“He’s a real Nowhere Man, sitting in his Nowhere Land,
making all his nowhere plans for Nobody!”
–the beatles.
So, a few days ago, I read about some so-called “post-partisan” or “anti-partisan” or “centrist” or whatever the hell kind of outfit they’re supposed to be called “No Labels” that’s just had its big launch with all manner of bland corporate politicos and media hacks boosting it, including MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough — that’s right. one of the most right-wing howlers I’ve ever seen on the tube lending his gushing endorsement to an allegedly “centrist” group. You know when some emerging astroturfers use the phrase “common sense” in their press materials, it’s time to look the fuck out.
“Woodstock For Moderates” I heard it being called; that was such a horrid notion to imagine that there was only one thing I could do, and that was to hit the search engines. As I suspected, it was some weak-assed corporate centrist astroturf outfit being co-led by none other than Mark Penn, the Democrats’ famed Campaign Manager Of Losers and his socialite wife, and dragging along with such glittering moderate luminaries as Evan Bayh and a gaggle of GOP flunkies including former Rudolph Giuliani speechwriter John Avlon and McCain campaign advisor Mark McKinnon (hell, how does he rate?). Along with the eye-glazing politics of “civility” they’re pimping, it sure doesn’t help that they’re still being cagey about who’s signing their checks.
But, let’s just see what Salon was able to dig up…
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that seed donors to No Labels include Loews Corp. co-chair Andrew Tisch, Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich, and ex-Facebook executive Dave Morin.pro-corporate Democrat. Ditto for Tisch, a former tobacco executive who has given money to Sens. Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh, and Kirsten Gillibrand over the years. It’s not clear where Morin, a young Silicon Valley investor, is coming from politically...
Ewwwwwww. Lieberman. Bayh. Facebook. Eeeeeewwwwwwww. Anti-partisan, my ass.
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“I am Spartacus!”
At last count, there were 1697 mirrors of Wikileaks available online. The mirror URLs shown in these posters are working as of today, 12.11.10.
Good luck, Senator Lieberman.
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Whatever Happened to Civility?
Bite more, bark less, I always say.
If you’re like me, you’re probably at your wits’ end with the “civility” crowd. You know who they are, the people with stickers on the cars reading “choose civility” and “wag more, bark less”.
Do these people honestly believe that our reaction to the injustices, indignities and brutalities of the past decade should be in the manner of a UN bureaucrat drafting a resolution?
Are the corporations and the State being “civil” when they arrange for huge bailouts for themselves while the rest of us are scrambling for work or being thrown out of our homes? Is the State being “civil” when it seeks to cut back on Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 70 — essentially, working us to death? Is the State being “civil” when it strips away our Constitutional protection and basic dignity for the sake of cheap security theater at the airport? Is BP being “civil” by destroying ecosystems and livelihoods on the Gulf Coast and continuing to evade prosecution? Is the Democratic Party being “civil” when it panders to “progressive” constituencies in order to secure their votes, then spends the next two years publicly abusing and mocking them?
If you ask me, we need less “civility” and more people willing to organize and act on their own behalf instead of whining about how Liberal politicians are doing such a bad job of fighting their struggles for them, and how there’s so little “civility” these days. Take a tip from the British and the French. They’ve shut whole cities and countries down, with strikes and “incivility”. They’ve made their countries nearly ungovernable over issues — like corporatized healthcare and retirement “takebacks” — that make your average American shrug for a moment and go back to watching Top Chef. This is what needs to be happening here, instead of a bunch of Liberals bitching about “civility”.
Something else, too, that I found extra double-yum ironic about the Liberal “civility” crowd. If you — like me in ‘96, ‘00 and ‘04 — were or are a supporter of Ralph Nader and/or the Green Party, try this simple test on your average “civil” Liberal: bring up how hard the Democrats worked to prevent voters from having any real choice, and how the Democrats really lost the ‘00 election — and see how “civil” their reactions are.
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Wikileaks Alternate Links Available!
It’s often been said, ever since the days of Usenet and Tiananmen Square, that the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. As it was in those bygone days, so it is today, as the US State pressures Wikileaks’ “cloud” provider and DNS service to take steps in an attempt to silence dissent.
The problem is — at least, if you’re the US State, it’s a problem — Wikileaks can still be reached on the Web via any number of alternate links, such as through its numeric “dotted quad” IP addresses here and here. It can also be reached through its alternate domains in Switzerland and the Netherlands.
I’d like to encourage everyone reading this to follow that grand old Web censorship-defeating tradition of “mirroring” and passing alternate links around, and post these links to your blog or Web site:
http://213.251.145.96/
http://46.59.1.2/
http://wikileaks.ch/
http://www.wikileaks.nl/
Wikileaks is also mirrored at over 200 sites worldwide.
Tough luck, Barack. Better luck next time, Hillary.
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