Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

[Original (not edited for space) proposal to the 2010 US Social Forum in Detroit.]

Self-rule in any group or society needs a democratic system of
communication, in which sending and receiving information is free and open
to all. Equal power, let alone equal participation, cannot be approached
without this equal access. A transparent way for people to filter for the
most important messages can prove an essential tool in working together for
a better world.

http://www.rootsvisiondesign.com/kasey/index.html

After a ton of rain, not long after Mom left, and with both Andrew and I here, and i don't-know-when since the last pumping (Fall i think) the cesspool level was a little bit over the bottom lip of the pipe.

Sent to MJ Petroni of http://causeit.org

Confirming our talk scheduled in two and one-half hours from now, with an important proviso - if this is a for-fee consult, and i am quite aware that consulting is exactly what people pay you for, i will need to beg off for now or do a deferred payment.

One large, slow-paying client means no expenses until i know i can get money to all the people i already have commitments to-- as in yesterday i canceled dealer maintenance on a ten-year-old Honda Insight hybrid.

Or at least one insight per page.

Here's one from the (also amazing) Chacha Sikes:

"We can thank Leslie Hawthorn for telling me I should pick something I care about and get a gang of mentors together. (Thank you!!) She makes it all seem so easy. She's amazing."

stop and shop union

Nothing here:
http://www.ufcw.org/press_room/

A flier "Stop and Shop Workers Are United!"
http://www.groceryworkersunited.org/

*** Show your support for Stop & Shop workers. Download this flyer and give it to your store manager ***

http://www.ufcw328.org/

ACORN makes a sobering case study for the goal of a large organized base of people including the excluded and disadvantaged.

Quoting from http://www.metrotimes.com/news/story.asp?id=14767

Lansing organizer Guzman says she first learned about the group the way most people did back in the 1980s.

"Someone came and knocked on my door and asked me to become involved," she recalls. The issue then was an effort to keep a neighborhood school from being closed.

Amy- exciting news

Voters For Peace

Pat Buchannan, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Black Agenda Report, Cindy Sheehan

march in D.C. the 20th of March

non-partisan peace!

"Now we need millions of dollars"

me: Is UFPJ and IAC, the dueling duopoly organizers of the big peace march doing disservice to us.

interview with Scott Horton, a spas
does a radio report out of Austin

factory workers,
energy

teabagger sh*t

and all i had to say was "Ron Paul" and she said "really"
***

I got the stupid medicare
lost a couple of my own teeth
got a little bit of money to work with

An organization that fantastic reporter and person Reed Lindsay helped start:
http://www.hrfhaiti.org/
UPDATE: Donate page up: http://www.hrfhaiti.org/donate.html

http://www.pih.org/home.html

http://quixote.org/haiti

http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/HERF.html

MORE: http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1824/1/

(Stay away from the wasteful American Red Cross.)

"Race 2 the Bottom" by Keith Knight
http://www.buzzle.com/showImage.asp?image=51656

Content has a life cycle of it’s own and the value of content is pretty much built up by it’s freshness (how breaking is the content), how unique is it, and how emotional the content is. Breaking news content will always be in high demand. The life time and stickiness of the content improves with supporting relevant material such as context, facts and opinions, together with providing the audience with the capability of interacting with the content with ratings, comments and topical forums.

[...]

Got some mail from Lambda Legal which put me on their begging list somehow. Their only tagline on the envelope is "making the case for equality" but somehow I knew it was an LGBT rights organization.

Which... is a little problematic.

The unfair legal treatment of homosexual couples and even more so society-wide discrimination against queer people generally is shocking at this stage in history, a shame, and a whole network of injustice that requires redress.

(First line in Wikipedia about the area my brothers live. I think it's great. It just exists, and the federal government comes along and says we have to classify you as something... unincorporated census-designated place.

S. went to a university reunion dressed as Becky Sharp, (anti?) heroine of William Makepeace Thackery's Vanity Fair.

"in victorian lit they were really suppressed
so i wanted a sassy one"

* Notes and thoughts on the non-profit behind the essay competition The Morality of Profit, http://www.sevenfund.org/morality-of-profit/index.php

Regis Dale and Reverend Peter Gori are on the Form 990 (tax return that 501c3 and other nonprofits have to file) and not on the site that I noticed but the people on the site (Widmer, Brennan, and Fairbanks are on the board in the filing also) are probably who has an active hand in selecting (the selectors) anyway. Widmer and Fairbank's essays are cited as examples; i would believe them when they say they like their own work!

Marking the Christian dating ads on Facebook as offensive.

Vanilla brown sugar is too good-sounding a flavor to waste on hand soap!

A radical friend has recently been "won to supporting Israel" (as if there were some sort of binary choice). A major factor is the treatment of women in societies around Israel being worse than in the state of Israel itself-- well, let's say the 1967 boundaries since the charge of human rights violations against women in particular is implicitly making Palestinians worthy of occupation. Honor killings in particular were mentioned, and I needed

the Cap & Trade distraction to solving climate change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FSy6EKrM

Having once again exhausted all attempts at organizational systems, i'm just going to post the latest to-do list on my web site...

* Fund for Authentic Journalism credit card?
* Clear out any of my stuff from my YouTube account to give it to the Fund for Authentic Journalism
* Letter to publisher- running out of chances to recruit, promote, write book!
* Let people know I'm headed to Syracuse, Rochester, Chicago... and let the people I'm staying with no exact itinerary
* Pictures to do ultimate Drupal image gallery with Fox
* Push Alambre Trio Live and tell Grandpa and Aga