[Zip code corrected by the moderator]

We need to get into the habit of expressing ourselves as forcefully as possible and eschew the congratulations and hail fellow, well met crap, a good reason I don’t belong here. I think promoting habeus corpus mostly to guys who gave it away two years ago is a waste of time. I wrote Nancy a letter. Posted it on my blog.

Before going, I’d like to make a few points. At present the internet is mostly ego trips. Myspace attracts millions in almost no time. It could, because electronics is nothing if not versatile, become a political party or anything its users desire. I don’t see them desiring anything other than what they have. People spend time voting for American Idol, but they won’t spend time trying to influence Nancy Pelosi. We need to create a climate like the Immigration bill. People saw it as in their individual interest to defeat the bill. They conveyed that feeling to their representatives. We need to do that for impeachment. I have no idea how. It’s something that should be talked about.

For the longer term, I tried to create COPE (Citizen Oversight of Public Expenditure). In my state (Connecticut) the Freedom of Information Act requires local governments to provide the electronic equivalent of the town’s check book. The idea would be to post every town check in a searchable data base for interested townspeople to see where their tax monies go. There should be discussion groups and whatever. Unfortunately I lack the technical skills to even come close. The website template would be available for use in other towns. Using a standard form means there’s no learning curve to check another town’s information. Unfortunately standardization makes many people uncomfortable. The idea is to compare expenses, class sizes or whatever as well as the different town’s responses to public problems. Getting seed money, servers etc to create such a network provides experience for using the internet differently than we do today. Once we get connected and communicating there’s no limit to what we can talk about or what we can do.

Education is another area which might provide the basis for a network of people interested in public problems. It could be a section of COPE. I believe today’s schools literally drive our young crazy. You have only to see a three year old watch television to realize how engrossing it is. Classroom teachers can’t come close. There is no reason for kids to learn long division etc. with paper and pencil when they can buy a decent hand held calculator for fifteen bucks. High schools generally have wood shops taught by tenured wood shop teachers. They don’t have electronic shops where kids can screw around with mother boards etc. Instead of term papers, kids can create DVD’s if the school board can be persuaded to see educational improvement in purchasing equipment rather than raising teacher’s salaries or reducing class sizes. Schools could become interactive with a pool of DVD’s and other materials available throughout the network.

This seems off topic, but not if you see our major problem as our inability to communicate with each other. Comment sections following posts are a start. If you look at them, you don’t see analysis or much of anything except one liners and prior posts reproduced ad nauseum. If the proposed long term projects are of interest or if you have a pet project of your own I might be able to help with drop me a line at ekunin@optonline.net

Perhaps we can make something happen.

Ciao

But you know, say I take it upon myself to riot in the street on the Fourth of July. Right here in Athens, Georgia, that means I’ll be spending the Fifth of July in jail, and henceforth devoting a massive amount of my already thinly spread income to keeping myself out of jail.

I appreciate that other people are watching us, going, “Why don’t the Americans DO SOMETHING?” But, you know, what good will I do my country if I smash a couple of windows at a Gap and go to jail?

It’s fucking expensive to get in trouble in this country. I’ve been arrested for brawling once. I don’t want to go to jail again.

Long since EPU’d, but, y’know, timezones.

TRex, I wasn’t suggesting “smashing a couple of windows”, let alone all by your lonesome.

But a couple of hundred thousand people filling Pennsylvania Avenue, peacefully blocking the Resident from leaving, that would help. So would a couple hundred thousand people in the centres of each of the major cities. At the same time. On July 4. This is possible. That Internet thingy might be good to organise something with.

I mean, “ooh I might lose my job”. Sheesh. Homos like you and me risked that every day up until recently just for being who we are. But our elders still turned up and protested for their rights in the 1950s and 1960s, despite the risks and the costs. Look up “Daughters of Bilitis” or the “Mattachine Society”.

Ditto the commenter upthread who talked about not being able to afford to protest.

What you are saying is that your current level of consumption is more important to you than your Constitution. That’s your prerogative. But if you want the answer to the question of how the USA lost its way, there it is.

Oo, oo, MSNBC reports Iran was behind the Karbla attack.

Fear mongering, they’ve been pushing this story for two days now. Right up there with the so-called terror attack in Glasgow.

The only terror at work here is being drummed up by the White House, to hide their tracks and obscure their continued criminality.

Matthews saying same, same Clinton perjury, Libby perjury, hypocrisy on both sides.

Lizard braining it…

Bernstein had it right: persistent lying about public policy, matters of life and death.

So Tweety thinks two wrongs make a right? Did he fail Sunday School? In what Universe does lying about adultery equal Treason?

Joe Scarborough just called Joe Wilson a “scumbag” under his breath.

Joe’s a fucking moron.