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Why not? The media has been a key to this whole illegal war. When the Bush regime trotted out its pack of lies about WMD to convince the American people to forget about the economy and to support the war (rah! rah! go team!), the corporate media did not question the lies and just jumped on the bandwagon. After all, who cares about truth when there's ratings to be had! (And now, given the FCC's recent ruling about monopoly ownership of media markets, the corporate mass media has been repaid for their slave-like service.)

When Private Jessica Lynch was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got captured, the US media ignored the stories of brave Iraqi doctors and nurses donating their own blood to keep her alive, and instead printed (now proven false) stories about her fighting while shot and fighting to the death until she ran out of image.

You'll never see stories like this in the US media.

Since this kind of blatant propaganda was a key to the support of the war, why not some propaganda directly aimed at computer geeks?! Hey, we deserve our own lies too!!

Why not? The media has been a key to this whole illegal war. When the Bush regime trotted out its pack of lies about WMD to convince the American people to forget about the economy and to support the war (rah! rah! go team!), the corporate media did not question the lies and just jumped on the bandwagon. After all, who cares about truth when there's ratings to be had! (And now, given the FCC's recent ruling about monopoly ownership of media markets, the corporate mass media has been repaid for their slave-like service.)

When Private Jessica Lynch was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got captured, the US media ignored the stories of brave Iraqi doctors and nurses donating their own blood to keep her alive, and instead printed (now proven false) stories about her fighting while shot and fighting to the death until she ran out of image.

You'll never see stories like this in the US media.

Since this kind of blatant propaganda was a key to the support of the war, why not some propaganda directly aimed at computer geeks?! Hey, we deserve our own lies too!!

The FCC is set to vote on their secret-none-more-secret changes to the media ownership regulations on Monday. If you like the direction commercial radio has taken in the last few years, don't worry about it. If not, moveon.org has some good resources for who to call.

You can send in a public statement and a letter to your reps. Go here.

You can send a letter to both the FCC comments page and to your senators here.

welcome to the grassroots fight of your life, if you're a media democracy activist. we've been working on this for a year, trying to build a coalition of peace and justice groups against the issue. during the war in iraq, many national peace activists would turn on the nightly news and say, 'what the hell? where are the bodies? why are retired generals and embedded reporters giving me my news?'

so they embraced the issue. it's a lot harder to ignore the group of people on the steps of the fcc whining 'FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA' if those people are anti-war citizens from all across the country with money, clout, and celebrity spokesmen (michael moore).

the smallish team media democracy activists has ballooned into a huge group of peace and justice activists, hackers, consumer rights activists, kids, parents, people of all stripes. now groups like moveon.org are planning national call-in days. now code pink is pink-slipping fcc chairman michael powell alongside his much-more-famous father, colin powell.

so we have the people. what do we do? what's our power?

1) call your senator. like, now. right now. the senate, after the second commerce committee hearing on this issue, is rattling some sabers and could definitely use some encouragement that this issue isn't just one for the lobbyists.

2) comment to the fcc. you can do so here and the comments you make will also go to the senate commerce committee, and to the president.

3) tell someone who isn't tech savvy about this. you're reading slashdot. you have a choice about where you get your media. most people don't. newspaper, radio, and television matter more than we can say in most parts of this country. just ask the good people of minot.

and visit us at prometheus. we're here all the time. and we will be until june 2nd and after.

hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject

welcome to the grassroots fight of your life, if you're a media democracy activist. we've been working on this for a year, trying to build a coalition of peace and justice groups against the issue. during the war in iraq, many national peace activists would turn on the nightly news and say, 'what the hell? where are the bodies? why are retired generals and embedded reporters giving me my news?'

so they embraced the issue. it's a lot harder to ignore the group of people on the steps of the fcc whining 'FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA' if those people are anti-war citizens from all across the country with money, clout, and celebrity spokesmen (michael moore).

the smallish team media democracy activists has ballooned into a huge group of peace and justice activists, hackers, consumer rights activists, kids, parents, people of all stripes. now groups like moveon.org are planning national call-in days. now code pink is pink-slipping fcc chairman michael powell alongside his much-more-famous father, colin powell.

so we have the people. what do we do? what's our power?

1) call your senator. like, now. right now. the senate, after the second commerce committee hearing on this issue, is rattling some sabers and could definitely use some encouragement that this issue isn't just one for the lobbyists.

2) comment to the fcc. you can do so here and the comments you make will also go to the senate commerce committee, and to the president.

3) tell someone who isn't tech savvy about this. you're reading slashdot. you have a choice about where you get your media. most people don't. newspaper, radio, and television matter more than we can say in most parts of this country. just ask the good people of minot.

and visit us at prometheus. we're here all the time. and we will be until june 2nd and after.

hannah sassaman
prometheusradioproject

MoveOn has a page where you can send a letter to your members of Congress and add your name to a petition to stop the June 2nd decision.

Tape the show and go outside!

There are numerous anti-war activities happening Around the Country.

Protests, vigils, bike-rides.

Just get outside and do something useful. Watch the show later, without the commercials.

France stood up with courage for peace, and saved face of many Europeanc countries (including Russia), made it clear that this is purely an Anglosaxian project (US, UK, Australia).

MoveOn.org has a Citizens Declaration (worldwide) for us all to sign and send to Whitehouse.c^Hgov:

MoveOn.org

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

I'm listening to the anti-aircraft fire etc. right now, pretty scary.

He just said "On my orders.." *shivers*

I can't begin to imagine where this might take us..
19

The Beastie Boys released a song (mp3 link) relating to some of this insanity, it's a decent track. Relevant links: Link1

Win Without War

True Majority - Democracy in Action

Helpful Stuff

The New York Times, the BBC, The Washington Post, and others While not using any new technology, the protest was organized completely via the Internet, and could be indicative of the way digital culture is blending with traditional culture every passing day."

...the Bush administration has announced that in "weeks, not months" it will release Gulf War II, which will provide continuous global war that will support several million 'players' at once. "We expect it to be available for the forseeable future" says Defense Secretary 'Master of the Universe' Rumsfeld. Vice President Cheney says "it's like 'America's Army Operations', but much, MUCH bigger ..... yes, reaaallly big ...."

What if we tried something that might actually work?

Those of us who aren't very fond of Bush's push to war with Iraq will be happy to know that moveon.org will be putting out an ad in the Washington DC area. The ad is inspired by Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad from 1964, and makes the (similar) point that catastrophic things can happen when war is prosecuted irresponsibly. The hope is that it will inspire Congress and the Bush administration to think twice before blustering into this planned wholly unnecessary bloodshed. The press release is here.

Those of us who aren't very fond of Bush's push to war with Iraq will be happy to know that moveon.org will be putting out an ad in the Washington DC area. The ad is inspired by Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" ad from 1964, and makes the (similar) point that catastrophic things can happen when war is prosecuted irresponsibly. The hope is that it will inspire Congress and the Bush administration to think twice before blustering into this planned wholly unnecessary bloodshed. The press release is here.

I disagree. Although we cannot, or do not, donate money on the same scale and microsoft, BillG is not, yet, in a position to buy our votes. All of the donations in the world can't guarantee that they will be elected if enough of us are actually paying attention.

If a million of us went over the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Moveon.org or started our own /. petitions then they would notice, and fear, because that's enough people to tip the balance in an election.

Money or not, they still need votes to get elected and if they think their jobs are at stake, they'll kowtow so fast its not even funny. What we have to do is show them that we are paying attention, and that we do care. We also have to show that we won't be bought off with false talk of compromise.

---
Taken the Eff Challenge yet?

No one's mentioned this yet, but in Amerika, it is Election Day.

Has everyone worried about AshKroft et al voted?

I know, I know, I'm preaching to the choir. Everyone on Slashdot that expresses their concern about an issue goes out and tells 100 people about it, and gets them all active in progressive change. Example: do you know who Maher Arar is?

I don't mean to get too bitter here, guys, but regime change starts at home. It's like the old Steven Stills song. If you can't have a system you love, umm, change the system you've got until it more closely resembles the system you'd love. =)

From MoveOn.org ("working to bring ordinary people back into politics") -- download your very own "Regime Change Begins at Home... VOTE!" poster.

From MoveOn.org ("working to bring ordinary people back into politics") -- download your very own "Regime Change Begins at Home... VOTE!" poster.

Which story would you rather tell your grand children: '... and our database design was better than everyone elses' or '... and there I was in my fox hole with bombs exploding all around me ...'?

Neither through threats or transgressions.
There is evidence of a lot of things out there, but I guess it just sounds more 'patriotic' to only follow the weak leads these days. Myself, I prefer a more discriminating attitude towards the facts and fantasies..

For example:

Every other day Iraqi's fire upon US airplanes patrolling the no-fly zones

Hitting other points,

There is evidence Iraq funded the Al Quaieda network

I can't really comment on the 'This Week..' statement, as I'm unable to find any direct statements of threat referenced in the NY Times or in CNN's archives. Perhaps Uttles is referring to the statements from the Iraqi VP urging

"all the Arab masses" to "confront the material and human interests of the aggressors wherever they are found."
-Reuters 9/10/02, cited from New York Times archived article

Wrapping up with the statement

There is evidence Saddam is researching intercontinental missiles

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) says the CIA has "absolutely no evidence" that Iraq possesses or will soon possess nuclear weapons.
http://www.moveon.org/nowar/

In closing, threats aren't enough, and transgressions aren't enough.. Even to quote Kissinger (hardly a dove)

"The notion of justified pre- emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual -- not potential -- threats."
(same as previous)

we will all see when this is all over with.

Neither through threats or transgressions.
There is evidence of a lot of things out there, but I guess it just sounds more 'patriotic' to only follow the weak leads these days. Myself, I prefer a more discriminating attitude towards the facts and fantasies..

For example:

Every other day Iraqi's fire upon US airplanes patrolling the no-fly zones

Hitting other points,

There is evidence Iraq funded the Al Quaieda network

I can't really comment on the 'This Week..' statement, as I'm unable to find any direct statements of threat referenced in the NY Times or in CNN's archives. Perhaps Uttles is referring to the statements from the Iraqi VP urging

"all the Arab masses" to "confront the material and human interests of the aggressors wherever they are found."
-Reuters 9/10/02, cited from New York Times archived article

Wrapping up with the statement

There is evidence Saddam is researching intercontinental missiles

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) says the CIA has "absolutely no evidence" that Iraq possesses or will soon possess nuclear weapons.
http://www.moveon.org/nowar/

In closing, threats aren't enough, and transgressions aren't enough.. Even to quote Kissinger (hardly a dove)

"The notion of justified pre- emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual -- not potential -- threats."
(same as previous)

we will all see when this is all over with.

Actually I believe Moveon.org was successful at changing some opinion on the impeachment issue and they've done some organization relating to gun laws.

It just proves that this online stuff needs to be followed up in meatspace tho.
DigitalContent PAC

Other folks to interview: Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, the couple behind the centrist grass-roots online Censure and Move On anti-impeachment campaign. This was back in late 1998, and they thought it through better than anyone else I've seen.

Thanks IMHO to a very well-organized and easy-to-use site, they pulled in half a million petition signatures (100,000 in the first week and 250,000 in the first three weeks). The home page was brief, simple, and unintimidating: you just had to enter name, email, zipcode, and a one-line comment about the situation. You could click for a scrolling display of other signers and their comments, or for background info etc. The sensible privacy policy was right there for you to see.

Unless you unchecked the box, filling out this information not only signed the petition but also generated an email to your Congressperson (keyed on the zipcode).

So you were mad and it was easy to fill out the little form to express that. Then they'd snagged you, and their follow-through was especially good. You were given a little more info and asked to click again to register as a local volunteer or spokesperson, or to automatically email your friends about the site. And they emailed you periodic action alerts when it was time to phone Congress before a crucial vote.

They really translated this into offline support. They got over 5,000 volunteers for the offline campaign. They also got time & money pledges from 30,000 individuals to work against the impeachers in 2000, for a total of $13 million and 750,000 hours pledged. To put it another way, 6% of signers agreed to contribute time or money ...

They have subsequently leveraged their email list for other issues where they think the US Congress is out of touch with the citizenry, like gun safety.

(Note: I am not affiliated with them except for having signed their petition.)