] So as America gets wider, the nation's personal ethics
] are underexercised. It doesn't matter if, over time,
] people's bodies are telling them to eat less. It doesn't
] matter if the media constantly hector the public on the
] dangers of over-eating and junk food. It doesn't matter
] that lack of exercise is a big factor in the thickening
] of America.
]
] Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., complained in the
] Washington Post, "We're talking about a public health
] problem for which our government has not taken
] responsibility." Actually, Uncle Sam has begun airing TV
] ads telling Americans to exercise more. But if
] individuals won't take responsibility for their weight
] gain, why should their government?

Indeed. Personal responsibility? What's that?

If you are what you eat, then sue

] The press that didn't understand what the campaign was,
] now sees itself qualified to judge if its a success or
] not. Broadcast politics has failed us miserably. No
] debate about the Patriot Act. DMCA isn't being discussed
] during the mainstream media. Its all on the Internet.

I previously memed two different text versions of this, both of which had various gaps. Here is the actual audio. Stream it. This is 46 minutes of incredible stuff. Furthermore, this site has tons of other very good Etech talks archived. If you find something particularly notable please meme it.

I want to clearly explain what this talk is about. Trippi is a dull public speaker. However, his content is worth his monotone. This isn't about Dean. This isn't really about the democratic party. Obviously the democrats have a problem, in that the Republicans do a much better job a actually mobilizing grass roots support, and Trippi discusses that. Obviously Trippi is a democrat first and a dean supporter as well. However, and Trippi makes this clear, this is about who the political constituency is.

In working with EFGA in the mid nineties I dealt directly with the political system first hand, and I learned one thing primarily. Politics is about power. Unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the issue you are concerned with is of clear strategic importance to the viable operation of the country, or has unquestionable implications for established Constitutional law, you win or loose based on how powerful you are.

When I say power I mean real power. People usually operate on the naive belief that things like petitions and protests are effective at changing political decisions. This is wrong. No one cares what you think unless they are trying to keep the matter out of the press. If they don't have an interest in keeping the issue off the media radar, then they only care about your money, or your vote. If you want to influence the situation, you need to provide actual financial or direct voting assistance to a particular politician who will do what you want.

Most people just don't get that. They think the government ought to do what they want simply because this is a democracy and thats how democracy works. Wrong. The government does what you want because it does not have a choice. If you can't put the government in that position, you will not get what you want. That is what democracy is all about. Giving the people the ability to put the government in a position where it cannot operate in a manner contrary to their interests.

This talk is about who actually has the power. This talk is about who the political constituency is. Is the constituency built of the ruling class, that controls the party system and funds the campaigns, or is the constituency built of the actual people. Do we really have democratic institutions?

My wording their sounds conspiratoria... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Joe Trippi (Dean's Campaign Manager) at Etech

] The information coming in from the Mars rovers is
] exciting for NASA, but it's ending some of the action for
] bookies in Britain.
]
] The bookmaking firm Ladbrokes announced it's stopped
] taking bets on the question of whether there was ever
] life on Mars.
]
] NASA scientists said yesterday that the rover Opportunity
] found strong evidence to suggest at least part of the Red
] Planet once had a wet enough environment to sustain life.
]
] A Ladbrokes spokesman says the latest odds in favor of
] past life on Mars were 16-1. Back in the '70s, when the
] first bets were placed, the odds were 1,000-1.
]
] He says he expects that scientists will find evidence of
] past life on Mars within the coming years.

Bookies Stop Taking Bets on Life on Mars

] A security issue also arose in Georgia.
]
]
] Georgia Tech student Peter Sahlstrom said he found 10
] Diebold terminals sitting unprotected in the lobby of the
] school's student center Monday. Sahlstrom, 22,
] photographed the machines in their unlocked cases.
]
]
] "Frankly, this makes me nervous and ... it validates a
] lot of the concerns I already had," Sahlstrom said in a
] phone interview.

[ Yeah... this is from *today*. Still no accountability. Still no audit trail. Still no concern for security of eVoting systems. If there's a compromise in november, the country's gonna go nuts. Sweet jesus help Kathy Cox if that shit goes down, because there are some people that're gonna wanna have a word with her, and every other moron whose given carte blanche to Diebold. -k]

Lets see... no paper record of how someone voted. Translation - no way to verify or do a recount, because there is no physical record. And people are OK with this?? Then again, considering less than half of elegable voters turn out to vote, it should come as no surprise. Dip shits.

Salon.com Technology | Technical problems reported in e-voting

IconoclasT wrote:
] ]W1ld wrote:
] ] So all those Haitian rebels are on the CIA bankroll?
] ] Right.........
] ] Haitie is such a strategic country for the US to take over,
] ] you know.
] ] Im sure that North Korea is shaking in there boots right now
]
] ] at the coup d'etat that Bush pulled off in Haitie.
]
] GWB probably had Aristide ushered out because his KKK wizard
] wanted him to and also so that Cheney and Halliburton could
] corner the market on Haitian vodoo products.
]
] If we were going to pursue coups around the world, there are
] many more strategic places to do it than Haiti. Honestly, it's
] not that important nor does it have anything valuable to
] anyone who would care to exploit it.

Not to mention the fact that this is the 2'nd time in a decade that Aristide has been forced from power (or did he forget that little detail?) the USA returned him to power LAST time. I guess he is just pissed off we didn't/wouldn't do it again.

There was a coup indeed - it was by his own people tired of corruption, famine and poverty saying enough is enough. -LB

RE: Aristide says U.S. deposed him in 'coup d'etat'

Painfully funny. Do not drink anything while viewing.

Crash Different

] A federal appeals court has agreed to hear a request from
] the woman formerly known as "Jane Roe" to reconsider the
] 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that
] legalized abortion.
]
] Norma McCorvey, who joined with anti-abortion activists
] nearly 10 years ago, is seeking to have the decision
] overturned, citing what she says is more than 30 years of
] evidence that abortions are psychologically harmful to
] women.
]
] A federal district judge threw out her initial request in
] June, saying it was not made within a reasonable time.
] But the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
] Appeals has agreed to hear McCorvey's arguments March 2.
]
] "It's something that I've wanted ever since Day One, and
] it's happening," McCorvey said from her Dallas home.
]
] Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill, whose
] predecessor Henry Wade who was named in the original
] lawsuit, has not filed a response to McCorvey's appeal.
] That may put the appeals court in the unusual position of
] hearing arguments from only one side.

Court to hear case to reopen Roe V. Wade

] You may have defeated my Southern Hook Palm technique,
] but can you defeat the 1000 styles of Rumsfeld?

LMAO!!!!

LB

Rumsfeld Fighting Technique

] Semen makes you happy. That's the remarkable conclusion
] of a study comparing women whose partners wear condoms
] with those whose partners don't.
]
] The study, which is bound to provoke controversy, showed
] that the women who were directly exposed to semen were
] less depressed. The researchers think this is because
] mood-altering hormones in semen are absorbed through the
] vagina. They say they have ruled out other explanations.
]
] "I want to make it clear that we are not advocating that
] people abstain from using condoms," says Gordon Gallup,
] the psychologist at the State University of New York who
] led the team. "Clearly an unwanted pregnancy or a
] sexually transmitted disease would more than offset any
] advantageous psychological effects of semen."

This could explain a lot.

Semen acts as an anti-depressant

"That's why I call telephones an interrupting technology," said Patel, whose girlfriend always seemed to be in a meeting or driving her car when he called. "I didn't want to talk to her, necessarily. I wanted instead to find a way to feel connected to her, or reassured that she was there."

What I find most interesting about this experiment is its motivation...

Ubicomp tables interconnected via the internet