Because I know you’ll be asking next: AOL Journals supports RSS in a limited way.  If you click on the RSS button at the bottom of your AOL Journal, you’ll get a pop-up with this text: 

 

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It allows you to syndicate your Journal so others can easily keep track of your updated entries. AOL has automatically set up a special link that others can use to keep track of your Journal. This link is an RSS feed, but is sometimes called an XML link

 

An RSS Reader allows you to read all of your favorite Journals or weblogs in one place, instead of having to go to each individually. AOL does not currently provide an RSS reader but you can choose one from this list in AOL Search.

 

If you use an RSS reader, this Journal's RSS feed is located at:

 

http://journals.aol.com/raynetoday1/RayneToday/rss.xml

 

Note: This link is not meant to be viewed in a web browser.

“AOL does not currently provide an RSS reader…”  another brick in the wall of the garden, n’est-ce pas?

5:47:49 PM    comment []

More lovin’ from the blog oven…

As posted at my AOL Journal:

Okay, okay, I screwed up and didn't shout out for some more of my Salon peeps; they should have been included in the previous list (although there's still no room for them on the "Favorite Sites" list to the right [at my cheesy AOL Journal]).

Andrew Bayer is Dreaming of China -- http://blogs.salon.com/0001033
Perils of Caffeine in the Evening -- http://blogs.salon.com/0001970
Julie/Julia Project -- http://blogs.salon.com/0001399
Blog Baby -- http://blogs.salon.com/0002237

And last but not least, Phil at Just Playing -- who's blog URL I have misplaced. (I promise I will track it down and repost it!)

Okay, anybody else I missed in the Salon blogosphere? Speak up now.

Agh, I just thought of another: Jennifer at Synaesthesia, another URL I can't pull up.

God, I'm a sack of useless blog crap when I can't blogroll my blogfriends.

3:27:42 PM    comment []

Bridging the gap – Part 2

Ojo Caliente already asked the question about generational gaps which divide us; he noticed them at previous Dean MeetUps.

I’ve already responded on this on 04-SEP-03 – of course we’ll be divided to some degree.  It’s the nature of the human beast.

Here’s the bigger gap that divides us, as I see it:  how do we build diversity and inclusion for the Dean Team?

How do we reach out to peoples of color?

It’s been on the agenda as an action item for the last two Dean MeetUps.  Just as Radio Free Blogistan’s xian noticed a couple thousand miles away from here, we see an overwhelming white presence attending these Dean MeetUps.  Yeah, a mess of righteously angry middle-class white people, wanting Dean and wanting to purge Dubya in 2004.

But when we get to the topic of minority outreach, all these white people say, Sure, we gotta’ do that, and then nothing; blank stares, deer-in-the-headlights looks.  They don’t know what to do about this at grassroots level.

Here’s what I think are the problems:

1)       More than half of the Dean supporters are people who’ve never been activists, have never done anything like this for a political cause – they’re virgins. 

2)       Humans tend to live with people of their own kind, which makes for insular communities.  This means that most of these newbie activists simply don’t have enough minority contacts within their personal circle of influence.

Before any people of color start getting pissed off about being left out, about not having a voice, they need to understand these structural barriers and see that it happens just as easily in their own communities.

Here’s an example: I’ve never had another person of color ask me to attend a function to support one of their causes.  I’ve never been invited to the home of another person of color.  Yeah, people of color are just as prone to these challenges as are white people.

In spite of being a person of color myself, these challenges exist – I know it’s because I look white, but damn, that’s just it.  People of color need to know that the majority of white liberals is looking for them, wants their participation, urgently needs them on board for hundreds of reasons.

Both sides are going to have to try harder to meet in the middle if we’re going to get this miserable-failure-of-a-President out of office next fall.

What’s it going to take?  What do we need to do?  Tell me, I’m begging you.  I’m getting a little tired of being stuck in the middle, alone, white on the outside and a shade of brown on the inside.

2:24:30 PM    comment []

Build-A-Meme Project:  REMINDER: BUILD-A-MEME CHAT SATURDAY NOON EDT

Oops!  Sorry for the short notice!

For those of you who can make it, we're having our regularly scheduled chat today, Saturday 06-SEP-03 at noon EDT, at the Freedom 2004 chat room.

If you're new to the chat room, you will need to register to use the software (it's pretty quick and painless).

I'll be there to moderate; if I'm not there at noon, please start without me and be sure to copy-paste your chat to save as a transcript for posting to the Freedom 2004 Forums.

If you can't make it, be sure to check the Freedom 2004 Forums at

http://www.freedom2004.us/yabbse for the transcripts.

Build the meme, people!  Keep the fires burning!

~Rayne

11:14:45 AM    comment []

The mouths of babes

We’re slowly revving up to cruising speed this morning; it’s the first regular Saturday in the school year.  The kids slept in late – 8:00 am is late around here any more – and have only just finished their breakfasts.  My daughter is preparing to leave with her dad for the office; my five-year-old son is playing quietly on the couch in the den with his Transformers between sips of cocoa.

I’m in the den, too, catching up on the news, flipping between cable channels; I land on CBS where the topic is George Bush and the state of the economy.  The White House correspondent points out that the President has spoken three times on this topic this week.  There are clips from each of the speeches, one with Bush saying he wants to do something about unemployment and another where he goads Congress to make his tax cuts permanent.

My blood pressure is escalating as I listen.  This unemployed mother of two doesn’t set stock by anything coming out of the fearless leader’s mouth.  I have to get up and leave the room, get a cup of coffee, anything to escape this prattle; maybe this report will be done when I get back with a fresh cup of brew.

As I get up, my son asks me:  Why does the President have to talk?

Damned good thing I hadn’t gotten that cup of coffee just yet.  I’d have spewed it all over.

Yeah, babe, good question.  Damned good question.

10:05:29 AM    comment []