COVER -> MEMOIRS OF THE INFORMATION AGE
That is, unless you are a political blue blood with a feeding from a lifetime guarantee for the gravy train of public service. If you are a member of the protest fringe, forget it. Your candidate's revolution --- from the Green Party's Ralph Nader to a "performance art" campaigner such Clarita "Chi Chi" Fazarri (running on a "madame knows best" platform)----will not be televised.
After a few hours spent on the street with the O3 Mobilization on the first night of the presidential debates in Boston, MA, I was left with the kind of sad feeling that, if left unattended, grows into a soul sickness. Symptons include sort a socio-political claustrophobia. Hopelessness, too.
Several hundred protesters were out on the road at Umass in Boston behind a systematized gauntlet of yellow barricades and flashing red and yellow, emergency lights, sirens galore and helicopters flying overhead. There were enough Boston police officers to do some real damage----especially since they were so pissed about having to commit so many officers to such odious double duties. One of Boston's finest, when I asked him a question, looked at me like a potential terrorist. Just who was supposed to be meeting here, anyway: The radicals or the cops?
Should I be surprised to find one at the same place as the other?
We the unclean were allowed, however, to gather into discussion circles on a street far off from where the Oct. 3 debate was taking place. The right to circle is still OK, right now.
I dispensed with the usual journalist's protocol of being an objective observer. I shared my anxieties with the group of all these college-aged young people, but failed when I tried to pronounce Alexis De Tocqueville. Still, I took notes on what they said, most of it having to do with how civil society is systematically quieted by the corporate nation states who really run things these days.
I recorded the following phrases from our little circle of pro-active peons outside the wall:
- "The feudal system of corporate city-states overwhelms the democratic process."
- "Urban sprawl... I watched a five-acre plot of land go from forest to a factory parking lot in less than a week."
- "We are powerful."
- "There's a lack of awareness, and a lack of research when it comes to developing an idea."
- "We are powerless."
On the question of research, and empowerment, well, at least we have the World Wide Web, right? Certainly November's ballot will be the partial result of an unprecedented deluge of information about the candidates and the issues.
The wiring of the Democratic process has led nearly two out of three Americans to feel "more connected to the political process," according to a recent poll by Yankelovich Partners for Yahoo! News. Forty four percent of those polled say the Internet puts "them in touch," and about the same amount say they are surfing the Web to research political issues, candidates and election news.
Oh! Whatever happened to the hippie dream? You know, the promise of online elections (killed by the privacy debate). Then there's general hope that all mankind, if it feels like bombing a nation or assassinating a leader, can simply send a message by e-mail instead.
Sure, some info-media content providers, grass roots organizations and political think tanks are attempting to remodel the democratic process by allowing the Web user to dig deeper, to go off-trail, aggregating all of the noise out there with sophisticated comparison tools, selectors, interactive charts, streaming the whole argument of the electoral process into your machine.
Yet, despite the prolific number of sites and tools out for political junkies, everything starts with what the candidates are willing to feed us. Not very much of substance, usually. Never before has a citizen had such easy access to find out what the candidates specifically want you to believe. After all is said and done this campaign season, we are all still left to judge each candidate by the persistent Pravda-ization of their official Web sites.
Numerous pundits have attempted to draw differences between each candidate's official Web site, hoping to reveal something new about Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore. After one such scan, the Los Angeles Times gave the nod to Bush's site based on the quality of video presentation, information on issues, links to interest groups, volunteer recruitment and, yes, his online store.
Between bricks or clicks, which prints more truth Mortar or new media sites? The really difficult question isn't which candidate to vote for, but which media outlet to trust. While many political portals have proliferated this year, many of them have entered the fray with a resounding thud. Many may not last long after the election.
"I don't even know if all of them will make it to the election," mused Michael Cornfield, research director of the Democracy Online Project at George Washington University. "Political content never sells, and it never will."
Just ask Pseudo.com, or, the guy who quit Voter.com to find something more permanent, the scribe abandoning ship well before Fuckedcompany.com got hold of it.
One of the best aggregators of all the stuff out there is Web White and Blue, funded by the Markle Foundation.
Such sites as Pseudo.com only added to the white noise, anyway. Debate was not raised to higher level due to the mere proliferation of Internet outlets. For all of the efficiently rendered news and tools out there, an enormous amount of clutter has to be filtered through. And it's certainly not PC (as in politically correct) for your PC. For example, during a live chat session during the Republican National Convention on the now dead poli-page Pseudopolitics.com, the following ugly discourse ran by the PC screen:
"willie - Hey they found a black Rep. On CNN maybey we should start a tally or a raffle or something"PseudoBot - big-fred: My you're a smart cookie aren't you
"ChuckNorton5 - (blank) is a former radio host
"PackyDerm - ask Golway what Observer gay blade society reporter Andrew Goldman is covering in Philly?
"Steve1 - Ross is still trying to isolate the sucking sound.
"Lost Airman - Education is, really, far more subtle than flaming a room."
And so on.
But there's still hope out there for people who want to do the research.
You can find other ways to get involved in intelligent political forums online. One example is Atlantic Unbound's Post & Riposte, a forum for discussion for the online version of the literary magazine, Atlantic Monthly, that actually asks PseudoBot and Willie to check their spelling before they file.
Other possibilities include the Rolling Cyber Debate at Web White and Blue. OK, you've got the PR spin, you've read the newspaper, saw the speech on television, and surfed the World Wide Web to see the advertisements everyone is talking about at The Political Ad Critic. But those repeated commercials on television are still wearing you down.
We are what we oppose, and for that reason we can learn a lot from grungy, independent, even morosely critical sites that jeer, howl and dig for the dirt that goes way back. Sure, the highly literate pundits at Slate and Salon are certainly acerbic, but they follow the rest of the media in terms of analyzing what's on the front burner.
Less forgiving is Skeleton Closet, which pulls together links to all of the dirt tracked in by candidates during the campaign.
The question is: Do voters really see any difference between the two? Or more like, is there any difference between the two? What sort of black helicopter is that up there, watching us, anyway? I don't see any markings at all ...
"Now, I have to say, watching them on TV is one thing; having them line up, facing you about 10 yards away with sticks and guns and riot gear is no joke. I was scared. Really, really scared.
Things flashed through my head: Big black boots, stormtroopers, footage from the Seattle riots, Klaatu Barada Nicto. They stood there, holding their clubs at the ready, and I thought, 'my God, are they really going to hit us? For just standing here?' We began to talk among ourselves, wondering whether anything would happen, and if so, would we be warned. The cops put their visors down, and I could feel my stomach drop and my whole body shake. I wondered what the riot police felt; were they making themselves hate us in case they had to hurt us? Did they hate their jobs right now? A girl near me had a cell phone and I briefly thought about asking whether I could use it to call a friend so that I could just tell them how scared I was. I saw police dogs being brought out.
"I think the fear I felt came from feeling that the police were no longer the Good Guys. If you're raised a law-abiding white person, you think, 'the police are good -- they don't hurt innocent people.' But I'd seen that no matter what we did, the police saw us as a threat and a nuisance, and didn't care what happened to us. I didn't want to be in the action end of mace or a night stick wielded by a riot cop with a chip on his shoulder. But i was glad I'd brought saline solution and some bandanas just in case. I knew that in Seattle they;d sprayed protesters with a substance used in Vietnam and which was proven to cause miscarriages and chromosomal damage, among other things."
[Emphasis ours. To read THE FULL TEXT follow this link. -- Ed.]
This was written by Joy the morning after the O3 debates, and protests. I got it a few days later.
Now really, Doug, what your article shows us all is that you are one of the sheltered, (as am I, how do you think I have this wonderful macintosh 'puter to type upon??) but you are not paying attention to one thing, and neither is anyone else: The net users have reached what I will call a critical mass.
There are now more US citizens online than ever before.
"So what?" you may say. Well I shall tell you what. This means that if you have any connection to any progressive thinker out there in the ether, he or she will make sure to get the best of the best articles on anything political, into your inbox.
"My inbox?, so what." are the next words out your mouth.
WWWBLAHBLAHBLAHWEBWEBWEB.COM
how boring.
BOO!
Guess what! There is so much more to this network than hypertext. I seem to remember that Email use has surpassed FTP data as the top clogger of these very pipes. So if you want to get some good news (maybe more than you can read with two ---or even four --- eyes), join a couple political listservs! I have learned more about politics in 3-4 months, than in my ENTIRE LIFE, because of the email lists I am now on. (BTW I recommend using Eudora, and enabling filters, with different list specific mailboxes to make this whole process enjoyable)
"whoda thunk there wuz more than my webtv?? oh boy, I gots to get me a real kumputer now!!"
| This June the lead Washington, D.C. attorney for a major Russian oil company connected in law enforcement reports to heroin smuggling and also a beneficiary of US backed loans to pay for Brown and Root contracts in Russia, held a $2.2 million fund raiser to fill the already bulging coffers of presidential candidate George W. Bush. This is not the first time that Brown and Root has been connected to drugs and the fact is that this "poster child" of American industry may also be a key player in Wall Street's efforts to maintain domination of the half trillion dollar a year global drug trade and its profits. And Dick Cheney, who has also come closer to drugs than most suspect, and who is also Halliburton's largest individual shareholder ($45.5 million), has a vested interest in seeing to it that Brown and Root's successes continue. |
I guess my ending comment is that although safety or fear may force many to the edge of the crowd, never stay there the whole time!
Interesting dialogue is not what a protest is for, you have to be in it with your heart and soul and then it is like nothing you have ever done before.
(PS: I think Doug forgot the best media source I know, www.indymedia.org, it rocks when you sort through and find what you are looking for, good thing they have an excellent search engine, huh?)
FROM http://boston.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=547
Humor for this massive protests of the debate was provided by Bilionaire$ for clo$ed debate$!
The chant of "Al Gore, Corporate Whore" was in fact provided by the carpenters to us Billionaires (of course for a ridiculous fee), so we gave it immediately to Central CT Green Party members.
That rif-raf can't be bought like all the others!!! How were we supposed to know they would use it against us and make our enviro centrist puppet candidate look bad!(Well we knew the other one won't be needed any help making himself look bad so we were betting on this one. I won the bet though!)
Mean while people in the know, perhaps leaders of this resistance against us bourgeoise, found out somehow that those Union boys were paid to show up in force! **The union members were also apparently threatened with being blacklisted if they did not attend!** (Interestingly comprised of 95-98% white male Union members, some others who were promised more highway construction work with certain candidates - funny what happens when you talk to people reasonably, tell them how much my money is worth to me and why they can't have standard health care, or a living wage, and they might tell you some good things.)
I always say, Money doesn't talk, it screams!! I own two centrist candidates already and bought at least 40 votes from the hapless protesting peasants who took my funny munny!!!
What we billionaires need is a tax cut! Millions of dollars of my money go to corporate welfare every year!! Meanwhile all the jaded third party voters of past have been bought because they think the problem is the poor on welfare! We have surely tricked them!! The bussing and police protection of the Union meeting places were not even too expensive for us billionaires!! We also made sure there was an exciting media blitz of Al Gore signs everywhere, but none for Bush anywhere to be seen.
I was accosted by a possibly drunken carpenter, who swore at me and attempted to rip my sign out of my hands when I tried to buy his vote, but solid foam core resists shearing forces so it does not tear.
Many skirmishes between Union members and Progressives occurred and often instigated by the Union members but ending with the Progressives being arrested.
Early in the day I was screaming at the ruffians, "Sell your vote and sell your soul, let corporations take control!" and "Let me prostitute justice, and buy your Democracy! It's the American Way!"
In the end of the evening I declared the debates a victory for us billionaires and made sure everyone knew that "Injustice has been served and the debates remained closed even to ticket holders!"
Never forget, MONEY RULES! Nader is just Jealous we can ban him from the UMASS campus and debate building.
Manny O'Bux
Please support the Rainforest Action Network.
http://www.dmitri.net/kangas-mirror/
And now for something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Have you considered Vote Swapping?