Anatomy of a Cross-Blog Protest - Alito is Toast!

As most of you know, last week several community sites in the lefty blogosphere played host to Operation Yellow Feather. It all started with an idea from BostonJoe and quickly took off through the help of several bloggers.

I have to admit that the results took me by surprise. For three days I had numerous tabs open in my Firefox browser, trying to manage the various posts that I wrote at different sites.

The protest proved to me that we can work together across the blogosphere for a common purpose. I hope that we can apply a similar approach to the upcoming SCOTUS nomination, resulting in the defeat of nomination of Samuel Alito.

My thoughts below the fold, as well as a call to action...

Here are the things that worked well with Operation Yellow Feather (OYF), that I think could be useful for the scAlito defeat:

• Brainstorming diaries work, we already have one for the Twelve Days of Alito (i'm partial to The Twelve Days of Justice, but that's just me)
  
• follow-up diaries are necessary to build anticipation and give clarity to the upcoming campaign. See BostonJoe's OYF examples here and here
  
• the Master diary should be clear on the campaign's purpose and be a home-base for all the action items. Here was the initial OYF diary
  
• Coordination is necessary to make sure the DailyKos gets involved. The site has the numbers and exposure necessary to make sure it spreads across to different sites. It is helpful to know when the DKos diary will be posted, and who the author will be (preferably the same as here, but not necessary IMHO)
  
• Ops Center diaries worked for OYF as a way to organize the actual campaign. Here's an example. It provides a forum for feedback on the campaign logistics, which is different than actually discussing the meat of the protest (in our case, Alito's views on this, that and the other thing).
  
• Give your participants direct Thank-Yous for their participation. It helps to empower them to continue their assistance, attract new recruits, and genuinely praise their involvement. We're all busy people so any time spent is precious.
  
• Over-hype the cross-blog participation. Make sure there is a listing of all the blogs participating, as well as links to the diaries. This raises everyone's sitemeter hits and makes for happier hosts. It also helps ease some of the cross-blog sniping that does nothing productive for the progressive community. These types of projects are about collaboration and common ground.

I'll stop my yapping for now, please use this thread as a brainstorming session for the Twelve Days of Alito. Here's a snippet from tampopo's diary to use as a primer:

Adding Alito to the Supreme Court terrifies me.

I feel a need to do something before the judicial hearings begin on January 7th. But what?

Congress returns on December 12th. They will remain in session till their work is concluded.

With a tip of the hat to "Antifa" for a diary written after the first "Fitzmas," I was thinking of following "the Twelve Days of Christmas," as I need something to lighten my fear.

"On their first day back from recess, I protested Alito by..."

December 23rd will be the 12th day. Perhaps a good day to stay home - no shopping.

But I am desperate for ideas. At this point I am not ready to do anything illegal.

Crossposted from Booman Tribune, where the majority of the brainstorming will be done.

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