Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Daily Archives: November 6, 2008

Government 2.0

Welcome to Gov 2.0.

Barack Obama has released his site, change.gov .

I was a little overwhelmed late Tuesday night when things were finalized, but I’m really touched now that Obama has really gone overboard with making the web a central place to discuss American … everything.

I am impressed.  Scratch everything I said about change being just pennies for Main Street.

For Canada:  read everything and let’s start a search for a group (it’s not just one person) that inspires us and that is not mired in the day to day cronyism.

A Chilling Reminder about Electronic Voting

We all had some pretty nasty fears heading into the election thinking things like:  "Would the GOP be stupid enough to rig it despite Obama’s massive lead?" or "would it just be the ‘swing states’ where problems would arise?"

Thankfully, none of that bullshit happened (again).  If it did, I’m sure the million or so in Chicago would have fanned out across the States and burned it down.  Well, maybe not, but there would have been hell to pay.

Anyways, I came across this video today and thought it was worth sharing, despite the fact that we’re ‘OK’.  With any luck, the world will turn its back on electronic voting and privatizing our one basic right that still seems to be respected in the US and Canada.  Kind of.

Change is coming …

I’m loathe to be critical of someone who is promising change and who hasn’t even had a chance to sit in the big chair yet, but when Obama promised ‘change’, was he just talking about pocket change, like pennies and nickels?

This announcement makes me feel that way.  Appointing another alumnus from Goldman Sachs to the Department of Treasury doesn’t really smell like ‘change’.  It smells like giving the pirates another ship to loot as more money gets printed early in the new year.

Prove me wrong Obama.  Prove me wrong.

Bailout Main Street

As always, this action is geared towards folks in the US . While there were a couple of issues with the site (lots of PDF files, which I hate), they seem to be on the right track.

That said, if you’re reading this blog (ie. my blog) and know of similar ‘action pages’ in Canada, please let me know. The comments section allows a maximum two links, but if you have other links, please let me know (ie. suggest as much in your comments and I’ll contact you directly).

Meanwhile, Stephen Harper had a closed door meeting with financial and corporate bigwigs in Toronto today , preparing his script for November 20 when he meets in Washington with a small handful of other world leaders.  Leaders, of course, who are determined to bring us further down the path of financial ruin via ill-constructed neo-con economics.

I feel like something more should be done, particularly from the left perspective.  Lots of articles are being posted, lots of folks pounding their keyboards, but is there an opportunity to be a little more vocal about this?  Is anyone interested in a ‘day of action’ or alternate plan to support recommendations other than those rooted in the wisdom of Milton Friedman?

Oba-mania over already?

Geez … talk about limited attention span.  A number of sites are already out to get Obama and make the next boogey man.

What a shame.

Now … is there any truth to this article ?