PARTISAN SCREAM MACHINE

Press release from Adbusters on Buy Nothing Day, the international day of resistance to consumer culture:

BUY NOTHING DAY ORGANIZERS
CONFRONT THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN HEAD ON

Now in its 17th year, Buy Nothing Day is celebrated every November by environmentalists, social activists and concerned citizens in over 65 countries around the world. Over the years, Buy Nothing Day (followed by Buy Nothing Christmas) has exploded into a global movement, inspiring the world’s citizens to live more simply and buy a whole lot less.

Designed to coincide with Black Friday (which this year falls on Friday, November 28) in the United States, and the unofficial start of the international holiday shopping season (Saturday, November 29), the festival takes many shapes, from relaxed family outings, to free, non-commercial street parties, to politically charged public protests, credit-card cut-ups and pranks and shenanigans of all kinds. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.

Featured by such media giants as CNN, USA Today, MSNBC, Wired, the BBC, The Age and the CBC, Buy Nothing Day has gained momentum in recent years as the climate crisis has driven people to seek out greener alternatives to unrestrained consumption.

This year, Buy Nothing Day organizers are confronting the economic meltdown head-on – asking citizens, policy makers and pundits to examine our economic crisis.

"If you dig a little past the surface you'll see that this financial meltdown is not about liquidity, toxic derivatives or unregulated markets, it's really about culture," says the co-founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, Kalle Lasn. "It's our culture of excess and meaningless consumption — the glorified spending and borrowing of the past decade that's at the root of the crisis we now find ourselves in."

Economic meltdown, together with the ecological crisis of climate change could be the beginning of a major global cultural shift — the dawn of a new age: the age of Post-Materialism.

"A simpler, pared-down lifestyle – one in which we're not drowning in debt – may well be the answer to this crisis we're in," says Lasn. "Living within our means will also make us happier and healthier than we’ve been in years."

---

Do what you can to spread the the BND message this year. Blog it, up-vote it on Digg, or slap a poster on a wall. This could be the breakthrough year when the heavy consumers of the world finally get it.

Warm regards,

The Adbusters Team

Consider this piece Judith Warner just wrote on generations past and present, and the election. This is great stuff.

David Brooks sums up my expectations for the next administration pretty well. He expects a smart, well reasoned administration to buckle down and do what is right for the country, not wage ideological wars:

Walking into the Obama White House of my dreams will be like walking into the Gates Foundation. The people there will be ostentatiously pragmatic and data-driven. They’ll hunt good ideas like venture capitalists. They’ll have no faith in all-powerful bureaucrats issuing edicts from the center. Instead, they’ll use that language of decentralized networks, bottom-up reform and scalable innovation.

This is, of course, a much different 'conservative' opinion than those being expressed on Townhall.com, Redstate.com, or Rush Limbaugh's radio program. Limbaugh yesterday continued to push the language of fear, affirming that what we do not know about Obama (what IS that exactly?) will scare us to death.

For what it's worth, credit where credit is due-- Sean Hannity gave a gracious and mature congratulations to President-elect Obama at the beginning of his radio show Wednesday afternoon. I respect the man a little more because of it. I wish I could find audio of it...

Now we wait and see what the Democrats will do with their mandate. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi say change has come to Washington, but it's in THEIR laps now. It doesn't get any easier today.

Regardless, I'm a pretty happy guy.

What does all this talk of racism and false accusations about Barack Obama’s upbringing and religion really matter? Can’t we agree that tempers flare during national elections? Didn’t the same happen to George Bush in 2000 and 2004? But the difference is in people’s expectations for the coming four-year administration. Their expectations are implied in their accusations.

When Barack Obama is called a terrorist or a Muslim (read terrorist), the expectations are clear—he stands against everything that Americans value. Who could possibly want to elect a president who secretly plans to destroy the state, or allow his co-terrorist/Muslims do it for him? If we are to heed the warnings of George W. Bush, we will know that there is no negotiating with terrorists. They are incapable of rational thinking. End of discussion. But what if a terrorist/Muslim were to find a way to be elected president of the United States? The prospects for good governance are presented with a major obstacle.

When I talked to a few people in Ohio this past week, I did get a few (off camera) statements about the prospects of an Obama presidency. One man kept it short and sweet. I simply asked him; “What does an Obama presidency look like to you?” His one word answer; “Scary.” This was the same man that started our conversation by mentioning that Barack Obama’s birth records had secretly been sealed by the governor of Hawaii, to protect the truth that he was actually born in Kenya. This is the same man that said he crossed party lines to vote for Hillary Clinton to be a part of Rush Limbaugh’s primary season “Operation Chaos.”

This man is not alone. With so much vitriol being aimed at Barack Obama it raises a serious question about the next four years. What if perosn is elected president who is accused of not only sympathizing, but also being friends with terrorists? What if we elect a president that is suspected to secretly be Muslim and a potential terrorist sleeper cell? What does this say about our government and democratic system?

Glenn Loury summed it up well on Bill Moyers Journal on Friday:

“Should Obama win, now you have a president of the United States who a lot of people think is illegitimate as a person who consorts with murderers, as a person who's sympathetic to terrorists. It's de-legitimating of the president of the United States. It's poisoning the well in a certain way.

You do what you have to do to win an election. But then after the election the person has to govern. And now what has been said about that person continues to echo in the minds of citizens. And I'm worried that in this case the suggestion that Obama is somehow going to get in the White House and, you know, sell out the country will hurt all of us should he win and need to govern.”

This goes beyond misguided policy and hypocritical statements. This goes beyond cynical politics and feelings of helplessness on the part of the electorate. This is not just election year hyperbole. This strikes at the heart of the credibility of our government and our leaders' ability to solve the porblems with the economy and two wars. Not only in Barack Obama's ability to govern, but in the legitimacy of the US presidency and our democratic process.

Those that choose these lines of attack are sowing the seeds of hate that will have lasting effects long after the campaign ends. Just ask Bill Clinton about campaign 'hyperbole' in the case of Vince Foster. That didn't just go away. But of course we're talking about a line of attack that goes deeper than a shady suicde. We're talking about one man's quest to tank the most powerful nation on earth.

This campaign got ugly in october, but the sentiments had been there all along. Now as we wait to see the results tomorrow night, we cannot pretend as if all of the hate speech, myths, and flat out lies will just disappear. We don't know what will happen if Barack Obama is elected president, but we know what we have to do to fight racism and dangerous lies in our communities. Many with prejudice and dangerous beliefs have shown their true colors during this election. Now we must continue to stand up to them and fight back as we try to change this country for the better.

Cheers to American News Project and The Real News Network for this one.

Labels: Barack Obama, Election 08

I saw this sign in the front yard of an apartment building in Mansfield yesterday. It was in plain sight, painted with the same star and crescent on both sides. The implications of this are perfectly clear. This isn't vandalism. This isn't a "Muslims for Obama" sign. This doesn't represent all Obama haters or conservatives. But it is being tacitly accepted by all those in the apartment building and their neighbors. Something to think about.

UPDATE:

I saw this yard sign on Thursday and was quick to snap a picture of it. It had obviously been placed there with intent to inform and persuade. I went back on Friday to see if it was still in the yard and sure enough, still there.

I talked to a woman who lives across the street from this building. I asked her if she knew who put the sign in the yard. She said she did—there was a lady who lived in the front apartment. She called the woman “crazy” and a “lesbian”... That aside, I asked her if she knew what was painted on the sign. She said no, she thought some kids had just painted on it. I explained that it was an Islamic star and crescent. She looked at me with wide eyes and quickly glanced at her two children.

She informed me that at one time there had been three similar signs in the front yard of this apartment building. They had stayed there for a few weeks before the landlord pulled them out. The landlord apparently forgot one. This one had remained in the yard unchallenged for weeks...

Labels: Barack Obama, Election 08, Race