Boston Globe's Story on GBTP's TeaParty Candidate School
Cross-Posted at AustinHess.com and UncommonSenseBlog.com
By Austin Hess…
It seems that the Boston Globe already has a story out on the Candidate School put on this weekend by the Greater Boston Tea Party and American Majority. Surprisingly, its not as patronizing, condescending, insulting or vitriolic toward the Tea Party as I’ve come to expect from their previous coverage (I’ve even refused to talk to them the last few times they’ve tried to interview me, but maybe I’ll have to reconsider).
Most of their somewhat unusually subtle digs come in the lede:
WORCESTER — Patrick Humphries sat near the front of the classroom, diligently taking notes about precinct captains, direct-mail strategies, and door-to-door voter contact. The instructors never mentioned “Obamacare’’ or the Founding Fathers; no one was wearing a tricorn hat.
And that was the point.
Humphries was attending Tea Party candidate training school, an attempt to channel the fiery, inchoate energy of the Tea Party movement into disciplined, professionally managed campaigns for elective office.
Humphries features quite prominently in the article. As probably the biggest media whore in the group, I’m a bit jealous and sorry that I couldn’t make it this weekend.
Of course, Christen Varley got some good quotes through, including summing up the point of the exercize:
Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, said she organized the workshop because so many Tea Party members were inspired to run for office after Brown’s victory a year ago. But not many, she said, knew how to run a successful campaign. Many had never been politically active before Brown’s run.
So Varley invited American Majority, a Virginia-based group that holds campaign workshops for conservatives nationwide , to come to Massachusetts.
“They understand we’re first-timers and can temper our passion by giving us the information needed to be effective,’’ Varley said. “Because what we see with people in the Tea Party movement is there’s a lot of passion and a lot of emotion, and not the know-how. It’s really valuable for people to hear there is a formula you can follow and steps you can follow, to get a good outcome.’’
We’ve worked with American Majority before, and I was very impressed with their activist training schools. I’m sure that this event was equally successful. Hopefully it’ll have some impact on the next round(s) of elections.
Boston Globe's Story on GBTP's TeaParty Candidate School
Cross-Posted at AustinHess.com and UncommonSenseBlog.com
By Austin Hess…
It seems that the Boston Globe already has a story out on the Candidate School put on this weekend by the Greater Boston Tea Party and American Majority. Surprisingly, its not as patronizing, condescending, insulting or vitriolic toward the Tea Party as I’ve come to expect from their previous coverage (I’ve even refused to talk to them the last few times they’ve tried to interview me, but maybe I’ll have to reconsider).
Most of their somewhat unusually subtle digs come in the lede:
WORCESTER — Patrick Humphries sat near the front of the classroom, diligently taking notes about precinct captains, direct-mail strategies, and door-to-door voter contact. The instructors never mentioned “Obamacare’’ or the Founding Fathers; no one was wearing a tricorn hat.
And that was the point.
Humphries was attending Tea Party candidate training school, an attempt to channel the fiery, inchoate energy of the Tea Party movement into disciplined, professionally managed campaigns for elective office.
Humphries features quite prominently in the article. As probably the biggest media whore in the group, I’m a bit jealous and sorry that I couldn’t make it this weekend.
Of course, Christen Varley got some good quotes through, including summing up the point of the exercize:
Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, said she organized the workshop because so many Tea Party members were inspired to run for office after Brown’s victory a year ago. But not many, she said, knew how to run a successful campaign. Many had never been politically active before Brown’s run.
So Varley invited American Majority, a Virginia-based group that holds campaign workshops for conservatives nationwide , to come to Massachusetts.
“They understand we’re first-timers and can temper our passion by giving us the information needed to be effective,’’ Varley said. “Because what we see with people in the Tea Party movement is there’s a lot of passion and a lot of emotion, and not the know-how. It’s really valuable for people to hear there is a formula you can follow and steps you can follow, to get a good outcome.’’
We’ve worked with American Majority before, and I was very impressed with their activist training schools. I’m sure that this event was equally successful. Hopefully it’ll have some impact on the next round(s) of elections.
Better Together
By Nathan Rothstein, @nrothstein
Kay Lazar wrote a timely article in today’s Boston Globe about a very successful preventive health care measure in the state of Massachusetts. A recent study, published yesterday in the medical journal, PLoS One, found that “for every dollar Massachusetts spends on an anti-smoking campaign for low-income residents, it saves $3 dollars in medical costs, largely from avoided heart attacks and other cardiac-related hospitalizations.” In other words, the state can save $14.7 million dollars annually on a proven preventive health care measure. The anti-smoking program is not complicated, but includes an important aspect that should not be overlooked—a support system. Medicaid provides nicotine patches and medicines for reduced costs, which is a key step to reducing the addiction levels of nicotine but more importantly, the program provides helpful information to the patient that discusses useful quitting tips , and a counselor who will make a call to answer any questions and provide support. As Marcia Campbell, a New Bedford resident with chronic health problems, told Kay Lazar in the Globe article, the counselor “was just somebody to talk to, even if you don’t think it’s possible to quit, sometimes you have to lean on somebody else to get the strength to do it.”
At DailyFeats, we understand the concept of “we are better together, than alone.” The idea that we can make dramatic changes to our behavior that will improve our health is no easy task. We know that smoking, lack of exercise, and unhealthy living can lead to major health problems in the future, but it is harder to make those healthy living choices today. The future is far off, in a distant place that we can’t touch or feel in our everyday lives, and we definitely can’t create those healthy habits today, alone. We need habit buddies for the support and encouragement to help us along the way as we aim to trash our bad habits. On DailyFeats, you can now find a feat that you want to make a habit, and invite your friends to join you, and can track if you are keeping up your end of the bargain. You can also give props to someone who is working hard to quit. Go ahead and !quitsmoking, and if you need some support, we will be right there giving you encouragement.
The Big Picture (Image Blog)
Picture blog for the Boston Globe
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WhoPaysPhotogs: Whoever sent in that anon quote, likely meant they do not pay for private/freelancer submissions.
[Anon addition: The Big Picture photo blog from the Boston Globe license all of the images they use through whatever wire service they find them on. ]
Interview with Alan Taylor, creator of The Big Picture, now at The Atlantic:
P: How much money is spent on the images used in each post?
AT: I don’t know – it’s part of the Globe’s contract, we pay a flat fee for images we use in print and online, not per-use.
http://www.petapixel.com/2009/11/10/interview-with-alan-taylor-of-the-big-picture/
http://waxy.org/2008/06/interview_with_alan_taylor_creator_of_boston_globes_the_big_picture/
