Last night, after sushi, over cake, a friend asked why I regularly read a center-right PR newsletter. It’s because the Right is far, far, far better at mass media than the left, which dominates social media. I want to learn.

In a nutshell the problem with the Left is people who say things like, “Occupy Wall Street should really be called Decolonize Wall Street.” While that’s true, the narcissism of small differences is debilitating. The practical gain of trading the media franchise “Occupy” for “Decolonize” doesn’t outweigh the cost of the franchise itself — it’s gotten too much publicity in its current form.

Plus, I think “decolonization”, as an implied political strategy, is too difficult to understand. “Occupy” makes sense and implies a course of action. “Decolonize” does the same thing, but makes it sound like there’s a lot more you need to learn before the end goal is reached: tearing down the city and planting trees. I think “Decolonize” would work against the movement because it requires more intellectual and putative physical engagement than occupation.

That might all sound very lazy and cynical, but I mean it on a purely practical level: if you pointed at something and said, “occupy that!” you’ve successfully communicated. If you say, “decolonize that!” the next step is scheduling a political science seminar.

Taking the opposite view, the Guardian thinks that modern protest is dead because it lacks a credible threat of violence.

The New York Times wrote a good argument against open government. The gist is that shining a light on the back corridors of government will force politicians to act as if they’re always on the political stage. This is particularly bad in the extreme partisan environment of US federal politics, but it’d be a problem to some extent everywhere.

I believe that representatives should be free to represent without having to answer to the electorate between elections. I worry that “open government” is a veiled call for direct democracy. If you don’t like how your representation works, the problem is the electoral system, not the concept of representation.

On the other hand, the people need to be able to measure the performance of their representatives so they know whether or not to reelect them. The statements representatives make direct courts and bureaucrats in interpreting legislation – they’re literally part of our laws. And people have a right to know what government is doing, even if it is anonymized at the level of individual legislators.

Therefore, I approve of the system where committees can meet behind closed doors but the business of the House must be public. The problem with local government is that the business of Council, including how individual Councilors vote, is not made public.

This week on Colbert Black Star debuted a new song after performing for Occupy Wallstreet earlier.

Jill is in New York this weekend. I miss her. I just realized I should have gone with — I have an airline credit I could have used to be part of the occupation.

Here’s the web-exclusive encore of a Black Star oldie.

Summary: only public financing for elections. Then bribery will be a crime again.

Ezra interviews Naomi on the 99%:

I was going to publish this last night, but decided to wait for the full count. I was hoping that Horwath’s NDP would end up in a kingmaker position, but the Libs are only one shy of a majority. Sans some good whipping and a deadlock with the Cons, the NDP really isn’t where it needs to be.

That said, I’m happy the NDP’s share improved. My guy re-won his riding, and Horwath’s “pump the vote” posters (picture pending) were a real treat. The Greens had the best lawn sign graphic design, they looked by far the most modern and professional, but that won them nothing.

I voted NDP for the first time in my life yesterday, and it felt great — like I was actually doing something to change things, despite the probable (now actual) results.

Via /., and discussed on the latest Command Line: some German researchers have found that the information sent home by smart power meters is sufficient to identify what you were using the power for, down to the level (by combining the data with other sources of public information) of what movie or TV show you were watching by looking for a fingerprint-like electrical-draw pattern produced by the interchange of light and dark frames. It’s a kind of Big Brothery chiaroscuriosity.

My paranoia is highly parallelized, so this immediately reminded me of how the RCMP gets all BCbians’ power consumption info as a consequence of the drug war. Now that Canada is beginning to engage in Copyright War (and, secondarily, our misadventures in mandatory minimum sentencing), I wonder how long before the natural tendency of government to connect and expand prosecutorial powers means that the RCMP can watch you download music and take note of when you watch one of Anonymous’ press channels.

Pinterest is 4chan (NSFW) for ladies: an image board, with comments, and a far better design scheme; and, as 4chan is used to spread misogyny, so is Pinterest.

When Jill first saw Pinterest she thought: “Hmm, I’m surprised there aren’t more gay Spiderman jokes on this.” Indeed, in the chaniverse this would be made far more disgusting than it is awesome:

The new buzz on 4chan, which has an amazing kind of crowd intelligence, is that it is now crawling with cointelpros trying to get the inside dope on Occupy Wallstreet’s “real” agenda.

It would be much easier to plan in public on Pinterest. I might suggest a flood later this afternoon.