Read Bob Somerby’s response to brave insane Bill Clinton’s factually accurate push-back unhinged rantings on Fox last Sunday.

There’s a simple, unflattering explanation for the all that sober, moderate silence. Simply put, our sober moderates haven’t seemed to care very much; they never agreed with those wars against Clinton, but they also weren’t willing to stand up and fight them. Right to this day, they don’t even have enough heart to say that the press corps was waging those nasty wars, along with the bogey-man “right.” The DNC has been a sad, stale joke for years—completely unable to fight, think or reason—and our journalistic “leaders” have simply been AWOL. Simply put, we don’t know how to reason or fight. We’re dumb, stupid, weak, uncaring, unprepared. Throughout this period, the other side has just wanted it more. And we still pretend that we don’t know this.

Now we’re told that all has changed—that Clinton has shown us how to fight! This time we really mean it, we say. Thanks to Clinton’s outstanding example, we aren’t gonna take it any more. But of course, that’s a bunch of perfect crap, peddled by the same weak, overpaid “leaders” who have been willing, for the past fourteen years, to let those wars be waged on our leaders. That sat around while Clinton was trashed, then stared into space as Gore was savaged. (Even today, they won’t discuss that history—won’t explain how Bush got to the White House.) Now they tell us they’re ready to fight? Because Bill Clinton has finally shown them? Do you believe them when they say that? If so, we have a bridge to the 31st century we’d very much like you to look at.

I did some consulting work with True Majority earlier this year and was lucky enough to become acquainted with Jo Lee and George Hotelling of CitizenSpeak. Well, it seems George just picked up the first ever $10,000 Antonio Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest for his work on the CitizenSpeak project. Way to go, George!

Hotelling’s work on the CitizenSpeak project began when he realized that local groups needed a tool that could help them impact local decisions and decision-makers. He soon discovered that CitizenSpeak.org, a free online service founded in 2002 by Jo Lee and Pablo Calamera, shared the same vision. Hotelling, with over a decade of experience working with open source tools rebuilt CitizenSpeak and made the code available as an open source software.

And, here’s a picture I’ll use for the album cover of my first Edith Piaf tribute album…

Steps of Montmartre - Paris - March 2006
photo by Max