The 2000 Presidential election woke many people up to the inequalities of elections – will your vote be counted? This year, there are thousands of lawyers on both sides ready to donate their time to making certain that everyone’s right to vote is protected (just as there were thousands of lawyers in NYC during the RNC). The freedom to vote and the freedom of speech and the right to protest should not be abridged.

I expect everyone to vote. But i would also strongly encourage you to get involved in the politics of the election. Register to be a poll worker (SF click here). Polls usually have a hard time getting people to staff them and this is where some of the worst limits on the right to vote happen. The average poll worker is 72; they are usually not technologically savvy (even though most poll machines are now electronic).

Even if you aren’t working, go to the polls and observe the practices that are occurring; report anything fishy (1-866-OUR-VOTE). And of course, if you can, consider traveling to places where voting is more likely to be abridged.

One purported benefit of industrialization is mobility. With the advent of transportation and communication tools, people became more mobile and were able to move further from the city. My grandfather was involved in the airline industry throughout his career and whenever we’re together, he tells me stories about that aspect of mobility; it always makes me smile to think that my mother was born in Gander, Newfoundland because that’s where planes had to refuel before going on to Europe. Today, i’m able to communicate with anyone in the world instantly and complain when my flight is delayed by 30 minutes.

One thing that makes this globalized world operate is the eerie duplication of chain culture resulting in a Walmart nation. If you look at any town in the States, you will find the same selection of brands, offering their wares in the same layout and with the same feel. Small towns collect chains like they’re going out of style. Aside from the wedding venue, i don’t think i entered a single establishment this week that wasn’t a chain, from the Tuxedo Shop to Jillian’s to the CVS to the McDs. I visited multiple malls and they all contained the same establishments and fit into one of a few possible mall layouts. The smaller the town, the more obvious the key retail establishment becomes: Walmart. It is the one place open 24/7 to serve all of your emergency needs (strappy shoes: $4.83).

When you live in small-city or town culture, mobility means being able to go from one town to the next and get the same services. As long as you stick to the same size town and same socio-economic level, you’re bound to have everything that is always available.

Living in a city is not like that. When people land here, they often ask where one gets one’s groceries, one’s hardware, one’s underwear. There aren’t really shopping centers in cities, or at least nothing compared to Retail Row in Walmart Nation. Things are scattered.

Of course, cities come with their own brands, brands that capitalize on the disdain of city residents to Retail Row. These “lifestyle” brands (from No Logo) help us define ourselves not as bargain consumers, but sophisticated, cultured consumers. A fucking Starbucks latte costs almost as much as my Walmart shoes. No wonder it’s easy to jump from San Francisco to New York to London to Chicago: Starbucks Nation.

Mobility is no longer about transportation or about communication: it’s about consumption and values. Starbucks Nation exists in pockets connected by airplanes while Walmart Nation fills in the rest, negotiated by cars and interstates. It’s the blue nation vs. the red, cemented by lifestyle consumption vs. bargain shopping.

This morning, i got an email from a friend saying that he would double his contribution (i.e. give $500) to the Kerry contribution if 10 of his friends contributed. I contributed.

I’m going to return the favor. If 10 of you contribute directly to the Kerry-Edwards Campaign within 24 hours, i will double my contribution.

Note: I believe that Thursday is the last day for citizens to offer private contributions to Kerry; after that, it’s public-funding only!

Although i uninstalled Shrook, Newsweek kept coming during finals. Thus, i read all about the prison crises. While the soldiers were saying that they followed orders, those in charge were passing the blame or saying that it was just a few people operating inappropriately. Stanley Milgram, anyone?

Waking up, my roommate reminded me that it was Memorial Day and we got to talking about different wars. I started thinking about how the military always follows orders and is always a pillar of conservative ideas. They’re the most likely population to vote Republican. I wonder how much they feel betrayed right now. I mean, their Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of Defense betrayed their trust and then refused to take responsibility for what happened. Even McNamara knew that those at the top were always responsible.

Newsweek had all of these write-ups about military folks who were embarassed by the prison scandel. Do you think that they’ll vote for Bush in Round II? Where do their allegiences lie?

I forgot to blog about this amazing talk i went to last week. I’ve been desperately wanting to take a class with George Lakoff after reading only a part of Women Fire and Dangerous Things. Sadly, that has yet to happen. But when i found out he was talking in Berkeley about the language of (Republican) politics, i rushed through grading to make it to his talk. OMG. I am *so* glad i went. It has to be the most memorable and amazing talk i’ve been to in ages.

He opened by being adorable, noting that he’s a professor and teaches seminars – 15 people sitting around a table discussing not huge scary lecture halls, let alone churches full of an attentive paying audience. He notes that if this many people showed up to hear a linguistics professor talk, he has more confidence in November 2 than he thought.

He next talks about how the Republicans spend some billion dollars on think tanks each year – 43 think tanks, one created about each year, all started in 1970 by one of Nixon’s people. Large amounts of research go into linguistics and how we use language. They train Republicans to use language as a powerful tool. Democrats don’t do this.

He then talks about intro cog-sci. Don’t think of an elephant. Of course, you think of an elephant. You need to realize the frame to negate it. This can be powerful when framing the words of politics. Framing is key because it makes it harder to discuss things. Tax relief. Who can be against a concept so beneficial as tax relief? Well, taxes are put to good use. But by framing it through the pain of the people rather than the use value, Republicans have been able to make it hard to discuss. Are you for or against the President’s tax relief plan? Hard to get at the issues from that framing.

Progressives like to eschew values, saying that there aren’t progressive values. Bullshit. Furthermore, people vote their values, their connections and their identity, not what is best for them. This helps to explain why poor mid-Westerners vote in favor of Republicans who continue to make them poorer and poorer and poorer…. The Republicans know this. Democrats think that they need to be more moderate to win votes; Republicans aren’t that stupid.

Lakoff introduced a whole framework about how the nation can be viewed as a family and how there are two different models of families – the strict father family and the nurturing parent family. He then shared a compelling amount of information on this topic that is really hard to summarize, but Metaphor, Morality and Politics is Lakoff’s written version of this.

Anyhow, there was so much more, so much sublety. And of course, the talk definitely motivated me to buy his new book: Moral Politics.

I have to admit that it’s nice to be in yet-another-school where the linguistics department is getting hyper political and speaking to the public. And, just like at Chomsky’s talks, there were plenty of annoying attendees who decided to pester the speaker in a screaming, not discussing kind of way. One had to be hauled off after he refused to let Lakoff talk. Another had to be engaged by one of the audience members who took the bullet for the rest of us. Of course, Lakoff joked about this all: remember, Berkeley is the home of the Free Speech movement. ::laugh::

It seems that folks have been finding lots of information about technology & justice… i thought i’d share since they shared with me.

FRONTIER JUSTICE: On the Web, Vengeance Is Mine (and Mine)

iPod: This Season’s Must-Have for Muggers

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Identity theft is supposedly the #1 crime in America right now, according to all of my creditors. Thousands (?millions?) of people have their identity (and associated materials) stolen every year. Yet, it is really hard to track down these criminals and most law enforcement has to focus on violent crimes. I mean, who really has time to go after petty criminals who used someone’s credit card to buy burgers?

Yet, this situation interests me beyond my personal investment. Don’t get me wrong.. on a personal level, i’m pretty pissed that these guys had the gaul to come to my party and steal my shit. But on a meta-level, there are some interesting questions.

If the United States really is a small world, the people that i know should know people [iterate to on average 5.5] that know these guys, right? If blogs can extend beyond the echo-chamber, shouldn’t we be able to use blogs to reach the people who know these guys?

We’re living in a society that is quickly becoming camera-phone enabled. We’re worried about privacy when these pictures are broadcast, understandably. But can we use the breaks in privacy to demand legal justice? We often talk about how the Interweb is affecting the regulation of social norms… Can the connected community around the Interweb also enforce law?

Already, through this situation, i’ve seen the power of care. I’ve seen amazing people who i barely know act up to say this isn’t cool and do what they can to acquire information, spread the word, repost those pictures, etc. I’ve heard from people who’ve gone through similar situations. I’m in awe of the strangers who are being supportive, of the number of people who have experienced similar crap, with no justice.

Can we go beyond support? Can the Interweb/blogosphere actually demand justice on a personal level? And if i can demand justice for me, can it demand justice for others in a similar predicament? Can citizens take control over the thieves?

Having your identity materials stolen is very disempowering. Having to wait for cops to maybe consider trying to solve this problem is depressing. I don’t know if anything will come out of my broadcasting this situation, but it sure is empowering to try. And it really makes me wonder just how powerful the Interweb can be.

Useful links:
– Pictures of the thieves
– Craigslist missed connections post

Feel free to spread the word and help me identify these people, particularly if you have contacts in Austin.

Update: I forgot to note that i feel badly for misusing the term robbery here. I hadn’t realized that robbery and theft were not synonymous until the discussion emerged from this post. More precisely, i didn’t realize that robbery had to involve force, which this incident did not.

Last week, six guys came into a party that i was cohosting and stole my stuff. The six came together and left together. Tonight, a dear friend found a picture of one of the guys online:

One party attender stated the this guy asked for the bathroom (where my purse was ripped apart for valuable items).

I contacted the photographer and he sent me the rest of the pictures where you can see more of the guys (time stamps: 1:24AM-1:39AM).

Another party attender accidentally walked in the bathroom when the actual robber was going through my bag. He didn’t realize what was going on at the time, but he was able to ID the actual robber from this picture:

“He’s in this picture, but his face isn’t visible. He’s the one standing closest to the orange door with the short hair and the green t-shirt. He was the tallest, least hip, and most drunk of the group. I wish you had something more identifying. That is definitely him.”

Because these guys racked up my credit cards (and used the web from my phone), it’s now a felony fraud investigation as well as a robbery. Thanks everyone for helping me track down more information. If anyone has any clues, do let me know. Needless to say, the bloggers are going faster than the detectives. Thank you thank you thank you to those3 who are looking out for me!

Update 3/23: Detective Jewett (the detective on this case) said that i could post his email if anyone has additional information and wants to send it directly to him. (Be nice! Don’t send anything not related to the case, cause he’s being open and helpful.)

Detective Jewett: jason [dot] jewett [at] ci [dot] austin [dot] tx [dot] us
Austin Police Report Number: 2004-501-1946

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A year ago, i broke my hatred for protesting and took to the streets to publicly state my disagreement with my government. My support for their decisions has not grown. I still don’t understand what we’re doing in Iraq and i’m tired of the propaganda. But, unlike last year, i didn’t go to the streets. I find protests a bit frustrating because i don’t feel as though i’m actually helping any cause and the supposed community goodness part of it tends to turn me against my fellow dissenters.

That said, it makes me sick to my stomach to hear of police violence against protestors. Worse, i’m absolutely horrified to read about how the government operates to outlaw dissent in this country [a *scary* must read article – use the day pass – it’s worth it].

To cheer me up, a friend sent along a list of the marriage status of some of the biggest defenders of the sanctity of marriage (from The Daily Show):

Ronald Reagan — divorced the mother of two of his children to marry Nancy Reagan who bore him a daughter 7 months after the marriage.

Bob Dole — divorced the mother of his child, who had nursed him through the long recovery from his war wounds.

Newt Gingrich — divorced his wife who was dying of cancer.

Dick Armey, House Majority Leader — divorced.

Senator Phil Gramm of Texas — divorced.

Governor John Engler of Michigan — divorced.

Governor Pete Wilson of California — divorced.

George Will — divorced.

Senator Lauch Faircloth — divorced.

Rush Limbaugh — and his current wife, Marta, have six marriages and four divorces between them.

Senator Bob Barr of Georgia — not yet 50 years old, has been married three times. He had the audacity to author and push the “Defense of Marriage Act.” The current joke making the rounds on Capitol Hill is “Bob Barr — WHICH marriage are you defending?!?)

Senator Alf onse D’Amato of New York — divorced.

Senator John Warner of Virginia — once married to Liz Taylor.

Governor George Allen of Virginia — divorced.

Representative Helen Chenoweth of Idaho — divorced.

Senator John McCain of Arizona — divorced.

Representative John Kasich of Ohio — divorced.

Representative Susan Molinari of New York (Republican National Convention Keynote Speaker) — divorced.

The bottom line — “Don’t let gays destroy marriage — that’s the job of the Republicans!”

“If you really want to protect the institution of marraige, how about a constitutional amendment against adultery?”  – Jon Stewart

I just listened to Joe Trippi speak at Etech. Everyone was ecstatic, enthused, wanting more, wanting to see how to extend it further. I was disappointed, reminded of why i feel disenchanted with politics. In campaigns, the measurement of success is how much money is raised, how many people are behind the person, etc. Quantitative bits.

Well, i want qualitative.

What does it mean to have a candidate who can distribute their voices down the Internet channel as well as the TV channel? Everyone gets all excited because the Dean campaign had an interactive communication scheme online. What does that mean? How many people’s opinions were changed this way? Somehow, i get the impression that the digital interactive environment allowed those with the same views to talk to others with the same views. This is *great* for support groups, but dreadful for changing the system.

I remember a conversation i had with Manuel Castells. He was worried that the Internet only segmented people more, letting them self-segregate into gated communities based on similarity. I really took this to heart; i think he’s dead-on. All too often, the Internet lets us find like-minded people and solidify our intolerance to other views. ::sigh::

So, back to Trippi… Great.. the Dean campaign found volunteers online, raised money online. They figured out how to take traditional campaign metrics and utilize the Internet to maximize those. The mass media/Internet certainly motivated the party to pay attention… something new! But did it really change much? The marginalized populations in this country still feel marginalized. The way we run campaigns in this country are so focused on money and power that i think that we lose track of the point.

Of course, the talk was certainly focused on Internet campaigning, not digital democracy. And as a friend of mine pointed out, things like this are evolutionary, not revolutionary. So maybe this is just the first step. But dear me was it painful to hear the defensive justification about how money is spent.