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Getting to Know Your Neighbors

No one knows for sure what people do in the voting booth. Our votes are anonymous.  However, donations to candidates and political parties are a matter of public record.  And now you can easily view them, thanks to the Fundrace 2008 mashup put together by the folks at the Huffington Post.

Yep!  You could be living next door to someone who funds a candidate who jokes about bombing Iran -- or obliterating it -- and not even know it.  We're talking about the incineration of thousands of innocent men, women and children! Your coworker could be supporting the party that brought us the Iraq war, legalized torture, environmental catastrophes, economic ruin, and so much more.  Until now it was difficult to find out.  But not anymore! 

Now you can easily search by name, by profession, by geographical location, and by employer (including 2004 donations).  These people have literally put themselves on the map!  Their cash donations have enabled the unmitigated disaster the last eight years have been, the corruption, the incompetence, the blind arrogance, the war crimes, the thousands of deaths, the violations of human rights... The least we can do is invite them over for tea and cookies, and some frank discussion of values ;-)  I'm not suggesting you employ any "special methods of  questioning."  But why not take the opportunity to dissuade them from supporting state sponsored murder?

The site is http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/, or just click on the map below:
Fundrace 2008Fundrace 2008

Want to know if a celebrity is playing both sides of the fence? Whether that new guy you're seeing is actually a Republican or just dresses like one?

FundRace makes it easy to search by name or address to see which presidential candidates your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors are contributing to. Or you can see if your favorite celebrity is putting money where their mouth is.

FundRace gives you the technology to do what politicians and journalists have been doing for years: find out where the money's coming from, see who it's going to, and solve the mystery of why that crazy ex-roommate of yours is now the Ambassador to Turks and Caicos.

 


Best regards,
Liam

P.S. Interested to know what you discover if you use the site, or contact your neighbor, coworker or family member because of it. Drop me a line and tell me how it goes!
 
Iran Update
Hi --

I've been busy with writing an article for an upcoming book, and building out some technical infrastructure for Brilliant Swarm and other projects.  However, finally, I am sending out a photo from the last Brilliant Swarm Café, which was held in Berkeley in December.   Sorry it's taken so long. 
 
 
Sticky Notes
 

Soon after the Café, the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was released.  It was described by one commentator as the intelligence community sticking a knife in the President's back... perhaps retribution for him laying the blame for Iraq at their feet.  In any case, the NIE stated that Iran had stopped development of its nuclear weapons program in 2003(!).   This made Bush's bellicose posturing onIran seem... risible and reckless. 

Not that it lessened the neo-con's enthusiasm for a confrontation with Iran.  But, we can hope, it diminished their capacity forimplementing it.  I'm cautiously optimistic they won't be able to extend their mid-east adventurism to Iran.  Of  course, there was that incident in the Straits of Hormuz.  Seemed like an attempt at anotherGulf of Tonkin-style deception.  Especially with that doctored videotape.  Are we a little smarter this time around? I like to think so! 

More recently:
Are We Closer to War?
The abrupt resignation yesterday of the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon, has sparked a new round of speculation that Bush and Cheney have somesort of plan in the works to attack Iran before their time is up.
Hmmm.  Sec. of Defense Gates says the idea that Fallon is leaving because of his opposition to administration policy on Iran is "ridiculous."  Not sure I believe that.  Do you?

Phyllis Bennis, commenting on the recent showdown between the al-Maliki government and the Moqtada al Sadr forces (i.e. between Iraqis who are working with the US and those who want to expel them (us?)) added this bit about Iran --

There is a rising danger that ideologues in the White House, driven by unilateralism and militarism as points of principle and led by Dick Cheney, could use this moment to escalate or even implement military threats towards Iran - hoping to thereby distract Americans from their failing Iraq policy. Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East, ostensibly talking to Israeli and Palestinian leaders about the so-called "peace process." She may have another agenda as well; Cheney's regional "peace process" visit last week primarily focused on pressing Arab governments to back U.S.threats against Iran. (In fact the day after Cheney left Riyadh, the Saudi and Arab Gulf press announced that the Saudi government's powerful Shura council would "secretly discuss national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts' warnings of possible attacks on Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactors." Even if that report is factually false, its deliberate announcement in the government-controlled press indicates unease among Bush's top Arab allies.) We should be watching for any deliberate provocation aimed at Iran, or even a completely false Tonkin Gulf-style "incident" which might be designed as a pretext to military strikes against Iran. 

Incidentally, I went and saw Daniel Ellsberg speak.  Again, he called for people of conscience within the administration to speak out, as he had done so many years ago (remember the Pentagon Papers?).  He also had a lot to say about the illegality of the US attack on Iraq, a fact that is often glossed over but is really central to the discussion.


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If you are interested in contributing to the Brilliant Swarm project and happen to be a skilled Java programmer, please get in touch! For the new Brilliant Swarm site I have installed a Java web portal called Liferay, which I really like.  It has sped up application development, but there is still a lot of work to do.
 
Reality-based Community Faces the Facts
My views on the current political climate, the importance of hopelessness, network theory and swarm intelligence, the possibility of political change, and more details on the Brilliant Swarm workshop.
 

An October 17,2004 New York Times Magazine article by writer Ron Suskind quoted an unnamed aide to George W. Bush:
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

If that stings a bit – good! 

Read more...
 

Bio

Liam Kirsher is a Getting Real coach, Certified Radical Honesty Trainer, and group facilitator. He cultivates honesty as a spiritual practice, and supports groups in using truth-telling to create intimacy and growth. Also trained in Radical Honesty and Non-violent Communication, his most recent interest is employing network and communication theory to create political change, through a process he calls Brilliant Swarm.