Honestly, this was inevitable. We could see it coming from a long way off. Sunset, if you will, has finally fallen on Reagan’s ‘Morning in America’.

For details on we how got here I refer you to the writing of journalist David Sirota, author of The Uprising, who has recently provided us with a summary bibliography of key texts, and in only one sentence. From the Huffington Post, he says:

“As I note, this week we will see Thomas Frank’s wrecking crew using Naomi Klein’s shock doctrine to justify a bigger free lunch than David Cay Johnston ever imagined.”

For the life of me, I simply cannot understand how anyone could continue to espouse, or even attempt to justify, the philosophies of ‘free-market’ neoliberalism. The great, green capitalist machine has not righted itself, and now we’re expected to burn 700 billion US dollars (OMFG!!!) to cushion the fall of those who passionately claimed the market would save us. Ultimately, this massive and unprecedented bailout of the financial sector amounts to a soft landing for the least deserving and most hypocritical among us.

Politically, both the republicans and the democrats have apparently converged to reform the fascist party, an orgy of wealth, exclusivity, and corruption. With rare exception (thank you Mr. Kucinich), there is no dissent, no opposition in Washington. There’s the money, and then there’s us. The US is officially a capitalist wasteland where gains are privatized and losses socialized, and the working poor always, always foot the bill.

If ever the phrase ‘the emperor has no clothes’ was relevant to our national discourse, it would be now. And like many of my countrymen and women, I’m just sick of it. Disgust prods me awake at night, like a wiry, old finger jabbing me in the ribcage. I can’t get that ethereal Dorthea Lange photograph out of my head: a furrowed brow and three kids, the world in black-n-white, to have and to have not.

In all probability it won’t be as bad as my night frights suggest. And I hate that fear can grip me so. But then again, what do I know? I’m not a money-man… I’m just one of the millions who have to pay for it when the money-men fuck up!

Argh!!!

Beyond simply calling into question the legitimacy of the final tally, Fadiman and company (including usual leftist suspect Peter Coyote as narrator) call for widespread reform of the national democratic system. On the website for the film viewers are encouraged to “become part of the solution” and “…get active in the fight for our democracy” by registering to vote, writing letters to persons of interest, making phone calls, wearing stickers and/or buttons, and a whole slew of other tasks. In other words, exactly what you might expect from a director that recently published a book entitled, Producing with Passion: Making Films that Make a Difference.

In that I haven’t yet seen this film (or read Fadiman’s book) I won’t comment on the strength of its message. I suspect that in my case, irregardless of craft, it will be just another case of preaching to the choir. I mean, is this really still in doubt? Aren’t we already aware of the problem? And, more importantly, will placing a microscope over the many flaws of the electoral system be enough to elicit a response from what appears to be a fairly disaffected American citizenry?

God, I sure hope so…

Ars Technica recently published an article about a Canadian member of parliament (MP) named Charlie Angus, and his struggle to fight ‘traffic shaping’ by telecom giant and all-around badie, Bell Canada. Angus is a vocal advocate for net neutrality, and he apparently presented a response bill before the Canadian congress in order to spark a debate on the matter. You can hear a fairly interesting interview with the man on the May 22nd episode from Search Engine, a radio show and CBC podcast.

Key quote from the MP3 interview (00:14:09) with Charlie Angus:

“The language around the internet, at best its a consumer at worst you’re a hacker and a pirate. We should be talking about online citizens. It’s a cultural commons that’s been created. If we don’t respect that, we’re gonna be in a situation where–whether its legislation like the DMCA or net neutrality being taken away–the internet is gonna be reduced to something that, again, the few large media giants are in charge of and not the citizens.”

Mr. Angus’s efforts in government are indeed admirable, but what makes this story all the more interesting is that before crafting public policy, Angus was once (perhaps still is) a Canadian guitar hero–a master of the ‘low end’ (bass) to be precise. In the early 1980s, Angus wielded his axe for a three-piece, socially-conscious, Montreal punk band called L’Etranger, and now he’s a musician and founding member of the well-known alt-country outfit, Grievous Angels.

I found a proto music video on YouTube for ‘Goliath,’ a song by L’Etrangers. It’s sort of like the Clash meets a bottle of Labatt. Rawk!

Let’s hope the our quirky neighbors to the north can do better than my fellow Americans have in stemming the growth of privatized networks…eh?!