Stop Stupak Rally/Lobby Day

Last week, we joined pro-choice activists from all across the country on Capitol Hill. They came to support health care reform and the public option, and they came to fight against the Stupak amendment and any bans on women's reproductive health coverage. The program began with rally, after which, the groups headed to scheduled meetings with their legislators. We tagged along with a group from Sister Song in New Orleans and joined them for the visit with Senator Mary Landrieu's office.

We have extensive coverage of the day's events, with plenty of full speeches.


And please enjoy this picture slideshow:


Lastly for folks that enjoyed this coverage, please check out this information on our upcoming documentary about abortion clinic escorts, tentatively titled Clinic Defense: Best When Boring.

MUSIC MONDAY: The DNA of Music: Interview with Pandora Founder Tim Westergren

A few months ago, I did an interview with Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora and the Music Genome Project, live via Skype from his office on the West Coast. Since this was before our Music Monday feature and the current encarnation of our site, I wanted to re-post the interview and accompanying blog for all to see.



The Music Genome Project is exactly what the name describes, a focused effort to break down songs into hundreds of individual musical aspects (genes), everything from tempo and rhythm to the instrumentation and the amount of distortion used. They then catalog these 'genes', creating an accurate objective description (like a genome) of every musical aspect of the song. Collectively, the genomes build a 'musical taxonomy', an empirical explanation of the entire spectrum of music. So far, the project has cataloged over 700,000 songs of all sorts of varieties, with more songs being analyzed and added to the library daily.

After several years of cataloging, the Music Genome Project released Pandora Internet Radio as a way of bringing their research to the public. Pandora reinvents radio. Instead of having many people tune into one station and listen to whatever a single DJ decides, Pandora creates a station, or several stations for each individual user based on what the user want's to listen to. The user inputs a song or artist and Pandora searches the Music Genome Project for songs with matching musical genes. It then builds a station or personalized playlist of songs similar to the desired song or artist and streams that customized station over the internet for free.

I personally am a big Pandora fan, mainly because it allows me to easily discover and listen to new artists similar to the ones I love. It gives me many more options to listen to the kind of music that I feel like listening to at any given time. I can keep my interests broad and put in a single song or artist and listen to a wide variety of tunes. Alternatively, I can keep adding artists and songs to my station to isolate a particular aspect of music that I want to hear. It combines my two methods of listening to music. I usually either listen to an album or MP3 or tune into a traditional radio station but Pandora combines the best aspects of both. I simultaneously get to choose what I listen to, like I would listening to a recording that I own, and listen to new material, like I would hear on traditional radio.

I very much enjoyed speaking with Mr. Westergren and learning about how he helped to craft Pandora and the Music Genome Project into what they are today. For more info about Pandora and to try it out, please go to www.Pandora.com. And, as Mr Westergren mentions, they are very interested in user feedback so please try it out and let them know what you think!!

You can find this and all our earlier Music Monday posts at www.SumofChange.com/musicmonday

Connecticut for Lieberman Explains Opposition to the Public Option

This is just too good. I absolutely love the Connecticut for Lieberman Party. If you want to know more about them, you can read an old story of mine from September.

Anyways, they put out this hilarious health care video explaining Senator Lieberman's opposition to the public option:

“Eating Animals” author Jonathan Safran Foer takes a stand for ethical eating

Originally featured on JTA's Capital J blog:

Award-winning author Jonathan Safran Foer took the stage at 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, DC Tuesday night to discuss his latest book and first work of non-fiction, Eating Animals.

The book addresses the ethics of animal agriculture and the mainstream American diet from a personal and often emotional perspective. A vegetarian since childhood, Foer discussed the morality of eating meat prepared by what many consider a warped and environmentally destructive system.

Foer often relies on his Jewish upbringing to articulate how tradition and family enter the equation (his grandmother, who is the subject the book’s first chapter, was even sitting in the audience). Despite the book’s strong narrative elements and the author’s background in fiction, Foer adamantly stressed that “as far as nonfiction goes, this is very nonfictional.”

In classic Jewish fashion, the event was kicked off by Foer‘s unmistakably proud mother, Esther Safran Foer. But it wasn’t just a chance for her to kvell; the elder Foer serves as the executive director of 6th & I, a synagogue that has gained cross-cultural appeal by holding a wide range of events in its sanctuary, including rock concerts, comedy tours and of course, book talks.

“I knew Jonathan before he was a reader and before he was a writer,” she said to two floors of jam-packed pews. “I even knew him when he was a vegetarian for the very first time at 9. And as many of you know, I’m his mother, so I can say these things.”

Foer was then introduced by Andrew Sullivan, former editor of The New Republic, blogger and Foer admirer. Sullivan cited his esteem for Eating Animals, noting that the book had touched upon concerns with which he himself grappled.

“To see what is in front of one’s nose is a constant struggle,” Sullivan admitted before ceding the stage to Foer amid loud applause.

Despite the touchy nature of his chosen subject, Foer laid off the sermonizing. The issue of ethical eating is best broached “not by a lecture, not by a reading and certainly not by an argument.” Rather, Foer spent his hour and change at the podium by taking questions from what seemed to be a veggie-friendly audience.

Though he did not advocate vegetarianism (“We don’t have to become vegetarians . . . [that] implies that we have to do everything or nothing.”), Foer emphatically emphasized the necessity of reforming the meat industry and consumer awareness. Knowing where your meat comes from, said Foer, is essential.

In addition to citing the prevalence of animal cruelty, Foer noted that according to recently released figures by a World Bank affiliated magazine World Watch, animal food production is responsible for about 51% of all Greenhouse Gas emissions.

One question addressed the place of hunting in the ethical eating debate, highlighting the argument that hunters are closer to their food source and therefore present an ethical alternative to buying store bought meat.

Foer dismissed this assertion, saying “I don’t think that’s why people hunt.” He stressed that people who choose to hunt are not hunting to eat – they eat what they hunt, an important distinction.

“These are people who I’m sure have access to supermarkets . . . it thrills them to kill things,” said Foer. “Any other explanation is disingenuous, it’s not true.”

The mood took a more lighthearted turn when Foer was asked his thoughts on where Judaism stands on hunting. To this, he responded, “Jews don’t recoil from hunting for ethical reasons, but more that, like, it’s feh.”

The loud guffaws heard across the sanctuary suggested this was an audience familiar with the Yiddish exclamation.

Whether or not audience members were convinced by Foer’s argument, it seemed as though he had given them food for thought. Regardless of their opinion of Eating Animals, Foer asked them to “act on [their] values, even when it’s not convenient, when it’s more expensive, when it’s socially awkward.”

The event, which was co-sponsored by 6th & I and local DC independent bookstore Politics & Prose, concluded with a book signing and light vegetarian desserts.

Is the Jewish Fetish a Two-Way Street?

Originally featured on Plight of the Pumpernickel.

Stop the presses! The hot Jewish girl is the new Catholic schoolgirl.

My personal Jewish network has been all a'twitter (pun intended) over an article published in Details Magazine's December issue titled "The Rise of the Hot Jewish Girl: Why American men are lusting after women of the tribe."

While tasty Jewish girls have been on the scene for quite a while now (Natalie Portman, anyone?), this article is the first I've seen which suggests that the quest for a Star of David clad sexpot isn't just limited to nice Jewish boys from Long Island.

According to Details, desire for the JILF (Jew I'd Like to F*ck) is more widespread than ever. Hell, apparently 'frum porn' is even a thing, boasting a devout non-Jewish following. And don't think it isn't lost on me that the article in question was written by one Mr. CHRIST-opher Noxon.

While the existence of Jewish-themed pornography disturbs me on a deep emotional level (bagels are for eating!), it does bring up an interesting question. Could the gentile attraction to girls of the hot and Jewish variety be due to its inverse? Do Jewish girls have a fetish for goyishe boys?

Of course, this question stems from personal experience. Despite my best efforts to date Jews, as chronicled in my piece for Washington Jewish Week, nearly every one of my major emotional relationships have been with shaygitzes. Much to my mother's dismay, I assure you.

What is that? My Judaism is extremely important to me and plays perhaps an intimidatingly large role in my life, both personally and professionally. I agree with Jewish community leaders who warn that intermarriage is an alarming and problematic trend. Why then can't I just settle down with a Jew?

Perhaps it's the thrill of going after something I'm not supposed to go after. Maybe Jews seem too familiar and unexciting. Maybe I have a thing for that Anglo look. It's probably a combination of the three.

Or, as Details would have us believe, those non-Jews have just been going after me especially. It's their fault, Ma.

Those Jewish boys had better step up their game; there's a lot of competition for us Jewish girls these days.

Training Tuesday with the DFA: The Big Scary Budget

Every political campaign and organization must spend money to maintain serious levels of activity. Increasingly, campaigns must raise significant amounts of money to become and remain competitive. Although we can protest the growing costs of campaigning, the reality for any campaign is that without these funds, there can be no staff, no office, no phones, no computers, no signs, no media coverage - no campaign.
-From the Democracy for America Campaign Academy Training Manual

Consider the list of things you need to run a campaign. The quote above touched on some of them. From a birds eye view, a full campaign budget is alike to a vast stretch of canyons, almost too much to take in at once. In these videos, Selene Hoffer-Shall will share some insight on how to break the budget down, how to make it manageable, and how to meet the goals. Selene's advice comes from experience:

A former crisis counselor, Selene joined the Dean for America Operations Team in 2003, helping to compile the largest FEC reports in Presidential Campaign History. Selene was one of the 12 original staffers of Democracy for America working as the assistant to the Finance Director. She left DFA to become Finance Director for Peter Welch in his successful race for Congress in a race where she broke all previous fundraising records for the district. Following the 2006 election, Selene worked in San Antonio, TX as the Finance Director for Ciro Rodriguez in the TX-23 run-off election, raising over $600,000 in less than three weeks to successfully oust an 7-term Republican incumbent. Selene currently works as freelance finance consultant.

We join the training just after the group compiled an enormous list of what you need to run a campaign. In this first video, the group takes a large weight off the back of campaign finance directors by establishing what things can be donated:

After you have built the list of thins you can get contributed, you are, sadly, still left with a lot of money to raise. You will need a plan to raise this money, and no, you cannot rely on your opponent to make a fool of himself and raise you one million dollars. But there are tested strategies at your disposal to raise funds. In this next video, Selene breaks down some metrics for us:

So now you have your big scary list of things you need, and you have a reasonable basis to understand the tactics you are going to use to get all this stuff. Now it is time to set your benchmarks:


With benchmarks in front of you, this next video will go over meeting your first month goal:

That is all for today. Next week we will have round two of The Big Scary Budget, where Selene will talk about your campaign's three budgets, the importance of the Union Bug, and more! So check back next Tuesday at 6:00pm (Eastern Standard Time) or sign up to receive email alerts from Sum of Change.