REAGAN AND FAUX CONSERVATISM
Tax-cutting regulation-haters weren't the only false conservatives in the Reagan coalition, Fairlie argued: the bedroom-snooping, morality--legislating social conservatives were just as misguided. He was no libertarian, but he thought that much of the social agenda of the American political right (then and now) consisted of things that were nobody's business: "Let one homosexual, coke-snorting student bum get hold of two food stamps, and the whole apparatus of government is brought into play," he wrote. (NEWSWEEK)
SEEDING THE FALSE DATA CLOUD
Prior to the recent Iranian elections, facebook and other social networks were being used as an organizing tool. Censors quickly jumped on this trend and blocked Facebook’s site from the entire country. The election protests were organized and publicized on Twitter, which the bureaucracy failed to block in time. Iranian censors are now combing the twitter network for dissidents in a Savak-like fashion. But folks around the world are trying to help the Iranian Resistance. This may or may not help, but it's worth a try. (Suggested by ELIJAH EL BEZE)
THE GREAT GULF SHORES DUST UP
The last time Bob Padecky had asked Kenny Stabler a question, he responded by using an action verb and the second-person personal pronoun and then walked straight past him on the Raiders' practice field behind El Rancho Motel in Santa Rosa. Of course, that was 30 years ago and times change, people change, events change people. The dust-up he and Stabler had in southern Alabama is ancient history for most people and he was now was curious if it would be the same for Stabler. I mean, after all, Padecky was the one thrown in jail, not Stabler. (TUSCALOOSA NEWS)
WHAT IS DPI?
European telecom companies have helped the Iranian regime develope one of the world's most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet. Deep Packet Inspection enables authorities to monitor and gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes.
REMEMBER CARNIVORE? (MEDIA REFORM DAILY and link suggestions from Chris Fuchs and Tony Hines)
GOP/IRAN MEME
I must be the last person in the world who doesn't tweet. But this may get me to sign up. If you missed Jon Stewart's parody of this, it's bound to be on the Comedy Central website and is worth a quick peek. But it seems some congressperson's tweets comparing the GOP's travails to those of the Iranian dissidents has provoked the proverbial sandstorm of parody. The Twitter community, deeply immersed in the Iranian conflict, was appalled and the mocking began. A new blog devoted to the meme has already sprung up. Here are just a few:
I got a sunburn last weekend. Makes me think of Hiroshima;
my softball game was rained out today. Now I know what Hurricane Katrina felt like;
fell off my surfboard in Malibu today, now I know what D-day felt like;
someone walked in on me while I was in the bathroom. Reminded me of Pearl Harbor.
(NEW YORK MAGAZINE, suggested by LEE-ANN WATERRS CAMP)
VIRTUAL WALLS AND GREEN TSUNAMIS
It's The Matrix, but real. A hearty group of freedom fighters parrying a formidable machine, living by their wits and besting the evil menace though their ubber-techno abilities. On one side is a powerful monolith firing bullets and on the other side are young protesters firing "tweets". What's not to love? This piece touches on a real question that the media has left largely unexplained, how the hell are the Iranian dissidents doing it? Can we help? Despite the Iranian government's efforts to curtail it, a secret Internet lifeline remains, and it’s a tribute to the crazy, globalized world we live in that the lifeline was designed by dissident Chinese computer engineers whose mission it is to battle against the Great China Virtual Wall in their homeland.
SOLIDARITY
The stars of Iran’s soccer team wore green wristbands in support of the anti-government protesters, during a game broadcast live on Iranian state TV yesterday. “State television, which has been broadcasting Mr Ahmadi-Nejad’s competing rallies, has steered clear of images of Mr Moussavi’s protests,” the Financial Times notes. “But given the popularity of football in Iran, keeping the match off the air would not have been an option." (ALTERNET)
LOVE IN RUINS
"There is no room for love in Afghanistan," the young teenage girl said to me as if it were true and had been true for years, for as long as she could remember. In the twilight of that evening and for several years after, her remark caused me to reflect on the kind of space that love itself can consume. In the tiny precipice of this Afghan girl's heart, where love and all of its beautiful unknowns should have blossomed, it didn't, it couldn't....And then one day, a surprise. A young man brought me a stack of letters. More than 600 pages, it was a secret correspondence of love, one that allowed the imaginations of two lovers to wander, for it was only in those pages and in their dreams that they could walk together. To disclose their love would mean the end and perhaps worse. That day I realized that love existed in Afghanistan - in a single glance, a certain tone, the shadow of a school yard - but not without grave risk or consequence. (MOTHER JONES)
HEALTH REFORM DEBATES START HEATING UP
ABC News has responded to the Republican National Committee's "pushback" that the network is excluding "opposing voices" during next week's White House conversation on President Obama's national health care plan. An ABC representative characterized the RNC letter as containing "a number of false premises." Explaining, she wrote that "ABC News alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president." And, further, "ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience." (TV NEWSER)
CAN HEALTH CARE REFORM FAIL?
Sixteen years ago Stanley Greenberg conducted polling for Bill Clinton on the issue of health care reform. Recently, he has been reviewing old surveys and focus groups and memos to the president. He has returned to the field, posing the same questions to the public, to determine how the mood has shifted and how the forces that oppose reform can best be countered. He's looked at each question, remembering how it all went badly wrong. As he reached the last of the questions, he exclaimed: "Oh no. It can't be. Nothing's changed." (NEW REPUBLIC)
BERLIN'S STREET ART
Street art has a long historic and culture in London, New York, Sao Paulo, and in many metropolitan centers around the world. However in Berlin, it especially seems to be thriving since the wall came down in 1989. (DEMOTIX)
WERE ELECTIONS RIGGED?
Middle East experts are falling into two broad camps on the Iranian election. One argues that numerous irregularities are de facto evidence supporting claims that a presidential coup has taken place in Iran. A second camp argues caution, suggesting that many in the media had come down with a case of "wishful thinking" that raised expectations beyond reason, and the gap between the expectations and results is leading to an eagerness to embrace the opposition's claims of massive fraud. Into that debate, a new statistical analysis of the election results is making the rounds that suggests that the numbers reported by the Interior Ministry are evidence of large-scale vote-fraud. But polling by our political guru Nate Silver finds the analysis unpersuasive. (CLICK HERE) (ALTERNET)
KATZENJAMER
I'm a world music fan, with - as you might expect - a heavy concentration on Latin sounds. I don't know how the hell I came across this Norwegian (yes, Norway!) rock band, but I've become infatuated with this "girl" rock group that is kind of a cross between the Dixie Chicks and Spike Jones. Make sure you check out:
SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE
Oh no, he didn't? Did Joe Scarborough compare Jon Stewart to Bill O'Reilly?
This has all the makings of a feud that may extend beyond the levels of the Jim Cramer/Stewart brouhaha. After Stewart responded to Scarborough's response to Stewart's segment earlier this week, Scarborough brought it all back up again this morning. He made some short jokes and, ironically enough, described Stewart as a "very angry guy". Stay tuned. This will be fun. (TV NEWSER)
