Hello Happy Pitbulls

How would you like your government?

There's a magical transformation happening on the Internet.  Have you noticed?

Not only is your newspaper allowing you to interact and provide feedback, but your government is too.  Locally, the first place this happened was with Matt Rexroad's blog.  As a candidate and now as a county supervisor, Matt gets it.  Matt combines personal, professional and political topics on his blog, and engages the community in sometimes lively discussions about important local issues.

The State of California is catching on too, with a YouTube channel representing many government agencies, podcasts, commenting on assembly bills, and a handful of blogs and other social media activity.

And the Federal government is completely rocking it out with a number of social media tools and channels. I'm excited about the change that's come to the web, and it was on it's way before the new administration.  My hope is that the new administration will deliver on the promise of transparency the transformation will be more profound.

I am working with a group of government employees on the Social Media Subcouncil of the Federal Web Managers Council to help make a case for the continued use of social media in goverment to engage and involve citizens, to increase collaboration within and between government agencies, and to improve government services.

Transparency. Participation. Collaboration.

What does this mean to you?

Every vote counts!

I am surprised by how little I have posted about the upcoming election.  Typically, I am very vocal about the subject.  You may recall I posted my support of Barack Obama back in 2006, and have been following the campaign with great excitement since then.  I'm so nervous about this upcoming election, as you remember what happened in 2000 and 2004.  Every vote counts!  Be sure to make yours counted. (Don't let that cuckoo bird get into the White House!)

This is the first year I've felt strongly enough to place lawn signs in front of my house.  I feel comforted knowing there's some company for me with the Obama Biden sign that's out there, but I'm feeling a little lonely with my No on Proposition 8 stance.  I have a hard time articulating my feelings about this attempt to eliminate a right for a large population of the state of California. Regardless of how you feel about this issue, we should not eliminate rights for any Californian. Prop 8 would mandate, under the laws of our state, that one group of people would be treated differently form everyone else. That’s just unfair. 

 

I once had a boss call me a dirty liberal

And that was in a government office where politics were off-limits.  And that's how I knew I was in the wrong job.  So with that said, call me a dirty liberal if you will.  Here's a message to you: my five friends who are reading this.  Oh, and I think Adam Levine is hot.