To understand the similarities between the predatory Manicheans who govern us today and those of the past, say circa WWII in Germany, read Milo Clark; it's déjà vu all over again... Then take advantage of Deck Deckert's 40 years of work in the media trenches to see the extent of present-day media control. This will provide you with a rather bleak assessment of where we stand. Is it hopeless?
Beside the notorious axiom that hopelessness and despair are the two ingredients authoritarian reactionaries have gleefully fed upon over the ages, don't be fooled by the news left unreported or distorted or simply killed as Gilles d'Aymery shows with the help of The New York Times. There are many indications that things are bubbling under the surface. Both Bill Funke's and Michael Stowell's reported activism are strong evidence that people have not lost faith. People are dissenting, acting and organizing, whatever the polls -- another controlling tool -- want you to believe.
Let not apathy carry the day is Jan Baughman's message, offered with her usual wit. It's up to all of you, all of us, to make tangible changes happen. Eli Beckerman and Gilles d'Aymery put forward the reasons to vote according to principles and not expediency and offer suggestions on present and future courses of action.
The poetry of Sandy Lulay and Carl Sandburg will remind you of the beauty and the strength of life...of WE, the People. It is far from being helpless!
Enjoy this rendition and, as always, form your OWN opinion. Then, let your friends (and foes) know about Swans. It's your voice that makes ours grow.
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Gilles d'Aymery: Beyond The Lesser Evil
A few readers objected to my contention two weeks ago, in "Vexing Electoral Realities," that in the coming elections, "Voting for different candidates, neither republicans nor democrats, even with the knowledge that they will quite unlikely be elected, is a positive strategy." More...
Eli Beckerman: Political Expediency, Media, And Democracy
If you talk to any news reporters, there is a consensus that they are not biased. They may have political leanings, but their actual work as reporters is always purely objective. Malarkey. More...
Jan Baughman: Voter Apathy? Whatever
So, like, it's kind of complicated to understand and hard to explain, but W. kept forgetting to tell the SEC when he sold some stock in Harken Energy, a company that merged with his energy company Spectrum 7. The SEC looked into it at the time and said everything was okay. That SEC guy was Richard Breedon, who was W.'s poppy's lawyer, and when poppy became president he put him on the SEC. More...
Michael W. Stowell: Guerrilla TV
There are now more than 2,200 cities in America where local cable systems offer training, equipment and channel time for people to make and distribute their own TV programs. It is dedicated to free speech and it is called 'public access.' More...
William Funke: Marching For Peace
On Saturday, October 26, I was in Washington, DC at the war protest rally. I spent five hours driving each way, and seven hours milling around with the crowd and marching. More...
Resources for Activists: Introduction to Robert's Rules of Order
What Is Parliamentary Procedure? It is a set of rules for conduct at meetings, that allows everyone to be heard and to make decisions without confusion. More...
Deck Deckert: The Fourth Estate
A lot of people are stunned that the ugliness of the Bush administration is so well hidden -- the theft of the election, the assaults on the Constitution, the bald assumption of imperialism, the militarization of America, the tax cuts for the wealthy that amount to a raid on the treasury, the embrace of a vicious and felonious corporate culture, and the fact that there is no right in law or morality for an unprovoked war on Iraq. More...
Milo Clark: Bad Novel
Ok, so life is a corny novel with a bad ending. History as written is about a bunch of silly characters forever doing each other in or chasing women (men, kids). Stuff gets blown up, burned down or otherwise wasted. Not even a decent page turner, much less a good read. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: Iraq, The Ozone Layer, And The Hummer
As Bill Funke reports in his piece, "Marching for Peace" you would have been hard pressed to find much reporting in your favorite newspaper or on the TV news programs on the October 26 countrywide anti-war demonstrations. It certainly did not make the front page of The New York Times. More...
Sandy Lulay: The Death Of Merlin
Vivian laughed...
It was her plan to trick him.
The ghost of Merlin sighs...
More...
Carl Sandburg: I Am The People, The Mob
I am the people--the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world's food and
clothes.
More...
Scott Nearing: The Real Freedom of Free Speech
Gentlemen, I am on trial here before you, charged with obstructing the recruiting and enlistment service to the detriment of the service, to the injury of the service, and with attempting and causing insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and the refusal of duty within the military and naval forces ... More...
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