5.0 With Manhattan Organizations

Earlier I showed up for this DL21C debate watch party event. (It Is A RSVP: Here I Come DL21C) It was the same venue as this: Iowa: One And A Half Victory Parties. So I was not so sure. I got there at seven, right on the dot. I felt a little uneasy. I went to the restroom downstairs. When I came back I had to wait only a few seconds. Dan Berger came down the stairs. He was on the phone. He looked like he was uneasy. I just waited, making small talk with the receptionist, this young woman who was encouraging me to go upstairs, "There already are about 15 people up there."

I patiently waited until Berger got off the phone. Then we had the best, shortest, the only non-tense conversation we ever had.

"Can't come upstairs."

"Okay," I said.

We were both totally relaxed. Otherwise every time I have been in his presence for as long as I can remember, the vibe always has been like he wants to blame me for 9/11 or something. Every single time.

I don't know for sure but I am guessing Berger is a Jewish last name. Spitzer is Jewish. There is that er at the end of both names. I am getting better at this.

I felt good about the exchange. No, it is not easier to ask me to leave if the guy is Sicilian rather than Jewish.

The meeting with the women was good, but we really did not get to the discussion part. (Martha Outed Kenton And Women With Issues) And Martha never really wrote back on my proposal, so I guess that is a no: 2.0 Penetrates DL21C.

I really liked the setting, and finally it was going to be an event where you get to talk instead of just watch.

I am getting a little better with the Jewish angst, I think. Getting a better feel for it.

I am guessing Dan Jacoby, that is also a Jewish name. Met him at DFNYC. I was talking to this European journalist woman and he rudely interrupts to say money can be made by appearing in porn movies. As in, no money brown guy - and this was back, way back - talking to white woman: what is this about? I took offense, and I do want to leave it at that. But now I wonder if that was an expression of the angst. Black people like sex, Jewish people like money, and the rest of us are monks.

There was another incident with Liz of MYD. Here, let me take my bag away from here where you are standing. I am guessing now that was also an expression of the angst. At the time I equated it with Obama complaining "only a few years back people were throwing keys at me in the parking lot."

I don't know for sure but I am guessing Liz is Jewish.

At first you take the incident literally, and you take offense. But over time you step back a little and realize there are a few different things at play. I don't know a whole lot about the Jewish identity, but I know enough to be able to say it is an identity that Jewish people still grapple with.

What is anti-Semitism? When someone comes across someone Jewish, they suddenly react a certain way that end in social exclusion of the said person, almost like a chemical reaction. Is that the mainstream version?

I could talk at great length about the ethnic prejudices inside the mini Nepal in Queens. It is unbelievable. People are 10,000 miles away from home, but it is like if you were to bring along a piece of rock from the moon, that would still be moon rock on earth.

There is a coral reef aspect to this ethnic, racial stuff. It is fascinating to watch it unfold, especially when it is the garden variety, social setting, pretty much harmless kind. You soak it in. So far I have limited myself to experiencing political events. Sorry, not interested in holding an Officer position, or sitting on committee, or anything like that.

DFNYC, MYD, DL21C. They now appear in the rear view window, kind of. Either their organizational structures are too primitive or I am not cut for politics, or whatever. They are designed to make you feel like, okay, so you were part of something like a French Revolution, but in this hierarchy here, who are you? You don't need a place in the hierarchy to experience an event.

Barackface: The French Revolution And DFNYC

I did not move to NYC even for Nepal, or Obama, but to launch a company. Nepal and Obama were distractions. I have absolutely no interest in the local races. As long as the subway keeps running, let me be. My fascination with NYC is that it is the capital city of the world, the Amazon forest of humanity, a feast to the eyes, a feast to the mind.

5.0 with the Manhattan organizations is offensive at two levels: they are not cutting edge group dynamics at all, not enough embracing of 2.0, and they are socially not progressive, it is not exactly post-ISMs variety. Or perhaps my standards are high.

My team member two with my young company Adam is already pissed he thinks I give too much time to politics. Forget these organizations and their events, forget Obama, let's go run with this baby. Give it total attention.

I have resisted getting structured into Obama 2008 in the city. (Barackface: NYC, Obama, Structure, Me) It has been the same resistance with the organizations before that. I function like the Wikipedia was written. There is something to be said of leaderless organizations.

Silicon City
Web 5.0: Face Time
A Web 3.0 Manifesto

What does your NYC socializing look like when the only work socializing is 2.0 with some techies in Mumbai? That is so much less stress than trying to get the message you are here only to experience an event.

I am getting better by the day with saying hello and making small talk and just plain schmoozing. My baseball is politics, and I watch it best online.

I go to an event like this one looking for some hard core political action: Martha Outed Kenton And Women With Issues. Whereas for most people it is just socializing, politics is just the excuse. And nothing wrong with that, it is a free country. When the event is over, it is over. Don't give me homework.

I am at a point where I am like, so do you still go to Dave Pollak's parties? That will have to be decided one Facebook email at a time. Go with the mood, time permitting. Or what?

Seamless 2.0 and 5.0 and the political organizations in Manhattan: that is a culture clash, a clash of civilizations.

Some of the racial thinking of white folks in Manhattan is like some Hindus I know of in Nepal: they think Christians and white people generally are the fifth caste, somewhere down there. It is a mindset, largely quixotic. The weirdest part is when they will ignore your email. They had a similar theory about email in Kentucky. Are you shy? No, I am online. And I thought it would be quicker.

It is just that all roads lead to Jerusalem, all roads leads to Silicon City.

I was kinda sorta interested in this event. Do I go? Do I not go? To be? To be no be?

Thursday, February 7

6:00 pm

Planned Parenthood and DL21C's Women's Issues Committee present

A Night Out with Women in Politics
6:00-9:00pm
The Zipper Factory, 336 W. 37th St. between 8th & 9th

Please RSVP!

Barackface: I Want To Join The DL21C Steering Committee
Barackface: It Is A RSVP: Here I Come DL21C
Barackface: 2.0 Penetrates DL21C
Barackface: December 12 DL21C Bash
Barackface: DFNYC, Drinking Liberally, DL21C, Cosmopolity
Barackface: DL21C Annual Summer Bash: Barack Won The Straw Poll
Barackface: DFNYC TV, DFNYC Wiki
Barackface: Tracey Denton Of DFNYC
Barackface: DFNYC And This Blog
Barackface: DFNYC Socializing Is Circle 3 For Me
Barackface: DFNYC, 100000 Strong, Scalable Organization
Barackface: Drinking Liberally
Barackface: Facebook And Drinking Liberally
Barackface: DFNYC, Drinking Liberally, DL21C, Cosmopolity
Barackface: Drinking Liberally: Session X
Barackface: Liberally Tipsy

Let's Finish This Thing On February 5

Let's seal up the nomination for Barack on February 5. It can be done. I am opposed to the idea of having to keep fighting beyond February 5.

It can be done.

Win big in South Carolina.



Raise a ton of online cash. Issue whips. We have more than half a million donors. Let this become our biggest quarter yet. We have more online donors than all the others, Dem and Repub, running and no longer running, put together. Now is the time to cash it. The hour is at hand.

Do massive phone banking during the week leading to February 5. We got more volunteers than all the other Dem and Repub campaigns, breathing still and deceased, put together. Now is the time to cash on it.



Send volunteers out into the streets and to knock doors during that week like never before. There has to be this feeling that this is it, this is the final push. After that it is over.

Run the Mother ad relentlessly all across the country. I am tempted to say run just that one ad. Pour a ton of money into it.

We will run Michelle Obama ads in 2012 when Barack will seek reelection, but for now mother before wife.



Send Barack to all the big media markets during the final week leading to February 5.

After South Carolina everything he says will be national news. His geographical location will become less relevant.



Pick fights with Bill Clinton, especially on his distortions and lies. He thinks he can spin Barack's anti-war stand out of existence. That is too ambitious a task even for Bill Clinton.

Anti-war was what Dean 2004 was all about. Barack is a Deaniac, the most visible Deaniac.

Let no attack go unanswered. Just don't get mean with the rebuttals, that's all. After all, we are the new kind of politics people.



Attack Hillary on Iraq. She never apologized. How could she not?

Howard Dean Was Grassroots 1.0, Barack Is Grassroots 2.0

Barack Obama is a Deaniac from 2004, so am I, although I did not hear of him until Dean 2004 had boiled over. He was in Illinois, I was next door in Indiana. I was on the road, I was in Illinois all the time.

I was in NYC for a few days when he gave his speech in Boston. I watched one of his debates with Alan Keyes at a truck stop.

Dean 2004 was my initiation into US presidential politics. MeetUps were all the rage. So when I got to meet and know and become friends with the MeetUp CEO Scott, it was a big deal. "It is like going to L.A. and meeting Tom Cruise," I said to him. He is not a very assuming kind of guy, and I think I embarrassed him. But Scott is an Iowa native. We had the dot com bonding, we had the Midwest bonding, curiously. I have been everywhere in Iowa.

When I moved to NYC, the Dean 2004 alum were the first group of people I got to know.

Pound for pound I do think Barack Obama is a superior candidate to Howard Dean. But then Barack stands on Dean's shoulder. Obama 2008 would not have been possible if Dean 2004 had not happened. Dean 2004 laid the ground.

But then also Dean 2004 was a little ahead of its times. Back then there was no Blogger, there was no YouTube. The I Have A Scream fiasco would have never happened in a YouTube era. Dean was trying to shout on top of a shouting crowd. The TV people cut out the crowd and made Dean look ridiculous.

When I left Berea College in summer 2001, I had no plans, but my instincts were stronger than ever. When I moved to NYC, it was with the express intention of launching my company, but I got distracted by Nepal work, best work I ever did.

Like the French Revolution, the work on Nepal is ongoing. The revolution is not over yet. But it takes much less time. If Nepal ends up being a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, it will have become the top democracy on the planet. At that point Nepal's April Revolution joins the league of the top revolutions in world history.

The work is not over, and if Condi creates Palestine this year, she will deserve it more, but other than that I have laid claim to the Nobel. Objectively speaking that is the respect Nepal deserves.

If I could win the Nobel and Barack could win the presidency, that will have been two Deaniacs who went on to do big things.

And I was telling Dean alums in 2005 that some day a few election cycles later some Deaniac is going to be president. I was not thinking Barack because he had made it very clear he was not seeking the presidency or the vice presidency in 2008. And I was not thinking 2008. I was saying Barry Goldwater in 1964, and Reagan in 1980. Dean in 2004, so perhaps some Deaniac in 2012, 2016.

But this is the internet age. Time travels faster. Good ideas travel fast. The grassroots was not going to wait. Howard Dean had the energy, the guts. Barack has the sophistication to take on the establishment without making them feel all queasy.