Critical Thinker

McCain Finegold Must GO !!

2005-03-04T07:10:00.000-08:00

READ WHAT THE FEC (FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION) IS PROPOSING.

It is now being discussed by such honorable bloggers as Captain Ed at the Captain's Quarters -- one of the many fantastic Blogs that help keep us (the American people) informed, in spite of the attempted information blackout (if not outright misrepresentation) by the MSM (mainstream media), a la, Rathergate.

Allow me to briefly quote an open letter from the Captain:

"Now we understand from Bradley Smith, one of the FEC commissioners, that your lawsuit forcing them to regulate speech on the Internet will have the effect of turning our efforts into in-kind contributions, especially when we provide hyperlinks back to candidate sites for referencing their positions and excerpt text from their on-line documents. Hyperlinks allow our readers to check our references to ensure our accuracy and context, and perform the hygienic task of holding our politicians accountable for their campaign practices. All of this not only should fall under the protection of the First Amendment, but it should be the primary reason for the First Amendment -- to protect and encourage free political speech and foster genuine debate."

This indirect move of the FEC to suppress such freedom of speech must be stopped!!

THE TIME TO STOP THIS LUNACY IS NOW!!

So, Senators McCain & Finegold, Mr. Bradley Smith, Members of Congress, the Mainstream Media:

You have made a mockery of the blood of every American soldier shed on the battlefield in defending our rights and freedoms -- including in particular the freedom of open political discussion and debate.

This is amazing, who would have believed it? Even as the Iraqi's and Lebanese are now gaining such freedom of speech, the political hacks (Yes, that's what they are!) in Congress, et. al. would shut ours down!!

You have lowered yourselves to the political stature of Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Bashar Assad of Syria, who had their own methods of controling and manipulating elections.

As our current President has so well spoken, "I trust the people." Tell me, please. Why can't you?

What have we (the USA) come to? WIll you also forbid our discussions of elections and candidates while gathered around the water coolers, at public events, in restaurants, wherever we may gather? Will you next monitor my phone conversations, my email?

Will you then forbid us to congregate for political purposes at any but your sanctioned political meetings? Will only the sanctioned MSM be allowed to discuss political issues?

Be forewarned, now! We will not allow you to drag the USA down this slippery slope.

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED, Senators McCain & Finegold !!

Do you really believe that you can "put a price" on our freedom of speech? Our liberty is not something to be metered like a parking space. If it is metered, then it isn't free!!

Patrick Henry knew the value of liberty and freedom -- including freedom of speech. Have you so soon forgotten the words of Patrick Henry? Sadly, it seems that you have!

We will NOT be coerced into silence !! GIVE US BACK OUR FREEDOM!!

To borrow from the recent Lebanese demonstrating in their streets:

"McCain Finegold Must GO!!"

You have to admit it, this is better than reading mystery's -- even Perry Mason-class ....

2004-09-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Go ahead take a look for example, at AllaPundit's running log of the search for truth!

To "watch" the blogosphere at work -- much like Tony Blankley described in his "A revolution in news" observation:

"It was like watching time-lapse photography of a cell dividing and growing. It was as if the very mechanism for establishing truth was a living, pulsating force."

Note the back-n-forth "collective" analysis ....

You can be certain that someone is (indeed many are) now pursuing clarification of each bifurcation of the intertwining of facts 'n possibilities.

And to think, the whole nation is now watching !!

The Blogosphere -- a living, pulsating force for finding the truth

2004-09-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

Tony Blankley's "A revolution in news" in THE WASHINGTON TIMES provides an excellent analysis of the tranforming force the Blogosphere represents. Tony shows that he does "get it" (the arrival of the next "revolution"), with one of the best descriptions of any MSM'er I've read yet.

"It was like watching time-lapse photography of a cell dividing and growing. It was as if the very mechanism for establishing truth was a living, pulsating force."

There are other MSM'ers as Tony, that are learning, and should do quite well in the "new order." Others (no need to take names) will be swept away.

The fact of the matter is that we, the Blogosphere, are NOT the MSM's enemy — in that we both seek the truth. However, we DO demand a "seat at the table" of determining what is "news" and "why." News has become, as Tony says, "a living, pulsating force."

The open source collaboration paradigm (perhaps best known for having produced Linux and Apache — software heavily used on the Internet) is about much greater purposes than just "free software." There is in fact a new culture to be learned — one to which the MSM now must acclimate or become dinosaurs. Tony describes it in operation ...

"Then the bloggers went to work. From the four corners of humanity experts started deconstructing the "truth" that CBS had presented. [For example,] Who knew that there are experts who specialize just in the history of IBM selectric typing balls, ..."

"As each of these experts added their information to one blog, other bloggers would monitor it, pass it on, add a new fact, reorganize the analysis, synthesize new information. If new information proved wrong, it was corrected by yet another expert in the blogosphere. Mistakes were cheerfully admitted and instantly corrected. People who had filled out such forms thirty years ago added their analysis. Both technical and historic information constantly came in — ever-increasing the fullness of understanding on the topic. ..."

The first lessons to be learned? The days of "SPIN" are over! The days of "cherry picking" are over!

Hence forth, we will check (recheck, and cross-check) every claim, and then check the checkers too! Each one must continually "prove his credentials."

Multiple possibly (or apparently?) contradictory threads will be simultaneously explored, expanded, combined, pruned. No stone will be left unturned. ... UNTIL a refined consensus appears — a product of which we ALL can be proud.

See for example, "Liberty & Power: Group Blog: Liberty, Power, and Knowledge: The Tale of the CBS Memos" by Steven Horwitz, a "self-declared liberal" who nevertheless reveled in the "blogosphere triumphalism" that the Blogosphere had achieved.

"Orwell just got that whole technology and power thing ass-backwards. The democratization of knowledge production and the ability of one person with a computer to check the power of the major social institutions is here, and it is the technology of the telescreen that brought it to us."

While he may have preferred the truth were otherwise, he at least could feel confident that he had found the truth!

The Blogsphere has just introduced their version of instant replay!

2004-09-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

The OLD Old Media existed in a time that far predates the all-at-onceness of the Internet that McLuhan [see ref.] has so well discussed -- although he in fact predated its arrival!. However, that OLD day is now gone, and it won't be back.

<>
An analogy to illuminate the point

<>The luxury to wait until the game is over to write up the game for the newspaper no longer cuts it. Real time coverage means that there will be mistakes that need to be corrected. Many eyes looking on -- though not as formally trained as the referee -- often can catch those mistakes much better than four referees on the field. <>

In the case of a game, the handling or accomodatation of the cost of such mistakes is already burried in the rules of that game -- what the referee says is what goes !! In the case of news that could affect the world, such artificial rules seem so out of date and wrong minded. <>

Now we see experimentation, in the case of games, with the use of instant reply for questionable calls by the referee. <>

The Blogsphere has just introduced their version of instant replay! <>

Given that "many eyes" can now participate in the determination of what is news worthy, and why, shouldn't they? The concept of a "free press" has served the role of a place holder in the realm of news coverage -- just as the sports writer covered sports for those who could never see the game first-hand. The time has come for the full participation of all in the observing of news in the making, instead of post facto. <>

So, how does one take advantage of (let alone accommodate) those "many eyes"? The open source paradigm has found a way -- initally applied to the problem of software development. That approach is now being apropriated to a plethora of other areas -- in this case, to the recognition, analysis, and dissemination of what constitutes the news. <>

There is room in this model for all specializations. I find it amazing the breadth of expertise that was brought to bear on the SwiftBoat Vet claims, and now on the CBS documents -- including specializations that I (and it seems the Old Media as well) never considered consulting. <>

What once was restricted to a group of investigative reporters and their editors locked behind closed doors in an effort to determine just what is relevant and why, versus what is utter nonsense now can -- and thus will -- take place out in the open. One cannot get more open than the Internet. <>

The fact of the matter (and the point of this note) is that by taking the pulse of ALL the blog (left, right, and otherwise in the case of politics), one can catch the consensus of what is really going on, as well as the collective consciousness of what it means. <>

That is, "you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time." <>

This is why the open source paradigm even includes the function of meta-checker (verifying the "credentials" of those who pontificate).

The Old Media better get accustomed to their every effort being meta-checked !! Hence forth, their credentials will be under continual scrutiny.

To see an example of the meta-checker function, check out: "Washington Times: Killian Memo Signatures Forged," Captain's Quarters, Sept. 11, 2004

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/002486.php

<>
Marshall McLuhan, with an introduction by Lewis H. Lapham, Understand Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT Press, 1994 [Reprint].

http://mitpress.mit.edu/book-home.tcl?isbn=0262631598

The unspoken "Laws of Politics" are being rewritten by the Blogsphere

2004-09-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

We have here another exposition of why the Genie (the immediate -- real time -- cross examination and expert analysis of every claim the MSM ever cares to make) is clearly out of the bottle, and will not be put back !!

Consequently the claim of today's Newsweek story "Slime Time Live" by Howard Fineman and Michael Isikof:

"But the tale is evidence of a grim truth: traces of mud usually stick, whatever they are made of, whoever hurls them. Kerry learned as much in August, when the Swifties went after his war (and antiwar) record. Now, it seems, it's Bush's turn-at least in small measure. The president's postconvention bounce was certain to disappear, and it largely did. In the new NEWSWEEK Poll, he now leads Kerry by five points in a two-way race (50 percent to 45 percent) compared with an 11-point lead of a week earlier. More to the point, voters now label him "honest and ethical" by a 55-40 percent margin, far less than the 62-33 percent ratio of a week ago. Democrats tried to claim that the president's reputation as a straight shooter was ruined. That was hardly the case. But slime is slime-and there is much more to come from both sides between now and November."

Before the Calvary (the Blogsphere came on the scene), such a "grim truth" has indeed been almost a LAW OF POLITICS, but no longer ! Expect your "MUD" to be exposed to immediate scrutiny and ridicule !

The truth we ALL can handle, but your MUD you can keep to yourselves!

STAND BACK FOLKS ! This particular disruption of the "common wisdom" is only the beginning of the breakdown of many "traditional saws" about how the world works. The societal changes that have been set in motion by the technologies introduced by the Internet phenomenon will surpass anything most pundits can yet envision.

Forget Iraq. The "Old Media" and the "New Media" Are at War!

2004-08-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Blogging team known as Powerline has been covering the SwiftBoat Vets controversy with a number of detailed analyses of Kerry's what, when, where, why's from more sources than the "Old Media" even realized exist (or, at least will not acknowledge, and will not cover).

They have been engaged in a running debate with Jim Boyd from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The latest salvo of Powerline is entitled "Who is Andrew Antippas?"

This is but one of many "Old Media vs. New Media" battles beginning to emerge. The "Old Media" seems still to be in denial. Each of the "Oldies" needs to find some Jr. High geek to provide a lesson in Internet tools and technologies.

The "Oldies"barely are able to get their papers on-line (which requires some IT staffer to get involved), before the Blogshere has run Google, et. al., has identified all the gotcha's (mistakes, half-truths, out-of-context's, etc.), and has thoroughly "debunked" their latest efforts. Couple this rapid-fire turn-around in research and analysis with Blog-based one-touch publishing, followed immediatly with the multi-cast spread of the "latest" posting (a la, the proverbial "six degrees of freedom") and watch the sparks continue to fly.

The "Old Media" appears to be in a state of "melt-down." Comparatively speaking, the "Kerry meltdown" is much smaller and less consequential in the long run to American -- indeed world -- history. After all, there will be another election in four years. The war in terror will then still be in full swing. ....

BUT, the Fourth Estate (see the Burke quote below) is in the process of a metamorphosis that will radically change who is that "tongue which others will listen to." And the "Oldies" (the current Fourth Estate) do not realize this change, or are in a state of denial. The magnitude of this event will prove to be every bit as great and momentous as the coming of the printing press (see The Axemaker's Gift: A Double-Edged History of Human Culture, James Burke and Robert Ornstein, 1995).

The effect of Gutenberg's letters would be to change the map of Europe, considerably reduce the power of the Catholic Church, and alter the very nature of the knowledge on which political and religious control was based. The printing press would also help to stimulate nascent forms of capitalism and provide the economic underpinning for a new kind of community.

What else can one say but "Bring it on!!"

1. The Mass Media as Fourth Estate http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/4estate.html

Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or a witty saying; it is a literal fact, .... Printing, which comes necessarily out of Writing, I say often, is equivalent to Democracy: invent Writing, Democracy is inevitable. ..... Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of authority. It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures: the requisite thing is that he have a tongue which others will listen to; this and nothing more is requisite.

Carlyle (1905) pp.349-350

2. Read "From Movable Type to Data Deluge," by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, The World & I, January, 1999.

What has Sen. Kerry really asked for?

2004-08-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

The current presidential debate presents a stark contrast in world philosophies:

1. One candidate proposes a plan for how to "run from" terrorism.

2. The other proposes a plan for how to "defeat" terrorism.

Sen. Kerry has suggested the imposition of a definite time-line within which he would seek to remove our soldiers from Iraq. What would be the consequences of implementing such a decision?

Some editorials (you know and have read them) have suggested that the enemy would simply "lie low" until we have withdrawn (giving an appearance of our success), and then "surge forth from their holes" when we are gone.

I wish to propose an alternative view of what would happen, one that is based on the stark reality of the nature of the enemy we are confronting. Unlike Vietnam (a war on which Kerry seems quite fixated), their is no rational overlord (e.g. the Chinese supporting the Vietcong) who is content to take what is convenient at the moment, and indeed give the appearance of "lieing low." The Vietcong did indeed show their true colors once we had left. See the reference below (1) regarding the Vietnamese Dispora.

Rather allowing us a "graceful" withdrawal, the radical terrorists will take the opportunity to make our withdrawal as costly, as embarassing, and as humiliating as possible.

I predict that with the election and inauguration of President Kerry:

1. Troop morale will go to ZERO. "Who wants to be the last one to die for a losing cause." This is Kerry's own philosophy, so how can one challenge our troops feeling the same way.

2. Given #1 above, the terrorists will NOT "lie low." Rather, they will seek to "drive home the point" that they have won by making our withdrawal as costly and humiliating as possible.

3. This will signal (at least in the eyes of the terrorists and the Arab world) not only our withdrawal from Iraq, but our withdrawal from conftonting the terrorists on their turf. They will have "established" that we are "push overs."

This withdrawal will stand in stark contrast to MacArther's having to withdraw in the early days of WWII, but made the point (and the Japanese and the American's had no doubt that) we would be back -- back to win!

The net effect of all this is that Kerry's own mouth will have played a major contribution in the United States' suffering two humiliating, demoralizing wars in a forty-year period. Contrast that to our winning WWI and WWII.

(1) "Kerry Still Sacrificing The Freedom Of The South Vietnamese"

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/