Show Me What You're All About

During this time of year political candidates feel like they are actually making an impact by putting a few signs around town, displaying their name and nothing else. When I see these types of signs I think what a waste of money. I don't know this person, its presumptive I would know you only by name.

Here is an example of someone who paid a large sum of money for a political sign and failed. This sign had to be 5 feet wide by 3 or 4 feet high.

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What's he running for? What does he stand for? Where can I find more information?

Opposite this sign, on the same fence, was another sign, only it speaks a different tune.

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This person has given me a couple of things, a slogan with some standard political rhetoric like leadership and change, a picture, but most important, he has his web address on the sign. Now I can look this person up on the Internet and see what he stands for and what his platform is.

If you are a political candidate and you have spent money on signs that tell me nothing you deserve to lose. People expect to be able to find you on line. They want to know what you stand for and why they should vote for you. It's not good enough anymore to just pitch your name and hope I remember you on election day, because I won't, and I hope no one else does either.

Does your personal brand make it easy for me to find you, or get to know you?

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My Request For Government Bailout

News over the past few days has been all about money the US Government has been giving to ailing financial institutions in hopes of keeping them from collapsing. I'm not a financial expert, but I'm sure the layman can recognize what a sham this is.

So this morning I thought it was appropriate that I ask the US Government to give me a few Billion dollars to help bail me out. I'd even take less, say several hundred thousand. That would do it. Hey, it's my money too. All those tax dollars I've put in the coffers over the years. If my elected officials are going to squander it, I want my share back.

I got some great responses from Twitter friends. Here they are:









As you can see there are plenty of people who want their money back. Please give US our money back, don't waste it on these poor management schmucks who have been fleecing Americans for years now.

Wow I'm hardly ever political on this blog, but man that felt good. Sorry RacerX996, I edited your comment. Those reading this post can also find the original on my Twitter account for your reading pleasure, and to get the full affect.

[Update]

Thanks Christopher Penn.

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The Most Bizzar Political Message I've Ever Heard

A couple of days ago I found a message on my home phone from a local guy named Dell Schanze. It was one of those automated messages that political candidates use when they are running for office, and want to get their message to as many people as possible.

Dell, or Super Dell, as he likes to be called, started slinging mud almost immediately at two other candidate, all of which are running for the Governor of Utah. When ever someone leaves a message on my phone, Vonage provides an audio file I can download and listen too on my PC. I thought hey, this is too good to pass up, I wanted to share the message with a few friends.

I created a Twitter post which included the URL to the MP3 file of the message on my web server. A few people responded, and apparently Robert Gehrke, a writer for the Salt Lake Tribune, wrote a story about Schanze and his message, and included a link to my MP3.

While I think it's cool that the Trib writer used the link to my file, I would have appreciated a heads up, and even some attribution (as I'm doing in this post). Thanks to Russ Page, I was able to move the file to an Amazon S3 server so my blogs bandwidth isn't all chewed up.

The audio is interesting, funny, and has since been changed to be a little less abrasive. Sorry Super Dell, you won't be getting my vote.

superdell.mp3

'Super Dell' launches Super Attack against Huntsman - Salt Lake Tribune

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Final post on ConventionNext

Well this will wrap up my posts on ConventionNext. It was pretty neat. Great concept, great idea. It was a small window, would have been nice to have more time, but I'm sure in the future there will be.

I hope everyone takes some time to review the video of the show today. Get involved. Help Politic2.0 build an even better system in the future.

I'm sure there are lot more people invloved, but I really want to thank Phil Burns for brining this event to my attention and wish him and his company, TagJungle success.

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Third post on ConventionNext

Ok, video feed back up, I'm sure I missed a lot. Trying to get reoriented with the live aspect of this thing. There are a lot more questions. People are starting to add comments outside of the Congressman. They are chatting with each other.

That brings me to a quick observation. Twitter seems to be facilitating some of the action. I've been tweeting with some at the live facility (a bad morning didn't allow me to make it), but someone is asking if Cannon even knows what Twitter is? His response is no. Anyway, Twitter could have given blow by blow accounts of what was taking place. It's an incredible opportunity. I'm sure as things heat up on the political front services like Twitter will start to take on a larger role.

Now my questions is being asked. The moderator thinks its a great question (so do I). Listening to the answer...

Wow, he didn't get my question, posting a follow-up. There are a lot of other questions regarding this same topic being asked at the live venue.

Basically Cannons answer was the laws need to be changed to reflect reality. So my follow up question was, "should the economy dictate when laws are broken?". His response was no. Again, he didn't mention his bill about immigrant workers. I found that funny.

What I took from his answer was we need to amend our laws to allow for immigrant workers. He then talked about fining those who are here illegally; but most don't make enough, and that wouldn't deter anyone. We deport them and they still come back.

Another person at the live venue asked why we are required to have a Social Security Card and a Driver License but immigrant workers aren't. At least that's what I think he asked. Cannons answer was the Social Security card is sort of a National ID program. He didn't really answer the question.

Moving on to another question; there are a lot in the queue now. There is a flurry of activity in the comments area. The web site seems to be handling the load ok, other than the video glitch everything seems to work great. On confusion I'm having is the use of comments. I see them, and I see where to enter comments, but it looks like everyone is using comments to have their own discussion. I would recommend a chat service or something like a forum. I don't know, thinking off the cuff here.

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Second post on ConventionNext

After listening to a few of the questions, it's obvious the platform is going to be a success. There are some initial problems, like running around the room with a mic instead of having two so the people live can have their own.

I'm not a big Chris Cannon fan. I've never thought he has done a whole lot for the state of Utah. He answers like a politician though. I'm sure it can't be easy to throw yourself into a room of people taking shots at your policies and voting record.

Oh look, Pete Ashdown is in the room. Hey Pete! Pete ran against Senator Orin Hatch. It was a valiant effort. I voted for Pete. I voted for him because I think we need some new blood. I think Hatch has been in there long enough. I don't even know what Hatch does. He doesn't even have to work at his job any more.

The question at hand is Disabled American Veterans and the Walter Reed Army Hospital that was recently under fire for poor conditions. Cannon is accused of having a poor record when it comes to Military issues. He claims he doesn't and that you can hire anyone to give a poor performance review. He does have a point, but side steps the real question, what are you going to do about it?

Well, my video feed just tanked. I guess I'll end this post now and hope it comes back online soon.

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First post on ConventionNext

Just getting started, logging into the website (conventionnext.politic20.com). There are a lot more questions now than there were at 11PM last night.

The really cool thing about this website and the questions that should be asked on the guest, in this case Congressman Chris Cannon from Utah's 3rd District, are ranked similar to Digg. So, a question is posted, everyone votes on it, and the ranking can go up showing the level of importance.

After looking at the questions, I can see there is a level of detail being asked for and I'm just not sure it will happen. With the amount of time available, it seems like we will only get superficial answers.

My question seems to be getting some good votes, hopefully the Congressman will have an opportunity to respond to it. Oh, the question, "how does giving illegal aliens be given a special exemption benefit our country?". It will be fun to see the response.

Ok, questions are starting, mines not first, but I'll end for now and follow up.

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My participation in ConventionNext

I have the opportunity to participate in a a first of its kind political event on Wednesday April 11th, 2007, called ConventionNext. You can read all the information about the event here.

I don't really know what to expect. I'm going in with my eyes open and will look at it as an opportunity to meet other bloggers who are interested in the political arena.

One of the actions of this gathering will be the real time blog posts by attendees on the topics being discussed. I will probably have an elevated number of posts tomorrow which may be politically centered. It will be the first time I have shown my political views in this forum.

This should be an interesting event and I appreciate the opportunity to participate. Thanks to Phil Burns and those at Politic2.0.

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