If the Republicans don't lose on Tuesday November 7,

something is wrong, very, very wrong. Read this .

The New Bubble: the Internet will Set Us Free

An LA Times editorial by Randall Rothenberg, director of intellectual capital at international consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, proves once again that even capitalism wants to be set free. It too wants consumers to be turned into producers: and its emancipation proclamation is a price tag. This time the revolutionary moment is Google's billion-dollar purchase of YouTube, which Rothenberg declares a victory of radical left politics. The hammer and sickle are flying high in Silicon Valley tonight. People of the World Unite!

Once again, bandwith has proven to be worth money, YouTube aggregates sticky eyeballs at a furious rate. Value is created out of thin air: anyone can post a video, however stupid, and get attention and become a media mogul. Rothenberg is like an uncanny double of a critical theorist: he quotes Adorno, Riesman, culture industry, philosophy and tells us that YouTube, once purchased by Google, provides a challenge to older ways of doing business and making culture. Consumers, you have become producers! This stuff will scare the pants off media managers and make them think that it is time once again to sing the praises of the New Economy where we learned that play = work, bohemians = profit, creativity = value added, commodity = brand, and experience = 0, or everything that you knew is worth sh@# since the New Economy has made trillions without exploiting or hurting a single human being. It was a new form of capitalism all together, capitalism that didn't hurt the land by cutting ugly black craters into the hills in order mine for coal, it didn't turn children blind by tying them to looms or carts, it didn't break the back of the worker at the assembly line, it hardly even caused carpal tunnel's syndrome since the new bosses offered yoga on the premises. Only work will set us free, because, it seems to be so much like play.

Rothenberg proves once again that the intellectual capital consultants need intellectual material - to pervert. But I suppose his library looks more like mine than that of the average businessperson. You can read that between the lines: but all his intelligence is being used to glorify something so out of proportion with what he promises - the David/YouTuber triumphing over Old Media/Fox News... the victory of the people over the power bloc as Ernesto Laclau once put it. Another quick-talking New Economy promoter, Pierre Levy, declared ten years ago in Minneapolis that we would have globalized democracy since we could all be shareholders of international companies. This is the same song played once again, but it scares me, because things actually got worse on a material level for workers the last time the Pied Pipers of Hamelin laughed all the way to their yearly bonuses. I'm just wondering: is it just going to be inflated sparkling water costs or Las Vegas real estate? I'm afraid it will be much worse.

Zizek IS culture industry

Zizek's new film , which I saw in London, is called "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema and I believe it was only part 1 of 3. Screening at the ICA after a sold out talk whose tickets could be had at the breathtaking sum of 15 pounds, that's is almost thirty dollars for us poor Yanks, um, the film was well, very, very entertaining.

The Slovenian Pop Philosopher and Psychoanalyst has found his true calling as star of the screen. Brilliantly put together by Sophie Fiennes, the film proves that slightly misogynistic (the pervert part) takes on film culture wrapped in the trappings of psychoanalytic theory can render hilarious, if slightly inane readings of everything from David Lynch to Alfred HItchcock, or Slavoj's favorite films. Fiennes has taken Zizek to his favorite scenes in a variety of films, from The Conversation to Vertigo, to the Birds and recast the mise en scene to cut from Tippie Hedren to Slavoj on Bodega Bay, from Jimmie Stewart to Slavoj again in the green light of the hotel room of Vertigo...and even Slavoj in the rocking chair of the Bates Motel.

I once worshipped this iconoclastic thinker's anti-liberal rants and invited him to a gig while I was on a post-doc at CalArts. I felt pathetically that I might be able to invoke "But I know him..." to get past the phalanx of young hipsters worshipping at his shrine now, but I couldn't bring myself to do utter those words in order to hear him rant and rave about pop culture, although this lecture promised us Zizek's wisdom on the 9/11 films.

London has embraced Zizek and Zizek dominates this city's intellectual scene with conferences, media events and now film. Or in his accent, FILUM. Am I jealous? Yes! The man has got a bully pulpit from which to proclaim things like "Freud says anxiety is the only emotion that doesn't lie." And i am left to weakly wonder, "Wasn't that Lacan?" But the Pedant's Guide to Cinema wouldn't be nearly as funny, nor as filled with tortured and insane women....

Reminder: Register and Vote

I know it's not enough, given that this administration has been responsible for destroying the security and livelihood of an entire country, reducing it to seething sectarian violence in the margins of which people try to lead their lives -- (not this country -- Iraq). It's not enough given the lies and the continued lying about the situation in Iraq, which gives succor to our enemies, fuels extremism and has endangered not just our democracy, but all democracies around the world...let us lay blame where blame is due...Europe's extreme Right (on the rise) and Left wing (weak) are united in a virulent anti-Americanism...So filling out the ballot may not seem enough, and let's not fool ourselvest that it is, that throwing out the Republican Congress can in any way be adequate to what has gone in in the past six years, but let's just say that it is a start.

Battlestar Galactica is GENIUS

The third season opener of BSG does not disappoint. (Confession: I am a sci fi geek, let's move on, no need to dwell on this point) I am two weeks behind the third seeason, but never mind -- this show sets into play all of the ideological contradictions of the present, and achieves the narrative and psychological complexity of the nineteenth century novel -- all in a politically charged relation to our present situation.

1. Military/civilian conflict in an alleged democracy that has been historically colonial/imperial -- but fighting for its survival

2. Cryptic cyborgs, here called cylons who are monotheistic, religious fanatics, searching for love in all the wrong places...and totally dismissive of death, since their downloaded into new bodies (sound familiar?)

3. The question of torture and illegal detention occur again and again in the perpetual state of war that is humanity's condition.

4. Corruption as an ambiguous progress of radical self-preservation -- Baltar, the so-called genius being the avatar of this principle.

5. Terrorism posed as the acceptable strategy of the desperate -- New Caprica, the Cylon occuped settlement is like an interplanetary Gaza Strip.

And last, but not least, the development of Cylon singularity or individuality is perhaps one of the MOST interesting problems here and will give us more narrative richness. This is not to mention the richness of each human character's flawed, but fascinating response to the situation in which s/he finds herself.

War on Terror Boardgame

Ian Bogost likes the War on Terror boardgame: "it's got an Axis of Evil spinner, you can play as or against the terrorists, and there's even a balaclava of evil that players have to wear in certain circumstances" - see link.

the OC in china

An uncanny Chinese copy of Orange County drew the ire of a NY Times architecture critic, who decried its rendition of a Southern California planned community, complete with manicured lawns and the option of French, Italian or Spanish styling...

Naked Hunger

Tourists in Paris see luxury, refinement, urban amenities, seductive restaurants, etc. It is hard therefore to notice that there are people who look hungrily into bakery windows, staring covetously at prune and rhubarb tarts that are beyond their means. It is easy to see why the average retired person does not buy pastries or have coffee in the countless cafes that line the streets, conjuring fantasies of urban sophistication and philosophical virtuosity: a double espresso costs four euros or five dollars at today's exchange rate.

On the other hand, the average doctor's visit costs 20 euros out of pocket. But still to walk into an old woman staring at a pie ok tart gave me a sense of the desperation and deprivation that drove the people mad in 1789. The disparity between rich and poor is resonates actually in historical terms at this moment and the only people who seem to have a feeling for the sense of hopelessness are those on the populist Right. It is a politically dangerous situation.

higher ed without resources

Between 1972 and 2001, the average share of state general funds in the U.S. going to public education fell by almost five percentage points from 39.9 percent in 1972 to 35 percent in 1993, and it recovered only to 36.1 percent for the balance of the decade. Between 1977 and 2001, the average share of that public education budget going to higher (post-secondary) education fell by six percentage points, from 22.6 percent to 16.4 percent. In California, the percentage of general funds going to higher education declined from nearly 18 percent in 1978 to slightly more than 12 percent in 1998, and from 1970-71 to 2004-05, the portion of California's general fund going to the University of California shrank from 7 percent to 3.5 percent. From 2000 to 2004, while enrollment increased 16 percent, state funding for the University of California declined 16 percent. For 2004-05, after four consecutive years of drastic budget cuts, the final 2004-05 state budget resulted in an accumulated funding shortfall for the University of California of $1.5 billion per year.

At the University of California, faculty salaries are now more than 10 percent below market. This represents a steady erosion of faculty salaries in public vs. private universities. In 1978-79, full professors at public doctorate-granting universities earned about 91 percent of their counterparts at private universities, but in 2003-04, that percentage had declined to 71 percent. This difference in salary makes it increasingly difficult for public universities to compete with privates for the best faculty, and if allowed to continue it will inevitably lead to a qualitative decline that will undermine 150 years of state and federal commitment to public higher education in the U.S.

Reasons why I could not live in Paris

1. The French Keyboard: Why is the W somewhere else? Why is the m key a ','? Where are my scare quotes? Why do I shift to get the '?'not to mention a '.'? The ! is very convenient however!

2. Popular French culture and advertising loves to use Faux English to sell its products: an oat bar was sold to ,e yes I mean me as a 'flapjack'! Flapjacks were made by pioneers crossing the Rockies during the ,igration west, or as I almost typed - zest. When they ran out of flapjacks and zest, they ate each other. Every A,erican knoz that!

And some kid in the metro was wearing a jacket that read H O R N Y on the back: wrong ,essage i mean message! Even if you are on Spring Break Gone Wild, you would not want to be caught dead in this jacket, even if some one offered you a flapjack with it!

4. The saturation of the French media with Zidane would put me off soccer completely. I was just in London and it struck me that England is beyond France in soccer madness. at least the French team had made it to the finals: This morning's talk shows were devoted to England's tie with Macedonia for Euro 2008 qualifying: The entire country was editorializing. Maybe they have to face the facts -- the English footballers are just not that good! Ummm that was a reason I couldn't live in England. They wouldn't let me stay! But then they have made Zizek into a movie star! I couldn't get Zizek tix at the ICA and there were no scalpers either. 15 pounds I would have had to pa IF I could have gotten a ticket!

And off topic completely -- Tony Blair has managed to make Central London around the Thames look just like Brisbane. Brisbane is a beautiful subtropical boomtown filled zith stick insects and very contemporary. Central Melbourne looks more beautiful and more respectful of its nineteenth century architectural gems: Federation Square is wild and boasts pan Asian restaurants. In England; they've haphazardly torn the whole riverside of post industrial sublimity dozn in order to put California Pizza like restaurants along the Bankside -- all with the intent of framing the Tate Modern; um yeah and they've thrown in the Globe Theater for good measure. The 16th century peanut gallery could never get admitted to bo bo heaven: my much anticipated visit there turned out to be a total snooze: take 30 top jet set artists and shake: Carsten Hoeller comes out on top. Give him the entire Turbine Hall!

Even the design shops were bad! I should have just gone shopping! with the few pounds that my puny dollars were changed into; I could have bought half a Manchester United towel!

Case study: Foley

The New York Times assesses the Foley fallout and all I have to say is -- this whole thing reads like a classic 1950s, J. Edgar Hoover era case study in repression, except for the part about Dennis Hastert as an external force helping the repression along and SMS technology making it harder for the Hooverites to lead their double lives. You have to realize now that the Republicans get off or "enjoy" in the Lacanian sense, for whatever it's worth -- getting away with being hypocrites, saying one thing and doing another-- therein lies their power.

Foley is an alleged "predatory" sexual harasser of underage boys, but serves on a House Committee to "protect" children. He may be in rehab, but the lesson is that you can get away with anything if you check yourself into the proper facility after your bout of public bad behavior. Scandalization of politics is not good for politics, witness Bill and Monica and the diversions that created. but abuse of power is what the GOP apparatchiks really enjoy.