I loathe the state of TV news today. The American public is fed such a distorted view of events, filtered as they are by bought-and-paid-for pundits, not reporters.
Clearly, this sad state of affairs calls for a response, and The White House, for one, has one.
Since April of 2010, White House videographer Arun Chaudhary and Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest have been creating West Wing Week, a newsreel-like recap of the President’s week.
I know it’s PR, but it’s so much better than the news. On the news, it’s all vitriol all the time, which limits our idea about what government is. On TV, government is nothing more than a game to be won or lost, like football. But online, we see it’s much more than that and we get a much better feel for who this President is.
I do not agree with many of the things Obama does, or all that he stands for. He’s much too conservative for me. Yet, I like knowing that he’s a smart and charming guy busy working on our problems.
As the field of right wing contenders narrows down, and an alternate to Obama is offered, it will be all the more important for the President to showcase his looser digital self, not just online but on TV, as well. The challenger is going to be a starched suit, we know that much, but the contrast between the two needs to be magnified in order for the Dems to hold the executive branch.
“Portland is where young people go to retire.” That’s the rap laid down by Portlandia, a funny send up of life in Oregon’s biggest city. However, the issue of few jobs and low wages is not very funny for the Oregon citizens searching for their first job or in the midst of a non-elective “career change.”
Oregon Transformation wants to put pressure on politicians in Salem to fix the state budget crisis and make the state a friendlier place for business. “With new ideas and new leaders we can rebuild a robust private sector, which is essential to maintain Oregon’s quality of life,” argues the group.
It’s an expanse of the city without a single Zipcar spot or independent microbrewery, where you’ll see more pajama bottoms than skinny jeans. It’s a landscape of chain link and surface parking that, by contrast, makes 82nd Avenue look positively gentrified. It’s a cookie-cutter residential sprawl so devoid of landmarks, public spaces and commercial centers that some residents simply call it “The Numbers.â€
I don’t know who is responsible, or what combination of forces are responsible for Oregon’s weakened economy. It’s a topic I’ve taken up in this space before, and my guess is it will keep coming up until a new dawn rises over the volcanoes. Not knowing is troubling to me because it’s important to trace trouble to its source, so we know how to fix what’s wrong and how to avoid making the same mistakes again in the future. Yet, we can’t as a state lose much time pouring through the record books, because what Oregonians need most is a solution, a.k.a. the kind of jobs that support a family. In other words, we need an honest assessment of what went wrong and an instant and effective response to the problem.
Imagine that a friend from school wants to relocate his non-polluting company to the Pacific Northwest, and calls you for your trusted insight and advise. Can you honestly say that Oregon is a better place for business than Washington state? Or California, for that matter? Oregon has to compete, on the gridiron as in the C suite. Anything less than that is simply unacceptable, and it’s not just “quality of life” that hangs in the balance, but life itself. Oregon can provide the education and social services required of a great state, but the state needs increased revenue from lots of healthy companies to make it work.
Personally, I moved here in 1994 and left in 1995 after finding nothing more than temp work. I returned 13 years later with more skills and experiences under my belt, ready to propel my own engine forward. But success isn’t something a person achieves on their own. For me to be successful here, I am dependent on others being successful here. So, my concerns are both selfish and selfless. The better shape Oregon is in, the more I and every Oregonian can achieve.
Last night a friend visiting from Seattle said, “We don’t really listen to music anymore.” He’s right, the emphasis today is on portability, not audio quality, and that’s one reason we don’t listen like we once did. When you’re proud of your record collection and your stereo system, you take time to experience the music. And that act makes the music important.
Sadly, it is not just music that we no longer listen to. Thanks to the sound-bite nature of TV news, and the politically toxic environment fueled by right wing radio, we no longer pay much attention to current events.
That’s where video comes in. Digital media, video in particular, allows us to invest in the full story.
Because things haven’t been going President Obama’s way in Washington of late, I came to the flimsy conclusion that he was not properly defending his position and his ideas–ideas which happen to be shared by the millions of Americans who elected the man.
I’m wrong though, the President is forwarding his best ideas, often powerfully, but you have to go to YouTube to hear them. You have to dig a bit, and then sit back and take it in, which isn’t easy to do when Facebook and every other digistraction under the sun is looming a click away.
After investing some of my time to hear from the President in the videos above, I have to say I’m happiest with Obama when he’s in touch with his racial identity, and when he’s making politically incorrect statements and jokes. In other words, when he’s a real person not a packaged tool of the corporate paradigm, I like him.
Bank Simple, seeks to reinvent personal banking with modern online and mobile experiences, no surprise fees, and great customer service.
In order to do that, the company is consolidating its San Francisco and New York City offices and moving staff to Portland, where they intend to hire several more people.
A proud Mayor Adams says, “This company’s willingness to pick up and move here is another sign that the City of Portland’s Economic Development Strategy is on the right path to strengthen Portland’s economy. Two years ago, we put the plan in place and made sure to identify the Software Sector as a key industry cluster.”
“With BankSimple’s move, I feel that we made a right decision to focus on software and am optimistic that more companies are soon to follow,” says the Mayor, who is not running for re-election.
The other clusters that Portland officials are focusing on include Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Tech, (Academic) Research & Commercialization and the Athletic & Outdoor Industry.
Naturally, there are also software start-ups that are not venture backed. And I can think of plenty of other industries in Oregon that are in a good place to grow. The music and film industries, the green building and alternative energy industries, sustainable agriculture, food and beverage, professional services, tourism, retail and hospitality are all sectors that I have my ad guy’s eye on.
Yes, the economy in Oregon is sobering still, but there are signs that a turnaround is in the cards.
In the wake of a week of violent protests in Great Britain–spurred, as they were, by the police killing of Mark Duggan–I’m not surprised to see authorities and mainstream media cast blame in any and all directions, including in the direction of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
I’ve long contended that citizens’ media, at its core, is deeply radical and that it’s just a matter of time before “the powers that be” pull the plug. It appears that “the time” is now.
According to The Guardian, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said his government is looking at banning people from using social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook if they are thought to be plotting criminal activity.
“Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media,” said Cameron.
“And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
Cameron’s disdain for a media channel he has little control over, led ReadWriteWeb writer Curt Hopkins to claim, “David Cameron joins the long line of powerful men who totally miss the point of social media. What Cameron is pursuing is, in effect, a ban on free speech.”
Of course, some American authorities are walking in lock step with Cameron on this issue. Philadelphia’s mayor is trying to ban “flash mobs”. Yes, flash mobs, those innocent moments of public theater have apparently been co-opted by groups aiming to steal and cause other unlawful disruptions; therefore, they must be stopped.
Also, in Oakland last week, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) shut-off of subterranean cell phone service in its downtown San Francisco stations in order to prevent a protest.
When people need to assemble and protest they will do so, in free nations and unfree nations. With social media tools, or without. Politicians and their friends in the media business point fingers, deflect blame and fail to ask (much less answer) the tough questions–like why are so many people upset and willing to act out in the first place? And that’s a terrible disservice. Civil society is an agreement between people, not a managed state.
Meanwhile, I think it’s important to ask where the management teams at Facebook and Twitter are on all this. According to Financial Times, Facebook has hundreds of people around the wold tasked with enforcing its ban on co-ordination of violence. The Blog Herald, reports that Facebook has assigned even more people to remove posts that explicitly incite violence, as a reaction to the events in England.
It must be noted that Facebook is partly owned by intelligence interests and radical right investors. For background on this piece of the story, see Tom Hodgkinson’s take down in The Guardian.
Another interesting window into how media works to control the message is on display in this bit from the BBC.
It’s clear from this interview that BBC briefly lost control of the message. “Mr. Howe, we have to wait for the official inquiry,” pretty much says it all. BBC wants to be fair, but a man was murdered. Facts are facts, and the fact is no one wants to report on why these things happen. No one in mainstream media wants to say the police are racist, and the government corrupt. Because they’re school chums who live in the same neighborhoods and belong to the same clubs.
Which brings us back to citizens’ media and the power of push button publishing. Even if you take Facebook and Twitter out of the equation, the internet runs on corporate infrastructure. Sure, you can run your own servers, but the data has to travel over fiber-optic lines owned by AT&T and other telecommunications behemoths.
Communications technology is nothing more than a tool and it can be, and will be, throttled at will. Yet, oppressed people always find a coordinated way to resist. Disarm one tool and another will be instantly adopted. So, let’s stop with the diversions and focus on the problem–lack of economic opportunity is an injustice not only in England, but everywhere. And when lack of opportunity is coupled with police brutality, the powder keg will explode, time and again.
[UPDATE] This is also a topic we discussed during last night’s recording of The BeanCast.
President Obama is an enigma. People on the right call him a socialist; yet, his critics on the left can’t believe how much ground he’s given on fundamental liberal issues.
One critic on the left, Drew Westen, a professor of psychology at Emory University, author and political consultant, laid out a strong argument against Obama in today’s Sunday Review section of The New York Times. His main thesis looks harshly at Obama’s Achilles’ heel, namely, his desire to be liked by all sides.
The president is fond of referring to “the arc of history,†paraphrasing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.†But with his deep-seated aversion to conflict and his profound failure to understand bully dynamics — in which conciliation is always the wrong course of action, because bullies perceive it as weakness and just punch harder the next time — he has broken that arc and has likely bent it backward for at least a generation.
I can’t help but think what a difference Hillary would have made. I wasn’t for her at the time, nor was I for Obama, but in hindsight it’s easy to see how the hope Obama offered could only be realized through bulldog politics of old. The Clintons know how to work within those confines, while Obama does not.
So, where does the country go from here? Will there be a Democratic primary challenger? Will a third party candidate emerge to speak for the millions of disenfranchised Americans who have no national voice? That would be great, but said leftist will need close to a billion dollars in campaign funds to have even an outside chance of winning. All of which means the Republican contender will once again have a very good chance of being elected.
Westen rightly points to earlier times in our nation’s history when strong Presidents did rise to meet immense challenges.
In similar circumstances, Franklin D. Roosevelt offered Americans a promise to use the power of his office to make their lives better and to keep trying until he got it right. Beginning in his first inaugural address, and in the fireside chats that followed, he explained how the crash had happened, and he minced no words about those who had caused it. He promised to do something no president had done before: to use the resources of the United States to put Americans directly to work, building the infrastructure we still rely on today. He swore to keep the people who had caused the crisis out of the halls of power, and he made good on that promise. In a 1936 speech at Madison Square Garden, he thundered, “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.â€
Like his younger cousin Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, busted up monopolies and forwarded a Progressive agenda. It’s important to note that the Roosevelt family is as blue blood as American blood gets. So, why would members of the American aristocracy advocate for the people? Maybe because it was the right thing to do, more likely because it was the right thing to do for the monied class.
Right now, the wealth of the richest 400 Americans is equal to the holdings of the poorest 150 million Americans. No private Army, nor public Army for that matter, can hold back that kind of mob, should the disenfranchised turn on the rich. To keep the peace in a civil society–especially in a society with lofty ideas about itself–income disparity of this nature can not be tolerated.
People on the right tend to get upset when their opponents skillfully expose the long standing class war in this country. They say things like, “What class war?” Which is an insult to anyone with a working knowledge of American history. Class divisions and income inequality are as American as apple pie. As is resistance to these unprincipled ways.
Strangely enough, the rise of the Tea Party on the extreme right is a populist, anti-elite movement. So, the Tea Partiers have half the equation right, even while hopelessly misunderstanding the rest. The nation’s problem, as Westen points out, “isn’t tax-and-spend liberalism or the deficit — a deficit that didn’t exist until George W. Bush gave nearly $2 trillion in tax breaks largely to the wealthiest Americans and squandered $1 trillion in two wars.” The problem is the game is fixed, and until “we the people” intervene in a massive bi-partisan rejection of the status quo, the change Obama promised won’t be realized during his term, or beyond.
The New York Times just introduced me to Jstor, a not–for–profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive of over one thousand academic journals and other scholarly content.
Jstor is in the news because Aaron Swartz, a 24-year-old agitator for free access to information on the Internet managed to illegally download more than four million articles and reviews from Jstor, which provides content from the most prestigious — and expensive — scientific and literary journals in the world. Swartz’ act of defiance led to his arrest. He now faces 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines for felony counts of wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer.
Mr. Swartz is not a run-of-the-mill hacker, says the Times. He has been known for his computer work since he was 14, when he was involved in developing the software behind RSS feeds, which distribute content over the Internet. At the time the investigation began, he was a fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, though he was later placed on leave. His friends and supporters are now rallying around him–45,000 have signed a petition on his behalf.
The case against Swartz is a big story, and it’s a blow to the free culture movement. But my interest spiked when I learned that institutions pay tens of thousands of dollars for subscriptions to Jstor, which stands for Journal Storage.
Founded in 1995, Jstor started with 10 journals available to a few American universities and has since expanded to include about 325,000 journal issues available at more than 7,000 institutions. In other words, Jstor is a shining example of a thriving paid content model operating online.
Stewart Brand said, “On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”
With Jstor in one corner (and Swartz in legal trouble), paid content is looking like a pretty tough competitor.
We moved from NE Portland to West Linn at the end of May and ever since we have been busy learning the area. I like to call it the South Shore, although I may be alone in that. Anyway, one of the things that stands out is the fact that West Linn and Oregon City, just across the river, both benefit from historic roots. In fact, it’s what keeps these towns from being suburbs, in the classic “municipalities made possible by Eisenhower-era freeways” sense.
Oregon City, of course, is the oldest city in Oregon. It’s where the Oregon Trail reached its end, and the place where white settlers filed their land claims in the new American territory. Today, more than 60 buildings in downtown Oregon City are eligible for the National Historic Register. But it’s clear that Oregon City needs help, as in economic development and urban renewal. It’s times like these that it would pay to be a multimillionaire, because the opportunities to usher in a new era of responsible growth and revitalization are immense.
There’s also significant pressure to make Oregon City a town of malls and planned communities, a move which strips some of the grit and character from the place. In my quest to understand the players and the details of the South Shore drama, I’ve been reading up on the Mayor, the City Commissioners, and plans for two massive projects–Clackamas Cove, a mixed use development on 109 acres, and The Rivers, a proposed 650,000-square-foot mall that would be built on a former landfill.
Oregon City Mayor, Doug Neely, is for the developments, but Commissioner James Nicita isn’t so sure. Nicita, a lawyer with an urban planning degree, wants to let taxpayers decide, and the developers aren’t happy about possible citizen roadblocks.
Steve Mayes of The Oregonian has been following the story. In June, Mayes reported that CenterCal, the company developing The Rivers, broke off negotiations with the city, citing a “deep division” among city commissioners, in particular two newly elected commissioners, James Nicita and Rocky Smith Jr., who both campaigned against the project.
According to Mayes, the project has been dogged by political clashes between those who see a mall as a way to turn an eyesore into a destination retail center and those who question the need for a $17.6 million subsidy. Now, negotiations between the land owner, Park Place Development, and CenterCal are at a standstill. City Manager David Frasher said, “You don’t have a project if the developer doesn’t have the land.”
Personally, I don’t think the Portland area needs another mall. You can find one a short drive in any direction from Oregon City.
Plus, a modern cookie-cutter mall is far from the only solution that will grow jobs and the tax base. What would be truly exciting is to see the organic growth of historic revitalization projects in the core of Oregon City’s downtown. That way, Oregon City remains a unique and vital place to work, live and visit. Naturally, this is the more complicated solution, one that depends on the actions of hundreds of individual investors, versus the swift moves of one or two adept developers.
I have my own ideas about what might work in Oregon City, and what I’d love to see happen there. After visiting Walla Walla last April, I can see how the urban tasting rooms model that makes Walla Walla such a desirable and walkable wine destination, might also work in Oregon City.
Why would the state’s wine industry make that kind of commitment to Oregon City, which isn’t known for producing wine? Access to the large wine-drinking population of Portland and its visitors, and cheap rents for historic properties, are two reasons why.
According to The New York Times, Charles “Buddy” Roemer is exploring a possible presidential campaign from his RV, refusing any contributions over $100. His stance against corporate influence has left him with a paltry $55,000 in donations, almost half of which came out of his own pocket. It is fair to characterize him as the longest of long shots.
That may be, but I sure do like what Mr. Roemer has to say on the subject.
“I’d like to show America how to set the President free,” says Roemer. Which is a terrific reminder that the left/right division is a false construct. If you want to choose a side, choose to be on the side of the American people, or on the side of American corporations.
I don’t care what party he’s part of today, it’s clear that Roemer is the kind of radical this nation needs. Let’s stoke Roemer’s RV with small bills and give the man and his message a chance to be heard.
I’ve tried to explain “the other side of Oregon” to friends from outside the state who don’t know about the economic hardships many Oregonians endure. The Beaver State’s high unemployment rate, coupled with inflation, is a misery inducer for those caught in its jaws–one in four Oregonians is under-employed and one in five is on food stamps.
When we consider these problems it’s easy to think only about the loss of low-to-middle income jobs, but it’s not just factory jobs and agricultural jobs that are missing from the local economy. Many of the region’s high paying jobs are going to outside talent because Oregon isn’t producing enough qualified workers. That was the message delivered by Intel software chief Renee James at Portland Business Alliance’s (PBA) annual meeting this morning.
According to The Oregonian, James said that the state’s education system isn’t generating enough skilled workers and that Oregon isn’t doing enough to support entrepreneurship. “Innovation leaves Portland,†James lamented in her keynote address at the Oregon Convention Center. “Instead of being a lifestyle city, we should endeavor to become an innovation city that has a great lifestyle.â€
It’s important to note that James, one of the top execs at Intel (which is Oregon’s largest employer), received her Bachelors and Masters from University of Oregon. So she’s clearly pulling for the home team. But sometimes the home team needs a new pitcher. And a new first baseman, center fielder, shortstop and so on.
Here’s a new commercial from PBA that makes the case for job creation:
When you click over to PBA’s microsite, ValueofJobs.com (as the video requests), there’s this additional information to consider:
Oregon is an income-tax-dependent state. The state’s schools, community colleges, universities, social and human services and corrections services all depend largely on revenue derived from taxes on personal income. The region’s low wages and declining per capita income translate into anemic state income tax revenues, which directly impacts the state’s ability to deliver social services. Economists have predicted that Oregon faces a decade of state budget deficits and is likely to fall about $3 billion short of the funds needed to maintain current services in every two-year budget cycle.
Bottom line, Oregonians need high paying jobs to reverse the tide. But is it wrong to think we might also benefit from a sales tax? To ensure essential services, the income has to come from somewhere. Certainly we’re all for a focus on jobs creation, but where do these jobs come from when the economy is ailing? Incentives for small business owners is a great start, but the state can only do so much, especially when it’s hamstrung by a budget shortfall. Businesses need to create jobs on their own, but many businesses are too busy hanging on to add another person to the payroll.
Sadly, the cycle keeps repeating and the momentum we need keeps slipping away. It is time to take common sense steps to walk our way out of this. Growing industrial hemp for food, fiber and fuel is a common sense step and an American industry waiting to happen. Oregon could encourage farmers to grow hemp despite the federal law prohibiting the production of the crop. Many states would follow our lead on this and we could help right a serious wrong, but what’s important is increased farm incomes and the number of new businesses that would “crop up” to make things from hemp.
Perhaps you have a better idea? I’d love to hear it.
