power to the peoples.
Today the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC. that corporations and unions can pour unprecedented amounts of money into elections. This from Lawrence Lessig and his project Change Congress:
Right now, special interests have more influence over our political system than regular folks because of our broken campaign finance laws. These special interests pump millions of dollars into congressional campaigns each cycle, and as a result, they block real change on issue after issue.
Here at Change Congress, we believe that politicians should work for the people, not special interests. But it’s not enough to push politicians to stay out of the system of corruption—we have to reform the system itself. That’s why we support a hybrid of small-dollar donations and public financing, to keep big money out of politics.
Lessig wrote that mission statement for Change Congress before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.
I repeat, this is a google press release, not conjecture. [via DF]
- Joe Klein
I scraped the following paragraph from Shepard Fairey:
Check out this critique of Obama. I agree with the writer on 90%. However, I think he fails to recognize the climate Obama must operate in. I disagree with the Afghan war escalation, but it does not surprise me. In general, the tenor of “normal†or moderate political conversation on issues has shifted so far to the right that Obama is being called a Socialist! Good ideas need to have a receptive audience to take hold and right now they don’t. Obama’s faults are in many ways reflective of a retarded audience. Maybe more people should serve in Iraq etc… to gain the writer’s perspective on war. That was not necessary for me… I’ve been a believer in the MLK approach for years. I think the realistic goal is to change the attitudes of the people, causing the leaders to fall in line. The leaders are credited too much with being the cause when they tend more to be the effect. Bush was atrocious and was still re-elected in 2004. I’m disappointed in Obama, but even more so in Americans. I’m working on a healthcare graphic right now, not waiting for Obama or congress to fix things without pressure.
-Shepard
Here’s a link to the article Shepard is referencing The Betrayal of Generation Hope.
I agree with 95% of what he says, but I really feel as though Obama has let progressives down in a major way. He threw us all under the bus in vain hopes of some kind of larger compromise that is proving elusive. Political capital isn’t lost in a huge war decision (that was just one of many last straws), political capital is lost on a day to day basis. And Obama’s boat has leaked like a sieve since day one. This statement comes from a jaded 35 year old. Can you imagine what the late-teens and early 20-somethings are feeling?
Which is why the dense YouTube account of Nicholifavs, filled with a kid who vlogs exclusively from New York City's Fifth Avenue Apple Store, is merely a natural progression in the realm of Things Kids Do Now." via Beau Colburn
Do not fuck with graphic designers
Dear Rep. Boehner,
Recently, you released a chart purportedly describing the organization of the House Democrats’ health plan. I think Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree that the problem is very complicated, no matter how you visualize it.
By releasing your chart, instead of meaningfully educating the public, you willfully obfuscated an already complicated proposal. There is no simple proposal to solve this problem. You instead chose to shout “12! 16! 37! 9! 24!” while we were trying to count something.
So, to try and do my duty both to the country and to information design (a profession and skill you have loudly shat upon), I have taken it upon myself to untangle your delightful chart.
Click through for a larger version of the graphic and to read some of the unwittingly dumb shit and the willful obfuscations that are contained in the original graphic.
Never, ever, fuck with a graphic designer. Geez, I love a good cuss word.
[via Surfstation]
Hi, my name is Ed. In my life I've lived in Philly, New York, Wisconsin, Berkeley and Los Angeles. That was then. Now I live in coastal Nayarit Mexico. I've been living here for 6 years now (!). In these pages I write about and photograph my daily experience which includes a lot of surfing and mexican beach town street life. I also post about things I find interesting: art, design, photography, music, tech, etc...
