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The title of Joe Trippi’s book was one that really reaffirmed my faith in social media on the web. Joe Trippi was the campaign manager of Howard Dean, the unsuccessful 2004 Democratic presidential nominee for 2004, who was credited to be the first presidential and perhaps first political, candidate to use the Internet to raise his profile and funds significantly, with the Web.

Now, add the the 2008 presidential race. Today, Barack Obama launches his presidential campaign. His website is immensely integrated with social media. If you don’t know who Obama is, you might easily have mistaken his website to be another new Web 2.0 startup, complete with a blog that updates his events, speeches and appearances. There is a webcast earlier today of his announcement in the home state of Illinois where he’s a senator. His website encourages visitors to

There are highly identifiable badges, buttons and links to popular social media sites such as social networking site Facebook, photo sharing site Flickr, No1 video site Youtube and he even asks pple to create their own “parties” (more for rallying supporters than drinking). Trust me, he has been doing this for quite a while. I am a “friend” of Obama based on our Facebook profile linkups.
His campaign team obviously understands the power of the internet in reaching out effectively to the electorate, especially the young voters who might just be the swing voters this time as Obama inspires the politically disenfranchised and disillusioned voters who are sick of the mudslinging divisiveness of the “You’re either with us or against us” Bush era. Obama brings an invigorating and uplifting message. Even if he might not wind, his message is more important than the man himself - to let the people take back politics from the politicians. Using social media, get your friends, family involved in the process again of grassroots activism.

Its not just Barack Obama. The 2008 Democratic presidential nomination has seen Hilary Clinton announce her candidacy (click to see videos) on her website and video too in addition to network TV. Also John Edwards announced his candidacy with video, later uploaded on Youtube, amidst a backdrop of debris in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.

There is no better way for the Internet to demonstrate its democratized ways than through Democratic politics. The web revolution conquers the political realm and goodbye and good night, television.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama said Sunday that he may run for president in 2008… Click on link to read more from CNN on this update posted today.

Born of Kenyan-American descent, a first-term Democratic Senator from the traditional Republican bastion of red-state Illinois, Barack Obama symbolises the bridge across many of the divides we see in our world today… Race, nationalities, religion, education, socio-economic..

He might not represent all, but these are examples of bases of segregation which have been seeded and are sprouting in many parts of the world today. More importantly, such partitioning are making many lose the core driving force of the human spirit — HOPE.

We are told to remember the idea, not the man. Because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten. But four hundred years later an idea can still change the world. — V from Vendetta, movie

Come 2008, whoever sits in the White House, let not the message of Hope be lost.

An excerpt from his 2004 keynote speech at the DNC:

Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father — my grandfather — was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined — They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.

That is the true genius of America, a faith — a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted — at least most of the time.

The people I meet — in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks — they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead, and they want to… People don’t expect — People don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.

Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?

Hope — Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

Videos of Obama’s DNC speech available here and here, courtesy of Youtube.

“Many of the politicians don’t actually understand the phenomenon of the Internet very well,” Schmidt told the Financial Times. “It’s partly because of their age … often what they learn about the Internet they learn from their staffs and their children.”

The advent of television taught political leaders the art of the sound bite. The Internet will also force them to adapt.

“The Internet has largely filled a role of funding for politicians … but it has not yet affected elections. It clearly will,” Schmidt said.

Writing in the Sun tabloid, the Google boss said the online world has empowered ordinary people with the ability to challenge governments, the media and business.

“It has broken down the barriers that exist between people and information, effectively democratising access to human knowledge,” Schmidt wrote.

“This has made us much more powerful as individuals.”

~~Larry Eric Schimdt, Chairman & CEO of Google

Very true. I love this excerpt so much so that I have decided to put it up here. Full article available here. Some of the older generation really dun get it. They think of the internet as a “series of tubes”. Check out my rant about Senator Ted Stevens here. Some clamp down on internet, thinking they are subversive to society.

Its fine setting up parameters of decency on the internet, but don’t fight technology for the sake of safeguarding positions of power but rather in granting a voice to the masses. The little man needs a voice. Governments should learn how to play a role in the new medium rather than ignore it or condemn it as a channel for subversive social behavior. And they should not learn to play a dominant role, as they are used to in the offline world, but learn to understand their new status as equals.

Such mindset changes are most difficult to implement relative to material changes in our physical world. In my country Singapore, politics has become a science privy only to a gated, niche community. Mindset changes at both government and the civil level are needed in order to truly open up socially perceived barriers to public dialogue.

Don’t close the door on the Internet.

George Yeo finally came out of the fog of the old media and is now a blogger. Well, make that a guest blogger under Ephraim Loy’s blog here. For the clueless, George is the current Foreign Minister of Singapore and his previous web presence, other than coverage of his official speeches on the national newspapers, belonged to the domain of political satire under TalkingCock.com , a local humor site poking fun at local politicians.

Here’s an excerpt from his recent post on the Singapore Idol:

[Singapore Idol]
1. It was fun being there when the results were announced. The crowd had a good time. Some stood up to rock to the music.

2. Singapore being Singapore, there were sensitivities. Having only come back from New York that morning, I did not know that the dark blue shirt I wore indicated support for Hady. Lucas Chow, the CEO of MediaCorp, who was dressed in a white jacket, said he would ‘balance’ me since white was for Jonathan. I was given two clappers, one white and one blue, to be politically correct. Boy, sometimes I wish I weren’t a minister.

3. But I did observe the audience critically to see whether the support for Hady and Jonathan was divided along ethnic lines. I was glad to learn later that the results showed a decisive 70% win for Hady, meaning that many Chinese Singaporeans voted for him. He had the better voice although I thought Jonathan had stronger stage presence. My wife said he had the Korean K-pop look. But the murmurs persist in social conversations. Some say that Hady received support from JB which I find hard to believe. One Chinese friend said that we can’t have Malays winning every time. Well, this is multi-racial Singapore. Anyway, 70% is much better than my 56% win in Aljunied.

I must say I am proud that George Yeo is somewhat of a trailblazer in adopting new media compared to his colleagues, considering that he’s my local representative for the Parliament. This should at least score him some brownie points. Although I feel he should get his own blog instead of co-blogging with Ephraim whose style is simply jarring with george’s style. His blogging style is refreshing honest and personal and definitely steered clear of the sanitized, PR-filtered mambo-jumbo the national media has been feeding the public.

Its time to show more personal character, so you go, George!

America created the biggest and most dangerous terrorist organization—Al-Qaeda. Yes, America created Al-Qaeda. When the Russians invaded Afghanistan in the late 70s, Al-Qaeda emerged as an international Jihadi movement against the Soviets. It was funded directly by the Pakistanis and Saudis and indirectly by America, which channeled its military hardware and other logistics through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. For more details, read this Wikipedia article.

America created the Taliban. Again yes, America created the Taliban. Ahmad Rashid, a widely acclaimed Pakistani intellectual, writes in his book, Taliban, that: “The Taliban originated when the CIA with ISI recruited radical Muslims from around the world to fight with the Afghan mujahadeen against the Soviet Union.” Ahmed Rashid also estimates that after 1982 more than 100,000 Muslims from dozens of countries received political or military training in the CIA-backed camps of Pakistan and Afghanistan. For more details, read this Wikipedia article about Taliban.

America sold arms to Iraq and urged it to use WMDs against civilians in Iran. During Iraq’s war with Iran, many American policymakers, arms suppliers and makers benefited immensely by selling large amounts of weaponry to Iraq. These weapons included chemical agents like cyanide. In addition, America also encouraged Iraq to use chemical weapons against Iranian civilians and helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal. For more details, read Iraq and Chemical Weapons: the US Connection by Daniel E Boles.

America helped Iran to start its nuclear program. During the Shah’s period, America signed two agreements–the Atoms for Peace Program and the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Cooperation Agreement–with Iran to urge it to start its nuclear program. These two pacts, which would help Iran build up to 20 nuclear reactors, brought the US corporations as much as $6 billion in profits. However, after the Iranian revolution of 1979, America stopped backing Iran and its nuclear program. Resultantly, the program remained suspended for some time. Today, however, Iran is still trying to pursue what it calls a peaceful nuclear program. For more details read this Wikipedia article and this report written from an Iranian perspective.

America is the only country to have used WMDs against civilians. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki? American bombs, Little Boy and Fat Man, killed 66 and 39,000 innocent civilians respectively. This Yale University website has a very good report.

Source: MyScribbles: WriteUp of an Afghan

This is the scene taken of the Workers' party (an opposition party in SIngapore) election rally on April 28 2006.

This picture is at an open field. Its surrounded by high-rise public housing all round. And eyewitnesses say that the stairs and floors of these public housing flats (more than 10 floors) were filled with pple. Crowd attendance was in the 5-digits., about 10,000-15,000.

Why are opposition election rallies so well attended? Are the opposition politicians striking a chord with the public vis a vis the ruling-party (PAP)'s own poorly-attended election rallies? Are the sizes of attendance figures a barometer of actual vote count? Or just plain curiousity that have no political consequence?

All i know is, the popularity of the opposition is understated in Singapore media. We don;t seem to have objective opinions in our local mainstream media and it seems to be hindering public opinion of our local political scene and making it very biased towards the ruling party when it might not be the case.

Are you a Singaporean? Voting for the first time? Dunno who to vote?

• Do not succumb to apathy.
  
• Do not link your vote to $ or material desires.
  
• Attend political rallies with an open mind.
  
• Do your own research. Read the manifestos. Some parties spent 2 years writing them (PAP and WP)
• Vote for Singapore's Soul.

More on the Hougang Election Rally here.

Related Articles: Political Podcasting Blues, Peasant Culture and Stupid Singaporeans

Hard to believe, but my persistent obsession with my own traffic has led me to a new hypothesis today.

I hypothesize the rise to prominence of the political blog in Singapore. Mr Brown, Mr Wang, Tomorrow.Sg et al, (i dun read alot of local political blogs) all appear to garner decent following by critiquing local political developments, particularly in today's election climate. My posts have experienced traffic spikes whenever I remotely have political jibes inside and it is a prevalent trend that I pick up new readers whenever I blog about politics, a rare occurrence that simulataneously explains both my turtle-paced traffic growth and short-lived traffic spikes.

What does this trend portend? I see it as a natural progression and maturing of the local blogging circle. After all, if anyone tracked the popularity of Technorati during its nascent stages, blogs on politics and technology formed the twin pillars that propelled the growth and adoption of its search engine. Whereas Singapore blogosphere does not have technology blogs as the other pillar to bolster its growth, in its place, we had Xiaxue/DawnYeo/DaphneTeo to liven up the blogosphere while the mainstream bloggers figured out the learning curve via the political route.

Now, with political blogs, we might see the advent of a new dawn for the SIngaporean blogosphere, where a major proportion of young Singaporeans (that account for roughly 30-40% of Singapore's electorate, according to LKY) have their eyes and mind trained on.

Which also brings me to the point of the "walled-garden" approach of the ruling Administration on the podcasting ban for the upcoming elections. Such bans might have been intended to clip the wings of the more internet-oriented strategies of the political opposition (perhaps taking a leaf out of Howard Dean's success in online political rallying during the US Presidential Elections?), but its symbolises a slap in the face for the more tech-savvy youths of Singapore, the so-called "apathetic" bunch of people a new liberalized and politically-inclusive Singapore was supposed to reach out to. Whats there to fear from the Opposition even if they have podcasts? They can't even get their own ship in order and come on, potential podcast listeners are most likely to be highly well-read netizens of divergent political views readily available on the web. You think they are dumb enough to believe and lap up every single morsel of criticism from the Opposition?

Rather, the Administration should have looked towards the future benefits of a more liberal internet policy. Increasing access to political views via the convenient Internet pipeline to the hearts of Spore youths is a long-term strategy that will reap returns in the next series of elections over the next decade. Although podcasts might seem inconsequential in the overall array of internet communication tools available, the current ban heralds narrow-mindedness and petty politicking that will not go down well with the online community. I understand the lack of policing and controls on the internet might have contributed to such a conservative policy, but hey, if the incumbent political party leave all the innovating to the opposition, history tells us the more creative underdogs will save the day eventually.

There's a disconnect somewhere. I think we have reached a watershed for local political devt currently because the timing could not  have been more opportune after the made-for-TV interview of LKY vs Young Sporeans. Vivian Balakrishnan should now shoulder the burden of mustering his team and pondering how to generate political goodwill amongst the young, internet-savvy generation of Singapore.

Pretty much, since most of us read the 911 news without suspicious minds and took it at face value. With deeper thought by the “Loose Change” video producers and choice evidence showcased in this clip, I have reason to believe there’s a deeper story that’s hidden from the world. So ugly this story might be that, maybe that’s one reason so many people choose to shy away from reality. (Are you feeling too comfortable in your sanitized, pre-fabricated world?)
No observable evidence of Flight 77 crashing into the Pentagon? A Flight 93 that smashed into Philadelphia with no detection of bodies by coroners? What about the collapse of the World Trade Towers that went down like detonated demolition projects? Not to mention the evidence of pre-collapse explosions within the World Trade Towers from eyewitness accounts, visual evidence? What about the mysterious put options placed on the stocks of the airlines involved in these terrorist attacks? How did flight passengers even text message or send calls from planes flying in the skies to their families?

So many questions, so few answers. I am not saying I totally believe this video clip. What I do believe is that we have to keep searching for the truth because it ain’t coming from the current Bush Administration. A War on Terror? I am sceptical. The real terror we should be afraid of is deceit from one’s own political leaders.

Watch the video here.

Truly, these Republicans sure know how to stir shit up, they are done shooting them up in Afghanistan and Iraq, almost complete racking up huge debts on the National Treasury to pay for their extravagant armies, and now with not much spare cash for another war, Dick Cheney, resident hawk in the Administration, couldn’t bear the lull and decided to shoot his friend. lolz…

This one was quirkily funny. He mistakes a human for quail. Jon Stewart got all the comdeic elements of this covered though…

I love the reference in the video by Rob Corddry of the similarities in the hunting misfire incident to the Admin’s policies on terrorism. These guys always take aim and shoot at the wrong target. Afghanistan was fine, Iraq? hallo?? anyone still rem where the WMDs are?

Another gem in a line of comedic drama to come from the greatest country’s government on Earth. These guys are on a roll, and just can’t stop being making fools out of themselves.

In a new peek into the weekend hunting activities of Dick, he mistakes his hunting buddy for a quail. Apparently, he drank beer too before his hunting trip. No big deal, just a small fact that this guy just had multiple heart operations before.

PR Disaster

So it seems that the communications strategy for this mishap took 18 hrs or more before the press and world media were properly let in on the details. Read more on the media clampdown here. Why, you might ask, for all the fancy gadgetry and well-oiled PR machinery of the White House, they had to take such a long time to reveal details of this incident that happened to the 2nd most powerful person in America? Did they have somethign to hide there? Huffington Post has a theory that since beer takes time to cleanse from the human system, the long time delay was quick thinking by the Veep’s men on damage control to avoid embarrassing tests.

Lets also not ignore the fact the Vice-President actually thought it appropriate for Katharine Armstrong, a private citizen and also a ranchowner of the hunting ground, to be the first person to break the news to a local paper.

Found this off another blog:

Hunting party included Vice President + U.S. ambassador to Switzerland + American lobbyist for vaccine company in Switzerland + big fat Republican lawyer, and took place on the ranch of the American lobbyist for the vaccine company in Switzerland who also happens to be a huge Republican contributor.

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, hunting, Jon Stewart