Meet Me in St. Louis - Talking On Camera

Well here is the semi big news I mentioned earlier. Got an opportunity to appear in a film on new media opportunities representing the fine and noble art of Blogging. I stood up and, after the nice lady from Indy Media told me to tuck in my shirt, I did my duty. The Documentary did not seem to be from Indymedia, but they were helping out doing legwork at the conference. Anyway it was an interesting experience in waiting around, which was fine. And then I was asked my opinion on what I do and all. I plugged the Liberal Coalition and my own blog, and stated that I am not a journalist.

Which is true. I'm a commentator. I don't want Brit Humes job, I want Bill O'Rielly's. Doesn't mean I'm not interested in facts or in finding out what's going on, because of course I am. But I'm not going to do the legwork that real reporters have to do. Instead I'm doing synthesizing, taking information from various sources, mixing it up in my brain, and putting it here.

It's also an interesting study in the Gong Show phenomenon. The Gong Show was one of the first TV programs to show that people would do stupid things not for money but just for an opportunity to get on Television. Sort of a breakthrough. Now I'm not saying what I did was stupid (although I don't really understand why they wanted me to dress up as Officer Krupke), but I could have been a bit more careful about finding out what the score was (who this person was and all). But with the cameras around I just sort of went along with it. Kind of disturbing in a way.

Anyway the big keynote event (involving Patti Smith and Al Franken) is about to start and I want to take a 15 minute nap, so I'm done talking to you for now.

Meet Me in St. Louis - Caucus! Caucus! Caucus!

Just got back from a caucus on how independent media creators (such as myself) can become stronger, more powerful, and can get their message out to the people. It was rambunctious, and noisy and great! I found it very inspiring, frankly, and I hope that something comes of it.

More later, but I have to get back down stairs on something that I'll report on later, assuming it happens (so if I never mention it, assume that it didn't).

Meet Me in St. Louis - Am I in synch?

Just went to a very interesting session on copyright law. A lot of it was on fair use which I was more or less in agreement with their take on it. Sense my shtick involves taking other people's articles and critiquing them, it would be hard for me to be against Fair Use. If you want to see art that does push the boundaries of fair use, check out the Illegal Art exhibit.

Then they got to online file sharing, and Victor Navasky of the Nation (who's name I may or may not be spelling correctly) asked my question, which was, what about artists rights? It's all well enough to suggest that the change is inevitable, and that big corporations are greedy bums (both of which may be true, by the way). But how do music artist continue to make money? Well, some of the little guys might do a lot better was the answer, and the point was argued somewhat convincingly.

But then what about big movies / tv shows? A guy can make an album in his garage - can a guy really make an episode of the Simpsons in his garage? Unfortunately they focused on the music industry, so didn't get an answer to that question.

Meet me In St. Louis - Asking Questions

I'd just like to say to all those who might attend conferences and workshops and have an opportunity to ask questions.

Please do not think a microphone and an opportunity to use it means you should make a speech. Presumably if anybody wanted you to express your opinion or sell your organization, you would be up on the stand. So my advice is to stand up, ask your question, and sit down. If you can't do that, at least be brief.

Oh, and also ask a simple question. Don't ask a question that requires three hours to answer and don't ask a question that requires them to do the whole presentation over from the start.

Also people should be less judgemental. Like me, you see how easy going I am, I would never attack someone just for asking a question in a way that annoys me, for example.

And never be a hypocrite!

But I could be wrong.

Meet Me in St. Louis - the Booths

There were two sessions yesterday afternoon - I attended the 2-3:30 Session (on the victories we have gained, which I will report on in more detail anon), but the 4-5:30 hour I decided to wander around the city of St. Louis like an idiot for a while. So that was fun. But before wandering the city (without my camera, so double idiot), I wandered around the area where a bunch of people had set up little booths on activism and stuff.

I saw a lot of interesting things, some of which I will talk about now and some of which I will talk about later and some of which I will forget to talk about - but they were all interesting. I talked to two guys who were interested in popularizing short wave radio use, as an alternative to low band FM. This would enable people to stay in communication with each other and, really, with the whole world. A progressive voice on Short Wave radio could certainly reach other countries, because it bounces of the atmosphere (the ionosphere to be precise), as this picture illustrates.



Anyway it's a good alternative to low band width FM which progressives are also interested in using. Here is a website connected to the project.

I also picked up a magazine with this picture on the front.



That poster, to me, is just goofy. I don't know if there is some connecting between people praying and Diebold. Is it suggesting that we liberals are dips if we just pray and assume that our elections will be run fairly? Or are those prayers the religious right who don't have to worry about losing elections because Diebolds got their backs?

Or is it just a vague attempt to shock by connecting a famous picture of people praying with Diebold? The message is unclear. I'm sure the artist might defend it by saying he's trying to provoke thought (sort of a catch all defense), but does it really provoke such thought from his readers? Or do most of them look at it, nod their heads knowingly, and move on? Hard to say.

Anyway more later, almost certainly.

Meet Me In St. Louis

Well I am now in St. Louis, as immortalized in the famous song, I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair. I showed up just in time to catch the opening (plenary?) session. It was pretty interesting. They had several speakers (including Robert W. McChesney, Amy Goodman, Janine Jackson, and Malkia Cyril), all of whom gave rousing speeches.

Malkia Cyrill in particular has a powerful presence as a public speaker. She spoke, essentially on how Media Bias and the sidelining of minority groups ties together, and postulated that we cannot get further progress on racial issues without addressing media control, and we cannot get further progress on media control until we make real progress on racial issues. I'm not sure I completely buy that postulate, but it certainly merits further thought.

I am sitting in a hallway, a stair well really watching media activists walking by and talking and stuff. So far my networking skills really really really suck. But I'm going to do better now. I took extensive notes in the meeting I just attended (on the victories experienced by the Media Reform Movement, and am considering tightening them up, adding random references to Gilligans Island. What do you think?

How Bad Was Hitler?

I know a lot of you are fans of World War Two Movies and Stories and so on, so you might want to sit down for this one.

Hot on the heels of President Bush's comments about Yalta (dissected by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. at the Huffington Report, as previously noted), we have a nice article by Pat Buchannan that suggests World War 2 might have been a mistake for the Western Powers.

True, U.S. and British troops liberated France, Holland and Belgium from Nazi occupation. But before Britain declared war on Germany, France, Holland and Belgium did not need to be liberated. They were free. They were only invaded and occupied after Britain and France declared war on Germany – on behalf of Poland.

When one considers the losses suffered by Britain and France – hundreds of thousands dead, destitution, bankruptcy, the end of the empires – was World War II worth it, considering that Poland and all the other nations east of the Elbe were lost anyway?

If the objective of the West was the destruction of Nazi Germany, it was a "smashing" success. But why destroy Hitler? If to liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted Hitler in.

Well I will leave it to my readers to consider the wisdom of Pat Buchannan's words.

On the Road

The next few days promise to be interesting - I am attending the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis. It should be interesting. I am not going to Blog the Conference in the sense of reporting everything as it happens, but I will Blog the Conference in the sent of giving reports on occasion on stuff that happens. I will be taking my camera as well, so there will be nice pictures to look at as well.

Anyway my plane leaves at 7:00 in the morning so no posting till I get there I would imagine (well I'll probably post again this afternoon, but tomorrow I mean). Also need to come up with a catchy title to link all these posts together.

In the Mix

I was listening to NPR this morning on the way into work (like a good liberal. I also listened to some Bob Dylan.), and I caught a report on the new Yahoo Music Unlimited service. It was interesting, analyzing how Yahoo Music stacks up against Apple's ITunes and Real's Rhapsody. In particular, they contrasted Yahoo Musics subscription model (where you rent the service each month and have access to all the songs) to ITunes pay as you go approach.

But one baffling thing in this report is the lack of discussion of selection. Instead there's some perfunctory noise about "Millions of songs" before getting on to how you can download tunes to your computer (or not, as the case may be). To me it's a bit like a Record store advertising they have CDs.

"We're the best record store in town. Look at all these CDs?"

"Do you have the Manufacture album Terrorvision?"

"No, I don't think we got that one. But look at this, Madonna's American Life album. And it's on CD!"

"How about Orchestral Manoevers in the Darks seminal but shlocky album, "Crush."

"Well no we don't have that either. How about a CD of Guatemalan Yodelling. Note the format. It's CD!"

I don't know why other people go to record stores, or what they think a good record store is. I like going to record stores where I might find something cool that I haven't heard in a long time or ever. I like going to record stores that encourage browsing, where the people behind the counter seem to care about music and so on. I don't usually care for Mall record stores (We've got what's currently hot for no percent off!). And, it seems to me that most online retailers are trying to be more like Mall Record stores than Good Record shops.

The Father's Rights Movement

For those who are interested in the Father's Rights movement, Amanda Marcotte at Pandragon has provided a good overview of the movement from a critical angle. I think it's well worth reading, particularly as it puts a lot of arguments in one place.

A couple of years ago I was playing Basketball with a bunch of guys and one of them told me, in some detail, about how he had gotten taken advantage of by his wife with the help of the Florida Judicial System. At the time I took the story at face value; he was a pretty good guy, and a good sport on the court. Some of it didn't add up, but I didn't give too much thought about it.

Now it's entirely possible the story he told me was completely accurate. And it's possible he told me a narrative colored by his own interests and frustrations. But for quite a long time I took it at face value, more or less.

Then I joined the Liberal Coalition and started reading Trish Wilson's Blog who writes on these issues in a very cogent manner, and started rethinking my assumptions. I don't want to make it sound like I've come to some sort of miraculous understanding. Instead I feel like I've walked off a pleasant but somewhat fake plateau into a dense fog.

There are a few certainties. The ideal situation any way you slice is for husbands and wives to act as equal and loving partners in bringing up the children and for families to stay together. If that is not possible, the needs of the children should be met first.

Anyway, go read the summary - it's very good.

MIlitary Recruiters May Not Be Entirely Honest

I know some of you will be shocked by this news, but read this little story, and see what you think.

A key event prompting the Army to order a "values stand down," to be observed on May 20, took place in Houston in late April, when a recruiter, Sgt. Thomas Kelt, threatened to have a prospect arrested if he resisted recruiting efforts. Kelt left a voice mail message on the cell phone of Christopher Monarch, 20, of Spring, Texas, ordering him to show up for an appointment -- under the false pretense that Monarch would be violating the law if he didn't. Here's a transcript of the message (available as an audio file, here):

"Hey Chris, this is Sgt. Kelt at the Army, man. I think we got disconnected... I know you were on your cell probably, and you just had bad reception or something -- I know you didn't hang up on me. Anyway, by federal law you've got an appointment with me at two o'clock this afternoon at Greenpoint mall, OK? That's the Greenpoint mall, Army recruitment station at two o'clock. Fail to appear, and, uh, we'll have a warrant. OK? So give me a call back."

Monarch said he didn't receive the message until after the designated time -- and that he hadn't made such an appointment, nor had he been interested in joining the military. "I was scared," Monarch said, regarding the message. When he called Kelt the next day to clear up the matter, Kelt explained that threatening to issue an arrest warrant was a "marketing technique."

Hmmmm. At any rate they have apparently had to suspend enlistment efforts for a month in order to address this problem. So far the army is using the old "a few bad apples" storyline, so we'll have to see what happens.

But of course part of the problem with the military right now is that they are being asked to do too much while the general public is being asked to do nothing. The Bush Administration is determined to carry out it's foreign policy on the cheap, which means there is a lack of funds for supporting the troops "for real," as some say.

Good Cartoon

Here is a good cartoon on the argument that Democrats are opposing these judges because of their religion.

Star Wars! Those Crazy Star Wars!

Two quick links for those, like me, looking forward to a Star Wars movie that might not suck (one never knows). The first is by Jon Bonné at MSNBC which lists 10 questons reasonable people might want answers to in this last Star Wars movie. He raises some good points, but he doesn't reference or even seem aware of the vast array of Star Wars Fiction out there.

The second is from the Conservatoid site Free Republic, in which they discuss the interesection of politics and Star Wars. Enjoy!

No Problem

Walter E. Williams, who's made a pretty good living for himself telling White Conservatives that they don't have to worry about racism any more, writes a new article, er, telling White Conservatives they don't have to worry about racism any more.

But in amongst that cheery news is this passage.

Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census' poverty threshold.

I suppose for me the idea that a couple making $12,016 is out of poverty is worth exploring a bit. Not for Mr. Williams though; while he would distrust government solutions to any problem you could name (save military problems), he's pretty content to accept the government definition that couples making over $12,015 are out of poverty.

Pay no Attention to the Terrorist Behind the Curtain

This is the theme of John Tierny's latest article. Or to put it another way, since Suicide Bombings are so routine, should we really be focusing on them?

No, that's really his argument.

Everyone rubbernecks at car accidents; cable news ratings soar when there's a natural disaster or a heinous murder. But how much shock value or mystery is there anymore to suicide bombings?

How intrigued are people by murders when the motive, the weapon and the murderer's fate are never in doubt?

I suspect the public would welcome a respite from gore, . . .

Interesting arguement. I'm sure they would appreciate it. Leave more time to focus on runaway brides and runaway pop stars. And the fact that some of the victims are United States Soldiers probably isn't all that relevant.

I'm not impressed with Tierny yet, although I also take issue with Media Matters for America which has suggested that having John Tierny and David Brooks on the editorial page is overkill. While they have somewhat similar views, Tierny, while wrong, is not yet a nitwit.

Jewish Radio Host has advice for Jews.

Edited to add: I am sorry - I got Dennis Prager confused with another talk show host, and mistakenly thought he was Christian.

Not sure how to react to this article, so just going to report what Dennis Prager says.

He argues that the religious Jews are also likely to be the most insular; while those Jews who care about public issues are likely to be secular.

The bottom line is that the less Jewish a Jew is, the more he is likely to feel he has a mission to humanity, and the more Jewish he is, the less likely he is to feel such a mission.

This is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions. It is tragic for humanity because the people who brought the Bible and its Ten Commandments to the world are often the most active in seeking its removal from the world. It is tragic for the Jews because Jews who abandon Judaism and substitute leftist values for Jewish ones (or equate them, which is the same thing) work against Jewish survival. And the Jews who do practice Judaism and are oblivious to any mission to humanity render Judaism irrelevant.

The Jews' mission is as it always has been -- to bring the world to ethical monotheism. Ethical monotheism means there is one God and therefore one moral standard that He has revealed, and He holds all humans accountable to it. This is the point of Jewish chosenness.

Sorry to have screwed this story up.

Tax Policy

Bruce Bartlett writes an interesting article on his tax policy. He attacks the idea of a national sales tax, although not on the grounds that it would massively screw the poor and the middle class while giving the wealthy a slap on the wrist. Instead he says it is impractical, akin to just running the government on donations.

He then notes President Bush's budgetary policy (with lots of help from the Republican Controlled congress) will require a tax hike at some point.

Too many conservatives delude themselves that all we have to do is cut foreign aid and pork barrel spending, and the budget will be balanced. But unless they are willing to seriously confront Medicare, they cannot do more than nibble around the edges. With Republicans having recently added massively to that problem and a Republican president who won't veto anything, I have concluded that meaningfully controlling spending is hopeless.

Therefore, we must face the reality that taxes are going to rise a lot in coming years. I believe that a VAT is the least bad way of getting the hundreds of billions of dollars per year that will be needed.

He's not wrong. Well except about the VAT. I don't know so much about that.

A VAT, for those interested, is defined as follows.

levy imposed on business at all levels of the manufacture and production of a good or service and based on the increase in price, or value, provided by each level. Because the consumer ultimately pays a higher price for the taxed commodity, a VAT is essentially a hidden sales tax.

Well not sure if that is a great idea, but I'm not a fan of regressive taxes. Even if they are hidden.

The Future is Now!

Arianna Huffington has a new project which involves a blog with contributor from all over. It's called the Huffington Post, and so far it looks pretty good. You might check out this post from writer and director David Mame, on the trust required for information to flow. Or this post from historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. on President Bush's tenuous grasp of what happened at Yalta. Or you might check out this post by Eric Liu on the Mad Libs approach to political discourse, and what it means for the Democratic Party.

I'm enthusiastic about this site - but worry a little bit about the burnout factor. With so many big names contributing, how long are they going to stick around? Anyway we'll just have to see what happens.

I Can't Stop Plugging Paul Krugman

At least not when he writes articles like this.

. . . let me deal with a fundamental misconception: the idea that President Bush's plan would somehow protect future Social Security benefits.

If the plan really would do that, it would be worth discussing. It's possible - not certain, but possible - that 40 or 50 years from now Social Security won't have enough money coming in to pay full benefits. (If the economy grows as fast over the next 50 years as it did over the past half-century, Social Security will do just fine.) So there's a case for making small sacrifices now to avoid bigger sacrifices later.

But Mr. Bush isn't calling for small sacrifices now. Instead, he's calling for zero sacrifice now, but big benefit cuts decades from now - which is exactly what he says will happen if we do nothing. Let me repeat that: to avert the danger of future cuts in benefits, Mr. Bush wants us to commit now to, um, future cuts in benefits.

This accomplishes nothing, except, possibly, to ensure that benefit cuts take place even if they aren't necessary.

Yeah. Krugman does it again!

A few more reactions to Laura Bush's performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Both negative.

When a woman happens to be first lady, "funny" at any expense isn't part of the job description, not when "funny" comes at the expense of her husband's image. And I don't mean "image" as in public relations product. I mean "image" as in public symbol. World leader. Commander-in-chief. In these explosive times, with tens of thousands of soldiers under arms. Which is a sobering thought, or should be.

In other words, feet of clay are fine, but there's no reason to bring the barnyard into it.

- Diana West, "Laura Bush: No Laughing Matter"

Mrs. Bush joked that she not only watched the show, but she was a "desperate housewife" who took Mrs. Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes to see male strippers at Chippendales, where they stuff dollar bills in the dancers' drawers, and that Mrs. Cheney's new Secret Service name was "Dollar Bill."

. . . It's [Desperate Housewives] some of the worst American pop culture has to offer, and will qualify as one of our foulest exports when it hits the international TV market, with America-bashers around the world declaring that America is captured perfectly by that cartoonish show: soulless wealthy people misbehaving in the most shameful ways imaginable. God bless America.

There is, of course, another side to the story. Mrs. Bush has never actually seen the show, and clearly her tongue was placed firmly in cheek.

- Brent Bozell, "Laura Bush: Comedy vs. reality"

I must admit I am curious as to how Bozell knows for sure Laura Bush has never watched Desperate Housewives, although I suppose it might well be true.

Messed up format

Still trying to figure out what makes all my links that blue color - it's not intentional.

edited to add I think I has the Solution!

New Format, New Quote!

Yep, it's a new format. As you can tell we are going into a light on dark period. Which I have to admit I prefer, although both are good. Anyway if you want to read last weeks posts, click on the link for last week.

Also an updated Quotes page.