December 9, 2009 archive

“Drying for Freedom” (clothes, that is)

The website asks:

Due to be released in 2010, Drying For Freedom is a film about communities and freedom; with 50 million clotheslines banned in the U.S alone, are we hanging our planet out to dry?

They also state:

Dryers use 10 to 15% of domestic energy in the United States!

Wow — now that’s saying something!

These guys are hilarious, here’s another quote:

We are in hot water… if we don’t use cold!

It is way past time to push people to wash with cold water. Washing with cold water saves almost as much energy as using a clothesline. Join the Cold War!

Their principles are sterling — an answer to questions asked here, I think (what do we do?):

Principles

It is not enough to define a problem and offer no solutions.

Our consumption patterns create the demand for electricity.

The generation of nuclear power is an inefficient energy source producing an abundance of hazardous waste of which we cannot safely dispose.

Raising awareness of existing alternatives to nuclear power and large hydroelectric projects will help people and corporations to make appropriate technological choices.

Nobody should have to live, work, or play near a nuclear facility.

No culture or community should be destroyed by a hydroelectric facility or any other monolithic corporate project.

The sun is the most powerful nuclear reactor and can serve many purposes-none of which should be ignored.

All citizens nation-wide should have the legal right to hang out their laundry.

North Americans, as all people, must lead by example.

Frugality, or thrift, needs to be a universally practiced virtue.

I especially like the last one. I think this use to be a revered principle — true?

Explore the site and find out more, here:

http://www.dryingforfreedom.com/

I blogged this future in 2007

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Boycott All Fundraising For The Sitting Congress Hotlist

by pinche tejano

Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:52:50 AM PST

You are nothing but an ATM to the Democratic Party. Daily Kos is a cash cow they pander to only during election years because of the money you can generate for their campaigns. And once you have secured their seats, they no longer return your calls, and your emails are returned with generated noreply responses. They do not care what you think, they only want you for your money.

Once they have what they want, they do not feel the need to comply with the wishes  of the ones who sent them there. You are irrelevant in their eyes since they have no need for fund raising this year. If they cared, if they truly cared what the netroots wanted, they would act on the principles of those who canvassed, those who worked their phones, those who gave them money.

They don’t. You are just a typing ATM machine to them, and nothing more.

If they cared,

They would have repealed the USA Patriot Act. (Unresolved)

They would have repealed the Bankruptcy Act. (Actually made this worse)

They would have restored habeas corpus. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have repealed the Military Commissions Act. (Unresolved)

They would have reformed the Prescription Drug Act (Actually turned this into corporate welfare)

They would have repealed the Clear Skies Act. (Unresolved)

They would have reformed the Farm Bill. (Made horrifically worse and let Monsanto expand their intellectual property claims)

They would have dealt with the budget by now. (FUBAR)

They would have crafted a withdrawal plan, ANY PLAN, to get out of Iraq. (Adopted Bush Planning)

They would be supply our troops with legitimate body armor, made camel packs standard issue and fast-tracked the MARP into production to replace the vulnerable Humvee. They would have increased veterans benefits, they would have REALLY dealt with the Walter Reeds of the land and they definitely would have protected the troops from the back-door drafts. They would actually be supporting the troops. (Unresolved, Walter Reed Scandal forgotten, extending tours for broken military)

They would have repealed or reformed No Child Left Behind. (Unresolved)

They would have restored all points of the Geneva Convention. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have issued subpoenas to the DOJ. (Called to dismiss this case by Holder)

They would have issued subpoenas for warrantless domestic wiretapping. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have issued subpoenas for intelligence gather before the war. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have issued subpoenas for corruption in non-bid contracts in Iraq. (Contracts were extended and process still broken.)

They would have helped New Orleans by now. (FUBAR)

They would have reformed the student loan fiasco. (FUBAR)

They would be pro-active in protecting the environment. (FUBAR)

They would be pro-active in protecting worker’s rights. (FUBAR, especially for LGBT)

They would be pro-active in ethics reform. (Unresolved)

They would be pro-active in health care reform. (Ha, we all know how this is ending)

They would be pro-active in restoring our nation’s infrastructure. (Shovel Ready Projects still waiting for shovels.)

They would be pro-active in developing non-carbon emitting power grids. (Unresolved)

They would be pro-active in developing non-carbon emitting transportation. (Unresolved)

They would be pro-active in restoring faith in the ballot box. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would be pro-active in restoring faith in the American dream. (They only hand out nightmares)

They do not care, they have done none of this. They only care about how much money you can put in the war chest. You are just a cash cow they milk every two years and then go about on their merry way.

They are laughing at you. They are laughing at you because you believe you have a place at the table. They are laughing at you because you believe that by supporting them, change will come. They are laughing at you because you bought their pandering hook, line and sinker.

The only power you have is the power of the purse for their campaigns. Get their attention.

BOYCOTT ALL FUNDRAISING FOR SITTING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO USE YOU AS A CASH COW.

Boycott them now, then I bet you get their attention.

Not a single penny more for these people, unless you enjoy being laughed at.

——

Sometimes I really wish I wasn’t right all the time.

Open Secret

Photobucket

“No one could have anticipated…..”

…..that without adequate pressure from the left, the Dems would fuck this shit up.”

Why is Kos Such a Hater?

Markos is a hater!  Responding to a fund-raising email from Obama kos says, in part:

Obama spent all year enabling Max Baucus and Olympia Snowe, and he thinks we’re supposed to get excited about whatever end result we’re about to get, so much so that we’re going to fork over money? Well, it might work with some of you guys, but I’m certainly not biting. In fact, this is insulting, betraying a lack of understanding of just how pissed the base is at this so-called reform. The administration may be happy to declare victory with a mandate that enriches insurance companies, yet creates little incentive to control costs or change the very business practices that have screwed so many people. But I’ll pass.

I am no genius when it comes to a complete understanding of the details of this legislation.  But I know what a monopoly is and I know you can’t regulate a monopoly no matter how many laws you pass or how many goodies you hand out to mask the fact we are about to give billions of dollars to … a monopoly.

Without a public option, there is no counter to this monopoly.  Insurance companies win.  The rest of us lose.

kos made me laugh today!

I don’t even open the “from Barack Obama” emails anymore.  They make me want to lay down and take a nap.  kos, on the other hand, opens his:

   We will not back down

   From: President Barack Obama to Markos

   Markos —

   As we head into the final stretch on health reform, big insurance company lobbyists and their partisan allies hope that their relentless attacks and millions of dollars can intimidate us into accepting the status quo.

   So I have a message for them, from all of us: Not this time. We have come too far. We will not turn back. We will not back down.

   But do not doubt — the opponents of reform will not rest. So I need you to fight alongside me.

   We must continue to build out our campaign — to spread the facts on the air and on the ground, and to bring in more volunteers and train them to join the fight. I urgently need your help to keep this 50-state movement for reform going strong.

   Please donate $5 or whatever you can afford today:

   http://my.democrats.org/…

   Let’s win this together,

   President Barack Obama

kos’s response: gold!

This is so freakin’ obnoxious I can hardly stand it. We are about to get a turd of a “reform” package, potentially worse than the status quo. We have the insurance industry declaring victory, Republicans cackling with glee, and the administration is using that piece of shit to raise money?

~snip~

Democrats are demoralized, and have little incentive to turn out next year. The teabaggers will turn out. If this is how the Obama camp thinks we can energize the base — by promising them a health care pony for $5 to the same Democratic Party that is home to the likes of Baucus, Nelson, Lincoln, Lieberman, and the rest of the obstructionist gang — then we’re in for a world of hurt in 2010.

less after the jump…

Looking to Pick a Fight? It’s About Fucking TIme

One of the biggest challenges in developing a political strategy is figuring out what your priorities are. For a long time I have believed that our number one priority should be campaign finance reform. Without removing the corrupting influence of money, nothing else can be accomplished. The proof of this, as if we needed it, is demonstrated by the health care reform farce.

I was able to predict back in January 2009 (actually far sooner) that the health care reform bill that would emerge from Congress would be “another scam health care plan that will not solve a single problem but will please [the Democrats] big contributor[s] in the insurance and health care sectors.” Well, I wasn’t too far off was I? It’s just the way the game is rigged. Wall Street bankers and the insurance companies (which are really the same thing) own Washington. So it wasn’t too hard to predict that meaningful health care reform, the kind that benefits most Americans, was a pipe dream.

But over the years I have begun to realize that there is another foe even greater than money in politics. It is the Public Opinion Complex. This is the many tentacled monster that reaches into the brain of society and sets its norms, shapes its world view, and determines the boundaries of acceptable thought.

Don’t read those too fast. Each is monumental in scope and significance: Sets our norms. Shapes our world view. And determines our boundaries of acceptable thought.

There is nothing more important.

“The manufacture of consent…was supposed to have died with the appearance of democracy…but it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technique…under the impact of propaganda, it is no longer plausible to believe in the original dogma of democracy.”

Back in the early 20th Century, the oligarchs had a problem: how could they control society while preserving the illusion of democratic self government. Obviously, the old methods of the sword would not work. They needed a more subtle form of persuasion.

The solution came in the form of new breakthroughs in the study of human psychology and the pioneering ideas of Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays. Freud essentially discovered that people are not solely motivated by rational thought. More often, we are motivated by irrational, subconscious desires.

Bernays pioneered ways to utilize this understanding of human nature to manipulate the masses. But that was only the beginning. Soon, a new technology would be born that would allow the oligarchs to not only manufacture consent, but manufacture society itself. By the time television came along, it was well understood the power of propaganda. Everyone had seen how Hitler had used charisma and,

 

F*ck these Democrats. Bush gets away with it and they’re letting the GOP win on purpose.

    Crossposted at Daily Kos

Did Bush/Cheney face accountability for war crimes and lying us into Iraq?

Did Democrats attack Conservative ideology as totally failed after the roaring 90’s for the rich and Great Depression 2.0 for the rest of us in 2008?

No. Democrats would rather “look forward”, which is a Carlinesque term for Cover Up.

No. Instead Democrats wanted to use those failed ideas themselves to build bipartisan support for FAILED ideas that have bankrupted America and our middle and working class.

    Apparently, elections DO NOT MATTER, because we are getting ANOTHER unpopular war and we are NOT getting a popular program like the Public Option, and all because Corporations have overthrown our democracy. They didn’t need bullets, dollars did the job better than bullets ever could.

Image Hosting by PictureTrail.com     To be blunt, Democrats are losing on purpose, and I have had enough of the spineless wusses who want to play pattycake with the lunatics who kick them in the balls. If you aren’t fighting back you are THROWING THE FIGHT, and that goes for EVERY DEM, top to bottom.

   More ranting and truth below the fold . . .  

The Soft News/Hard News Debate: Internet Edition

Time Magazine, or at least its online edition, seeks to understand why Google seems to love highlighting a particular “news source” in its search results.  The very subtle, but nonetheless evident message implanted within the article is that search engine algorithms might have the same biases and favoritism embedded into them as any other corporation who owns or has partnership with other media companies.  I know that by monitoring IP addresses that visit my site by use of a tracker I frequently notice when Google bot sweeps periodically come through to make a note of and reference recently posted columns I have written.   It isn’t very long after that before I notice that traffic has been directed to my site as a result.   However, let me say that I do make a concerted effort to write something unique and meaningful, qualities which are in short supply when effort is not rewarded by much in the way of money.

If you type the name of a celebrity – say, Angelina Jolie – into Google News, chances are somewhere in the top five results you’ll get a story from Examiner.com. This is particularly true if the celebrity is in the news that day. For early December that means searches for Tiger Woods, Sandra Bullock and Weezer on Google News consistently brought up Examiner.com stories in the topmost results. And in those stories, by the way, there was very little actual news.

Absolutely.   The only currently existing model available to those who blog for pay is centered around advertising revenue as the most important variable of all.   Instead of providing a unique perspective on the news, instead one gets a bare minimum of original content and a whole e-farm’s worth of hyper-linking and search engine keyword baiting.   It needs to be noted, of course, that Examiner.com is not the only site out there using a similar strategy to press a similar agenda.   But in that regard, it is not much different to any kind of freelance work which promises sporadic assignments, minimal pay, few benefits, and no real job security.   The signer of the paychecks or distributor of funds to the PayPal account still holds most of the cards at the table.   In a field where so many are fighting to be heard and where competition is fierce and often cutthroat, employers get utterly inundated with prospective writers and many of them have the ego and the swagger but none of the talent to back it up.   Proceeding directly for the easy sell and the low hanging fruit has padded profits but has rarely advanced a civic discourse or issue evolution.    

They also have very little news value. Generally, an Examiner.com news story is a compendium of tidbits culled from other websites, neither advancing the story nor bringing any insight (a description, it should be noted, that can be just as fairly applied to many offerings of more mainstream media). Most Examiners are not journalists, and their prose is not edited. CEO Rick Blair, who helped launch AOL’s Digital Cities, an earlier attempt at a local-news network, calls them “pro-am” – more professional than bloggers, but more amateur than most reporters. You might also call them traffic hounds: because their remuneration is set by, among other things, the number of people who click on their stories, Examiners will often piggyback on hot news, or oft-searched people. The Angelina Jolie story, from a celebrity-fitness and -health Examiner, discussed Jolie and husband Brad Pitt’s recent night out at a movie premiere and assessed their health by their appearance.

Put this way, here is a decent enough description of most collaborative blogs.   However, before one buys into this description hook, line, and sinker without taking into account the underlying intent it must be added that Daily Kos was described by Time as one of its “Most Overrated Blogs of 2009” in very searing language.

It wrote,

Markos Moulitsas – alias “Kos” – created Daily Kos in 2002, a time he describes as “dark days when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous.” Be careful what you wish for. With the Bush years now just a memory, Kos’s blog has lost its mission, and its increasingly rudderless posts read like talking points from the Democratic National Committee.

Easy for you to say, Time.   Dear pot, kindly meet kettle.

Returning to my original point, at the beginning of this post, I referenced an article written to encourage a spirit of full disclosure, no matter how stealthy proposed.   I would be similarly remiss if I did not state that I, too, am a reporter for Examiner.com.   Yet, I note, however, that in nearly a month of writing for it I have made under $20 for my efforts, even though my pieces usually attract a respectable audience that frequently exceeds the average number of hits which typify the typical DC Politics Examiner.  I don’t run away from controversy in that which I write, but neither do I seek to provoke without backing up my points, buttressing my argument, and taking into account the inevitable counter-arguments of my opponents.   Still, one simply can’t keep up with those who dispense romance advice, bicycle repair, child rearing tricks, and pet psychic services.   Nor can I keep up with the barrage of ultimately meaningless drivel that might be the opiate of the masses but tends to put me into an opium-based sleep.   I do not expect to make much out of any of what I do but I will say that I seek to strategically position and my postings to get maximum exposure.   I am no different from many of you reading this, I daresay.  

So why does Examiner.com’s fairly superficial posts on the big stories of the day end up so often near the front of Google’s news queue? “It’s not a trick,” says Blair. “We have almost 25,000 writers posting 3,000 original articles per day.” Examiners take seminars on writing headlines, writing in the third person and making full use of social media, all of which are Google manna. But Blair thinks it’s mostly the scale of the operation that makes Examiner.com articles so attractive to search engines, from which more than half of the site’s traffic comes. That is, by stocking the lake with so many fish every day Examiner.com increases the chances the Google trawlers will haul one of theirs up.

And here we have a perfect example of why an unholy combination of made up celebrities, made up drama, and manufactured crises for the sake of readership threaten to choke out everything wholly decent.   Weeds are on the verge of taking over the garden.   Or, as Howard Beale would say, “And woe is us! We’re in a lot of trouble!”   Speak softly, though, because to some extent we’ve already been handcuffed by the almighty dollar and may always be.   Some realities go well beyond our poor power to add or detract.

In a coy final note, the Time article concludes,

The goal of all these companies, eventually, is to snare local advertising, a $141 billion market that, according to Blair, has been left largely untapped by the Internet.  Examiner.com will start rolling out ad packages in the next few months, and will hit up its network for leads.

In the meantime, these pro-am armies are giving the big media companies plenty to worry about. The mainstream media’s news-harvesting machines are no match for a swarm of local locusts buzzing over the same crop. And Big Media is starting to take notice. CNN, which already uses a lot of crowdsourced material with its ireport arm, just invested in another local outfit, outside.in. Perhaps the news giant figures that if everybody’s going to be a reporter, they might as well work for CNN.

The note is winking and coy because Time is, after all, owned by CNN.   I, too, have been an iReporter for CNN, for the same reasons I write at Examiner.com.   I don’t make a dime out of it, but I do get my name out in the hope that someone, somewhere, is listening, reading, and contemplating.   My hope, of course, is that at least with my post there will be an alternative, thought-provoking voice in the middle of all the fluff and unsubstantial content.   Perhaps that is what we all wish for when we put our fingers to our keyboards and begin typing or begin synching up our digital cameras.  We want to be better than that which we just finished reading or want to be provide a better analysis than a pundit who makes thousands upon thousands of dollars a year to sound supremely ignorant.   Yet, we might also need to contemplate our current realities before we get caught up on our own narratives.  Recall Network once more.

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality — one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.  

 

I Just Watched Joyce Meyer on the religious channel AND

I liked her.  She is a downhome speaker, charming, smart.  Her homily today was “depression” and who isn’t depressed today.  Common sense and funny.  She preaches in one of those huge venues with hundreds of people.  The camera pans these people quite often, and they are shining with the quality of belief – they are happy and look healthy.  She made a lot of sense to me.  Matter of fact, she revved my engine – I’m going to work on library board stuff today which I’ve put off for days.  

My own religious background is urban Catholic.  I see the Church as a cultural institution, and believe in ways which are different than when I was a child.  I won’t bore you with this but the Church is important to me.  I do not believe the Church is the true religion as I was taught in the second grade – People are free to believe (or not believe) as they choose if they are tolerant of others and have decent instincts – none of my business.  Nor does the Church teach this anymore.  My son was taught way differently than I was so I know it has changed.  And I don’t like when the Church is dissed for reasons of faith – this is the religion of my family, my nana, my parents and childhood.  Sure politically the Church is up for discussion – why not?  Though I don’t believe it’s the voting block it’s made out to be.  My own Catholic friends and family are all over the place. The power of the Church lies in primate ties of family, friends, memories. Emotional but again – I am comfortable with metaphysics, so not threatened by myriad ways to peace, enlightenment, cohesion in life.  Plus communion gives me peace, and I believe in grace.  

My question to the community is: Have we given up on these people in Ms. Meyer’s audience?  Do we consider them intellectually clipped, stunted, unworthy of our attention?  Politically, they probably are conservative (this is the meme, isn’t it?) but individually each is different – and no doubt have the same good qualities we here foster and respect in the progressive community.  Politically have we ceded?  Seriously asking – I think we have.  

My takeaway.  I felt better after I watched Ms. Meyer.  I couldn’t stand being in such a crowd – smacks of conformity. But that’s me.  That’s not them and there are a lot of them out there.  Have we given up on these souls?  We shouldn’t.

I purposely did not research Ms. Meyer – I wanted to post this while I was feeling the effects of her homily – she does have a certain gift.

Caveat:  I don’t agree with the Church’s official position (and neither do my family or friends) on gays, abortion.  The priest scandal pains me deeply.  The American Church is quite different from Rome – Conservative Catholics are quite at odds with liberal Catholics.  We are not a monolith.  Really, discussing such matters is not what I’m after – I’ll be happy to delete the diary if the comments are not politically motivated.

UPDATE:  I just researched Joyce Meyer.  Oi Vey!  But these people believe mightily and they must have access to google, and have probably read of her travails in the local papers.            

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

35 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Science

1 Developing nations furious over Danish climate text

AFP

1 hr 49 mins ago

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – A leaked Danish proposal triggered outrage at Copenhagen climate talks, with developing nations condemning a draft deal that they argued would consign most of the world’s poor to permanent penury.

The “draft political agreement” circulated informally by the host government exposed the deep faultlines besetting a 192-nation conference aimed at averting the potential planetary catastrophe of global warming.

The cost of failure in Copenhagen was underlined by the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, which said the current decade was shaping up to be the hottest since accurate records began in 1850.

Sunny

the first “45” I bought was “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney.  I was age seven, or so, and had a phonograph, and that song ripped me apart.  It must have been the  rapid descent from major to relative minor, because I had no idea what “yesterday” and “troubles” and “far away” meant.  Frankly, I doubt Paul, as a young adult, knew either.  Perhaps there are musical emoticon archetypes to which every human responds.

Here’s another that ripped me up (and still does).  Unlike Yesterday (either straighforwad major/minor stuff), “Sunny,” with its G9s and James Bond intermezzoes was a whole other realm of ambiguity, somehow mixing sincere gratitude and loss in one idea, and then amplifying that idea via consecutive transpositions.

All I know for sure is that the song always got to me.  I didn’t need to learn how to appreciate it.

Europe SMACKS the off-the-rails US military/industrial complex!!!

Owwwwwwwie, this has GOTTA hurt. ;-7

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s antitrust chief said Tuesday that U.S. senators who pressed her to approve Oracle Corp.’s takeover of Sun Microsystems Inc. should stop interfering in Europe’s affairs and prioritize U.S. health care reform.

Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, is holding up the $7.4 billion deal over worries that it would give Oracle too much control over the database software market.

A group of 59 U.S. senators wrote to her last month, asking her to speed up approval for a deal that, if it fails, could cost thousands of American jobs.

Kroes slammed the senators for “interfering in someone else’s decisions rather than taking the most important decision that you have control over: improving health care.”

“Is this really more important than fixing your own health care system?” she asked in a speech, adding that the senators needed to get their priorities straight.

Oh, and she’s not just right about that.

European regulators have a Jan. 27 deadline to decide whether to approve the takeover or block it. They say they are concerned that Oracle will gain control of open source database company MySQL, which they claim will increasingly pose a threat to Oracle’s own proprietary database software.

The EU commission says it is concerned that Oracle could refuse to license MySQL to some companies or for some uses in order to favor its own software – which could limit customer choice and ultimately hike prices. Sun paid $1 billion for MySQL last year.

That’s right, geeks and geekettes and little geeklings. MySQL, one of the most powerful pieces of open source software out there, software upon which literally hundreds of thousands of websites and small businesses depend, could GO AWAY FOREVER out of this deal.

But the 59 corporate sellouts who claim to be worried about “thousands of jobs” haven’t worried about THAT, have they?

And what stands between those small businesses and this latest threatened rape of the middle class by corporate America? Not our own “democratic” (*coughBULLSHIT!cough*) government. Certainly not the corporations themselves.

A handful of folks in Europe are the ones who have to do this corporate trust-busting dirty laundry for us. AGAIN. AGAIN!

Nice, eh?

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