I pre-ordered Kos's book today, but I think his timing could be better.  Based on Elizabeth Edwards review, it's going be an inspirational and transformational work.  She said

"Markos provides both a call-to-arms, and the rules of engagement, for getting active in our newly networked age. With passionate and accessible prose guaranteed to inspire and empower anyone who has ever struggled to make a difference, this book captures the spirit of our nation's modern-day pamphleteers."

If this book is on par with Crashing the Gates, it will be a very good indeed.  

If you have read the couple of diaries I've posted you would know that I currently live in New Mexico, consider Hawaii my home, and believe I'm on the TSA's secondary screening list solely because I'm Mexican. The first two facts are indisputable and the third because I have not gotten a straight answer from any of our great countries government agencies is merely speculation. What many of you wouldn't know is that up until June of 2007, when I received a cease and desist request from the State of Hawaii, I had published a FREE quarterly magazine "Pendejo Magazine" that was very critical of the Washington politics, State politics, and more critical towards the Bush Administration when it came to issues involving the 50th state and this stupid war. Crammed in between porn and snark you could always find the underlying theme of the magazine that simply was: Hawaii is one of the most racist places in America. Although the beaches might be nice and the people are genuine there is always a bit of racism around every corner. Anyways I just arrived in Hawaii for summer vacation and at a coming home party last night at a downtown club everyone wanted to know my opinion about one of the members of the Honolulu City Council's, Rod Tam, comments about undocumented workers here in Hawaii. My opinion below

Ok, this is going to be short because I don't have a whole lot of information, and I'm diarying it since I don't see any diaries out where it would be appropriate to add this as a comment. This is about the special election for city council in the 30th council district in Queens, NY taking place tomorrow to replace Republican Dennis Gallagher, who pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct. More, below:

This is a diary to gauge interest from the general public (specifically in Nebraska) about what they think that a person has a chance at winning a seat on the Omaha City Council.

Kirwood is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. MSNBC was reporting that seven people were shot and five are dead, two of them police officers. The latest St. Louis Post-Dispatch story is reporting six dead and that a newspaper reporter was among the injured and the gunman among the dead.

In the recent City Council election in Boulder we had an online debate. Over 55 minutes we had 12 candidates simultaneously answering 11 questions at the rate of 1 every 5 minutes.

Ok, so how did the online debate go? Well the short answer is both great in that every participant and many voters said it was the best debate of the campaign and bad in that it did not impact the outcome of the election. So lets dive in to the specifics.

Hi all,

last week of my campaign so I can't write long.  Long story short, I have a few extra dollars to spend this week, and need to decide how to do it!

About a week ago I posted a diary titled Think Globally, Blog Locally. It discussed how a single blog can have a significant impact in local elections. And while 1 local election does not have much impact, many many blogs influencing many many elections has a larger impact than even KOS, because that is where almost all of our politicians get their start.

One thing I do that has a giant effect is to "grade" the answers of the candidates in the local paper's twice weekly Q&A with the candidates. It gives people a quick & easy way to get a measure of the candidates. It is so popular that within 2 hours of the Q&A going up on the paper's website I have emails asking me for the grades if I have not done so yet.

So if you are going to do a local blog, something to consider is...

I always hoped that I would gain a large following to my incisive compelling posts on national issues. Alas, to date my blog would get 10 - 20 readers on a good day. In fact, my programming blog would get more visitors on average.

But by luck I fell into my forte. Local politics where there is a complete lack of consistent blogging. For those of you looking for your niche, this could be it.

Here's how it happened...

ps - Thank you Rescue Rangers

We have an election coming up this November in Boulder, Colorado. There are 22 candidates running for the city council. One of the problems with this is it is basically impossible to have a standard debate - it takes over 2 hours to give each candidate 5 minutes of speaking time (adding in transition and question time).

So we have come up with a live on-line debate. We are trying to blend the immediacy and time constraints of a live debate while using the net to post the answers so all candidates can answer at the same time.

Why You Care About This Michigan City Council Race:

1. Kevin Hrit is a progressive candidate running for Council in Troy Michigan

2. Troy is a Republican Stronghold. Defeating Republicans in Troy will give the Democratic Party a permanent foothold with the city's 80,000 Residents

3. Remember the push to take away a liquor license from Hooters? It was on national news.

4. Troy Democrats are essential to flipping MI-09, a battleground Congressional District

Look at your watch, and then look at your calendar. In 11 weeks, and just 6 652 800 seconds...election results will be rolling in. Why am I obsessing over an odd year, municipal election? We have the opportunity to create a Democratic powerhouse in the city of Troy, Michigan.

The Republican Party is clearly split into two factions in Troy, as demonstrated by contested precinct delegate races in their primary.

Let's take the fight to the Republican base, and beat them.

Strange feeling, going into the voter booth, and seeing your name printed on the ballot.  Surreal.  Twilight Zone.

As I diaried before, I was appointed to a vacant Lansing City Council seat in May, and immediately started to campaign.  The competition will be tough, and politics is much stranger from the inside than you would suspect from the outside.

Dear Councilpersons,

When I last spoke before the city council, I reminded the council members that upon accepting your positions each of you had taken an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States of America.  You also were elected to serve and to protect the citizens of Bend.  I spoke to you requesting that you review a resolution that I had prepared that requests that the United States House of Representatives initiate the impeachment process of President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.  A resolution that the Bend City Council should fully endorse and then proclaim your resolution to the rest of the country.   I am retracting and changing my request.  

Shameless.  That's what I am doing.  I'm not usually in the habit of asking for favors, let alone asking for money, but hey, what is a close knit family of 125 thousand people for if not to lend support?

My name is Bill, and I am running for Lansing City Council.  Can you please spare 5 bucks to help me with my campaign?

OK, I've gone and done it. I signed on the dotted line to run for city council in my Indiana city. Currently, the Republican mayor presides over a 100% GOP council which rubber stamps the usual litany of bad things: roads through wetlands, developments that hurt us, sweetheart deals for friends ... while ignoring so many of the initiatives that could make this city great. We're above average in intelligence and wherewithal, with a university here, too, and I believe it's time to get busy.

I'm running because I'm mad, because I want to either shut up or make a difference, because people asked me to, and because here at dKos the mantra wisely is that if we Dems don't run at the local and state levels, we're letting the foxes remain in charge of our henhouses.

I need your help, and it's easy. Please take a minute to be one of my esteemed campaign advsiors (now jump ....)

Based on feedback from my previous posts there appears to be quite a few of us here that either live in Boulder or used to. Which makes sense as this is one of the most liberal college towns in the nation. (The favorite entry remains the one about their answers on what they would want on a deserted island - truly dumb from some candidates.)

We have an actual election going on here right now. One of the Boulder City Council members, Tom Eldridge (very good councilmember), recently passed away. So mail in voting is presently going on to elect one of 14 candidates to take his seat - until November (when it is up for election again).

There is an actual election going on in the country - the Boulder City Council has an open seat and 14 people are running to fill it for the next 5 months.

Now granted, this election will have 0 effect on most of you. And this is Boulder so the election is between the liberal, the very liberal, and the make Kucinnich look like a Republican liberal.

But it is an actual election. And there is something very neat about seeing democracy at the local level where you have various people running for various reasons and with different amounts of effort. This is democracy.

(I am posting this from Burnt Orange as this is an important message for Texans.  KT put is so well there was nothing else left to say.)

I'm a little jealous that I can't be in Houston this weekend to help blockwalk and phonebank for Democrat Melissa Noriega and get her elected to the Houston City Council to fill the unexpired term of Republican Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. (I'll be in Utah on behalf of ActBlue at a Democracy for America training). And I'm sure I'm not the only Texan who can't make it physically to Houston.