Open Government Initiative

The Obama administration is holding an online brainstorm session on as part of its open government initiative.
How can we strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative?
Anyone interested can go to the site, register, and then vote on ideas and add new ideas.

The Permanent Campaign

The Obama administration’s outside arm, Organizing for America, is now adding the Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination to its roster of issues that it is calling on the American people to lobby for. We the people are being called on to help the administration pass its health care and Supreme Court battles.  These are good fights; [...]

Community Organizing as a White House Strategy – To the Point on KCRW

Community Organizing as a White House Strategy – To the Point on KCRW
Shared via AddThis

Food Matters

In my book, it’s officially summer.  The semester is over; the neighborhood pool is open; the days are longer; work revolves around writing; and family life takes on a greater dimension.  I just finished reading a book where the political, the personal, and the gastronomic come together: Mark Bittman’s Food Matters.  This is the same [...]

Blogging in Rockville

I’m liking the way my friend and colleague-in-good-work Brad Rourke is using his blog to post his daily “thoughts on public life, ethics, nonprofit management, technology, and more.” He regularly posts a synopsis of stories that jump out at him with an explanation of why they are of interest.  These are often national stories, but [...]

A Phenomenology of Democratic Politics, 3d post

In two previous posts I started to lay out the argument, if you can call it that, of my new book project on democratic politics.  I don’t think it is right to call it an argument, exactly, because what I am really doing is laying out a general account of what I think is at [...]

Who are we waiting for?

During the Presidential campaign, candidate Obama invoked the language of community organizing and the civil rights movement, especially with the discourse of “yes, we can” and “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” That seemed fitting for a campaign that had a place for millions of people to take to the sidewalks and knock [...]