Tom Grover of KVNU for The People just called and sent this to me asking if I would go in his stead. I hadn’t been invited oddly enough. As founder of the most popular political blog in Utah, one would think…
But then again, Chris Cannon will be there. One can only assume he’d prefer mainstream progressive Utahns stay away.
I called Dave and asked why OneUtah bloggers weren’t invited. Didn’t really get a good answer.
I happen to have an 11am meeting on campus, so I’ll take Dave up on his invitation and check it out. I encourage any off you contributing authors to come.
You can submit and vote on questions for Cannon here http://politic20.com/
Details and press release below.
Tom
Hi Tom: I thought you would be interested in knowing about a political blogging event next Wednesday -- more info shown below and attached. We've only invited political bloggers/media and have only 25 seats available. Please reply if you'd like to talk more about it or to RSVP - [LINK: jarvi@politic20.com 947-3853 - direct -Dave Jarvi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New interactive political convention format bringing bloggers, general public and politicians together Salt Lake internet startup company to host political blogging event.
Politicians will entertain questions from bloggers on April 11th, from 9-10AM at the Hinckley Institute of Politics on the University of Utah campus. The event is part of the launch of Politic2.0's conventionNext, a new convention format allowing internet users and convention attendees direct access to politicians.
Cannon will meet with a limited number of bloggers in a town-hall style format April 11th from 9-10AM. Traditional media (TV, Radio, Newspaper) outlets are invited to observe, but the bloggers will be the bulk of participants asking questions. Major politicians and
Traditional media (TV, Radio, Newspaper) outlets are invited to observe, but the bloggers will be the bulk of participants asking questions. Bloggers will have full access to WiFi, computers and other resources to cover the event live. While the event is targeted toward bloggers, the community can participate directly on [LINK: http://politic20.com/] Politic20.com.
People can log on to the site, see live streaming video of the event, submit and vote on questions to be asked to Congressman Cannon and see what other bloggers are saying in real-time. "Our sites are still in the early stages of development, but we really feel like getting the community involved in the process is crucial to create something useful for everyone," said Phil Burns, Cofounder and Chief Technology Overseer of Politic2.0.
About Politic2.0
Politic2.0 aims to be a resource for political candidates and the general public to understand what internet influencers are saying about candidates and policies. Utilizing technology provided by Utah county-based TagJungle, Politic2.0 aggregates blogger posts up to the second and analyzes the data for important trends, keywords and topics. WikiReview, a Salt Lake based internet startup, is the other half of the Politic2.0 equation, allowing users to contribute political opinions in a collaborative wikipedia style database. Politic2.0 will provide a way to find analytic data on the political trends of both the blogosphere and reviewers.
About WikiReview
WikiReview is the subjective counterpart to Wikipedia. WikiReview is a website that lets anyone write and edit reviews about everything. It's an enormous encyclopedia of opinion about people, places, things. WikiReview will allow people to give their reaction to everything and anything in a large forum that is perpetually up-to-date and always growing. About TagJungle Tag Jungle's is a blog search engine combined with an advanced analytical engine that analyzes trends, keywords and topics. [LINK: http://www.tagjungle.com/}
#1 by Tom Grover - April 10th, 2007 at 19:43
Bueller? Bueller?
So who’s going? I’m only going if the Cook Kids of the Bloghive are!
#2 by Marshall - April 10th, 2007 at 20:16
I have a job, but I am submitting questions as we speak.
#3 by Marshall - April 10th, 2007 at 20:29
Could everyone do me a favor if you have time – go here (http://conventionnext.politic20.com/) create a quick login, it only takes a second and vote for the tougher questions for Cannon, I am creating several right now.
A quick sampling of my questions.
Why did you vote against the bill to reduce student loan interest rates?
Could you please explain your 2006 Disabled American Veterans rating of 0?
#4 by Tom Grover - April 10th, 2007 at 20:35
Predicted answers:
1. Lower rates makes loans more attractive, increasing the amount of debt used by students, increasing cash available for tuition, driving tuition up.
2. Their methodology is skewed and inaccurate. I love Disable American Veterans and puppy dogs, warm fuzzies and bunny rabbits. They’re all important to me.
Not to rain on your parade or argue that your questions aren’t legitimate. I like htem and will vote for them.
#5 by Voice of Utah - April 10th, 2007 at 20:43
I wanted to go, too, but they’re filming it, which is a problem for those of us who have to blog anonymously. I have submitted a question, though, and will try to think of others. I would think this is a natural for you, Cliff, even if you are the worst blog of all time (I’m rooting for you!)
#6 by Tom Grover - April 10th, 2007 at 21:29
Voice of Utah not going?
One less cook kid.
I’m still iffy. I don’t have any of tomorrow’s show even started. I have no idea what we will do.
#7 by Todd - April 10th, 2007 at 22:16
I think they dissed the cool kids. They invited noted blogger Wayne Holland, but not the Utah Amicus. My best guess: Wayne had a post on Cannon recently, while all of the Amicus’ were months ago. Perhaps the Technorati search didn’t get back that far.
#8 by Marshall - April 11th, 2007 at 04:43
Did they seriously not invite Utah Amicus? That is BS.
So they invite digitalthom and not Utah Amicus. Wow does that make sense, this guy writes about his dog more than politics.
#9 by schreinervideo - April 11th, 2007 at 06:35
I can’t make it because I’m editing on a deadline. But something smells fishy. And I’m not even a conspiracy theorist. Yet.
Sounds like one of those Bush/Cheney “town meetings.” I wonder if Cannon will hire a bunch of blacks, college students and Hispanics to stand behind him. Cannon’s problem with truth and facts may be what is leading his curiosity into the world of blogging. As more Democrat political candidates i.e. Obama, Dean use the Internet effectively to organize and Republicans try to figure out “how this damn thing works” my guess is Chris is gathering information for himself and this meeting is a way for him to get it.
He may get it- but he still won’t get it.
#10 by Voice of Utah - April 11th, 2007 at 07:13
In fairness to the host, we were invited, yet we have been fairly brutal to Cannon (tried to be, anyway). We chose not to go because we blog anonymously and they were going to do a live video feed. We’ve exchanged several e-mails with the guy running it, who I think is just trying something new. But I guess we’ll see at 9 o’clock.
#11 by Voice of Utah - April 11th, 2007 at 07:43
A follow-up: As Marshall said, we need to be sure and vote for the questions we would like to have answered. Apparently, questions may be asked based on the voting. Although I’m not sure if that’s fair (we progressive bloggers greatly outnumber the other branch, don’t we?), it’s a rule of the game. It takes only a few seconds to register over there, and doesn’t require any personal information.
#12 by Richard Warnick - April 11th, 2007 at 08:41
Here’s my question:
Is President Bush above the law? If not, when will the House vote for impeachment?
During the trial of President Clinton in the Senate in February 1999, Rep. Cannon said: “Senators, we as Americans and legislators have never supported a legal system which has one set of laws for the ruler and another for the ruled.”
President Bush has repeatedly declared that laws, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surviellance Act (FISA), do not apply to him and his administration. He routinely issues signing statements negating the effect of legislation passed by Congress.
Note: Rep. Cannon was one of the House impeachment “managers” who took the case against Clinton to the Senate.
#13 by schreinervideo - April 11th, 2007 at 09:18
Why do attendees have to submit questions?
#14 by Thom - April 11th, 2007 at 14:55
@Marshall ConventionNext with Chris Cannon had nothing to do with Political Blogging. I think it was great to have non political bloggers involved. I think it was great that my question had enough votes to be asked during the live session. And as for my dog, I don’t think I’ve blogged about him for almost a year, maybe even two.
#15 by Thom - April 11th, 2007 at 14:58
@schreinervideo the reason even attendees had to submit questions via the website is the whole premise of politic20. The questions are voted on like Digg and that determines what questions get asked. It had some problems but in the end it was a great forum.
#16 by Richard Warnick - April 11th, 2007 at 15:16
Did Cannon’s answers to the questions get posted anywhere?
#17 by Voice of Utah - April 11th, 2007 at 16:23
Or is there a video archive? We lost our video feed shortly after it started, and couldn’t get it back.
#18 by Larry Bergan - April 11th, 2007 at 18:19
Richard Warnick:
Don’t forget Cannon saying that Gore should be impeached just for associating himself with Clinton. This Utahn’s face turned red after that one.
#19 by Cliff Lyon - April 11th, 2007 at 21:03
I went. Cannon is still and ass. A slick willy. It quickly became apparent there was no use in asking him questions.
He contradicted himself with consistency. His concern for real solutions is virtually absent. He is but a political monster.
His constituents have what they deserve.
If its not there yet, there should be a video archive at http://www.politic20.com/
Though they are still in Alpha mode.
#20 by schreinervideo - April 12th, 2007 at 06:53
Surprised? Who knows what CC’s real motivations were for being there. They certainly weren’t to find facts. He probably just read Business Week’s article “What To Do When Bloggers Attack.”
#21 by Voice of Utah - April 12th, 2007 at 07:15
Did he explain his vote against lowering the interest rate on student loans (Marshall’s question)?
#22 by Cliff Lyon - April 12th, 2007 at 07:34
Yeah, first he said the bill wasn’t good enough that it would mean a roller coaster to rates for students, then he gave the old market forces are superior anywat argument.
#23 by Cliff Lyon - April 12th, 2007 at 07:39
All the questio s were softballs. I found a moment when I though I could nail him. After a long non-commital lecture on climate, I asked, “So, do you think the warmomg crises can be solved by market forces alone or will it require gov’t intervention?
After beating around the bush on virtually unrelated crap, he gave the market forces lecture again.
#24 by Phil801 - April 12th, 2007 at 09:55
Hi, Phil Burns here, co-founder of Politic20. I thought I would address a couple of the comments here quickly – 1) Video Archives are going to be posted shortly. We’re hoping to successfuly break the video up into question/answer segments so they can be linked to. 2) This was not a ‘Chris Cannon stunt’. We’re working on inviting every politician we can to participate in a forum like this. Chris was the first one that said ‘Sounds incredible, I could do it on April 11th’. Whether you like CC or not, we appreciate the fact that he was willing to step up and take a risk with us. Our sincere hope is that having had a Congressman accept our invitation, that we’ll be able to get politicians all over Utah and the country to accept. (some pressure from you guys and gals would be helpful!
)
If questions were softballs, it’s because that is what got submitted and voted up. Our objective is to allow citizens to completely control the content of these events. We believe this is the best way to help inform citizens and to meet our goal to “Bring Politics BACK to the People”. Absolutely NO questions were censored or controlled, all voting was done by the public at large – (disclosure, I submitted 1 question and voted on 1 but was busy most of the time, I made no effort to control what he was asked).
As for partisanship and our makeup, Politic20 is purely NON-partisan. Our team is made up of liberals, libertarians and conservatives. It is purely coincidental that our first politician was Republican. We don’t yet know what party the next one will be from, we’re actively working on members of both parties.
We’d love to do a ConventionNext with Mayor Anderson, we invited him to attend and I believe (though I’m not sure) that we invited him to be a participant in a future ConventionNext (if we haven’t invited him yet, here it is).
As for the video feed crashing, we had a server problem that we got fixed within a couple minutes, the feed came back up. It is very regretful that happened, but technology can be tough sometimes. Hopefully we’ve got all the bugs worked out with that!
Overall, we felt the event was very successful. The point was to get a politician in front of the people in a situation controlled by the people. To that end, it was great. As for the quality and/or validity of his answers – well, he said he’d be back, hit him up again!
There were several things we learned yesterday both about our technological presentation and about putting on this type of event. We spent several hours yesterday compiling suggestions and making plans. We’re hopeful to do this again soon and we’ll have several improved features ready by then!
Oh, as for whether invitations were sent to members of this blog and others in the comments, we meant NO slight! We had VERY short notice to put this on and invited everyone we could find information for. If we failed to invite you, please let us know and we’ll be SURE to add you to our mailing list. We are not handpicking or selecting those that get invited, all are welcome to attend whether online or in person.
As we’ve stressed, this was an alpha/proof of concept event. Please forgive us the glitches! I/we greatly appreciate the interest and attendance of those involved in this thread! We can’t make this work without an audience, and it takes people like you to help get the word out!
- Phil Burns