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June 19, 2006
Environmentalists and workers unite! No, that’s not an imperative. It’s a description. The Blue/Green Alliance brings together the Sierra Club and United Steelworkers.
This makes sense to me since it’s recently come to my attention that we’ve just got the one planet and no do-overs allowed. [Tags: blue_green_alliance environment labor politics]
June 10, 2006
Here’s a 13-minute campaign video made by Spike Jonez for the 2000 Gore campaign [Part 1 | Part 2]. It looks like maybe it was intended to be shown at the Convention. And it’s clear that the aim is to show Gore without the 3-foot aluminum rod stuck up his butt.
Pretty durn good, though.
Go, Al! (Thanks to Sven Cahling for the link.) [Tags: al_gore politics]
June 6, 2006
DroppingKnowledge.org is trying to create a “blogstorm” to support what seems like a well-intentioned project. The site is trying to collect 100,000 important questions facing the species. Then, on Sept. 9, 113 “scientists, social entrepreneurs, philosophers, writers, artists and activists from around the world” will get together to talk about 100 of them.
If they make progress, great. If they focus attention on important issues, great. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if, instead of relying on 113 experts sitting around a table, there were some medium by which the people of the world themselves — at least the ones with a Net connection — could talk about for themselves, over the long term? If only we had such a medium…if only… [Tags: droppingknowledge]
McDonald’s Interactive has left McDonald’s because McDonald’s is leading the planet to “global calamity.” Interactive is now devoting itself to stimulating mass action on the environment. [Tags: environment mcdonalds games]
June 3, 2006
The Boston Globe is a great paper, I love it, I subscribe, I read it everyday, ok? But the little things unreasonably annoy me. Aaarrrgggghhh! For example:
EVery Saturday, the Globe’s op-ed page runs a box of notable and fun quotes from the week, usually with a jest or two from the TV funnymen. This week, one of the seven quotes is Bill Clinton saying “I had a lot of happy times there,” talking about his private White House office in an audiotape tour of his museum. Ooooh, “happy times”…Bill Clinton….snicker snicker. This is as funny as Steven Carrell saying “That’s what she said” on The Office, except on the TV show it’s supposed to be embarrassingly not funny.
The funnyman quote is a Jay “The Opposite of Funny” Leno joke about the Capitol being locked down because of what sounded like gun shots. It turned out it was just a pneumatic tool being used to repair an elevator. Japed Jay, “You can see how these mistakes are made. See, people in Washington, they’re not used to the sound of actual work being done.”
Hey-oh!
This was the funniest political joke on TV last week? Congress is lazy? Clinton got blown? How trenchant!
Both of these quotes are lazy and thoughtless. They’re comforting, not revealing or provocative like the best political humor. In a small small way, they help abrade democratic discourse.
(Note to self: Next time have the morning coffee before blogging.)
[Tags: media whines boston_globe jay_leno humor]
June 1, 2006
I’m glad to see the Dixie Chicks’ new CD at #1, even though I liked their previous one better, because it bodes well for free speech: I think it’s wrong to boycott singers because of their political views but fine to girlcott them for those very same views. (Yes, I just made up “girlcott”: To buy from a vendor to reward her for her actions or beliefs. And, yes, I know “boycott” comes from Charles C. Boycott, so “girlcott” makes no sense at all.)
In March, 2003, I blogged that I was buying my first DC CD because it was being kept off the air because of an anti-Bush remark Natalie Maines made at a concert. Isn’t that as bad as boycotting the CD? Aren’t both actions a type of free speech?
Yes, both are free speech (in some extended sense of the term). You are totally within your rights to never buy another DC CD, to microwave your DC collection, to tell your local radio station you’ll change the channel permanently if it plays a song by any band with a D and a C in its name, and to say on talk radio that Maines is a traitor who ought to have her head shaved and be driven down the streets of Baghdad tied to the front of a Hummer. Whatever. There’s no question in my mind that all this is free speech.
Boycotting and girlcotting both exercise the right to free speech, but one is bad for that right and the other is not. Boycotting an artist because of views expressed outside of her work chills free speech. That seems to me to be the same as not shopping at your local convenience store because the owner said something at town meeting about, say, the local schools, with which you vehemently disagree. If half the town boycotted the store because of that, the owner would be driven out of business. This would discourage citizens from stating their views…an exercise of free speech that’s bad for free speech.
But suppose the owner were girlcotted because of something she said about the school system. This might have the effect of encouraging citizens to support popular causes in public. This would not be good for free speech since it provides an economic incentive to support what’s already popular. But, presumably the populace has less reason to girlcott for the expression of popular views than for unpopular views. Thus, girlcotting should tend to encourage a diversity of views. At the least it can mitigate the chilling effect of a boycott.
Sure, girlcotting could be gamed and manipulated. But, girlcotting — especially to mitigate the effects of a boycott — is overall good for free speech and good for democracy. I think. [Tags: dixie_chicks free_speech boycott girlcott music politics]
“Girlcott” has been used before, but to mean a protest by girls.
May 31, 2006
“Re-Elect Al Gore in 2008” has become the meme du jour, and I hope the meme du next-two-years. Unlike John Kerry, Gore has learned and grown from his near-defeat. He’s not only the Democrats’ best candidate, he has the makings of a great leader. His speeches in the past couple of years have been unafraid and full of fire. And he is committed to an issue that can define the Democrats (as well as save the world).
Apparently, and understandably, he doesn’t want to go through the nightmare of a campaign again. (Remember how the media shamelessly bought into the Republican lie that he was a liar, and this when running against The Great Prevaricator?) So, what can we do to persuade him that Democrats and independents — and maybe even a couple of Republicans — will vote for him and will work for him?
(FWIW, I’ve taken the domains www.GoAlGore.org and www.GoAlGore.com. I just registered them this morning and there’s nothing there yet. I don’t have any good ideas about what to do with them — it was a $18 impulse purchase. If you have an idea for how to use them constructively, let me know and you can have them…) [Tags: al_gore politics]
Completely unfair, but not untrue. Also, funny. (Thanks to Mark Dionne for the link.) [Tags: bush kerry politics]
May 27, 2006
“President Bush says, just as the United States persevered and ultimately won the Cold War against communism, America will emerge victorious in the war on terror”
This is a dangerously bad comparison…part and parcel of the overall flight-suit version of the “war on terror.” Unless, of course, we want to extend the comparison with the war against communism and say that, just as there are still communists and communist nations, there will always be people willing to use the tactic of terrorism against us. And if that’s the case, fighting those who would kill us will never be enough.
The way to lasting safety ultimately is through peace. IMO. [Tags: politics terrorism peace]
May 23, 2006
Tomorrow is a day of national outrage about the telecommunication industry’s attempt to remake the Internet to suit their own interests. There’s a rally in Boston 1:30-2pm in front of the Mass State House, and other rallies in other cities. More info at SaveAccess.org..
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