Really Take Back America

It is a great pleasure to announce the launch of my colleague Jeff Golden's new blog, Really Take Back America. Jeff recently contributed three fine reports to this blog on the happenings at 2007's Yearly Kos convention in Chicago. You can read them here, here and here.

And now, after a state-wide journey exploring a race for the U.S. Senate (which he declined to make), Jeff's joined the progressive blogosphere with a very stimulating new site. A former host of Jefferson Public Radio's Jefferson Exchange and published author, Jeff's writing is conversational, engaging and populist. He's an easy and pleasurable read. So head on by his blog and leave him a comment. You won't be sorry (unless you happen to be a wingnut).

If you like what you read, check out Jeff's latest non-fiction work: "As if We Were Grownups," at Amazon.

Robots Morph into Warriors

"More than 50 years after author Isaac Asimov argued in his classic novel "I, Robot" that a robot should never be allowed to do harm to people, the development of automated killers has become unstoppable," according to an article in Der Spiegel today.

Already deployed by the U.S. in Iraq and Israel in the Gaza, robotic enforcers, warriors, drones and airborne vehicles are everywhere. All the big guys; Honeywell, Northrup, Boeing and their ilk, are getting into the act. And then, there are the military nano-bots waiting in the wings. I've read stories about swarms of robotic bees and cockroaches capable of disabling jet engines, swarming into tunnels and operating as an integrated part of a multi-vehicle, robotic battle force. Now that's an image.

I'm conflicted about these developments. It certainly makes sense to sacrifice intelligent machinery rather than to spill human blood, but there's a nagging worry that the manufacturers and purchasers of these new killing machines will need an excuse to use them. Or that they could be turned on domestic opponents of a particular political regime. One newly deployed robotic enforcer is specially designed for "crowd control," which raises some hackles as well.

Once we're over the novelty and ultra-coolness of sleek and capable programmable machines, we need to consider the implications of these devices on things like the ease of establishing a police state. And that's just not my paranoia talking. Former Reagan advisor Paul C. Roberts is actually sounding the alarm about Bush's intentions in that regard.

India's Awakening - 60 Years On

Today is the 60 year anniversary of The Republic of India's independence from Great Britain. First, congratulations are in order. So raise a Kingfisher Beer or a Mango Lassi and toast: To India. Though the transition involved partition, the process has led to India's current status as a major regional player, world power, and IT powerhouse. It is suitable that this auspicious event is occuring during the tenure of the country's first female president, Pratibha Patil, who stressed inclusiveness and diversity in her formal address to mark the occasion. It is also notable that the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, is a member of a religious minority on the sub-continent - giving credence to India's rising tide of tolerance and diversity.

Yearly Kos - Golden's Final Report

The last installment of three reports submitted by author, activist and former talk-show host Jeff Golden on his experience at the Yearly Kos convention. Thanks Jeff, for your eyes, ears and the posts below.
Yo-Duh

Saturday, the bloggers say, was a watershed moment in their mission to democratize politics. Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Dennis Kucinich filed into the large meeting room and sat down for just shy of two hours of questions. All seven of them declined an invitation to speak to the Democratic Leadership Council , Bill Clinton’s invention and launching pad, last weekend. Do the math.

All seven paid tribute to the blogosphere. For the first time, they said in various ways, there’s a real possibility to bring in enough grassroots people to force the political elite to loosen their death-grip on the system. In a breakout session afterwards with about 50 people, Bill Richardson, whose candor can be hard to resist said “Yeah, we were all sucking up to you out there--- we kind of have to now.”

The forum was mostly fun to watch. John Edwards asked for everyone’s pledge to swear off of “Washington lobbyist” money and got a few takers. When asked Hillary flatly said she would make no such promise---she wants to represent everyone, she said, and lobbyists are people, too. That, and a general claim that lobbyists really don’t influence all that much, laid her wide open, and Obama and Edwards moved in for a vicious one-two pounding.

Afterwards the candidates split up into smaller room. I went to the Edwards session. He seems on fire, with an ultra-populist riff about taking privilege away from PHRMA, the insurance, oil, banking industries, the whole pack of plutocrats. “What America needs is someone who’s stood up against these guys and has beaten them, and I’ve done that over and over and over and over again. He got the wildest and most excited response. Watching him bounce in the room, with people lunging to touch him, listening to his cadence rise and his tone intensify, seeing that shock of hair waving back and forth, you couldn’t help but think (if you’re old enough) of RFK. I’d have to say he’s in the A-tier now.

The day ended with a huge outdoor barbeque hosted by the Teamsters. Teamster Prez Jim Hoffa (Jr) and blog Czar Marcos embraced on stage and talked about the unstoppable new Alliance of the old (Teamster) and new (blogger) Democratic party. Lots of hugs, backslapping, whooping and hollering. I got about 10 minutes with Hoffa over an overcooked hamburger afterwards and asked how we were going to deal with the old disagreement on environmental issues, since the Teamsters seem to support every dam or pipeline or drilling project that the enviros hate. “Yeah,” he said through a wad of burger, “that’s a tough one.” He went on to say some not very clear things that seemed to amount to the view that environmentalists need to get a life.

Is the next year going to be boring? Not if you’re political.

Yearly Kos - Golden's Second Installment

YKos, Day 2, another day of roaming from one workshop to another in this huge Chicago Convention Center listening to scary-smart folks in their 20s and 30s. This is a particularly direct example of how age can bring humility.

A few highlights:
--Wesley Clark starting the day with a breakfast talk on the betrayal of this Admin to the military, and the damage it’s had to weather. He wants out of Iraq soon, but asserts what he calls a “practical reality” of an ongoing need for Middle East oil that stirred mutterings in the crowd.
--A panel of dramatic converts from the Right to the Left, including David Brock and John Dean (Arianna Huffington was scheduled but fell to a broken ankle this past week when, on a leisurely walk with Charlie Rose, she caught a spiked heel in a Manhattan subway grate. Don’t you hate it when that happens?). These guys HATE the neo con Admin with a ferocity that those of us who never agreed with them can barely imagine.
--a completely fascinating lunchtime talk from Andy Stern, International President of the SEIU, on the role organized labor has to take in restoring democracy. He’s just back from successfully organizing Walmart workers in China ---China—which makes it, he says, the only place in the world where he feels comfortable going into a Walmart.
-A panel on political framing with the guru himself, George Lakoff. Smart guy, and so were the 3 consultants, all easily young enough to be his son, who sat at the front of the room with him. They talked about the OVERTON WINDOW (might want to Google that one) which is the range of politically acceptable policy options on an issue, which is smaller than the entire imaginable spectrum of options. If you take positions outside of that window, it’s argued, while your opponents stay somewhere comfortably within the window, you can move the entire range of what’s considered acceptable in your direction. Example: Ann Coulter’s apparent lunacy makes saner-sounding right wing extremists suddenly seem more reasonable and even moderate. The Rs apparently play this game, like all the framing games, better than the Ds. One criticism from an idealistic listener: “A strategic calculation based on this model implicitly says ‘we’re going to lie to you to advance our policy position.’” This session had something for everybody who tinks even a little bit about languaging, including those who think enough’s enough: “Democrats tie themselves in knots thinking about ways to most successfully communicate and neglect the straight power and effectiveness of saying what they really mean.”
Or…and this come up a lot…just how far do Progressives want to copy the Right in an effort to replicate the Right’s victories?
--An all-star panel of Internet strategists including Joe Trippi, who made history with the Dean campaign, took a shot at describing the big picture of the Web’s transformational effect on politics. One ranked it with the invention of movable type in importance; another said it’s impossible to overstate the impact. Simon Rosenberg, one of the Revered Ones, says the MSM has it all wrong about the political blogosphere. “They dismiss what’s happening as the collective wacky hobby of a bunch of liberals on the fringe. It’s not. It’s the doorway we’ve been looking for through which the American people can enter politics in a very big way. It mean politics and governance can be a 2-way process, And campaigns are only the opening edge. It won’t be long before a President sends out his health plan or new tax proposl for all of us to take swing at before proposing it to Congress. Nothing in the way we do our public business will ever be the same.”

Golden Reports on Yearly Kos

Note: This is the first in a couple of reports that are being contributed to Pop Impulse by my colleague and friend, Jeff Golden. Jeff, a published author and formerly the host of the Jefferson Exchange on Jefferson Public Radio, agreed to serve as this blog's eyes and ears at the convention. He's filed the following first report. Check it out. (Yo-Duh)

The second annual YKos convention (for "yearly Kos") convened by the lake in Chicago today. Fourteen hundred people more pumped up than you’d find anywhere outside of a Holy Roller gathering have come together from all over the country, thrilled that Bill O’Reilly and William Kristol have elevated their blogosphere to the latest Dire Threat to Life as We Know It. After registration and a scattering of breakout sessions we came together tonight for the first Keynotes session.

A 25 year old hip-hop standup comedian warmed us up by leading us in a silent moment mourning the death of mainstream media (MSM) and then riffed on what makes it run: "The MSM tells you they’re just doing their job by giving people what they’re interested in seeing.. Well, people are interested in seeing 20 year old chicks mud-wrestling naked, but it’s not news. It IS NOT NEWS"

Then Senator Dick Durbin came on two huge video screens ("I meant to be there to welcome you to my own city myself, but Im trapped here in DC and on my way to Iraq and Afghanistan in the morning") to salute the blogmeisters for dramatically changing the Democratic Party and America for the better. He said there’s a long list this unruly crowd can take credit for:: ending John Bolton’s tenure at the UN, turbo-charging the Plame affair and the firing of U.S. Attorneys into powerful issues, even winning control of the Senate. He made a big pitch for the Fair Elections Act to get the scurvy money out of politic, urging folks to http://www.fairelections.com/.

Then came the main act. DNC Chair Howard Dean strolled onto the stage to a standing O. He’s right on top of his game. He:

--slammed Republican opposition to reforms to make voting more accessible to all Americans. "Voting is the fundamental practice of Democracy, and the more people vote the better it is for American… and, incidentally, the Democratic Party. The Republican Party likes to talk about its values, but apparently democracy isn’t one of them, given their suppression of voters and their unwillingness to guarantee voting rights." He urged the bloggers to rally their follower to lean on their reps to pass H811 to get valid elections by 2008 elections, because "2010 might be too late."
--admitted that "even I didn’t appreciate how important the Internet was after the last election…I LOVED the YouTube Presidential debate. For the first time it got the campaign conversation fully out there in the messy middle of the public, right there with real Americans, where it belongs. What a surprise that the Republicans don’t want to do it."
--Called the Ds the party of the future, while the Republicans are the party of the past. "It’s pretty easy to see:: just look who they’re running for president and who we’re running for president."
--asserted that the Internett will spread so much information and associated autonomy that it will force countries like China and Iran towards democracy.. "It means that we CAN win the battle for a Democratic world, which will not happen with invasions of country like Iraq and Iran." And at home? "With the Internet we’re beginning the 2-way campaign. Now we dialogue with the people whose vote we want, asking for their input and really listening to them, not using this as a cheap gimmick. This will remind us that we don’t own the power…it is loaned to us every two
years.
-- praised what the DEMOCRATIC Congress has done in six months, offering la list that, when we thought about it, wasn’t too bad. And on Iraq? "We will continue to push a vote on Iraq withdrawal again and again and again and again, giving the Republicans endless chances to carry out the clear mandate of the American people, until they do so.
--welcomed the new attention the Evangelical movement is giving to world hunger and oppression and climate change. "Let’s pay attention and let’s gather with those we can agree with on those things we can agree on."
--focused on younger folks: "We are paying the price today for not reaching out to young people in the 1980s during the Reagan presidency, because the way people vote the first 3 times will predict how they vote for the rest of their lives. Our neglect explains why John Roberts is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court today."
--praised impatience. " It’s an important quality: nevertheless, lets remind the young AND OURSELVES how many grinding years of struggle it took the Civil Rights movement to succeed. It took them many years, and our youth to know that this is not a one day or one election cycle struggle, but a process we’ll be involved in for the rest of our lives!"

He was roaring now, fist pounding, eyes blazing as he closed. And the crowd …went… crazy.

CIA & Amnesty Int'l Agree on Plone

What, might you ask, do the CIA and Amnesty International have in common? Both have built their Web sites using the Plone platform. As have SIGGRAPH; Akami; Nokia and Oxfam International. Now that's good company. So what's up with Plone?

Plone is a ready-to-run, open source content management system that allows multiple users to contribute to their organization's Web site. Built on the Zope application server (Zope 2), developers cite easy set-up, flexibility and the ability to handle multiple languages as system strengths. From a technical perspective, the product is based on the Python programming language and is object-oriented - embedding web elements in objects in lieu of using files. This enables the platform to leverage the characteristics of the object-oriented paradigm - like encapsulation. But the environment is not without its challenges, and we hope to see a version based on the updated Zope 3 product sometime soon. That will take some doing, as version 3 is a complete re-write of Zope 2 with the ensuing compatability issues still outstanding.

As it is written, this platform is perfect for non-profits; as well as ideally suited to agencies, associations and large organizations. And it works with almost everything. As it is open source, code can be added and modified by IT hacks to customize the platform around specific needs. And of course, there are no licensing fees. What's not to love?

I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention Project A Sofware's "Site-in-a-Box" product in this post. Here in southern Oregon, almost every governmental authority and public agency uses this product - and likes it. If you want the "concierge" version of a CMS system and are willing to pay for it, check out Project A's fine offering here.

Pssst! Do Something!

World's Greatest Salsa

This is a recipe for the world's greatest salsa. And I don't say that lightly. John Dvorak agrees with this bold assessment, as he ran the recipe in Dvorak Online, his back-page column in Boardwatch Magazine in November of 94. That's right. Read it and weep. Right before the color Mustang Software ad that always seemed to grace the back cover of the greatest magazine in the geek-tech world of the 90s.

So here's the deal, I got this fantastic family recipe from my late father-in-law, Guadalupe Munoz (MHRIP). So naturally, we call it: Lupe's Salsa.

Lupe's Salsa

Ingredients:

12 large, green Anaheim chilis.
12 medium, yellow chilis (not "banana chilis).
6 small green Jalapeno chilis.
2 large garden tomatoes (Beefsteaks if available).
4 medium green tomatoes.
1/2 cup of finely chopped green onions, tops & bottoms.
Salt, to taste. Lemmon juice for extra zest, if desired.

Note on selecting chilis: choose straight and firm chilis that reflect proper coloring for their family.

Instructions:

CHOP onion tops and bottoms, place in medium-size mixing bowl. TOAST all chilis on a griddle (like frying without oil) over high heat until outside skin is quite blackened, turning as necessary. While toasted chilis remain hot, wrap lightly in a thoroughly moistened, clean dishtowel. Let sit for 20 - 30 minutes. This allows the toasted chilis to sweat, and makes removing skins easier. Remove all chili skins and discard, taking care to remove all stems. Retain all the meaty interior and seeds. Add to mixing bowl. That's right, add the seeds. Boil tomatoes or tomatillos until skin cracks, rinse under cold water and remove skins. Add to mixing bowl. Knead or mash mixture of onions, chilis and tomatoes (or tomatillos) with hands or potato masher until well blended.

CHILL until served. This recipe yields about two pints of the most delicious salsa in the world. And it's almost all chili meat. Yummy texture, deep and dark flavors. This salsa is perfect served with Carne Asada, Carnitas and Juevos Rancheros at breakfast. It is also a to-die-for appetizer. Just be prepared to work about 1.5 hours, and make sure to wash your hands multiple times. The salsa is hot, though not too hot. It has a wonderfully unique and strong flavor and is chock full of vitamins and fiber. The real deal.

Fox News - Faux News from the Dark Side

It's time for us to tell Fox News to stuff it. And to tell all of their advertisers that we're tired of the one-sided, pro-Bush, pro-hate propaganda that passes for real news on Fox. Bill O'Reilly called progressive bloggers Nazis in a recent hysterical rant against the Internet and blogging. We all know about his "Osama Obama" remarks; his attempts to smear every Democrat in office; and, his attacks on Black- and Hispanic-Americans. And this guy has the nerve to call bloggers Nazi's. Desperate rhetoric, from a desperate stupid white man. Let's be clear. Old, rich white males in America are feeling like they're losing the reins of control. Talk about entitlement. And they're getting hysterical around the whole thing. Get a life. And one more thing. When you pick a fight with the progressive blogosphere, you get it. Let's have this battle.

So please consider joining with me and fighting back. I've joined 5,000 other NetRoots nationwide and become a Fox Attacker, and I urge you to do something yourself to put and end to the bull sh*t. I've signed up at Brave New Films to call Fox advertisers in my local market. A bunch of other, like-minded progressives are going to be tuning-in to collect data on local businesses that support Fox News through advertising on their programs. Then folks like me are going to call each of the advertisers personally to educate them regarding the content they are supporting and its negative affects on the community. Check out this video for more information or to sign-up yourself. I heard today that Loews has pulled their ads. Now we have to go after Home Depot, a regular Fox sponsor. Call your local Home Depot today and ask why they are supporting hateful propaganda on the airwaves.



Just one caveat: This is just a side battle with an hostile foe that's picked a fight. So please don't take your eyes off the prize and let this effort consume you. After all, Fox News is just a mouthpiece. We've got bigger scoundrels to expose and hold accountable.

Bollywood Dance Competition - Intercollegiate Style

When teams from Standford, Berkeley, USC and UCLA square-off, there is usually sport involved. That's why I was surprised to discover that the West Coast's latest organized collegiate competition involves Bollywood dance. Uh huh, that's right. Though collegial musical showcases, often with awards for best performance, are not uncommon; the arts are usually too genteel for fierce competition. Well, not for a group of enthusiastic (and brainy) California Desis who have turned Bollywood dance into a competitive sport - featuring large troups of dancers, multiple costume changes, and sappy romance or moralistic melodrama. And why not? Buff and brainy dancers shaking their hips and undulating as only NRIs can. How do they do that head thing?

A few months ago, trained and tuned-up teams of young dancers representing the four really big California universities gathered at Bollywood Berkeley to show off their moves before a crowd of screaming partisan fans. This is better than any cheerleading competition ever was. Not that I ever tuned-in to one of those. And these teams are serious about having fun and competing. If you don't believe me, then check out this gangsta intro video that the USC team put together. Then there's this longer vid of the Stanford team in one of their dances. And finally, this 29-sec clip of the winning UCLA team on stage.

So this is definitely the kind of thing I could veg-out and watch on Saturday afternoons over a Kingfisher beer and Samosas.

Big Thank You to Gina Smith

In the blogging world, links are important. And so are mentions by A-listers. So I'm taking a moment to proffer big thanks to Gina Smith for her recent nod to a Pop Impulse post. The post that caught her attention (after some modest self-promotion) is this one on Spanish regional music. Must have been the cool Ojos de Brujo vids. So head by Gina's fine blog, "I'm Gina Smith," and see what wonders she's up to. Since her background includes such stratospheric titles as: author; respected technology journalist and editor (in-chief); technology commentator on ABC's Nightly News; and, CEO of a Larry Ellison start-up in Silicon Valley, Gina's always got something interesting going on.

YouTube Debate - An Unqualified Success

As a Summer intern blogging for CBS put it: I am, like, so not bored watching this. And that's the point, right? New media speaking to a new audience, bringing them into the process.

I do a lot of political organizing in southern Oregon. These days, all of our work is data-driven. There is one precinct in our region that has consistently undervoted for decades, reflected in election-cycle record keeping. That would be the precinct that encompasses Southern Oregon University. Local candidates generally don't even bother to work this neighborhood. Why would they? That's why the YouTube debate was historic. It spoke to Gen X and Gen Y in a way that no other media could. Pundits who have cast the event as a gimmick are wrong in that regard. No, this was a milestone in participatory democracy.

Pimp my PC

Chrome spinners for the Impala? Hell no. Pimp my PC. It was bound to happen. Hot colors, specially formulated surface coatings, copper upgrades to speed cooling, the pimped-out PC. For a premium price, we can all now join serious A-list gamers - who have always sported the sickest gear. Check out the color selections at colorwarepc.com. Then point your browser to aquaboxpc.com and check out their take on the pimped puter. But be prepared for dazzle and glitz. Geek bling.

Rise Up - 2007's Summer Anthem

If you like "house" music, then you know Yves Larock. His infectious, extremely danceable groove is sweet and hot. His rhythmic airborne mix, Rise Up, has become something of a Summer Anthem for 2007. But I gotta say, the totally hot video below features some great jump rope routines, paired with the lyric "My dream is to fly." Well, fly it does. Check it out.

Bureaucrat Has Virtually No Brain

No, I'm not talking about George Bush in this post. That's a given. Neurologists in France have confirmed that a civil servant who has worked for years in the French National Tax office has virtually no brain. No, really. It's true. Der Speigel carried the story here. The individual involved had hydrocephalus as a child, which was remedied by the surgical placement of a shunt to release the accumulated fluid on the brain. But not before the fluid had so inflated the meningal ventricles as to compress the remaining grey matter - where cognition takes place - into a small band around the inside of the cranium. Still, the bureaucrat married, had two children and went to work clerking at the tax office. Life imitating the comedic arts. This story is bound to elicit a few chuckles, and a few Duh's.

I am, however, intrigued by the conclusion of the physician involved, who said: "Obviously these few nerve cells can achieve just as much as the millions more cells that other people have." There's another side to this story and a lesson to be learned in that conclusion. Probably more than one. It has long been argued that brain cells don't regenerate. Therefore, as the argument goes, we only use a percentage of the gray matter we have as we need extra cells available for repatterning after brain injury. There is some debate in academia around that issue, as new evidence suggesting cell regeneration is in play. Nevertheless, examples like this one - and it's not the only case of its kind - seem to support the notion that just a few nerve cells can get a lot done. I'm going to stretch at this point, and suggest that this same model applies to the Internet and specifically to the blogosphere. A small plexus of progressive blogs, pulsating with YouTube bursts, can achieve as much as the millions of dollars and mountains of resources available to the MSM and corporate globalists. My grateful thanks to the almost brainless French civil servant for this epiphany.

4th Annual Blogosphere Day

Celebrate the 4th Annual Blogosphere Day with ActBlue. Today, we celebrate the bottom-up, netroots revolution that heralds the end of politics as usual and the dawn of the new age of net-driven progressive activism. And just see what we've done in four years. Just changed the face of activism, altered the political landscape, and forever changed the way that campaigns communicate and are financed. So reach around and pat yourself on the back, because you're part of the process. A sea change. And around the Blogosphere, the focus is on ActBlue - who got the proverbial ball rolling in the most unorthodox manner. The rest, as they say, is history. So have a glass of wine and toast the great folks at ActBlue as you celebrate our 4th anniversary. -- Yo-Duh

Documentarians Shock Revisionists

An interesting article in today's Asia Times suggests that the Chinese release of a much-heralded documentary film on the Rape of Nanking produced by AOL founder Ted Leonsis is bound to stoke old grievances and open old wounds. (image: Nanking Massacre Memorial) That's probably very true, and the reaction of the Chinese populace to the film could even influence current events and national policy. Now that's news.

I've posted recently about historical revisionism, the tendency of those in power to conveniently re-write history to suit their needs. In that post, I noted that conservative Japanese legislators are currently making just such an attempt around their country's participation and conduct in WWII. Specifically, the suggestion has been made in the chambers of Japan's Diet, that the number of Chinese casualties, that is: deaths, woundings, and rapes, during the Japanese conquest and occupation of Nanjing is much lower than reported. The conservative Japanese politicians involved have gone as far as saying that China is deliberately inflating the numbers for propaganda purposes. Rubbish, that. Read the article, take a look at the Wikipedia entry and follow some of the relevant links in the stub to make up your own minds.

And now, Michael Moore, documentarian extraordinaire, has come along to debunk another bit of crap masquerading as historical fact. I'm referring, of course, to the oft-made claim that here in the U.S. we've got the best health care system in the world. Uh huh. Like I'm believing that. And I should know. I spent some time in a previous vocational life as an RN and allied health care instructor. And recently, I spent way too much time on the other side of the equation with a difficult diagnosis and involved treatment. I can tell you from decades of personal experience our health care system is just as broken as Moore claims in his new and wonderful film, Sicko. But that's no surprise, right?

My point is that we've got a whole new level of "truth squad" geeks out there who are doing us all a ginormous (it's a real word now) service by confronting the liars and revisionists, holding them accountable for their despicable behavior, and then setting the record straight in clear and well-documented terms. And they don't take any crap, either - as Moore recently demonstrated in this push-back to Wolf Blitzer's questioning on CNN. Yea, that's what I'm talking about.

So now everybody's a videographer and documentarian. Are you getting my drift here? We've all got cell cameras, pocket digitals, hand-held digital video cams; and importantly, we've got Google Video, YouTube, ourmedia.com and archive.org to publish our work. It's time to take back the truth from the mainstream media, and now we've got the tools and the platform to do it. In fact, it's already underway. Those who have gotten used to easily and anonymously re-writing history and distorting the truth for their own purposes should be afraid, very afraid.