Make Campaign Field Offices Obsolete
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Tuesday, April 16 2013
Organizer Founder Ralph Garvin, Jr. took the drudgery of his 2008 campaign experience and turned it into a startup.
If people-powered, neighbor-to-neighbor campaigns are the future of political persuasion, as President Barack Obama's former campaign manager Jim Messina suggests it is, then the practice is in need of a serious upgrade. That's exactly what Ralph Garvin hopes to bring to the table with Organizer, a new political software suite that just landed two big, early clients, the labor-backed Working Families Party and Howard Dean's grassroots group, Democracy for America. Read More
DFA Hits List for "BP Makes Me Sick"
BY Nancy Scola | Wednesday, July 14 2010
Remember BP Makes Me Sick? The coalition of bloggers, fisher, elected officials, and other folk added another group to the collection this morning. Democracy for America, the outgrowth of the 2004 Dean campaign, emailed ... Read More
Right-roots vs Net-roots: Whose Online Donor Base is Bigger?
BY Micah L. Sifry | Friday, March 5 2010
How big are the right-roots? And how do they stack up against the net-roots? I've been asking that question of various people lately, and also looking at some of the metrics available, as both sides of the American ... Read More
Health Reformers Gather For "Virtual March" on DC
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, February 23 2010
It's been quite a 2010, hasn't it? From the Scott Brown upset in Massachusetts, setting Republican hearts aflutter everywhere; to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, upsetting small-d democrats and setting off ... Read More
The Fine Art of Timing a Money Bomb
BY Nancy Scola | Tuesday, November 3 2009
(Updated to include DFA's actual remarks. They somehow got lost in editing. Sorry for the bother.) Read More