21st Century Cronyism, Same Old New Jersey

Raymond Chafin in Just Good Politics defined democracy as rewarding as much as possible those most responsible for getting you elected.

The former Logan County boss helped to expose the fact that some politicians consider their constituency to start with those who helped with the campaign, then those who cast their votes for you, then, and then only maybe, the rest of the people.  This is an underground culture of politics, lurking beneath the aboveground assertion that all politicians work for "the people."

This is why the New York Times  sounded the tocsin on Newark's Democratic mayor (and some say eventual presidential candidate) Cory Booker's techie startup called Waywire.

Booker's startup oozes with revelations common to the confluence of politics and big business.  He has strong connections with leading lights at Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and other companies.  Many of them invested heavily in Waywire. Add to the list of investors the ubiquitous Oprah.  Although struggling now, it had been expected to perform strongly.

Even more strange, Waywire's brain trust included the 15 year old son of CNN president Jeff Zucker.

Booker certainly understands how to cover media, business, and political bases.

Columbia Journalism Review in their write up added that "Booker will still owe . . . favors even when it (Waywire) goes under."

This is a new twist on an old game.  In the 1870s, John D. Rockefeller bought out and propped up West Virginia politico Johnson Newlon Camden.  Camden served as Rockefeller's right hand man in West Virginia and rode his patronage to the United States Senate.  Doubtless, Booker had hoped that his company would provide him with enough wealth to start a run for president.

No need to worry about Booker going on relief anytime soon.  Until he announced his Senate campaign, he collected $30,000 for speeches presented at public universities. And yes, he did speak at West Virginia University.

Booker and his backers both worked hard to build this shady enterprise.  Booker expected wealth and strengthening connections with the novae of the tech world.  Certainly the tech riche expected some political help in return if Booker made it to the Senate or farther.

Facebook eliminating those with conservative ideology?

Many conservatives around the country have found the social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter are useful tools to network with other conservatives. After all these sites are specifically designed to assist people in networking, but it appears that at least one may not wish conservatives to be able to network with each other. Stories of conservatives being deleted from Facebook have been floating around the internet for months, but until it happened to a few friends on Facebook and then myself I though they were only rumors.

For me problems began shortly after appearing on the Fox News Channel, which is owned by News Corp which also owns Myspace, Facebook’s larger rival in the social networking internet realm. An influx of new friend requests and new friend suggestions began to roll in from people of like minded conservative ideology. Shortly after accepting the new friend requests and suggestions that Facebook was suggesting I began to get warnings about possible abusive behavior. After reading the “Terms of Use” I could not find anywhere where I was being abusive for responding to friend request and suggestions, so I requested clarification by contacting Facebook.

Inquiries to Facebook only resulted in automated responses, “The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon.” Nothing beyond this response was ever received. My experience is not unique among conservatives across the nation. One Conservative Facebooker, of Ames, IA, kept having her accounts deleted, but could get no where when trying to find out why, “I never got my original account back. I got my 2nd account back after a month after 30 emails someone finally bit and told me I was banned. I asked for specifics, [they] couldn't answer me.” Many conservatives are reporting that Facebook is unresponsive to request for information as to why their accounts are being deleted.

The deletions do not just affect the individual Facebook account of the user; sometimes they have far reaching effects. A Facebook event listing for a dinner with RNC Chairman Michael Steele, himself a Facebook member, was deleted along with the conservative user that posted the event. For many this was their only point of contact for the event which included times and directions. Friends and political connections also are also lost when Facebook is the only point of contact. The Iowa Conservative said, “I am very involved in politics. This is NUTS. I am losing friends like crazy to accounts being disabled.”

It has been reported in the media that Facebook has had problems with people registering under fake names and they are disabling those account, but so far most of the conservatives having their accounts disabled have had fairly normal names. The Iowa Conservative believes “We need a conservative Facebook NOW!”