posting comments :: email :: boots on ground :: register voters :: recruit volunteers :: flyers/handouts
facebook/twitter :: fund raising :: OFA :: Repubs. vs Dems :: blogging :: sources :: experts
POSTING COMMENTS
- When responding to biased or loony comments, state the facts, set the record straight, calmly and cooly, like President Obama. Mention Obama’s clear, calm, well-thought and common sense approach to decisions and policy. The calm, rational approach makes the other loony comments appear even more unhinged and gets the most attention and is appreciated by the most people.
- Posting Positive is about the audience of people who don’t engage. Our audience is the the lurker crowd. The people doing the yelling and complaining are to be summarily ignored.
- Only make comments on the text of the article itself. We can think of it as guerrilla posting…get in, post and get out. Let the comment stand on its own merit don’t go back to defend it.
- register at 2 or 3 city news websites in critical states, intervene with facts, set the record straight, link to this site and other truth-telling sites, I think it is beneficial, a way to reach out to a broader public. Let each other know which local papers we’re covering.
- find alternatives to local MSM sites like http://forwardstl.org/ - post there
- call out the moderated sites in which accurate posts that counter the desired narrative are deleted, not posted, or kept in moderation so long that by the time they are posted, they are 2-3 pages down and therefore not read by most.
- ‘scouts’ – who monitor high visibility sites (NBC, CBS, Fox, HuffnPuff/AOL, CNN, Al Jazeera (yes), NYTimes, WaPo, LATimes, campaign blogs of candidates (both R & D), ……). They hover on their assigned site(s) for whatever amount of time they have available.
When an flagrant lie is detected the scout posts a suitable fact or two, copies the URL of the specific comment section, and returns to Command and Control site (C&C) and posts the URL and a quick synopsis. C&C then launches as many folk who are currently lurking, tweets those who’ve indicated that at various intervals they will be ready to respond, and a swarm of calm, factual armed BWDers hit the comment section with a series of posts targeting the original post and any comments supporting the original post. Never nasty, zero snark, just fast paced, overwhelming truth.
example - “Glen Beck reported on FOX that Obama agreed to give billions to Brazil for oil exploration that will benefit only China.
“It is distorted: http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/braziloil.asp”
- In my personal emails to friends and family, amongst all the chitty-chat, I always sneak in a line or two about President Obama. “Great speech by Obama last night. He’s always so intelligent and clear-thinking in his approach”.
- As listeners to TV and Radio, we should be sending e-mails listing our complaints about what the talking heads DIDN’T cover, such as questions they failed to ask or information they didn’t explore. It’s important for them to know that people are out there who want journalists to act like journalists and not like stenographers for Republican talking points.
- send email to reporters, editiors, and owners of companies that report accurate stories about PBO
- Get involved in local elections this year, so you can become familiar with local voters and learn how to use Voter Builder, the Democratic database. The more adept you become at local races, the easier it is to hit the ground running for the presidential one.
- Go to places where people congregate. I plan to sign up for time at the Democratic booth at our local street fairs this year (if your local Dems don’t have one, offer to set it up) and at our county fair this summer. It’s amazing what you can learn from people just by making yourself public and manning a booth. If you’re lucky, you an pick up a volunteer or two.
- If there is a Hispanic/Latino community in your area, you can bet it’s growing, so learn everything you can to better reach out to Hispanic voters. I’m going to make an effort to learn some basic conversational Spanish and to find out ways that will make voting less intimidating to the Hispanics families in our county.
- Get a bunch of registration forms from your local Voter Registration bureau and carry them at all times, so you can take advantage of every opportunity to sign people up. Sometimes a farmers market will let you set up a table to dregister voters, if you approach it in a nonpartisan way. Ditto schools with graduating seniors.
- If your current rep is a Democrat who constantly tries to put Obama down, let them know you won’t be supporting them and why. They don’t fear the consequences of Obama-bashing, and think it actually gains them support.
- share information about how each state handles distributing voter registration cards
- Wear buttons, shirts, put up signs in your yard
- College Students (we have a bunch of new 18-20 year olds who didn’t vote in 2008)
- Hispanics – There are fun people actually. Lots of parties, public events, matanzas, church activities, and they have lots of reason to be motivated right now.
- African Americans. Still a lot are not registered to vote. Get them on board. Make them commit to show up. Help them get to the polls.
- Asian Americans – voting with the same numbers for Democrats as Hispanics – get our share of these voters.
- we need to get the youth involved in the same way as in 2008 – if you are able, match up a new voter with a long time voter and get them to promise each other they will vote – leave it up to each pair to be responsible to do that – that way, we can concentrate our efforts on just the setup.
- For the African American community let’s go to churches and get the Pastors involved
- Many states change the way people vote as well. Make sure that you are aware of those voting changes so that you can inform others. Example: TN used voting machines, but I learned during the 2010 election that we are going back to paper ballots
- Get everyone to get their state ID’s early, to check on their voter registration early, and to keep up with polling places. Vote early if possible-vote suppression tactics are used towards the end when people are tired and the time is short.
Rock the Vote is good, and there is Motor Voter (forms are available at your DMV, food stamp, even your public library). If you haven’t voted since Obama’s victory, depending upon your state, your registration may have lapsed. Have you moved, even to the apartment next door? Check to see if you need to update your registration or re-register. Change your name, move? Check your registration? Committed a felony or incurred some other legal sanction? Check your registration. Some states ban voting by felons (a truly heinous and discriminatory practice), and you may need to be sure your state isn’t one of them.
- The people who have signaled that they don’t intend to work for the President this time need to be pointed in the direction of the down ticket.
HANDOUTS / FLYERS
- Since many voters are not internet saavy, add BWD blog website to the bottom. Factsheet info can be gound at whitehouse.gov, recovery.gov and healthcare.gov
- When dealing with those who appear clueless on the Prez and his achievements a 1-10 talking points scorecard on victories that show progress and/or legislation, versus a 1-10 on the GOP.
- Archive of links to useful handouts stored at WIW
FACEBOOK / TWITTER
- Folks can teach us how to build effective Facebook groups.
- Videos & written instructions on how to set up a facebook page or become someone’s friend.
- Expand your “friend” base on Facebook.
- The Offical Obama Facebook page: Taken off of the OFA site itself:
http://www.facebook.com/barackobama
- Include your Facebook page address so we can become friends with at least 1 Facebook expert and learn from them.
- When Facebook users post daily comments, they let us know at BWD and we "like" their page.
- Sonjia is friends with most of the party, shows and events promoters in Maryland that cater to the peeps that she wants to reach.Has radio dj, african american news papers and blogs reporters as friends.
Records of the governor, senator, house of rep. local candidates were circulated on Facebook.
Recently I attended an event and people I did not know thanked me for my facebook information that they read every morning before starting their day. Most popular was the Health reform, college, and housing info.
- a facebook group that demonstrates how the talking heads on cable and the networks have been engaged in a disinformation campaign in this country, while at the same time directing people to more positive, fact-based information and content like this blog and others on the blog roll.
- On days that are significant to the campaign, we could all change our avatars/pictures on Facebook to the Obama logo for the day.
- A web page on how to tweet, how to gain twitter followers, how to make your blog posts easy to retweet, etc.
- I tweeted this the other day – Get Your free Radical Republican Agenda Fact Card: http://dems.me/h2IUVW (the DCCC) – short, good to know facts to post on Twitter or FB.
- Go follow BWD on Twitter – @theonlyadult and retweet stuff. When using the Twitter share link from this site, I try to include her username,
- I have the OFA banner on my avatar on Twitter, @judygreeno.com.
FUND RAISING
- BWD comes up with a way to donate to the campaign
- OFA
- Use Facebook to generate fundraising
- We raised money on the Obama Blog during the election by starting what is now known as “Money Bombs”. We would have money bomb virtual parties on Friday nights where we raised money for the Obama Campaign. We made it fun and lots of people would support it.
- Set up monthly donation to PBO campaign
OFA
- join local group, if no group exists, start one.
PLEASE look for a local group and give them a few hours of your time. Even if you are not especially fond of phone banking or canvassing there are other activities you can take part in.
- If there is no way your state will vote for Obama, you can still support his campaign.
You can go to a neighboring state to help win that state, have a local fundraising houseparty, or make phone calls to swing states. I guarantee there are people who live in your area who are dying to do something, who feel they are out in the political wilderness and want to do their part.
The opposite is also in deep blue states. If there is no way that the GOP will win your state or district, there are OFA activities which allow you to help out where things are more contested.
- Our OFA group has issues subgroups that are keeping people engaged (in this pre-election time period) on understanding issues like health care reform, immigration, etc. We have a media response subgroup, plus many others. My job is community outreach, where we will work to enlist the hundreds/thousands of volunteers that will be needed for the 2012 election. It’s too early for door knocking and phone banking, but it’s not too early to get these folks signed up, engaged, and raring to go for 2012.
- Whenever either national or local GOP takes policy positions which attack the working/middle class we should highlight these attacks. Missouri just blocked federal funding for unemployment so many will lose benefits.
- Don’t just focus on President Obama. We need to hold the Senate and win back the House, governors and state legislatures are also important.
- When dealing with those who appear clueless on the Prez and his achievements a 1-10 talking points scorecard on victories that show progress and/or legislation, versus a 1-10 on the GOP.
- Put out information that compares and contrasts the 2 parties.Which party is taking away peoples right to collective bargaining, attempting to disenfranchise people, take away a women right to choose, take away your right not be discriminated against for pre-existing conditions?
- Create a site/link dedicated to “Republican Watch” The thought process is simple. Provide a side by side view of what Republicans offer, vs. what Dems offer in terms of the issues. Results should be based on facts minus any spin. Just an honest view of the reality of it all. For example:
Civil Rights, Defense, Disabilities, Economy, Energy and Environment, Ethics, Family, Fiscal Responsibility, Foreign Policy, Healthcare, Homeland Security, Immigration, Poverty, Rural, Seniors & Social Security, Service, Taxes, Technology, Urban Policy, Veterans, Women
- handy charts and graphs capabilities in Word come in. This stuff can be reduced to images which will bring home a point simple discussion never can.
- Start directing your political friends to blogs such as this and or the ones on the blogroll. Ask people to join these sites. We need to kind of nudge people to the right places to get viable information. Once here its addictive and it won’t take much to get them engaged.
- donate money to blogs that are speaking the truth – whether the blogs are stating their fair criticism with respect, or just talking about good things that have happened. Support blogs and newspapers who are fighting the good fight.
- Someone might want to take on the unwelcome task of lurking on Republican sites and scoping out the strategy of the opposition, so we could be more easily prepared to counter their moves.
- Obama for America - http://www.barackobama.com/
- WHITEHOUSE.GOV WEBSITE: Consider having whitehouse.gov as your homepage. I do and I continue to be amazed at the projects and intitiatives taking place on a daily basis. Give the link to friends, family, neighbours. Make them aware of the white house youtube channel too.
- WHITEHOUSE.GOV E-MAIL UPDATES: Sign-up for email updates from whitehouse.gov You will be kept abreast of the Saturday address, West Wing Week, White Board Presentations, In Case You Missed It, Daily Snapshots, speeches, daily schedule of activities and more.
- ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA: Sign-up for updates and volunteer at local OFA headquarters.
- MEDIA CONTACT INFORMATION: Establish a one stop shopping list of contact information (email addresses) for all of the network/cable shows and also print media to voice complaints and compliments on coverage of the President Obama.
- PROTECT OUR PROGRESS: PROGRESS is designed to show the real effects of the steps President Obama and Democrats have taken to rebuild our economy. Enter your zip code to find out how your district has been helped. http://progress.democrats.org/
- I really wish more Americans were seeing the Saturday address and West Wing Week
EXPERTS
To create a list here of skill sets that the community has, so people can ask for assistance with projects.
Tigerfist
donna dem 4 obama
Tori - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_111222922277639&ap=1
Sonjia
Cheivan
Betsey
Catzmaw
Apple Needs to Make it in America
