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The most important campaigning article you didn’t read in 2010

Last year, Sasha Issenberg released an e-book, an excerpt from his upcoming book, called “Rick Perry and His Eggheads“. It details how Dave Carney, Perry’s campaign manager, invited four academics into his re-election campaign with a mandate to bring a scientific approach to an industry that normally runs on gut feelings and anecdotes. But before he [...]

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Pokies rout a call for grassroots action

Troy Bramston, former staffer for Prime Minister Rudd and author of Looking of the Light on the Hill, makes some salient points on the disappointing poker machine reforms: That the ALP is unable to successfully advocate its policies or has the organisational capacity to campaign for them is causing concern in the party. In an [...]

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Colbert and Stewart Super PAC

Stephen Colbert, Super PACs and the US Presidential election

If you haven’t heard, Stephen Colbert, the “right-wing” counterpart to Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, recently announced that he was forming a presidential exploratory committee. He had earlier established a “Super PAC“, Making A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and he has handed over control of the Super PAC to Stewart to comply with laws forbidding collaboration [...]

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Social media and political news reporting

Social media and political news reporting

If you haven’t heard about Mitt Romney’s $10,000 bet, chances are you weren’t on Twitter during the Iowa GOP Candidates Debate on 10 December and the days following. Mitt’s bet is a good example of how social media is changing political news reporting. Since the dawn of time, political reports have listened hard for good [...]

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The ALP and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part 2)

The ALP and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part 2)

The “marketing bible” The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout sets out marketing laws that the ALP routinely violates. The result of breaking these rules has seen dire consequences for this party: massive slump in support, a collapse in membership, policy drift and an inability to “cut through” in the media. In [...]

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How the ALP violates the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part1)

How the ALP violates the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part1)

Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote the “marketing bible” The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing back in 1994, and it remains a marketing classic even today. These two renowned marketing consultants explained that successful marketing follows rules or laws that are violated at a marketer’s peril. For over a decade, the Australian Labor Party has [...]

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Pokies and dopamine: why we need mandatory pre-commitment

Pokies and dopamine: why we need mandatory pre-commitment

The sickening anti-reform campaign being run by the gambling industry against the introduction of pre-commitment technology is utterly appalling to all people with a conscience. The pokies industry is even more pernicious because it relies on neurological manipulation to encourage addiction. The Australians who become problem gamblers are being purposely exploited by the pokies industry, [...]

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Welcome to Melbourne #occupymelbourne

The conservative dilemma

Clay Shirky, a professor of new media at New York University wrote about the Arab Spring and the role social media played in helping spread the message of protesting movement. His comments about conservative (government) responses to these movements is particularly interesting given the police crackdown against the various Occupy X events in Melbourne and [...]

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New Rules for Purpose Driven Organisations

Jeremy Heimans, the CEO of Purpose.org – an “incubator” benefit company that supports major global progressive campaigns – has written an interesting article with five new rules for organisations to build their brands through being purpose driven. The entire article is worth a read, and Heimans – who also founded Avaaz and Get Up – [...]

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Words that Work by Frank Luntz

Short book review: Words that Work by Frank Luntz

What can infamous Republican word-smith and pollster Frank Luntz tell progressives about effective communication? As it turns out, quite a bit. In Words that Work, Luntz reveals his magic tricks and secret messaging memos, and (for a book written before the 2008 US presidential election) makes some predictions about the future of American politics. For progressives [...]

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whitesoftheireyes

Short book review: The Whites of their Eyes by Jill Lepore

If you’re like me and you know very little about American history, and you’re bemused by the rise of the conservative Tea Party movement in US politics, then this book is for you. Jill Lepore is a Massachusetts professor of Revolutionary history. She too was intrigued by the rise of the Tea Party – which is [...]

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We are all Arbeiderpartiet members

Nick Martin, Labor’s National Assistant Secretary, has written a fine blog post commemorating those Norwegian Labor members who were murdered by an ultra-right wing gunman. I have copied the post below, and encourage you to visit the blog and leave a message of support for Arbeiderpartiet and its members. Right across the world people have [...]

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