“With Private Effort on Voter Information, Ickes and Soros Challenge Dean and DNC—A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.
The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.
“From an institutional standpoint, this is one of the most important things the DNC can and should do. Building this voter file is part of our job,” Communications Director Karen Finney said. “We believe this is something we have to do at the DNC. Our job is to build the infrastructure of the party.”
-from the front page story in Wednesday’s Washington Post by Thomas B. Edsall.
Howie opinion: Blue State Digital, the company that the DNC has been using for this work, was originally created using a grant from Soros, also. It is unfortunate that this effort has now become “privatized” and, apparently, the information from the new company, Data Warehouse, will be used in the future to assist only those who can pay for, or somehow can otherwise arrange to receive the information, outside the Democratic party structure.
with Dean. Do you mean Ickes group is the one being privatized? He is too damn close to the Clintons to suit me.
Where is Demzilla, Howie?
That’s right, Blue State Digital IS working with the DNC. The new company, Data Warehouse, is the “private” effort, started by Ickles.
Here in Florida, our counties are coughing up bucks for the VAN file. If I have my information right, the file was put together by a private company that was commissioned by the state party. It’s supposed to be a great tool for those of us working at the precinct level.
Does anyone know how this fits into the picture?
Looks like it was founded in part by Harkin in Iowa. Here is the staff page.
http://www.voteractivationnetwork.com/about.asp?s=2
These datamining programs are the same ones or similar to what’s been used/developed over the years and used for the domestic surveillance/wiretap. This helps explain how the democrats allowed it to recently become legal under the current administration.
The evolution of the modern DemocRatpublican Party.
Time for a third party.
We don’t need “datamining”.
We need the courage to speak about freedom.
Nothing else will do.
When you use the tools of the enemy, you BECOME the enemy.
AG
No, we need to work with Howard Dean to take OUR party back. There’s no need to start another party. The Democrats at the grassroots level are working hard this cycle to prove that WE are more important than the Harold Ickes of the world. Why don’t you help us?
Any chance we can get everyone to wear uniforms so we know what side folks are on? I haven’t rechecked yet, but I’m pretty sure that DW is part of the deal that is being pushed for the UAE port deal. Now, regardless of specific opinion on that issue, it feels like some manipulation has been happening. The datamining is the wiretap problem. We need to find out where each group or candidate stands on that problem.
Old joke:
Lone Ranger: What’ll we DO, Tonto?
Tonto: Who we, white man?
Who “we” Susan D?
Howard Dean made a mistake.
I thought so when he did it, and the results are proving me correct.
Log rolling by corporate-owned interests within the Democratic Party push it closer and closer towards the center.
Meanwhile, the Republicans continue to succeed in pushing that “center” further and further to the right.
Democrats at the “grassroots” level?
Don’t make me laugh.
Mind the steamroller.
AIN’T no “grassroots” after 10 tons of money roll you over.
Just a vacant lot.
“…working hard this cycle to prove that WE are more important than the Harold Ickes of the world.”
If the Harold Ickes of this world…second generation political hustlers with the skills AND the money to do their job (You DO know that Harold Ickes Sr. was FDR’s Haldeman, don’t you?)…own the party, then “we” are NOT more important than they are.
“…more important than the Harold Ickes of the world”?
Define your use of the term “the world”.
The DemocRatpublican Party IS “the world” as far as they are concerned. And they own it. Lock, stock and barrel.
Sorry, SusanD. If you want to kick the PermaGov out, the very FIRST thing you have to do is start a party that is not OWNED by said PermaGov.
Then the second thing you have to do is to ensure that it cannot be bought by them.
Then and only then will you have a shot…an outside shot but what the hell, it’s certainly better than THIS shit…at whuppn’ ’em.
A coalition of minorities, the working class in general, the regular “liberal” left and women who are dissatisfied with their lot in life.
EASILY a third of the population.
Let the Ratpublicans and the DemocRatpublicans split the other two thirds and hope that there are enough people who are sickened by what is going on in both parties to give you a majority.
The only way…
Sorry, SusanD. You won’t see me at ANY party meetings if that party is run by the same people who foisted the Boston convention and John (Small K) kerry on us.
You;re going to have to learn the hard way, I guess.
As if what has happened over the last 60+ years hasn’t been hard enough.
It is THEIR party. HAS been since JFK was shot.
LBJ lives.
The Texas DemocRatpublican Party.
A class act for over 60 years.
Get real.
Good luck…
AG
Why are you always so condescending and negative, AG? It makes it nearly impossible to want to read your comments.
I say something real, and you complain about the way I say it.
Sorry, CabinGirl.
The charade is over.
Time to get real.
I believe that the entire Democratic establishment as it stands today…the people who are really in power, the ones who control the BIG money…are totally corrupt.
I got two words for ya. And they ain’t Happy Birthday.
James Carville.
Who is married to Mary Matalin.
YOU CANNOT SLEEP WITH THE ENEMY, CABINGIRL.
It does not work.
Negative?
Yup.
Holographic politics.
We done fucked up.
Condescending?
It seems so obvious to me, I must admit. I simply cannot believe that this is not apparent to everyone with an ounce of brains left intact in their heads.
You find it “nearly impossible to want to read [my] comments.”?
And attribute that to my tone?
Could be…
Please forgive me if that is so. I am mystified, pissed off and frightened for the future of America, and I am no longer trying to hide it.
Because we are now entering EndGame. Crunch time is now upon us.
But…consider this.
MAYBE you find it “nearly impossible to want to read” what I have to say because deep down…you know I’m right.
The truth hurts sometimes, CabinGirl.
It hurts me, too.
I woke up maybe a few years earlier than most to what is really happening here. I do not say that to crow…in the scope of the universe, and few years is less than a millisecond. Had I awakened earlier, maybe I could have done more.
But here I am. There is a fire in the theater, and at least I am trying to get SOMEONE’S attention.
Sorry if I offend.
On all other fronts…I’m a fairly nice person.
Here…it’s getting down to the wire.
Really.
Smell the smoke?
How can you MISS it!!!???
Later…
AG
I find the content of your comments gets lost among the arrogance and dismissiveness you direct at so many people on this site.
Wake up, AG.
No one wants to be berated all the time. We ARE in a terrible mess in this country, but I don’t need to be attacked by people who are on the same side I am. There are plenty of attacks coming from our government and “elected” officials.
If you do not recogize how bereft of content and effectiveness the left really is today, CabinGirl…then I am afraid that we are NOT “on the same side”.
Sorry.
So it goes.
AG
“Then the second thing you have to do is to ensure that it cannot be bought by them.”
It may be the first thing, but I agree this is an essential for any third party (at least from the unfunded left) to become any kind of effective force.
Irrelevant or Co-opted are the very likely destiny of a third party without this condition occuring either before or soon after starting a third party.
New party does not mean new system. How do you become effective with a new party in the old system if to become effective means loads of money. If you need loads of money, how do you ensure that the new party cannot be bought by “them”?
For all your hard boiled realism, how exactly do you intend to accomplish this? When?
I disagree. A 3rd party splits progressive voting for the next 10 years and ensures a Republican-dominated country for that period. It isn’t time yet. We still have a chance to install Democratic majorities in Congress and start investigations that will shift the balance of power in the country at least a little way back towards equilibrium. I’m as disgusted with the Dem leadership as you are, but for the moment I still think we have to think of the greater good for the country.
Keep on sleeping.
AG
Cause your action plan is so brilliant.
hey Arthur, are you working to elect any good people this year?
In NYC the Democratic Party ran Freddie Ferrer…and I KNOW about Mr. Ferrer (Bronx Borough President), both because I live in the Bronx and because I have been sort of “on theinside” of Hispanic politics for well over 30 years (Playing for the really big Hispanic politicians as a latin musician, watching their act as they hooked up with some bad, BAD people)…against the multi-billionaire MSM outlet owner Michael Bloomberg. They got little or no help from the national party OR from Ms. Clinton (who among other things knows a sure loser when she sees one) and the little man in the bad suit got TROUNCED by the lying son-of-a-bitch in a GREAT suit.
Am I working to elect any good people here?
Name one.
I AM trying to get people to realize that the Democratic Party is over, and that we need a third party.
Does that count?
AG
From the FAQ (emphasis added):
This is another rule, in addition to the ‘prick’ rule that you are flouting. You are mocking people’s efforts to rebuild the Democratic Party, which is disrespectful of the mission of the site.
When Howie asks you if you are doing anything to elect officials, it is another way of pointing out that it is disrespectful to be dismissive of people that are working, becoming committeepeople, delegates, or even just volunteers.
If your primary mission is to mock and discourage people that want to defeat Republicans in 2006 then you are going to find yourself unwelcome AG.
Oh.
Then despite any protestations to the contrary, this is a Democratic Party site!!! Since the Democrats are the only ones with a chance to make things better.
I am SO sorry.
Really.
I had no idea…
I really didn’t.
But now I do.
I shoulda read the rules.
Sorry.
As Rosanna Dana used to say…
Nevermind.
AG
So your political agenda is to convince people there are no candidates worth your support. And what is your strategy to change this state of affairs, Arthur?
What do I think should happen?
I think that Howard Dean ought to walk away from the Democratic Party today. Right now. This minute. I think he ought to use his position to start a third party that is dedicated to assembling…as I said earlier today…a coalition of minorities, the working class of every race, women who do not want to be progressively South Dakota-ized, gays who do not want to be broke-backed, the young, and those of EVERY class with the intelligence and heart to understand that the Democratic Party is no longer independently working for the people but is instead the designated loser in a series of close but staged fights At least until they TURN the fix. A fixer’s staple. Then for a while the losers win and the winners lose. Keeps the bets flowing. Keeps the suckers in line at the bookmaker’s. Keeps the voters at the polls. Enough of them to claim a democratic proseccm, anyway. And since the wise guys ALWAYS know in which direction the fix weathervane is pointing, they always get their cut.
He ought to form a party that is financed by the people instead of by corporations. He ought to welcome sincere politicians from the Democratic Party. Build it and they wil come.
Two years later…he would be the President. Or at the very LEAST, the fix will have been exposed.
Clear enough for you?
It can be done…
Ya gotta believe.
AG
Please forgive the above post.
I did not know that this is a Democratic blog.
Really.
Good luck.
AG
Right now you have no plan or strategy because Howard Dean won’t be living out your fantasy for you. Now do you have anything that you can make happen, on your own?
The only thing that I can do personally in good conscience is to try to make people awaken to the fact that THEIR “dream”…the Democratic Party as it now stands…has become a holographic representation of itself that has no reality in the world.
Which is a piss-poor plan, admittedly.
But that’s what I am left with.
After the next electoral fiasco in November…and I will guarantee that the word “fantasy” is not strong enough to describe the self-deception of a left that has seen every last one of its expected breakthroughs absolutely vaporize in front of its eyes over the last 8 years…after the Gannonization (my new word for the system whereby the Rovocrats create one new reality after another to derail liberal hopes and dreams) of the current “Let’s take over Congress and impeach Butch” dream is complete…maybe I will try again.
Or maybe not. I am increasingly disgusted by the whole process.
You’ve been had, sir. And you are a serial acceder.
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” George W. Butch
Fooled by fools.
Best of luck in the coming (s)elections.
AG
I think there is a disconnect on what is meant by “country,” and I don’t think it is bridgeable.
For example, people who are receiving a benefit, psychological or otherwise, from corporate rule, will see their best interests, and the country’s, in a different way from those who are not receiving that benefit.
It is not realistic to expect to change the mind of someone who sees “the country” as the politicians and their corporate sponsors.
Neither party has a need for rejectionists and obstructionists who put their own selfish interests above those of the corporations and their politicians.
People who see “the country” as including women, including poor women, poor men, poor children, poor elders, gay people and ethnic minorities, people who are strongly opposed to crimes against humanity, for example, are likely to be opposed to US policies on principle, and not at all likely to be much help to the cause of implementing them more efficiently or presenting them in a more palatable way.
Neither party needs such people, their grandfathers were told “not yet,” and so you have 3 or 4 generations of obstructionists and rejectionists who have nothing to offer either party, which actually works out because neither party has anything to offer them.
The parties can be counted on to do what it is in their best interests, they have proven that without any room for doubt!
The obstructionists and rejectionists may not have such an impressive track record, but I believe that they also can be counted on to do what is in the best interest of the country, according to what they perceive “country” to mean.
Both parties should carry on and not worry about them. Most of them don’t even have any money.
They didn’t win by creating lots of little competing feifdoms that never work together. Thats the Democratic model, which is why Democrats rarely win anymore. We need publicly funded elections ASAP if we want to stop the rampant corruption and short-sighted selfishness in both parties.
from the blogsphere will come…pay no attention to the men behind the curtain. We will hear to ignore it, the media are just trying to divide us.
This is the New Dem wing making their own party machinery, with someone so linked to the Clintons that it is overly obvious. They have already formed their own big money party called the DLC. This is just an extended arm of it.
But we will be asked to sit back and not pay attention as the men behind the curtain work their magic and pull us back to the Third Way/DLC side.
Just watch, see if I am right.
And if enough good people have walked away from the Democratic party because it’s elected congressmen, senators, and governors have not satisfied their requirements, then what you predict may very well come to pass.
But they have to come through us first. If there is enough of “us” inside the Democratic party, still kicking and yelling and working, then they will have to decide whether “they” want to form a new party.
Which ain’t no easy thing.
but I get very upset that the majority of the bloggers on the left of the spectrum would rather not touch this issue at all.
It is like being pretty effectively muzzled. There is no media speaking for us, the only ones on TV much anymore are the usual suspects from the defunct Crossfire. They all sound appropriately cautious and make sure to say nothing out of line.
Trying not to say too much right now. Pretty upset about Ickes doing this.
remember, it’s not Ickles doing this. It’s Mrs. Clinton, et. al.
I have been upset with this. It is like the big shots telling Dean and those who supported him for chair that we are not competent. Ooooh.
I am sort of biting my tongue today. When Howard was getting all those threats when he spoke out on Iraq, no one in left media online (we ain’t got none on TV really)…said a damn word. No one. None of the major bloggers got outraged.
I just saw a review at Buzzflash of the 2006 edition of You Have the Power. Have you heard if much were added or just updated. Nice write-up.
http://www.buzzflash.com/reviews/06/03/rev06035.html
He really skewered the Democrats over their pandering during the 90s and early 2000s.
Harold McEwan Ickes, former Deputy Chief of Staff, was fired by Bill Clinton in 1996 but has since become Hillary’s main campaign adviser since 1999. He ran for chair of DNC but lost to Howard Dean. He, Hillary and others founded the Shadow Democratic Party
Sound like revenge on Howard Dean as well as a desperate attempt to have the DNC retain power. After reading what I did, I find it hard for us as a group to WANT anything to do with it. Ickes has consistently been involved with criminal dealings.
When I saw this yesterday, I realized it was yet another attempt to get rid of Howard Dean
Three days later Dean’s former contender for chair of the DNC
is soliciting money to found a new “data mining company”.
I contacted the DNC and spoke with a very knowledgeable woman who acknowledged Ickes, who is Hillary’s main man, is the one who “leaked” the last article to the Post and specifically referred to it as a “No confidence Vote”. To add insult to injury, Ickes new “private” company plans to charge the DNC for use of their “new” data base. These leftover DLCers can’t stand not having control of DNC money, which is OUR money!
I contacted both Harry Reid’s Office and Nancy Pelosi’s office and informed them that thousands like myself would cancel their monthly payments for Democracy Bonds, if anything else untoward is done to Dean. I further asked them to send me a letter explaining why the DCCC and DSCC were hiring perennial campaign loser consultants like Paul Begalia, James Carvelle, Al From and Harold Ickes.
Pelosi’s staff person agreed these losers have not won any campaigns in 10 years, and that it is because of the entrenched 18th century “good old boys club” attitude.
Please join me in writing Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid about canceling the monthly “Democracy Bond” payments if they try this or any other scheme to undercut Howard Dean. The only thing these idiots understand is campaign funds and control thereof!