connecting*the*dots

Found in the Mission, San Francisco, CA.

(originally uploaded by Luna Park)

For more on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Terrorist “hoax” go to BoingBoing.

From Media Matters:

Melanie Morgan, Lee Rodgers, Rush Limbaugh, and John Gibson all forwarded the accusation made by a website controlled by Rev. Sun Myung Moon that Sen. Hillary Clinton was responsible for spreading information linking Sen. Barack Obama to a madrassa, or Muslim school. None of the four cited any evidence, other than the article, that Clinton was responsible for promoting the madrassa story, and the article cited no one by name.

Below is a clip from The Big Story with John “War on Christmas” Gibson, where Gibson reports on Hillary Clinton “playing the Muslim-phobia card” and holds a conversation with the “level-headed” Republican strategist, Terry Holt.

These guys couldn’t hide a fart in a Trojan Horse.

Here’s my play-by-play breakdown of the clip:

• Charge Hillary Clinton with dirty tactics (from a non-sourced article, published on a right-wing nut job’s website)
• “Expose” Obama being a “Muslim” and being educated at a “madrasa” (after he talked about going to a Muslim school as a child and being a Christian in his book, The Audacity of Hope, which was released earlier this year)
• “Innocently” provide context that a madrasa wasn’t radical 40 years ago (while the rest of Fox News runs with the story as if it were exposing something relevant for American voters to chew on)
• Completely forget to include the fact that Obama was barely out of diapers at the time of his schooling
• Repeat that Clinton is playing political hardball because the American public “knows what a madrasa means” (again, while the rest of Fox hard-sells the ties to terrorists)
• Refuse to explain that The Washington Times is not the same as the “left-leaning” Washington Post (classifications in this culture war that most Americans might confuse rather easily)
• Cry innocent by stating that exposing a cigarette smoker is nothing like this form of political dirty work (while the rest of the network piles on the significance of this insignificant fact)

What’s the result?

An uniformed American public swallowing this story hook, line and sinker, creating doubt with Barak Obama and more venom directed at Hillary Clinton, adding to her baggage — perceived or otherwise.

Until sources are named outside of Insight.com’s word, I’ll file this under Republican Noise Machine.

Fox News isn’t biased; they’re a major part of the spin cycle.

UPDATE: CNN completely debunks the charges — both that Hillary Clinton outed Obama and that Barak Obama attended a “radical madrasa.” They even sent a reporter to Jakarta to show the normalcy of the school on tape. The best line out of Wolf Blitzer’s mouth following the ridiculous clips from Fox News?:

CNN did what any serious news organization is supposed to do in this kind of a situation. We actually conducted an exclusive, first-hand investigation, inside Indonesia, to check out the kind of school Barack Obama attended as a little six year-old boy.

Guess what happened next? Fox News swallowed their story. Lying bastards.

(originally uploaded by Scoobymoo)

Steve | 09.29.06 - 11:52 am

I’d have to say, I once thought terrorists were just religious nuts trying to get their 40 virgins. I thought 9/11 was a cowardly, yet simplistic attack.

Today, I realize how sophisticated crashing unarmed civilian airplanes into buildings really was. That single move has our country perilously close to destruction. Why hasn’t Al Queda attacked again? Because they don’t need to. We’ll do far more damage to ourselves than some cult of nuts with AK47s ever will.

We have played right into their hands. Knowing how badly we needed to go into Iraq, and being able to foresee (unlike us) the costly aftermath, they were able to bank on us depleting our treasury. Of course, this means more cuts to social programs and schools, ensuring we will be weak in the future. Then we really go the extra mile to appease them and take away our own rights to show them just how tough we are.

We now have secret prisons and full government control of our personal lives with no court oversight. The mere mention of terrorism and you can disappear forever with no trial. Hell, who needs evidence when you have torture. With torture, it’s only a matter of time before you get whatever confession you like.

Welcome to Cold War USSR. Goverment control, fear, economy being drained to support the military, secret prisons, the works. Being the ones to set the demise of the Soviet Union in motion, you’d think we’d see this coming. I guess not. I am now convinced Al Queda did.

The top scientific minds and universities in the world are here in the US. The most advanced country in the world being beaten down by a bunch of pink unicorn zealots. How embarrassing. They aimed to make us destroy our own country out of fear. They have been more effective than I had ever imagined.

The only element of Steve’s comment that I don’t particularily agree with is his position on social programs and schools. If it wasn’t Iraq, we would’ve figured out another way to send the majority of our taxes into the military industrial complex. You know, gotta keep making the widgets.

Well, maybe not quite at this clip.

But that’s where we stand, all because 19 men — neither boogymen nor fascists, but men — armed with box cutters, simply outfoxed our minimum wage airport security defenses 5 years ago and murdered 3,000 people in the most spectacular fashion possible.

We respond not by going after the chief conspirator of the mass homicide, instead we initiate “Shock and Awe” in a pre-planned pissing contest, create a killing field in Iraq and alter the most important elements of our DNA as Americans in the guise to protect us from people who would destroy all that we stand for as Americans.

The irony sickens me.

Artist: Ben Folds Five
Song: Regrets

==========

I thought about sitting on the floor in second grade
I couldn’t keep the pace
I thought I was the only one moving in slow motion
While the other kids knew something I did not
But if I acted like a clown
I thought it would get me through, it did
But that don’t work no more
You’re not a kid no more
I thought I’d do some traveling
Never did

Regrets, regrets

I thought about the hours wasted
Watching TV, drinking beer
I thought about the things I thought about
Until immobilized with fear
And all the great ideas I had
And how we just made fun
Of those who had the guts to try and fail
And then I ended up in jail

Regrets, regrets
Regrets, regrets

… but just for a day
Seems the police had made a computer mistake
Said there must be thousands like me with the
Same name
Anyway, I thought about the things I settled for
Or never tried
I never visited my grandma even once
When she was sick before she died
So I don’t blame you if you never come to see me
Here again

Regrets, regrets
Regrets, regrets

(originally uploaded by UsokChoe)

Newsweek
Mao & Stalin, Osama & Saddam
By Fareed Zakaria

[…]

I’m not sure the president actually believes in the transnational threat of a “Shiite crescent.” If he does, why would he have invaded Iraq and handed it over to another group of Shiite extremists? (The parties that rule Iraq — and whose militias are killing people — are conservative, religious Shiites, often with ties to Iran.) In fact, Iraqi Shiites are different from Iranian Shiites. They have separate national agendas and interests. To conflate them into one group, and then to toss in Sunni Arab extremists as comrades in arms, is bad policy. The world of Islam is extremely diverse. We should recognize and act on this diversity — between Shiites and Sunnis, Persians and Arabs, Asians and Middle Easterners — and most especially between moderates and radicals. But instead the White House is lumping Chechen separatists in Russia, Pakistani-backed militants in India, Shiite politicians in Iraq and Sunni jihadists in Egypt all together as one worldwide movement. This is, of course, exactly what Osama bin Laden has argued all along. But why is Bush making bin Laden’s case?

Why? Well, it’s not because Bush is the fucking village idiot. Baudelaire was probably a lot closer to the truth of the matter with this timeless quote:

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

Bush is making bin Laden’s case because he’s fulfilling the neo-conservative agenda: a destabilized middle-east to fuel our military industrial complex and position the US as a long-term player in the struggle for natural resources.

In order for all of that to happen and continue on into the unforeseen future, the PNAC cronies needed a larger than life enemy to scare the living shit out of we, the people.

And 9/11 fell into their laps.

Bush isn’t a failed president; he’s a successful neo-con lapdog.

Donald Rumsfeld spoke at The American Legion National Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah the other day (full transcript), attempting to solidify the position of this administration’s war on terror; that we are fighting an enemy similar to Adolf Hitler — an Islamofascist.

Analogies to the attitudes years prior to WWII ebbed and flowed with the greatest of ease from Rumsfeld, all pointing to the absolute righteousness of this administration in their self-assigned task to rid the world of the threat of terrorism.

As a resident of New York City on 9/11, I’d be extremely satisfied with Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda lying in ruins before treading any deeper in potentially self-polluting waters, but apparently this administration doesn’t care what me and my former neighbors think about the matter at hand:

[…]

Over the next decades, a sentiment took root that contended that if only the growing threats that had begun to emerge in Europe and Asia could be accommodated, then the carnage and the destruction of then recent memory of WWI, could be avoided.

It was a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among western democracies. When those who warned about a coming crisis — the rise of fascism and Nazism — they were ridiculed, or ignored.

Indeed, in the decades before World War II, a great many argued that the fascist threat was exaggerated.

[…]

I recount that history because, once again we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism.

Today, another enemy, a different kind of enemy, has made clear its intentions with attacks in places like New York and Washington D.C., Bali, London, Moscow and so many other places. But some seem not to have learned history’s lessons.

We need to consider the following questions, I would submit:

With the growing lethality, and the increasing availability of weapons, can we truly afford to believe that somehow, someway, vicious extremists can be appeased?

[…]

I have many thoughts on this line of reasoning, but first, take a listen to Keith Olberman’s perspective on the matter:

[…]

That about what Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this:

This is a democracy, still. Sometimes, just barely. And as such, all voices count. Not just his. Had he or his president, perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience — about Osama bin Laden’s plans 5 years ago; about Saddam Hussein’s weapon’s 4 years ago; about Hurricane Katrina’s impact 1 year ago — we all might be able to swallow hard and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris. Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina to flu vaccine shortages to the entire fog of fear that continues to envelop our nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and their cronies have, inadvertently or intentionally, profited or benefited, either personally or politically,

And yet he can stand up in public and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask for the receipt for the Emperor’s New Clothes.

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United States of America?

[…]

Rumsfeld, in his eagerness to equate this administration’s strategy in Iraq with Winston Churchill’s call to watch Hitler and a Germany on the rise to destructive power once again, misses the mark entirely. But let’s not waste energy with generalizations; instead, let’s speak to historical fact regarding the nation of Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

The facts are that the United States of America financially backed Iraq in the early 1980’s. President Reagan sent this very same Donald Rumsfeld to speak with Saddam Hussein in December of 1983, during the peak of the Iraq-Iran war, to ensure that all was well in the struggle against that decade’s flavor of tyranny.

Only one month prior to the visit, Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against both Iranian soldiers and his own people. Even though our intelligence confirmed such actions, nothing was said by Rumsfeld at the time.

Donald Rumsfeld doesn’t have a leg to stand on in a comparison with Winston Churchill. If anything, he is complicit in the build-up of aggression that “islamofascists” have against our nation.

Similarly, America, circa 1980 to 2006, is in no way analogous to a European continent that fell into conflict with a powerful, internal rogue state and their techniques of propaganda, fear mongering, terrorism, territorial occupation and mass executions.

If anything, this speech by Rumsfeld — one that holds both loaded arguments and misconstrued analogies of the highest order — is closer itself to propaganda than “the beacon of light in times of darkness” message that both he and this administration so very wishes to convince us of believing.

Olbermann, who might not speak for political analysts, but does for millions of Americans with quelled voices in this nation, put it best when he directly challenged this administration’s self-righteous claim to ownership of truth, by saying:

“And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a new type of fascism. As he was correct to remind us as how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that, though probably not in the way he thought he meant it. This country faces a new type of fascism, indeed.”

The only problem is that if you’re a student of history, it really isn’t that new.

Artist: The Roots
Song: False Media

==========

(Gore Vidal??)
We’ll weaken ourselves to what is really the issue
And then behind that all lies a very personal and human appeal
That I don’t think old men ought to promote war so that young men can fight

(Wadud Ahmad)
America’s lost somewhere inside of Littleton
Eleven million children all on Ritalin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media
We don’t need it do we
Pilgrim Slaves Indian Mexican
It looks real fucked up
For your next of kin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media

(Black Thought)
If I can’t work to make it
I’ll rob and take it
Either that or
Me and my children are starving and naked
Rather be a criminal pro
Than to follow the matrix
Hey it’s me a monster
Y’all done created
I’ve been inaugurated
Keep the bright lights out of our faces
You can’t shake it
It ain’t no way
To swallow the hatred
Aim fire
Holla bout a dollar
Nothin is sacred
We gone pimp
The shit out of nature
Send our troops
To get my paper
Tell ‘em stay away
From them skyscrapers
Ain’t long for
You get y’all acres
I’mma show ‘em
Who’s the global gangster
Sentence me to
Four more years thank you
I’mma make you feel
A little bit safer
Because it ain’t over
See that’s how we get
Your fear to control you
But ain’t nobody
Under more control
Than a soldier
And how could you
Expect a kid
To keep his composure
When all sorts of thoughts
Fought for exposure again

(Wadud Ahmad)
America’s lost somewhere inside of Littleton
Eleven million children all on the Ritalin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media
We don’t need it do we
Pilgrim Slaves Indian Mexican
It looks real fucked up
For your next of kin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media
We don’t need it do we
America’s lost somewhere inside of Littleton
Eleven million children all on the Ritalin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media
We don’t need it do we
Pilgrim Slaves Indian Mexican
It looks real fucked up
For your next of kin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media
We don’t need it do we
America’s lost somewhere inside of Littleton
Eleven million children all on the Ritalin
That’s why I don’t rhyme for the sake of riddlin’
False media
We don’t need it do we
False media
We don’t need it do we
False media
We don’t need it do we
False media
We don’t need it do we

(originally uploaded by cjsylvor)

(originally uploaded by Von Hutchins)

“Terrorists can be defeated simply by not becoming terrified — that is, anything that enhances fear effectively gives in to them.”
- John Mueller, Ohio State University

(originally uploaded by celebdu)

(originally uploaded by jamarju)

“I am worried that I have a finger-pointing President who quite possibly does more damage to more people every day than any traditional terrorist could do in a lifetime and most likely won’t be happy until he completely isolates America from the rest of the world, throwing all of us into a third World War.”
- Alex Sandell, Terrorists in Business Suits 2: The Second Coming

Artist: The Coup
Song: Head (Of State)

==========

[Intro/Chorus]
Bush and Hussein together in bed
Giving H-E-A-D head
Y’all motherfuckers heard what we said
Billions made and millions dead

[repeat 8X]
Work it out; set it up

[Chorus] - 2X

[Boots]
In a land not very far away from here
George W. Bush was drinkin beer
His daddy was head of the CIA
Now listen up close to what I say
The CIA worked for Standard Oil
And other companies to whom they’re loyal
In a whole ‘nother land by the name of Iran
The people got wise and took a stand
to the oil companies, ay ain’t shit funny?
This is our oil, our land, our money
CIA got mad and sent false info
to Iraq to help start the Iran/Iraq wo’
Pronounced war if I have to be proper
The CIA is the cops that’s why I hate the coppers
Saddam Hussein was their man out there
They told him to rule while keepin people scared
Sayin any opposition to him, he must crush it
He gassed the Kurds, they gave him his budget
Said you gotta kick ass to protect our cash
Step out of line and feel our wrath
You know the time without lookin at the little hand
Time came for them to cut out the middle man
Children maimed with no legs and shit
Cause the “Bombs Over..” you know the OutKast hit
And they really want you to hate him dead
When just the other day they made him head
War ain’t about one land against the next
It’s po’ people dyin so the rich cash checks

[Chorus] - 2X

[repeat 16X]
Work it out; set it up

I had planned on writing a long review of V and linking over to current memes that voice a similar “power to the people” message, but there’s no need.

The people are on it.

Blogger gal vs. Newspaper guy!

Well, not quite, but it makes a great lede, eh?

Sue, Lex and I met over lunch yesterday to discuss potential strategies for evolving the News & Record’s citizen journalism efforts. And no, we didn’t have a stare off.

Man… Lex is in a tough position; he’s completely open to forward-thinking ideas (I mean, his title is Citizen Journalism Coordinator), but he also seems to be up against a bottom line business that’s very adverse to risk. Apparently, changing the approach to meeting a historically profitable bottom line is a tough sell, even within an industry that’s on shaky ground.

It’s amazing how palpable sand can become to the heads of industry during innovative times.

That’s not to say that the N&R hasn’t been progressive with their citizen journalism efforts to date — they have — but Lex knows that in just a few years the N&R (both print and online) will have to directly compete with new forms of dynamic, community-based, participatory, online news applications (e.g. Newsvine), which will be free of legacy organizational overhead and be able to react with agility.

And you can’t forget those pesky bloggers.

The N&R needs to step up their game.

So we chatted. And ate. And chatted some more. And by the time our conversation came to a close, we had a number of interesting ideas on the table:

• Personal Relationships - Lex is looking to develop relationships with members of the Greensboro community, offering them the opportunity to use N&R resources (legal, photography, journalist feedback, etc.) to craft substantive citizen journalism. To me, this approach perfectly fits the future of print newspapers, as time-based news is dead on paper. They’ll have to compete as daily magazines (more depth, less coverage).

• Real-time Blogging Input - I suggested promoting a tagging schema that matched the classification structure of both the paper and the site:

  For example, identify and promote a unique set of “greensboro[xxxx]” tags, for anyone to use on blog posts, flickr images, etc. when generating Greensboro specific news, events, opinions, etc.

  Internally, the N&R editorial staff would then set up RSS aggregators with subscriptions of each tag search result.

  The real-time input of potential stories and assets would increase exponentially, while the N&R would continue to have editorial control, as the aggregator would serve as the queue into the publishing process

• Representation Across The Community - Sue focused on the concept of encouraging participation along the lines of community diversity (her connections with Uplifter is right along the lines of my focus with The People, Yes!). We talked about ideas ranging from developing blogging 101 material to share with a non-computer literate demographic to grass roots representation within sub-communities (e.g. school board meetings) to encourage live-blogging with the unique tag identifiers

An interesting start, but there’s still one major component that we’re skirting: Revenue incentives.

Lex made it clear that creating a participatory revenue model doesn’t fall under his charge, but the N&R is open to ideas. My perspective is that without incentive, participation will be lighter, with less quality and dedication. Any revenue generated out of these relationships should be viewed as found money, so share and share alike:

• To tap into the wisdom of the blogosphere by republishing the original post or an edited version, a buisness needs to develop a revenue model that fairly represents such a relationship.
• To partner with individuals from the community to generate community-based journalism, a business needs to develop a revenue model to encourage such a partnership.

It comes down to this: Pony up or we, the citizens, will simply get together and form collaborative blogs, creating relevant identities, gain a better footprint in Google over a 3 month period of time and, eventually, sign up with BlogAds to support our own voice.

That’s not a threat. ;-) I’m looking forward to our next conversation, folks.

UPDATE: Six months after the fact, in the NORG session at ConvergeSouth, Ed Cone backs up my philosophy regarding partnering with local bloggers/writers in a revenue share program.

WOUB: Radio & Television
Rock band promotional sticker triggers bomb alert on OU campus

ATHENS, OH (2006-03-02) A sticker on a bicycle outside a restaurant on the campus of Ohio University is behind a bomb scare this morning.

Ohio University Dean of Students Terry Hogan says an Ohio University police officer spotted a bicycle attached to the Oasis restaurant at 5:30 a.m. this morning with a sticker containing a message attached to it.

“‘This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb’ is the name of a band out of Pensacola, Fla.,” said Hogan. “The sticker was actually a promotional item for that entity.”

A bomb squad was called in from Columbus to investigate the bike, resulting in an evacuation of four buildings on campus for more than three hours.

The area was cordoned off and Gordy Hall, Ellis Hall, Scott Quad and Konneker Alumni Center were all closed until 8:40 a.m. when police allowed students students and faculty into the buildings and the immediate area.

Hogan says police were informed from the owner of the bike that the sign in question was just a sticker. The bomb squad disabled the bike to confirm that.

The bike owner’s name is not being released but Hogan says he has cooperated with the investigation.

All in all, Hogan says the university is pleased with the response from OUPD and Athens Police and fire in handling the scare. He says protocol updated after 9/11 was used for the first time in response to the potential threat.

OUPD is investigating the incident but no criminal charges have been filed.

You know, every day, I’m more and more amazed at how people in this country have absolutely no fucking clue. How could any rational human being take this bumper sticker as a threat? It’s not like the damn thing was ticking; someone had to pause, read the words, make a judgement call on the potential danger to the community and alert the authorities (if it wasn’t an “authority” find in the first place). But, hey! At least the new post-9/11 protocols are working correctly.

bin Laden completely proved that we’re a country of religion, not faith. We’re so busy looking up for direction from leaders and God, we’ve completely lost our faith in our common man.

Well, maybe not 3D, but still… what an amazing set of spot-on patriotic posters. You gotta love the old school style of poster art. The sad thing is that I’m having a hard time calling many of these “spoofs.”

What the fuck is going on in Sydney? From the AP via Aljazeera:

[…]

On Sunday a mob of 5,000 white men, many of them drunk, attacked men they believed were of Middle Eastern descent in retaliation for the assault a week earlier of two volunteer lifeguards.

Youths of Lebanese descent were alleged to be behind that assault, but police say there was no apparent racial motive. (Full story)

Police arrested 16 rioters and said 31 people were injured, including a man stabbed in the back by an assailant officers said was a man of Arab appearance.

Prime Minister John Howard called the violence “sickening” but denied it was underpinned by a vein of racism running through Australian society.

“I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country,” he said.

[…]

The rampage will compound shock expressed Monday at Sunday’s rioting, which police said was organized by mobile phone text messages and fanned by Neo Nazi groups.

“What we have seen yesterday is something I thought I would never see in Australia and perhaps we have not seen in Australia in any of our lifetimes. And that is a mass call to violence based on race," Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian told Sky News.

[…]

I’ve a few readers down under; Jack are you feeling the vibe down there? How organized are these hate groups?

Why I started my Chomsky indulgence with Understanding Power and not this digestible gem I’ll never know.

Uncle Sam is a brilliant pocket reference of Noam Chomsky’s world view, specifically his unflinching criticism of US foreign policy. His genius with linguistics provides him the means to absolutely tear apart the propaganda surrounding isms, bringing the conversation and arguments back to the table of reality. By comparing declassified government files, public policy and geopolitical events occurring between the early 1940’s to 1992, Chomsky cuts directly through the posturing of the US to frame cause and effect in the struggle for global power.

The man is fearless. He critically deconstructs policy from within the sovereign US to expose the post-WWII new world order policies of US planners — clearly describing how the Third World has been shaped to remain the peasant working class via neo-Nazi techniques of torture and intimidation, satisfying the needs of the US investor class.

His arguments are completely lucid and relevant in today’s world, even though it was published in the early nineties. Want an example? Keep an eye on the US propaganda regarding the “left-wing rhetoric” of Hugo Chavez. The BBC is already picking up the US talking points of Venezuela elections being rigged. Chomsky describes these US tactics in detail.

Chomsky’s take on US indoctrination of its citizens to contributing productively to pure capitalism is classic, as he tackles complicit participants from the mainstream media to academia. Just as stinging is his perspective on the marginalization of 80% of our population, which reminded me a bit of the 5% Nation, but without the optimism.

Here’s a section about the US in a Rent-A-Thug role (remember, this was written during the original Gulf War conflict with George H.W. Bush in charge):

[…]

“In any confrontation, each participant tries to shift the battle to a domain in which it’s most likely to succeed. You want to lead with your strength, play your strong card. The strong card of the United States is force—so if we can establish the principle that force rules the world, that’s a victory for us. If, on the other hand, a conflict is settled through peaceful means, that benefits us less, because our rivals are just as good or better in that domain.

Diplomacy is a particularly unwelcome option, unless it’s pursued under the gun. The US has very little popular support for its goals in the Third World. This isn’t surprising, since it’s trying to impose structures of domination and exploitation. A diplomatic settlement is bound to respond, at least to some degree, to the interests of the other participants in the negotiation, and that’s a problem when your positions aren’t very popular.

As a result, negotiations are something the US commonly tries to avoid. Contrary to much propaganda, that has been true in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central America for many years.

Against this background, it’s natural that the Bush administration should regard military force as a major policy instrument, preferring it to sanctions and diplomacy (as in the Gulf crisis). But since the US now lacks the economic base to impose “order and stability� in the Third World, it must rely on others to pay for the exercise—a necessary one, it’s widely assumed, since someone must ensure a proper respect for the masters. The flow of profits from Gulf oil production helps, but Japan and German-led continental Europe must also pay their share as the US adopts the “mercenary role,� following the advice of the international business press.

The financial editor of the conservative Chicago Tribune has been stressing these themes with particular clarity (William Neikirk, “We are the World’s Guardian Angelsâ€? 9/9/90) We must be “willing mercenaries,â€? paid for our ample services by our rivals, using our “monopoly powerâ€? in the “security marketâ€? to maintain “our control over the world economic system.â€? We should run a global protection racket, he advises, selling “protectionâ€? to other wealthy powers who will pay us a “war premium.”

This is Chicago, where the words are understood: if someone bothers you, you call on the Mafia to break their bones. And if you fall behind in your premium, your health may suffer too.

To be sure, the use of force to control the Third World is only a last resort. The IMF is a more cost-effective instrument than the Marines and the CIA if it can do the job. But the “iron fist� must be poised in the background, available when needed.

Our rent-a-thug role also causes suffering at home. All of the successful industrial powers have relied on the state to protect and enhance powerful domestic economic interests, to direct public resources to the needs of investors, and so on—one reason why they are successful. Since 1950, the US has pursued these ends largely through the Pentagon System (including NASA and the Department of Energy, which produces nuclear weapons). By now we are locked into these devices for maintaining electronics, computers and high-tech industry generally.

Reaganite military Keynesian excesses added further problems. The transfer of resources to wealthy minorities and other government policies led to a vast wave of financial manipulations and a consumption binge. But there was little in the way of productive investment, and the country was saddled with huge debts: government, corporate, household and the calculable debt of unmet social needs as the society drifts towards a Third World pattern, with islands of great wealth and privilege in a sea of misery and suffering.

When a state is committed to such policies, it must somehow find a way to divert the population, to keep them from seeing what’s happening around them. There are not many ways to do this. The standard ones are to inspire fear of terrible enemies about to overwhelm us, and awe for our grand leaders who rescue us from disaster in the nick of time.

That has been the pattern right through the 1980’s, requiring no little ingenuity as the standard device, the Soviet threat, became harder to take seriously. So the threat to our existence has been Qaddafi and his hordes of international terrorists, Grenada and its ominous air base, Sandinistas marching on Texas, Hispanic narcotraffickers led by the arch-maniac Noriega, and crazed Arabs generally. Most recently it’s Saddam Hussein, after he committed his sole crime—the crime of disobedience—in August 1990. It has become more necessary to recognize what has always been true: that the prime enemy is the Third World, which threatens to get “out of control.�

These are not laws of nature. The processes, and the institutions that engender them, could be changed. But that will require cultural, social and institutional changes of no little movement, including democratic structures that go far beyond periodic selection of representatives of the business world to manage domestic and international affairs.”

[…]

Exactly.

Okay, I’m off to read Cluetrain again. I call this “gray matter iteration.” ;-)

Paces Village, my new apartment complex in Greensboro, North Carolina, communicates to me and my neighbors by attaching 8.5" x 11" memos to mounted clips next to our front doors. Whether the content is personal or a group spam doesn’t matter; we come home from a long day at work (or in my case, walking outside after a long day in my home office) to find a note swaying in the breeze.

Now, I’m really trying to believe that they mean well with these efforts, but this latest note had me shaking my head in disbelief:

November 19, 2005

Dear Residents,

This letter is targeted toward all of our female residents. I would like to take this opportunity to heighten your awareness to your surroundings. This means always keep doors and windows locked. This goes for your apartment as well as your car. When going from your vehicle to your apartment, especially at dark, make sure to have your keys out. Remember, a key is a great defense weapon. Aim for the FACE! Having a personal alarm devise or mace on your key ring is also a great idea. As we enter the Christmas season remember not to leave packages or any other personal items visible in your car, this is to tempting to thieves. If at all possible when walking to laundry or fitness area walk with your roommate, spouse or become buddies with a neighbor. This letter is not to frighten you but to make you aware that the crime rate goes up at this time of year. If you see anything or anyone suspicious on the property, please call the office, courtesy officer, as well as Greensboro Police. I want everyone to be as safe as possible this Holiday season. We are planning a Community Watch Meeting very soon. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks in Advance,

Holly Smith (not her real name)
Community Manager,
Paces Village Apts

You know, people ask me all the time if I miss living in the NYC area and I consistently tell them no, that is, not until I’m forced to deal with the poignant differences between an urban lifestyle and a suburban existence. Back in the city, my building manager (or even my former landlord in Brooklyn) would never have written a note like the one above. Shit, if I paid my rent and didn’t make too much noise, they didn’t care if I existed… and I liked it like that.

It’d be nice to believe that the management team here really does care, but the rambling note and their delivery style smells too much of corporate liability aversion for me to take it at face value.

Toto, we’re definitely not in Jersey City anymore.

the time is here
yes, now is the time
to make water out of wine
like the real extracted from rhyme
the haves and the have mores
ceilings are their floors
while working on their secret knock
they straight up kick down doors
you see, terror is pushed nightly
to establish our core fear
an appetite for the here
and now just doesn’t matter
we’re all well fed consumers and their pockets keep getting fatter
what, you think shit is gonna change
with a dollar?
or a dream?
wipe out your eyes
unplug your ears
wake up to the screams
from indochina death teams
from nicaraguan insurgent regimes
from vietnamese bloodstreams
from terrorist state schemes
power is power
green is green
you see?
deeper than a lost soul
you find the blue collar toll
trained to corrale the buck
to scream "what the fuck!?"
when capitalism capitalizes on fear
giving proud men deaf ears
you hear?
this society makes american sheiks
who pro-actively partake in high-risk stakes
to retire by 45
no matter who wakes up or not…
a shot to the head
a timely blood clot

my feet stand firm on the floor
as they pass by in multiple takes
the tension in my body relaxes
refusing to bite on the head fakes
shots whiz by my ears and eyes
my palms face upwards to the roof
slow motion moves and prefabricated lies
so just where exactly is the proof?
in the pudding
in the whispers
in the minds
in the wind
the vinyl is simply scratched
cross-faded
knowing
jaded
hatched…
a 45 revolution
a soon to be released patch

In an industry such as online brokerage, one would assume that the client would always be the center of focus. While most of the time that is the case, the focus on the bottom line in a publicly traded company demands more executive attention and decision-making, overtaking any best practice corporate mantra or initiative due to the pressures and expectations of The Street.

Therein lies the problem: Only a sustained and coordinated focus on client needs will provide properly targeted and designed product experiences for customers or clients.

Client service : Pricing

If a company provides services and products that support the goals of an individual, at a price that can be rationalized to fit the value proposition of the product, the company will find clientèle… but business isn’t that simple, as the cost of business drives most internal decisions.

Executives with P/L responsibilities tend to gravitate towards lessening the impact on spending first and foremost, rather than reinvesting within the organization. Whether the decision lands in the form of multi-tasking employee roles or approaching methodological advances with risk management adverseness, working within conservatively defined parameters lessens accountability to risk and most likely can’t be framed in a negative light.

So how can a business operate in a manner that supports clients goals, at a desirable price point, without putting the business “out of business” in the process?

Streamlined systems and processes play a major part.

Smart management plays another.

But the glue that binds these and numerous other business roles together is the simple concept of collaboration.

For the sake of simplicity, picture a company divided into four primary units: Marketing, Technology, Design and Business. In this simple, yet extremely complex fauxe business example, nothing could be accomplished with quality or speed without close collaboration.

• Marketing and Design need to share quantitative and qualitative research (respectively) to assist the Business in developing an explicit understanding of client needs. These qualified findings can then be prioritized by Business and Technology in terms of viability and feasibility (respectively)
• Business, Design and Technology must collaborate during all phases of product design in order for goal-directed and innovative experiences to become a reality at any point on the speed to market to best to market throughput timeline
• While this occurs, Marketing must be looped into all user experience design points to ensure that brand standards are met and a product marketing plan can be produced to reintroduce the client experience to the market in proper fashion

Yes, this is oversimplified.

Compliance has a large role in this process, as does Legal, Sales, etc. And while the above description sounds logical and pragmatic, imagine how many different organizational structures, methodologies, communication systems, talent, etc. could be put in place to support the concept of a Business - Marketing - Design - Technology paradigm.

Ameritrade had already become quite aware of the need for this degree of collaboration over the past few years and the current buzz of the company has jumped from touting our top operating margin in the industry to making a commitment to designing an organization around the needs of our clients, while keeping an industry leading operating margin.

Reaching that balance and keeping a competitive edge in this industry and on The Street is very tricky. Gutsy, sophisticated and experienced leadership must drive this level of corporate re-focus.

Next month: User research: The stereotype and the archetype.

My day at work today centered around getting pissed off about the upcoming war; the commute home got even more interesting.

First, for the comedy relief of the day. I’m waiting for the N/R train on the Cortlandt Street platform, when I look across the track and notice this older gentleman, probably in his mid-sixties, dressed conservatively in a gray suit, casually drop his paper on the platform and stroll away. My first thought was, "Ok. He just littered. Maybe that’s how people acted before Woodsy the Owl. Give him the benefit of the doubt." So I did, and went back to scanning my own rag. That’s when I hear water splashing down on the track.

In the midst of the afternoon commute rush, the same guy is urinating onto the tracks. No one knows what to do. All of us were deer in the headlights, caught watching this unfold. The guy didn’t look drunk and was dressed in a nice suit. He eventually finished (old guy = bad prostate), but the kicker? He strolls back to his paper, picks it up and goes back to reading. Ha.

So I finally get on the train and manage to find a seat. At the next stop, the women next to me gets off and a guy squeezes between the doors and sits down in her place. Nothing out of the ordinary. So during my daily dose of conservative subway people watching (i.e. don’t look at anyone for more than two seconds and only in glances), I notice the new guy reading a miniature copy of something that looks like Arabic, bobbing his head up and down… pausing… and then mumbling to himself. He’d then reopen the finely bounded/crafted book for a half second, look up in the air, and then go back to mumbling.

Now, I’ve been traveling the NYC subway system for years, and to my best recollection, the only people I’ve ever noticed reading like that have been Orthodox Jews traveling with me from Brooklyn to downtown Manhattan. So here I find myself during the month of "Shock and Awe," sitting next to a guy with a mustache as thick as Saddam’s, dressed in a green army jacket, mumbling to himself while reading Arabic prose.

Welcome to New York City, the cultural Mecca of Western Civilization—the only place where one can feel enlightened daily by the vast diversity of people surrounding you, yet simultaneously fear for your life because of the actions of your government and media outlets.

I’m pretty sure (about 99 & 44/100%) that this guy was praying and looking inward during a rough time in his life or something, yet his actions, which at any other time wouldn’t catch my eye or stir my hand to write about, got me second guessing my safety. This type of irrational fear is what the majority of this country doesn’t understand when they blindly back a poorly sponsored and irrational war.

The “red states” of this nation don’t land anywhere near the top twenty terror spots to hit in America (I have the celebrity map, you know). So while Billy Bob and soccer mom 12,614 “support the government fully to protect us” in very vaguely defined ways, people over here in NYC start to look for exits whether we’re underground, on the streets, or inside our office buildings.

I hate the fact that these thoughts even crept into my skull. As hard as it has been to be a New Yorker over the last few years, being a Muslim New Yorker must take the cake for “king of all shitty positions.”

Well, I guess it’s better than being Muslim in Ohio.

the world has changed.
no shit, glad you’ve woken up.
we don’t all drink from the same fountain
or even from the same cup
but if the music’s right
and the air is clear
why confuse the good times
with political matters
we fear
nothing.
at all…
because "no fear" is a fucking brand
manufactured for morons
living in a testosterone dreamland
yeah, we’re all now awake
we now have an enemy to curse and blame
but do we really understand why
"they" burn our flag and name?
no.
but who cares?
we’ll bomb ‘em till they quit.
yeah that’s a solid tactic
a top five rotation hit
now all the brands are buzzing
pulling at our patriotic strings
the marketing is subtle
yet sick and deafening
"united" is just that
ready to serve you across the land
and since they’re so "united"
they want us to go lend a helping hand
because, you see, they’re "with us"
and not just a part of our verbal psyche
but what if their name was continental?
or fuddruckers?
or nike?
brand opportunity
awareness at an all time high
higher than they used to go
when consumers weren’t afraid to fly
so come on out and support ‘em
get the business back on track
while you’re at it buy a rolex
shit, get a new cadillac
because money is all that matters
to a society built on exploitation
i wonder what "those people" would say
if we opened up actual lines of communication?
yeah right…
too late…
it’s all about annihilation.