17 Comments on monday may 21, 2007 : special report
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Sweater Curse, 81 comments
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Sesame Street & The Origin of Om nom nom nom, 1295 comments
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Working on code etc, please stand by!
Here are the links in the meantime:
story links: joanne interviews andrew rasiej, craig newmark, and thomas friedman at the personal democracy forum | extended interview footage
Dang, did he said \”dead wood?\” i think i also heard of flat=world, he should check out the http://accordesign.wordpress.com weblog post today for that one. There was also a guy who looked very much like George Clooney & Dave Matthews, y\’know the guy with a hint of Pivens. Thanks for bringing Democracy on the web to the forum, RB viewer lovin\’ it.
Andrew Rasiej, yeah I thought he looked like
Sorry to see you waste valuable Rocketboom air time on a cretin like Thomas Friedman, though given his institutional status I don’t suppose anyone can blame you.
Glenn Greenwald had a superb takedown of Friedman in his December 1 post last year (scroll all the way to the bottom). I particularly enjoyed brendan’s story in that comment thread.
As far as the internet and advanced technology’s role in democracy: as a direct channel for journalism and commentary, they’re superb, but as a means for tabulating the will of the people, they’re nothing short of disastrous. I’m convinced that only voting that can be verified by ordinary people has a chance to avoid fatal corruption. As the old attributed-to-Stalin-but-who-knows-for-sure quote goes, “It’s Not the People Who Vote that Count; It’s the People Who Count the Votes.”
Yep, and isn’t it ironic that this episode of RB has been bitten in the butt by the technology bug?
Without “truth & integrity” we end up with
billions of egos blogging, vlogging & flogging
each other with “I’m right, your wrong!”
and nothing ever really changes.
Technology and “new media” have provided the means
to create more and more divisive camps.
Climate change is a good example.
Whether or not one believes “we” or the sun is responsible, the weather
is changing, but the world just sits around stroking
its collective UN-consciousness. ( being polite… was going to use the B word)
And now a word from our sponsor….
http://homestarrunner.com/fluffypuff2.html
Yes, well. I am sure something was said. What indeed it was I can hardly measure in terms of a definition.
Apparently, I seek something concrete in terms of a collective (connected) gathering of citizenry to take control of the political process, rather than being only controlled by it. As long as the people are kept at arms length from the actual decision making process there will be no chance for a democracy to be born in the United States of America. The current structure of government is polar in nature and as such purposely creates division instead of unity. This bogs down the political process and guarantees little more than minimal benefit to society.
A more cohesive model urgently needs to be developed which actually takes aim at creating a system for implementing humanitarian goals in the place of destructive engineering, and manifestation of profit for militaristic corporations which bankrupt the national treasury.
The archaic methods and disorganized system used to cast ballots in America is absurd at best. Until current and advancing technologies are implemented to establish a comprehensive/standardized election process which is also coupled with election reform the voice of the American people will not be heard.
By the expansion and organization of current technologies we as a nation have the facility to conduct not only major elections but to use our collective voice to express our concerns and desires on a day to day basis. As we expand and refine technology to create real time, secure communications, the potential for refining our governmental process becomes with out question one of the single most important tasks of our time.
David L. Nelson
http://www.authenticvote.com/
If implemented, this would make it possible to experiment in direct democracy. It would be interesting to see what would happen if everyone (not just members of Congress) could vote on important bills. But the political parties will fight this since it reduces their power.
Keep up the good fight.
Any talk of elections, voting etc… is sure to bring up passions in just about everybody. The Democrats tax then spend and the Republicans cut taxes and spend. Both parties are one and the same. They keep the people divided. We need another option.
Yea!
What happened to third parties?
I don\’t want six people on the ballot next November but there has to be more options.
I’m depressed that lots of people still believe that “both parties are one and the same”. It has to be hard to take this position unless one hasn’t been paying any attention the the past seven years.
I’m all for more options, but let’s not reduce reality to dangerously absurd generalizations … Nader
Timothy Leary’s famous quote “Turn on, tune in, drop out”
takes on new meaning as 21st century technology
continues to offer non-chemical forms of escapism.
Got your Eyeglass TV yet?
What are you waiting for?
http://www.local6.com/technology/13360129/detail.html
(I’m all b-linked out—C ya tomorrow)
*** I now b-ackup my posts :)
(you can snatch it again if you want to use it for an RB ep this week, I won’t mind.)
This is just too FUNNY or SAD,
my eyes began twittering and so I had to b-link one last time.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/20/isabodywear-underwear-fends-off-cellphone-radiation/
Good for a laugh and a half = laugh.5
(for the well-endowed cellphone)
Since we live in a representative democracy, the first and foremost thing we can do is vote. We don\’t have national referendums in this country, although a presidential election comes close. So, we find a candidate at the local or national level that best reflects our ideas and we vote for that person. If you ain\’t voting, I don\’t want to hear your opinion. It\’s that simple.
Well golly, it looks like everything is in place and the system is working just fine and during the next election you may as well write your vote on a brick and toss it in the ocean. Representation INDEED!
The USA is becoming a police state:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/PoliceState.html
Flat world, flat world… wtf is dude talking about?
Dead tree media. *sigh* What\’s wrong with \”print\”?