And we have our Press Agent running on @WeOccupyAmerica. This account had 2,500 hand picked followers, mostly Progressives, no bots, no junk, no wingnuts. It's picked up 300 followers in the last day and since I'm using it in this fashion now I can't be aggressive about policing who follows.
This is what we're doing message wise:
1. Continuous low speed trickle of Eight Rules, nonviolent engagement advice from Cynthia Boaz
2. We can use the list of accounts to send them individual public @ messages, so far we have said:
a. please help us find the rest of you
b. please look at Andrew Krieg's article on 20 House members pushing investigation of Clarence Thomas (started 9/30 early AM, will run all day)
3. Next steps with this will include some of the following
a. other Velvet Revolution activities - American Crossroads seems most likely to draw their eye
b. If we can get Seema Kalia's work on Wall Street corruption positioned right that will be HIGHLY inflammatory
c. Keep an eye on progress against Thomas & labor uptake, maybe we get a shot at Scalia for this NLRB/Boeing stuff he & his son do
d. taking suggestions from the folks in the bcc: on what else needs attention, as well as from @Occupier accounts
I've personally visited the Wall Street occupation, to establish some grassroots cred specific to this movement, to renew contact with old friends, and to meet new ones. I've got my fingers into the D.C. planning and I'm going to make a run to Baltimore to help get that one moving, too. I may well go back to New York for a bit if it's warranted and I'm going to check my Amtrak miles to see if I can swing a trip to Boston.
There are already back channels developing but it's so chaotic I can't discern which ones are important. I would greatly appreciate those of you who have an occupation near you skulking a bit, and bringing me half a dozen contacts for each. If you're actually getting involved up close and personal, well, let's *talk*.
The visible emails are Jen Preston of New York Times, Mark Ames of ExiledOnline, and Adrian Chen from Gawker - three of the four journalists I know who don't suck. The rest of you down in bcc: are free to hit reply if you have something you want to give one of them, and I'll validate you as a source. If you're feeling sneaky you can pass me stuff and I'll hand it off to them.