***Entry 238***
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
05:13 p.m.
Something to Do...
Join Grandma's Mini singer Marisa this Saturday, Nov. 30, 2002 @ 8:30 p.m. at Staccato Lounge in Adam's Morgan for a punk rock acoustic holiday extravaganza.
Also playing is the hot accordian sensation MILKMACHINE, T.J., and Heather McCloud.

Staccato Lounge
2006 18th St NW
Washington, DC

***Entry 237***
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
04:57 p.m.
Transcending the Beltway: Second Nature/Second Thoughts
[I had intended on writing this last night, but I didn't have a working computer...]
When I was growing up, my parents refused to let me drive on the Beltway. Their logic was: It was dangerous, people drive erratically, I could get killed. All that is true, but it didn't stop me from driving on the Beltway without their permission. When I was younger, the Beltway was fascinating. There were so many lanes, there were so many cars, there were so many ways of getting into glorious DC. Driving on the Beltway was a thrill. I had to be *super* cautious to avoid an accident. It wasn't so much because it was forbidden, but because it was so much larger than I could comprehend.

Last night, I took the Beltway to New York Ave, heading home from a short school week. The lanes are the same size. The traffic is just as intense. I'm still *super* cautious. But, I realized that I don't have the same respect and admiration for the Beltway itself. It's just a large circular road that doesn't really lead to anywhere.

The truth is, my ambivalence to the Beltway is partially due to living in DC for nearly 2 years. DC itself no longer excites me. It's no longer the escape from the monotony of life in Southern Maryland. It's just a place and I'm beginning to believe that living in DC doesn't really lead to anything especially important.

***Entry 236***
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
04:50 p.m.
Repostings
I'm over at Adam's because 942 is deprived of a working computer right now. I finished my [hopefully] second to last edit of "A Critique of Consensus Process" about 30 minutes ago and have sent it back to Sam Chambers. I'm excited that I finally have a full version done. It's 55 pages long and I think it's a pretty logical critique of the problems of consensus process. Don't worry, as soon as it is finished I will post it online. Be patient.
Anyhow...it seems that someone has reposted my commentary on this blog to this article. I wouldn't have even realized it, if I hadn't gotten a lot of hits from it. Thanks for the publicity, unknown individual. I appreciate it. I might have published it my self there, but I was tired that night and I forgot about it. It's nice to know that someone from DC IMC land is reading this blog.

***Entry 235***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
03:16 p.m.
Before I'm off
Joanne and Matt give updates about their blogs during the holiday. I'm not sure if I will be posting much over the next couple of days.
1. I'm on deadline again for a full rewrite of "A Critique of Consensus Process." Arrr...I believe this project is beginning to bring me pain. Earlier today I described myself as being "A little ball of stress." That description stands.

2. I don't have a working house computer at 942. Oh shit! How am I going to email "A Critique of Consensus Process?"

Stress! I'm off for work.

***Entry 234***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
03:07 p.m.
Either "There is a Light..." or "Nothing Lasts Forever"
I've finally taken the Fleetwood Mac Rumours Album out of my car CD player and replaced it with my 24 Hour Party People inspired CD, which includes random other 80s bands like The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen. [Why do you care? Well, you probably don't, but that's never prevented me from posting before. Afterall, I don't provide a mechanism to obtain feedback, so how would I know which postings you like and which ones you skip reading. I'm not inclined to survey y'all now...]

Anyhow, I think I'm going to have to take it out of my car soon because it's not conducive to my graduation-angst. It just makes me more nervous about graduating [next month!] because it doesn't provide the most positive outlook. The Rumours Album may not be optimistic, but at the very least, the songs *sound* cheery.

***Entry 233***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
03:00 p.m.
Strange Searches [Again]
Periodically, I update my readers on the strange searches that lead people to hit my site. I have a few more now...
1. "Toenail growing back": I don't mind these kinds of toenail info searches [it's the other ones that bother me]...I hope they found my random toenail postings useful. It's grown back half-way. I hope that by the spring, I will have a full toenail again.
2. "Protest theory": I don't have the slightest idea of what this person was trying to find. I talk about protests often. I talk about theory often. I don't recall talking about "protest theory." But, the search results don't show anything else that seems particularly useful. Sorry.

***Entry 232***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
12:01 p.m.
Thanksgiving?
But Matt, I *love* Thanksgiving. At least, the large quantities of free food part...

***Entry 231***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
01:07 a.m.
Quick! Before I Crash...
I'm too tired to find the most appropriate way of reacting to this anti-war article from the DC IMC without sounding too gushing. Whatever, I'm going to allow myself to gush. Wow! I'm startled, impressed, thrilled and overwhelmed with joy. Finally, someone has written a profound analysis of what a *real* anti-war movement would look like. Finding it on the DC IMC among the usual babble was a shocker, in and of itself...I think the reaction of one of the commentators says it the best: EXCELLENT article!! just don't expect "mature, legitimate, and popular" to resonate on this web site ... So far, none of the "International ANSWER" apologists have started the flame war. Check it out before it is ruined by the fools like "Soldier," "Freeper" and "Postnobills" who are bound to hit it with their inane "commentary."

***Entry 230***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
12:47 a.m.
Ridiculous Diversions in Exhaustion Mode: Web Travels #2
The Metro Map of Bloggers is always a great place to go when searching for something new. Today, rants and ramblings a great new blog appeared. And, through this new [local] blog, I visited something *super* cool: a site that allows you to Make Your Own Bush Speech. If Joanne can encourage her readers to visit the *super* Found Magazine, I strongly recommend the Bush speech site. It's a better waste of time than my ridiculous Post-horoscope.

***Entry 229***
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
12:22 a.m.
Ridiculous Predictions in Exhaustion Mode
My Post horoscope writes: CANCER (June 21-July 22): Look beyond the immediate; you can predict your future and make it come true. Financial situation shows marked improvement. Let go of losing proposition. Romantic reunion takes place tonight.
I can't help but be skeptical of a horoscope that tells me that I can predict my future. What's the point of the horoscope then? Hee hee...

***Entry 228***
Monday, November 25, 2002
03:58 p.m.
"Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie"
I've searched the web numerous times looking for a solid translation of that classic Belle and Sebastian song, but *alas* google fails me every time. Once, I read that it was a mistranslation of "the apathy of the middle class" but I can't find the link to that source anymore. Regardless, it serves as the backdrop to my [rushed/late] review of the ARISE event Saturday night.

Joanne beat me to the review stating several concepts that I wished to address. However, I can legitmate my blog absence due to intensifying stress to a. find a job and b. finish "A Critique of Consensus Process." In the scheme of my *chaotic* life, blogging takes somewhere around fourth place right now. *Lament away, suckers.*

And now to the review. The flyers promoted this event as a series of lectures on Democratic Participation and "What's Left of the Left." Speakers were to include, Adam Eidinger and someone from the Center for Voting and Democracy. Needless to say, I was excited about this event, thanks to my interest in Third Party Politics and Voting/Election reform measures. However, that was *not* the focus of this inane waste of time and money. My reactions to the actual event follow in an time-warped analysis that is somewhat fitting and somewhat related to "le pastie de la bourgeosie"...

8:05pm: Honestly, I had no idea that this was a *cultural* event. I seem to have been mislead that it was a political event on Third Party Politics in America.
8:10pm: Yawn. Where is Adam? [BTW: At this point, I've decided to stop paying attention to the elevator music eminating from the piano, and have turned to reading Nietzsche.]
8:30pm: Would this be any better if people weren't drinking wine [at an added cost] out of plastic cups?
' 8:45pm: I get the feeling everyone around me is looking to appear more pretentious than they really are. *Oh, look the stylistas arrive!* [This is in reference to two young women who would be wearing all black if it wasn't for their identical gap blue jean jackets. The vomit factor was at an excessively high level.]
8:50pm: I guess my cynical observation would be that what's left for the left is obnoxious oblivion. That is, they go out looking fabulously irrelevant. But if they clap at just the right time in the mediocre jazz fare, maybe they will appear more legitimate. It's useless.
Until 9:40pm...I write progressively more slanderous comments to Joanne, who looks like she is seriously tormented. And why shouldn't she be: the poetry is awful, the introductions are verbose and far too complementary and the people can be summed up by the one attractive young boy sadly wearing an Urban Outfitters production of the classic Che Guevara red t-shirt. Oh, if only the revolution will be so *fashionable!*

9:40pm: Adam speaks. Adam really is a talented public speaker. For the first time, the audience is engaged. They laugh. They are enjoying this. After all, it is what they most likely came to see. Here are some choice quotes.
Elected representatives don't want to take responsibility."
We don't have to smash windows to be creative. We can provoke thought through puppets.
10:25pm[ish]: Rashad, from the Center for Voting and Democracy finally spoke. He was limited to a 15 minute discussion, so he spoke for a few minutes and then began taking questions about Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation. I personally, think that this is a great way for a speaker to engage his audience: jumping into questions almost immediately allows the speaker to judge the knowledge and intelligence of the audience and to cater his/her remarks to them. The best quote he gave was.
Within the current system, third parties will never have a chance to break the two party hegemony. The two parties are just running against each other in the center and they are ignoring all the other potential voters.
Unfortunately, his speech got interrupted by someone [who I know rather well...but will remain nameless here] who decided to comment extensively on initiatives/referenda, etc. This person spoke for at least 5 minutes, which imposed on the *real* speaker's limited time. Why is it that those in the left can never learn from others and always have to comment on their own irrelevant experience.

Oh wait, that's why we have to have a "forum" on what's left for the left! Because, at the end, there's nothing left except a periodic, pretentious, eyes-closed, semi-enthusiastic clapping to the barely tolerable jazz music. Onwards, comrades: oblivion is nearby and we must confront it with well-dressed bourgeois apathy.

***Entry 227***
Saturday, November 23, 2002
11:01 a.m.
Arbitrary Updates
Well, I'm heading back to the city in a few minutes. My stint at the log cabin has been a wonderful departure from the monotony of city social affairs. I admit reluctance to return, but I can't live in a dream world forever.

In other news, I finished editing "A Critique of Consensus Process" for grammatical problems. I've still got to work on some theoretical issues, but the project is *so* close to completion now. I don't feel nearly as stressed out as I did earlier this month.

Prof. Chambers advised me to wait a year before applying to grad school. I think I'm going to take this advice. I waited too long to start working on applications and studying for the GRE. I kept thinking that I would have more time once the campaign ended and once my SMP [read: senior thesis] was in the final stages. But my life is more of a series of arbitrarily connected events, not a progression toward any ideal state. That is, I always tend to get caught up in something new rather than working toward a larger goal. If anything, this delay may counter this problem; I will be forced to think about my future in the long-run--not just what I will be doing next week.

*Sigh.* Josh has advised me to travel in the meantime or to do something different. He's right. I need to move on. I've worked too hard for my degree to just jump back into the black hole of progressive politics in DC. Besides, I don't think that I could play that role effectively anymore.

My ex-housemate, *Tam, warned me about "selling out" before she left for South America last spring. I'm a tad concerned that my shift in perspective may resemble "selling out" to those still associated with the anti-corporate globalization movement. In fact, that is hardly the case. I think that in order for any progressive movement to be influential in the long term, it must move beyond the uncatchy slogans/chants/posters and onto serious analysis of what the future should look like. If anything, writing "A Critique of Consensus Process" has forced me to look at this issue. When it's finished in a couple of weeks, I know that I will take a lot of heat for writing it. However, it will only be from those who support change for change sake. Or because they misguidedly consider themselves to be "revolutionaries."

Inevitably, I always make my own decisions. I reflect on suggestions seriously, however, I can't yield my independence even for my friends. I'm less than a month away from graduation and I have to determine what I'm doing with my life. For now, I'm returning to the city. It's not the best option for me, but I can never move on if I just stay put.

***Entry 226***
Friday, November 22, 2002
11:00 p.m.
Blogging as Procrastination
Sometime tonight, I'm going to stop blogging and start working on another revision of "A Critique of Consensus Process." I really don't have much left to do, but I can't quite get started when I keep finding interesting things like this website in which people take pictures of toy cars/vehicles and place them next to real cars/vehicles. It's called "Parking Spots" and it's much funnier than I could describe. Plus, the creators of the site deserve credit for being influenced by the superb film The Gleaners and I which screened at last year's Environmental Film Festival but is probably available on video now. It's such a great film.

***Entry 225***
Friday, November 22, 2002
10:26 p.m.
Just Before "Dude!"/ What Are You Waiting For?
If you missed the opportunity to see the brilliant local independent film, Washington Interns Gone Bad when it premiered last week at Art O Matic, you have a few chances left to see it for free. See if it fits into your schedule here.

On a somewhat related note...I got into a conversation with one of my middle-school students on Thursday about my [very limited] acting experience and I mentioned I was in a brand-new film. She of course asked what it was called, and I [reluctantly] replied "Washington Interns Gone Bad." [You never know just what middle-school students will think when you say "gone bad..."] She asked me to repeat one of my lines. Those in "the know" remember that the character "Zoe Mitchell, Indymedia Girl" has only one line in the film. And that line is definately *not* within the scope of permitted language in a middle-school environment. Just what is that line? Go to Art O Matic and see the film.

***Entry 224***
Friday, November 22, 2002
08:06 p.m.
More on Gore
This Talking Points article feeds in to the "Al Gore hype" by commenting on it. [By that logic, I'm feeding into the hype as well...but whatever.] The most sickening part is: And it's paying off as he has come across more genuine and daring, if not inconsistent. For instance, he's said repeatedly this week that he's come to the conclusion that the health care system is irrevocably broken and that he now supports a single-payer national health care system, even though he ravaged Democratic primary opponent Bill Bradley for supporting the same in 2000. Genuine? Daring? Hardly.

The initial reason that I chose to go to Manchester, NH and work on the Bradley campaign was because he supported a single-payer national health care system. I remember how dismissive Gore was about Bradley's health care plan. I would say Gore more than "ravaged" Bradley because of it; he went to the extreme of making Bradley look ridiculous. And now that Gore is supporting it he is being genuine and daring? No, I would say he's looking to "unite" the disparate Democratic Party and promote himself as the "new" leader. I'd be redundant if I said again that if Gore is the nominee, the Democratic Party is dead. But, maybe "redundant" isn't the right word at all. Maybe, I'm just *painfully* accurate.

***Entry 223***
Friday, November 22, 2002
05:54 p.m.
PR as News or News as PR
Matt links to this article about how CBS News is distributing fake news stories. While, the vomit factor is high on this one, many of those associated with the indymedia movement have suspected it for a while now. This is just another example of why the corporate media shouldn't be trusted. And...another example of why the whole "Become the Media" concept that Indymedia [and also bloggers] has helped facilitate is better.
[Update @ 8pm: Sorry for leaving you all hanging on that sentence for a couple of hours...]

***Entry 222***
Friday, November 22, 2002
05:35 p.m.
Go See Adam Speak
Thanks to the City Paper's talks section, I finally found the needed information for this event. Unfortunately, they misspelled Adam's name. I have corrected this problem in my reposting of this little blurb.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: WHAT'S LEFT FOR THE LEFT?, lecture by 2002 D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate for "Shadow" U.S. Representative Adam Eidinger. Butler Park Center, 2437 15th St. NW. Sat., 11/23, at 8 p.m. $7 (suggested donation). (202) 462-1916.
In the sign they had up at Sparky's [the *best* coffeeshop in town], the event promoters said that other speakers on Third Party Politics will be there as well. Well...you know that I'll be there. :)[I've just got to *convince* myself to return to the city. The log cabin, is just so nice and relaxing.]

***Entry 221***
Friday, November 22, 2002
05:22 p.m.
Blogging about Blogging
I joined the globe of blogs. This site hasn't been included in the database yet, because it takes a few days. The globe of blogs site has this great list of blog resources including all kinds of information relevant to my new "A Website of Her Own: Blogging as Media Democracy" project. When you post your blog in the database, you can determine which categories best describe your blog. Then you can find other bloggers that are similar to you. Fellow bloggers may find it to be useful for other reasons though. [You know who you are...]

From the globe of blogs site, I found the link to a site calledWeblogs4hire which apparently is a service to help employ bloggers. I wonder [outloud?] if anyone actually gets a job from posting their info on this site. Does anyone reading my blog have any experience with this? [Not that I want to know for personal reasons or anything...]

***Entry 220***
Friday, November 22, 2002
01:38 p.m.
The Perils of City Life: How to Avoid Revolution
I wanted to write a piece on the escalating murder rate in DC. The report from News Channel 4 states that although murder is up, other crimes are down. Maybe it's living in a "transitional neighborhood," but I can say from personal experience that it appears overall crime is increasing. The homeless are more accosting, cars are broken into more often, etc. But these things are normal in a city, we get used to seeing homeless people yell incoherent things while presumably asking for money. We dismiss them as drunks or drug addicts. It's easier than placing the blame on society itself. Property violence receives similar treatment. We blame it on kids looking for kicks. We don't blame society.

Joanne links to a Le Monde piece about decreasing political violence and increasing social violence. Her one phrase reaction is highly dismissive, but I have another opinion of the work. It's actually really frightening because it makes a prediction that things are going to get worse. The great lesson of the history of humanity is that in the long term people will always revolt against worsening inequality. The present rise, in North and South, of illegality and criminality, often primitive and archaic manifestations of social agitation, is a clear sign that the world's poorest have had enough of social injustice. In other words, those increasingly agitated homeless people and kids looking for kicks by "breaking stuff" are what we should fear if we want to avoid full social revolution.

I used to be a self-declared "revolutionary." My idea of revolution was never particularly Marxist, largely because I hadn't read enough Marx. [Believe me, kids, The Communist Manifesto is not enough to call yourself a "Marxist."] However, my shift in perspective largely comes from spending two semesters studying the course of revolutions with Prof. Christine Adams and reading a whole lot more of Marx [particularly, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and The Civil War in France].

My current perspective is that those that want progressive social change should not be out in the streets fighting for a totally misguided revolution. If the revolution comes nothing positive comes out of it. The poor don't become the rich. The rich just escape or are killed. Full redistribution doesn't happen, only those that take power get rich. And the rights of minorities are simply obliterated.

But then, giving money to homeless people who yell at you isn't the answer either. Neither is simply moving out of the city to safety from property destruction/murder/etc. This does nothing to prevent revolution or save yourself. What we need are policy changes and an end to the bureaucracy that prevents them from being initiated. We need more shelters that concentrate on helping homeless people with psychological problems and drug/alcohol abuse, while feeding and educating them. We need an education system that doesn't just create slogans like "No Child Left Behind" but actually works to teach kids how to be successful and gives them the resources to propell them forward.

Avoiding these solutions, only increases the risk. City life will only be more dangerous.

***Entry 219***
Friday, November 22, 2002
12:23 a.m.
Insomnia or Incomparable
I was saving looking at this piece by my SMP [read: senior thesis] advisor, Sam Chambers for tomorrow when I am hopefully less sleep deprived. However, insomnia has lead me to read it tonight.

In email correspondence, re: the whole moral relativism vs. universal morals problem discussed in an earlier entry , Prof. Chambers revealed that he too writes on the West Wing. He sent me a link, but I couldn't find the article. Thankfully, google exists to solve many of my problems; the link above is proof of that.

I had begun to write a typical point-by-point analysis of this piece until I realized that it was going to be *far* too much for even a lengthy blog entry. Besides, putting an analysis of this work here would seem illegitimate. It would be surrounded by a moth murder story and whatever cheesiness comes next. A response to this piece *requires* a better outlet...and I don't really have one at this time.

However, the important thing to note is that my little West Wing analysis blog entries in no way compare to what Prof. Chambers has done here. Even the latest/decent one at the bottom of the page is incomparable. Perhaps that's due to the distinctions between the medium in which we present our views. Or perhaps that's due to my limited knowledge.

Regardless, if you have enjoyed my West Wing blogging, you should read this piece. It gives a much deeper account of some of the things I attempt to write about. It's more complex. It's more theoretical. It's more detailed. And I need to sleep anyhow.

***Entry 218***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
11:47 p.m.
Vomit: Is It Political?
I just killed a large moth. It was a disgusting death. Yellow liquid squirted out of it's side as I attempted to hit it with an empty Diet Coke bottle. [Poor Diet Coke bottle...I can only hope that it is recycled into a happier existence...] Now the presumably dead moth resides under a blank piece of paper because I can't look at it. It's repulsive.

And if that didn't exceed the vomit factor, consider this report from the Washington City Paper [my term="city"] on the renewed Al Gore. "So the media tour has started to sound a bit like, well, a presidential campaign, with the same lines foisted on different, but equally bored, audiences. *Yuk.* Another Gore nomination=sure death for the Democratic Party...one presumably not much different from my moth murder.

***Entry 217***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
10:48 p.m.
A Spectrum of Amusement/Dismay
1. Happy Amusing: The joy of extensive email correspondence: "In a way, Eric's e-mails aren't really even written to me at all, but to the ages," Honig said. "Why would he need to inform me that he hates the pants he's wearing that day? Obviously, he is not so much communicating a message to me as he is using metaphor and imagery to expound upon his protean worldview." And today, I blogged extensively about sleep deprevation?

2. Sad Amusing: Sitting next to me is a Glade Country Garden Potpourri Spray can. The back of the container includes this telling warning [written originally in all caps, but I've avoided screaming here so far...so...]: "To avoid product abuse, keep out of the reach of children and teens. Join the Partnership for a Drug-America in helping to stop product abuse..."

3. Dismay: I'm beginning to believe that Joanne may have been right about the "value" of college education. I'm not as dismissive as she is; however, I'm also not as opposed to her perspective as I was earlier this year. While I still disagree with her explicit critique of my "minor" Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, I find a great deal of validity in: "In the United States, college is considered a rite-of-passage rather than an education. It is where you go to learn to roll a spliff and lose your virginity --not necessarily where you acquire marketable skills." Personally, I've never felt that way about my education...but that's largely because I paid for most of it myself through scholarships I worked for and loans. Thus, I was forced to value it. However, thinking about the inane commentary by students in one particular class of mine, I wonder about my so-called "peers." Perhaps, it's just because I'm getting old...

***Entry 216***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
06:45 p.m.
"I am The Hope and the Dream of the Future"
Yes, I'm aware of how cheesy that sounds; however, when I was a high school student, I seriously thought this about myself. I even placed it into my yearbook page dedicated to my greatness. [what can I say, it was a perk of being the editor-in-chief.] On the whole it reflects the naive ambition of a high school honors student, one who undoubtedly believes that she can conquer the world. A couple years later, fraught with disillusionment, I would reflect that I could only be the hope and the dream of the future if I could live through the present. It's been years since I thought about this quote at all. It only re-emerged in the past few days as I unexpectedly have been blasted back into my own forgotten past.

My future--that of a college graduate--is only a month away. I've written before of "Life Without Stability." I've tried to explain my situation, but it hasn't made much sense to me [and it's probably made much less sense to my readers]. What I've begun to realize is I've been missing my ambition--the thing that drove me to state that "I am the Hope and the Dream of the Future" years ago.

I went to work today tired and anxiety-ridden, as usual. I didn't expect to meet a middle school girl who knew most of my high school friends. Or my friend Candice Kamperin's little sister. I didn't expect to talk to my old AP English teacher, Katie Marlowe/Shepherd/Dredger. I didn't expect to find myself back in my old high school searching for her mother, my AP Government and Politics teacher, Anita Shepherd, and talking to several others who knew me long before I went to college, moved to DC and forgot who I was.

It's a strange thing to interact with your past as an adult. There's this dynamic of realizing that regardless of how hard you try to reinvent yourself, others from your past will remember you *just* as you once were. These people, especially my teachers, remembered my ambition and still thought of me as that girl who truly believed she was the hope and the dream of the future. The strange, and important, thing is that they still believed that about me. They still believed that I could go out and conquer the world.

There are a lot of people who still believe in me these days. There are a lot of people who still care about me and want me to be successful. There are a lot of people I ignore with detached cynicism or shamefully criticize because they have the audacity to be concerned about me. It is a fault that I definately need to get over.

Driving back to my temporary home [the glorious log cabin], I realized that I can still be the Hope and the Dream of the Future if others still believe that. I just have to believe it myself. I just have to regain that ambition lost in years of poverty and regret. It has absolutely nothing to do with living through the present, I'll do that without considering the alternatives. It has everything to do with realizing that my future is only a month away and that I can still determine my success. I still revel in cheesy slogans.

***Entry 215***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
01:36 p.m.
People With *Too* Much Time
Someone did a google search for "zoe" and eventually found this site. It was the 191st result. Strangely, enough the other site [which desperately needs to be updated] came in at 111. Considering that there are approximately 1,130,000 results, I'm impressed that both sites make it into the top 200 results. Wow.
As for time constraints, I've gotta go to work. Later.

***Entry 214***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
01:01 p.m.
Become the Media: Comment
My mind is racked from two classes of discussing alternatives, "third ways" [I want to reclaim that phrase from the Blair/Clinton monopoly] to moral relativism and universal morals. Anyone have any ideas? I haven't heard anything particularly useful, yet. But maybe that's because I was half-incoherent due to severe sleep deprevation at the time. *Sigh.* At least I'm heavily caffeinated at this point...

So, instead of writing anything particularly profound, I'm just going to link to a bunch of articles on the DC IMC that are getting more comments than others. There's no real reason for doing this, I just want to give you some idea of what it is like to comment to that site, without having the complete bias of having participated in the media democracy process myself.

1. A vague article about the Workers World Party is regurgitating an analysis of "International ANSWER" and getting a lot of feedback.

2. Yet another analysis of the 2002 elections/press release is getting feedback from the usual selection of trolls and morons. Here's soldier waxing poetic on the value of the DC IMC which he participates regularly in: it's a site where the left can engage in a bit of public masturbation and give eachother pats on the back. And as a contributer, his point is...?

3. This [reposted] article which intends to question why the left supports the Palestinians over Israelis, but ends up accusing the left of nihilism [sounds familar, eh?] has stirred up the most interesting debate lately on the DC IMC. While the usual suspects, "Wally" and "Soldier" comment...there's other responses as well. Interesting.

***Entry 213***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
08:04 a.m.
I need sleep
Arr...Three hours of sleep isn't nearly enough to concentrate. I need caffeine. Or I need sleep.

Oops. I had the wrong date on this one...Now, I've fixed it.

***Entry 212***
Thursday, November 21, 2002
01:21 a.m.
Un/Just Rewards
*Sigh.* Privatization has not made public health care in DC better. The closure of DC General Hospital last year, has been criticized extensively by local activists; but few in power were listening until the latest bankruptcy scandal broke a few days ago. Something is clearly *very* wrong when Mayor Williams response is: "We entered into this arrangement with the alliance recognizing there were these financial questions," he said. "We're in a sub-optimal world. The only optimal world is heaven, and none of us are there yet. . . . Now that we've gone this route, we have to monitor the situation very closely." [Should I really bother writing a critique of this quote? Probably not, I'm finally tired and I should go to sleep before my 8am tomorrow. But, I *have* to say it.] Hmm...So Mayor Williams, would I be completely off base to suggest that you are, perhaps, encouraging sticking with a failed privatization scheme as a mechanism for propelling more people into heaven? Cynically speaking that would be *totally* innovative health care policy and it would rid the city of all those problematic poor/uninsured people [like, sadly, myself].

Seriously though, the City Council realizes that the privatization of DC General Hospital was a failure, why can't Mayor Williams?

***Entry 211***
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
11:08 p.m.
Web Travels
First, I went to visit Rabble's site to see if he had posted anything new. He hadn't, but in his list o' links I saw something called participatory journalism. Well, given my interest in participatory democracy and my love of the indymedia concept of "Become the Media," I had to check this out. The site's fabulous and it included a link to something called Google People which uses Google to answer simple "Who is..." type questions. Of course, I asked "Who is Zoe Mitchell?" because I'm *self obsessed*. And, lo and behold it came up with all this. I find it particularly interesting that the first person in the relationship section [other than "myself"] is Ken Ringle, who I had so much fun knocking in the self indulgent ***Entry 69***. The internet=endless joy.

***Entry 210***
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
10:08 p.m.
Power Failure: Things Fall Apart
Part of the Weekly West Wing Evaluation
[First, an explanation...Some blog entries deserve titles. That's why I've been boldfacing some ideas before discussing them. I plan to continue this, but I wanted to make sure my lovely readers knew what was up.]

"It's in the campaigning that you make your mark." A losing House candidate said this tonight on the West Wing. On the whole, it illustrates the entire analysis of power examined on tonight's episode. The West Wing is commended for many reasons: it sheds light on to how the government operates [or perhaps, how the left-wing would like it to operate], it provides a useful mechanism for public debate on policy choices, it is issue-based television, it's great for political science majors. As a political science major and Women, Gender and Sexuality studies "minor," analyzing power relations is one of the most important things I study. Tonight's episode of the West Wing was particularly important because it did the same.

Each episode of the West Wing has sort-of an overarching theme. Tonight's had two: one was what I'd like to call "Things Fall Apart." Sam Seaborn prepared for his House race and inevitable departure from the West Wing, Vice President Hoynes began to prepare for the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary--corroding support for the President in the Senate, and the President forgot various names [his wife's staffer, the names of his cat/housekeeper]. The other was the question of where power comes from. This is the more important of the two themes and one I will spend more time on in this [lengthy] blog entry.

In the opening scene the President claims a mandate for his various policy initiatives. Setting up the concept that is, power is derived from the voters. However, as the show proceeds it is clear that power is not so simple. Sam is complemented for "winning" the nomination for his House race, but he quickly points out that he hasn't won his primary yet. Although he has no competition and the party has effectively endorsed him. In other words, Sam attempts to claim that power is derived from the voters, but without competition, that is an impossible claim.

There are many other examples of how power is more difficult to ascertain. Toby wants the defeated House candidate [whose quote opens this entry] to be the Director of the National Parks Service. However, the nominee for this position has to be confirmed by the Senate. Power, does not reside with the President or his staff. In this case, it resides with the Senate, who certainly "represent" the people who elected them, but can [and will] puncture the ego of the President who claims a mandate for his initiatives. Which "people" then hold the power: those that elected the President or those that elected the Senators? Additionally, the President suggests that he will "do everything in his power" to protect the Iranian family of a doctor; however, it is unclear what "everything in his power" really means. How can the US President really protect a family from a foreign leader?

Returning to: "It's in the campaigning that you make your mark." Power, it seems is impossible to wield in any particular way. The President, although he claims a mandate, may not be able to do much in his second term. He is after all, a lame duck, and as Josh points out the campaigning for his job "keeps getting earlier, doesn't it." The importance of the show is that it explores policy issues and encourages debate and that is also what many campaigns are about. In the end, it seems that this all follows Foucault: power is wrapped up in the discourse. In a campaign, you are able to talk about issues. In office, you may not be able to effectively change anything.