Wednesday, 26 January 2005
The Daily Effect: Blog Power
Topic: Misc.
As the media continues to consolidate and ownership moves into the hands of fewer and fewer, the owners of such companies are going to find out exactly what they are purchasing. The press releases that herald such consolidations speak of the numbers of "viewers" or "readers" that each organization has. That is their first mistake. They don't "have" anyone. What the corporation has purchased is credibility, without which they wouldn't "have" anyone watching or reading their advertisements.
The power of the blog is individual credibility. As more people have less time in their lives and as mainstream cable television news programs become more like "Entertainment Tonight", curious and intellectual people are asking for more. The blogger, me, performs the function of consolidating the news for them. I didn't recognize this power or reach until yesterday when I posted the letter from the "Daily Kos" asking for a "No On Gonzales". I followed every one of the links of those blogs that signed the letter. I found people from around the country with differing views, backgrounds and careers who all had the power to shape people's views. That's what real power is and the only reason why they have that power is because they have credibility.
Bloggers don't have to be politicians to write about politics and they don't have to be scientists to talk about global warming and we all know that they don't have to be typesetters to talk about typewriters. Bloggers must establish a personal and honest relationship with those people that choose to spend their valuable time visiting the blog. Bloggers aren't' going to take over the world but they are going to perpetuate what I like to call "The Daily Effect" in homage to "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart.
Stewart has succeeded in influencing news agencies, an election and millions of viewers who have come to expect more. Bloggers, working with credible brick and mortar type organizations like
Newsworld International (NWI) are going to change the face of news and influence as we know it. Those organizations, like MS-NBC that choose to emulate the failing formula of Fox "News" are going to be castrated by the millions of influential bloggers around not only this country but the world. When Fox "news" attempts to promote a propagandizing policy of the Bush administration such as things are going swell in Iraq, the worldwide blogging community, starting with a blogger located in Iraq, are going to come down like a guillotine on the necks of those controlling Fox. This is word-of-mouth advertising at its finest. Who are you going to believe, the big cold conglomerate news agency or The Indy Voice who you've grown to know and love?
Even Fox can't compete with that.
Tuesday, 25 January 2005
No On Gonzales
Topic: State Of The Union
The Indy Voice wholeheartedly endorses the letter below, the undersigned and the Daily Kos in asking that Alberto Gonzales not be confirmed by the Senate:Unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions. In this case, we, the undersigned bloggers, have decided to speak as one and collectively author a document of opposition. We oppose the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to the position of Attorney General of the United States, and we urge every United States Senator to vote against him.
As the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, Gonzales's advice led directly to the abandonment of longstanding federal laws, the Geneva Convention, and the United States Constitution itself. Our country, in following Gonzales's legal opinions, has forsaken its commitment to human rights and the rule of law and shamed itself before the world with our conduct at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The United States, a nation founded on respect for law and human rights, should not have as its Attorney General the architect of the law's undoing.
In January 2002, Gonzales advised the President that the United States Constitution does not apply to his actions as Commander in Chief, and thus the President could declare the Geneva Conventions inoperative. Gonzales's endorsement of the August 2002 Bybee/Yoo Memorandum approved a definition of torture so vague and evasive as to declare it nonexistent. Most shockingly, he has embraced the unacceptable view that the President has the power to ignore the Constitution, laws duly enacted by Congress and International treaties duly ratified by the United States. He has called the Geneva Conventions "quaint."
Legal opinions at the highest level have grave consequences. What were the consequences of Gonzales's actions? The policies for which Gonzales provided a cover of legality - views which he expressly reasserted in his Senate confirmation hearings - inexorably led to abuses that have undermined military discipline and the moral authority our nation once carried. His actions led directly to documented violations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and widespread abusive conduct in locales around the world.
Michael Posner of Human Rights First observed: "After the horrific images from Abu Ghraib became public last year, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insisted that the world should 'judge us by our actions [and] watch how a democracy deals with the wrongdoing and with scandal and the pain of acknowledging and correcting our own mistakes.'" We agree. It is because of this that we believe the only proper course of action is for the Senate to reject Alberto Gonzales's nomination for Attorney General. As Posner notes, "[t]he world is indeed watching." Will the Senate condone torture? Will the Senate condone the rejection of the rule of law?
With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him.
Signed, Daily Kos Management (past and present):
Saturday, 22 January 2005
A Conservative Says...
Topic: Satire
The Indy Voice has received some interesting critiques from a couple of gentlemen who call themselves Americans. Their responses to my statements are as predictable as they are cliche and banal. What is it with conservatives? Do they get an ignoramus kit when they join the he-man everybody-hating club? It sounds like somebody's been reading, Ann "The Blonde Natasha" Coulter's book "
50 Ways To Call Liberals Traitors", but these guys have a hard enough time writing.
In about 45 seconds I can come up with every response that these guys will use against liberals for the rest of their hate filled lives. They kind of remind me of that kids toy where you pull the string and it says a cow says "moo!". Except to spin these guys up all you have to do is say something they don't agree with and out pops "A Conservative Says..." (add something here about hating America, Jesus, and the bible and/or loving terrorists, communists or destroying America).
Below is an ever-so-slight caricature of the types of "conversations" or "debates" I've had with conservatives:
Liberal: George W. Bush has consistently lied and created an environment of hysteria to attain political and economic goals that have nothing to do with his stated purpose.
Conservative: (
Fighting back tears of rage) You must be one of them there Commie-pinko-socialists assholes and you should move to China.
Liberal: The United States government has been responsible for the exact behavior that they claim to condemn. To say this isn't unpatriotic but the epitome of what it means to be an American. In fact, our entire system of government depends upon its citizens not only questioning the government but holding them accountable for their actions.
Conservative: (
Thinking about loading their gun) Uh, I don't know 'bout all that but you hate America and Jesus Christ and I don't even think y'all like apple pie. You sound like one of them liberal elites Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh, men of God and true Americans, remind us to hate every day.
Liberal: Don't you realize that the actions of George W. Bush have been inconsistent with his rhetoric. He has not united this nation but divided it when he preemptively choose to attack a country that had nothing to do with American directed terrorism. He has failed to direct our resources towards the legitimate threats and he has failed to address security issues that have long been neglected because the industries that would require government regulations and control are the same corporations that have purchased George W. Bush the Presidency.
Conservative: (
Thinking that Fox "news" has never mentioned this kind of stuff before) You wanna sodomize Osama Been Ladeen don't cha? You are one American-hating sum' bitch. You just can't stand that George W. Bush, God bless his soul, has the cajones to stand up to those towel heads over there. He's fighting an "away game" so that we don't have to fight here. I say love it or leave it you Commie bastard.
Liberal: While I myself am not a Christian I can respect the true teachings of Jesus Christ. His true teachings are the truth that is represented in many of the worlds great religions. I don't have a problem with Christians or Christianity, I have a problem with those greed consumed capitalist that call themselves Christians who are destroying not only a great religion but a great country. Unregulated capitalism is not in the constitution and the constitution is not in the bible nor is the constitution based on the bible.
Conservative: I knew it! You are a pinko, Jesus-hating Commie. You're aidin and abettin them damn terrorists! It doesn't say God Bless America in the bible for nothing. God loves America and he hates towel heads, sand niggers, fags, kikes, dikes and liberals like you. I feel sorry for you. You're nothin but a weak terrorist sympathizer.
Liberal: I find it very hard to support a man who claims to despise people who use violence for political and economic ends, "terrorists" as he likes to call them, but then turns around and needlessly and violently destroys a country in an ill-advised search for WMD. Furthermore this President has consistently lied to the American people about the reasons for war. The senate authorized the use of force solely based upon the stated purpose of finding WMD. When none were found this President never apologized or admitted making a mistake, he just changed the reasons for war.
Conservative: (
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!)
Liberal: Boy, did you miss the point. It's a damn good thing your shooting is as flawed as your thinking!
While I've never been shot at (not yet), why does almost every "conversation" or "debate" with a conservative go something like this? And I'm the irrational and emotional liberal, right?
Tuesday, 18 January 2005
There Is No Social Security Crisis
Another Bush Created "Crisis"
Next Up Iran!
When do you think the 61,000,000 Americans who voted for George W. Bush are going to wake up to the fact that this guy creates an environment of irrational fear (A.K.A. PARANOIA) every time he takes aim at a political goal? Allowing Bush to get away with dissolving Social Security would be a political coup of monumental proportions. Everyone, including those whining old Republicans, will receive Social Security if they've paid into the system. Social Security is the case-in-point that liberal policies work and this is evident by the 70 year success of the program.
This is the real reason why Bush is trying to destroy it.
That is exactly what would happen if he gets his way.
Bush is still not my President and anyone who calls a man who is antithetical to the principles, constitution and moral values of this country their President should reassess their views, lest they be labeled a traitor.
Just remember that the power of the people is not in the President, the President's power is in the people.
Monday, 17 January 2005
Referendum On Fear
Topic: State Of The Union
The Washington Post is reporting that George W. Bush actually believes that the 2004 election was a referendum on his policies, specifically his failed policies in Iraq.
"The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me." Now I would say that in a normal election he would be mostly right. Typically voters look back at the achievements and policies of an administration and vote based upon a fairly clear view of what the successes are. In a typical election voters either know the outcome or have a good idea of where the policies of an administration are going to take us.
The quagmire known as Iraq could wind up in any number of different outcomes. Our actions there could set off a civil or world war. We could inevitably spend a trillion dollars rebuilding. Our errant preemptive actions have alienated many throughout the world that we depend on for cooperation to protect our soil and our assets from further terrorist attacks, thus potentially contributing to another successful attack. The "terrorists" as some are calling the members of the insurgency in Iraq are mostly and from credible reports the same Iraqi people who our President is claiming to liberate. Even if everything follows this President's mental masturbation delusion and you forget about the 1300+ American soldiers that have been killed, the 10,000+ that have been wounded and the reported 100,000 Iraqi civilians that have been "liberated" from this planet at our hands and everything does work out, you will still have thousands of people left in Iraq who
NOW view us as their eternal enemy.
In typical elections voters vote for candidates because their planned policies, opinions and values reflect those that are voting. We had an election where the incumbent candidate convinced a majority that if they didn't vote for him terrorists would succeed, because of the other candidates weakness, at destroying a major American city with a nuclear bomb.
This election was characterized by paranoid delusional fear. 30% of those who voted for George W. Bush were doing so because of this irrational fear induced by the President that they trusted. Couple that with the fact that more people voted against George W. Bush than any other incumbent candidate in the history of our country, and you will get a clear depiction of the so-called "referendum" on Bush's failed policies. Add to that picture the likelihood that not everyone who voted for Bush agrees with him and the truth of the matter is revealed even further.
Our country has been overcome with fear and ignorance and we have elected a President that embodies that. When our country returns to rational thought and prudence our elected representatives will reflect that.
Posted by The Indy Voice
at 12:29 PM EST
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Updated: Monday, 17 January 2005 12:37 PM EST
Tuesday, 11 January 2005
Tales Of The Bizarro World
Topic: Satire
It seems to me that at a time like this the CBS news non-story is extremely problematic not to CBS but to all the other news organizations who have been repeatedly failing to do their jobs. Just in case you haven't heard or don't know about what has happened at CBS let me explain. A politically motivated gentlemen handed CBS producers a couple of forged documents to REINFORCE a case that they already had, heaping atop the evidence that showed that our President is indeed an irresponsible coward who went AWOL from the National Guard. The documents were forged, the rest of the story was true.
Did "concerned" citizens seize upon the veracity of the rest of the story? No. The story became about forged documents and not about the hypocrisy of a, pardon the french, pussy President, who's political operatives were going around calling a decorated Vietnam war vet, a traitor.
Only in "bizarro world".What's ironic about this whole thing is that it has been recently reported by USA Today that a conservative pundit by the name of Armstrong Williams has accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration's Department of Education to "promote" No Child Left Behind. The irony is that the Bush administration acknowledges this taxpayer funded "covert propaganda" with a shrug and a statement:
"permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures." The Dan Rather/CBS story didn't affect my life at all but my taxes paid Armstrong Williams and who knows how many other conservative pundits to promote a Bush administration governmental program. Add to all this that the CBS non-story is probably going to lead to journalists, who by and large have taken an extended break from being journalists, to be less aggressive and more concerned with losing their jobs. This means that we all should expect to see more "news" stories about J.Lo and Paris Hilton and whether or not a love triangle was the reason for the breakup between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. These types of stories should continue to dominate the news headlines, at least until CNN gets some forged documents from an romantically-motivated Angela Jolie, forever ruining the perception of news agencies as being "fair and balanced" and always right, all the time. Then we can expect news to include stories about the sky being blue and water being wet. This will all continue until a left-leaning President is elected and then the same conservatives that are calling for the heads of CBS news producers will be asking for a return to investigative journalism so that we can get to the bottom of cigars, dresses, interns and white lies.
Wednesday, 5 January 2005
One Man, One Vote!
Topic: State Of The Union
Please check out this link from Michael Moore to the senators of the U.S. congress:
One Man, One Vote!The importance of a character like Michael Moore is that true democracy requires agitation. When you have complacency it breeds mediocrity. Many millions have been sitting on their butts and now look at what we're facing. As Michael Moore is asking our senators to allow an objection to be heard, I ask you to use this
link to send a message to both of your senators asking that they have the balls to stand up for what's right.
Everyone deserves their vote to count and while it won't change the outcome of the election the evidence that illegal activities took place in Ohio to deprieve poor black and white people their right to vote is overwhelming and needs to be investigated and addressed so that it never happens again. Everyone should agree with that statement and now our representatives in congress have an opportunity to prove that they do.
Posted by The Indy Voice
at 10:06 PM EST
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Updated: Thursday, 6 January 2005 10:17 AM EST
Monday, 3 January 2005
Something's Missing
Topic: Iraq
WARNING: IF YOU CONTINUE YOU WILL SEE IMAGES OF TSUNAMI VICTIMS, NOT VICTIMS OF A BOMBING AT A WEDDING AND NOT PICTURES OF PRIVATE CONTRACTORS CAUGHT IN A BAD PLACE AND NOT BEHEADING VICTIMS. YOU WILL NOT SEE VICTIMS OF HUMAN AGGRESSION, ONLY VICTIMS OF A NATURAL DISASTER.
Something has struck me with all the coverage of the tsunami victims. Something's been missing in my life and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I watched the images of the victims on the television and all over the Internet. Bodies. Dead bodies.
I've realized that I don't really get to see too many dead bodies in the news. Sure I see them, lots of them, when I watch a Bruce Willis movie but when I turn on the network or cable news I almost never see them. I don't really count the bodies 200 yards behind a big policeman with a white sheet over it. I mean the rotting, decaying, damaged, thrown in a hole, kinda dead bodies. That's what I've been missing in my life and I think I need lots more of 'em. In fact, here's some that I found over at Fox, CBS, MS-NBC, and CNN:
Isn't viewing human misery, as caused by natural disasters, moving? I wonder if those schmucks over at those so-called news companies know that there were 100,000 people who've been killed due to war just recently and I have not seen 1, NOT 1, dead body. Not 1 child with their face blown off, not 1 mother with her skin melted to the bone, not 1 grandfather blown to pieces and not 1 father shot in the back trying to shield his children from depleted uranium shells. I do remember seeing what may have been the bodies of some private contractors being dragged through the streets of Fallujah but those were ambigious bodies at best and the way that the news edited it really obscured what would have generated some "shock and awe". I just feel that I'm really missing the full picture here.
Pun intended.
Thursday, 30 December 2004
Free From Fear
Topic: Satire
You know I'm sure it's just coincidental but I was wondering when we were going to hear something about the terrorists after the election. We had Thanksgiving, Christmas and we are now upon New Years and I haven't heard one report of a terrorists threat. I distinctly remember the holidays last year and there were multiple threats about us being attacked and the newest threat was in England. I read newspapers, watch cable network news and read multiple independent news sources every single day, all day, and I haven't heard a single threat against the motherland. I also remember the commander-in-chief (chuckle) continually reminding us of the ever-present threat we faced and how it wasn't going to go away.
Maybe the threat that we face today is equal to what it was last holiday or equal to the threat we faced the day before 9/11. Is the terrorist threat gone or is communicating unsubstantiated threats no longer politically advantageous?
Have a free from fear Happy New Year.
Wednesday, 29 December 2004
Another Missed Oppurtunity
Topic: State Of The Union
Can it be possible that the Bush administration can fail so miserably at so many things? When faced with an incredible opportunity to show the world that the government of the United States stands with people from all walks of life, no matter what self-interest they may or may not have to the U.S., the Bush administration pledges $35 million dollars for a 4000 mile disaster effecting 12 different countries, killing over 100,000 people, displacing or making millions homeless in areas of the world that are among the poorest.
How short the Bush administration's memory is. In October they provided $2,092,800,000 ($2 billion) for those affected by the hurricanes in Florida. Florida had 1,052,000 applications for aid, 124 people dead from 4 storms in a state with a population of 16,000,000 people. Let's have some fun with numbers and figure out just how much aid the Bush administration would provide for these 12 countries affected by tsunami if they had a couple of million registered Republican voters in an election year or if these countries had oil underneath their soil.
If these 12 nations were in fact a state and the Floridian formula of providing $16,877,419.00 per death were multiplied by the 100,000 that have died from the Tsunamis, then the federal government would provide $1,687,741,900,000 (yeah, that is over 1 and a half trillion dollars). If the formula was based upon total numbers of people effected and if that number was conservatively estimated at say 100 million in these 12 countries, using the same Floridian formula of providing $1989 per application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), that would yield assistance in the amount of $198,000,000 or approximately $2 billion less than what was allocated to fight an illegal and unjustifiable war in Iraq. Ironic isn't it?
Is the American government the number one provider of support to nations around the world? You bet they are, but the fact is that much of that aid goes to support corporate interests in moderate income nations. In fact, Israel, not exactly a starving nation, represents approximately 13% of total aid provided to all countries. Fortunately for the citizens of this country the perception of us as benevolent by the people of other nations is separated from their perception of our government as malevolent. Let's hope that in this disaster the power of the good inherent in the American people compensates for the inadequacies of our government, specifically within the Bush administration.
Bush Won't Disturb His Vacation For Human Disasters
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