Friday, September 22, 2006

Spread the good word.

I don't know exactly why i should feel the compulsion to post this, but there are apparently people who Fox News really translates to Faux News.

So, some quick updates.

Air America is not Bankrupt. Since Think Progress has the guts to retract a story, maybe Fox News does too? Well, kind of. Fox News itself has run the same story as think Progress, but the anchor who wrote about the story - now and also back in June and before that - Bill O'Reilly hasn't posted an update to his part of the site. Oh yea, don't forget that Bill is also on Al Qeada's hit list, even though his own network denies it.

That isn't surprising. If you'd like to know whether or not Air America is alive and well, you can check their actual website. Or, alternatively, if you live in the Dallas Area, tune into 910 AM; Austin: 1600 AM; San Antonio: 103.1 FM . Oh, and expect a ton of positivity.

Alternatively, you can tune in on-line and listen to shows in syndication and/or offered simultaneously to other shows.

Sunday on the Texas Progressive Radio Network features sermons of Peace and understanding, inspired by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Hear something on Fox News? Ignore it for your health -- it's more deadly than fresh spinach.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Hey Travel Agents: get a wiki!

If there's one piece of advice I could give the loval Tourism bureaus, it'd be to get on the web, and to start a travel and tourism wiki.

I'm serious about this. It seems like Houston and San Antonio really want to promote themselves to each other. When I turn on the TV here, I see an ad cavorting me to visit San Antonio. When I visit my family in San Antonio, I see ads for the mall an exit on I-10 away from my home. Gosh, they're thinking of me!

If you don't know what a wiki is or how it can benefit you, here is atravel and tourism wiki newsletter that has a wealth of great information on how a wiki can beneifit the CVB as well as any bunsiesses and tourists.

A Wiki is a collectively-edited website. Here are few ways a wiki can help you:


  • Create an internal, encrypted wiki for use by employees. The content can be easily updated and modified, and control could be placed over who could edit the wiki.

  • Add your business or geographic area to relevant public wikis. It's a great way to promote your business, and to have individuals other than you point out their favorite things and events in one centrral place!

  • Observe proper behavior on a wiki if you're a professional involved in a promoted business or industry. Don't be anonymous - promote your business when you contribute! Also don't remove competitiors, but do correct factual mistakes (observe the golden rule).

  • For a good example of a geographic wiki, check out RoaringForkWiki for ideas about how to structure your wiki. That newsletter above also has other resources for creating your own personal wiki easily and painlessly.


Alright, CVBs out there: got a wiki? Post it in the comments below. show me what you got, why I should leave my house for you.

Tripping through the blogosphere....

I've been up to no good lately, at least according to some folks. I'll post more on a particular feud over one comment a little later, when i can get my thoughts in order.

Around the Conservative media and blogosphere, there seems to be an uproar over a "lack of Unity" behind our President. This is of course a smear campaign against anyone who has trouble with unlimited warrant less spying, unlimited arrest and detention of any person without no evidence or criminal charges, and let's not forget the little trifling matter of outing covert agents, and then suppressing an investigation into the damage caused by such a a leak.

Be warned, that if you make any public statement questioning the validity of these acts, you will be labelled "un-American." If you're an elected Democrat, you will be called an "islamofascist" even if you're a christian minister and/or a U.S. Military reservist or retiree.

It's refreshing to know that not all conservatives are steamrolling towards the extreme right. A few cases in point:

CrooksandLiars has a post on a new book coming out, written by Sen. John Danforth, formerly a contender to be Bush's Vice-Presidential Candidate, an exclusive from Raw Story:

The former Missouri senator shortlisted to be then-Governor Bush's running mate in the 2000 presidential election -- said to have been second choice only to Vice President Cheney -- will come out vehemently against administration and Congressional Republican policy in a book to be published next week., according to an advance copy obtained by RAW STORY.

John Danforth, who retired in 1995 after four terms in the Senate, briefly served as Bush's ambassador to the United Nations but resigned after Condoleezza Rice was tapped to be Secretary of State. According to CNN, he was second on the list of Bush's potential vice presidential choices in 2000.

In Faith and Politics, to be released Tuesday, Danforth blasts the alignment of the Republican Party with the Christian right, lays out his most aggressive pro-gay stance to date and attacks the handling of the Terri Schiavo case.
See, this is what's called "thinking" for yourself, and respecting the rights of every American Citizen to do as they wish (isn't that point of Capitalism and Democracy?). It's also about principles such as small, limited government and self-determination:

Danforth calls the Terri Schiavo case -- where Congress intervened to attempt to keep a severely brain-damaged woman from being taken off life support -- "Big Brotherism."

"That the federal government could intervene in the Schiavo case was a threat to all the families that had seen their loved ones suffer through terminal illness," he writes.

It was a threat to people who were terrified that their own lives might someday be artificially extended in nightmarish circumstances. It was a threat to some of our most heartfelt values. It was Big Brotherism in the extreme, an exercise of the raw and awesome power of the federal government.
"They intervened not in the name of principle, but at the expense of principle," Danforth avers. "They abandoned principle by deciding a medical question without any firsthand knowledge of what they were doing."
So, let's add The Reverend John Danforth, an ordained Episcopal Priest, to the ranks of Colin Powell, John Dean, and other conservative who have the moral fortitude to stand up and say that they will not go blindly down this dark path.

You can pre-order Danforth's Faith and Politics

While there, why not pick up Conservatives Without Conscience by John W. Dean, White house Counsel to Richard Nixon, and self-described Barry Goldwater conservative. You might also like any of the books by or about Colin Powell.

For a more immediate fix, Crooksandliars has video of Joe Scarborough placing Principles above Partisanship or Sen. Lindsey Graham explaining the importance of the Geneva Conventions. Scarborough is a former Republican congressman from Florida, and Sen. Graham is a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Austin City Limit Blues

Choose from over 1 million tracks for only 99¢ a song at iTunes

The Austin City Limits Festival is starting today. The festival will run all weekend.

I won't be there , though. I've got to stay here in Houston, and sleep and recuperate from travelling so much. I was in San Antonio last night, and Austin early this morning. Here in Houston yesterday and today, so you can imagine how i feel right now, road warrior that I am.

Last year I attended the ACL Festival (I lived in Austin). It was a great time: I bought five tickets on the second wave of ticket release, and my brother flew in from Florida to go with me, my fiance, one of my best friends, and my roommate. All the usual drama that occurs whenever my brother and I have gotten together this century occurred, and I almost kicked him out of my house.

Apple iTunes
(I really enjoyed Keane's performance.)

My fiance talked me out of being the brat little brother, and the weekend overall was incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed the Festival experience, except for the ever-present dust storm and the heat.

And one other thing almost threatened to ruin it for me.

It was my first ACL Festival, and I wasn't prepared for the commercialism of it all. I wrote an angry comment to the organizers or whoever got those things, i said they ought to change the name from "Austin City Limits" to "Austin City Suburbs," though perhaps "exurbs" would have been better.

For all the weirdness that is Austin, this great screwed-up state's Capitol, the festival in 2005 was overtly normal. To be fair the food booths were ppredominantlylocal, and non-chain. And not surprisingly, they weren't as overpriced as food booths tend to be.

Local coffee shop like Ruta Maya featured? Naw, Starbucks.
Local Texas Wine industry showcased Naw, Blackstone.
Local Micro brews proudly serving up true to roots Texas beer? Nopers, just the big boys.

How prominent was the booth selling lemonade to raise money for childhood cancer?
It was hidden near the kiddie area, almost behind a stage. Super-expensive mega brew beer was placed about twenty times more prominently and conveniently.


Now, of course it's relevant to ask if the problem was primarily funds (could struggling locals even afford to bid on a sponsorship?), and it could have been purely logistical -- what small company can handle the sheer load of a festival? I don't know. Because it's ACL, I have to give them a little leniency. AND a little nudge towards the bbetter path once in awhile.

If you want to hear the Festival from 2005, a selection of performances is available on iTunes:


Franz Ferdinand - Austin City Limits Festival


Lyle Lovett played last year . . . He's always a highlight for me, whether it's at the ACL or at the Austin New Years Eve bash. If you gotta have an anthem in Texas, this is mine:

Lyle Lovett - Live in Texas - That's Right (You're Not from Texas) [Live]

Monday, September 11, 2006

Austin Apogee Search - Build your site's hits!

It's refreshing when I hear about a tech company doing in Texas. Since I've moved from Austin to Houston, I've missed that Austin vibe. Live Music every single night, cheap beer and good mates to drink with, frisbee golf, and Barton Springs.

That's I'm proud to tell you about PPC in Austin. If you didn't know, PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a phenomenal method of promoting your site, and these guys, Apogee Search are some of the tops in the field at placing your site much, much higher in search engine's relevancy rankings. The best thing is, you only pay for the the clicks you get.

That way, you're assured that you only pay for services that work for you.

Support Texas Technology -- Support Pay Per Click in Austin , and keep Texas unique and thriving smartly.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Iranian President seen on the Christian Broadcasting Network!

Iranian President Ahmadinejad recently made news when he declared openly his intention to purge Iranian Universities of "secular" professors.

Ahmadinajad stated that it was students who were asking him to make the move, and said that secularism had adversely affected the Religious movement of the education system.

What wasn't known until now, is that he had formerly stated that Liberal and Secular Professors literally beat their students into submission, and that the only way to salvation was for folks to put down their hard-earned cash for his private religious institutions.

Now, for the first time ever, is his previous statement. Thanks to youtube, now you can witness the depravity that is the man!



Stay tuned . . . I've heard reports that there's a documentary that goes inside the hard-line religious schools employed by Ahmadinajad, the Taliban, and Al-Qaida.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Tall Tales coming to a boob tube near you....watchya gonna do?

In case you haven't heard, ABC is putting out a new "docudrama" about the events of September 11, 2001. That's almost okay, except that the piece is apparently crap and very, very false.

You can learn the facts at Don't Airbrush 9/11. One of the most telling is that advance copies have been given not only to entertainment reporters, but to conservative and right-wing commentators such as Rush Limbaugh. Bill Clinton and other officials slimed in this movie have not been allowed advance copies, and neither have any of the most popular left-leaning blogs.

ABC has a blog for this movie here. The latest post is quoted below, and I've added my annotations.


Even Further Clarification

It seems that people keep referring to this movie as a "documentary"
. A documentary is a journalistic format that gives facts and information through interviews and news footage. This is a movie or more specifically a docudrama. Meaning, it is a narrative movie based on facts and dramatized with actors.
Pardon me. Dictionary.com lists as the second definition of "documentary": Movies, Television. based on or re-creating an actual event, era, life story, etc., that purports to be factually accurate and contains no fictional elements: a documentary life of Gandhi. Notice the key omission from ABC's statement: no fictional elements. Dramatization, as it used here, means fictionalized.

The team of filmmakers, actors and executives responsible for this movie have a wide range of political perspectives. I would say that most of those perspectives (which is the vast majority in Hollywood) would be considered "liberal" or "left". Some of the very people who are being villified by the left as having a 'right wing agenda' are the very people who are traditionally castigated by the right as being 'liberal dupes' in other projects they have presented. To make a movie of this size and budget requires many people to sign off on it. One person's "agenda" (if anyone should have one) is not enough to influence a movie to one's individual politics when a far broader creative and political consensus is an inherent part of the process.
Actually, the screen writer for this film, Cyrus Nowrasteh, is a rabid conservative wag. He openly advocates a conservative shift in Hollywood, feeding the myth that Hollywood is liberal to begin with. As James Wolcott noted on the Rachel Maddow show, even though George Clooney is a self-described Liberal, his tar power makes it possible for him to do movies with actors and other who don't share his views. Even trolling Clooney's acting history at imdb, one can find he's been in projects not necessarily liberal in nature. Of course, as Clooney got in the director's and producer's seat, his films can represent more of his views.

So, too, does this film largely represent the views of its director, screenwriter, and production company. It may be that other involved int he project are "liberal," but it also equally true, then that they are earning a paycheck, not calling the shots.

And the consensus that emerged over and over during development, production and post production is that we tried, as best we can, based on 9/11 Commission Report and numerous other sources and advisors, to present an accurate and honest account of the events leading to 9/11.
Well, as covered above, this is anything but accurate and honest. Tom Kean, a 9/11 commission member and an official advisor to the film, has indicated that it contains factual errors. Roger Cressey, a former Bush counter terrorism official, calls the film "something out of fantasy land."

The redundant statement about Clinton and the emphasis to protect his legacy instead of trying to learn from the failures of BOTH administrations smells of "agenda". You may feel we "bash" Clinton and/or you may feel we "bash" Bush but the facts are that the eight years from the first WTC bombing to the day of 9/11 involved two administrations with plenty of culpability all around. Something needs to explain how that happened.
Watch the movie! Then let's talk. If you haven't seen the movie with your very own eyes - don't castigate the movie out of ignorance.
-David Cunningham
September 02, 2006 | Permalink
No, what actually smells of agenda is the the way the film was only pre-screened by right-wing commentators, and how Clinton's office was not allowed an advance copy. The danger in this film, is that if aired on a major network, it could spread its falsehoods to even more millions of households.

For a little more truth on the disconnect between Clinton and Bush, watch Condoleeza Rice answering questions from Richard Ben-Veniste of the 9-11 commission:



Don't you hate it when someone asks you a direct question, rather than fluff?

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

A response to conservatives supporting Kinky Friedman.

This was originally intended as a comment on this blog. Unfortunately, I'm using the new-fangled Blogger Beta, and it doesn't play well with non-Beta bloggers. So the comment is below.

I previously posted about this video and one other here.

I will revisit this issue again soon, but I first must sleep and take care of general other things.

COMMENT:

What really troubles me about Kinky's comment is that Joe Lieberman isn't "Pro-Israel." He's anti-Arab, and anti-Arab democracy, and as a consequence, ant-Israel. TO say what Kinky did, that Lamont and the folks who voted for him are "Anti-American and Anti-Israel," is not only wrong, but it's ignorantly knee-jerk stupid. His campaign manager should have slapped him.

You and a select minority of the nation may be giddy that we have our army over there dying under false pretenses, and Kinky may believe that American dominance in the Middle East is paramount to American national policy. It is this mindset, perpetuated by Bush and the GOP, that subjugates Israel, ultimately foisting her up for defeat.

The GOP, expressed through the "Freedom Plan" Bush and Cheney enacted after 9/11, sees Israel simply as an immune military arm enslaved to do bidding of the U.S.

Let's be clear about something: "the bidding of the U.S." refers not to the will of the people, expressed through Democratic means. Rather, it refers to the hegemonic interests of behemoth corporations whose headquarters reside int he U.S. Or at least whose campaign contributions find their way to the GOP.

Take a minute and educate yourself. You don't have to be Liberal to understand that this Administration is very far off base. Just ask John Dean. I'll be happy to recommend some reference books.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Issues with Issues. TX Guv, Money and people flowin'

Have I been too hard on Kinky?

Really, now, I got thinking about it. because I don't want to procrastinate, and the election really gets under way in the next few weeks...

On the issues, Chris Bell and Kinky Friedman are very similar in their positions. They both want a cleaner Texas in both the Environmental and Political sense, both want to bridge the divide between Republicans and Democrats on major issues, both are opposed to the "Trans-Texas Corridor." The Greens don't appear to have a gubernatorial candidate this cycle, at least not posted to their website.

Rick Perry has the party-line Republican stance on issues and Strayhorn hasn't posted a stance on the issues on-line. Both are in support of toll-roads, and largely pushing Corporate interests are and disguising them as the people's interests. This is the undue influence of Special Interests their opponents speak of.

James Werner, the Libertarian candidate, is even further off that "Big Corporation need more freedom to gauge us," meme. He and Kinky are the only to list immigration as issues, and Werner is the only Pro-Immigration (free borders) candidate.

Check them out. Who do you think you'll vote for? Would you prefer instant Run-off Voting?

IRV was a big point of the Green Party back when I was involved in the Bexar County Chapter in 2000. Think about it. With the current set-up, you literally are afraid to vote your conscience for fear of "throwing away" your vote and giving the race to the one candidate you hate the most. IRV allows you to vote for your top choice, and then for the safety as well. . .if our vote is our voice, don't we all want to be heard?

With all the talk of NAFTA, free-trade and secure borders, (meaning: free flow for money and wealth, no flow for human capital) it's important that we think about the incentives that drive people. I'll have a more cogent thought later, but I wanted to pass this on:

Over the Texas Green Party's Site, they're hosting a Flash animation, Who Rules the World? that was put up a few years ago, I believe.

It raises an important question about the corrupting power of money, and the influence that has over politics. Think about it when you consider the practices, in China or elsewhere, of an old-money corporation such as Wal-Mart versus a new-money corporation such as Google.

Take a moment, after, to reflect on how small businesses get treated.

Then think about how the U.S. Congress treats the two companies. Wal-Mart and Google.