Click here to view the embedded video.

Why not, at the same time: decision without debate! Council without councillors! Might as well do away with elections as well, since all that messy politics stuff just tends to get in the way of our otherwise inevitable progress towards utopia.

Though not much of interest has taken place so far, other than a link to a Facebook group on budget reform that was followed by a few dozen comments, at least half of which were from some jackass writing “STFU <insert name here>” to everyone who commented, I’ll be following along to see where and how things go.

As you can see from the image, the commentary is a predictable mixture of insults, half-brained criticisms, movie quotes, and spam. Go Web 2.0!!

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What’s wrong with journalism? Look in the mirror is worth reading for anyone interested in the challenges that faced by major news outlets–particularly those challenges posed by the new forms of media emerging on the web. Though I think Bass places too much blame on journalists themselves (and simultaneously assumes they have more power to reform “the press” than they do), such calls for serious self-reflection are an essential part of efforts to change large, public institutions like the media. If change can’t (at least partially) come from within, it won’t happen.

The New Deal is usually told as a history of F.D.R., she said, but we don’t talk enough about the pressure from below. Neighborhoods organized, and when their evicted neighbors’ furniture was put on the streets they moved it back into their homes. It was that kind of direct action that won victories like rent control, public housing, and the creation of Fannie Mae. The other thing that’s important to remember, she said, is that the organizers were a threat—of socialist revolution—and it was that which allowed F.D.R. to say to Wall Street, “We have to compromise, or else we’ve got a revolution on our hands.” Now, these market shocks are opportunities for the same reason that the crash was in the thirties, because we are seeing the failures of laissez-faire before our eyes. “It’s time to say, ‘Your model failed,’ ” she said. “This is a progressive moment: it’s ours to lose.”

As Slavoj Zizek says, events do not impose their own interpretation. It is up to the left to ensure that the financial crisis is seen for what it is: a significant blow to laissez-faire ideology. Unfortunately, the situation is, as far as I can tell, entirely lacking the sort of roiling, potentially revolutionary zeal that is, both A) an appropriate response to the grossly criminal acts of speculation, fraud and exploitation that have been perpetrated (largely) upon the American population at the hands of the right-wing elite; and B), if Klein is on to something, a prerequisite for the causes of this crisis to be taken seriously.

The Government Accounting Office report that came out in late 2008 has already found, sadly but unsurprisingly, that the bailout is being handled with insufficient oversight.

this is going to get worse before it gets better

Click here to view the embedded video.

In related news that makes this development even more timely, a study from UC Berkeley has found that the negative effects of poverty on children’s brains can in some cases be so severe that they resemble the impact of a stroke.

For actual justice to be done, of course, much more is demanded. In “Justice after Bush: Prosecuting an outlaw administration,” in the December 2008 issue of Harper’s, Scott Horton argues persuasively for an official, commission-led inquest into the Bush administration’s role in sanctioning and promoting torture, in contravention of both international and domestic statutes.

It will take the world a long time to recover from the damage done by Bush et al., confirming in a sad sort of way Margaret Mead’s words:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.