Challenge the Establishment: May 2010

Monday, May 31, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 31

Second in a series.... (See link to abridged Part I below)

Common Interests on the Left & Right - Part II

Left & Right Populists Working Together: to fix our flawed democracy

What is a "principled" conservative: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has some thoughts

Audit the Fed: Bernie Sanders leads the Left & Right to push for Senate Unanimous vote on Amendment to "audit the Fed."

Bush war-crimes-Prosecution: Law Professor Francis Boyle describes the complaint he filed in January 2010 with the International Criminal Court

MUSIC: Yankee Network, out of Baltimore, "6 at 65".

Play Episode 31 from this page:

Click to Download Episode 31.

Listen to Part I in the series, Episode 30, (20-minute abridged version):

Monday, May 24, 2010

Wikipedia and Unprincipled Right

We all know some people on the "right" who we might call "principled." They hold to a value and apply it consistently, regardless of Party politics pressure. Maybe it's you, or a relative, a friend, co-workers or even someone in the corporate media. Ron Paul, a US Congressman, is a classic, if not extreme, example... and there are other less notable examples.

There is Walter B. Jones, a US congress member made famous for coining the phrase "freedom fries" as an insult to the French for not getting on board quickly with the Iraq war. He now regrets saying that.

Joness represents an area of North Carolina that has a sizable military population. His about-face reflects an undercurrent of honest feelings in the military communities. Walter Jones is now a vocal critic of the Iraq war.

The other conservative faction is the "unprincipled" right... they represent a different color in the "conservative" spectrum. We know them too: The Republican water-carriers and self-promoters like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill Kristol, and Rush Limbaugh, who admits he carries water for the Republicans:

On the November 8 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed to "feel liberated" by Democratic victories in the House and Senate on November 7 because he is "no longer going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried."

But this is all a long-winded way of being able to say that the vocal unprincipled right is misdirecting the conservative base when they tell the base not to use Wikipedia. We all know it can have significant flaws on a particular subject, but the majority of the time, it answers your question or directs you to the answer. Adding "wiki" to your search can be a powerful information tool that gives you an information-access advantage. Conservatives who dismiss Wikipedia might just be giving themselves a handicap.

Oxford Dictionary editors

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

What do you call it?

"What do you call it,"

asks Miss Petowker

"when lords ... beat policmen, and play at coaches with other people's money, and all that sort of thing?... Ah! aristocratic."

From Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839.

Challenge the Establishment