| In pictures: The week in wildlife New species in the Mekong and Papua New Guinea, rutting deer and hibernating bears - the pick of this week's images from the natural world guardian.co.uk |
Americans For Prosperity sponsors Tea Party workshop Rightwing campaign funded by Koch brothers has funded seminar on how to exploit social media to attack politiciansAmericans for Prosperity, the rightwing campaign funded in part by the energy billionaires the Koch brothers, is working with the Tea Party movement to increase its impact through the use of new media and social networking.At a Tea Party convention in Virginia this week, the AFP sponsored a workshop called Online Activism 101 to train members in the political use of the internet. Delegates were given an AFP publication called Grassroots Activist Handbook as well as detailed advice on how to set up their own blogs, spread the word through Facebook and Twitter and lobby their local politicians.Erik Telford, AFP's director of online strategy and a leading figure on the right in the deployment of the internet as a political tool, exhorted Tea Party members to attack politicians through their blogs."Pick your least favourite public official and beat the crap out of him every day," Telford told the audience. "It's fun, and people will start to notice and you will have a tremendous impact."The way to beat the left is to link more and more to one another and to link to articles that are in tune with our ideology and that will push the articles to the top of Google search."Telford was once dubbed by the liberal MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann as his "number two worst person in the world". He is an expert in the political exploitation of the internet, an area in which the Democrats proved to be superior in the 2008 presidential race but where conservatives have since regained the initiative.AFP's funding sources are secret. A large though undisclosed amount of its resources come from the Koch brothers, who started the group in 2004.David Koch has denied any links to the Tea Party, but AFP's sponsorship of the workshop and its training on how to take on the political left through blogs, video posting on YouTube and social networking suggests a more direct link.Telford said: "We don't push people to pursue any interests other than their own. The influence the Kochs have on us is greatly overstated. Their contributions to us are small compared to the 60,000 donors we have across the country."Tea Party movementUS politicsUnited StatesFacebookTwitterBloggingSocial networkingSocial mediaInternetDigital mediaEd Pilkingtonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Suspected political violence kills 25 in Pakistan By ASHRAF KHAN 2010-10-17T14:58:16ZKARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Gunmen have killed at least 25 people in Karachi in the past 24 hours, raising tensions in Pakistan's largest city as voters cast ballots Sunday to replace a provincial lawmaker murdered in August.... hosted.ap.org |
24 hours in pictures A selection of the best images from around the world guardian.co.uk |
France's parliament approves pension reform By ANGELA DOLAND 2010-10-27T17:28:35ZPARIS (AP) -- France's parliament granted final approval Wednesday to a bill raising the retirement age from 60 to 62, a reform that has infuriated the country's powerful unions and touched off weeks of protests and strikes.... hosted.ap.org |