We need Social Journalism... NOW

We need Social Journalism... NOW

We've got just a bit more grace period before the financial world implodes, and things get a lot meaner. Either we figure out means of carrying out journalism and democracy amongst ourselves with the newly minted technologies we have available, or we're all toast.

Open source software, USB storage are the keys to building and propogating a social network that can sustain the cause of Liberty in the face of powerful forces which would censor us into oblivion.

The newest bailout AIG is rumoured to have provisions to allow a firm to raid the assets of all the accounts it holds to "aid liquidity"... this is just what happened to LTV steel here in the Calumet Region, which resulted in all of the workers getting screwed out of about 1/2 of their retirement, and the loss of their health care plans. 

Is this true or not? I as a single person may not be able to find out, which is what gives the people who write these insipid little clauses later used to steal from us wiggle room to work.

My reason for bringing this up is a creeping sense of dread... one reason is that my pension has just been threatened, and I have no real means of determining the truth, other than to wait and see if I'm a victim or not.

Further along that thread is the realisation that any private assets held in the United States can be siezed under a number of guises...

• RICO - claim it was drug money, force the rightful owner to PROVE it wasn't
• Terror - claim they were supporting terrorists, throw them in jail
• Retirement - allow the holding firm to raid your pension
• US Dollars - fudge the inflation numbers and print as much as you want to spend
• Stocks - the DOW isn't keeping up with inflation
• Houses, Land - Emminent Domain

So there are a number of "legitimate" ways to take anyone out of the middle class without arousing suspicion... it's becoming increasingly clear that we'll need some way to fight back, outside the system, but within the framework of the law. We're all at risk here if we don't have some way to find the truth.

Social Journalism would seem to be our best bet.

The best way that I can think of to jump start this is to use blogs while they are still open and free to get a consensus and figure out what truely works and doesn't. We have to pick up the slack and do our own investigation and reporting, as the corporate giants buy out the last newspapers and commodify our process for finding the truth.

Edit suggestions always welcome. 

  --Mike--