I wasn’t going to post this because I figured everyone in the Free World had seen it, but we just went to a rather crowded gallery opening where it seemed that more had missed it than seen it, so just in case:
The king of Ireland. Priceless.
Tag Archives: politics
rate the debates
Free Press has launched Rate the Debates, which they’re describing as “a citizen-driven guide to better media coverage of the issues that matter most.” It’s an interesting experiment.
I’ve signed up, although this will interfere with my plan to turn the Vice-Presidential debate into a drinking game wherein one takes a drink every time Palin or Biden start an answer with the word “look.” It’s for the best, did you watch Biden’s last visit to Meet the Press? He said “look” so many times I couldn’t stop laughing. Not good, Joe, not good at all. (page 4 alone of the transcript has 11 looks!)
Center for American Progress & Surveillance at Nevin Kelly, but not TwinTech
Thursday’s TwinTech event was a smash hit. I know this because it was reported as such in the paper and by associates who went. Apparently, I could get away with saying I know this because I was there, because three people have sent me messages telling me that they wanted to say hi but couldn’t get across the room before I disappeared. Stranger still, someone described what “I” was wearing, and it was in fact what I was wearing that day. Well, on the upside, if there are two of me maybe now I can get more work done. I just wish I’d keep me informed of what I’m doing when I’m out flouncing around at networking events without me.
I should have some coffee before I try to follow that thought any further. Maybe I’ll just back up a bit.
Last Thursday I went to the Internet Advocacy Roundtable event, Here Come the Millennials, Politics Beware, at the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s. Authors Morley Winograd and Michael Hais presented on their new book, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics, followed by an hour of interesting discussion with the audience.
After that, I went to Nevin Kelly’s gallery for the opening of the show Sondra “not my sister” Arkin and Ellyn Weiss curated, called Under Surveillance.
For some time we have watched with concern, anger, even fear, as the area of personal privacy available to each of us shrinks due to the technology and the license now given both to the government and private corporations to watch and listen to us. Under Surveillance presents the responses of twelve very different artists to this fact. Curated by Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin.
The opening had a good turnout and it was lovely to see old friends, but I was too tired to stay long and will have to go back another time to get a really good look at the art.
Info from the gallery’s blog:
The show is up until October 8, 2008, the gallery is located at 1517 U Street NW in Washington, DC.
Voter's privacy rights
Shaun Dakin, creator of the political do not call list, StopPoliticalCalls.org had an interesting op-ed published in the Washington Post recently.
While John McCain and Barack Obama have plenty to fight about, there is at least one thing that they agree on: Voters who interact with their campaigns have no privacy rights.
What does this mean?
It’s simple: Voters do not have the right to opt out of unwanted campaign communications, either online or off-line. Voters don’t have the right to decide who will contact them or how they will be contacted by the presidential campaigns.
This invasion of the voters’ privacy is bipartisan. Republicans do it. Democrats do it. Heck, even Libertarians do it.
This week, I received an e-mail from the Obama campaign that had the subject line: “Your Neighbors.” Intrigued, I opened the message and learned that the campaign was launching a sophisticated program called “Neighbor-to-Neighbor” that makes “it easier than ever to connect with potential supporters in your community by phone or door-to-door.” It continues: “Neighbor-to-Neighbor gives you the option to make phone calls or knock on doors — the choice is yours.”
The choice may be yours, but what about your neighbors, who may not want you to bother them at their homes?
[continue reading, “A Privacy Shield Against the Campaigns”]
I’ve read lots of hysterical fear-mongering about StopPoliticalCalls.org. This is an opt-out program for people who are tired of being badgered. It does not mean that you opt out of reading or information gathering or learning, it means that you opt out of being harassed dozens of times a day for months on end by robo-calls.
That’s not a desire to cede one’s Civil Liberties or opt out of the political process in any way. In fact, I believe that one of the rights we can all agree to protect is the right to be left the fuck alone. Think I’m crabby now? You should have been around last year when we were getting an average of 10 of these calls a day. I would have had our phone number changed by now if it wasn’t for StopPoliticalCalls so yeah, I’m a fan.
Doesn't surprise me
My mother is quite convinced that Obama is the second coming of Hitler (her words) and is hellbent on destroying America.
That sound you keep hearing is my head banging on my desk.