implicit art

via Tom Moody:

You might have noticed the CBS News story “McCain Backs Bush’s Iraq Strategy” on the blogroll to the left for several months now (or maybe not–well, it’s been there). Lots of other people linked to the story, too, and now it shows up in the top 10 Google searches if anyone is looking for information about Mr. Flak Vest in the Baghdad Market (aka Mr. Bomb Bomb Iran). It looks like his presidential campaign is tanking with the announcement this week of huge staff departures (yay!) so some blogroll space will now be devoted to another overrated individual aspiring to be the leader of the free world, with the inclusion of the following three articles:

Rudy Giuliani was kicked off the Iraq Study Group because he never showed up for meetings.

Rudy Giuliani was the only candidate not invited to speak to the Firefighters presidential Forum.

Rudy Giuliani is worse than Bush.

If the thought of Giuliani as president makes you queasy and you have a blog or links page, you might consider getting the word out by pointing to these mainstream media stories, with the link around the words “Rudy Giuliani.”

See also: this Firefighters Union video about “Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend”–it mentions Giuliani’s foolishness in locating his mayoral “Command Center” in WTC 7–destroyed on 9/11/01 and forcing him to go operate out in the street (while running away from the danger).

Seriously.

Look at these frikkin numbers. That’s double those who wanted to impeach Clinton, and also more than wanted Nixon ousted. When will Congress catch up? It’s an evenly divided split*, for God’s sake, the least you can do is start hearings and probes!

*note the split is evenly divided for Bush, while Cheney’s impeachment is in the solid majority of Americans’ minds….

Lots of CC stars answer some basic but important questions: a documentary of the iSummit in Brazil last year! via iCommons and dotSUB, by Rehad Desai from Uhuru Productions and under CC Attribution Share Alike.

AWESOME. via Andrew Sullivan (Nicole says: “and we thought irony was dead”):

Fantastic interview. Available in Windows Media Player or Quicktime.

via Joy at NewsGrist, who got it via email:

via email:
WASHINGTON, D.C.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS - WE WILL NOT BE SILENT

Multiple actions occurred in the early afternoon today inside the Hart Senate Office Building. Eight New York
activists were among the 15 plus arrested.

TODAY, APRIL 26, 2007, A.R.T.* OCCUPIED THE HALLS OF CONGRESS IN A DRAMATIC TWO-PART ACTION.

First, in a massive distribution, A.R.T. hand-delivered a 20-page tabloid petition to every representative. It contained documentary evidence for indictments, literally putting impeachment back on the table.

Then, at 1PM, in a spectacular visual feat, A.R.T displayed the full text of Article II, Section 4 to the Senate as a 30-foot banner drop in the Hart Office Building atrium. A second 30-foot banner read “YOUR SILENCE YOUR LEGACY”. Organizers said, “We must magnify the refusal of Congress to uphold the Constitution. Their silence equals complicity in the flagrant crimes of this administration.”

Contact: *A.R.T. (Activist Response Team)
email: stateofemergencyaction@gmail.com

via Lessig Blog (they do artist residencies, too!):

iCommons Summit 07 - help us increase the number of scholarships

iCommons is an entity Creative Commons helped incubate. Its purpose is to enable a platform for commons-related projects from around the world to interact — including A2K, Wikipedia, Free Software, Free Culture Movement and Creative Commons.One core project of iCommons is an annual summit. The first year was Boston. Last year was Rio. This year is Dubrovnik.

Tomorrow, CC will be launching a special fund-raising drive to raise money to sponsor scholarships to the Summit. Click here to help.

In the guise of a seer who has some sort of zeitgeist on the times, many cynics (mostly liberal ones, often people of color) keep posing the question, “Is America ready for a black President?” (Or just answer “no” when asked.)

I’ll Answer that one: of course we are.

Look at the polls.  And a lot of these people are answering no, even tho they would vote for a black candidate (they just think everyone else is beneath them, less evolved, wouldn’t do so). Yes, there are some who won’t vote for a black man as the Commander in Chief, and there are some who may vote for him (implicit “him”: Barack) for no other reason. And these numbers may or may not cancel each other out (especially given that we need to consider who might be mobilized to vote in such an election).

But I have bigger issue with the question itself, given what it might lead to in my own party (er, the party I’m currently registered for). Voting for “who we think can win” in the Democratic primaries led to the last boring candidate. We need a leader. Someone who had vision on Iraq from day 1, can bring people of faith back to the party they belong in, wants us to end poverty and bring Universal Health instead of just making the rich richer. Do you really think that someone who would vote for Rudy or McJohn over Barack, for issues of race (consciously or unconsciously), would vote for Hillary or JohnE instead? That’s just silly.

If we don’t get Obama for president, it’s not cuz America is not ready, it’s because the Democrats aren’t - the primaries will decide, not the general election. I’m more and more impressed with this man every single day (that link on Iraq above, his foresight - wow. And please also take a look at his announcement speech…). Take him seriously - and do not discount him with a pretense of knowing superiority; you do yourself, and America, a disservice.