Thursday, October 30, 2008

The End of the Republican Party as We Know It?

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?source=most_commented&story_id=12470555

In this article, The Economist analyzes the apparent fall of the Republican party. Five days before the election with all of the polls reporting that Obama is going to win, it sure does seem that the once unshakeable GOP has been shaken to its core. Nonetheless, five days is still a long way to go. Anything can happen. I mean, McCain is the comeback kid.

If Obama does win, what does that mean for the Republicans? That is largely up to the party leadership. The GOP will have to reinvent itself, that goes without saying. How long that reinvention will take and what the ultimate reincarnation will be is yet to be seen.

If McCain wins, who knows. Will there be eight more years of Bush policies? Or, will McCain prove to be the maverick he claims?

All that is certain, is that these next several years are going to be interesting.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Don't Stop at the Top



Good advice from this website if you live in California. In a state that is so initiative-driven, do make sure you go through everything that is going to be on the ballot.


http://dontstopatthetop.org/

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Possible Democratic Majority Only a Temporary Budget Fix

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-dems22-2008oct22,0,7956359.story

Political analysts are projecting that Democrats may gain a few extra seats in the California legislature this election. If this happens, the battle over the budget may not be as severe next year as it was this year. The article states that remaining Republicans might be more willing to break away from party leadership if their numbers are reduced.

This is good news. I for one breathed a tiny sigh of relief. However, I had to remind myself that the outcome of the upcoming election is still speculation. Who knows what will happen. Also, this would just be a short term fix. Once Democrats start losing seats again, we could potentially be stuck in the same mess. It is time for the legislature to reexamine its approach to the budget so that we might avoid another 85 days without a budget.

Arnold and Warren at the Women's Conference

Some memorable quotes...

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/

Michael J. Fox at The Women's Conference

Michael J. Fox and Russell Simmons engage in a conversation with Deborah Norville. MJF bestowed insight and some great zingers to the crowd.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/806260

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Live Blogging from the Women's Conference


http://www.californiawomen.org/liveblogs


Check me out tomorrow!

I signed the Dove pledge...check out the Women's Conference Live Blog to find out why.

The New California Legislative Analyst

Inquiring minds want to know...

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1331386.html.

Time to Reevaluate What's Important

http://www.sacbee.com/walters/story/1329798.html

Today, Dan Walters of the Sac Bee wrote about the new developments in California's fiscal crisis. After the election, the Governor is planning to call a special session to address the ever increasing deficit. What will the Governor likely propose? Most likely cuts rather then increased taxes to raise revenue.

Admittedly, there is fat that must be trimmed from some of our state programs. Money is not being used efficiently, or at all, in some. However, the answer is not knee-jerk, across the board, cuts. What would really benefit our great state is asking the legislature to take a long hard look at all of our state programs to get a realistic assessment of what really needs to be fixed and what we can afford to cut.

What we must also come to terms with as a state is the prospect of higher taxes. We all enjoy having roads to drive on and schools to send our children to, but those things cost money and no one wants to pay the price. It is time for all residents of California to sit down and really think about what is important. If we want quality education, it has to be funded. If we want reasonably priced public transportation, it has to be funded. If we want a sense of security from knowing law enforcement is out on patrol, that has to be funded too.

The question is are the citizens of California ever going to be ready to chip in a little more?

UStream for Women's Conference

Check me out tomorrow night and Wednesday live blogging at the Women's Conference. I will post my own video highlights to my UStream Channel:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/christina-gagnier?preview=1

The Millennials--Biggest Issue: The Haves v. The Have Notes

In a recent panel I participated in on the show Speak On It, I commented that the biggest issue with THIS generation would be the split between the "haves" and "have nots."

From a generational perspective, research confirms Millennials do not see race to be as much of a "factor" as previous generations. What will be an issue, due to the failure of both our technology infrastructure and education system, will be those who suffer in an advanced information economy: socioeconomically-disadvantaged Millennials of all colors in our poor urban and rural communities.

Monday, October 20, 2008

A Better Ensemble: Sarah Palin on SNL

Sarah Palin's appearance on SNL has received mixed reviews. From a strategic perspective, I just don't think SNL or the McCain/Palin campaign capitalized on the opportunity to gain more credibility for their interests.

For Palin, we did not see her be funny, yet serious, inserting herself into the pop culture of the middle-of-the-road voters watching at 11:30 Saturday night.

For SNL, Tina Fey may be giving the show a ratings boost right now, but SNL generally otherwise resembles the McCain campaign: an old hand in the game, increasingly shaky, and losing what it was always good for.

What both the McCain campaign and SNL need right now is a better ensemble.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Christina Gagnier on Speak On It



Christina Gagnier, reppin' Mobilize.org on Speak On It.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

For Travelers Who Want to Get in the Zone

What a find!


http://www.cashuttlebus.com/services.asp


Amtrak is too expensive, the airport is just a hassle, but for Downtown LA or SF folks, under $80 bucks roundtrip.

Likely bring your extra battery pack for your laptop, but great way to travel. Leaves after traffic and misses traffic both ways.

Sound Advice on Using Twitter


With new technology, it is always important to figure out the best ways to use it, whether for growing your small business, or getting across your message to constituents.

From the NY Times:

http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/how-twitter-can-help-at-work/

Saturday, October 11, 2008

John Lilly from Mozilla

Free Software and the promotion of free culture

Phrase of the Day

"Civic Hacking"

Larry Lessig on Remix

Watch online!!!

Free Culture Update: Open Source Museum

Also...check out the first Open Source Museum at www.bampf.berkeley.edu.

Updates from Free Culture: Okapi Island

If you are a fan of archaeology and on Second Life, check out Okapi Island. There you can catch a student run archaeology class from UC Berkeley.

Gagnier Margossian at Free Culture


G & M are at Free Culture at UC Berkeley today. Check out the conference online, http://live.yahoo.com/okapi.

We will be live blogging all day from the conference.

John Lilly from Mozilla and Larry Lessig of Stanford and Change Congress to present.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Women's Conference 2008


Live blogging at the Women's Conference 2008 in Long Beach.

http://www.californiawomen.org/

Be your own pollster!


Sweet app.

http://strawpollnow.com/

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Election Track

Scott Lay puts together this wonderful campaign finance reporting tool, http://www.electiontrack.com/.

I get updates every night on who is contributing to what. Very telling.

Check it out.

So California Love

Gagnier Margossian will now have camp set up in both Sacramento and Los Angeles.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Life is GOOD


My new favorite thing is the GOOD Sheet, issued by GOOD Magazine.

GOOD Sheets are great! They are newsprint quarter-fold booklets that break down domestic and international issues. I have only seen issues 3 and 4, on Immigration and Gas Prices.

What a great idea! It is small enough to fit in someone's purse and easily digestible information.

Check it out. Grab one at your local Starbucks while you wait for your cup of joe or one of the other mocha fruity frosty concoctions people order.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Our Second Life



A fascinating legal world lies ahead for our firm, and both of us just joined the Second Life Bar Association. Even if the law has not quite caught up to technology, it will be forced to, with both the online privacy issues that emerge with online portals like Facebook or with the property issues that emerge with the virtual items that are purchased on Second Life.

A key question we have: Our legal system has enough problems handling "this life." How will it handle the "second" one?

Website: http://www.slba.info/

Handle

Much has been said and written lately about Sarah Palin's "flubs" in her news interviews. While I will not discuss from a political perspective whether or not I agree with Ms. Palin as a viable candidate, I will say this: the behind the scenes folks at the McCain campaign need to "handle" her public discourse.

As a consultant, campaign aide, or the guy that does the coffee runs, you are responsible for maintaining the public image of the candidate. In this presidential election, one that may mark the beginning of a new epoch, it is especially important that everything behind the scenes of both campaigns be handled with precision and care.

Both campaigns...you got only a little more than four weeks. Handle!

Communication Breakdown

No one will disagree that the United States economy is in crisis. However, no one can seem to agree on a solution. Last week, Congress was battling to get a bailout bill through. Monday, after everyone expected it to pass...it didn't.

Members who voted the bill down sited the outrage they heard from their constituents. The cry on Capitol Hill that day was, "How can we bail out Wall Street when Main Street suffers?!" However, when the bill failed the question was, "No what are we going to do?" There was panic. We were dealing with the unknown, and our markets do not function well under those circumstances.

So how did a big mess become even bigger? There was a communication break down. All the public heard about the bill was that it would cost the people $700 billion. There were very few particulars beyond that. Without any other information to go on, the public thought the worst, and expressed their outrage. This was a huge public relations flub. If anyone, whether it be the Bush administration or Congress wanted to get this deal through, they needed to sell it. They failed to do this.

As a nation, we find ourselves asking the collective question, "How did we find ourselves in this position?" We now know the answer: Poor salesmanship.