militarizing npr

this workshop (captured by c-span) on progressive talk-radio and using the internet to reclaim democracy was pretty interesting (link is to a RealMedia streaming video file, which c-span does not keep up indefinitely).

the first two guys are alright (tom athans of democracy radio and mark walsh, air america radio ceo), but the real interesting stuff starts at 55 minutes, when former dean campaign internet consultant and author of the cluetrain manifesto and small pieces loosely joined (i've read neither), david weinberger, starts lobbing grenades at the audience.

he drops this classic from times of yore to open his talk:

I'm an academic by training, so meeting people who are actually doing something in the world is always a treat for me.

torless, i'm sure you can empathize, especially after that zero/GEB "party" you went to.

he ends his speech by screaming the following at the normally staid c-span audience -- all of whom are by now ready to eat their own children if weinberger asks them to:

take your country back from the [political] campaigns! take your country back from the [political] marketers! they're turning you into a consumer: they're thinking of democracy as a transaction that's completed in the booth, and that's not it! that's not why we care.

so take some time off from masturbating to america's favorite cunt and check it out.