The Hummer, the iconic SUV that has now synonymous with the downfall of General Motors is reaching the end of its trek.  How the public came to see this frankencar built on the Tahoe frame as a car driven by right wing gun nuts and assholes across the nation is quite a story.  I have something to say about how I was introduced to the Hummer H2 and after falling in love with its design and look, now feel like I had an affair with a salvaged-title shitbox for a week.  I will admit that for a month or so, I wanted an H2 because their popularity was soaring and the Eco-green backlash had not gathered steam.  This was before gas was $4.59 in Maryland and $4.29 in Virginia, in fact no one even suggested that gas prices would soon reach record highs.

Hummer dealerships were popping up across the country, usually integrated into an anchor luxury dealership such as Cadillac, but sometimes Chevrolet dealerships, GM wanted to assign as much prestige to its new badge to appeal to the discerning customer.  One who didn’t want to choose between a Tahoe or Yukon because peasants could afford those, no the H2 even got diehard Ford customers to cross over.  If you could afford it, pulling up in one of the early H2’s was met with as much gawking and head-turning appeal as a Ferrari in rural Appalatchia.  The majority of the first production runs was the currently fading Yellow.  Yellow H2’s were the only Hummers you saw, until the even uglier Sand-beige metallic’s announced their arrival on the front lines of local dealerships.  The cool colors came out after the guys who paid 5-10k over sticker to get first shot at ownership were wanting to trade in their 2004’s to get a Red, Black, Blue or White model and unload the ugly yellow or beige.

The one right thing GM did to load their pockets was to have a stipulation in a Hummer Dealerships contract, its simply stated that if you want to sell and service new Hummers, you must build a dedicated Hummer dealership adjacent to your current Cadilliac or other GM showroom by January of 2007.  While these things were being sold and pre-loaded with up to 20k worth of accesories (real profit) dealership owners were jumping on board and spending millions to build the factory approved new car showrooms, the sybollic arch of white over a plate glass fascia that now sit empty across the country.

One example of Hummer=fail, and a keen deal for the win can be seen on Rt. 7 in Tyson’s Corner Virginia, one of the worst congested strips of four lanes in the country is home to over 16 new car dealerships, dubbed dealership row.  Dealership row is where Washington’s elite comes to purchase the latest and greatest vehicles, often above MSRP sticker price.  At the end of this strip was home of Moore Cadillac/Hummer, it had been there since the early 80’s Mr. Moore whom had done very well in this unique market area selling Cadillacs to diplomats, ambassadors, and normal customers alike.  Moore was a fine dealership and had earned a loyal customer base, and employed several people with well paying jobs.  Moore was one of the first big Hummer dealers in the Mid-Atlantic region, many salespeople got wealthy in a short couple years with H2’s and the flagship H1.  Moore spent some 15 million dollars on a new parking structure and another few million on a stand alone Hummer showroom.  Right as the gas crisis hit and sales plummeted, Mr. Moore accepted an $80 million dollar offer for his land for the future Tyson’s Corner Metro station.  What luck, the irony of a former Hummer dealership getting bulldozed to make way for mass transit is humorous at least, but taking the money and getting out of that terrible GM contract is a blessing in disguise.

Other less fortunate Washington area Hummer dealerships fell victim to the record gas prices and then the exodus of consumer credit on new vehicle purchases.  This was right after the rucus over the 12 mpg that the H2 gets on the highway, and advertisements around Washington were sprayed with graffiti proclaiming “real men die in their Hummers” in response to hundreds of soldiers in Iraq getting killed in H1’s by roadside bombs.  Suddenly the 7 bar Hummer grill was not so stylish to be seen behind anymore.  In some suburbs there were a few Hummers vandalized by so called “eco-terrorists” who think all Hummers should be crushed.  I will even admit that when I see someone driving an H2 I feel like “damn that guy has no idea how frowned upon those trucks are”.  H1’s are rarely sighted but when they are many are covered in mud as they should be, the ultimate offroad machine (sorry jeep guys, but you know its true).

The point of this Hummer story is that its perhaps one of the clearest examples of how GM has been shooting itself in the foot for the past 3 decades.  They spend too much building a niche product that has a VERY limited lifespan and saleability, and soak their dealers to aquire the product.  They build too many, and flood the market driving down the inflated sticker prices, and then are forced to unload the backstock with employee purchase programs making less than $500 dollars a car (again the dealer suffers).  So if you the angry consumer wonder why you are being forced into imports as GM begs for money to pay its pensions and other past screwups, remember they brought this ENTIRELEY on themselves.  Sweep the leg, no mercy.

If one chose to write about the quality of life in Appalachia and the many externalities that work together in a cyclical fashion that reinforces this often substandard condition of living one would amass a database of testimony and haunting stories of hardship. In fact hardship and hard living is the one thing a great number of Kentuckians are born into. In a land of beautiful wilderness that has been isolated by its own construction exists a proud people, of which little was known about until policy makers of the 50’s and 60’s decided to improve their living conditions. The rural country people have such an attachment to their county and immediate geographical vicinity that an outsider might be confused by and often described “clannish” nature of the local people. This clannish nature could be viewed very differently depending on the agenda of the outsider. A popular view expressed in Uneven Ground by Dr. Ronald Eller is that “poverty problems in my community were the result of cultural deficiencies, antiquated values, and low expectations”. This is perhaps the most popular ideology that has been the focus of social workers and politicians alike, and after decades of attempted fixes from government programs there has been little change. Anyone studying the region’s lack of modernity will be bombarded with images of a shoeless people that industrialization forgot about. In fact many stereotypes exist because they contain some iota of truth, but why the punch lines have not changed in half a century is the real problem we face. The impoverished children in late night infomercials could just as easily be found in Appalachia, the “other America”. To better understand what causes this geographically isolated phenomenon we must look at the geography of Appalachia itself. The isolation of the region’s semi-agrarian society in the early days of statehood was one of self sustainment. People grew what they needed, and were sustenance farmers. This was before the predominant idea of the consumerist society became the type a model of the American Dream. People lived off the land in a simple way of life. To call this a lesser way of life would question our own views of what quality of life really means and proves the definition of the American dream is not universal.

There are 120 counties in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, numerous considering the state is 26^th in geographical size. In the 19^th century the idea was that a county resident could make the horseback journey from their home to the county seat, and no more than a day’s ride from one county seat to the next. This construction of local government could likewise enable anyone with significant authority to create their own county and appoint themselves to a position of local power. The concentration of local power might be the single biggest obstacle to modernization of the state and has helped retard development and subsequently placed power of the many into the hands of a select few. Many people got very wealthy at the expense of their poor neighbors in the past century. The geographical isolation of the Appalachian region of Kentucky has long been its Achilles heel to future growth and development. Most development funding the region has received in past decades has consisted of getting roads into isolated, steep sided hamlets. The underlying purpose of the roads of course was to get the mineral resources out of isolation and onto train cars to be sold far away from the mountains where it was mined. This process continues today, and there are many people with vested interests that have kept the coal moving for generations. Poor people would sell mineral rights for virtually nothing to the coal companies who mined their property out from underneath them. The rich coal seams below the poor people was the only concern for the local elites and those who had access to this resource built empires on the backs of their neighbors. An important theme of Dr. Eller’s book highlights the exploitation of the people of Appalachia for their natural resources. The Local government enabled the local business interests of those who helped finance the campaigns of people they want in a position to help them continue their crusade for coal, and didn’t even pay the miners in fungible money. This is the beginning of our problem-the cyclical poverty of a rich land inhabited by poor people.

This condition continues to exist, even facilitated, by a close knit local government and its desire to maintain its old fashioned control of local politics and public policy. We will label development as our condition to be modeled in the archetype of Limits to Growth as outlined in Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. We can deconstruct the Limits to Growth model and by attempting to understand the design and how it exposes the contrapositive, pushback nature of a slowing action on a growing action. In its simplest form it could be compared to the yen and yang, or for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The action, our growing action, would be government funded programs and the flow of capital into the region for the past several years and why poverty still exists regardless of the influx of capital. The counteracting or slowing action to the invested money is the incomplete or incompetent infrastructure that disseminates the money to various social programs that are handpicked by local elites and elected officials. When money is available in small towns and rural areas, those who dispense the funds and the old fashioned infrastructure becomes a burden to positive social progress. This slowing action is not immediately visible to those waiting for change to occur, there is a delay from the time that capital is invested until it is spent, and there is very little change. This delay makes the pushback of the slowing action less visible to concerned policy makers who keep injecting funds for decades and still witness the public outcry that nothing is being done speed development in Appalachia. Figure 1a shows the original model of the Limits to Growth, figure 2a is the same model with our condition (lack of development) inserted. This archetype is the simplest in structure of the nine types outlined in The Fifth Discipline. Although simplistic in design, it answers some key questions to a huge problem that many argue over the remedy. The carrot of the model is the pushback cycle, any change someone has ever wanted to make has been met with some level of resistance, be it social, financial, or logistical. When one attempts to bring about change to a region known for staying the same the pushback will occur on many levels. In figure 2b our inserted variables into the archetype expose the developmental problems that have kept Appalachia in a perpetual cycle of dependence on federal program dollars, and why we fail to reach the desired goal.

The diagram 2b is our hypothetical model of appropriations of federal dollars and its flawed design and implementation. Simply throwing money at a problem only compounds the problem. The Limits to Growth model 2b the applied influx of federal aid to the Commonwealth on the left side Growing Action, with questionable or limited results Is influenced by the limiting condition on the right side of local interest and local corruption. The limiting condition shown on the right side of the diagram is the externality that causes a slowing action which counterbalances the desired growth effect. For every amount of invested money, on the left side, there is an established hierarchy in the region that gets to decide where this money is spent. This is the pushback of social development. The same institutions and people in local government award contracts to their constituents that might happen to own a paving company. There is a X amount of money needed to build a road and only a select few to do the job. In the newspapers it might look promising that a new road is being built, but the area might really need a new library. The company X who has always built the roads in the region has a vested interest in keeping contracts for new construction, and is also a big contributor to the local elected official who awards the development money. This is an example of the pushback effect of government dollars coming into an area for one purpose, but being spent in a manner that will never achieve the desired goal.

In 2b the condition in the center of the model is labeled Development; the intended growing action is the government funds granted to answer the public’s cries for assistance. On the right side of the model is the slowing action, or the problem that is limiting growth; in this model it’s the misappropriation of funds and incompetent infrastructure. Due to the limiting of the leverage point which is the local corruption. This negative leverage point slows the entire model for government financial assistance. This balanced cyclical construction of the Limits to Growth model can be affected by either side of the model. Any increase of government investment on the left side, is pushed back by the slowing action on the right side. The model is balanced by either side, the harder you work on one side, the harder the other side pushes back. This dependent nature that limits growth in the model nurtures a type of hollow infrastructure than is incompetent to invest government appropriations to get a positive effect from the monies coming into the area. The way to offset the slowing condition is to apply leverage to the Limiting Condition. The leverage point or Limiting Condition is where you put some action and get large results after identifying the problem that is causing the slowing action. Leverage the limiting condition theoretically brings even small change which will bring larger benefits to Slowing Action, by retarding its rate of interference to the desired Growing Action. The Limiting Condition might be the elimination of local corruption and better oversight by federal agencies. The Limiting Condition can halt the Slowing Action enough so that the Growing Action could build momentum like the snowball in the diagram and gain momentum to reach the desired condition. One example of this Limiting Condition that was quickly struck down was the appointment of Sergeant Shriver in the early years of the war on poverty that helped create small organizations to deal with the situation, and they operated autonomously and without intervention by the local governments in the counties. According to Eller, this understandably angered local officials who had no say where this free money was going and was quickly handed over to local jurisdiction.

Everyone in most any administration have an idea of what they think a solution to the poverty problem should be. Since the War on Poverty launched in the 1960’s there has been an influx of improvement dollars to improve lives by bringing jobs and education to impoverished people. Where these dollars are used is one of the agents of the model of the limit of growth theory. They might produce obvious short term results like electricity and expansion of public utilities to rural areas, or schools and municipal buildings to bring opportunity to future generations. The latest trend has been to build large spec buildings in deprived counties and offer tax based incentives to manufacturers to locate their factory in this location which offers low to medium skilled employment pool. These attempts have been futile towards the goal of socioeconomic improvement into the region that seems to reject all attempts at improving the lives of Appalachians.

What we think is best for poverty riddled areas of Kentucky is false. The way we have approached the problem for the past several decades is wrong. The real function of a system archetype is to expose irregularities by mini-mapping the condition we wish to better understand. The archetype is our tool to analyze why past attempts of various government funded programs have not reached fruition. All previous attempts by policy makers pumping infrastructure money into the growing action is counterbalanced by the established local interests that become the slowing action. The only realistic solution is to put weight on the limiting condition, which would theoretically halt the slowing action long enough for the growing action to gain momentum and snowball towards the promise of prosperity.

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Figure 1a: The Limits to Growth Archetype

The Limits to Growth Model

Figure 2b: The Pushback Effect

Development Corruption& special interest

Government Program Money incomplete infrastructure and misuse of funds

Below is a cut/paste post from EA games user forums.  Its found under technical help which has received 800,000+ views since it was written.  It speaks volumes for the problems pc gamers face just when buying a new game.  Gamers, real gamers (consoles are for kids), typically face a mountain of problems getting the latest titles to start/run properly.  Driver conflicts, bugs and glitches have often made us reinstall an entire operating system to get a damn game to work.  I have been searching forums to find a fix for Crysis which is preventing me from completing the game because of repetitive crashing.  The antipiracy software (punkbuster,gamespy,VAC, and countless other bullshit ip/serial key loggers) that get installed when you load your new game is often the reason you cant play your new game to fruition. The packaged anti-cheat software is usually outdated by the game’s ship date, and almost always has conflicts with other software on your rig.  Problems ALWAYS occur with every new PC game released, some companies are better than others at getting updates and patches released asap.  If I buy an Xbox 360 game and load it up, it almost never has the fatal glitches and bugs that the PC version has.  Of course you sacrifice playability, speed, and frame rates by stepping down to a console, so we are forced to wait for  patches.  While I was digging for a patch tonight for my legitimate copy of Crysis I found this:

FYI: Warhead is the latest Crysis installment from EA games, EA has the WORST support and help of any of the major game companies.  And since EA keeps buying up every independent software companies, problems with new games are on the rise.  Its usually in the best interest of your personal sanity to wait a month until the developer has created the first round of updates.

Give me a reason not to pirate Warhead, since I bought it and it won’t run.

Here is the game, sitting on my desk. Staring at me, mocking me. Electronic Arts’ ridiculous and completely pointless use of DRM in Crysis Warhead is preventing me from playing the game I purchased.

Why do I know it’s the DRM? Because the exact same problem happens with my ALSO LEGITIMATELY PURCHASED Spore installation, and we (the users) have determined that it’s a DRM issue. This is further supported by the only possible solution to the problem yet offered by EA customer support – the uninstallation of the game, creation of a new administrator account, and the reinstallation within the new account. This doesn’t work, by the way.

What happens is this : The game doesn’t run. It installed fine, without any issues at all. When I double click on the desktop/start menu short cut, nothing happens. All that results is that crysis_activation.exe sits in the background in the task manager and runs indefinitely, eating up CPU cycles until I forcibly end the task tree.

This exact some problem occurs in Spore. Some people have been able to get around it by running the executable from the Spore root directly directly, or by simply replacing the Spore exe with a cracked version to get around the DRM. Of course, this isn’t a viable option in Warhead since apparently, crysis_activation.exe doesn’t exist

So, since I don’t expect EA to help me with this issue, I’m wondering/hoping that other people have encountered the same issue and might know how to fix it.

See, running the game off the copy I bought would be unless the desktop/start menu shortcuts are run. great, but if I don’t find a solution to this problem that is effecting BOTH my recent EA purchases, I see absolutely no reason to continue supporting this god damn company by actually buying their games when I could just get them for free and not have to worry about any of this DRM nonsense at the same time.

Message was edited by: Atheist_*** (Spore)

Of course this was edited by the thought police division of Electronic Arts, here was the reply to the above:

Go ahead and pirate it

DRM is a disease and BitTorrent is the cure

Search for it on ISOhunt. com and sort by the most seeders
the top 3 hits are working virus free copies.

Crysis Wars has also been released as a standalone copy
by PROCYON. It’s about 5.5GB’s….. works only on LAN though.

The more money EA loses as a result of DRM protesters the better.

So to all the software companies I’ve given thousands of dollars to over the past 20 years, drop the background bullshit that slows our fps, and causes frequent crashes.  We have legitimate serial numbers for our games and should not suffer the consequences of your virtual spyware that runs on our machines and essentially waits for us to do something illegal so you can revoke our serials and ban us from your servers.  Quit punishing your true customers.

I once had an apartment salesman show me a nicer place in cleveland park area and his sales pitch in the kitchen was “the designers are so attentive to detail that all the bolts and knobs in the apartment are all turned to the 6′olock and 12′oclock positions”.

Get the fuck outta here.  Look dude, if you wanna blow smoke up some yuppie from Bethesdas ass be my guest.  But the ocd approach has no effect on me.  In fact, I know that ALL the knobs can’t be set exactly, they loosen up over time.  Just like the sales tactics in the office since 50 people a day are no longer beating on the door for appointments.

Phelps, your friends are weak dude.  Whomever sold you out for a few thousand bucks to a rag mag is no real friend. You have just learned the hard way that drugs and cameras don’t mix.  You have to assume that everyone with a phone is a photographer and that there are hidden security cameras in every corner, waiting to knock you off the highest pedestal in the athletic world.  I am taking a chance with my own reputation even commenting on the situation, but I speak for those who are not offended by your latest screw up.  As terrible as this is going to be for you over the next few weeks (think sponsor money gone) you might have said more in that one picture than the thousand words you stumbled all over on your SNL appearance.  Proof that recreational smokers are not all unemployed bums living in their mother’s basement.   All the public service announcements about pot smokers never becoming successful have been debunked.  The new poster boy for recreational smokers everywhere is the most successful Olympic athlete EVER.  Zig-Zag is on line one.

For those of us who pay attention, we can spot a smoker on another continent.  The big indicator for myself was the media constantly saying:  “He listens to a rapper they call Little Wayne on his Ipod right up to the minute he gets ready to swim”.  Um, yea.  Stoner.  That Weezy album, The Carter III contains Wayne’s ten minute tirade about the decriminalization of marijuana laws.  In fact, Wayne is so stoned on that album the pro-toke overtone becomes monotonous by the end of the CD.  This seemed to fly right over the heads of every Olympic pundit for two weeks, but you have officially ended any speculation.  Square white people have never really understood their children.  They try, but they are so disconnected by the generation gap that the best they can come up with is “he must have had a momentary lapse in reasoning”.  I’ll say.  Before you hold a press conference and issue your second mea culpa think about what you really want to say.  Do you follow the script to satisfy the sponsors, or do you get real and tell the world to chill out?  I’m going to assume you’ll have to speak out against the evils of the herb and make a huge donation to DARE along with many hours of community outreach to youths with drug problems.  At least you get to keep the medals.  I know you’ve been underwater for the past several years but you have got to be careful, the DUI a few years ago brought enough negative attention to your alter boy status.  Enjoy your time in the off season but you should be uber-paranoid about whom you chill with, remember almost anyone has a price.

So the real question is: Is this a defeat for Phelps and his straight edge sponsers, or the gold medal for recreational marijuana smokers worldwide?

We’ve heard of Eco-terrorists, Eco-porn, Eco-awareness, and good ol’ ecology.  What the hell are we watching on A&E?   The new series Whale Wars has reaffirmed my hatred of tree-hugging, whale-saving, environmentalist nut cases.  The shock value alone is undoubtedly why the series went to production.  The documentary film crew probably had no idea what kind of seamen they were going out with.

nutcase

Eco-porn is the swag one receives by making monetary donations to wildlife preservation groups.  Calenders with baby pandas, big cats, and other adorable creatures are gifts one receives for financial donations made to these groups.  You can decorate your cubicle with images of cute creatures that would rip you in half in the wild, while giving your money to the “administration fees” of these non-profits.  These “Sea Shepard’s” as they call themselves, have a nice web page full of enviro propaganda that conflicts with the story you get from the TV show.

Terrorists exist on many levels.  Eco-terrorists like those who man the ship The Steve Irwin ARE fanatical terrorists.  I would never go out to sea with such a crew of noobs, there would be a good chance you won’t make it back to the harbor.   Imagine going to sea with a group of over zealous cub scouts, who have a mandate to put the lives of whales before that of their own crew.  If you need evidence of this, watch the second episode training session to learn how to launch Zodiac skiffs from the deck. The resulting ego contest ended in crew members becoming so upset over details of the procedure they went to their rooms to sulk.  Later several crew members were dumped into arctic waters when launching a skiff and almost froze to death before being fished out by the same incompetent crew that launched/sank them.  In a later episode the tiny boat was out of radio contact for hours after they attempted to chase down a Japanese whaling ship to serve one of their ridiculous cease and desist orders.  A skiff has little chance of survival alone on the open ocean.  The Steve Irwin is destined to have a real tragedy due to lack of experience of the Captain and crew.

Whale Wars is a perfect example of where donation money goes when you get that whale calender and matching tote bag.  Captain Crybaby (Paul Watson) lets his crew do as they please aboard the Steve Irwin, despite his long record of voyages on his bio sheet.  The exagerated Captain picks up the phone to manipulate the media when ever they get into an altercation with a whaling vessel.  In one show he claims to have been shot (despite no bullet wound) by a Japanese crewmember for trying to illegally board the ship, the  Japanese crew called this a complete fabrication.  Either way the lesson is don’t illegally board another ship, and don’t play on crewmembers emotions to do dangerous tasks that you yourself wouldnt do.  The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a ernest and respectable mission statement, but these antics depicted on the television show are illegal and dangerous.  Wildlife preservation is important, and I think we should “save the whales” but in the words of an old bumper sticker: “Fuck the whales, save the humans”.  Nobody should die trying to interfere with a ligitimate fishing operation. With all the other problems the world faces, couldn’t this energy be focused on humanitarian efforts?

cover art

Joe Trippi is the former campaign manager for Howard Dean in 2004 he is the man responsible for turning politics on its ear, with arguably the earliest implementation of the netroots movement.  The Dean campaign started with 400 odd followers with less than $100,000 in the campaign coffers.  By the Democratic primaries in 2004 he had millions of followers and over 50 million dollars in contributions.  This little known former Lt. Governor of Vermont made his name/face/scream famous by the end of 2004, and did it with the first webroots based campaign in history.

Joe Trippi’s modern approach to political stumping was recognized as THE future of politics to come.  By building a network of registered Democrats starting with addresses and phone numbers he started the first updated voter lists in a century.  The practice of studying credit card buying habits the party was able to better reach its target voters.  Campaign messages could be personalized to a slate of voters in a certain geographical region, by customizing the message you spend less campaign dollars and manpower.  The Trippi model of centralizing policy making authority while letting campaign voulenteers share open source type information do the ground work for you.

Be first, build a community, and cede control to your supporters is the new Trippi model.

cover art

From the hugely popular blog Daily Kos author Markos Moulitsas brings you his second book.  Taking on the System is the follow up to his 2006 novel Crashing the Gate:the rise of netroots, grassroots, and the rise of people-powered politics.    This should be a handbook for every progressive thinker in America.  If your at your family’s holiday celebration and you have that annoying conservative uncle who LOVES Bill O’Reilly, read this for ammunition before dinner.  This is a quick read but enjoyable, better written than his first book, each chapter has a series of small stories that flow easily and are filled with interesting factoids even the most politically savvy progressives might not be aware of.  Did I mention its a quick read?  So quick in fact you could finish it in one sitting and manage to write a book report the same day for a college professor.

Taking on the System is similar to Crashing the Gate but the story telling aspect of it makes it much more enjoyable to read.  The author presents a clear argument for bloggers and the personal responsibility we share to look out for our fellow man’s best interest.  It is a call to action for those who wield the power of a blog, to be watchdogs that hold the mainstream media accountable for the liberty they take with stretching reality.

My guess is, there are thousands-hundreds of thousands, in fact-out there just like me. Tired of accepting a backseat. Tired of feeling powerless and voiceless. Tired of the squalid state of our public affairs. And at heart, more than ready, willing, and able to take on the system.

Markos Moulitsas

Taking On The System pg. 272

Celebra Press

The focus of the power of a gatekeeper is a big part of the first part of the book.  It uses the Heritage Foundation as an example for what a mouthpiece for a party should function like.

“Heritage computers are stocked with the names of over 3,500 journalists, organized by specialty.  Every Heritage study goes out with a synopsis to those who might be interested; every study is turned into an op-ed piece, distributed by the Heritage Features Syndicate, to newspapers that wish to publish them.  Heritage has two state-of-the-art television studios in its offices.  Its Lehrman Auditorium is equippecd with an advanced communications system for live feeds to TV and radio networks.  Heritage provides lawmakers and talk show guests with colored index cards stating conservative positions in pithy phrases on every imaginable issue.”

Markos Moulitsas

Taking On The System pg. 46

Celebra Press

Why don’t we have one of these think tanks?  A slick operation ran like a business and hires the best and brightest progressive minds.  One of the long time  Democrat curses is that they don’t pay nearly as well as the Republicans do.  The Dems will work an unpaid intern like a full time employee, with little compensation.  One of Moulitsas main points in Crashing the Gate was that the Democrats need to start paying a competitive rate to compete for talent that the republicans are trying to hire.  Perhaps George Soros would back a state-of-the-art Liberal think tank and equip everyone with Iphones and Mini Coopers to spread the Liberal gospel.

The bottom line is networking and communication is essential to dissemination of information to like minded individuals, whether your running a campaign, or only taking a stand on the issues.  Be informed, be savvy, and gather as much information as you can to make your own decisions, the intellectual is back in style.

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This was an autonomous experience, very little guidance and a loose set of rules. Early meetings and emails arranged a work plan and set a weekly schedule. The final project resembled the original work plan but came about in a off-the-cuff method. Upon acceptance into the internship program I was given an email address to the blog owner and I sent an email to introduce myself. We met at Coffea and I got my initial marching orders. I was to post blog entries on Tuesday and Thursday, with another short entry over the weekend. Posts could be as simple as a paragraph with an embedded YouTube video, there were no minimum word counts. Write something solid once a week, and add some video content to the site. I was looking forward to live blogging the McConnell, Lunsford debate at Centre College’s Norton Center, but McConnell cancelled. I was also hoping to meet and interview Kathy Stein at a UK Democrat’s meeting, she was also a no-show.

Technical problems arose after the first week of November. YouTube changed the parameters of their embed code (the code that allows someone to re-post videos) the Soapblox architecture would not allow users to embed anything with “always” inside the codex. Red error messages prevent the entire article from posting to the site if it has video attached. This became very frustrating and Soapblox help wikis are useless. One member posted an announcement to insert “never” instead of “always” inside the embed code and the video link would work. This was buggy at best, but wasn’t always consistent. Weekly error messages still occurred when I had something important to share and wanted to attach a video but the blog architecture would not allow it. The code fix I was using inevitably quit working shortly thereafter. Video additions to blog posts became virtually impossible, if you wanted to insert any media, it had to be pictures only. Emails to the one of the site’s bloggers who can still successfully upload videos have gone unanswered. The only comparison blog format I have used is WordPress. Even though its free and is seen by some writers as “small time” technical errors are few and far between. Video uploading is slow, but consistent. The technical problems with Soapblox occur with all types of video, YouTube, Google Video, and others. I am not the only user affected by the video blackout; regular submissions from other writers don’t have the video content they once had either. Lately, video submissions on the site are an endangered species. Soapblox needs to fix their coding and script errors, and keep up with changing technologies and provide some type of tech support.

This example of video embedding error is only the tip of an iceberg of problems that bloggers face. If the architecture of the medium is frustrating or not working properly, it hinders the discourse we are trying to achieve. Most bloggers and E-journalists work at a frantic pace of “hurry up and wait”, where small technical difficulties can bring any story to a screeching halt. Net access, server overloads, and slow connections will be your problem to deal with and are out of your control. A hardware issue might be your fault if you spilled coffee into your keyboard, but if your blog site does not respond for hours there is nothing you can do about it.

Besides facing technical obstacles, most bloggers are still seen by traditional journalists as weekend warriors. As newspaper companies are filing for bankruptcy, they must realize a change in their business model is needed to keep up with the amount of news distributed by independent writers on the web.

Our membership has grown by a few more authors but few are submitting video. I was told by the site owner that Soapblox did not change their software to accommodate YouTube’s new look. Videos embedded from YouTube now have a slide show attached, and this might be part of the reason embedding problems started. Something noteworthy is that bloggers depend on YouTube to help provide content for their posts, If YouTube or other popular video sites change their architecture that impedes a blogger’s ability to do his job and both suffer. This “electronic dependency theory” is not limited to the proliferation of web content, but the actual publication of the content itself. As a blogger I link to various websites that add emphasis to the article I’m writing. These sites receive hits from the incoming links that I publish, if they were to prohibit me from linking to them, or embedding their content, the result would be a decline in readership for both. Bloggers depend on other websites for background information, research, and outgoing links. It’s not uncommon to see a single blog story with ten or more external links. Bloggers depend on the content from other websites and fellow bloggers alike. Many websites depend on this user generated content to flourish and develop.