Monday, July 13, 2009

Israel solidifies its control over web 2.0

Israel solidifies its control over web 2.0 « Paulitics

A while back here at Paulitics, I
discussed the campaign by the Israel lobby to pay university students
to agree with Israel in classroom discussions, university clubs and in
rallies
.


This
programme and the overwhelmingly pro-Israel North American (and, to a
lesser extent, European) media coverage were however not enough for the
powerful and extremely well organized lobby.  The Israeli lobby then
created a desktop application called “Megaphone” about which many political commentators still remain blissfully unaware.  Megaphone
serves as a syphoning tool which has the power to instantly send
pro-Israel activists flooding into any online discussion, web poll or
other forum where Israel is being discussed in order to grossly
unbalance the discussion thus creating the impression among Internet
users that Israel’s support is both much wider and deeper than it
actually is.  However, as frightening and undemocratic as these two
operations were, they pale in comparison to what the government of
Israel is doing now in terms of making “crimestop” a reality.


The Israeli press is now reporting
that, in addition to the considerable influence of the Israeli lobby,
the government of Israel has decided to marshal its state treasury to
the cause further unbalancing the already obscenely unbalanced debate
over Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.  The
government of Israel will now directly pay pro-Israeli agents and
bloggers to infiltrate online discussions, message boards, online
newspaper comments et cetera with a ubiquitously pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian message.

... read the link at the top for the rest of the post.

On Michael Moore

MICHAEL MOORE: RABBLE-ROUSER

An interesting read about the attacks on Michael Moore and his work.

The last paragraph:

I
am not making a case to support this disgruntled, angry filmmaker and
his search for the truth. You'll never hear me say the following:
"Either you are with Michael Moore or you are against us!" The fact is
I admire him more for taking a stand, for choosing to explore an issue,
even if it isn't 100% factually accurate. Michael Moore is no different
than any other journalist on any news program.
He is being attacked,
left and right, for making accusations and pointing fingers, perhaps
stretching the truth to bring forth more debate and speculation. Or
possibly the real reason he is being attacked is because the guy is so
darn successful - he is about as well-known as Spider-Man and that can
raise holy hell for the Republican Party. If the U.S. is making this
man a success, what does it mean for President Bush in regards to the
average voter come Election Day? Who knows what the President was
really thinking when he sat in the classroom for 7 minutes after being
told that America was under attack. Michael Moore doesn't know either,
he only suggests (as he did in his book Dude, Where's My Country?)
And like many of his films, his suggestions spring with humor and
emotion - as he said in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, he
interprets the facts. Michael Moore wants the country to be the America
he remembers. He'll take on anyone, right or wrong, and isn't that what
people used to take pride in - the concept of freedom of speech?

Footnote:
The newest misinterpreted fact has arisen from Michael Moore's true
birthplace - he is actually from Davison, Michigan. This is a little
affluent suburb in Flint, so I suppose he is still from Flint, isn't
he?