***Entry 18***
Friday, September 13, 2002
01:07 p.m.
I am obsessed with public transportation systems. As a DC resident, I am particularly fascinated by the metro system. After hearing about many suicides on the red line, I developed a theory that the red line is the best line to kill yourself on. Why? The red line is filled with total asshole suburbanites who are always in a rush and always obnoxious. Suicide is a big fuck you to the world--and by killing yourself on the red line, you are fucking over the biggest assholes in the city.
I'm not supporting suicide here...especially, since yet another person killed himself on the red line today.
In other less depressing public transportation news, the metro is proposing some serious changes. For example, express bus lines, that will run parallel to subway lines. I'm not sure if this will work. From experience with the metrobus, "express" means nothing more than the bus might only come 5-10 minutes after its scheduled arrival time.

***Entry 17***
Friday, September 13, 2002
12:59 p.m.
Adam Eidinger is on the radio right now arguing against the "war" on Iraq. Look for the archive later today or tomorrow.
Also, check out the blog section...might be interesting to get a tape?

***Entry 16***
Friday, September 13, 2002
12:27 p.m.
Thanks Joanne, for understanding that political science is a solid, worthwhile major. You get a point for that! :)

***Entry 15***
Thursday, September 12, 2002
05:57 p.m.
Perhaps, it makes more sense to post commentary to this article on the DC IMC site, but I think it fits with the some times flow of tactical discussion I am presenting here. Anyhow, on the DC IMC, "Frederick Freedom," challenges the validity of ACC and MGJ actions. The resulting commentary is perhaps the most constructive discourse that the DC IMC has seen in weeks.

***Entry 14***
Thursday, September 12, 2002
04:05 p.m.
Ahh...cross pollenation. I love the internet.

***Entry 13***
Thursday, September 12, 2002
03:03 p.m.
It's time to defend my major. Joanne writes, "We all know Poli-Sci is the easiest college major next to English, that explains the thousands of girl-grads barely competent enough to fold and stuff envelopes, employed solely as something for the wonks to (possibly probably) bounce off of." Well, Jo, you're criticism is funny, but completely unsubstantiated. Here's why...
1. Political Science is not an easy major. I've been interested in politics since I was 12 and actively participating in political events/elections since I was 16. I have held political offices in my neighborhood, in my county and on the state level (some elected, some appointed). I have worked on over a dozen local, state and national elections. I have an incredible amount of practical political experience. However, I have never found my political science courses to be easy. My school requires that political science majors have a working knowledge of the many subfields of political science. That, in and of itself, makes the major difficult.
2. Whoa. I know that you qualified your analysis with "I hate to bring up gender issues..." but that in no way legitimates degrading "girl-grads." Women are fully competent individuals and I hardly think "thousands" of female political science majors are only nominally qualified for envelope stuffing.
3. The rampant overgeneralizations present in this quote, Jo, are too demeaning to be effective. Next time, couch your argument in less offensive terms and be a tad more persuasive.

***Entry 12***
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
12:23 p.m.
I don't want to write a Sept. 11 retrospective piece. Instead, I direct you to my story from last Sept. 11. In response to a bunch of "radical" (read: ridiculous)people expressing pro-WTC/Pentagon attack beliefs (and the patterns emerging in the anti-corporate globalization movement), I wrote then: "Tomorrow morning, pending no more terrorist attacks we will wake up again. Have some petty process discussions, attack each other for differences of opinion, and forget to value each other. With people in the movement like this, I'm not sure I want to know what the world post-revolution will look like." I won't write a retrospective, because a year later...I can't write this statement any better.

***Entry 11***
Monday, September 9, 2002
07:40 p.m.
I've written before about the importance of protesters shifting tactics to 1. keep the police on guard and 2. keep the media's attention. The corporate media are not interested in covering a lousy march downtown any more than they are interested in covering toothpaste. As Joanne and I observed yesterday, in DC marches happen everyday.
It's good to know that finally, the anti-corporate globalization protesters are looking for new innovative tactics. Namely, according to Post writer Manny Fernandez the Anti-Capitalist Convergence is encouraging their "black bloc" troopers not to wear black. Call me shocked...and strangely enough elated. Coffee shop intellectuals can wear black again, without the "negative" black bloc connotations.

In other news...I saw 24 Hour Party People last night. I recommend it for two reasons: 1. satirical/serious postmodern asides. 2. Joy Division.

***Entry 10***
Saturday, September 7, 2002
4:25 p.m.
Sadly, I missed Adams Morgan Day today due to lengthy wound cleansing and pain. I'm doing my best to promote Adam's campaign from my computer. If you are looking for something *HOT* to do next weekend...consider coming out to SHADOW. Nothing, not even the mayoral signature scandal, will fire up the election cycle as much as SHADOW will.

***Entry 9***
Saturday, September 7, 2002
01:37 p.m.
Joanne writes against the effectiveness of protests in her Friday, Sept. 6 entry. She notes that yesterday's ROAR could not have served as a means to influence the Senate vote because "Protests...are uncouth. They are loud, obnoxious, and ineffectual." I've got a little (err...a lot) to say about that...
I've participated in and covered protests on hundreds of different issues. I will agree with Joanne, that protesting for many people is a social activity; however, I don't quite agree with her analysis that Robert Putnam would "beam" over this. Namely, his book Bowling Alone--looks at the decline of a plethora of long term social activities that Americans used to participate in. Protests are not long term social activities. The organizing for one protest begins months/weeks ahead of time. Then the protest happens. When it's over, people move on...sometimes to other organizing for another protest...but sometimes back to their "real lives." In either case, the transient nature of protest activities, makes it difficult to claim that protesting (alone) fills the social void in present-day America.
As I charged last nite, rather than being social activities per se, protests serve as a means to inform "potential" activists and to encourage them to look criticially at the manner in which the federal government laws/regulations/etc effect individual lives. For example, in the case of ROAR, many ravers probably never considered that their lifestyles could be stifled by federal legislation. Perhaps, I am generalizing, but many went out to ROAR and thought that en masse they could encourage Senators to vote against the Rave act. I agree with Joanne, that a bunch of candy ravers on the Capitol, will not influence the decisions individual Senators make. However, if ROAR exclusively served as a means to educate people about government operations or look critically at the government itself, then it was highly effective.

***Entry 8***
Friday, September 6, 2002
09:09 p.m.
Sorry I've neglected this in the past couple of days. I've been super busy with readjusting to school life and cleaning my wound.
First, I went to ROAR today. While I don't consider myself a full out raver, the idea of effectively shutting down dance parties and jailing promoters because ecstasy *might* be used on the premises, strikes me as ridiculous in this pro-capitalist society.
Second, for those of you in the DC area interested in deliberative democracy, you might want to check out a seminar called Beyond Consensus. I'm not sure about the magic part, but it could be interesting...especially in relation to...
Third, for those of you that are actually interested in my SMP (read: senior thesis) on deliberative democracy and consensus process, you will be sad to know, that my little scheme was rejected. Therefore, I am looking for a new method of posting my three (err...two "real") chapters soon. I'm still struggling with coding.
Finally, I've started to archive this site, because I'm getting addicted to this blogging thing. I'm thinking...could I just archive my entire first two chapters of my SMP? Hmmm...