"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Bizy Times

Well, I emailed everyone I know my Howard Dean Endorsement, then I bought a ticket to Burning Man (which should cap my West Coast summer nicely), and now I'm cramming in a little more work before going to watch a taping of the Daily Show and then paint some opera sets into the night. Just another Outlandish Tuesday.

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Signs of the Times

Here's the billboard that's gone up across the expressway from my house:

PBA Billboard

While I realize this is an attempt by the PBA to cash in on the war for donations, the overall message here -- linking the NYPD with the military -- gives me the creeps. Cops with shotguns and guys in cammo with M-1s, just what we need more of in the city. It wasn't too long ago people were talking about cops who live on Long Island and patrolling in NYC as part of an "occupying army." They meant that in a bad way at the time. The times, they are a changin'.

But which way? For all the doom and gloom and emptyheaded emperial patriotism that's around, I still see glimmers of hope. The NY Review of Books has two scathing articles on the coverage of the war in the US media, one short, one long. Also, Democrats in TX have been on the run (in a good way) after abandoning the legeslature to prevent a vote that would re-district them into oblivion (7 years before redistricting is required and at the beheist of GOP puppetmaster Karl Rove, I might add). They're literally fugatives. That takes some spine.

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Sublet

I need to sublet my apartment for July and August. Here's the relavent Craigslisting. Drop me a line if you have any questions.

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Are We Family?

I'm going to go off on politics and foreign policy in a second, but while I'm on the topic in general, here's some required viewing. Please forward this to anyone and everyone: a chart showing the distribution of benefits for the presidents dividend tax cut. Please also note, the notion that a dividend tax is some form of "double taxation" is simply wrong. It's a language game -- like "death tax" or "evil doer" -- designed to generate political support. But enough of that. On to the main issue.

My man Robbie Everett, who generously provided the big map for my party this weekend, emailed me this morning asking me as a favor in return to track down the hoax/truth status of the "Robin Williams Peace Plan" that's been circulating. Your answer is here (hoax, but click to read the "plan").

What strikes me as most quixotic -- or depressing, depending on my mood -- about the "Robin Williams Peace Plan" is just how bad a peace plan it. I understand that it's intended to be humorous, but only Faux News devotees would find any of the "zingers" within it even worthy of a chuckle. I would do a point-by-point breakdown, but that would require a second cup of coffee. Maybe later.

Reminds me, though, of Metaphor and War, Again, that very interesting essay from alternet which explored why and how people become misinformed about things -- e.g. Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 -- and why giving them "the facts" is usually not enough to adjust their world view. The author, correctly insofar as I can tell, asserts that the metaphorical framework that surrounds an issue is far more important in terms of how the public receives it than the actual substantive details themselves. He talks about how the nations-as-people metaphor is used to tell stories with heroes and villains in order to sell war.

The connection for me is that the main (or meta) problem with the "peace plan" is its foundation in the binary, zero-sum meme of "us right, you wrong" which is so prevalent in the conservative media and bathroom graffiti these days. It would seem that any sober analysis of history and current international relationships would conclude that as far as nations are concerned, everyone is wrong. Certainly some nations are more wrong than others, but I can't think of a single nation that's above reproach. Even the Canadians persecuted the Innuit people at one point, if I recall.

I've been mulling over this for quite some time, trying to think of an alternative to the hero/villain story which still makes use of the nations-as-people basis (which is with us, for better or worse). The other night after reading Joe Sacco's "Palestine" -- you should check out Sacco if you haven't already: he's the brilliant cartoonist equivalent of an intrepid photojournalist -- I thought maybe the family might work. Not the fantasy nuclear family, but rather the extended, sprawling, fractured, step/in-law, dysfunctional post-modern reality.

Families are messed up, and most of all they have history, good and bad. In real families, while there are leaders and black sheep, no one is "good" and no one else is "evil." There are times when people are right and people are wrong, but there is no unshakable blanket statement, no "evil--doers" or crusading saviors. Real families are complex, and the solutions to their problems require humility, communication, compromise. I don't know. Maybe, this is a completely half-baked idea (I know it's not original), but maybe it's worth elaborating on a touch in the future.

Finally, in case you've missed it in the past week. Things are going bad in Iraq. A number of US solders were killed, some in accidents, some by snipers, some just gunned down in broad daylight. The occupation team is being shuffled -- all the top people, Gardner, Bodine, etc -- are being replaced, as nearly a month after the end of major combat the country is continuing to disintigrate. Rumsfeld is trying to limit visits to the region by Congresspeople to 2 hours in-and-out. Looting continues. No WMD have been found, and the Army Expiditionary Force that's in charge of searching for them is being dismantled. Bad news all around. There are stll some causes for hope, but the current trend is far from encouraging.

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Rattle them Bones

I'm an old man now. What a great party last night. We had booze, we had music, we drew on a giant map. My sister gave me a haircut so I look boyish once more. Many friends were there, and I'll post some pictures soon. I got a little cranky at the end -- still a bit sick -- when I felt it was time to go to bed and there were still dertermined beer-drinkers about. In any case, it was a grand old time, and I felt the birthday love.

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Today is my Birthday

Happy birthday to me. Today I'm 24, and I'm having a party.

Also, here's Billbo Baggens' photo tribute.

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Open Antagonism

As part of our new "open antagonism towards FoxNews and all it's instruments," here's this tidbit: the staunchly pro-us network my be banned in the UK for falling afoul of impartiality rules, as The Guardian reports. Fair and balanced indeed.

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Wow

He's really f'in something, this Blogger from Baghdad. Describing a more militarized area of the Iraqi capital, where hand grenades sell for $0.25 on the street:

The streets markets look like something out of a William Gibson novel. Heaps of cheap RAM (stolen of course) is being sold beside broken monitors beside falafel stands and weapons are all available. Fights break out justlikethat and knives come out from nowhere, knives just bought 5 minutes ago. There are army sighting thingys, Weird looking things with lenses. And people selling you computer cases who tell you these are electric warmers, never having seen a computer case before. Really truly surreal.
.................

American civil administration in Iraq is having a shortage of Bright ideas. I keep wondering what happened to the months of "preparation" for a "post-saddam" Iraq. What happened to all these 100-page reports, where is that Dick Cheney report? Why is every single issue treated like they have never thought it would come up?

Salam Pax is an international treasure. I can't stress enough how amazing and unique an opportunity it is for a worldwide audience to read the candid observations of even one actual Iraqi citizen. Gives me the good feeling, even when the picture he paints is less than sunny. That's something I can agree on with most of my conservative netizen bretheren: information is a good thing.

You know, I don't think of myself as a doom and gloom lefty, one who's always complaining and seeing the end of the world in the cards. Though things look bleak at times, and I'll admit I've frankly considered expatriating -- counting on Canada or my Dutch connections -- if we get four more years of Team Bush, I'm always on the lookout for silver linings. Salam Pax, Chris Albritton's Back to Iraq and The Agonist (esp. at its wartime peak of a post about every two minutes) all point to the possiblity of a brighter, equitably global, citizen-centric future. It seems at least possible, if less than certain, that the information revolution and seemingly unstoppable metamorphosis of globalization can make the world a better place for the people who live here.

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The Internet is Also Like High School

About a year ago when we were living at the old pad with Christina and Miranda, Miranda introduced Frank and I to makeoutclub.com, the premere place to meet indy rockers and emo people online. I got a kick out of it and Miranda -- I think -- made some friends. We kind of equated the whole thing with the parts of Bilzburg we were less than enthusiastic about. When we made the move to the Meek, the guys thought the whole thing was hillarious. We even made ourselves a profile for kicks.

Well, now I'm doing a couple of related jobs for money, constructing community/social sites. I've been seeing what's out there, and there's this: face the jury .com, which is kind of... shocking. It's everything makeoutclub.com is (and more) except seemingly aimed square at the c-students. Your odd cute gothy chick from Australia aside, it seems to be the domain of trixies and rock-hard-abs.

Anyway, it was kind of startling. Most of the people on this site are 2 or more years my junior, and I suppose this is what happened to all those teenagers I used to see who would use email and IM like second-nature, whereas in my day it was somewhat less integrated into mainstream living. The internet is now officially for everything, baby; even popularity contests and flirting. Kind of exciting, too.

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All Apologies

Thanks to Frank, I just now realized that the latest content had not been appearing. Bug fixed. Enjoy the past few days worth of posting. I'm feeing better today healthwise and in general after getting 12 hours sleep and seeing Sasha (who as it happens has a show tonight, 10pm at Sin-e: 148-150 Attorney at Stanton in the LES, plug shill plug).

And while I'm trying to stay clear(er) of politix than I have been in the past few days -- too much stress, I tells ya -- I did find this a welcome addition to the infosphere: rumsfeldlies.com.

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