dave-leon czolgosz

The Offensive Line

2006-02-13T09:35:00.000-08:00

I want you to do some role playing for a minute.

Please observe the picture on the right. This was downloaded from a random photo gallery on some random website. I was looking for a Star of David to complete a design I had conjured up for Tshirt printing. In all honesty, I was struck a little hard by this image, although I understand and generally agree with it's sentiment.

So, imagine for a minute that you are one of the so-called "moral majority". Patriotic, probably Christian, maybe republican and definitely conservative. You support the troops, fear terrorism and agree with more or less everything Condoleeza Rice has to say about our affairs with the Arab world. If this is actually you, or a similar summary of your political alignment, then great. This will be the easiest role you ever played.

How does this image make you feel? Does it anger you? Scare you? Do you find it hateful, threatening to your ideals or outright aggressively offensive? Let it sink in for awhile, and we'll revisit...

The Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad have caused a worldwide stir that no controversial cartoon or comic strip has ever been able to nail – it has unleashed a backlash that has the Western world rallying in fear, the family jewels firmly in hand. The depictions of the prophet have sent the message to Muslims that the West doesn't take their cherished religion seriously. That we can, by their perception, think defacing their most holy visage is somehow not only appropriate, but funny. The violent responses staged by protesters in Palestine, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to name a few, have led to arson, fighting and threats of kidnappings and possible executions. Westerners of many nations have been driven out of embassies or forcefully encouraged to leave Muslim communities. Worst of all, many peaceful protests around the world, mainly organized by Muslim college students, have been attacked by trigger happy police forces and their usual smorgasboard of teargas and rubber bullets. In fact, some police forces in Pakistan were brazen enough to use real ammunition last week, killing four and wounding another eleven, when they fired haphazardly into a demonstration of a few hundred people.

I have yet to hear any apology for this insult from the Danish publishers of the cartoon, it's supporters, or anyone else who might have capitalized on the opportunity for Muslim hating it has opened up. Indeed, Condie Rice was quoted on CNN as saying that nations opposing the West, namely Iran, Syria and Lebanon, have been fanning the violent protests over the characitures. Apologies have been asked for regarding this comment apparently, but I'd be willing to bet none have been made. If there's one thing besides competent that the Bush administration isn't, it's apologetic. Whoever penned these cartoons should feel like The Fan when he caught that fly ball at Wrigley Field when the Cubs played the Marlins. Only on a much more catastrophic scale. Of course, they are more likely hiding behind the volleys of “free speech” that some are firing and the salvos of “protests incited by Islamic terrorists” that come from others. Really though, if you look at Al Qaieda's track record you'll notice that they're pretty quick to fess up for any activity they can take credit for. So far, the only organization who has openly stepped up to the plate for Team Islam is the government of Iran.

Let's get back to our role play a little, but this time playing two roles. In addition to the American or Western-in-general conservative, I want you to imagine yourself as the Islamic conservative as well. Believe me, most Muslims are more conservative than Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and George W. all combined.

This is a little trickier, isn't it? I have a hard enough time imagining myself as an American conservative, I can barely imagine what it would be like to be an Islamic one. But imagining yourself in this position, a religious middle-easterner, living in a time when your freedom rests in the hands of a bloodthirsty regime of foreign invaders or the same old bloodthirsty regime you've lived under your whole life, and some Danish yahoo comes along and slanders the one thing in this world that still makes sense to you. How would you feel? Would you want to stomp the Danish flag like they're doing in Palestine? Imagine the situation reversed, with the Islamic world depicting offensive subjects regarding America, Israel or any of the allied countries using these kinds of caricatures.

Now buckle up, because good 'ol president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is gonna serve up some serious equal justice!

Iranian president Ahmadinejad's latest pet project is to prove that the Nazi holocaust never happened and that it was a conspiracy of the Zionists. This is reason enough, according to him, to “wipe Israel off the map”. Currently Ahmadinejad is supporting a contest held by Iranian newspaper Hamshahri that will showcase international cartoonist's depictions of the holocaust. This is Mad Mahmoud's way of giving the West some perspective. The theory is that if freedom of speech extends to racist and religiously offensive drawings of Islamic prophets, we should have no problem with a little fun being poked at the plight of five million dead Jews. In all honesty, I can catch his drift to an extent. This is exactly the kind of provocation I would have concocted as a teenager, when I was out more to piss people off then to voice my concerns in hopes of a better world. Ahmedinejad, from my perspective, is a lot like an irreverent teenager. All fire, testosterone and reckless destruction without any premeditative thought or consideration for the basic importance of human life. In fact, him and our own president would perhaps be best off getting over their phobia of gay marriage and immersing themselves in matrimony. They have so much in common. It could be really, really beautiful.

So, once again we've only learned at best that two wrongs don't make a right. Unfortunately, in a world filled with middle-aged teenage politicians, we can only watch as they go to war over who was wrong first.

There are currently dozens of TV cartoons and comic strips that portray the average American in glorious satire today. Shows like “Family Guy”, “American Dad” and “The Simpsons” specialize in episodic triumph of the obese, the ignorant and the flat out bigoted. Our sense of biting satire allows us to decipher the underlying humor in these scenarios – what comes out of the mouths of guys like Peter Griffin or Stan Smith isn't really funny, but the fact that our culture puts up with them and indeed sometimes resembles them is. Further down the rabbit hole, you'll find the new show “Moral Orel”. If there was a Danish cartoon on Christians, this would be it. Orel is a squeaky clean, god-fearing child living in Moralton USA. His father is a hard drinking polygamist with a dead end job and his little brother has a strange mental deficiency that causes aggression and also looks nothing like either parent. In his many misadventures, Orel mistakes the meaning of his beloved church sermons, taking many of them too literally. His confusion causes him to believe his little brother is the reincarnation of Jesus, turn all the town's dead into zombies, get addicted to crack, drink his own urine and pull the plug on an old lady on life support. At the end of every episode, his dad whips his ass with a belt (the scene usually begins with Orel pulling up his pants) and sets him straight by quoting misguided commandments that all come after 10.

Ok, so this is America, we have free speech, it's just TV, yadda-yadda. But what if this was produced in Syria? What if Hamas is sitting on the other side of the world laughing their asses off at this? More importantly, how funny would this be if we were under the occupation of Islamic extremists right now?

In closing, I guess I have only one question for the Danish Cartoonist – what did you expect? I wish the Muslims could see and understand something like “Moral Orel” though. Maybe if they saw how critical many of us are of our own country, they would take us less seriously too. It may give them the image-boost they need to get their point across. Unlike most Americans, I don't want the Muslim way of life or the middle east itself to fade from the earth all together. I don't want it to lose it's voice and be silenced forever. Resident Bush is actually right when he says that their leaders need to step down and let the people have their freedom. The problem is that he doesn't really care, nor have any of our leaders in the past. They don't care how many innocents get tortured, murdered, raped or ransomed, as long as the keepers of the oil are in our back pocket. As soon as they go “renegade” it's suddenly all about freedom. All satire aside, freedom shouldn't be about who's laughing last.

D-LC,

Chicago

Bush Protest, Chicago

2006-01-06T11:52:00.000-08:00

I'm going to get a little sappy and lament, as I have just returned from my first direct protest against the president here in Chicago.

The announcement on Indymedia sounded promising enough; a host of labor groups, civil liberties activists, anti-war committees and imigrant rights parties caught wind of a coveted meeting between George W. Bush and the Chicago Economic club and organized a pickett protest in front of the Hilton in Grant Park. Upon arrival, I saw exactly what I expected - on one side of the wide and traffic clogged Michigan Ave. a cadre of police officers casually lined the front of the hotel, while across the street protestors amassed behind police fences on the park lawn. The usual interested parties were present in the form of union laborers down to anarchist teenagers, without there being an abundance of any group. The demonstration was effective enough, with constant chanting, whistle blowing and waving at passing cars being the prevalent tactics. The anarchist kids formed a drum circle and incessantly beat on plastic pails and other homemade percussion. They kept a good rythm actually.

After much shouting, honking and talking to a swarm of local media, the protestors consolidated their numbers on the corner, as the president's motorcade sped by. I got a glimpse of the old bastard in his limousine, with his face hidden in his hand, and mused to myself that this is the closest I've ever been to the man who has become an object of hate for so many. I was in spittin' distance, if only for a moment.

Shooting distance.

I perished the thought as soon as I thought it and began to impatiently wait for the cops to let us out of the cage we built for ourselves. It was over and there was nothing left to do but hop on my bike and brave the downtown traffic once more. Then one of the anarchist kids got on the bullhorn and announced that the motorcade was a decoy and that Bush was still in the hotel. Most of the crowd turned and regained their interest in what they were doing. I was surprised myself, thinking that the guy playing Bush in the limo sure looked a lot like him.

The kid proceeded to rattle off three "crimes" that Bush was guilty of, the first and most emphasized one being that the FBI profiles activists. As true as this is, it's nothing new. The FBI has been doing this since the sixties, when "activist" actually carried some weight in the American political atmosphere. The kid was quickly running out of things to say and desperately tried to rile the crowd into shouting ideas for Bush's punishment. Idiot! I thought. You had them in your hands and lost them a moment later!

The socialist/anarcho-socialist agenda could have actually been presented as the relevant and urgent topic that it is in more capable hands. But this kid quickly put the black mask/no brain face on the cause.

I can't say I outright disapprove. In fact, I was that same kid once, looking more like I was ready to go to a Green Day concert than start a revolution. They were probably having fun, and that's fine. At least they weren't at the Army recruiting office.

What just transpired saddens me to a degree. I will never criticize the efforts of anyone who protests the government and it's imperialist leaders. But I can't help but look at other regions of our world such as Latin America or China and feel a twinge of inferiority as a political detractor. I remember the WTO battle in Seattle, back in 1999. Sure, it got out of hand, but it was a proud day for a lot of us. Demonstrations weren't confined behind a police fence - they took the streets. You could stand at a downtown intersection and see swarms of thousands of people marching from all directions. Everyone was there, every organization, union, extremist and individual that peppers the American left. There was a boiling point of beautiful solidarity and evidence that the people who keep society moving are sick and tired of the global economy and it's devastating effects on the unpriviledged. It was a big reminder to me that mothers and elderlies are just as important to any revolution as young determined activists or even fighters. Seeing this threat, the reactionary Seattle Police Department turned the city into a war zone, brutalizing, tear gassing and shooting with rubber bullets anyone who they deemed a threat.

And at that point, they must have deemed everyone a threat.

Squads moved up Capitol Hill, a residential area, and began randomly firing tear gas cannisters into open windows, cars and even a wing of Seattle Central Community College. Police chief Gil Kerlikowske was accused of bungling this "security operation", but never hung for it.

Today, not one of the maybe thirty cops I counted was in riot gear, nor did they look like they were even slightly concerned. Maybe I should be happy about this, but I see it as evidence that the protest is becoming about as effective as writing a letter to your governor. A standardized response to a standardized action.

About a month ago the WTO was shut down again in China, where some of the most violent and heartfelt protests in history have gone down. Many who took to the streets were assaulted by the same forms of police brutality that Seattle had been, just in greater numbers. I read a lengthy column by a young activist journalist that stated she and her companions were cornered in a parking lot, forced to throw the gas cannisters back at the police from behind cars in order to keep breathing. Hundreds of arrests were made, but no one was killed thankfully. It sounds awful, and it is, but the WTO had to adjourn without completing their meeting. A few dozen multinationals actually infiltrated the meeting, having had been invited through their business ties. In the middle of a key speaker's capitalist ramblings, these middle aged men and women stood up and began chanting and were eventually thrown out. Many independant journalists got in as far as the lobby too, and returned with evidence that the enemy is definitely plotting against us.

Americans have lost their way, and not just on a socio-political level. We have become complacent, even those of us who oppose injustice, and we are all too concerned with our comforts and assets to risk swimming in the revolutionary tide. We have forgotten that even though war is wrong, fighting is an intransitive reality and if something truly matters, there will come a time when it must be fought for. If you ask anyone what they would do if their families were under attack they would most likely tell you they would fight. Why do people not feel the same way about the future of their entire species? Injury to one is injury to all, and now that insult has been added to it our minds must reach beyond the scope of our own lives. Don't tell me fighting never solved anything. There would be no civil rights at all in this country if full scale determination hadn't prevailed. It was a fight, and the present such as it is proves it was worth it. There would be no unions if no one ever fought. There would be no America.

We are once again at a turning point in history - do we continue to allow multinational corporations to decide the fate of our world? Or do we take a cue from politicians like Hugo Chavez or radicals like the EZLN, and try something that has a better chance of helping everybody?

There is and never will be a utopian world, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't always fight for an at least better one. The American protest scene is now a drop in the bucket compared to the revolutionary actions around the rest of the world.

In Iraq today, thousands fight to free their country from foreign military occupation. We are currently under occupation by the same forces, and we have been through two Bushes, Clinton, Reagan and as far back as you can count. If Abraham Lincoln could have been bought off by the Confederacy, do you think he would have? I like to think that soon, the Viet Nam era mentality will be back and the radicals will be coming out of the woodwork.

This time with a vengeance.

Environmentalism is no more "special interest" than Capitalism

2006-01-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

The world is rapidly plummeting to a state of Total War and the reason is centralized around First World energy resources. At the core of these issues is of course oil and gas and the insatiable need to keep our combustion engines cranking so that we might get to work everyday. Most of us drive to and from our jobs by ourselves and loathe the idea of a crowded (although warm and ultimately nap-able) bus ride. Many of us live only a few miles from our workplaces and given the amount of high traffic in warm climate areas like California or urban Arizona, it's interesting few people commute by bicycle. This is also reflected in the 80% obesity rate we enjoy in the US, but that's another editorial for another day. There's also a select number of us, which seems to be growing despite reports that cite a decline in sales, who drive SUV's, jeeps and even more ludicrous vehicles like those new pick-up trucks that are larger than the average Abrams tank. In fact, it seems that we have entered a new age of American trend-setting in which the suburban commando is the new image of tempered, rebel conservatism and lovable yahoo-ism. Bob might be a weenie desk jockey and wage slave father of three, but by dammit – he's ALL MAN on his commute when he hops in his Dodge Mega-Cab 4 x 4 pickum-up! Hell to the deficit and all time low employment rate!

The problem with this new wartime dichotomy is that we have abandoned our survival instincts in lieu of our personal material ambitions and politics. An environmental activist will rattle off thousands of reasons why a work-a-day capitalist shouldn't drive their Hummer to work everyday. Big automobiles use gallons of gas and oil, increase demand which requires increased supply, the Oil Ministry of Iraq gets mad at the US for decades of sanctions and bombings and don't want us to own their only valuable world-market resource and bam – we go to war to take it from them. It's the same equation that leftists will argue again and again with an unconcerned right wing. Generally, the people who want their big cars and cheap gas ruffle their feathers and shout salvos of “idealist” or even “communist”, or at worst, “terrorist” at these people. They are more likely to blame crack-potism as the catalyst behind environmental thought, rather than a genuine concern for the environment. OK. Some people might really hate forests, clean water and breathable air. I don't really know.

The stoic capitalist isn't the only problem though. Many environmentalists aren't looking up which tree they are barking. Buttoned down right wingers do not need to be made into enemies unnecessarily (at this point the author would like to note that he's being objective – believe it, there are many extreme solutions that shouldn't be over looked as well...). One can hope that all humans want relatively the same thing, which is to thrive and survive. Capitalists do not need to be shown they are wrong – they need to be educated to the fact that without a sustainable environment, their offspring's offspring may very well be doomed to being the last generation of people on this planet. They need to understand that the market they hold so dear can and will collapse again if the resources traded on it are squandered and lost forever. Above all, they need to take note that like our RVs and semi trucks, the planet needs oil to run and we can not take all of it.

For starters, oil exploration in Alaska's North Slope (which currently provides 20% of domestic oil reserves) has already caused seismic disturbances that have driven migrations of bowhead whales further away from the shores. This has brought a famine on many of the indigenous tribes who rely on whale migration as a primary source of food and oil during the winter. Yes, that's right, they eat and use the blubber of whales, and as much as that can be argued as barbaric or callous, think about how much fois gras and veal the average American restaurant plows through in a year. In fact, the bowheads need to be near the hunters in order to feed themselves and the hunters are incredibly self-regulatory. This is called an ecosystem – one that successfully includes humans. The aboriginals of the Arctic coast have been hunting bowheads for centuries, but they have only become endangered when commercial whalers were allowed to harvest them in the 1600's (driving them near extinction till 1946, when commercial harvest was ceased).

Beyond the bowhead there have been environmental changes both positive and negative. Increased revenue to the area has given way to improved schools, jobs, health care and housing services, yet conversely alcoholism has risen and an overpopulation of predators such as bears and wolves has become apparent, mainly because they can feed on the increased amount of refuse produced by humans. This has of course led to the demise of many species of small mammal and bird in the area as well.

The expansion of road networks in the North Slope have left considerable scars on the land itself. Change in the tundra, erosion, floods and damage to vegetation have altered animal behavior and populations. Even that ever-present “greenhouse effect” that capitalists are so prone to write off as “paranoia without credibility” has been in evidence. The climate has been warming at an “unusually rapid” rate and scientists predict that if it continues to decline, the very ice roads the oil industry depends on will be gone, which would render their drilling technology useless. It seems that environmental damage benefits no one, after all.

Fortunately, the Senate had the gall to stop drilling in the ANWR the last time by a thin margin of votes. A surprising number of Republican senators (25, mostly from the Northeast US) were included in a filibuster. Shortly afterward, Alaskan senator Ted Stevens made a very sneaky move by attaching the drilling provision to a defense appropriations bill. It seems that Stevens is more interested in the 400 trillion cubic feet of natural gas his state is sitting on than promoting the vast ecological harmony of the Outer Continental Shelf. After all, destination tourism is also a major state revenue generator – it just doesn't directly profit the United States of Bushica. Because Stevens included the drilling provision to a defense bill, it forced the senate to choose between troop support or the environment. Apparently Mr. Stevens, in his tunnel vision view of how to work over democracy, truly thought that he could undermine what the Wall Street Journal referred to as “the interests of a handful of radical green groups...”. He was wrong, but with this kind of aggressive policy making being carried out by a democratic government, it's only a matter of time before wrong wins out.

There is much to blame for the siege of the ANWR, which by the way if you search for online you will notice that ANWR.org is a pro-drilling outfit. At the core of it is the gas industry of course, but peripherally it is our own increasing lack of survival instinct. We know our planet is in danger, we know our species depends on the continuing survival of the ecosystem and we know that extinction of other species damages the natural order of life, which is ultimately bigger and more important than us. Detractors of continued human existence, such as the econo-centrist editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal will cite these issues as “enviro griping” or “so much political blather”. People actually read this stuff, more than they read scientific evidence to the contrary, and deduce that environmentalism is nothing more than the ideals of a few focus groups. Where does this anti-planet hostility come from? How can conservatives wear the title, when they seem to be uninterested in conserving much of anything? After all, it was one of their own cherished Republican presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, who felt a kind of stewardship over the nation's untamed wilderness and implemented the National Parks. If the right wanted to prove once and for all that it is the moral, upright majority that it boasts it should demonstrate that preserving true beauty in the world is not Democratic or extremist utopianism, but a charge on all forward-thinking members of the human race. Set some fucking standards for everyone, not just themselves. If they actually even do that...

The Art of Electronic War

2005-12-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Here in America, we are all involved in electronic warfare. There is no way around it.

I realize that I have just made a completely false statement in terms, but let's look at some definitions and ideologies-

By definition, war is a dispute played out by a series of military campaigns over issues such as territory, sovereignety, resources, and a host of other subjects. Today, the ideology of war seems to have redefined it's purpose. It has become the act of an aggressor attempting to prosecute, attack and subjugate a supposed threat to the world economy, militarily superior nations or, seemingly, the dominant way of life within the wealthier societies. In fact, it's always been this way. Nuts to definition.

With the incorporation of war into the world-economic market, corporations have learned how to carry out their own subtle wars. The difference is that corporations not only subjugate and control the markets of other countries by means that, to call a spade a spade, are hostile, but they also aggresively pursue the domination of the consumer population. Meaning us.

Marketing and advertising are nothing new. Billboards, magazine and TV ads, even dressing people up like gorillas in T-Shirts are tried and true tactics of companies at all financial levels. But today you cannot escape ad campaigns, no matter where in the world you are. Even in a small mountain town with a population of 40 people, you will be bombarded by telemarketers, cold-callers, survey takers and most recently automated sales pitches. Logging on to the web means accepting an assault of flashy banner ads, pop-ups and if you're a poor misinformed soul, adware.

We now live in an environment where, if we do not protect ourselves appropriately, we are subjected to more and more aggressive advertising.

Countermeasures have been developed. Your local phone service can set up an outgoing message that warns solicitors to hang up - for an extra fee. Or you could go the caller ID route, which again is an extra service and requires purchase of the necessary device. There is a galaxy of anti-virus, anti-adware, scanners, pop-up blockers, firewalls, what have you available for your internet needs. The down side is that if you are not willing to constantly re-educate yourself and update whatever software you are using, you will be left in obsolescence at the mercy of the electronic data-compiling wolves.

Take all this into account and think about your position as a consumer in society, which is moreover the role we are all forced into at birth until some bright day in the future when the human race reaches a new stage of enlightenment. Your privacy is now under occupation and your resources are now being claimed by invaders of your personal information. In a sense, we have all been reduced to a form of second hand citizenry. Like the Palestinians are the targets of a military occupation, we are the targets of a marketing one. There is no one alive that could convince me that Total Commerce is dedicated to improving our quality of life. In fact, they are robbing us of it, using their brand of electronic warfare to entice us with giant vehicles to pollute the air and McFood that puts third world farmers on a death sentence.

Advertising in and of itself is not evil. Everyone does it to a degree, and they should. We don't live in a society where the town barker yells "hear ye, hear ye" to let us know that the Theatre Troupe is performing at the Square tonight. Advertising is just effective communication and you should have the option to heed it or ignore it.

But when I read statistics that say 98% of telemarketing calls are made between the hours of five and seven o'clock, I get a little irritated for all those families who are trying to just chill out and spend some time together at the end of the day. When I see networks airing Army recruitment ads that are without a doubt designed to target urban minority youth and suburban gamer geeks, I feel that the boundaries of civility are being compromised.

And when I get a fucking cookie from a website that is transmitting my personal data to a hundred other marketting research firms, I load my virtual AK-47 and get ready to take it to the front lines.

It's only going to get worse. I was told by a money-hungry retail manager with the personality of a Basilisk that he would gladly pay a foreign employee a crappy wage to make 100 cold calls a day. He went on to explain that if just one of those calls made a sale and this happened daily, there would be profit made. So no matter how many people he annoyed, invaded, exploited and ripped off, it was worth it to make a buck. Maybe I'm too sensitive for my own good, but I find this dispicable.

The best thing an individual can do at this point is to, dare I say it, take a lesson from urban guerillas and insurgencies all around the world. Fight fire with fire. It's easy and thankfully, it's still legal. For starters, learn what you can do to arm yourself against corporate-to-consumer cyber missiles. Microsoft requires the user to download a never ending series of upgrades and service packs to keep most of it's software current and operational. This means more data gathering, more marketting and worst of all, a state of dependancy, much like the effect of colonialism in the real world. Unlike the real world, at this point anyway, there are always alternatives. Hundreds of software developers are on the crusade to a more open, free system in the future and they are designing top-notch software and applications to divert the consumer base caught in MS's clutches. Open source programming is a fairly new concept and is quickly rising in popularity. The idea is that users themselves contribute to the development of the product they are using. A good example would be the Linux operating system, although I admit it's a long way off before it becomes comprehensive.

The down side is you don't have tech support a phone call away. The up side is everything is shared freely, without legal repercussion, and there are hundreds of users providing invaluable information on whatever may perplex you. In a sense, it's kind of like online socialism.

This brings me to the last point I want to make about modern corporate electronic war - how much longer will freedom be free on the net? There seem to be two distinct schools of user out there; those who work for the software giants, and the rest of us.

Internet freedoms are under siege at this very minute. The Federal Election Commision is currently involved in preliminary hearings the NPRM regarding the rights of free politics online. In the offline world, political opinions are largely only received by the public coming from those who have "big money" behind their campaigns. There are regulatory minimums purposefully put into place for campaign funding that keep many fringe and special interest parties from being aloud to stage conventions and demonstrations.

This is not so online, but the NPRM wants to make sure that in the future, anyone giving their party their due by means of blogging, posting on forums or mass emailing has to go through the same flaming hoops. The requirement of disclaimers and the control placed on political activists could stand to alienate millions of voices, or silence them for good.

Online journalists and opinion writers are also coming under fire. The Center for Democracy and Technology has reported that the FCC and RIAA are butting heads over whether published content should be subjected to editorial authorities or not. That would put guys like me who have no background or professional journalism experience in a position where we cannot freely distribute our writing on the web.

Maybe that makes you happy.

The point of all this is that as a vigilant citizen, it is your responsiblity to stay sharp and not allow yourself to become too much of a victim of electronic seige tactics. Despite how many there are out there, many small cells are working in our favor and want to keep technology beneficial for humankind. We don't want to give it up to corporate or politicorporate interests as an elite tool for them to use in our subjugation.

Feed your head, keep that chin up...

and keep watching the skies!

D-L. C.
chitown 05

If Tookie Should Die, So Should Sonny

2005-12-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

Check it out!

This is my letter to California "Governor" Arnold Schwarzenegger in regards to his denial of clemency for the late Stanley Tookie Williams.

Although Tookie may have made some mistakes early on in life, his humanitarian contributions to this world should never be overlooked or forgotten. It is a deep shame that a man who rose to such redemption has become a victim of "compassionate conservatism", which may be an even deadlier killer than street gangs.

Enjoy -

Dear “Governor” Schwarzenegger,

I am writing this email to your administration in regards to the sentencing of Stanley Tookie Williams. Perhaps you have made a poor example of American justice, and a mockery of the very freedoms which you and your leash holders in Washington constantly recite as worthwhile reasons to engage in the abuses of power the neo-con administration has plagued our once great nation with. Perhaps you feel that you can make these kinds of decisions without second thought because of who your commander in chief is. After all, it was Texas Governor George W. Bush who put Karla Faye Tucker to death at the last minute (in a prime time spot, no less) and made a successful example to the nation of what it means to receive “compassionate conservative” justice. Tucker, in case you didn’t bother to read your history on the president’s career, was accused of chopping up a couple of young people with a pick axe while she was a prostitute in 1983. She served on a death sentence until 1997, delaying it by making appeals to the court. It was often considered to change her sentence from one of death to a life sentence because while incarcerated, she became a born again christian, married a prison chaplain and began a ministry for inmates so that they could see the power of her revelation. Even the prosecuting attorney, a pro-death sentence advocate, remarked that she was a completely different woman. But that didn’t matter to your boss, did it? So why should Tookie Williams matter to you?

You were quoted on CNN as saying "Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise? Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings there can be no redemption."

If you really needed to ask this question, perhaps you should be more aware of the lives you decide are unfit for considered existence before throwing the switch.

Williams has been imprisoned since I was three years old. Yes, he started the Crips, who went on to become one of the most notorious gangs not only in LA, but in the world. However, while he was in prison he wrote children’s stories with anti-gang messages, contributed to the film “Redemption: the Stan Tookie Williams Story” (did you see it? It won the Satellite Award from the International Press Academy) and he donated all proceeds from his autobiography to organizations for at-risk youth. By the way, how are your at-risk youth programs coming along out in Cali? I bet their budget is probably equivalent to a tank of gas for your Hummer, but what do I know?

So, “Governor”, if Tookie’s redemption is a hollow promise, why would he lie about his intentions for 26 years? Why go out as a changed man when you could kick, scream, curse and claim ultimate responsibility like Charles Manson or Timothy McVeigh? Why the charade?

As a man who has played roles such as “The Terminator” and a dozen other no nonsense, shoot first action heroes, I would think you would know the difference between a hollow promise and redemption. After all, you yourself are a model of above-the-law justice and merciless vengeance. I’ve seen the way you use live human bodies as shields from gunfire in your films. Indeed, Tookie’s children’s stories must have come across to you as very threatening and a bad example to America’s youth. Unlike “Commando”, or any of your early steroid flicks.

Yes, it seems there is no talking sense into the New Right in America these days, so I have decided to swallow my pride and perception of justice to offer you a suggestion –

You should arrest and execute Sonny Barger.

If Tookie Williams deserved to be executed on inconclusive counts of murder and denied clemency, Barger is more deserving of the needle than anyone else in America. Nearly twenty years before anyone in California had even heard of a Crip, Barger headed up the Oakland chapter of the Hell’s Angels – who despite claiming they were simply a “motorcycle club” are still worldwide perpetuators of gang rape, murder, racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering. They take in approximately $1 billion dollars from their illicit businesses a year, according to the FBI.

Barger illustrated the details of much of the nefarious gang’s work while he wrote his autobiography in prison, during his only sentence of ten years. Of course, he didn’t donate any of the multi-million dollar profit from it and his other novels to at-risk youth. He has a beer company and a flashy website and a blockbuster Hollywood film based on his life coming out.

Barger was quoted in his book “Hell’s Angel, The Life and Times of Sonny Barger” as saying to his daughter "Tell the truth, and never lie, except to the authorities. But it's okay to lie to them, because they lie to us." She will also learn that women are not allowed to be Hell's Angels "because they should be at home cooking the dinner." I think Tookie’s advice from behind bars went something more like "Across the nation, young men and women like you are vegetating in juvenile halls and in youth authorities. More and more prisons are being constructed to accommodate your generation...”

I guess they’re more or less the same when it comes to reaching out to the youth, wouldn’t you agree?

Barger has also bragged incessantly about the many dozen or so people he killed, but since he was acquitted of murder in 1972 and got out of death row due to health problems, we’ll let that slide.

Do you see what I am getting at here, “Governor”?

I am confused by your sense of justice and I think much of the American public is as well. You too need atonement for your actions and I think the execution of Sonny Barger will fit the bill nicely. By carrying out this judgement, you may even win back some of the support of the black community in LA, which I hear is quite large. Who knows, by putting down an admitted white supremacist, you may even become the action hero you really, truly are in their eyes…

It would be beneficial for all to show your conservative compassion for Sonny and any other Hell’s Angels leaders you can scour up. They need to feel American Justice just like Tookie and Karla Faye Tucker. Don’t be fooled by all those American flags on Sonny’s website, they are thin veiled disguises for swastikas.

… oh, I apologize. I didn’t mean that out of any disrespect for your people… I guess the Nazi party did make a few good political decisions and my people (the Jews) totally deserved what was coming to them.

But, I digress, this is getting a bit long winded and I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to a concerned citizen’s idea of equal justice. So, rest well “Governor” – and enjoy a six pack of Sonny’s Lean & Mean while you’re at it. It sure is comforting to know that a guy like you is in charge of a state as important as California. I’m sure the gangs are really shaking in their Air Jordans about now, thanks to your even-handed sense of Justice.

Keep up the good work, and God Bless America…

(and the Fatherland!)

Yours truly,

Dave-Leon Czolgosz
Chicago

The Future of Iraqi Destitution

2005-12-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

I just downloaded a very detailed report from the Global Policy Forum that explains how Iraq's economy is being seized by Western oil powers. In short, a US State Dept- concocted oil policy is being drafted that will allow multinational oil companies to use PSA's (production sharing agreements) to skirt issues of privatisation that have been raised in regards to Iraq's reserves. By conservative figures, Iraq will lose roughly 75 - 195 billion dollars by the end of the contract's terms - and that's after just 12 more drilling platforms are dropped in the desert. Global corporations will raise their profits in Iraqi oil from 42% to 174%, leaving Iraq in a deep deficit. Tag that on top of a 20 billion dollar war debt and you've got one bankrupt-ass country with no one to pick up the check. This is a ripe situation for the IMF or any of their nefarious cohorts to make a record breaking killing off of an economically hobbled nation.

The report does not contain emotional material and there are no biased articles within it. It is straight information and truthfully, it can get a little tedious. Still, I urge anyone and everyone to exercise some patience and read it because it is dealing with an issue that will have direct influence over millions and millions of lives. Even yours.
Here is the link - http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/crudedesigns.htm

If you need a copy and don't have access to a printer, I will be happy to send you one for 2$ post-paid (for copying and postage, no profit!)
Just leave a comment with your email address on this post and I'll get back to you ASAP.

I also have to give credit to Stan Goff, who posted this report on his site. He did the work but that doesn't mean the distribution should stop there!

d-l.c.

Colonialism Only Works for the Few (And Chances Are, You Ain't One O' Them!)

2005-11-29T20:03:00.000-08:00

Colonialism: The extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries, often to facilitate economic domination over their resources, labor, and markets. The term also refers to a set of beliefs used to legitimize or promote this system, especially the belief that the mores of the colonizer are superior to those of the colonized.

Where did the spirit of colonialism, subjugation and cultural eradication manifest itself? I’ve always been of the opinion that no matter how much I hate them at large, human beings are at heart; kind, curious, loving and all around amazing creatures. We are capable of achieving so much, yet the leaders of our nations never seem to grow tired of squandering the remarkable qualities of our species on their never-ending game of conquest, greed and violent idealism. Many people of the world have historically had no choice in who plunges their people into war. Throughout ancient history, there is more than enough evidence that a fearful population is an obedient one. From feudal-era China to the Baathist regime of Iraq, leaders have treated their populace with abuse. They give those born into nobility, the rich and the influential the benefits of working the controls behind the proverbial curtain while the impoverished and working classes toil to uphold these systems that completely disenfranchise them. Classically, resistance is met with arrest, torture and death in order to make an example to any more would be boat rockers. Colonization is the practice of forcing others to take on this form of control.

If you find that frightening, perhaps you should consider that the most powerful nations in the world actually elect these kinds of rulers today. You, my fellow Americans, are living in the greatest example of how far it can go since right before the fall of the Roman Empire.

US hegemony began long before George W. Bush. In fact despite what the popular opinions of most democrats today would tell you, GW couldn’t have done it without the help of Bill Clinton and of course George Sr., Ronald Reagan and even Jimmy Carter before him. If anything, Bush is doing the worst job of upholding US colonial mandate of the lot of them. Clinton was a genius at carrying out successful capitalist wars. He managed to keep American interests in the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe from erupting into much more than “skirmishes” or isolated battles in the public eye. Of course, these skirmishes consisted of consequences such as tens of thousands dead after weeks of bombardment in Baghdad, ethnic Albanians left to fend for themselves after a bungled intervention in Kosovo and last but not least, an open invitation to Kim Jong Il and North Korea to engage us in nuclear war. Clinton may have smirked his way through UN summits, NAFTA signings and a galaxy of press conferences and “peace talks” over foreign policy, but he didn’t fool anyone residing in Columbia, Ecuador, the Caribbean and countless others that felt the short end of the free trade stick. Let no one forget that it was the Clinton administration that brought the brave new world envisioned by the WTO and IMF/WorldBank into the public eye. It was received with open arms by the prevalent happy capitalist attitude that accompanies a country’s population during a booming economy, but it also began the polarization of the very left that had placed so much misguided hope in the Clinton administration. I was in Seattle on N20 and remember the battle in the streets during the WTO conference. It’s a damn good thing they didn’t pick New York City as their place to meet. I think the World Trade Center would have fallen six years ago if they had.

George Herbert Walker Bush’s transgressions are certainly no secret to the American population. He was incredibly unpopular as a president – constantly under the scrutiny of the press, house democrats and more importantly ethnic minority rights groups. Understandably, an oil-rich Texan in the White House was not the most settling feeling for black Americans.

Bush Sr. was an outright racist and no matter what redeemable qualities the man may or may not have had, his supporters and detractors should agree on this point. He was vehemently against affirmative action, tossing its pleas for a fair and equal opportunity work force onto his study room fire like so much Duraflame. Colin Powell may have been the only American black man that he ever really got to know outside of the realm of politics and even then saying he showed the man respect outside of the military context is a stretch. Even Ret. Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf, who now criticizes the lil’ Bush’s Big War on Terror, mentioned that Powell was deserving of more recognition for his service in the first Gulf War. Powell eventually got his recognition by becoming Secretary of State in 2001 and of course was fated to be one of many internal Bush people to resign after 9/11 because he had the common sense to heed it as something other than an open invite to attack Iraq.

Before becoming Reagan’s VP and a major player in the attempted homogenization and marginalizing of the American public that seemed to be that administration’s objective, George HW Bush was the director of the CIA. Keep in mind that this was during the Carter administration and it eventually led to what was known as the “crack epidemic”. In the true spirit of Colonial meddling, the CIA was supplying an obscure band of Colombian rebels with weapons and training to fight the Sandanista movement in the area.

Throughout this underhanded operation, CIA agents were carrying out an act of genocide against the poorest African American neighborhoods in LA by introducing their already at-risk youth to crack. By the time this sinister plot came to fruition, Bush was already on the campaign trail. It reeked of his blatant disregard for all things poor and not white. Additionally, he made a “war on drugs” part of his primary agenda and went on crusade to censor the music of “gangstas” coming out of LA; the irony being that he was trying to shut up the very monster he created.

So what do these men have in common with men like Jacques Chirac, Ariel Sharon and Tony Blair?

They are all the modern incarnation of Colonialism. They are the embodiment of the sort of thinking that would have made them conquistadors, pirates or warlords in ancient times. There is no better tomorrow for these men and their allies and supporters. They see only wealth, power and proliferation as worthy objectives and any presence of opposition, no matter where in the world it is, must be crushed. Take note of where the mighty US military arm extends itself – primarily the Middle East, where one of our most prized and gluttonously consumed natural resources is abundant. Our media portrays our government on a crusade to “liberate” the nations of the Mid East under the rule of “terrorists, dictators and murderers”, yet there are under a few thousand Allied troops stationed in the civil-war inflicted countries of Africa, where slavery and torture are every day realities carried out by real murderers.

There are 150,000 troops in Iraq right now. 3.5 billion people died in the Republic of the Congo over the last few years and there is a violent humanitarian crisis between African and Arabic militants in the Darfur region of the Sudan. We are supposed to believe that somehow, the resistance groups and guerillas in Iraq are more deserving of our martial attention than self interest rebel groups in Africa that put hundreds of thousands of innocent people to their deaths every year.

Put 2 and 2 together. Africa is not keeping our SUV’s on the road or our poorly designed yuppie condos heated during the winter. The neo-cons have no interest in the relief of truly oppressed people, just so long as they can comfortably sit back and watch the killing take place. However, scratching just beneath the surface will reveal that there are now several resolutions, some put forth by former Democrat hopeful John Kerry, to seize the Darfur region in the name of Democracy… and probably secure it as a base of military operations from across the Red Sea.

A perfect example of Colonialism being utilized by Western powers would be the quagmire known as Israel. It’s incredible how such a tiny stretch of land can become a fixture of all struggles in the world combined. Jewish settlers have been at war with the Arab population since shortly after Theodore Herzl put forth the idea of Zionism at the Basel conference in Switzerland, circa 1897. At the time of the first exodus, the Arab population of Palestine (there was no state of Israel till 1948) was 95%, shared with a few remaining Jews from unknown lineage and a handful of other ethnic groups. Today Israel is comprised of 80% Jews, most of whom subscribe to the doctrine of Zionism. In theory, the Jews were separated from Israel in ancient times, doomed to wander into central and Eastern Europe and to be forced to live in struggle and strife. It was Amos the prophet who once wrote that “no people had God-given rights to the land they inhabited”. According to this theory, what became known as Zion, or Utopia, was where you made it and that there was always room enough to live peacefully among neighbors of differing ways of life.

Of course, a minor bad-apple focus group that eventually entered aggressive politics called the Nazi Party changed this evenhanded outlook for many Jews. After the holocaust, a Zionist movement became a rallying of the people under the premise that building a strong Jewish nation would keep such a travesty at bay for all time. It was time to repatriate with the Holy Land and after fifty long years of massacres, colonization, apartheid and adoption of a completely militarized state, you have the present state of Israel.

The US and Great Britain have had long term interests in the region as well. The British mandate of the 20’s provided Arab resistance groups with arms while providing the Jewish army with intelligence, thus perpetuating the violence in the colonial zones of Palestine. Up until recently, Israel, under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been engaged in an arms contract with the United States that has provided the IDF with tanks, jet fighters, Dolphin-class nuclear submarines, infantry artillery and armor, helicopters, cruise missiles and enough nukes to take out six Palestines in an afternoon.

This arms contract has recently been frozen, due to the continuing effort to throw everything and everyone America has at the Iraqi resistance. Conversely, this turn of events has forced the Israelis to withdraw their settlements from the Gaza Strip in order to better consolidate their forces in areas they absolutely do not want to lose to Palestinian guerillas such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Hebron. Consequently, they have built the Wall along the West Bank, cutting Palestinian farmers off from their crops and breaking up families. This is considered strategic withdrawal by Sharon’s government and it’s US allies. Most of us would call it apartheid. But, in Sharon’s own words: “Our forefathers did not come here to build a democracy, but to build a Jewish state”. The colonized Palestinian population has been reduced to subhuman serfdom, the Israeli army is proliferating it’s military presence in the Middle East and the United States stands to benefit from yet another strategic jump-off point with some real muscle.

Those nuclear subs the US sold to Sharon’s army are now patrolling the Persian Gulf and international spy planes are photographing their nuclear reactors.

But the mess left uncleaned in Iraq is still holding back the master plan.

The media stateside would have us all believing that we won the war in Iraq years ago and that every thing subsequent to GW’s chivalrous “mission accomplished” speech is just a clean up operation for the country we recently liberated. Wait, though – the death count of allied troops has surpassed 3500 and blatant disregard for humanitarian standards has left 100,000 Iraqi civilians slaughtered. Millions are without homes and are fighting a daily battle for survival that makes Hurricane Katrina look like a camping trip. As a young Iraqi woman, you have the pleasure of playing a game of chance – your rapist could be a Jihadist insurgent, a local paramilitary or a horny US soldier. What a deal! CNN and Fox news (?) will show you footage upon footage of Iraqi people dipping their fingers in fraud election ink, but when do you see the severed heads of resistance suspects lopped off by Marines? Where are all those dismembered children and DU damaged babies that are littered all over the Googlesphere online? Could it be that any violent incidents that actually leak out into publications about the war are nothing but photoshopped mock-jobs conspired by leftist fruitcakes?

If you believe that, I’d like to set you up with a dream vacation in beautiful Rwanda.

The US occupation of Iraq is beginning to look incredibly similar to the occupation of the Philippines in 1898 after the Spanish-American war. This act of reckless colonialism left 200,000 Filipinos dead at the hands of the Americans, who were vengefully put off by the native resistance movement to send the invasion forces back where they came from. The death count in Iraq will be equal if not greater to this figure within another year, not to mention twice as many US soldiers, if there is not some sort of strategic withdrawal from the area. As much as the average American citizen wants to believe this is a black and white, good vs. evil struggle, it is assuredly not. The enemy is not just a singular group of “terrorists” or “insurgents”. Nor are they an incomprehensible confusion of factions and individual interest religious zealots.

To break it down and give you an idea of how thick the soup is, it goes something like this:

Al -Zarqawi, if he exists, is definitely the driving remnant of the previous Baathist regime under Sadam Hussein. This is one "fact" intelligence has actually managed to nail. Al – Zarqawi is currently using his families’ multibillion-dollar bankroll to support Sunni guerilla groups with weapons in exchange for intelligence on the occupational forces. Many of the urban guerilla groups are signing on under the Army as the Iraqi paramilitary police force. Yes, the very one the Army is supposed to turn control of law and order in Iraq over to upon leaving. Now, believe it or not some of these groups, such as the Islamic Army are dismayed by having to wantonly kill innocent civilians and Shiites in order to maintain favor with Al – Zarqawi so they have deserted the neo-Baathist agenda and distanced themselves from guerilla groups with conflicting interests. On the flip side, Al – Zarqawi has convinced his longtime followers and admirers in the Jihadi Salafi that the Holy War of all time is upon them in the form of infidel invaders from the West. These are the self-proclaimed martyrs that are responsible for the elusive “suicide bombings” that the media is so eager to buzz on.

It is clear now; that with so many enemies coming from so many political and spiritual divisions that the US is in way over its head.

There is a war going on internally too, waged by the politicians’ lust for a unanimously capitalist America.

Here in Chicago, like many other major cities in the US, you won’t find Army recruiters around Lincoln Park on a Friday afternoon. You’ll find them stalking basketball courts in the hood or maneuvering a block and a half away from the youth centers in the barrios. The Army promises a life of two paychecks a month, three square meals a day, room and board and a chance to see the world. This life has attracted millions of lower income American kids into signing on for some of the worst wars in history from Vietnam on up to our present mess. With the unpopularity of a draft well spoken to the white house and an all time low turnout for recruitment, the military think tank has raised it’s promises, but not it’s pay scale, and taken to slick marketing by way of action packed ads, celebrity endorsement and even Army licensed video games that boast that their “source of inspiration is not creativity”. It could lead one to a sense of doom for America’s disenfranchised youth. Even more dismaying is the fact that cloak and dagger organizations like Project Prevention and No Child Left Behind trick ghetto kids into submitting themselves to eugenics campaigns and releasing all of their information to recruiting offices.

Last November 3rd, I was fortunate enough to hear former US Special Ops commando turned Far-Left Revolutionary Author Stan Goff bestow some words of hope on this most dire and genocidal situation.

As a soldier, Goff has had first-hand experience with colonialism while doing wet work for its benefactors. He took part in the 1994 US invasion of Haiti and describes this experience in great detail in his book Hideous Dream: A Soldier’s Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti. It’s a deep and unsettling read and like all of his work, well worth checking out.

As jaded and disgruntled as Goff could have turned out as a result of his experiences, which ended with a discharge in 1996, he is surprisingly optimistic. Looking around a room comprised of a Latino majority, he proclaimed that we were all soldiers and that although we didn’t have guns, we all had weapons. If you can’t figure out what that weapon is, well, you may not have one. He announced that the US is tactically and politically losing in Iraq. He pointed out that pan-African anti-colonialism and Puerto Rican anti-occupation sentiment are more than just a few more burs in America’s side. They are rising intifadahs. The forces of the West are consolidating their resources on the Middle East, therefore paving the way for revolutions to succeed in Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and dozens of other countries yearning to break free of the reach of hegemonic capitalism.

But the most important message Goff delivered was that we need to start turning the tide of war in on itself from right here at home. If there is a unanimous truth learned during this war, it is that a soldier is not a symbol of blind obedience and inhuman violence. Men like Jimmy Massey are exemplary of this revelation ignored for too long by the protest crowd. They can be liberatory and for the most part, they fight for their families, communities and homeland above anything a politician tells them. Soldiers are blue-collar workers with a job that is much harder than a sewer worker’s. Most who enlist do so to get out of bad economic situations and the burden of being a lower class citizen in a neo-liberal capitalist society. When these boys and girls come home, they will know the truth and they will be the movement’s most powerful allies if they believe what they see and know it is wrong.

At present, America’s troops are given five weeks to come home for every eighteen months they spend in Iraq. Five weeks of relative safety to make up for over a year of chaos, bloodshed and the after effects of active duty.

It is uncertain if there will be an end to colonialism, at least within my lifetime, but I am positive that the fight will begin here. The problem the younger generation is faced with right now is gaining an awareness of how colonialism damages the entire world community. The bigger problem is enlightening them as to why they should care. That is the burden of my generation, which is already at great risk of slipping into the comforts bestowed on them by the empire.
Well, that goes for those of us who had a choice.

There is always a mass exodus of soldiers who come home from the front after every war throughout history. It is imperative that this time they understand that even though they are home, the war is still on and we need them on our side. After all, standing against colonialism and hegemony is the true defense of freedom – when the world police are responsible for blatant inhumanity, how can we say any of us are free?

Why to not be a journalist

2005-11-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

The laughing stock of the world is not George W. Bush. It is American journalism.
Historically, America has produced some of the smartest, bravest and most thorough journalists. Men like Edward R. Murrow have been made into folk heroes. Americans broke the dirtiest stories and the hardest truths throughout the first World War on up through Viet Nam.

Somehow between then and now the "just the facts" attitude of the hard boiled American journalist has subsided to euphimism, generalization and pandering to political and social trends.

Today we are confronted with a mainstream newsfeed that is so odius in presence that it turns most of us into uncaring and intentionally uninformed world citizens.
Who are these people being slaughtered in other countries? Why are they bothering us? Why are we bothering with them - can't we just go shopping in peace for god's sake?

The pundits continue to plug us with false statistics, obscure polls and abstractly bland glimpses of the world outside of the US that is becoming more and more a victim of the leviathan every day.

After a long history of injustice, treachery, concealment and censorship, the American journalists who would have believed it was their duty to watch the watchmen have folded their hand and resigned themselves to an ultimate state of mediocrity.

The content is now no more enlightening than the headlines.

Fortunately, journalism is a resilient creature like a cockroach or a phoenix. It has transmogrified and taken on the form of what is known in present day as "alternative journalism". Hopefully - and I do believe that hope is eternal - it will someday be known as mainstream journalism.

There are tens of thousands of journalists posting blogs rife with information, experience and good old fashioned facts. Praise be to the men and women contributing to online publishers such as Information Clearing House and Indymedia. Sometimes these sites get a little muddled by their own intentions, I'll admit, but they're forgiven. At least they can name a few names and report on injustices throughout the world based on real reporting instead of "embedded" and filtered views coming from second hand information. Most of these hotel hacks stationed on the front probably get more information from their bellhop than they do from going out on their balconies.

I am not a journalist. I have never even set foot in a journalism school and my experience with it doesn't go much beyond learning the basic rules of the Associated Press.

Which I completely ignore.

No, I'm not much more than a pissed off leftist with the foresight to realize it's going to take a lot more than preaching rhetoric to the choir to change the world for the better. I write because I have to. I think and need to get things off my chest. Maybe you do the same.
My friend "Scottish" Aaron once said to me, while we were shooting the shit in a bar, that the revolution was commencing right then and there. People talking to eachother. The proliferation of new ideas and new answers to old problems. The gathering of hope.
These are the fundamental tools the next generation needs to enlighten themselves.

I have the ability to read, understand and write and thus believe it is somewhat of a responsibility to get the information I obtain out. I'm also making atonement for about five years of previous inactivity and laziness.
Sorry.

I have no more desire to be a journalist than I do to lead Cindy Sheehan's crew in a chorus of "Koom-Bi-Ya". I know that realistically, you have no reason to listen to me or read a single word I write. Maybe that's what is necessary these days - to hear the story from the "average guy" who has nothing to gain from throwing down some knowledge. I hope though, that at least one person - preferably someone who does need a little convincing - gets hit by something I write, just once. It's the difference between a journalist and a writer. One has a job to do and one makes a job for themselves based on a compulsory need to be heard or read.

I welcome the challenge of getting things right, but acknowledge that we all filter the truth to a degree. No, I'm not a journalist, but I see the common mistakes they make over and over again. This is information community service and with so many of us out there, I would be surprised if nothing ever got done. At the very least, I would like to be able to say I saved at least one more witch from being burned in my time.

- d-l.c.