Something about screaming “VOTE!” and telling me to spam my friends is not my idea of motivation… but maybe I am just not in touch with the youth of this country anymore. Are they acting? And what is up with the Spielberg-ian attempts at jittery cameras and dialogue. And who is that one guy with the beard anyhow? (…you think I should dress up like him for Halloween?!!)
We’re in the homestretch of this political cycle. As such, we can expect the blitzkrieg of campaign ads attempting to sway the undecided. Not living in one of the “battleground” states, I’m shielded from most of the presidential attack ads, although state and local ads still permeate the airwaves. Thank [insert deity here] that I don’t have to see those ads as much as people in Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Florida do! But what if the ads were more entertaining? What if some of the big Hollywood directors were in charge of swaying the undecided? How would that play out for the candidates? It would definitely be more entertaining to watch! Here’s a little montage of what it would be like if John Woo (Mission Impossible II), Kevin Smith (Clerks), and Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) were to direct attack ads for John McCain.
Reading through daily inspiration, more specifically a post on The Skinny (@Veer.com) makes CJ and I click through and take notice–a Gap ad encouraging voters to vote. Quickly an IM conversation starts:
CJ — “interesting social responsibility campaign! like the design and message… too bad it’s the gap!”
kc! — “good example of big business doing responsibility? or just another way to seem indie?”
And so launches another episode of Editor’s Battle:
kc! — Honestly, watching the ads, they feel really sincere and honest. In fact, they made me want to watch all of them. I imagine the design team sitting back with the marketing team and wanting to just get the message of voting out to the masses. Behind every big corporation, there are tons of independent people.
CJ — No doubt… it’s a well put together, timely, campaign. The message is invaluable in that voters, ALL VOTERS, need to make their voices heard! Fact is: That message is still being put out by The Gap Company– a publicly traded, gigantic corporation, that makes homogenized “fashion” for pennies (actually yuan), then charges the highest possible margins for those threads. Publicly traded companies have one mission: Use any-and-all means necessary to maximize profits for shareholders. This is a feudal attempt to seem relevant given the current circumstances. All the while, even their die-hard, burb customers can’t help save the sinking ship; let alone this poser, indie attempt.
kc! — So does this mean that any attempt at social responsibility by a corporate entity will be read as pandering for our dollars? Or is there a more viable way that big business can participate in conscious thinking?
CJ — It’s all about the dollar. What has Gap really done to get out the vote? Has there been ANY grassroots efforts in making registering and voting easier? This campaign should be highly visible in swing states. This campaign should bombard critical states like Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. But why will it play more in safe state centers like NYC, LA, and Chicago? Because they will pick up on the indie-cool factor. Indie=young, mind-share=more, sold=more, profit=higher stock price. Not saying it’s bad, just not indie.
kc! — Time will tell, that is for sure… but I don’t think it is right to assume that just because a company is out to make money, that advertisements such as these don’t help both the consumer and the business image without necessarily having to promote money-making endeavors. I still feel that there is room for individual independent thinking bubbling up from within a large corporation. Unlikely, yes… but possible.
No, not that kind of chicken. It now appears that the first presidential debate will go forward as scheduled tonight. I don’t believe that John McCain was trying to dodge it out of fear, as some have stated. Instead, the kind of chicken that occurred here was a high-stakes game of it with Barack Obama, in which McCain appears to have been the one who blinked first. This may be more damaging than anything that could actually happen during the debate itself. The debates, after all, are largely useless.
Let me clarify: They’re not so much totally useless as just highly inefficient. Undecided voters aren’t undecided based on the candidates’ positions on the issues. These positions, after all, have been out there for a year now, and issues-based voters long ago encountered them and made up their minds. Voters who operate principally from partisan identification knew even before then, since they were going to vote for anybody (or at least almost anybody) who had the requisite “R” or “D” after their name. The people left undecided now are people who decide based on emotional response, personal identification and perceived character.
A debate can kind of showcase that, but is really a pretty poor medium for it. Too much question, answer, policy, position, blah, blah, blah for that. We have another medium much better suited for showing us what people are made of. Reality Television. I would like to make the modest proposal that, in lieu of all these debates, the McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden teams compete against each other in The Amazing Race in weekly episodes over the next 6 weeks.
There’s a showcase in which undecided voters can find out the things really important to them in making up their minds! Things like which team launches which bold and risky strategy to block the other, and who blinks first in response…
I’m shocked to find myself even asking this question. As a fan of individual empowerment and self expression I’ve taken it as an article of faith that more media produced by more people is inherently a good thing. Democratization of information access is good. Opening up production of news to voices beyond the mainstream media is badly overdue. A profusion of alternative points of view is healthy. Despite having subscribed (and still subscribing) to these views, what I’ve noticed while avidly following the news in this election has left me wondering:
Is there too much media?
With so many outlets, expanded access to them, and especially with all of them picking up and feeding off of information from each other, the velocity of information in 2008 has increased markedly over 2004, which was itself noticeably speedier than 2000. Unfortunately, bad information propagates as quickly as good information in this environment.
Suppose, for example, I launch the story that Sarah Palin wrote an article for her high school newspaper urging underage girls to bear the children of reptilian aliens. Entirely fictional, but there are places I can post this story online where a significant number of people might see it. With a certain amount of plausibility, catchiness and volume of readership (I think I have the catchiness down, probably falling short on plausibility) my “story” will be mentioned secondhand, passed on in e-mails and posted to other blogs. With enough of this chatter, talk radio outlets will begin pro and con discussion of reptilian babygate. Enterprising 527 groups will incorporate it into campaign ads that they produce purely for online distribution to garner media coverage. The mainstream print and television media will start to mention it in their campaign coverage.
It will be thoroughly debunked by fact checking sites, and my original post will meanwhile have been taken down from the blog where it ran, and the editors there will have barred me from future posting. But by then the “fact” of Sarah Palin’s pro-saurian reproductive advocacy will be circling the globe, being kept alive by the endless recursive loop of one media outlet’s covering another media outlet’s coverage of it, which gets covered by another and…
I’ve chosen a deliberately ridiculous example here, but so far this year we’ve seen exactly this mechanism generate huge amounts of spurious news based on only slightly more robust storylines.
Part of the problem is that the proliferation of media has created a vast zone where news, opinion and satire liberally commingle. There are places where this is obvious (personal blogs, opinion pieces in all media) and others that situate themselves in a journalistic setting but do not consistently apply journalistic standards (political blogs, talk radio, shows on cable news outlets).
Even worse, the pressure created by competition between media and the need to constantly fill the volume increasingly encourages the mainstream news outlets to report “news” that has not been properly reviewed or checked. With “airtime” (for all media, not just broadcast) vastly in excess of the amount of properly evaluated news, fluffy noise expands to fill the space.
And let us not forget that these mainstream news outlets are, at the end of the day, commercial enterprises. They might not be in such a hurry to pass on half digested facts if there was no money to be made from selling the space they occupy.
I’m not entirely sure what I think of what to do in response. Certainly constricting the volume of media produced or constraining access to it is abhorrent to my democratic and DIY impulses. I have to believe it has more to do with the need for responsibility from both purveyors and consumers of information to insist on quality amidst the quantity.
I’d be very interested (back to democracy and free expression here) to hear what you have to say…
Friday, September 19, 2008 is officially PARK(ing) day–a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco, where citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks!
This basically translates into people occupying parking spots for the whole day and decking them out with grass, benches, and trees (or whatever artistic things they can think of); while paying the parking meter on the spaces. Great if you are a pedestrian, but a little taxing for the cars. Nevertheless, if you are driving to the city on Friday, plan on finding a garage, otherwise, enjoy!!
You woke up this morning and your regular routine began. You may have made some coffee and taken a shower before heading to work. Perhaps you overslept and rushed to meet the bus. It does not seem like an out of the ordinary kind of day. You may see or speak to those who mean the most to you throughout the course of your day, and you think nothing of it. You are young, and while there are challenges in your path, you have faith and family to get you through. Suddenly, you find yourself caught up in a situation that you have no control over and no real involvement in. This situation lands you in jail through entirely circumstantial evidence and the statements of another man who is the only other suspect in the case. A man has been shot, another pistol-whipped and lastly, a cop has been murdered. Nine witnesses are found who say that you are the one you responsible. No physical evidence is ever found to convict you, including the gun. This does not matter. A cop is dead and someone needs to take the fall. This is Georgia, boy, and you’re just a poor black man in the wrong place at the wrong time. You’ll do.
Meet Troy Anthony Davis. On Septemeber 23, the state of Georgia plans to execute this man, after sixteen years on Death Row. Sixteen years in which Davis has maintained his innocence and fought tooth and nail to prove it. His case is complicated, but the injustice is stark and clear. Here is a quicky summary of the key details:
Troy Anthony Davis has been on death row in Georgia for more than 16 years for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia – despite strong evidence suggesting he is innocent.
–There was no physical evidence against Troy Davis.
–The weapon used in the crime was never found.
–The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony.
–Seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony. —Many of these witnesses have stated that they were pressured or coerced by police.
–One of the two witnesses who has not recanted or contradicted testimony is Sylvester Coles, the principal alternative suspect. Mr. Coles has admitted to carrying a .38 caliber pistol the night of the shooting, the same gun used in the crimes for which Troy Davis will be executed.
–Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles. Troy Davis has never had a hearing in federal court on the reliability of the witness testimony used against him.
“By far the most frequent cause of erroneous convictions in our catalogue of 350
cases was error by witnesses; more than half of the cases (193) involved errors of this
sort. Sometimes such errors occurred in conjunction with other errors, but often they
were the primary or even the sole cause of the wrongful conviction. In one-third of
the cases (117), the erroneous witness testimony was in fact perjured.” -Hugo Bedau and Michael L. Radelet, Miscarriages of justice in potentially capital cases, Stanford Law Review
You can read more about the case and the shockingly obvious misuse of power, the courts and the media involved here
You can also sign a petition and send a letter to the powers that be in Georgia, to grant Davis a stay of execution and a re-trial. Link to Petition
If people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sister Helen Prejean, Congress Woman Sheila Jackson, and the POPE have found a moment to send letters and advocate on his behalf, I am sure you can take moment today to help save an innocent man’s life. Do it. If you are not compelled by this post, read the report by Amensty International above. It is shocking. I ask you to do this, not only for Troy Anthony Davis, but for his family. Troy’s family has suffered unbelieveable amounts of pain over the last sixteen years, as they have fought side by side with their brother to find justice. “…with Liberty & Justice for all.” As Troy Davis asks, “Where is justice for me?”
My heart breaks for this man and I feel that I must do something. I have a voice and today, I use it to speak for Troy, a man I have never met. A man who I believe deserves the opportunity to be heard. He asks for nothing more than a fair trial. I ask for nothing more than a moment of your time to plead with the state of Georgia to hear him.
May you each find a moment today to breathe this air, hug those you love, savor your freedom and do something kind for someone else. Sign the petition. Do it now.
Thank you to Mike Hraba for opening my eyes to this situation. Visit Troy’s Website for more information.
I did not write the following open letter to Sarah Palin, but I was so very impressed by this wonderful man’s approach to make his point. Please read, forward, spread the word in general. It is people like Gabriel Thompson who inspire me to become more involved. I hope he does the same for you. Peace.
A note about the author of this letter: Gabriel Thompson is the author of Calling All Radicals: How Grassroots Organizers Can Help Save Our Democracy, which chronicles the years he spent organizing in Central Brooklyn with the Pratt Area Community Council.
An Open Letter to Sarah Palin from a Community Organizer
Sarah Palin, I’d like to introduce you to a woman named Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, who passed away in 1992. Based upon your recent comments about community organizers, I’m certain you’ve never heard of her. Most people haven’t, and most people don’t know a whole lot about the principles and history of organizing. But unlike you, most people don’t go out of their way to disparage a group who has done so much to make this country great.
I don’t pretend to believe that you wrote the speech; I presume you were being a loyal soldier and reading whatever your speechwriters felt would rile up your base. But because you spoke the words, they are now yours to defend, and one line in particular is indefensible: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” Rhetorically, it was cute—a zinger that drew laughs. But politics shouldn’t just be about scoring points.
Keep your line about organizers in mind as I tell you about Robinson. Like you, she was an accomplished woman; unlike you, she was a community organizer and not a professional politician. In the 1950s, she was a teacher of English at Alabama State College in Montgomery and the President of the Women’s Political Council (WPC), a local group dedicated to organizing for equal rights for African Americans.
Along with registering people to vote, a pressing concern of the WPC was the segregation of Montgomery’s buses, which forced Blacks to sit in the back. In 1954, Robinson wrote a letter to Montgomery Mayor W. A. Gale, who in your determination had “actual” responsibilities. The letter threatened a boycott if the racist seating arrangement was not abolished. The Mayor paid no attention. Unfortunately, this is a frequent occurrence: politicians often worry more about money and political survival than social justice. Luckily, that’s where we organizers come in.
A year and a half of community organizing later—with the WPC now 300 members strong—Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat. Robinson and the WPC wasted no time, working through the night to produce thousands of copies of a boycott notice, which began: “Another Negro woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat for a white person to sit down…We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial.”
Did you know it was a group of women organizers who called the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which heralded the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and introduced Martin Luther King Jr. to the national stage? Did you know that every mass movement for social justice—from establishing the 8-hour day to gaining female suffrage—was made possible by the struggles of thousands of unknown people? They didn’t do this for votes, or because their handlers told them it was expedient. They took great risks for no monetary gain—often, in fact, risked losing their livelihood, if not their very lives—because some people are called by a higher responsibility. It has to do with justice and ending oppression, not with vote getting and political maneuvering.
Although you are ignorant about organizing, in one way you have done the country a national service: you have made community organizing a newsworthy topic. You see, organizers like Robinson don’t make the news, because they don’t brag about their accomplishments. They work behind the scenes, listening to concerns instead of making speeches. They develop leaders who engage in campaigns that force politicians to respond. When we win—and we win a lot—the politicians who have changed their stance then get to boast about laws that they either initially fought or did nothing to support. That’s fine with us. Let politicians do what they do best, and take responsibility for good news.
But please don’t be fooled. Read some history from the bottom up. Learn a bit about the Jo Ann Gibson Robinson’s of the United States before you insult them. As you embark on your new journey, you might find that they have a lot to teach about this country you claim to so dearly love.
Here it is…out on the table and ready to be served up for all.
Blame
I would like for people to examine why they blame Bush for America’s ills. If it is the power of congress to wage war, yet they give that right up in the wake of 9/11, who is to blame? Isn’t it the job of our “other” elected officials to make sure the president doesn’t have too much power?
Haven’t we gone into country after country to “help” and then put whom we might want in power and then leave things a shambles? No? I would remind you of Cuba, Hawaii, Philippens, Afganistan, and that’s just the start of the list. How is it that now, people have decided they aren’t proud of our country and Bush is the devil?
Propaganda
I’m tired, tired, tired, tired of seeing Barack Obama’s face on the canvas of every artists who has time to do an extra piece. I mean in the end, Barack is apart of the same system that people say have failed them so miserably. Will he use that system to do things differently, yes I’m sure of that, but even by his own words you (we) are the biggest cog in the system, yet I don’t see artists painting pictures of “the people”.
Exactly how much have you been sumerged into propaganda that says what he’s about before really examining for yourself? Endorsements from others doesn’t say much about the endorsee, unless you truly trust the political views and values of the endorser.
The some of it’s parts
America has always been the sum of all it’s parts and not what people my think of it’s pieces. While the world may think we are one thing or the other, we have continued to be both saviors and bullies, artists and athelets, soldiers and activists, politcians and revolutionaries. It is this that should fill us with pride.
Our worst deeds are balanced and can be put into perspective.
The fact that slavory happened in America makes Mr. Obama’s accendence all the more reason to be in america.
That fact that land was stolen, but also given back to Native Americans means that we can’t make up for things we’ve done but can try to move forward.
Being one the most giving nations in the world, doesn’t make it better that we bully others but it does show the innate human capacity for both good and evil.
I am American
I am an American in my heart and my soul. This is the truth regardless of what the world thinks of me or the leader of the nation I love. I do not live for the sake of others and nor do I let their judgments about me affect what it is that I believe. I’m not oblivious to people believing that America and Americans suck, but I do believe that it is a far cry from that being the truth.
It’s our job to help you find the companies and people out there helping us to find independent thought, and we’re happy to report that we’ve recently linked up with another great group.
Project Censored has published (for the second year in a row) the top 25 stories to not be reported on by mainstream media. Check the list and see if you think anything was note worthy, I did! I mean who wouldn’t want to know hunger and homelessness in the us is on the rise, that there are health risks in genetically modified foods, or that Cheney’s Halliburton stock rose over 3000 percent last year. Talk about conflict of interest.
In the “taking a look at ALL relevant candidates for Leader-of-the-Free-World” series, we go from the Libertarian Party (click for previous post) to no party at all. Even in our political duopoly, there are those who have managed to permeate outside of the two parties to evoke awareness. Only a select few have done so with no party backing at all.
Independent candidates have been around since the times of Washington, who incidentally was the first and only US President ever elected as an independent (although the Federalist Party quickly rallied around him after his first term began). Whether John Anderson (1980) or Ross Perot (’92 and ‘96), independents have broken away from the Dems and GOP, to speak on issues that both majors fail to address.
The most notable independent of this year’s election is Ralph Nader, who is running with former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Matt Gonzales. No stranger to American Politics, Nader has run in every election since ‘92. After 40 years of successful consumer advocacy, he wanted to respond to the powerful corporate momentum to pursue their narrow interests (thanks Ronnie!), so Nader threw his name into the hat: “I don’t like citizen groups being shut out by both parties in [DC] — corporate occupied territory — not having a chance to improve their country.” The pinnacle of his career was his run in 2000 as a Green, when he finished the popular vote, in third.
There are many differences between Nader, and Obamcain, but FISA is definitely the most recent, glaring difference. Enacted in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act makes it illegal to intentionally engage in electronic surveillance under appearance of an official act or to disclose or use information obtained by that same electronic surveillance without a warrant. It was revealed in 2005, that the NSA teamed up with telecoms like AT&T to engage in warrantless surveillance, which involved the private communications of millions of Americans.
So the in light of the telecom industry breaking the law (save Qwest Communications), the punishment of a fine of up to $10,000 or up to five years in prison, or both, should apply, right? Well the telecom lobby bought themselves an amendment to the law. This month, the FISA amendment act of 2008, was passed. Here are just some of the “benefits”:
* Prohibits the individual states from investigating, sanctioning of, or requiring disclosure by complicit telecoms or other persons.
* Permits the government not to keep records of searches, and destroy existing records.
* Protects telecommunications companies from lawsuits for “‘past or future cooperation” with federal law enforcement authorities.
* Removes requirements for detailed descriptions of the nature of information or property targeted by the surveillance.
* Allows for warrantless surveillance up to 7 days.
* Allows eavesdropping in “emergencies” without court approval.
* Prohibits the government from invoking war powers or other authorities to supersede surveillance rules in the future.
McCain was conveniently absent from the voting and Obama voted FOR it (talk about the candidate for change, huh?)
Nader’s response to the Senate passing FISA…
When Nader was ten, his father asked him: “Well, Ralph, what did you learn in school today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?” Be an indie-thinker! Come back to LEGENDmag Blog for posts on other Third party candidates.
And so it begins, the back and forth of the brand wars. Brand killers have seen a strength in people using Obams’ propaganda and are making some of their own. What? Obama is a brand? Wait, Obama is a person? Well yes and yes. There is a guy name Obama running from President and there is also a shit load of branding being done that makes him into a caricature of who he is. Hey it comes with the territory. Although we still haven’t endorsed anyone, make sure you take a look at ALL the candidates. (Want to get an idea of where you stand? See the Political Compass post).
As independent thinkers and voters, we need to have a look at ALL the candidates in the Leader-of-the-Free-World contest. The candidates, in the duopoly controlled presidential race, make themselves out to be Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood on an American Idol stage full of William Hungs (not that I know who these people are, of course). But that’s simply not the case! There’s a litany of political parties that are as diverse as the 300 million Americans they want to serve.
One of these, is the Libertarian Party, which is a party that is economically and socially liberal (Want to get an idea of where you stand? See the Political Compass post). Founded in 1971, it’s one of the largest of our nation’s “third parties.” In fact, the Libertarians have more people in office than all the other third parties, combined. Most are local officials, as this party is very grassroots oriented. Though, there is a trend taking hold in higher seats of government. Some hold libertarian ideals, while a member of the duopoly, like Former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) and, of course, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX). They use Big Party money to spread Libertarian grassroots ideas. The more popular these type of Trojan-horse politicians become, the more accepted the Libertarian platform will become.
As former a Republican Congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr also fits in that category. During his eight years in Congress, Barr championed Libertarian views and state’s rights. But not all of his views were parallel to his current party. In 1998, he became a member of the Speaker’s Task Force for a Drug-Free America. Alongside then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), he was going to win the war on drugs by 2002, stating, “There is no legitimate use whatsoever for marijuana. This is not medicine. This is bogus witchcraft. It has no place in medicine, no place in pain relief”
Ten years later, he’s changed his tune, retracting and apologizing for previous statements and views by saying, “There might be legitimate medical uses of marijuana and we ought not have this knee-jerk reaction against it, and people ought to be allowed to explore” and ” Regarding the drug war, I’ve been there, done that, and know firsthand our current strategy is not working. Continuing to have the federal government run roughshod over the states, even if the citizens of a state decide they wish to legalize medicinal marijuana, for example, is wrong” (Hmmmm…)
Here are the Libertarian Nominees for President of the United States…
Come back to LEGENDmag Blog, for posts on other Third party candidates.
Here’s my first confession to you. I’m a whore…for words and language. I feel about language and the same way people feel about sex or heroin. It gets me off, is what I’m saying. I am also an unabashed grammar snob…you say it wrong, and I’ll kindly correct you. This guy has taken things one step further. I think I’m in love. (Be sure to watch all the way to the end…Steve makes quite an impact, socially speaking)
