A googlebomb is when tons and tons of people link to a website with the same phrase. Because of the way google calculates page rankings, this will give it a high rating for this phrase. The top prize is to determine what comes up when the enigmatic "I'm Feeling Lucky" button is clicked (aka Google's #1 ranked page for the search term). With the latest tip from the GOP being that Karl Rove will try to paint Bush's term in office as wholly positive for 'Merica, and say that Dean's a whiny pessemist when he says that neverending budget shortfalls and a pariah diplomatic status are Big Problems.

I think Howard Dean is optimistic. If you do to, link that word to deanforamerica as often as you can. Rapid response this, fat boy.

Just a reminder that a vigorous free press is an essential component to successful democracy. If you think the US press is being thorough and objective in its job, you might ask yourself why you'll only see Salam Pax on the BBC. One would assume that getting direct contact with the people over there is an important part of covering the story, but I can't say I've ever seen any non-exile Iraqi speaking on American newsmedia.

The US press establishment is a deeply diseased entity, dying even. For a long time I've been hoping that shame would jolt them back to life; and there's surely time for this to happen, but I'm beginning to loose my optimism on this one. People, it's bad.

Krugman's got a bit on this in todays Times, especially with regards to how it pertains to the coverage of politics. When a freakin' economist can deliver so many burns to the political journalism establishment, you know something ain't right.

So if you havn't looked and you have some bandwidth to spare, you should check out the holiday video my co-worker/roommate Dan and I posted over on the our musical political revolutionary website.

Been in Boston the past couple of days, doing as little as humanly possible. But slowness is not in my nature, so the mind is running overtime in spite of my best efforts.

On the positive side, my sister lives in perhaps the coolest house ever: a classic piece of 3-story (plus attic) Americana out in Alston, which could easily double as a small fraternity. Eight punk, anarchist, scenster and otherwise hip young kids live there normally, all with their own rooms, all decorated in the most enviable student-slum style. They have a basement which is a semi-regular venue for shows, and the whole place is very organic and alive, even when the only occupants are myself, my sister, and one of her remaining roommates; makes me all the more chagrined at the still-barren state of my living quarters out west.

Also on the plus side, she and my mom and I are staying in a nice hotel in downtown boston for two nights, taking a load off. There's a gas fireplace and a bathtub big enough for me to submerge my whole lanky self, and this morning I'm munching on a neapolitan from the North end and sipping a very decent cup of joe. Being with family is a uniquely rewarding and annoying experience. There no one else on earth who can understand your issues or push your buttons the way family can. It's good to get back in touch with that

On the down side, air travel continues to be an awful experience. It's not the LEVEL ORANGE that bothers me, it's the way airlines are so passive-aggressive in the way they tell you what to do. "Because your safety is our first concern, your seat belt should remain fastened whenever you are seated..." Parse that language; it makes so fucking sense whatsoever. The whole experience seems vaguely facistic to me, all the pre-written language. The reason they want you to keep your seat belt buckled is so on the off chance the plane hits a big air pocket and drops 40 or 50 feet, you drop with it instead of hitting your head on the celing and maybe filing a lawsuit. Yes, this happens. I would feel better about the whole thing if they started it off with "Because avoiding legal liability is our first concern..."

Also on the down side, I've been slogging around in the regular world (air travel, rather unsuccessful shopping excursions; not New York or San Francisco) and what I see makes me afraid. I now worry at night about whether or not the country is totally doomed or not, and have begun again to countinance figments of a pirate utopian backup plan. Madagascar, here I come? Well, not yet. I still think it's worth a shot to try and turn 300 million of the world's richest people -- posessed of the greatest arsinal of death-dealing instruments in human history -- into enlightenened, thoughtful, generous, world-conscious souls. I mean, how fucking cool would that be?

One of these years I'd like to do something alternate on Christmas, like go out to one of the big Jewish party events on Christmas eve, or camp out in the wilderness or something. Anyway; I hope wherever you are you're having a nice day. Don't forget to breathe.

Tomorrow I am in Boston. The 27th I'm back in New York City. The 10th I return to SF. See you all around.

I leave tomorrow night for holiday time, in spite of the fact that I've yet to purchase a single gift. It'll be ok. One of the things I'm gonna do on vacation is read some books. Can you think of any I should hit up? I'm down for great literature as well as anything I should know about for where my life is taking me over the next year. I'm certainly going to plow through Emergence and Code -- though I think I largely get it in terms of what they have to say -- but are there any others I should me acquainting myself with? Anything older (or newer) that I don't know about? Any blogs I should pay attention too, archives I might want to paruse?

It's a long way to the top if you want to Rock and Roll. I'm also down for music to turn on to. Leave me a comment here with your suggestions.

You know, I was just sitting in my bathtub, contemplating a reading list, thinking about how to start spreading the word about what's wrong with the way the Bush administration deals with the rest of the word... and here comes my man Dean with some serious ammunition.

I aussme a lot of my readers probably don't follow the campaign super closely. Myself I've been a bit out of touch with the daily media stuff; dead trees and talking heads don't get a lot of attention from me anyway, and I've been pretty busy. But the Washington Post ran a very critical editorial of Dean's foreign policy speech yesterday in which they suggested that his views were outside the America mainstream. This is his response.

A critical presidential campaign is now underway. Americans face a choice between two very different views of our role in the world. My agenda returns security policy to its fundamental course: protecting Americans and advancing our values and interests -- democracy, freedom, opportunity and peace -- through effective partnerships and global leadership, as well as military strength.

The current administration strays wildly from this course and from the time-honored manner of pursuing it. In the end, I believe it will be clear who is in the mainstream and who is swimming against the tide of history.

I've been so caught up in movement politics, I forgot the spark that started it all for me. The doctor is IN!^* Can we bring that one back, 'cuz e're getting down to it now people; this is how you win the 2004 campaign air war. Two-fists and don't back down. We are right and Bush is wrong, those are the facts.

^* by that I mean he's here and present and giving us his A game, not that he's already the nominee or anything

I got a camera again; here are the best of the first 100 photos I've taken.

It was a late one last night, what with all the law-student debauchery. Nick and his cohort were done with finals and busy culling any weak brain cells from the herd, so after I saw the latist Matrix with my friend Chris -- I actually liked it better than the 2nd one, but it was still kind of boring at times -- I joined up for the depressurization. I got to see some new parts of the city, and I think I now have an assignation to look forward to, so the lingering sense that my body is kind of crudded up doesn't bother me too much.

My last weekend before I split; should be fun. I was originally planning to see my man Mark up in Arcata, but that plan seems to be disintegrating. Maybe I'll rent a car tomorrow still. I'm looking forward to a little break, a little family time, and then some serious soul-charging in the dynamo city and bungalo Brooklyn. Did you see the plans for the new tower? Fuck yeah. Build our shit back, and build it twice as tall, three times brighter. Change that dufus name though. "Freedom Tower?" That's gonna sound even dumber after another two years.

And because now I check this every now and again, I saw this, and now have gift-giving on my mind. Making the women nod. And yes, it's a little wierd that my mom comments on this kind of thing. (love ya ma!)

With that healthy dose of Jim Moore in my head and a little Godspeed in my ears -- Kicking Horse on Brokenhill -- I cranked out the last part of my 3-segment brain-dump on the Blogging of the President.

This is Not a Drill
I'm 24 years old. I will have children someday, and they will ask me what I did in 2004. If you have children or grandchildren, yours will ask you as well. I don't want to be melodramatic about the importance of what is going on right now in the world, but I will not understate it either. What is at stake in this election cycle is absolutely enormous. Short of basic survival, there is nothing that is more important for each and every American, especially those of us who are going to have to live with the consequences for many years to come.

And it gets more strident from there.

Jim Moore officially gets it:

Perhaps Howard Dean is not running for the same presidency as George Bush.  That is, perhaps in an era of online communication, combined with grassroots community organizing, we need a new form of presidency that itself encourages more peer-to-peer problem solving across our society.  Perhaps we need a movement to reverse the consolidation of presidential and legislative and judicial power at the center, because this consolidation of power makes it harder for the society to solve its most critical problems.

This is exactly what the Participant Movement -- which Dean epitomizes from a political standpoint -- is all about. It's about the redistribution and decentralization of power. First we do it here, then we do it for the world. It's utopia or oblivion, folks. Same as it ever was. Thanks to Jay McCarthy for the pointer.

A shout out to my man Nick, who's suffering his first round of finals in law school. He writes me:

nothing but finals for miles around,
the rats are closing in again,
they're all against me,
killemall, crucify all the dirty little legal whores

You can do it man

(click to view large image)