P E R S O N A L    A C C O U N T

E A R T H

Earth and Luna photograph, animated to show ocean surface glitter and lightning

FIRST EDITION
DECEMBER 2005

© 2005 David C. Manchester
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article (excluding Appendices not by this Author),
in any electronic media is permitted provided this
notice is preserved. Also permitted is quotation of
passages for research or critical review purposes
in any electronic media, and printing a single copy
for personal use. All other Rights Reserved.

 
This article was written as a companion for the HTML all-in-one file version of Reporter's Without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber - Dissidents, which I created on my own without explicit authorisation.  This article was neither solicited by, nor endorsed by Reporters Without Borders, and is entirely my own undertaking.  I have linked to this file from that HTML version without explicit authorisation, and bear full responsibility for having done so.
 -David C. Manchester



 

WORD




Earth and Luna photograph, animated to show ocean surface glitter and lightning

PERSONAL ACCOUNT



EARTH

The Author, 1956

FIRST EDITION
DECEMBER 2005

© 2005 David C. Manchester
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article (excluding Appendices not by this Author),
in any electronic media is permitted provided this
notice is preserved. Also permitted is quotation of
passages for research or critical review purposes
in any electronic media, and printing a single copy
for personal use. All other Rights Reserved.

This article was written as a companion for the HTML all-in-one file version of Reporter's Without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber - Dissidents, which I created on my own without explicit authorisation.  This article was neither solicited by, nor endorsed by Reporters Without Borders, and is entirely my own undertaking.  I have linked to this file from that HTML version without explicit authorisation, and bear full responsibility for having done so.
 -David C. Manchester



 


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WORD







 "Ecology of MIND"   (full internet map 18 Feb 1999)
"Ecology of MIND" ©2005 by David C. Manchester - animation base image: full internet map as of 18 Feb 1999 by Hal Church and Bill Cheswick ©1999 Lucent Technologies.
"We are called to a great new mission. It is not a mission of arbitrary power...The mission is to create a new social order, founded on liberty and justice, in which men are the masters of their fate, in which states are the servants of their citizens, and in which all men and women can share a better life for themselves and their children..."

  "We must use time as a tool, not as a couch..."

 "Partnership is not a posture but a process, a continuous process that grows stronger each year as we devote ourselves to common tasks...We seek not the worldwide victory of one nation or system, but a worldwide victory of men. The modern globe is too small, it's weapons too destructive, they multiply too fast, and it's disorders are too contagious to permit any other kind of victory."


" We ... in this generation, are - by destiny rather than choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of "peace on earth, good will toward men." That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.' " 

"Let us resolve to be the masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicion and emotion."
-John F. Kennedy, JFK - Words to Remember, p.9, 42, 48, 57, 13



 

FRONTISPIECE

Top   Contents   Expanded Contents
Personal Accounts

PERSONAL ACCOUNT - EARTH
BLOGGING AND THE EMERGENCE OF DOTCOMMUNISM

CONTENTS

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"The wheel is an extension of the foot...  The book is an extension of the eye...  The emerging global electronic mass communication system is an extension of mankind's collective central nervous system."

- H. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man


[Unzip into same dir as Blogger Handbook, or any empty dir]






CONTENTS

Top   Contents   Expanded Contents
Personal Accounts

PERSONAL ACCOUNT - EARTH
BLOGGING AND THE EMERGENCE OF DOTCOMMUNISM

E X P A N D E D   C O N T E N T S



orb_Gre_16_Reverse_dcmGPL.gif - Click to view OrbsAndHeralds.html
[Unzip into same dir as Blogger Handbook, or any empty dir]

FRONTISPIECE  - "Ecology of MIND"

WORD

I            WHAT I WANT TO SAY

II.  What I'm Saying


II.3  JOURNALISM AND THE BLOGGING REVOLUTION


II.4   HUMAN FREEDOM, INDIVIDUAL VS CORPORATE "RIGHTS"

II.5 CAPTIVE MARKETS, NATIONAL SECURITY, AND FREEDOM TO SHARE




III          WHAT I HAVE SAID

AFTERWORD
APPENDICES

APPENDIX I  

APPENDIX II  

APPENDIX III  

APPENDIX IV  
[as originally appeared on Stoned Out Loud]

APPENDIX V 
[snapshot taken 09-15-2005]

APPENDIX VI 
THE BILDERBERG GROUP
Bilderberg.org
[Excerpts from snapshot taken 9 November, 2005]

APPENDIX VII
APPENDIX VIII
By David C. Manchester
[Originally published in OsOpinion]


APPENDIX IX
[As originally appeared on Technocrat.net]


APPENDIX X
APPENDIX XI
Les Joux Sont Fait
[Originally published on OsOpinion
 as "Game Is Up for Microsoft"]

APPENDIX XII
APPENDIX XIII
APPENDIX XIV
APPENDIX XV

RELEASE NOTES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THIRTY








EXPANDED CONTENTS

Top   Contents   Expanded Contents
Personal Accounts

PERSONAL ACCOUNT - EARTH
BLOGGING AND THE EMERGENCE OF DOTCOMMUNISM
Word.


"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it."
- Mohandas Gandhi


This article is a mixed bag.

When I started writing it, I had the idea of adding my own "Personal Account" article to the HTML version of Reporter's Without Borders' "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents."  Since I created this version without explicit authorisation from Reportieres Sans Frontieres, I thought I would write to them and get their permission to link to it from the HTML version's Table of Contents.  It would be a separate file, with a disclaimer prominently displayed, that it was my own, independent doing, that they had not asked me to do it, and that it in no way should be construed to be blessed in any way by them.

Then I started writing it in earnest.  As work progressed, it got bigger.  It engulfed more and more subjects, and I realised it had to, to be an honest and truthful Personal Accounting of my work online, and in journalism, and it's intersection and interrelation to Blogging. Due to the accidental history of my Person, crossed with the coverage of censorship, blogging, internet filtering, online privacy, Human Rights, and government suppression of Free Speech, I was simply unable to encapsulate what I had to say in the shorter format of the other Personal Account articles.

To give my own Personal Account, it would be necessary to go into some subjects I would have rather avoided.  I had just spent about 6 or 7 weeks nonstop to get the HTML Handbook together to my basic satisfaction, I had already begun the process of releasing it, and just wanted to add a short blurb, maybe get a bit of attention from someone who could give me a paying job.

Maybe it was, as my Friend Chris would put it, an attack of "acute rectal verbosis."  Maybe.  But it couldn't be helped.  To say what needed to be said, I had no choice but to discuss those parts of my background and experience which relate to the subject matter.  Because I wanted to offer something beyond a simple article, and felt there was something within me worth sharing - and those things were immediately relevant to those living under repressive regimes.

Repressive regimes come in many forms.  There is a secret government in the United States.  This is not news to those who make it their business - Citizens - who research and study it.  And to buck their secret system of checks and balances, to openly confront this insidious corporate hydra, is to risk much.  I'm not talking about having a career destroyed.  I'm talking about having one prevented.  (Or cut short.)

The Bush Doctrine of Preventive War, however much one may agree or disagree about it, is actually an extension, a continuation of a long standing policy of the secret government - that of marginalising would-be journalists, whistleblowers, and everyday Citizens because this secret elite perceives a threat in their open espousal of democratic principles and the Bill of Rights, particularly the First and Fourth Amendments.  If they can't silence You, they'll marginalise You, in any way possible, starting with economically.  If that doesn't work, they'll sabotage Your reputation.  If that doesn't work, the process escalates.  Finally, when nothing else works, they'll assassinate You.

I have no proof.  What is "proof" ?  I have no power.  What is "power" ?  I have no assets.  What are "assets" ?  I have no job.  What is a "job" ?

What I do have is life.  What I do have is skill.  What I do have is experience.  And what I do have is patience.  Robert Heinlein said in one of his books, "When handling a stinging insect, move very slowly..." 

I have done so.  For 31 years. I am now 50 years old.  If I am ever to have any kind of life for myself and those around me that is worth living, I must now speak and tell this particular story.

Because of my love of my country, and real concern for the safety of it's Citizens, some of whom work for federal agencies charged with protecting us from threats, I have been silent on these subjects all this time.  Apart from an occasional posting or passing reference in forums or publications with a limited or specialised audience, I have kept relatively quiet.  I want to be discrete.  I do not want to rock the boat we are in.  But I am beginning to see that it is not the boat the bulk of Americans want to see. But just because a piece of news, or a policy of government may not be pleasant to behold, does not make it go away.  Most Americans, like People everywhere, just want to live their lives and be left alone to do it.  They don't want to get involved.  They see the government as a lost cause, and only complain loudly when government does something which hurts them or their businesses. They complain but are too busy with just making a living to devote any time or attention to the issues that bother them to become actively engaged in fixing them.

So we are not in the boat we think we're in.  We have seen only what we want to see, and have turned our eyes and minds away from difficult issues of governance, and the erosion of Individual Rights.  To acknowledge them would demand we do something about it.  Out of sight, out of mind.

 No, it is a very different boat, with very different captains.  This can not continue if we, the Human Species, are ever to have any hope of establishing a truly civil society that respects Individual and Human Rights.

Because of my silence on these issues despite being a marginalised unofficial UnPerson, I must have made some strange impressions on others over the years.  Sorry.  I had no choice in the matter.  I hope after reading this account that my writing, productions, or actions which may have seemed odd at the time now make a little more sense.  If not, no matter.  I was only trying to do what I felt I had to to serve the truth, my country, and it's ideals.  To thine own Self be true.

Yet to certain audiences, I have not been silent at all.  I have been screaming bloody-murder at the top of my lungs.  Because it was me who was being murdered.  It was the very Life with which I was endowed by my Creator that was being murdered.  A life, and an entitlement to it, the protection of which is used as justification in the very founding documents of this republic, my country, that was being murdered.  This was done in the name of "national security."  Somehow the "representative" got subtracted out of "representative republic."  I have no true representation in this political system which has my country in its grip. 

This introduction  has turned into an apologia and it's too damn long.  I'll wrap it up.

Over the years since roughly the early 1990's, I have on occasion sought to communicate very specific messages to those hidden audiences through my writing and other endeavours.  My ability to do this depended on self-assumed protective coloration using certain code keys: puns.

This personal account presents the key that those certain audiences had all along,  which I hope may unlock my psychological invisibility to the rest of the Human Community.  I don't like being invisible.  It's lonely.  I don't like being treated like I am not in the presence of others when I am in the presence of others, at work, at college, or in a social gathering.  This is only natural.  We all have a need to be recognised in group settings.

On the other hand, sometimes, when it comes to some issues, it can be better to be just a face in the crowd.  But basic Human Rights and Dignity are not among those issues.  The freedom to cooperate - on which our civilisation is predicated, and to share with others is not among those issues; neither is the basic need to produce on a level competitive playing field in business and commerce, professionally, among those issues.  No, it is normal for a well adjusted and self directed, responsible member of a Civil society to have a motivation to earn, and enjoy whatever respect of their peers their character and actions merit.  Man is a social creature, and I am a man. 

Man is that creature whose survival depends on his mind.  It is our special gift.  Our mind is working all the time.  It never stops.  This is why Buddhism, Zen, meditation, and contemplation are such difficult disciplines to practise to mastery for many People.  It requires being still, patience, and to some degree, solitude.  The endless chatter of the mind, the boundless, endlessly interconnecting dance of our thoughts is naturally resistant to initial efforts to still them.  And most People don't have the patience to keep trying.  We are driven to get to the "next" moment so strongly, seeking a different now than the one we have before us always. We feel, ironically, that there just isn't "time" to be still enough to just perceive.  Why not just Be here, now?  Silly of us.  Yet tragic at the same time.

I am simply a single Individual Citizen, without a pot to piss in, sounding off like so many other cranks in that wasteland we call the web.  I am simply exercising my First Amendment Right to Free Speech.  I didn't write this to make money.  It would be nice, but would be a side issue.  I wrote this to tell a message I carry, which I deeply feel is my obligation before God and my countrymen to deliver.  It is a message that has been sealed up, safe and sound, for many years.  I hope whatever real relevance it may have can be understood, and applied in a way that can help the world find it's way out of some of the messes we are in.  How can such a message be for sale?

So this is a mixed bag.  Part of it is journalism.  Part of it is analysis.  Part of it is biography.  Part of it is history.  Part of it is speculation. Part of it is testimonial.  And part of it is opinion.

I trust the reader to discern which is which.  Do You?

Dave Manchester
December 7, 2005


Word.
Top   Contents   Expanded Contents
Personal Accounts

my own "personal account"

P E R S O N A L    A C C O U N T

EARTH



“It's the blogs that will take us to the next level.”

By David C. Manchester

The WALL

Today is Tuesday, 2 November 2005, and it has been a beautiful sunny autumn day where I live in southeastern Connecticut.  I was up all night putting the final touches on the html version of Reporters Without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, having spent the last 6 weeks of 20 hour days working on it, and wanted to share some thoughts that have been simmering in the back of my mind in that time.

There are 3 parts to this article.
I.     What I Want to Say
II.    What I'm Saying
III.   What I Said
 
PERSONAL ACCOUNT - EARTH
Top   Contents   Expanded Contents
Personal Accounts


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I.  What I Want to Say


  In this article I want to talk a little about my own experience with governments, the military and national security state, journalism, the internet and blogging.  I'll go into some detail about this experience to lay a foundation for the rest of the discussion, but I promise I'll try to keep it on the subject and germane to the points made later in this article.  Much, of necessity, is left out.  I do not want to bore anyone with unnecessary personal details - the subjects discussed here are much too important.  Nevertheless, it is out of respect for Your opinion that I lay out these details at some length to show that I have some legitimate reasons for the opinions and analyses which follow from that experience.  That being said, be cautioned that some of the material dealing with journalism and national security from my experience reads like something one might find in alt.fantastic.literature rather than real life.  It is, nevertheless, the truth, and it would be remiss to leave it out.

 I'd also like to share my perspective on some social issues that the blogging revolution is bringing to the world, and what this means, to me, to the development of civil societies in which the Individual is free and in which governments serve the function of ensuring that it remains so.

I'll also touch upon Press Freedom, it's relation to blogging (I made a couple of charts), and review the proper role of the Fourth Estate in healthy civil democratic societies and cultures.

 The current, traditional political and legal status corporations hold under existing governments in many instances result in suppressing and destroying the rights of the individual. Since the Reagan administration the policies of American government have tended to peonise the middle class and enrich fewer and fewer large corporate concentrations of money and power, while tightening their grip on increasingly captive markets globally. I personally hope these things can be fixed, and will share some perspectives on this.  This concerns the nature of trade, and money, and the relation of the individual to the state and to corporations.

And finally, I'll share some ideas about technological change, the broadcast spectrum, ownership, and community.  And what I think we need to do right now and in the immediate future to reform our governments, the corporations' relation to them, and to individuals.  I'll also sketch out a tactic that would be possible to use as a very last resort to precipitate such reforms as are necessary for protecting free expression and personal privacy, as well as some cautions should such a tactic be widely used.


WHAT I WANT TO SAY
Top   Contents   Expanded Contents
Personal Accounts
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II.  What I'm Saying
II.1 MY OWN EXPERIENCE

     MILITARY,  JOURNALISM, AND NATIONAL SECURITY STATES
AFEES DOPPLEGANGER
Journalism versus Public Relations versus Public Affairs
GI BLUES - COMMAND HARASSMENT
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
SMEAR - HE DON'T LOVE YOU (LIKE I LOVE YOU)
HANDICAP AND PUNISH - UNDER MY THUMB
WESTERN UNION MAN
ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME - NO BAND
THEIR PLAN FOR MY REHABILITATION
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME - CHANGING CAREERS
VISIT WITH LENCHEK - NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD
CNSS, EPOC, and AFSCME
"HEARD BUT NOT SEEN" - Senator Aborezk
ON THE RADIO - NPR INTERVIEW WITH TED Clark
Understanding McLuhan - Extensions of Me
    NATIONAL SECURITY AND JOURNALISM
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SELECTED INTELLIGENCE ABUSES
THE CHURCH COMMITTEE
Information, Misinformation, Disinformation, and Reinformation
Music in the Background
OVERTURE:  Death of a Conservative Turned Liberal
REPRISE:  YipYipYipYip - BANG!  No More Terrier
    CODA:  Outline of the "Music" Tactic
ASSEMBLING A BAND - STRICTLY PICK-UPS
WHAT WAS STEVE KANGAS GOING TO WRITE NEXT?
Public Information from Ray Charles
DOMESTIC POLITICAL ASSASSINATION:
"It can happen to You...It can happen to me...
...It can happen to everyone eventually" - Yes

    REAL INTELLIGENCE IS NEEDED

II.2 THE INTERNET
Background image from june4.org petition site - Click to visit pre-done archive.org search at http://june4org.tripod.com/
CHINA, TIANANMEN, AND DEMOCRACY
LIFE AND DEATH IN SHANGHAI - LEARNING ABOUT CHINA
TIANANMEN
JUNE4.ORG
Applied Truth-Telling 101 - Shaping the News
The Democracy Wall
Blogging as a form of Self-Defense
Stoned Out Loud
SLOUCHING TOWARD HOLLYWOOD
II.3  JOURNALISM AND THE BLOGGING REVOLUTION
INFORM THE PUBLIC - CHECK UNBRIDLED POWER
HONEST MISTAKES - "ABSENCE OF MALICE"
CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES

PRESS FREEDOM AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
PRESS FREEDOM AND BLOGGING:  TRADITIONAL PERCEPTIONS
 How do You feel about Blogging, and the Press?
BLOGS AND PRESS FREEDOM - CASE 1
 BLOGS AND PRESS FREEDOM -CASE 2
BLOGS AND PRESS FREEDOM - CASE 3
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JOURNALISM AND BLOGGING
THE EDITORIAL PROCESS
BLOGOSPHERIC JOURNALISM: FEEDBACK BECOMES FEEDFORWARD
THE FOURTH ESTATE IS BROKEN - TWO EXAMPLES
LOVE TRAIN - THE MUSIC THAT IS US

II.4   HUMAN FREEDOM, INDIVIDUAL VS CORPORATE "RIGHTS"
HUMAN FREEDOM: INDIVIDUAL VS CORPORATE "RIGHTS"
ACCELERATING TECHNICAL PROGRESS
WORKIN' FOR THE MAN EVERY NIGHT AND DAY...
ASCENDANT CORPORATE RIGHTS OVER REAL INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
MONEY:  ANYTHING YOU SAY MAY BE USED AGAINST YOU
IN A COURT OF LAW, OR JOB INTERVIEW
WAKE UP, STAND UP


II.5 CAPTIVE MARKETS, NATIONAL SECURITY, AND FREEDOM TO SHARE
MAN VS. THE STATE IS NOW MAN VS. THE  WTO
HARMONIES AND DISCORD - ASSUMING PROTECTIVE COLORATION

THE 80'S: PSUDOMUSICIAN LEARNS THE ROPES
GOING DOWN HOME
HARD LUCK STORY
I GOTTA WOMAN ('WAY OVER TOWN)
BREAK UP TO MAKE UP
NEW KID IN TOWN
AINT THAT A SHAME
QUEENSREICH - AN INSTITUTION UNTO ITSELF
MUSICAL CHAIRS - ALUMNI & STUDENT RECORDS
ALPHA-BRAVO-MAGIC-NUMBERS
INSTITUTIONAL REFORM: JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
TROUBLE - RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY: "BECKY"
I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH - "There's Something Happenin' Here..."
SMILING FACES GET "THE LETTER"
IT AIN'T ME, BABE
NO ONE EVER IS TO BLAME
JUDY'S TURN TO CRY
PARANOID
AMAZING GRACE - THE WIND CRIES MARY
PORGIE TIREBITER - Just A Student Like You
YOU DON'T KNOW ME
EMOTIONAL RESCUE
BOBBY
GOIN' UP THE COUNTRY
A FOOL IN THE RAIN -The Last Straw With "Becky"
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS
FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND - COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN
BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED MUDDY WATERS
CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC
HIT THE ROAD, MAG
              
notes on the law
SPECIFIC INVESTIGATION OF "MUSIC PROJECT"  NEEDED
PERMANENTLY REVOKE EXECUTIVE ENTITLEMENT TO REDACT
PERMANENTLY RESTRICT LEGAL STATUS "PERSON" TO PERSONS
REDEFINE AND REFORM CLASSIFICATION
AND RELEASE OF INTELLIGENCE
INSTITUTE INFORMED CONSENT AS A STANDARD
GIVE TO THE PEOPLE
INFORMED CONSENT RE INTELLIGENCE
RECOGNISE BLOGGERS AS
LEGITIMATE PRESS ORGANS UNDER THE LAW
ACCORD TO THE PEOPLE THE RIGHT
TO INFORMATION UNDER THE LAW
DO NOT DELAY THESE NECESSARY REFORMS
NURTURE THE BLOGOSPHERE -
IT IS LIBERTY'S NEW FOUNDATIONS
MUSIC HATH CHARMS
TO SOOTH THE SAVAGE ELECTORATE