Author: Ruby Sinreich

…from those least qualified to give it!

“A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. Not that a woman can’t provide stability, I am not saying that. … It does take a father, though.”

— House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay, Roll Call, February 10, 2004

Now, Republicans should be embarrassed about this kind of thing, of course. But the real shocker to me is that even with them making such asses of themselves daily, the Democrats can’t even seem to find enough rope to let Republicans hang themselves. (To borrow a phrase.) Given the sorry state of our options, I think Democrats’ campaigns should mainly concentrate on publicizing Republican quotations. “Hey look, I’m not as scary as that guy!”

According to Michael Powell, Janet Jackson is a demon slut who wants to eat your children. But this is OK? Nipples must have more political importance than I realized. No wonder Janet has adorned hers.

I typed this whole poem in and them my Internet connection went down! So I hope you appreciate it even more this time:

dick nixon:a song i had writ in the smr. of 1969
(precedence dae) *

tricky dicky nixon you jerking me off
tricky dicky nixon you jerking me off
trick dick nixon you jerking me off jerking me off
jerking me off jerking me off…..
jimmy carter gerald ford
hey you jerked me off
reagan bush bill clinton
yeah you jerking me off
lbk jfk hey you jerking me off jerking me off
jerked me off jerking me off
now george washington jefferson jerked me off
ikeroosevelt and abie baby jerked me
(and it felt so good)
it’s precedence dae how’s it feel to get an executive handjob?
it feels so good and it feels so good….tricky dicky nixon

* to Jb’s funky watergate accompaniment

from “eyeseen: insights outward” by r.c. glenn (of Durham) ©1999

Add yours by clicking the rant link below each post.

Yeah it’s a stretch… but I did spend a few hours sitting next to Howard Rheingold, a thinker who I have admired for years. And now I have proof:

That’s him on the far left and me in the red. I tried really hard not to look over his shoulder and watch him, but he was doing the same thing I was anyway – blogging and playing on IRC.

Cross-posted at Daily Kos.

The Digital Democracy Teach-In yesterday was fabulous, and I want to give props to everyone involved. But… the talking heads on the panels on showed a weakness in the tech community.

Those who assembled the panels invited people they knew. (I don’t blame them, I’ve done the same.) The “advocacy as application” panel included tech activists (plus this token right-winger, with not much to say for himself). There are hundreds of issue advocacy organizations using the Internet as a tool for grassroots organizing and lobbying. In fact, these organizations know a lot about organizing that the geeks present do not. Where were they?

And I saw a huge gaping hole there on the “political blogging” panel without marKos there. Daily Kos did get a mention, I think from Cam Barrett. but I spoke to folks present who had no idea about dKos.

It sounds like another teach-in like this might happen next year. I hope the star of online politics doesn’t fade along with Dean’s campaign. Let’s all help to make sure Tim O’Reilly hears (respectfully) from those of us really using the tools for social and political change.

All in all, a wonderful event… but let’s do it even better next time.

I just had dinner between Doc Searls and Ethan Zuckerman… with a host of other bright minds (“The Committee” behind the Digital Democracy Teach-In).

I also met Justin Hall. (Anyone remember Homepage: the Movie?) I am one lucky blogger!

For no apparent purpose beyond my own entertainment, here’s a map of the places I have been (or will visit soon) as part of my work for PPFA. I’m not including California, although I’m going there for a conference next week.

Here are all the states I have actually visited (not counting driving or flying through), as of today:

Create your own visited states map.

I love having this shared experience with zillions of diverse people. Janet Jackson’s Bare Breast Tops Internet Searches, don’t it feel like a village? But Eric Muller knows the real meaning of that boob.

Keep this story from the BBC handy for the next time someone tells you we had to invade Iraq because Saddam was so evil. Meanwhile, North Korea jumps up and down and waves nukes in the air and still can’t get our attention. I guess they’re not in Halliburton’s business plan.