With as many friends as ActBlue has in the Democratic blogging community, it’s about time we joined the party with a blog of our own. So today we are launching our official ActBlue Blog where we look forward to bringing our donors, candidates, campaigns, fundraisiers, and bloggers interesting resources, analysis, tips, and other information to more effectively raise funds to elect Democrats!

Here’s just a sampling of things you can expect to see-

• Case Studies on some of the most creative ways ActBlue has been used
• Analysis on how and why people donate
• State Reports that highlight successful state level campaigns
• Tips & Tricks about ways to use ActBlue you may not have known about
• Page of the Week where we will highlight our favorite fundraising strategies
• Monthly ActBlue Zeitgeist to explore trends, patterns, and other cool stuff
• Major Series where we will explore how we are most relevant to your efforts in fundraising

This week I’ll be cross-posting some content from our blog as a way to introduce it to our friends in the online community. Tomorrow we’ll be releasing our version of a case study on the Secretary of State Project (which I was a blogger for last year before being hired by ActBlue). Later in the week I’ll introduce you to successful state level fundraising efforts by blogging communities and local organizations.

Our posts will strive to be informative and useful while maintaining the Democratic grassroots values which have driven us for the last two and a half years. We encourage you to subscribe to our RSS feed or sign up to receive new posts via e-mail to keep up with our latest posts (both available at http://blog.actblue.com).

Much of the growth for ActBlue and the netroots in the next 2 years will be at the state level. Hopefully I’ll be able to work with you to enable more successes in the statehouse while we work to expand our DC majority. If you have thoughts or questions, please leave me a comment!

It’s often been said that Republicans are pro-life, but only before you are born or when you want to die.  With the help of 35 Dems and 1 Prog, the ‘Death With Dignity’ bill was shot down yesterday in the VT Statehouse, but from what we’ve heard, this debate is not over.

The brain parasite that afflicts the editorial board of the Caledonia-Record was in full swing again a few days ago, this time over Al Gore’s global warming testimony before Congress. Gore bashing is sooo year 2000, no? And to further illustrate how out of touch with reality these people are, they refer to the discredited ‘Great Global Warming Swindle’ movie that you can read about here on GMD. Seriously, these peoples’ level of reasoning and discourse hasn’t really progressed past the fourth grade level.

Funny takes on Bush’s middle-finger press conference the other day, from Norbizness here and the Rude Pundit with “Bush Gets Pissy”.

Six people arrested  and released at the Welch sit-in yesterday. Welch actually talked to the protesters via speaker phone.

And finally, America’s sleaziest politician (without the name ‘Bush’), Tom DeLay, has a new book out, a typical conservative whinefest about poor Tom’s persecution, because you all just know how rich, white, conservative Christian males have it so hard in this country, right? Anyways, Tom might want to actually read his own book before plugging it on TV. He can’t even seem to get his facts straight about what ‘he’ wrote:

Happy Thursday, everybody. Let’s see if Al “Speedy” Gonzales makes it to Friday.

VDB provided the details of our push to show strong support for Barack Obama by March 31st.

He writes…

No need to rehearse the fact that the 2008 cycle is moving at an incredibly rapid pace. You know it, and you know the major players at this point. And you also know that this site has been pulling behind Barack Obama for months, in an early, exploratory sort of way.

  Cut to hard-core organization. Fundraising reports are out at this end of this month, and all of the major Democratic campaigns are pushing like mad to raise money. But as much as money, they need muscle: people willing to provide early help. Lots of people.

  The Obama campaign has called for a nationwide day of house parties on the 31st of March. They call it Community Kick-Off day. Obama will be at a party in Iowa, and the idea is to mirror that small, retail event with thousands of others around the country.

  Vermonters for Obama (V4O) – the group established back in December in northern Vermont – has adopted two goals to coincide with Community Kick-Off Day. First, we’re looking to double our own email list, from 60+ to something over 120. Ambitious, but achievable, we think. Second, we want to shoot for 20 house parties in Vermont, gatherings registered with the Obama folks and tied in to the conference call that will go out at 3:00 pm on March 31.

  It’s unbelievably easy. Go here: my.barackobama.com. Once there, you’ll be able to click to sign up and create a profile.

  Then you can search by Zip (05401) to find Vermonters for Obama, or go directly to: my.barackobama.com/page/group/VermontersforObama

  On this actual group page, you just need to click the “Join Group” button in the upper left under the group name to add yourself (and to boost our group number).

  I know: it’s early to commit. Not everyone’s there yet. But ask yourself this: are you far enough along in your thinking to give your email address? It’s a big step, of course, but not exactly selling your house.

  Updates as the 31st draws near.

We’re currently at 7 VT house parties and 73 group members. Please spread the word, create or sign up to attend an event, and encourage people to join our Vermont group (this can certainly include people who have joined or started smaller local groups.)

And again, you can go here to create or find an event.

Regards,

Neil Jensen
V4O Group Administrator

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Advocates know that one time-tested way to get attention at the State House is to hand out food.

I was over at the State House today and I ran into local activist Andrea Stander, who was handing out birthday cake, but the message was a little odd. Like the headline says, mandatory retirement at age 35.

I’m way past thirty-five and I have no interest in being put out to pasture, but I have to say that in this case VPIRG had a good point.

I think I’ve mentioned that Josh Marshall is the one who’s really made the U.S. Attorney purge a story and kept it going. His blog, Talking Points Memo, posts consistently great journalism, and he’s really my model for the work I do, especially at Rational Resistance.

If you like Josh’s work you might be interested in this profile in the L.A. Times.

Then, on my way home from work today I heard this story on All Things Considered.

I know there is no Pulitzer category for internet reporting, but maybe there should be. Josh made a great story of Bush’s plan to kill Social Security by enlisting his readers across the country to find out their Congressman’s position on the plan. He was all over the Duke Cunningham story, and now he almost singlehandedly made the U.S. Attorney purge a big, national story.

I read TPM multiple times a day. I often comment that he must keep the same hours I keep, because no matter how late I’m up and surfing the Net I find new stories on TPM. It is absolutely indispensable to understand what’s going on.