Cheesebikini just posted the link to Reclaim the Streets, a giant street party intended to make people think on February 14, 2003.

Avoid the questionable Diebold machines. Register as an absentee voter so that you can have a receipt of your vote. In many states, this takes quite a while so DO IT NOW. [I’ll still love you even if you vote for someone i don’t like, but i’ll be very angry with you for not voting.]

If you’re in California, here’s the form. It takes all of 30 seconds to fill out.

Say whatever you want about Leonardo. But global warming movie is a really beautiful and compelling little reminder to the masses in a non-aggressive way. WATCH IT.

In “The Frame Around Arnold,” Lakoff (re)suggests that people vote their identity:

In ‘Moral Politics,’ I suggested that voters vote their identity they vote on the basis of who they are, what values they have, and who and what they admire. A certain number of voters identify themselves with their self-interest and vote accordingly. But that is the exception rather than the rule. There are other forms of personal identification with one’s ethnicity, with one’s values, with cultural stereotypes, and with culture heroes. The most powerful forms of identification so far as elections are concerned are with values and corresponding cultural stereotypes.

I don’t think that i agree. I think that they *use* their identity to vote, but they don’t vote their identity. For example, i used my identity to vote *against* a candidate in the recall and SF mayoral elections, not particularly *for* any candidate. In fact, i don’t identify with any of the candidates i’ve ever seen… i choose the lesser of evils. Most candidates represent a very small percentage of people. Certainly, some of the represent what people would like to one day be (and if your ideal is to be the Terminator, goddess help you). In the States, they vote Protestant Ethic style. But seriously, who in California really represents the Mexican community? Who represents the disenfranchised migrant workers (oh, wait, they can’t vote…)? And who on earth does Ahr-nold really represent? I’m sorry… but i don’t buy that he represents the strict father morality to most people.

That said, i really appreciate a lot of Lakoff’s arguments, particularly his deconstruction of the framing of the election.

Tomorrow is voting day in California. It will be a circus; it already has been a circus. And i’m so sensitive to election issues. I’m an adament believer that you can’t bitch unless you vote. And i’m a strong believer that you have to be a responsible voter. This means that, more often than note, you have to cast an anti-vote instead of a pro-vote. I’ve never found an electable candidate that represents me, but i’m not going to vote the closest approximation when an election is so tight and when my poor choice could help elect a clown. While i will never be a religious missionary, i’m certainly an evangelist when it comes to my political views.

Thus, to proselytize for a moment:
– No on the recall
– No on 54
– Anti-Schwarzenegger vote = Bustamante

The Computing Culture Group at the Media Lab never ceases to make me smiles. To celebrate the 4th of July, they’ve unleashed the Government Information Awareness program:

To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy to use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America.

To allow citizens to submit intelligence about government related issues, while maintaining their anonymity. To allow members of the government a chance to participate in the process.

Happy Independence Day! Let freedom reign!

Normally, i love American Airlines. In fact, they’ve been my primary airline for two years now. Of course, a message in my mailbox makes me reconsider that:

My niece and two of her friends saw the Vagina Monalogues this year at Berkeley California and became empowered, bought Pussy Power T-Shirts with the name, date and location of the play on the back of them.

Just a couple of weeks ago these three and a friend were on an American airlines trip to Hawaii. Three of the four young women were wearing their T-shirts from the play. The stewardesses would not serve them because of the T-shirts. NO water, drinks, food, meals, head-sets for the movie, nothing. The girls tried to explain but the women stewardesses would not listen. Their friend who had not seen the play and didn’t have a T-shirt was served. Other women in the area gave them some drinks, rented head-sets for them etc.

I was outraged at this. Is their anyone whom they can contact to help them with this? Also on the return trip from Hawaii, the exact same crew served them everything as they were wearing their new Hawaii shirts and garb.

Sincerely,
Margaret Garcia

The young women are more then willing to talk to someone about this. Their travel agent is upset and has contacted American Airlines but to no avail yet.

It’s frustrating that in a big corporate world, i couldn’t even fathom who they should contact to express their outrage and frustration.

I’m terrified by the current state of political affairs. What worries me more than the obvious game happening in Washington is what is coming down the line at the lower levels. Thus, i’m ecstatic to help those who are trying to make changes that are focused on the long term goals.

A few months back, two of the smartest people i know started a non-profit to address the emerging risk of losing the legal issues surrounding a women’s right to choose. They realize that the federal judicial system is run by a lot of anti-choice, anti-women judges and that up-and-coming lawyers are not trained to actively challenge the laws that are being generated. [They realize this in part because one of them completed her law degree without ever being able to address women’s issues in law.] Thus, they created Law Students for Choice to educate and motivate smart future lawyers to conscientiously learn how to challenge the legal system in this arena.

I love that my friends are starting to build their own non-profit start-ups and use their post-collegiate political energy to generate a coherent national agenda. This gives me hope.

This is Your Story – The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On.

In his blog, Eric posted a set of links about ‘New World vs. New Europe’ that made me scratch my non-existent goatee. In recent days, i’ve been having increasingly more conversations about gendered behavior concerning power management, or more precisely, about how marginalized individuals have different schemes for acquiring and maintaining power through subtle and subversive ways. The articles on Europe made me think about a previous article that i posted and about the differences in power between Europe and the US. But more fundamentally, in combination, they made think about how my thoughts on power management don’t just apply to individuals, but to systems. Europe, having been dwarfted in power by the US in recent years has to be much more subversive, subtle and organized in how it acquires power; brute force no longer works. Conversely, the US continues to just simply carry a big stick in world politics. Of course, this beckons the question: are such alternate forms of negotiation destined to be far more successful or will they always be marginalized by brute force?