social media

Moments after Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.) voted for the Democratic health care bill, countless anti-Cao Twitter feeds, Web forums, and Facebook pages were born. Here’s a sampling of comments from “Bye Bye Joseph Cao,” a group that, according to Facebook, five of my friends had joined.

Simon Owens reports on a “vigil” being held on the White House’s Facebook wall by progressive Afghanistan-war opponents. A message posted by vigil attendees reads: “This week’s anniversary marks 8 years of war in Afghanistan, and I’m remembering those who have died. Bullets don’t win hearts and minds. We need a better plan for Afghanistan, [...]

It appears that Senate Democrats have launched a “war room” on Twitter, not-so-subtly named DemWarRoom. The first tweet:

The president’s semi-active Twitter account just sent out this message:
The House is voting on a historic clean energy bill today. Have you called your representative about it? http://bit.ly/aWcDK
Twitter has been burning up with conservative and Republican messages telling followers how to call to ask their representatives for “no” votes on the bill. This is notable [...]

Defense Tech’s Kevin Coleman reports on quiet battles between the Iranian regime and the opposition to control access to various social-media Websites:
President Ahmadinejad took decisive steps and basically turned off the Internet in Iran for about an entire day. His action, blocked access to information being distributed by the opposition party and the coordination of [...]

The Huffington Post’s unstoppable Nico Pitney culls together some of the tweets that @PersianKiwi sent out on Mir Hussein Moussavi’s address to today’s huge demonstration in Tehran. Not really sure why Nico doesn’t Cite @PersianKiwi specifically, but whatever. Here’s what a liveblogged Moussavi reads like:
· I have [...]

@PersianKiwi, the world’s most vital journalist — Mike Crowley should stop hating –  tweets about today’s big Tehran demonstration:
Everybody is peaceful and quiet – everybody is wearing black – the number of people is unbelievable – SEA OF GREEN
S/he says s/he’s going to report back when the march ends. Please. Please. Listen to their demo.

The New York Times identifies the State Department official who urged Twitter to reschedule a site maintenance — and risk disrupting the communications of thousands of Iranian dissidents using the #IranElection hashtag — as a 27-year old guy in the Policy Planning shop named Jared Cohen. Although he’s in the planning shop, this isn’t Cohen’s [...]

Via Nico Pitney, a video made by a group called Iranian Artists in Exile, distributed via Facebook, about the opposition. Set against pictures of enormous demonstrations and resultant police and militia brutality, the group seeks to address the question of what the outside world  should do for Iran.
… Iranians are screaming for the world to [...]

Via Nico “Up at 4 a.m.” Pitney at Huffington Post, Iran’s Guardian Council — the appointed body that ensures that parliamentary decisions don’t get in the way of religious obligations — has agreed to recount disputed votes in the election. But it hasn’t agreed to annul the election, according to the BBC, as opposition candidate [...]