Soooo.... www.robertmcchesney.com is obviously his eponymous site. This guy is the real deal and should be studied extensively. He also should be interviewed and his input and support solicited.
Then there is http://freepress.net/content/about which, according to their "About Us" page is:
"Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates, and to generate policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector."
And let's not forget http://savetheinternet.com/ which bills itself, again- taken from their own "About" page:
The SavetheInternet.com Coalition is more than a million everyday people who have banded together with thousands of non-profit organizations, businesses and bloggers to protect Internet freedom.
The Coalition believes that the Internet is a crucial engine for economic growth and free speech. We are working together to urge Congress to preserve Network Neutrality, the First Amendment of the Internet, which ensures that the Internet remains open to new ideas, innovation and progress.
From its beginnings, the Internet has leveled the playing field for all. Everyday people can have their voices heard by thousands, even millions of people. The SavetheInternet.com Coalition -- representing millions of Americans from all walks of life -- is working together to ensure that Congress passes no telecommunications legislation without meaningful and enforceable Network Neutrality protections.
Link to googlebooks preview of David L. Parker's "Stolen Dreams: Portraits of Working children" http://books.google.com/books?id=G4xQGhAMSz0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Stolen+Dreams&sig=SjrfROKxXoYN65KwD_d0V2reLI0
which recalls a book I first came across at the Cleveland State libury back when I was doing some semi pro Ghost Poeting there back in the early Oughts- or maybe it might have even been way way back in the late stages of the those fabulous 90's. That one was Kevin Bales's "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy" which had chapters on the various kinds of modern slavery that are out there and where.
http://books.google.com/books?id=P9ZhnLljWssC&printsec=frontcover&dq=New+Slavery+by+Kevin+Bales&sig=st40I8s_F2JgQe8Hi9jPPg3f2Ow
I think that if an ongoing "Democracy Solidarity" movement is going to be built with various entities working toward more social, economic, political, and cultural Democracy then a modern day Abolitionist movement that adresses the most egrigiously inhuman abuses of NeoLiberal/NeoCon "Globalization" such as that presented in Bales' book is a logical one that could draw considerable organizational traction amongst your basic idealistic young and affluent Westerners.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Getting closer to really getting this whole thing started all the time...
I had a chance to work a lot at my l'il yops this week so I went through some old notes and also worked on changes and updates to the dialogD Web Site. I still thind that when I am really moving forward with the effort in the "real world" I want a better name. But anyway...
There was an old Noam Chomsky book: "What Uncle Sasm Really Wants" from the early 90's or so- one of the little books ut out by Odonion Press then of Berkeley, http://odonian.com/ which lead to many of todays "Links of Interest" over to the left there...
But Robert McChesney, whose name and work keeps coming up ever since I saw his book "Rich Media, Poor Democracy" back in 2000 or so. I've gotten his show on U of Illinois' AM radio station when coming back from visiting Mary and the kids et. al..
Anyway, all the links I put in my links of interest list are ones that should be contacted about somehow collaborating on the kind of organizing that needs to be done to actually effectively challenge the status quo of business and politics as usual as it is ever more harshly being executed by the ruling business hard right coalition that has been strengthening its hold on more and more for decades now- at least since Prop 13 passed in California in what- 1979 or 80. But really since the end of World War Two and the death of Roosevelt.
What I really found interesting and significant about Arthur Naiman and Odonian Press is that he and it, according to the Introduction to the little Chomsky volume I re-browsed yesterday is that they contributed at least 10% of all net income off their efforts to progressive scial activist causes. This is at the heart of what I think needs to happen. Those activists and organizations that are able, through their writing and other fundraising efforts, need to pay into some kind of "Voluntary Funding Tax to Further the Causes of a Confederation of Progressive Organizations Shadow Public Sector" which is what we need to be building and building quickly.
There was an old Noam Chomsky book: "What Uncle Sasm Really Wants" from the early 90's or so- one of the little books ut out by Odonion Press then of Berkeley, http://odonian.com/ which lead to many of todays "Links of Interest" over to the left there...
But Robert McChesney, whose name and work keeps coming up ever since I saw his book "Rich Media, Poor Democracy" back in 2000 or so. I've gotten his show on U of Illinois' AM radio station when coming back from visiting Mary and the kids et. al..
Anyway, all the links I put in my links of interest list are ones that should be contacted about somehow collaborating on the kind of organizing that needs to be done to actually effectively challenge the status quo of business and politics as usual as it is ever more harshly being executed by the ruling business hard right coalition that has been strengthening its hold on more and more for decades now- at least since Prop 13 passed in California in what- 1979 or 80. But really since the end of World War Two and the death of Roosevelt.
What I really found interesting and significant about Arthur Naiman and Odonian Press is that he and it, according to the Introduction to the little Chomsky volume I re-browsed yesterday is that they contributed at least 10% of all net income off their efforts to progressive scial activist causes. This is at the heart of what I think needs to happen. Those activists and organizations that are able, through their writing and other fundraising efforts, need to pay into some kind of "Voluntary Funding Tax to Further the Causes of a Confederation of Progressive Organizations Shadow Public Sector" which is what we need to be building and building quickly.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Hey Soolay Saul where are you???
Today I didn't get me no little job so I am figuring just making the entries to this that I can get out more or less a combination personal letter and then the various political public type of things as I get to them either as I edit and read through "my stuff" or I check out sites that I have made note of or visited before that are related to the effort I am hoping we can get to eventually around what we do here...
Sooooo..... Even just a little looking randomly around the Web for ideas etc gets you realizing that there are a lot of people out there trying to "monetize" whatever screwing around they're doing with blogging and web sites and the like. And that, predictably there are countless scams and counter scams that turn out to be scams too etc. So I think we just go about the business of finding and creating quality content around our own personal integrity standards and keep at it and I'd say give it 6-12 months of really doing it and learning as we go and see if it don't get us somewhere- including to a place where actually "getting a little something for ourselves" for our efforts is an ongoing part of the results of said efforts.
To my files and some sites then... how about this here: http://www.unesco.org/cgi-bin/webworld/portal_freesoftware/cgi/page.cgi?g=Cool;d=1
an interesting resource at the very least... I first was looking for the “CERN” document server and free software from them for once dialogD gets bigger IE more documents and links and orgs cataloged.
For a little levity maybe check this out: http://www.anecdotage.com/ but hey sites like this one are not exactly what I have in mind... but then again I do think we have to talk to and try to involve, talk to, and communicate with more than just the current crop of more or less progressive liberal lefty leaning political type activists that are out there, you know, losing the war against right wing extremism and ultra unequal wealth distribution more blatantly with each decade since the 60's supposedly was going to change everything the other way and direction…
http://www.accuracy.org/
An interesting guy here, a Prof at UMass and this a recent article:
http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.1/wolff.htm an excerpt:
"When Marx likened wage-workers to slaves, he brought the lessons of oppositions to slavery to the emerging movements against capitalism. Put bluntly, Marx argued against forms of anti-capitalism that limited themselves to improving workers’ living conditions. Fast-forwarding to today, Marx would criticize movements such as those for “a living wage” or “pension reform” or “welfare increases” or “saving social security” and so on. A Marxist opposition to capitalism is rather one focused on its abolition as a system. Marxists, he might say, are to capitalism what abolitionists were to slavery.
For Marx, the crux of the issue is that capitalism entails exploitation. A large part of the population (productive laborers) produces a surplus that is appropriated and distributed by a small part of the population (capitalists). In capitalist enterprises, workers are hired only if the value that their labor adds (to the raw materials, tools, and equipment their work uses up) exceeds the value paid to them as wages for doing that labor. That excess value – the surplus – belongs to the capitalists since they own the outputs of production, sell them in markets, and thereby realize the surplus value in them. In the preferred language of capitalism, that surplus value comprises the “profits” of the capitalists, their “private property” to dispense in their own interests.
The less wages that capitalists must pay to workers, the more surplus they get for themselves. Exploitation thus situates tension, hostility, and conflict in the heart of production. Capitalists and workers are set into oppositional struggles. Moreover, those struggles ramify and provoke competitive struggles among capitalists and among workers. Alongside the outputs of capitalist production yielding impressive incomes and accumulating wealth, there are also the countless, ramifying social costs of the conflicts and competitions."
Sooooo..... Even just a little looking randomly around the Web for ideas etc gets you realizing that there are a lot of people out there trying to "monetize" whatever screwing around they're doing with blogging and web sites and the like. And that, predictably there are countless scams and counter scams that turn out to be scams too etc. So I think we just go about the business of finding and creating quality content around our own personal integrity standards and keep at it and I'd say give it 6-12 months of really doing it and learning as we go and see if it don't get us somewhere- including to a place where actually "getting a little something for ourselves" for our efforts is an ongoing part of the results of said efforts.
To my files and some sites then... how about this here: http://www.unesco.org/cgi-bin/webworld/portal_freesoftware/cgi/page.cgi?g=Cool;d=1
an interesting resource at the very least... I first was looking for the “CERN” document server and free software from them for once dialogD gets bigger IE more documents and links and orgs cataloged.
For a little levity maybe check this out: http://www.anecdotage.com/ but hey sites like this one are not exactly what I have in mind... but then again I do think we have to talk to and try to involve, talk to, and communicate with more than just the current crop of more or less progressive liberal lefty leaning political type activists that are out there, you know, losing the war against right wing extremism and ultra unequal wealth distribution more blatantly with each decade since the 60's supposedly was going to change everything the other way and direction…
http://www.accuracy.org/
An interesting guy here, a Prof at UMass and this a recent article:
http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.1/wolff.htm an excerpt:
"When Marx likened wage-workers to slaves, he brought the lessons of oppositions to slavery to the emerging movements against capitalism. Put bluntly, Marx argued against forms of anti-capitalism that limited themselves to improving workers’ living conditions. Fast-forwarding to today, Marx would criticize movements such as those for “a living wage” or “pension reform” or “welfare increases” or “saving social security” and so on. A Marxist opposition to capitalism is rather one focused on its abolition as a system. Marxists, he might say, are to capitalism what abolitionists were to slavery.
For Marx, the crux of the issue is that capitalism entails exploitation. A large part of the population (productive laborers) produces a surplus that is appropriated and distributed by a small part of the population (capitalists). In capitalist enterprises, workers are hired only if the value that their labor adds (to the raw materials, tools, and equipment their work uses up) exceeds the value paid to them as wages for doing that labor. That excess value – the surplus – belongs to the capitalists since they own the outputs of production, sell them in markets, and thereby realize the surplus value in them. In the preferred language of capitalism, that surplus value comprises the “profits” of the capitalists, their “private property” to dispense in their own interests.
The less wages that capitalists must pay to workers, the more surplus they get for themselves. Exploitation thus situates tension, hostility, and conflict in the heart of production. Capitalists and workers are set into oppositional struggles. Moreover, those struggles ramify and provoke competitive struggles among capitalists and among workers. Alongside the outputs of capitalist production yielding impressive incomes and accumulating wealth, there are also the countless, ramifying social costs of the conflicts and competitions."
Friday, February 15, 2008
Howard Dean's old campaign operative:
http://www.joetrippi.com/
So what of it. Folks in the know of todays political chicanery may not be the ones to get us anywhere new. But then again, I think some of the more or less progressive activists out there could be a great help if they weren't so entrenched in their careers and upper middle class life styles that today's way of doing business and politics does allow even if the lefts happy warriors are consistently fighting an ongoing losing battle from a position of ever more marginalized weakness. Oh well...
And then there's this, which appears at first look to be a damn good blog to me, worth searching for content and people aka content producers and potential collaborators in this "Confederation of Activists" wich is what is needed- a coordinated and not so atomized and piecemeal and thus often mealy mouthed failing effort to, like, you know, speak, like truth to power, man...
http://www.weblogsky.com/works.html
Well folks, that's about all I have time for before these here fifth graders get back from Art.
http://www.joetrippi.com/
So what of it. Folks in the know of todays political chicanery may not be the ones to get us anywhere new. But then again, I think some of the more or less progressive activists out there could be a great help if they weren't so entrenched in their careers and upper middle class life styles that today's way of doing business and politics does allow even if the lefts happy warriors are consistently fighting an ongoing losing battle from a position of ever more marginalized weakness. Oh well...
And then there's this, which appears at first look to be a damn good blog to me, worth searching for content and people aka content producers and potential collaborators in this "Confederation of Activists" wich is what is needed- a coordinated and not so atomized and piecemeal and thus often mealy mouthed failing effort to, like, you know, speak, like truth to power, man...
http://www.weblogsky.com/works.html
Well folks, that's about all I have time for before these here fifth graders get back from Art.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The idea of A Progressive Democracy Solidarity movement...
... in the good old USA will need some sorts of funding mechanisms that are not currently readily available. A kind of in house socially conscious venture capital firm to fund the startups of someof the kinds of activities that are being called for. check out this article and comment or add what you think or find.
http://www.sristocks.com/Learn/Socially-responsible-investing-starts-at-$0.66.html
How to start it? Solicit funds on dialogD blog and Web Site.And a Constitutional Amendment 527 funding and organizing committee in each state who then hire and train Working America type laborers who then form a new kind of community based viral labor and progressive Union Party… a real world boots on the ground dialogD organizing presence in each state, ultimately in each congressional district, and so on…
http://www.sristocks.com/Learn/Socially-responsible-investing-starts-at-$0.66.html
How to start it? Solicit funds on dialogD blog and Web Site.And a Constitutional Amendment 527 funding and organizing committee in each state who then hire and train Working America type laborers who then form a new kind of community based viral labor and progressive Union Party… a real world boots on the ground dialogD organizing presence in each state, ultimately in each congressional district, and so on…
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
More From Soolay Saul...
Getting back to relevent questions about the almost farcical nature of the so called bipartisan "debate" and the big money mainstream sporting event styled selection of the head of our "Democratically chosen" Executive Branch".
Which again, is not anything that shouldn't be more widely discussed and isn't much in the mainstream and only points ou more the need for "Something completely different..." just like old Cactus Ed used to say. Anyway check out the links:
http://gnn.tv/articles/3517/The_Insurgency_of_Barack_Obama
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6985/
Which again, is not anything that shouldn't be more widely discussed and isn't much in the mainstream and only points ou more the need for "Something completely different..." just like old Cactus Ed used to say. Anyway check out the links:
http://gnn.tv/articles/3517/The_Insurgency_of_Barack_Obama
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/11/6985/
Monday, February 11, 2008
And this one from Portland Saul...
Published on Saturday, February 9, 2008 by Rolling Stone
The Chicken Doves
by Matt Taibbi
Quietly, while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been inspiring Democrats everywhere with their rolling bitchfest, congressional superduo Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have completed one of the most awesome political collapses since Neville Chamberlain. At long last, the Democratic leaders of Congress have publicly surrendered on the Iraq War, just one year after being swept into power with a firm mandate to end it.Solidifying his reputation as one of the biggest pussies in U.S. political history, Reid explained his decision to refocus his party’s energies on topics other than ending the war by saying he just couldn’t fit Iraq into his busy schedule. “We have the presidential election,” Reid said recently. “Our time is really squeezed.”
Link to entire article at Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/09/6945/
The Chicken Doves
by Matt Taibbi
Quietly, while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been inspiring Democrats everywhere with their rolling bitchfest, congressional superduo Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have completed one of the most awesome political collapses since Neville Chamberlain. At long last, the Democratic leaders of Congress have publicly surrendered on the Iraq War, just one year after being swept into power with a firm mandate to end it.Solidifying his reputation as one of the biggest pussies in U.S. political history, Reid explained his decision to refocus his party’s energies on topics other than ending the war by saying he just couldn’t fit Iraq into his busy schedule. “We have the presidential election,” Reid said recently. “Our time is really squeezed.”
Link to entire article at Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/09/6945/
Saully you little welp start posting...
I know it's like dropping a couple raindrops into the ocean but we have to start doing this on a daily basis. With that in mind here are a couple of links from today's school snow day number one of the season:
http://www.ourfuture.org/take-back-america-2008
and of course, there's the tried and true:
http://www.commondreams.org/
Now, ultimately we have to do more than just find something of interest and post the link to whatever .org or article or book or writer or god forbid current political operative or office holder. Once we have the blogging going on a real consistent basis we have to start emailing our blog and main Web Site links to these people and solicit both organizational collaboration and financial support for some of the specific things we propose as we get going.
Ciao, Brew
http://www.ourfuture.org/take-back-america-2008
and of course, there's the tried and true:
http://www.commondreams.org/
Now, ultimately we have to do more than just find something of interest and post the link to whatever .org or article or book or writer or god forbid current political operative or office holder. Once we have the blogging going on a real consistent basis we have to start emailing our blog and main Web Site links to these people and solicit both organizational collaboration and financial support for some of the specific things we propose as we get going.
Ciao, Brew
Monday, February 4, 2008
Hey Soolay Saul Where Are You???
...but I know- I got no one to blame for my own moribund progress than me. And life keeps proceeding a pace at an alarmingly rapid pace. Sooo...
Check out these possible ally types...
http://www.allbookstores.com/ http://www.wiretapmag.org/
So, Brother, there is this book discovered today which relates to I think some of what I want to be calling for:
http://natureandthehumansoul.com/newbook/default.htm
and here's some blurbs about it- come to think of it- that's all available on the site linked to there including a sample chapter. Very related to Thomas Berry's "The Great Work" I think.
Monday, February 04, 2008, 11:46 AM.
It doesn’t get to be much more of an old haunt than this: The Olde Arcade- or is that Ye Olde… I don’t know. And here I sit, typing on a laptop. Session one of maybe two today whilst out on the obligatory walkabout. And what a nostalgic walkabout it’s been- and here’s the route so far and the plan for what to do after I finish this journalizing/work session and make my way to the next stop at the downtown Cleveland Public Libury, or, as we radical activist peacenix like to refer to it: The People’s University. Any way:
1. Parked the car on East 25th and headed downtown on Superior to E.13th where I cut through first the newly redone Reserve Square Market and now Soup and Salad joint. Looked pretty inviting and I almost bought a bottle of Green Jalapeno sauce for a buck.
2. From there I cut up Rockwell to the former Ohio Savings Bank building and through the tunnel under Chester to the other side and passed what should have been me and Pete’s segue (sic) into the Wine and Food Biz aka Cork and Beans, up the stairs and out onto the street- Euclid Ave in this case.
3. Here I half expected to see that homeless guy that’s been a perennial here since just about me getting back to Cleve-A-Burg in the late 80’s. He’s got Nawlins roots of some sort but I don’t remember his name if in fact I ever new it. I ain’t sure.
4. Then it’s down the Ave to a piss here and now the session. When I leave here I plan on:
5. Cutting back across Euclid and through the other two Arcades to Prospect, on down to Tower City, maybe another piss and water stop- actually probably that will be done here, some free food samples at the food court, and back up to Superiour through Public Square and to the aforementioned Libury session.
6. Back to the car will be fairly direct except for I will cut through the Olde Galleria and then on up St. Clair to E.24th, up to Rockwell there and through Chinatown Jake to 25th and the Stratus. Yeah, the Olde Stratus.
So Check out these:
http://www.dialogdemocracy.org/
Check out these possible ally types...
http://www.allbookstores.com/ http://www.wiretapmag.org/
So, Brother, there is this book discovered today which relates to I think some of what I want to be calling for:
http://natureandthehumansoul.com/newbook/default.htm
and here's some blurbs about it- come to think of it- that's all available on the site linked to there including a sample chapter. Very related to Thomas Berry's "The Great Work" I think.
Monday, February 04, 2008, 11:46 AM.
It doesn’t get to be much more of an old haunt than this: The Olde Arcade- or is that Ye Olde… I don’t know. And here I sit, typing on a laptop. Session one of maybe two today whilst out on the obligatory walkabout. And what a nostalgic walkabout it’s been- and here’s the route so far and the plan for what to do after I finish this journalizing/work session and make my way to the next stop at the downtown Cleveland Public Libury, or, as we radical activist peacenix like to refer to it: The People’s University. Any way:
1. Parked the car on East 25th and headed downtown on Superior to E.13th where I cut through first the newly redone Reserve Square Market and now Soup and Salad joint. Looked pretty inviting and I almost bought a bottle of Green Jalapeno sauce for a buck.
2. From there I cut up Rockwell to the former Ohio Savings Bank building and through the tunnel under Chester to the other side and passed what should have been me and Pete’s segue (sic) into the Wine and Food Biz aka Cork and Beans, up the stairs and out onto the street- Euclid Ave in this case.
3. Here I half expected to see that homeless guy that’s been a perennial here since just about me getting back to Cleve-A-Burg in the late 80’s. He’s got Nawlins roots of some sort but I don’t remember his name if in fact I ever new it. I ain’t sure.
4. Then it’s down the Ave to a piss here and now the session. When I leave here I plan on:
5. Cutting back across Euclid and through the other two Arcades to Prospect, on down to Tower City, maybe another piss and water stop- actually probably that will be done here, some free food samples at the food court, and back up to Superiour through Public Square and to the aforementioned Libury session.
6. Back to the car will be fairly direct except for I will cut through the Olde Galleria and then on up St. Clair to E.24th, up to Rockwell there and through Chinatown Jake to 25th and the Stratus. Yeah, the Olde Stratus.
So Check out these:
http://www.dialogdemocracy.org/
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