Okay, now we're in the homestretch. With less than two weeks to go until we leave for Denver, we need you to really commit to helping us get to Denver. Even if you can only toss us a few bucks, please do it as soon as you can. We want to get things taken care of before prices rise on travel costs and the like. The sooner you donate to us, the less money we have to raise. Pay day is tomorrow or the next day for many people. Please set aside a little bit to help us get to Denver, be it $10, $25, $50 or more.
And we've just set up a deal where we're going to be able to bring you videoblogging from Denver as well. Look for multiple video updates from us each day in addition to our blog and radio coverage.
In our fundraising efforts to attend the Democratic Convention in August, we've decided to focus on a small donor campaign. We originally figured out that it'll take us 240 people contributing $25 each for us to reach what we need to go to Denver and provide you with the best convention coverage in America. We've managed to cut some costs, though, so we've reduced that number a bit. So far, we have the equivalent of 118 ($2940). That means we need only about $1000 more to be able to cover our costs. That's just 32 more $25 donors. We need you to be one of them.
(BTW, if you want a preview of our Denver coverage, check out our Netroots Nation 2008 Coverage).
Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause.
If we don't get the 32 donations we still need, someone will have to stay home and miss the convention. That shouldn't happen, as there's no need for your $25 to prevent someone from going, so give as soon and as often as you can.
We'll also publicly thank all of the donors, so let us know if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. Our latest contributions came from:
Gil Creque
fletch
Dan Smith
Rochelle & Byron Cisneros
Zannel
You can read more about Florida Progressive Coalition's fundraiser and Democratic Convention Coverage if you'd like.
Showing posts with label Democratic National Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Democratic National Convention. Show all posts
Monday, August 11, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
60 More Small Donors to Get FPC to Denver
Okay, now we're in the homestretch. With less than four weeks to go until we leave for Denver, we need you to really commit to helping us get to Denver. Even if you can only toss us a few bucks, please do it as soon as you can. We want to get things taken care of before prices rise on travel costs and the like. The sooner you donate to us, the less money we have to raise. Pay day is tomorrow or the next day for many people. Please set aside a little bit to help us get to Denver, be it $10, $25, $50 or more.
In our fundraising efforts to attend the Democratic Convention in August, we've decided to focus on a small donor campaign. We originally figured out that it'll take us 240 people contributing $25 each for us to reach what we need to go to Denver and provide you with the best convention coverage in America. We've managed to cut some costs, though, so we've reduced that number a bit. So far, we have the equivalent of 98 ($2460). That means we need only about $1500 more to be able to cover our costs. That's just 60 more $25 donors. We need you to be one of them.
(BTW, if you want a preview of our Denver coverage, check out our Netroots Nation 2008 Coverage).
Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause.
If we don't get the 60 donations we still need, someone will have to stay home and miss the convention. That shouldn't happen, as there's no need for your $25 to prevent someone from going, so give as soon and as often as you can.
We'll also publicly thank all of the donors, so let us know if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. Our latest contributions came from:
Rosa Castro Feinberg
Leslie Scales
Ed Luscinskas
Edwin Wujciak
Ellyn Stevenson
Ben Kirby
Katherine Howard
Linda Miklowitz
Roxane Dow
Shirley Zahn
Susan & Kenneth McLeod
Norma Washington
Ray & Delphine Herbert
Nancy Noonan
You can read more about Florida Progressive Coalition's fundraiser and Democratic Convention Coverage if you'd like.
In our fundraising efforts to attend the Democratic Convention in August, we've decided to focus on a small donor campaign. We originally figured out that it'll take us 240 people contributing $25 each for us to reach what we need to go to Denver and provide you with the best convention coverage in America. We've managed to cut some costs, though, so we've reduced that number a bit. So far, we have the equivalent of 98 ($2460). That means we need only about $1500 more to be able to cover our costs. That's just 60 more $25 donors. We need you to be one of them.
(BTW, if you want a preview of our Denver coverage, check out our Netroots Nation 2008 Coverage).
Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause.
If we don't get the 60 donations we still need, someone will have to stay home and miss the convention. That shouldn't happen, as there's no need for your $25 to prevent someone from going, so give as soon and as often as you can.
We'll also publicly thank all of the donors, so let us know if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. Our latest contributions came from:
Rosa Castro Feinberg
Leslie Scales
Ed Luscinskas
Edwin Wujciak
Ellyn Stevenson
Ben Kirby
Katherine Howard
Linda Miklowitz
Roxane Dow
Shirley Zahn
Susan & Kenneth McLeod
Norma Washington
Ray & Delphine Herbert
Nancy Noonan
You can read more about Florida Progressive Coalition's fundraiser and Democratic Convention Coverage if you'd like.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
198 Small Donors to Go
In our fundraising efforts to attend the Democratic Convention in August, we've decided to focus on a small donor campaign. We figured out that it'll take us 240 people contributing $25 each for us to reach what we need to go to Denver and provide you with the best convention coverage in America. So far, we have the equivalent of 42 ($1050), leaving us 198 to go. Anyone reading this should be able to donate $25 to help us get there.
Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause.
If we don't get the 198 donations we still need, someone will have to stay home and miss the convention. That shouldn't happen, as there's no need for your $25 to prevent someone from going, so give as soon and as often as you can.
We'll also publicly thank all of the donors, so let us know if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. Our first two contributions came from:
Roz/Don Moffett
Alison Berke Morano
Rick Spisak
Susan Smith
James Henry
Mark Glickman
Candace Palmer
Mr. & Ms. Hope
Alan Farago
Ray Seaman
Lori Poole
Annette Odom
N. Todd Pritsky & Ericka
Mike
Maria Szabo
Here's the full pitch:
As you may already know, Florida Progressive Coalition has been selected as Florida's official blogger representative at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. We take this as an honor that we will do our best to live up to. We can't do it alone, though, we need your help. Before I ask for that, though, let me tell you what we'll be bringing you. The official schedule for the convention hasn't been set yet, but I attended the convention in 2004 and there has been some info released about what will happen. And now that the news networks are declaring that the convention is a "non-news event" you won't know much about what happens in Denver. Or if you read the extensive coverage that Florida Progressive Coalition will bring you.
We're sending a delegation of eight people to Denver (we'll start introducing them to you via the blog and radio show over the next few weeks). While the group isn't quite as diverse as we'd like, it is more diverse than many other state blog delegations. We're one of the few groups that will be bringing an African-American. We also have three people under 25 in attendance and a few who are old enough to not want their ages mentioned here. We have more men than women, but we have more women that most states. We have North, Central and South Florida covered. We have people from urban and from rural counties. We have experienced bloggers and newbies. And unlike the process in some other states, we opened our delegation up to anyone who requested it and could make the trip. We'll also be working with a few other bloggers or blogger-friendly people who are delegates or will otherwise be attending the convention.
So what does that mean? That we have a virtual army of people to cover the convention. We can spread out our people at as many of the events possible and provide you the broadest and most in-depth coverage of the convention anywhere. Florida Progressive Coalition has done a lot of liveblogging in the past, so we have several experienced people who will do that during the more notable events and speeches. We'll also send our members to the various committee meetings, including the Credentials Committee, which will decide the final fate of the voting power of the Florida delegation. We'll blog that one live and you'll probably here the outcome from us before you hear it from anyone else in the world.
We'll bring you coverage of the Florida delegation breakfast meeting, which will be loaded with speakers. Because of Florida's stature as a swing state, we attract many high profile people. In addition to the best of the best of Florida politicians, we'll get top members of Congress, the Obama team and elsewhere in politics. In Boston in 2004, the delegate breakfasts featured guests like Bob Graham, Michael Moore, Elizabeth Edwards and Max Cleland, amongst many others.
We'll bring you live coverage of the many training sessions that will go on during the convention as well as constituency caucus meetings. We'll bring you coverage of the debate and discussion on the party's national platform. We'll bring you wall-to-wall coverage of speeches and events from the floor of the convention. We'll bring you coverage of Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech at mile high stadium.
But we'll go beyond simple the high profile events. We'll introduce you to the delegates from Florida with personal profiles. We'll do live radio shows from Denver and try to get some guests we might not normally get. We'll report from the multitude of unofficial events surrounding the convention, such as the things that happen in the bloggers' Big Tent. We'll give you a nightly group round-up of what were the best and worst things we saw that day and we'll bring you a taste of the parties and other social events as well.
So that's what you'll get. How will we get it to you? Through your contributions. We need to raise $6000 to cover the costs of the trip. Are whole delegation will be raising the money and we'll do it through advertising sales, sponsorships and through small donations. Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause. You'll help pay for the most meaningful political experience of several people's young lives, you'll be training the next generation of Florida leaders and you'll pay helping us provide the best coverage of the convention in the entire country.
No donation is too small. Six $1000 contributions work out to be the same as 6000 $1 contributions. I'm sure you can do something in between.
Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause.
If we don't get the 198 donations we still need, someone will have to stay home and miss the convention. That shouldn't happen, as there's no need for your $25 to prevent someone from going, so give as soon and as often as you can.
We'll also publicly thank all of the donors, so let us know if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. Our first two contributions came from:
Roz/Don Moffett
Alison Berke Morano
Rick Spisak
Susan Smith
James Henry
Mark Glickman
Candace Palmer
Mr. & Ms. Hope
Alan Farago
Ray Seaman
Lori Poole
Annette Odom
N. Todd Pritsky & Ericka
Mike
Maria Szabo
Here's the full pitch:
As you may already know, Florida Progressive Coalition has been selected as Florida's official blogger representative at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. We take this as an honor that we will do our best to live up to. We can't do it alone, though, we need your help. Before I ask for that, though, let me tell you what we'll be bringing you. The official schedule for the convention hasn't been set yet, but I attended the convention in 2004 and there has been some info released about what will happen. And now that the news networks are declaring that the convention is a "non-news event" you won't know much about what happens in Denver. Or if you read the extensive coverage that Florida Progressive Coalition will bring you.
We're sending a delegation of eight people to Denver (we'll start introducing them to you via the blog and radio show over the next few weeks). While the group isn't quite as diverse as we'd like, it is more diverse than many other state blog delegations. We're one of the few groups that will be bringing an African-American. We also have three people under 25 in attendance and a few who are old enough to not want their ages mentioned here. We have more men than women, but we have more women that most states. We have North, Central and South Florida covered. We have people from urban and from rural counties. We have experienced bloggers and newbies. And unlike the process in some other states, we opened our delegation up to anyone who requested it and could make the trip. We'll also be working with a few other bloggers or blogger-friendly people who are delegates or will otherwise be attending the convention.
So what does that mean? That we have a virtual army of people to cover the convention. We can spread out our people at as many of the events possible and provide you the broadest and most in-depth coverage of the convention anywhere. Florida Progressive Coalition has done a lot of liveblogging in the past, so we have several experienced people who will do that during the more notable events and speeches. We'll also send our members to the various committee meetings, including the Credentials Committee, which will decide the final fate of the voting power of the Florida delegation. We'll blog that one live and you'll probably here the outcome from us before you hear it from anyone else in the world.
We'll bring you coverage of the Florida delegation breakfast meeting, which will be loaded with speakers. Because of Florida's stature as a swing state, we attract many high profile people. In addition to the best of the best of Florida politicians, we'll get top members of Congress, the Obama team and elsewhere in politics. In Boston in 2004, the delegate breakfasts featured guests like Bob Graham, Michael Moore, Elizabeth Edwards and Max Cleland, amongst many others.
We'll bring you live coverage of the many training sessions that will go on during the convention as well as constituency caucus meetings. We'll bring you coverage of the debate and discussion on the party's national platform. We'll bring you wall-to-wall coverage of speeches and events from the floor of the convention. We'll bring you coverage of Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech at mile high stadium.
But we'll go beyond simple the high profile events. We'll introduce you to the delegates from Florida with personal profiles. We'll do live radio shows from Denver and try to get some guests we might not normally get. We'll report from the multitude of unofficial events surrounding the convention, such as the things that happen in the bloggers' Big Tent. We'll give you a nightly group round-up of what were the best and worst things we saw that day and we'll bring you a taste of the parties and other social events as well.
So that's what you'll get. How will we get it to you? Through your contributions. We need to raise $6000 to cover the costs of the trip. Are whole delegation will be raising the money and we'll do it through advertising sales, sponsorships and through small donations. Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:
Kenneth Quinnell
3328 Whirlaway Trail
Tallahassee, FL 32309
You can also inquire about advertising by sending me an e-mail. FPC is a media entity set up as an LLC, so we don't fall under campaign finance laws and contributions are not tax-deductible. But they do go to a good cause. You'll help pay for the most meaningful political experience of several people's young lives, you'll be training the next generation of Florida leaders and you'll pay helping us provide the best coverage of the convention in the entire country.
No donation is too small. Six $1000 contributions work out to be the same as 6000 $1 contributions. I'm sure you can do something in between.
Monday, May 19, 2008
DemCon08 -- Problems with State Blogger Selection
Wow, who knew that it would be so difficult to invite state-level bloggers to cover the Democratic National Convention? It started out well, with the DNC deciding to credential a blog for each state and territory and grant them unprecedented convention access. That's a brilliant idea and one that I doubt anybody could complain about (except maybe the traditional media). But it looks like there wasn't enough thought put into the process. Whether this was out of a lack of foresight or something else, I'm inclined to think the former, but that doesn't mean that there weren't mistakes made and that some of the decisions made were very questionable at best.
There are two major complaints about the selections made: the lack of diversity and the apparent fact that some blogs were chosen over more qualified competitors based on questionable criteria or insider "vetoes."
The overwhelming majority of the 54 state/territory blogs are run by straight white males. While it is difficult to come up with an exact number, since many bloggers don't publicly identify themselves by demographic characteristics. Part of the problem, at least from what I can tell, is that bloggers who aren't straight white males are less likely to blog about state politics and are more likely to write about national and social issues. Since the people who chose the state blogs were interested in state politics as the topic of the blogs that were chosen, that presents a problem. I'm not sure, though, that this is a legitimate criteria for choosing blogs to attend the national convention. Is the blogger coverage meant to be about state politics, or is it meant to be coverage of national politics meant to be delivered to local audiences? Seems to me it's the latter, which means that this criteria doesn't make a lot of sense. I'd also suggest that, much like Florida did with its delegate selection plan, an affirmative action plan would've been a good idea. Hopefully, most of this will be remedied in the general blogger pool selections that are forthcoming. If not, then the Democratic Party will have created a much larger problem with this process than it was seeking to solve by granting access. Don't forget we're talking about bloggers, people who write about the things that piss them off, particularly when it appears to be based on identity (or based on ignoring people's identity.
More on this topic:
The Francis L. Holland Blog -- Jim Crow Blogging at the Democratic National Convention?
African American Political Pundit -- Black bloggers to the back of the bus!
Pam's House Blend -- Democratic National Convention state blog selection dustup.
In the other instance, a number of high quality blogs -- Cotton Mouth, Left in Alabama, the Albany Project, BlueJersey, Michigan Liberal -- failed to get the invite while other blogs, rightly or wrongly, were chosen despite being nonpartisan, nonactivist, nonprogressive or owned by the media. Some accounts suggest local Democratic Party officials vetoed some of these (and maybe others) and chose blogs that gave them more favorable coverage instead. I don't know about that one way or the other, but if it did happen, it's certainly wrong. Who gives Democrats worse coverage than Fox News? They get a credential. But blogs written by diehard progressive Democrats don't? If we want our blogs to be run top-down, without criticism, then we'll end up with the nonexistent Republican blogosphere. We don't want that, however, because it is useless. The whole reason that the Democratic/progressive blogs are so successful is because they have freedom to tell the truth. Refusing to give credentials to blogs that tell the truth is a bad idea and a bad precedent. Hopefully these mistakes will be remedied relatively quickly. I understand that seating/space is limited, but there are a few of these blogs (at least those noted above) that should be not only invited to the convention, but given full floor access as well. We should be rewarding bloggers who are doing the job of both the traditional media and of the political party itself, when it comes to helping get out the party message to new audiences and helping get candidates election.
More on this topic:
Cotton Mouth -- Cotton Mouth Is Not Going To The Democratic Convention (And Why).
Open Left -- Clamping Down on Blog Dissent: More Evidence of State Blogger Problems.
Open Left -- State Parties Nixing State Blogs from the Convention?
There are two major complaints about the selections made: the lack of diversity and the apparent fact that some blogs were chosen over more qualified competitors based on questionable criteria or insider "vetoes."
The overwhelming majority of the 54 state/territory blogs are run by straight white males. While it is difficult to come up with an exact number, since many bloggers don't publicly identify themselves by demographic characteristics. Part of the problem, at least from what I can tell, is that bloggers who aren't straight white males are less likely to blog about state politics and are more likely to write about national and social issues. Since the people who chose the state blogs were interested in state politics as the topic of the blogs that were chosen, that presents a problem. I'm not sure, though, that this is a legitimate criteria for choosing blogs to attend the national convention. Is the blogger coverage meant to be about state politics, or is it meant to be coverage of national politics meant to be delivered to local audiences? Seems to me it's the latter, which means that this criteria doesn't make a lot of sense. I'd also suggest that, much like Florida did with its delegate selection plan, an affirmative action plan would've been a good idea. Hopefully, most of this will be remedied in the general blogger pool selections that are forthcoming. If not, then the Democratic Party will have created a much larger problem with this process than it was seeking to solve by granting access. Don't forget we're talking about bloggers, people who write about the things that piss them off, particularly when it appears to be based on identity (or based on ignoring people's identity.
The Francis L. Holland Blog -- Jim Crow Blogging at the Democratic National Convention?
African American Political Pundit -- Black bloggers to the back of the bus!
Pam's House Blend -- Democratic National Convention state blog selection dustup.
In the other instance, a number of high quality blogs -- Cotton Mouth, Left in Alabama, the Albany Project, BlueJersey, Michigan Liberal -- failed to get the invite while other blogs, rightly or wrongly, were chosen despite being nonpartisan, nonactivist, nonprogressive or owned by the media. Some accounts suggest local Democratic Party officials vetoed some of these (and maybe others) and chose blogs that gave them more favorable coverage instead. I don't know about that one way or the other, but if it did happen, it's certainly wrong. Who gives Democrats worse coverage than Fox News? They get a credential. But blogs written by diehard progressive Democrats don't? If we want our blogs to be run top-down, without criticism, then we'll end up with the nonexistent Republican blogosphere. We don't want that, however, because it is useless. The whole reason that the Democratic/progressive blogs are so successful is because they have freedom to tell the truth. Refusing to give credentials to blogs that tell the truth is a bad idea and a bad precedent. Hopefully these mistakes will be remedied relatively quickly. I understand that seating/space is limited, but there are a few of these blogs (at least those noted above) that should be not only invited to the convention, but given full floor access as well. We should be rewarding bloggers who are doing the job of both the traditional media and of the political party itself, when it comes to helping get out the party message to new audiences and helping get candidates election.
Cotton Mouth -- Cotton Mouth Is Not Going To The Democratic Convention (And Why).
Open Left -- Clamping Down on Blog Dissent: More Evidence of State Blogger Problems.
Open Left -- State Parties Nixing State Blogs from the Convention?
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