All the news, errr, just a bit of news.

Now that the majority of Squidmas events have passed and we are left with the less than fun task of cleaning up the place, it seems like a natural time to ignore the many tasks at hand and do a little writing.

The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. (...)

So I have been thinking a bit about the role of media in the perception of the world around us. This is not original or even all that interesting to most people. We all know and understand it, but this subject has been on my mind as of late so I will cast it out on the internets...

On Dec 18th, the NY Times (our Paper of Record) took the successful filibuster of the telco immunity bill and essentially ignored it - while I do not think that every little obsession that I have deserves to be on the front page, trumping this real and important information with 2/3 page coverage about small town high school football team. A great steaming pile of bucolic meat and potatoes americanism. The NYT did manage to make an showing on A29 for the filibuster.

The filibuster was one of the most significant political events to happen for quite some time and represented if not a departure from the current political kabuki, at least a tiny bit of fiber in the otherwise jello like political landscape.

My point to this is that with the new round of media consolidation the barriers to big business monoculture have been lowered again. The people who own the large media outlets are the same ones that are disinterested in a agressive and thoughtful social and political process. They want you to care about steroid use, or some stupid persons sex life, or whatever dumbfuckery is rolling by in todays sound byte.

I can (and have) gone on and on about this stuff, but need to tie this up and get on with the rest of my work.

Do I have a final destination for this? Naturally. It is a little more out there than the usual post material, but if you can't post unauthenticated irrationally paranoid rantings on your blog we live in even darker times than I think.

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery.”
- Thomas Paine, Dissertation on the First Principles of Government

The introduction of closed source, privately owned software companies into vote counting and tallying has resulted in significant change in the electoral process. Don't go running away just yet - I have a point to make (!!!).

Ok. The presidential elections of 2000, 2004 and the mid term elections of 2006 were rigged. Period. The inconsistencies with voting summaries and exit polls in Florida for 2000, and the exit poll fiascos of 2004 combined with the Ohio election mix up point to real actional events that have been carefully analyzed and determined to be hugely anomalous in US voting history.

Nothing new I know. People do not give a shit that the school house rock democracy that they have had described to them for their entire lives has become a lie. It has never been a truth, but the magnitude of difference that I am seeing here is overwhelming. People do not give a shit because the ability to process this abstract change has calcified from an excess of fear, corporate porn and sound byte politics. Class politics has devourered the democratic process and intends to perpetuate the bilking of our Great American Democracy until it is useless to them any more. The bones will be left for the less bright theocrats to make little houses out of.

Done with my paranoia. There is hope, there is light, there is hope.