Monthly Archives: May 2010

Brad Bauman Leaving Sunlight Foundation to Serve Blue America

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A classy letter from a class act.  Not many people I know would give up such a core position in such an exciting project as Sunlight, in order to to go help the Democrats try and save America. 

 

Best of luck, big guy. I am proud to call you my friend.

 

From: Brad Bauman, Communications Manager, Sunlight Foundation
Sent: 5/12/2010. Reprinted with permission

Dear friends,

 

While I sincerely love my co-workers over at the Sunlight Foundation, and have been so very lucky to work alongside some of the smartest, most innovative people I've ever met, I am sorry to say that I will be leaving the Sunlight Foundation at the end of this month.

 

The fact is, 2010 is going to be a challenging year, and as someone who has spent the better part of the decade working on behalf of Democrats, I can't continue to talk about how this is an, "All hands on deck" year without hopping on board myself. That is why I am going to be heading out on the campaign trail, but more on that later.

 

For the next few weeks I am going to help the Sunlight Foundation fill the Communications Manager position and I would very much like your help. We are looking for an aggressive go-getter, who would be able to assist Communications Director Gab Schneider in spreading Sunlight's message, and help her team build on the successes we've had this year.

 

Personality-wise, we're looking for a kick-ass pitch person who is ridiculously driven to make government transparency and accountability an issue the media can't avoid talking about.

The new team member would be joining a communications team of 3 and work closely with Sunlight's engagement team, policy shop labs and reporting group.

We're in a position where we get an average of 7-10 mainstream media/A-list blog hits per day at Sunlight (as many as 25-30 on big days), and the Foundation needs someone who can proactively push Sunlight's spokespersons, articles, visualizations, resources etc all the time.

The communications manager could expect weekly experience with TV (CNN and MSNBC most common), radio (NPR relatively common), mags (WIRED, Harper's, Fast Company, Mother Jones etc most common), news (nat'l and local), blogs (HuffPo, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Instapundit, you name it) and all the rest – including doing some content and strategy development (or leading projects if they're good at it). Again, it really comes down to whatever this person can make of it all that's possible.

 

We will soon be advertising this position far and wide, but ya'll are getting a sneak preview.

 

And also, you should know that Sunlight has EXCELLENT benefits.

 

Please, email me resumes at brad@sunlightfoundation.com, as I would like to help start vetting people immediately.

 

Thank you all for your love and friendship, see ya in the fight.

Politics of The Libertarian Mob

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The Tea Party Jacobins — Mark Lilla, NY Times Book Review

A new strain of populism is metastasizing before our eyes, nourished by the same libertarian impulses that have unsettled American society for half a century now. Anarchistic like the Sixties, selfish like the Eighties, contradicting neither, it is estranged, aimless, and as juvenile as our new century. It appeals to petulant individuals convinced that they can do everything themselves if they are only left alone, and that others are conspiring to keep them from doing just that. This is the one threat that will bring Americans into the streets.

I would have missed this, had it not been for the ever watchful @jayrosen_nyu who tweeted it again because it was his most popular recent link. For good reason.

There is almost nothing I could write that could make the point better than this thoughtful and prescient post does. Everyone should read it—twice.  It could be the first really complete overview of what is actually happening to this nation, and just how dangerous a predicament we are in.

The concorporate media is part of the problem, so they are hardly going to be the one's to tell this story well, despite articles like this which sneak into their product mix now and then.

If I have any criticism at all, it's that it pays far too little attention to Roger Ailes, the Koch brothers, Dick Armey's Freedomworks, and all the other cynical forces of darkness that are gaming the Tea Party movement—and America—more and more each day.

Please  click the GREEN Retweet button below, and help others understand this growing menace to this foundering American experiment.

Read: The Tea Party Jacobins