Twitter is Over Capacity - Could it be the World Cup?

I am trying to do some professional twittering and the service is over capacity. In a way, I think the World Cup and Twitter and both symptoms of the information revolution. The monopoly of data is broken. We can no longer have what we know and watch dictated by a small group of white, male editors. The freedom YouTube is that anybody with a small, cheap camera can publish a message internationally at no cost. And once that is done, there is no way to stop the message. And that is power.

That kind of power has always existed. The difference in the information revolution is that power has shifted downward to everybody in the world with access to the Internet and digital cameras. Granted, it's not everybody. Yet. But it will be, eventually.

The World Cup is finally getting some notice by Americans. I credit that to our increased connection to the rest of the world through the Internet. Twitter is overloaded with tweets, I'm guessing, from World Cup followers and fans. Twitter has enabled immediate information dissemination of the one event that interests most people in the world. There is no way to control that message.

Now President Obama has authorized a cut off switch for the Internet in the event of a cyber attack. I see where he's coming from. A well-aimed cyber attack would seriously hurt our economy. Remember, the aim of the 9-11 hijackers was to take out the American economy. It is American economic power that the terrorists target.

But what if there wasn't a terrorist attack? Or there was one and, out of fear, the Administration didn't open the Internet back up again? How would we keep our journalists honest? Who among us believes in the integrity of corporate journalism when The National Enquirer is a serious contender for a Pulitzer prize? Not me.

International Financial Meltdown

Are you depressed yet? Do you somehow think that these stopgap measures are going to solve the essential problem facing international markets? It won't.

The essential problem is a lack of trust in the value of securities. That failure of trust is based on the perception of corruption in those markets. It is also based on the perception that securities markets have been flying too high with these weird new financial instruments that no one can understand.

All of Wall Street has been on a money drunk. Now comes the hangover.

Let's Hunt Them Down ...

Who are these losers who are handing the United States and its allies these financial disasters? Who invented these new types of securities?

Let's hunt them down and take every penny they have. And all their houses, even if they don't know how many of them there are.

With the rescue of our allies in this affair, the political cover enjoyed by these nameless financial elites will be ripped apart. Europe and Japan will want blood.

And they will get it.

Obama the Statesman

Senator Barak Obama is appearing to be a better diplomat and representative of the United States than the current President. He looks Presidential, other foreign leaders obviously like him, he draws huge crowds.

George Bush is put to shame by the comparison with Barak Obama on international junkets. No one would ever dream that Barak Obama would wink at the Queen of England. Nor would we imagine the Senator telling the Pope his speech was "awesome."

In short, Senator Barak Obama has shown the United States what it means to be proud of the deportment of a President. Or potential President. Until this trip I didn't really take the fervid enthusiasm for Senator Obama too seriously. Now he has shown he really could do the job, and almost looks like he's starting doing it already.

Our National Discourse on Terrorism

Here's a great YouTube clip. Sad but funny.

From Russia: Commentary on U.S. Foreign Policy

Econo-Girl almost choked when she read Pravda today. Talk about another view of current events.

The front page of Pravda mentioned the "murder" of two of Saddam Hussein's "associates." Not execution, mind you. Murder.

There is a section called "What is on George Bush's mind today?" The publishers of Pravda must not have a very good opinion of George Bush's mind, since they haven't posted an article there for eight months. Previous to that, they posted an article once a month. Do your own analysis.

But the most interesting tidbit is the April opinion piece on U.S. interventionism. "USA: Caring or Interfering?" Listen to their perspective.

"[T]he haste to jump into the Balkans when had the USA and the European Union left things to evolve on their own, controlled by those who understood the local social and ethnic fabric, the horrors perpetrated by Croats, Muslims and Serbs would have been at worst limited and easier to control."

WHAT!?!?! It was a directed genocide. And listen to this description of Slobodan Milosevic:

"[T]he fact is that all Slobodan Milosevic was doing was to rid his country of the scourge of Islamist terrorism, namely the KLA. Curiously, as Washington had sided with Bin Laden, it also wined and dined the KLA leadership on Capitol Hill."

Now Econo-Girl is aware that Pravda specializes in revisionist history. And there will be those among her intrepid readership who will mock her shock. But part of her mission is to offer differing perspectives to the American mind. And yes, I have very few readers. But you are one of them!

Brown vs. Blair on Terror and Iraq

Tony Blair has made Britain's alliance with the United States the hallmark of his foreign policy to a dizzying extent. In lockstep, you might say.

Blair's successor, Mr. Brown, has promised to change that approach.

Rather than increasing the number of troops in Iraq, Mr. Brown has promised to reduce them "by thousands." What this signals is not only a break with Tony Blair, but a distancing from Washington.

In Econo-Girl's opinion, it's about time.

How has it been to Britain's advantage to be so close to the U.S.? What did Tony Blair think they were getting out of it? It really is unclear.

The distance Mr. Brown proposes also comments on President Bush's leadership in Iraq and the war on terror in general. Not very favorable comments, that is. What Mr. Brown is saying is Mr. Bush's strategy has not worked. He is saying the world can expect different things from Britain in the near future.

Econo-girl eagerly awaits.

South African Perspective on News

http://www.mg.co.za/
The Mail and Guardian Online is an exclusively online paper published in South Africa. It is fun and won't have Iraq on the front page at all.

Great cultural perspective. I mean, there's a whole section of the site dedicated to "The Selebi Saga." What is that, for God's sake? Americans don't even know. It's interesting to see how people on the other side of the world are just as gossip-oriented as we are, but about different things. It will have news stories not found in the U.S. For example, look at this:

"Gaza doctors say patients suffering mystery injuries Doctors in Gaza have reported previously unseen injuries from Israeli weapons that cause severe burning and leave deep internal wounds, often resulting in amputations or death. The injuries were first seen in July, when Israel launched operations in Gaza following the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants."

Have you seen anything like this in U.S. papers? No.

Check out The Week In Pictures. And what paper in the world has a section for only good news? And yes, only good, positive news is reported there.

The sports coverage isn't even remotely familiar, but still fun.