I voted this afternoon and I am left with a feeling of profound dissatisfaction. I hope the returns will bring good news, but I'm not too optimistic about that.

I wanted to offer something lighter to my readers, yet still in the elections vein. This week, I was entertained by Rolling Stone's cover story on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, penned by Maureen Dowd. I was especially delighted to read that Colbert has a soft spot for Richard Nixon, as do I. In fact, he even voices my own generational reaction to the Watergate trials: "I didn't like the Watergate hearings--they interrupted 'The Munsters'."

This morning, Gizmodo called my attention to the Nixon "Dictator" watch, which has a digital recorder built in. In addition to the black watch shown here, there's also a brown version that has more of a retro flair.

For 9/11, I decided I would post three big things that have changed in the U.S. since the event. These three things are not necessarily related to 9/11, they're just changes I've marked since that time. And one more thing: I've made these three things be changes that I never imagined would happen. I call them the unthinkables:

1. New Orleans is gone.

2. In the mainstream media, and in peoples homes, Americans debate the extent to which the U.S. has become a fascist country.

3. Due to the passing of the bankruptcy bill, indentured servitude has returned to the United States.

I'd like to invite you to share your three things, about the changes that have happened in your country. If you do so, please consider leaving me a comment so I and my readers can find your three things, too.

While reading Dr. Menlo, I ran across a link to a wonderful website about political street posters, called Visual Resistance. It's the hub for various artistic efforts, including a gallery of street art, a network of activist artists and fundraisers for various causes.

Several weeks ago, Henry Jenkins started a new blog to coincide with the release of his forthcoming book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. I find his work smart, original, and accessible, and since Jenkins often defends the kinds of pursuits I enjoy, such as gaming, I've been following his blog steadily.

Over the course of two days, Jenkins recently posted two essays on comic books and U.S. foreign policy that I think most comic book bloggers and fans would want to read. They are based on a chapter Jenkins contributed to a book called Terror, Culture, Politics: Rethinking 9/11, and he has promised a third part to the series will be coming soon.

Jenkins posted the essays partially in response to an article published in the political journal The American Prospect comparing the actions of the Bush Administration to the Green Lantern Corps. In this article, author Matthew Yglesias claims that Bush and his cohorts have a "comic book view of how international relations works."

Jenkins's essays demonstrate that the attitudes expressed in comic books after 9/11 regarding U.S. foreign policy are more sophisticated and more progressive than those of the Bush administration. In Jenkins's first essay, I was fascinated by his precise reporting of how the major comic book publishers and individuals within the industry were affected by 9/11 based on their physical proximity to ground zero.

It was also refreshing to read Jenkins's account of how mainstream and independent publishers collaborated and were influenced by each other in the period after 9/11. That's what I like about Jenkins's work--although he writes about popular culture topics that are often discussed in the media, his approach is always a nonobvious one. If you're interested in comics, games, fan fiction, or fandom, you should really check out his blog and his other work as well.

The Cute Little Red-Headed Girlfriend and I went to go see An Inconvenient Truth this past weekend. It's in limited release in only two theaters in Los Angeles, so we headed out to an early show in the hopes that we could get in. Fortunately, the theater was large and able to accommodate the crowd that showed up.

I'm not a huge fan of PowerPoints, but Al Gore's slideshow on global warming is really impressive. I say that because the film An Inconvenient Truth documents a slideshow presentation, in the same way that public television might present a staged opera. What you see is something designed for one format (slideshow), but reproduced in another format (film).

There are some brief filmed segments spliced in between the slide presentation that go into Gore's autobiography. I know some critics believe the real goal of those segments is to present Gore as a presidential candidate. They do serve that function rather well. However, I also think the autobiographical elements serve as a good "wrapper" for the slides, adding a personal and emotional component to Gore's logical argument about global warming.

f you are unfamiliar with the data on global warming, I think you will find the movie very persuasive. That's how the Cute-Little-Red-Headed-Girlfriend responded to it. The film hit her like a ton of bricks. "That was very scary!" she exclaimed to me on the way out of the theater.

I've done some reading on the issue of global warming and follow the topic in the news, so many of Gore's arguments were familiar to me. What leaped out at me was Gore's assertion that despite having honed his argument over the years in order to make it air tight, he still felt like he was failing to communicate to people how urgent the situation is.

This feeling of failure really struck a chord with me because in my mind it speaks not only to the issue of global warming but also to many other political issues facing the U.S. right now. Gore communicates his point very, very capably. I don't think this is a failure of logic or of communication.

I think the failure comes down to the human capacity for self-delusion. It comes down to the fact that it doesn't matter what your opinion is on any issue if you're not willing to do something about it. How long are we going to not do something about global warming? Are we still arguing about the issue at this point, or just stalling, waiting for it to go away?

The immigration issue in the U.S. is a complicated one, even for someone like myself, a Mexican-American who has an active interest in the issue. Just to be clear, my Mexican-American ancestors have been in the U.S. for generations. As my family members like to say, we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us.

It was decades ago that I first heard the conspiracy theory that Mexico was intent on taking over California, and that immigrants were the stealth means of takeover. Back then, the idea of an immigrant invasion was mainly advanced by the John Birch Society, a conservative political group that originated in Southern California.

It's sad to see how this nut-wing racist theory has become entangled with people's legitimate concerns over national security after 9/11. I know some people look at the Minutemen and see patriots volunteering to do the security work they think the government should do. But to me, the Minutemen are a security problem. I wonder why the public isn't more concerned about a private army camped out across a good portion of our southern border. Why doesn't that ring any alarm bells?

The core issue in the immigration debate is economics, not culture or even race. That's why you'll find Republicans who are pro-immigration, like George W. Bush. His "guest-worker" program is really designed to give business what they want: reliable access to cheap, disposable labor. In fact, some industries in the U.S. are so reliant on this cheap disposable labor that they bring nonlegal immigrants into the country on the sly. It's called human trafficking, and it wouldn't be the first time it's happened here.

You may have noticed I used the word "disposable." A few years ago I was looking through a Latina magazine and it had a quiz, "How Latina Are You?" One of the questions was, "Do you have a relative who has lost a body part to a machete or knife?" You got awarded more points for a hand than for finger on the quiz. That's because both legal Mexican-Americans, like my relatives, and nonlegal immigrants, like those protesting today, have traditionally worked in industries that are hazardous. So much so that we even joke about it among ourselves.

Some people say that nonlegal immigrants are taking jobs that would ordinarily go to U.S. citizens if they paid better. And while that is undoubtedly true in some instances, this is not just about industries avoiding the minimum wage. It's about industries that shirk safety regulations and other protections for workers that are required by law. It's about a business climate in the U.S. that urges, even demands, for businesses to seek the bottom in relation to its workers.

So should we allow immigrants in, and how many, and what do we do about the ones who are already here? I don't know the answer to that. But I do stand in solidarity with those thousands who ask us today to consider the obligation a society has to those who provide it with their labor.

A few weeks ago, I downloaded the full text of the speech Harold Pinter gave in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature. It made very worthwhile reading. I've excerpted one of my favorite passages below, wherein Pinter describes the process by which the United States's crimes against countries such as Indonesia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, and others, have been made invisible.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

It was a strange relief to read these words. It is a relief because it reflects the facts of U.S. history as I understand them, and not the fantasy that is constantly projected here in the U.S.

Although the media often discusses the political frustrations of the Democratic party, I have rarely seen any examination of the daily frustrations of ordinary individuals trying to live in a culture where one is lied to every day. A place where lying is glorified, through the elevation of people who lie boldly, such as the Enron millionaires and our own President.

It is confusing to live in such a culture. One thing that I have been surprised to discover since 9/11 is how ideology can be extremely blatant and still work. Previously, I assumed that ideology was most successful when it acted surreptitiously, almost as an unconscious effect. But ideology must work hardest when the facts diverge most jarringly from "the official record" that is being offered. It is this constant presence of ideology that becomes so tiring, because it becomes such an effort to remember, day in and day out, what is real.

I think doves are beautiful birds, but for the most part, the white dove as a symbol of peace is too saccharine for my tastes. I think I've seen too many "peace" holiday cards, too many white dove ornaments perched on towering white wedding cakes, too many birds on the wing in celebration of Michael Jackson's not guilty verdict. I think it's the white-on-white or white-on-pastel color scheme that gets to me.

Picasso made several line drawings of doves on white backgrounds. They seem like quick drawings, and some even have a cartoonish look to them. The drawing pictured here is my favorite among Picasso's dove pictures. The black background makes the white dove, and the promise of peace that it symbolizes, appear fragile and endangered. The dove is not flying joyously, but stands still and distant against the dark smudges of background.

In times of war, I think this is what peace looks like.

I've written before about the fantastic artwork on Magic: The Gathering Cards. Now someone's mocked up an amazing parody set of Magic cards based on U.S. politics. I've checked the site over the last few days and, as is the case with authentic Magic cards, the size of the deck just seems to keep growing. What's incredible about this deck is how well matched the play rules are to the graphic in each card. It seems like you could actually play a game with this deck.

I chose to show the Rumsfeld monster here because he's the one member of the Bush line-up who elicits a "person you ove to hate" feeling in me. The rest of them I just hate. I don't know if it's Rummy's ties to the Nixon administration, his poetic leanings, or his eerie typological resemblance to Robert McNamara, but at least he's an interesting villain.

I urge In Sequence readers in the U.S. to write their Congressional representatives and ask for the impeachment of President Bush for his incompetence in handling Hurricane Katrina, resulting in massive loss of life.

If you don't know who your reps are, google your state's name followed by the words "state government" and you should find the information listed on your state government's web page. To make it extra easy on you, here's a brief, generic letter you can cut and paste into a web form or e-mail.

I am writing to request that Congress impeach President Bush for his mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. His incompetence and the incompetence of his appointees has resulted in a catastrophic loss of life. It has also exposed the President's inability to effectively protect the U.S. in the wake of 9/11. I am very concerned that you respond to these grave failures with the seriousness that they require and move to impeach President Bush.

By the way, it's better to use e-mail than mail because safety measures put in place after the anthrax attacks make regular mail service to Congress slow.

While listening to Ed Schultz on Air America, I heard that the looting and lawlessness in New Orleans has convinced many in the U.S. of the need to buy a firearm. A brilliant response! Incidentally, the threat level this past week has been at "Yellow."

Although many people are applauding the mainstream news media for their coverage of Katrina, I've still turned abroad for some of my news.This summation of the situation by the BBC seemed right-on:

It has been a profoundly shocking experience for many across this vast country who, for the large part, believe the home-spun myth about the invulnerability of the American Dream.

I know people everywhere are aghast at how thin the veneer of civilization is; how we all become animals in the face of survival. But I've found it to be a learning situation myself. For example, I'd never really understood the concept of stoning before. Now that my civilized impulses have been worn away by so many image of suffering, I not only understand, but am ready to embrace stoning. As the "men" say in Life of Brian, "I'll take three of these large flat stones, and a bag of sharp ones as well."

I've been posting a lot lately after a fairly long period of silence, so I thought I should probably explain what was happening during that time. Basically, I was discouraged. Mainly about U.S. politics, but also about blogs as a form of expression, and so I just sort of dropped out for a bit.

When political blogs first started to become popular, I was worried that they would drown out other types of blogs, especially cultural blogs. However, I think there are some great political blogs out there, like AmericaBlog and American Samizdat, and they are essential in a media environment that delivers propaganda, lies and sheer nonsense in place of news.

Although I believe political blogs are on the whole a positive force, there has been some cost to the blogosphere as a result of the attention paid by the media and others. The more that CNN, Jupiter Research, and other mainstream power brokers engage with blogs, the more focused the blogosphere becomes on conversing with the establishment rather than with each other.

I see many blogs moving away from the things that I like most about blogging: a personal tone, generosity and openness towards strangers, the sharing of old enthusiasms and new discoveries. For now, I have decided to continue asserting the value of these aspects of blogging, against the tide of opportunism and self-promotion that have become such prominent features of blogs today.

I recently asked Dr. Menlo if I could sign on to his group blog, American Samizdat, as a harbinger. And recently, he announced me as a new harbinger on his own blog.

I decided to join based on my distress over media coverage of the U.S. presidential election, especially on television. The inability (or unwillingness) of the media to counter the disinformation released by the so-called Swift-Boat Veterans for Truth this summer was a turning point for me. As a result, I found myself increasingly turning to alternative outlets for news and opinion, including American Samizdat.

Now that the election is over, I believe the situation of the press in this country is only going to get worse. Already, the conservative marketing of lies has grown bolder: the economy is in great shape, incompetents are praised as heroes, there is no torture happening. My blood ran cold when I heard about William Donahue's recent statements on MSNBC. "And I'm not afraid to say it," he claimed.

It is becoming easier and easier to say these hateful things in the U.S., and eventually we will grow used to hearing them. That's why I've chosen to speak out now, by joining American Samizdat. I hope you'll add it and Dr. Menlo's site to your regular blog reading.

That was a debilitating election. I've been struggling with what to say in the wake of Bush's re-election. The standard responses have been: "we need to keep fighting," "it's not as bad as you think," and "it's been this bad before." All are different ways of saying "stay hopeful, don't get discouraged" to those on the left.

Rather than being prescriptive, I'll be descriptive. Let me tell you what it was like in one of the indigo-blue pockets of the U.S. during the week after the election. It was like being in a zombie movie. A glazed look clouded people's eyes, and people seemed to stagger forward rather than walk, as if unaware of their surroundings. Few broke the mood of heavy gloom by speaking to others. I found it eerie to imagine that huge swaths of the U.S. population were in a similar condition. Pass the soylent green, please.

Did someone just say "time to start the healing"?