PUMAs, Get Granny Online, Now!

Barack Obama’s successful exploitation of the internet is a thing of beauty to be celebrated for some, and a frightening opportunity for unprecedented government privacy intrusion and information manipulation for others.  Some even see a threat to journalism as we know it inherent in Obama’s White House internet plans.  According to AP:

Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 — an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect’s vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress.

In sort of the political version of “MTV cops, Miami Vice” spinoff, Joe Trippi says “fireside chats” might give way to You Tube videos:

“He can do a half-hour YouTube address every Saturday, addressing millions,” Trippi said. “The networks would never give the president that much television time each week, but the press is still going to have to cover what he says on YouTube.”

In another wrinkle to the new internet government, Obama’s ties to Google and the Netroots (a contentious relationship, but one the netroots seem curiously reluctant to give up) are also rather worrisome.  Politico reports that given that Google was one of Obama’ s biggest contributors, and that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is one of Obama’s financial advisors, competitors like Microsoft (another, even larger donor) are shaking in their boots:

Google CEO Eric Schmidt didn’t say anything as he flanked President-elect Barack Obama during his first post-election press conference. He didn’t have to.

The image alone of Schmidt standing elbow-to-elbow with Obama’s top economic thinkers was enough to send shivers up the spine of Google’s competitors.

“This terrifies Microsoft,” said a Democratic lobbyist familiar with the industry. “There’s a reason why people are scared to death of Google.”

Schmidt also donated $5,000 to Google NetPAC, Google’s very own political action committee.  This site shows how Google’s PAC spread it around.  Wonder what impact all this will have on Obama’s and the Democratic legislature’s stance on net neutrality?  Matt Stoller of Open Left is getting worried about that, too; not about Google, per se, but about Obama’s tech transition team.

The potential marginalization of journalists by Obama due to his plans for a “straight to video” presidency, is not the only thing his media cheerleaders have to worry about, either.  A bigger, more pressing threat is Obama’s spokesman, soon to be White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, a man quick to anger, and known to hold a grudge.  Said to be so close to Obama he’s called “Barack Whisperer,” like Obie’s a wild horse, or something, Gibbs is the guy kicking reporters off of planes and limiting their access when they write articles he doesn’t like, according to the Washington Post.  Gibbs is also the guy who yelled at Sean Hannity for booking Andy Martin for a segment about Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, since Martin has been accused of being a rabid anti-Semite.

With all this cowboy-like exploration of the Wild, Wild West of the World Wide Web, opportunities exist for not only Obama, the Democrats and other politicians to get their message out efficiently at the speed of light, but for those opposed to his more thug-like tactics and methods, too.  While the blogger bullies have intimidated net surfers on Obama’s behalf with great success, PUMAs stand ready to pounce back and give as good as we get.  They must no longer be allowed to spin WORMs (what Obama really meant) to their advantage, especially since nobody ever really knows what Obama really meant, since everything he says is deliberately ambiguous.

Though PUMAs were late to the party, we’re good at playing catch-up, and while we experience inevitable growing pains as we feel our way through our next baby steps, internet watchdog is a role we’re already set up to play.  In a way, the fact that we weren’t already in place during the primaries cost Hillary Clinton the nomination.  That’s not our fault, we were born out of the injustice of the caucus and primary process and the need to push back against the Obots and blogger bullies.  Let’s face it, Obama won because of a better p.r. campaign, using “astroturfing+ratfucking=astrofucking” Axelrodian techniques combined with Howard Dean’s inspirational use of the Netroots.  In the AP article, Peter Daou, Hillary Clinton’s internet operations manger, indirectly spoke to the reality of PUMA’a potential influence:

Peter Daou, who ran Internet operations for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, said her campaign’s Web outreach was limited by the fact that older and lower-income people — demographic groups most supportive of the former first lady — weren’t using the Internet for communication. Obama will need to find ways to reach those people, Daou said.

“We spent a year trying to bring these people to the Web, and President Obama and his team will have to do the same thing,” Daou said. “It requires a huge public relations effort, using more traditional communications efforts to invite then to participate this way.”

So, PUMA’s it’s up to us.  We need all those friends, neighbors, and grannies and granpas who were inspired to vote for John McCain or a third party candidate rather than reward Obama and the DeaNC’s unDemocratic behavior, to get online, now.  Teach them the bascis, how to use Microsoft to Google PUMA sites.  Let’s beat the bastards at their own game, or at the very least, make ‘em play fair.

We might never have another chance this good to get in on the ground floor of making a real difference.

African Press International: The Thick Plot Coagulates

Boy, oh, boy, talk about a thick plot.  Sammy Korir, Chief Editor of African Press International, the little news web that couldn’t, is fighting back against those who say that his claims of having audio tapes (cassettes, are you kidding me?) of a surprise Michelle Obama telephone call are false.  Korir, in a long, rambling post, says they’re just picking on him because he’s black.  Yep, he went there.  If you want to read his explanation, go here.  If not, I more than understand, I overstand.  Korir’s story of legal agreements to air the tapes, all sorts of allegations about mainstream media involvement and subsequent denials, combined with various elements of international intrigue is just..well, weird, and far too long, complicated and frankly, tedious, to recap in depth.  For all the juicy details though, API, Mountain Sage, my archives, and the following video are good places to start.  Get your popcorn and tinfoil hat ready though, and a mop to clean up your brains from the floor after your head explodes, and maybe some hip waders ’cause baby, this stuff is deep.  All I can say is, it sure beats the hell out of daytime TV for mindless entertainment by a mile.

Barack Obama Took A Shower

Barack Obama needs to do something soon; anything.  For a guy whose whole smoke’n mirrors campaign was based on personality and charisma, the kiss of death would be to appear ordinary.  Face it, an inexperienced, junior Senator from Illinois just isn’t that big a deal.  He needs the grandiose backdrops, the sweeping, ghost-written, TelePrompTer-read speeches, the fake seals and such, or else he’s just a dubiously funded, mysteriously backed…guy.  If he’s not careful, articles like this one on Ben Smith’s blog, just might do him in:

President-elect Barack Obama’s motorcade left his gym at 8:58 a.m., and Obama returned home seven minutes later. Staff said Obama showered and changed at home as press pool held outside. Pool unable to get clear view of Obama. Obama motorcade and press pool now (9:40 a.m.) en route to Obama’s transitional offices downtown.

C’mon, Obie, appoint somebody wierd, or something.  Otherwise, the press just might start looking for something interesting to write about.  And even Chris Matthews won’t be able to help you, then.

What The Hell Is “Traditional” Marriage?

Every election cycle in America “protecting traditional marriage” becomes an issue.  For some reason, gay people seem to only have the urge to attack “traditional marriage” during election years.  The rest of the time, either gays are perfectly content to live their lives blissfully unwed, or straight people just don’t give a shit one way or the other.  However, let somebody run for dogcatcher in Bumfuck, Wherever, and gay people go on the “marriage is my right” warpath, and straights collectively, and instinctively, band together and go, “yechhhh!”

Why?

What is a “traditional marriage,” anyway?  If I remember my Old Testament correctly, “doing it” with somebody was enough to consider you wed, unless one of the partners had already “done it” with somebody else, then that was enough to get you smote.  But, unless I missed the news one day, God has not smote (smited?) an adulterer or fornicator in years, and if “doing it” constituted marriage, instances of bigamy and the divorce rates would be more than twice as high as marriage rates, and the courts wouldn’t have time to do much besides process property dispute claims.  In Genesis, Lot’s daughters got their father drunk and seduced him in order to reproduce, thinking they were the only people left on Earth.  Were they both then married to him?  And, how come nobody thinks that story is yucky?

30Lot went up from Zoar, and ^(IA)stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.

31Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to ^(IB)come in to us after the manner of the earth.

32“Come, ^(IC)let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father.”

33So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

34On the following day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father.”

35So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

36Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

37The firstborn bore a son, and called his name ^(ID)Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day.

38As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of ^(IE)Ammon to this day.

Jesus never married, as far as we know.  Doesn’t that make marriage un-Christian?  Why not, holier-than-thou Nosy Parkers?

“Marriage should be between one man and one woman.”

What man?  Which woman?  What about everybody else?  Once you find that “one man” and the “one woman” he’s supposed to be married to, what happens?  Is everybody else supposed to wander the earth alone?  Of course, these arguments can be considered silly.  But so can the whole emphasis on “traditional marriage.”  Biblical considerations aside, what’s “traditional” in some countries, families, communities, eras, etc. can be very different than others.

Interracial marriage is pretty common in America today, but would you be lying if you said it was an American tradition?  Maybe not.  We were all taught the story of Pocahontas and Sacajawea, yet miscegenation was against the law until 1967.  In 1961, when Barack Obama was born, his parents’ marriage would have been considered illegal, and certainly not “traditional” in most parts of the land he is now poised to lead.

What if everybody in your family had married blondes for generations, but you hooked up with a brunette?  Not “traditional.”  Or, what if you come from a long line of drunks who beat the crap out of each other for fun, but you find happiness with a quiet teetotaler?  “Traditional?”  How about the middle class girl who finds love with a filthy rich heir to a fortune, or a penniless bum?  Her family just might not think either choice is “traditional,” but that probably wouldn’t have much to do with whether or not they were happy about the relationship.

People obsess about other people’s sexuality because they’re nosy and judgmental.  No human has the moral authority to grant another absolution in any regard, especially with respect to affairs of the heart.  Who cares who anybody else sleeps with, loves, makes a home with?  Is your straight relationship better than, and morally superior to, my gay one, even if you like to sleep around with strangers and make them dress up like Little Bo Peep while you poke them with cattle prods, while I’ve been “spiritually married” to the same person for twenty years?  (I haven’t really; not into the Bo Peep thing, either, just making a point, play along and don’t ask questions.)  Is a child molester who only abuses kids of the opposite sex more likely to find favor with God and gain entrance to Heaven than same-sex offenders?  If the abuser is married, are his or her offenses still crimes or merely infidelity?

We need to stop trying to legislate the un-legislate-able.  Either all marriages are civil unions, or all civil unions are marriages. There is no reason to define marriage as anything other than a contractual agreement between two consenting adults.  What race, religion, gender or anything else they are is completely beside the point.  In my opinion, anybody who doesn’t see it that way, truly can’t claim to worship a loving God.