Category: politics

All things political, great and small.

RL media covers SL politics

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Thanks to Sara Donnelly (a.k.a. Sara Susa in Second Life) of the Portland (ME) Phoenix for her coverage of the Avatars Against the War protest. Sara attended many of our meetings as well as the protest and I appreciate her taking the time to learn about what we were/are doing.

(Speaking of what we are doing, we are still holding meetups weekly on Thursdays at 3pm EST. However, I won’t be there this week as I am going to see Cory Doctorow speak at UNC. My co-organizer Andrew Hoppin/Drew Frobozz will be facilitating today’s meeting.)

“We had envisioned doing something small and symbolic until . . . we realized that we had clearly touched a nerve in the Second Life community,” said Ruby Sinreich, a/k/a “Ruby Glitter,” a real-world activist who helped organize the virtual-world rally. “Although we can’t vote in Second Life, we can raise awareness and connect people and show our strength.”
– The Phoenix – Out-of-body politic, 2/7/07

However I have two corrections to Sarah’s article:

Continue reading “RL media covers SL politics” →

Progressive bloggers give up on Edwards

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I hate to write about something while I am still so mad about it, but I just can’t sit still with this any longer.

[cartoon]

I just learned that the other progressive activist blogger (Melissa McEwan of Shakespeare’s Sister) that was hired by Edwards’ campaign for being a progressive activist blogger has also resigned for being a progressive activist blogger. As I wrote on the I am Amanda Marcotte Facebook group:

I am so damn mad about this. Since when do conservative zealots determine standards for Democratic campaigns?

Edwards should never have validated Donahue’s complaints. This whole thing should have just been an amusing footnote in campaign blogging history a year from now. Instead it has set a horrible precedent which will keep honest bloggers from supporting viable candidates for many years to come.

—

Seriously, who the hell cares what right-wing christians think of Democratic political staffers? Do Republicans care that their staffer are racist, sexist, homophobes? Do we make a federal case out of it? Aaargh!

I’m! In! Wonkette!!!

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Wonkette posted Rik’s machinima of the protest – without attribution 🙁 – and generally made fun of us, called us hippies, etc. As Rik pointed out: “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” And as I replied: “there’s also no such thing as a kind word from Wonkette.” In other words, I’m honored to be on the receiving end of their snark.

Give it up for liberals: they managed to find the one way left to make traditional protests even more ineffectual and embarrassing. Have ‘em on the internet!
– ‘Second Life’ War Protest Ensures Continued Occupation of Iraq For Next 1,000 Years – Wonkette

Unfortunately, this post wasn’t nearly as funny as most Wonkette entries, but it’s a start. I see we’ve caused them to create a new category for politics in Second Life, so we’re clearly having some kind of impact, 😉

Here’s Rik’s machinima video with music by Sweet Honey in the Rock. I understand a longer video may be in the works.

Avatars Against the War

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RootsCamp & peace poster gallery Our weekend of peace in Second Life is already going great! The latest plans and SLurls are at the RootsCampSL wiki.

First of all, errcheck Hick’s workshop today was great and was attended by at about a dozen avatars. We now have a groovy sign you can carry that changes textures with a click, and that includes sign waving/pumping fist animation.

Tomorrow, errcheck will lead a talk on “Deconstructing Fascism” including his experiences with the recent protests against French white supremacists who have set up shop in SL. This and a Peace Party with a live DJ will be at Conscious Lounge.

me with sign On Monday at 2pm we will have a march on SL Capitol Hill! The creators of SLCH are very supportive of what we’re doing and will be on hand to make sure everything runs smoothly. Protesters should meet at RootsCamp first, where we will have a teleporter that will send people to the right spot. Then we will march around a circular path and wind up on the steps of the capitol building. At this point, we will probably pass a megaphone around so folks can say whatever is on their mind, and/or watch a streaming video of today’s march in DC. (Suggestions?)

We have already had some great blog entries about the protest:
http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/01/reminder_virtua.html

Peace in the Metaverse, Goodwill Toward Avs


http://muveforward.blogspot.com/2007/01/political-science-civil-protests-in-sl_27.html

I have been amazed at the amount of excitement there is about the demonstration on Monday. People have been dropping in to RootsCamp all day asking about it. The March will be filmed by some machinima makers, so it’s especially important to get people there.

On a less happy note, errcheck pointed out to me that the SL Netroots group has been joined by one of the right wingers that have active with the Le Pen camp. Nothing bad has hapenned yet, and I don’t think he has visited RootsCamp, but we need to be cautious, especially since most of the stuff at RootsCamp has relatively open permissions.

See you in-world!

If you’re not going to DC…

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Everyone who can should be in DC this weekend reminding Congress that we voted against this war! But if you can’t go, come see us on Progressive Island!

Avatars Against the War!

We’ve got a bunch of activities planned including a rally at Capitol Hill which will be filmed! Here’s the latest:

  • Posters for Peace. Gallery exhibition with free posters.
  • Free t-shirts and changeable protest signs (comes with many changeable messages)

Saturday, 1/27/07:

  • T-shirt and Sign workshop Learn to make your own protest signs and t-shirts. (Then wear them Monday!). noon SLT.

Sunday, 1/28/07:

  • Lecture on “Deconstructing Fascism” with errcheck Hicks at the Conscious Lounge. 4pm EST.
  • Party at Solidad Sugarbeet’s Conscious Lounge. DJ Doubledown Tandino will be spinning a classic old school and funk set – live remixing and mash-ups too. 5pm EST. contact: errcheck Hicks

Monday, 1/29/07

  • RL marchers gather and debrief events in DC. Time TBA.
  • March on SL Capitol Hill. Converge at RootsCamp first, bring your signs or get one here. 5pm EST. (This event will be documented so please bring as many friends as you can!) contact: Ruby Glitter

Visit our wiki for more info and the latest updates.

SOTU wordalyzer

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Wow, this is awesome! The New York Times has a new tool which you can search for any word or phrase and visualize how many times it was said each year, going back to Bush’s inaugural address in 2001: The State of the Union in Words. In addition, they show you the word as a red dot within a gray thumbnail of each speech which you can click to see the context of the sentence around it.

For example, I searched for the word speaker. It usually gets one mention in the opening of the speech, but this year it was said 4 times as the POTUS overred personal congratulations to Nancy Pelosi. In 2002, Bush said Afghanistan 13 times and Iraq twice. This year he said Iraw 34 times and Afghanistan 4 times.

And as already noted by Facing South, Bush mentioned Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans recovery not one time in his speech this year. And as far as I can tell the word “Katrina” didn’t even get a mention last year although “New Orleans” showed up twice.

“War” is an old standby, being mentioned 1, 13, 13, 12, 5, 2, and 11 times. This is a really great tool for lazy reporters, bloggers, and weak-stomached lefties like myself who can’t actually stand to watch the speech!

Link via: David Weinberger.

Great expectations

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David Weinberger proposes an interesting variation on the typical buzzword bingo for tonight’s State of the Union address. Fill your game card (or shot glass, whatever) with unlikely words and then cross them off if they are said.

The terms have to have some likelihood of showing up, so you don’t get credit for Bush not using the phrases “prolapsed anus” or “I’m sorry.”
– Joho the Blog: DOEP: Daily Open-Ended Puzzle: State of the Union Negative Bingo

My body, my choice

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Blog for Choice Day - January 22, 2007

This year’s topic is a simple one: tell us, and your readers, why you’re pro-choice.

Because I want to be a parent now, not when I’m 17 years old.

If it weren’t for access to safe abortions, I would be the mother of an adult by now. While I’m sure the child I didn’t have 18 years ago would have been the joy of my existence, I would have been a fraction of the parent she deserved. Now I have a good job, a loving partner, a stable home, and the maturity I needed to be the most excellent parent I can be. And hopefully I will have the opportunity to be one before too long.

Happy anniversary, Roe v. Wade!

Low blow

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As if I needed more reasons not to like her, Hillary Clinton’s campaign appears to have bought the domain name edwards08-dot-com and pointed it to hillaryclinton-dot-com. Actually, I’m not sure who registered it.

I heard about this story from a blogger I don’t know, and I looked up the domain and the WHOIS information is inconclusive. It’s possible that a “rogue” activist did this and not her campaign. The original registration date is 2/19/04. Anyone care to do additional detective work? And can someone write a press release because this is the kind of garbage that needs to be reported on.

Hello? Paging the MSM. Come in, please…

Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it ethical (as Clinton’s husband well knows). Doesn’t she have a better way to get her message out than by deceiving voters?

Wrong politics, wrong time

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Did you hear the bad news? Hillary is running. Many of us wonder who are these “Democrats” who keep telling pollsters they’d vote for her? I haven’t met any of them.

No-one would benefit more from her nomination than Republican organizers. She’s their public enemy #1, possibly a better bogeyman than Osama Bin Laden. Meanwhile most Democrats (base voters) response to her is something along the lines of… “eh.” If there are still Democratic party leaders that think they can win something by leaning to the right (as she does), I’d like to send them to re-education camp at the Rockridge Institute.

Much as I love the idea of a woman in the White House, I think that right now what we need is a progressive candidate with integrity and grassroots support. Most importantly, the Democratic nominee needs to be someone who can sincerely run on an anti-war platform. That does not spell H.R.C.

By the way, I can’t help but notice that her website looks very familiar…