The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

As predicted, Russia Today continues to promote 9/11 Conspiracy Theories on the 8th Anniversary of 9/11
|| 9/14/2009 || 11:09 pm || + Render A Comment || ||

As I predicted last week, Russia Today continued their somewhat unusual promotion of the 9/11 Truth Movement during the 8th anniversary of 9/11. Instead of producing one or two news reports, which I expected (specifically one about the Van Jones resignation), the news organization produced no less than seven in the last week. On the flip side, there wasn’t many other articles or videos produced by any of the major news organizations in the same period that address the questions surrounding the world changing event. As I posited last week, I am still curious as to why Russia Today continues to be the only news organization covering this contentious topic. Does the Russian government believe in the conspiracy theory? Does the Russian government hope to destabilize America by producing propaganda that makes American’s question the official story? I still don’t know, but I think its important to understand why no other news organization, privately owned or state sponsored, is aggressively reporting this issue as much as Russia Today.

Below are the YouTube videos Russia Today produced in the last week:

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Video on today’s Huffington Post
|| 11/25/2008 || 11:09 pm || Comments Off on Video on today’s Huffington Post || ||

In continuance of my low-budget directorial work, today two videos I helped record are featured on the Huffington Post. My friend Elizabeth Glover edited the footage and uploaded it to YouTube so I could share them here.

Jason Linkins writes:

It’s the Thanksgiving Holiday, so let’s vlog, why not? This week, Ana Marie and I had the especially good fortune to be joined by Megan Carpentier, blogger and Crappy Hourist from Jezebel.

On today’s vlog, the three of us dig into the cross-section on the left who’ve been awash in complaint that President-elect Barack Obama’s appointments and directives post-election had not passed the Progressive Politics Litmus Test. Were a raft of progressive appointments and the promise to put the Bush administration on trial really part of the rose garden we were promised? Does a return to sane, competent governance truly represent change? And did the three of us all feel a little silly after Obama put Melody Barnes — bona fide “new blood” with impressive progressive credentials — in charge of his domestic policy shop? Probably, actually! And, then, later, did the gratuitous pillorying of John Brennan make us feel vindicated? Again, probably! Anyway, one thing we can all agree on is that now we’ll have liberal blogs, yelling at us for Christmas.

In the second part, we dig into the strange contention of Keith Olbermann that not voting for someone makes it easier to criticize them. And, finally, we honor the Thanksgiving holiday. Find out why Megan is grateful that Sarah Palin exists! And then, yell at us some more.

As always, we were assisted behind the scenes by the intrepid Liz Glover and the savvy Nikolas Schiller, who make these forays into video antics possible, and, indeed, plausible.

PART ONE

PART TWO

YouTube Video of Cynthia McKinney on Al Jazeera’s Riz Extra show
|| 10/23/2008 || 3:41 pm || Comments Off on YouTube Video of Cynthia McKinney on Al Jazeera’s Riz Extra show || ||

Since the American media has completely blocked out the presidential campaign of Cynthia McKinney, its good to see that some foreign media is covering her campaign. In this web exclusive (aka not broadcast), Al Jazeera‘s Riz Khan speaks to Cynthia McKinney about her platform and campaign.

Related 2008 Election Entries:

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Third Party Presidential Ballot Access in the United States of America [updated]
|| 10/16/2008 || 12:24 am || Comments Off on Third Party Presidential Ballot Access in the United States of America [updated] || ||

At the beginning of September I posted a similar graphic showing the third party presidential ballot access in the United States of America. In the month since, the final deadlines have passed and the updated graphic above shows the final state by state (plus the colony of the District of Columbia) listing of the candidates who have the statistical chances of winning the electoral college and becoming president of the United States.

What is sad about American democracy as it’s presented on television and in the print media is that America consists of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, and only those parties and no mention of the ones above. All the third parties above are either completely ignored or they are incorrectly lumped together into Independents. The result is a marginalization of all other parties who might contribute to the political discourse.

Related 2008 Election Entries:

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Third Party Presidential Ballot Access in the United States of America
|| 9/3/2008 || 11:07 pm || Comments Off on Third Party Presidential Ballot Access in the United States of America || ||

This entry has depreciated. Please click here to view the most up to date graphic.

The inverted color graph above from Wikipedia shows the states where political parties in America are on the ballot. Each state has its own ballot access rules and regulations, so unlike the two major parties in America, the smaller parties have a harder time getting access to all states in America. In Washington, DC residents like myself have the option of Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney as well as the two major party candidates.

Last week in Denver I went to Ralph Nader‘s rally and found his speech to be quite dull. I have the utmost respect for Ralph and he is one of my personal heroes, but when it comes to perennially running for president, he has nothing new to say and is a waste of time when it comes to growing third parties in America. This was the third political rally I’ve attended with Nader as the keynote speaker and his speech this year was not much different from the one I heard at the Green Party National Convention in 2007. His stance on the issues is 100% in line with my vision, but in most cases it seems that he’s still living out a dream that he is somehow going to crack through the two party system. By running as an independent he is able to keep the alternative voice alive in American political discourse, but by not aligning himself with a specific party he’s denying his supporters a political organization that can promote change from the bottom up, instead of strictly from the top-down. This has been sufficiently called Nader’s Nadir and it’s why I am not supporting him. I believe that changing the political sprectrum in America comes from the ground up through a slow coup of multi-partisan support. Or I’d at least like to believe its possible.

Related 2008 Election Entries:

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Blue Balls [Hexcode T-Shirt Humor]
|| 5/20/2008 || 11:14 am || Comments Off on Blue Balls [Hexcode T-Shirt Humor] || ||

Following up my use of Hexadecimal Color Codes on the #006900 Party t-shirt, which was based off of the #000000 Power t-shirt, I made another t-shirt design: #0000FF (balls)

For the last week or so I’ve been thinking about a way to use a non-color word visually and this morning I came up with balls. They are easy to draw and are easily identifiable. Embedded in the t-shirt is a phallic image that is supposed to further add to the humor of what constitutes blue balls.

#006900 Party [that’s Green Party in Hexadecimal Color Code]
|| 5/11/2008 || 10:07 pm || Comments Off on #006900 Party [that’s Green Party in Hexadecimal Color Code] || ||

At the Artomatic opening night I spoke with someone close to Mark Jenkins about his #000000 POWER t-shirt concept that uses Hexadecimal Color Codes to reference the word’s color (aka BLACK POWER). In this geeky context I thought it would be funny to follow-up this meme by making my own HTML-based t-shirt.

After thinking through a bunch of different permutations, I came up with #006900 Party to represent the Green Party of the United States. I could have chosen from quite a few different combinations for the color Green, but I thought that the number 69 was the most widely understood numerical reference out of the possible permutations, with the exception of the number 42, a favorite number of mine that I found to be too dark.

I will be donating this design to the Green Party of the United States if they want to use it for their official merchandise.

NBC Universal is co-opting the Green Party of the United States this Earth Day
|| 4/22/2008 || 1:41 pm || Comments Off on NBC Universal is co-opting the Green Party of the United States this Earth Day || ||

This Earth Day I am calling out corporate greenwashing being employed by NBC Universal . The calculated lie (below) is that they are not forming a new “Green Party,” rather they are subverting the existence of one of the few 3rd parties in American politics.

When this week is over, I sincerely wonder how many times will NBC Universal feature the Green Party’s presidential candidate on any of it’s stations? That is less of a question and more of a challenge. My null hypothesis is that there will be no mention of the Green Party of the United States, rather lots of tips on living green instead of empowering people that they have the option to vote Green in November.

NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and this type of greenwashing is designed to help distance people’s concerns about General Electric’s nuclear reactor business operations. It’s ironic that it was protests against nuclear energy that helped propel the German Green Party into the political spotlight.

View the modified screen grab:

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: