He must not have read Evgeny Morozov’s new book Net Delusion, whose very first chapter names the fools, links to the content, and reframes the big question as not whether social media matters but rather which side it ultimately benefits in the balance of power between citizens and authoritarian states.

Aaron Bady has a much more nuanced set of thoughts. TechPresident’s Nancy Scola has some additional words of wisdom on how to evaluate social media’s role in the latest wave of democratization

via Idle Twatter : Lawyers, Guns & Money.

I wrote one. I named a few people who made foolish statements. Maybe I can make my point more “serious”. Cheers to the people in Northern Africa and the Middle East that have used social media to promote and facilitate action.

Not all dictators will be so clumsy, lost or timid in the face of centralized, hardware network dependent social media (Iran, Zimbabwe). The networks that protesters used to disseminate information are dependent upon regime controlled infrastructure.

It’s great that Facebook and Twitter did so much for us. But the despots will figure out how to work around them both technically and politically. They’re too easy to disrupt. Facebook could go down on its own

[...]

There’s all kinds of crazy stuff you can do at a firewall to make one site appear to be having technical problems. Real technical problems (but fake ones nonetheless). There are consultants calling on generals all over the world, right now, selling them wonderful Internet dashboards that selectively and randomly make sites appear to have problems of their own, not caused by the government.

via Scripting News: A fractional horsepower news network.

The Albany police chief, Laurie Pritchett, carefully studied the movement’s strategy and developed a strategy he hoped could subvert it. He used mass arrests but avoided the kind of dramatic, violent incidents that might backfire by attracting national publicity. Pritchett arranged to disperse the prisoners to county jails all over southwest Georgia to prevent his jail from filling up. The Birmingham Post-Herald stated that “The manner in which Albany’s chief of police has enforced the law and maintained order has won the admiration of… thousands.”

via Albany Movement – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

“Generally, in Libya before this, there was no media,” explains Shallouf*. “So if Tobruk made a revolution, [the government] would spend three to five days killing us and finish the revolution. Nobody in [larger nearby communities and cities] al-Baida or Darna or Benghazi would have heard about it. But now with al-Jazeera and Facebook and the media, all of Libya hears about the revolution and is with the revolution. They know about it. They think, ‘I am Libyan, this is my family, so I will go to the street to fight for them.’ ”

He and fellow Libyans had followed the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings on al-Jazeera and satellite Arabic-language news channels. He did his best, along with other Libyan activists, to internally circulate the videos he saw so that other Libyans could get a glimpse of what was happening on either side of their closed-off country. “After I got videos from the Internet, we sent them from Bluetooth to Bluetooth. Mostly videos of fighting in Egypt. I felt two things when I saw these videos: I felt sad. And then I wanted to make a revolution!”

With the Internet shut down, Libyans crossed the border for access. Says Tawfik al-Shohiby, a chemical-engineering professor at the University of Tobruk: “We sent my brother and his friend to Marsa Matruh [in Egypt] to use the Internet. I went to Egypt every day to give him a flash disk full of media from Tobruk, al-Baida, Benghazi. They were videos from mobiles. Not just mine. We made copies, went to the Egyptian border at Salloum and gave it to someone there — my cousin’s son — and he went to Matruh, where my brother was. That was the first media center of the Libyan revolution. My brother [a 31-year-old computer engineer] had this idea. On the 16th of February, he printed flyers for the protest and spread them in the streets from his car.”

*[Gamal Shallouf a marine biologist interviewed by Hauslohner]

via Liberating Libya with Laughter, Facebook and al-Jazeera – TIME

Authorities had blocked internet, mobile phone and SMS services in an attempt to disrupt planned demonstrations (Photo From EPA c/o Al Jazeera)

Like a good deal of bloggers, I haven’t commented because the situation in these countries prior was not something that I paid much attention to prior to the current political unrest. As a result, I am ignorant about the myriad of unique issues affecting each situation. The news media has decided that at least two (Tunisia and Egypt) of these stories are important and that is a good thing. Unfortunately, much of the coverage puts a lot of emphasis on what outcome is good for the US economy, corporations and consumers.

But one thing has bugged me about the coverage. In these protests social media doesn’t “lead the way”, nor are the protests part of “twitter revolutions” any more than Civil Rights movement in America was a “telephone movement”.

"Telephone Revolution"? American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968) sits on a couch and speaks on the telephone after encountering a white mob protesting against the Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, May 26, 1961. (Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

A social medium is a communication tool to be leveraged by people to increase efficiency of communication. It is not a catalyst of revolution. Calling this a “twitter revolution” is a lazy shorthand that neglects to acknowledge the purpose and will of the people who rise to protest oppressive regimes. (And yes periodicals, pamphlets, books, postal service,  and the telephony are all social media in the literal sense).

These revolutions tell us that the status quo has become untenable for a critical mass of citizens in each of these countries. We must understand: revolutionary movements can be broken and even when a country’s present regime falls at the hands of its own citizens, the regime that fills the void could create a reality that is far short of ideal.

“And Democratic Party officials enlisted in the fight by the White House acknowledged in interviews that the growing intensity of the opposition to the president’s health care plans — within the last week likened on talk radio to something out of Hitler’s Germany, lampooned by protesters at Congressional town-hall-style meetings and vilified in television commercials — had caught them off guard and forced them to begin an August counteroffensive.”

via “We were a little surprised” | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/11/2009 [c/o Susie Madrak of CrooksAndLiars.com].

Many folks left of center are handwringing about Obama’s Administration “over learning” from the Clinton White House mistakes. Those on the right are gleefully happy that Obama had let the debate be pulled into, what they feel, is a leftist ideas graveyard by the “evil” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the wicked Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). Now this may be the new theme: the insurance industry and drug companies end around lobbying has fooled poor naive Obama and his hapless administration.

I doubt the genuineness of this surprise expressed by an official in the President’s White House or rather that the entire team is stunned. Rather, I think the Obama White House is letting the crazies open their mouths and prove their craziness. Obama likes to draw out the over aggressive. Let them ramble, anounce and bluster. Obama believes the arrogant big mouths and short sighted ideologues will always state their positions with absolute certainty of a “you always” accusation and “I never” virtue, all the while draping themselves with political tethers.

Far right ideologues lament the coming socialist state and that he must be stopped. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says things like Obama’s health care bill, which doesn’t exist, will use a “Death Panel” to determine that toddlers with Down Syndrome must die, immediately. The Media, for once, brushed her aside. Even then, the media fails to expose the simultaneous silliness and cynicism of Palin’s dog whistle attacks. While she says Obama-care will kill your less than A+ kids, at the time of her resignation, Alaska was actually the worst in the nation at administering health care for the elderly and those with disabilities:

State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life — taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom — are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.
The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements.

No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
via Troubled Alaska health programs face federal restriction | Anchorage Daily News | LISA DEMER

The town hall screamers, mostly just a bunch of angry old folks, many of them jump right on past health care issues and attack Obama’s legitimacy. What about these new 15 minute fame flames, the town hall screamers? One requested that her GOP congressman keep “government hands off” off her Medicare. Another, while being allowed in front of Specter to speak said Specter was denying them the right to speak. Another asserted that he was sure, the IRS under Obama care will collect data from all citizens on behalf of said government (as if the Bush administration didn’t already authorize and do that when they rolled up Carnivore into the big brother bill to watch us all, the Patriot Act).

The Michael Steele’s and Dick Armey’s of the world see this fervor and these quotes and they probably think: let’s throw some party and lobbyist resources at these folks and encourage more people to show up at town halls and be mad as hell for no reason under the sun. More wood on the fire. And I think Obama is fine with that. Beltway GOP congressmen assert that Obama has gone too far and the American people are all happy with their healthcare because they see 15 Pennsylvanians from a conservative small rural town of Lebanon taking their turns screaming at Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA).

The more the crazies talk, and throw out specific, yet false statements about the direction health care is going, the easier it is for Democrats to defend the abstract legislative process that is actually taking place. Obama aww shucks these anecdotal diatribes and uses these sound bite screeds as a straw man in his health care town halls and interviews. Without any serious and principled opposition or alternative from the GOP, the Democrats in the Senate do have cover to get whatever they can pass in the senate and then get it to Obama’s desk.

I doubt the White House is surprised. In 1994, a bill couldn’t even get out of either House of Congress. Today, Pelosi was able to do what then Speaker Dick Gephardt couldn’t and the White House is essentially waiting for Senate Finance Committee to deliver a version that is palpable to blue dogs so that everything can be voted on, negotiated in conference committee and delivered to Obama’s desk. Many lefties, including me in some aspects are not 100% pleased with the process, but that’s how democracy is. Even then, this is a reform start:

Many people, including Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias and Kevin Drum, think these bills do some of the most important things of all in fixing the American health insurance system. Namely, they ensure that every insurance plan has to accept everyone at the same premiums regardless of prior health, that you can’t be kicked out of a plan for getting sick (or old, or anything), and that you can’t have a lifetime cap on payments. Universal community rating is probably the single most important reform of all, as it removes private insurers’ perverse incentives to make money by denying coverage to sick people.

via Matt Steinglass – Accumulating Peripherals – That slope just ain’t very slippery – True/Slant.

It don’t think its gonna be universal or single payer, but there will be some base improvements. 2009 is not 1994.

Good luck to those in Iran who have and will struggle for their human rights..

Kerman, Iran. H/T The Daily Dish

From the YouTube user who originally posted the video:

The murder of a young Iranian woman by Basij on the streets of Tehran.
“At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart.
I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St.
The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.”

Crook’s and Liars posts the following Facebook comment:

Facebook, Faranak Zarrinabadi at 6:18pm June 20 – Khameneie!You called yourself,the father of all orphans of Iran-Iraq war,but here you made a father witness the martyrdom of his daughter,in minutes,in his arms.You took away a mans,but Iran’s daughter.He didnt believe it at first,saying:Neda,dont be afraid,dont be afraid..then when blood covered her face,he came to and cried:Neda,stay..Neda,stay….The doctor who was there was helpless as the shot was in the chest.My dear Neda,you are now loved by all more than ever,my tears are nonstop for you,but you died for Iran to be free and Im proud of you,may you rest in peace in heaven.And you Khameneie,you will certainly pay for this and definitely go to hell!

The only reason I believe this should be posted and seen is because Emmitt Till’s mother threw the casket open.

Graphic Content below.

Update:
Matthew Weaver has interview with YouTuber who posted the video above on his Audio Boo page. (Atom RSS Feed | Itunes)