Freedom Flyers (updated)

Blogging is not the only space left for the non-corporate-filtered exchange of ideas in America — no, siree — there are still coffee houses, dinner tables, and utility poles. Yes, utility poles.

True Majority has provided a link to a well-organized, well-researched set of flyers. Each flyer addresses a specific issue (the occupation of Iraq, education, debt, young Americans, etc.) and lists facts relating to the particular issue that reflect the state of America under the watch and command of the Bush Corporation (a.k.a., "Administration"). These flyers, which are not narrowly identified with a single party or candidate, will help inform citizens or, at the very least, spark debate on the state of the Union. People need a fact-based antidote to the deceptive, media-packaged portrait of a happy nation being ushered to social and economic progress by a strong, benevolent leader.

Via Bush Campaign Lies, I note that the Nation has created a single-page listing of 100 reasons why Bush should be voted out of the position that five judges appointed him to against the express will of a majority of voters in America (talk about "judicial activism," Jesus Christ!).

The American Priorities Project has assembled an equally thorough set of fact sheets, which cover numerous issues and can be used for the same purposes of increasing public awareness. A word of caution: I would advise anyone reading these first to sit down in a stable chair and remove hot liquids and other potentially harmful objects from one's personal space. Forget the silly charges of "pessimism" that the politicians lob at one another; for millions of Americans, life is punishing and cruel. One needn't be pessimistic to recognize that fact. Seeing the evidence of it, however, can be shocking and, indeed, saddening.

Finally, via Steve Bates, this Sierra Club fact sheet contrasts the environmental records of Bush and Kerry. This would supplement well the above postings.

Bloggers, friends, unpaid intellectuals, and all those whose eyes have landed upon these words, I encourage you to download these flyers and take them out into the wide world outside the blogosphere, display them, distribute them, and make them into paper airplanes to be darted into the windows of slowed cars. (Well, maybe just stick to conventional displaying and distributing.) In this crucial time, we need to free our fellow citizens from the systematic corporate disinformation, frivolity, and sloth to which so many of them are subjected everyday through their TV sets, computers, and radios.

The upcoming election will be won or lost over the weekend. Our nation's prospects are in the balance. Please step outside your cyberspace and embrace a hopeful view of life by informing your fellow citizens and encouraging them to vote.