It is true there is a maddening sameness in this country, but there are fortunately still some choices. There is satellite radio where you don't have to listen to Limbaugh (his popularity underscores why there is so much ignorance, bigotry and hatred in this country), but instead tune to popular classical music or music of the 40's, 50's or 60's. As to fast food restaurants, they're everywhere, of course, but you don't have to patronize them. Just ask some of the locals where you can get a good cup of soup and a sandwich and they know where. You can also discriminate as to what movies to watch. Subscribe to Netflix and you have a choice of 10,000 of them. As to the daily hum-drum of politics and cable news, turn off your TV and surf the net. There's some great sites for good reading, Common Dreams being one of them.

Stay home, plant a garden, put up bird houses and bird feeders. Have backyard barbeques and invite the neighbors to bring something and join you. Leave the tv and radio unplugged, and learn to listen instead to the happy sound of children playing, the birds singing, and the conversations going on around you. Create your own new reality. You'll soon wonder why you bothered about all that other crap for so long.

I don't do any of the things the author mentions in his article! We don't "have to" go along to get along - we can use our own brains, our own creativity - what troubles me is how difficult it is to get things going with other like-minded people, particularly politically.

The dilemma lies in profits. Once product has been standardized, it then follows that the next frontier is to standardize distribution outlets. Now that distribution outlets have reached near complete standardization, the only way to increase profits will be to limit shelf-space to fewer varieties of standardized products.
Hence the "news."

How rich - He goes around selling the same book in bookstores that all look the same and sell the same books...

But somehow the movies bother him?

Wouldn't he be in a better place to harange the bookstores?

Why don't you stay home and post on Common Dreams?

What I really enjoy is the abandoned Walmarts, shopping centers and small shops while the cranes are slapping up even worse buildings to put new Walmarts and grocery stores farther away from any people.

Remember, Sirota is a fully supportive member of the Democratic Party. Thus, one way to read this is as saying 'yes, we know the national Democrats are a bunch of completely sold out and corrupt fools who screw you at every turn. But ignore this and stay a Democrat and focus on local issues.'

For me, I've always like Jefferson's idea that power is best kept local. And its bordering and just saying the obvious that we should all pay attention to local politics and issues.

But, one thing that's happened more and more over the last 20 or 30 years is that federal policies trump local and state policies. We seen this in the trade deals the Democrats passed like NAFTA and WTO, where local governments get sued for doing anything that smacks of saying that they should support local businesses or not trade with awful authoritarian regimes like Burma or try to pass stricter environmental standards.

We've seen it where more and more the federal government makes rules and laws that over-ride any progressive federal or state laws we might get passsed.

Sure, you can go completely local and just focus on your own little plot of land. And that works until the bigger world comes crashing in on you. The opening of Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy is the perfect parody of theat.

And sure, you can focus on your city council and get a cool little progressive resolution passed. But then don't be surprised when the city gets sued under NAFTA or WTO or if the feds come marching in and say that their policy rules.

And basically, this is just a sop piece from a Democrat trying to deflect attention from the very basic fact that the Democratic Party sucks and does not represent us.

Come to Camden, New Jersey. The chains are afraid to set foot here, so everything is local: the gas stations, the restaurants (there's one McDonald's), even the supermarket.

That's using to our advantage the fact that we've been the poorest and most dangerous city in the nation. Call it the Camden Advantage.

Another great thing--one of the co-authors of "Jesus for President" lives here. http://www.jesusforpresident.org/ If you're reading this blog, you'll probably love the book.

Oh my God, all of our posts are starting to look the same. Even the words in these sentences look familiar. Shit, I've been posting the same message all day!

Seriously, I really appreciate Sirota's advice that we should sometimes focus on local and state issues. Try as we might (and rightly so)to bring Bush to his knees

....continued

it ain't worked. With a little orgainization, we can and many do affect change at the local level.

Samson: You are right that, "The national Democrats are a bunch of completely sold out and corrupt fools who screw you at every turn", but if you have read Sirota's posts before you would know that Sirota is not a fully supportive member of the Democratic Party. I would say he is actually one of the more critical voices in the party against the faults the party has that you describe.

Hello???

What Sirota is really saying is the passage of the FISA "revise" has now enabled more than the surveillance of you by government officials on an electronic level, now when you wear that T-shirt of dissension to the local Walle-mart, one of their store greeter/snitches will inform the local police stores, which will then monitor: your daily movements, your telephone, your computer usage, your visitors and talk to your neighbors. Then they will come in your home while you are not there and search it. Then, at 2:30 in the morning, just after you have gotten your six month old cholicy infant to sleep, the DHS, the FBI, the DEA, the AFT, the local sheriff and your next door neighbor will arrest you and rendition you to...?

That's right your neighbor. He "thought" he smelled ganja burning and it was coming from your backyard. Or, maybe, you had a New Year's eve party 12 years ago and didn't invite him. Or that local politician was resentful because you didn't let him stick his sign into your dichondra lawn.

Oh well... you have nothing to fear, you've done nothing wrong. You are sure they will recognize their error and release you within six or seven years.

HARHARHAR.

If DS was serious, he would have chosen an independent film over Hanschlock and a local eatery for his dinner. Apparently, he doesn't realize he's been hypnotized like most, albeit maybe less so...

Also:

"Section 9; Article 1; U.S. Constitution: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

I guess I agree with what Sirota and the people who already posted have said about how concentrating on local government would be better....however, I feel that power has been so federalized and concentrated (whether in actuality or just through the force of commonly-held belief), that local government isn't being paid attention to because it is essentially a joke. It doesn't seem that local governments deal with much more than zoning issues or funding, etc. I recently read a MSM story online which was about all the hysteria that resulted when some kids cleared a vacant lot in Conn. and built a wiffle-ball field. People were threatening to sue, there were zoning-laws, insurance concerns, etc. etc. etc. When the hell did we allow our lives to be so parsed down and regulated? One thing that struck me about travelling outside the US to the "developing world," was that this over-regulation seemed to not exist (ex: renting a motorbike in Thailand...didn't have to show a license, take out temporary insurance, be over 25 years old, etc. etc. etc......whereas here, you would no-doubt have to go through a ton of rigamarole).

The other problem with local control that I don't hear people mentioning is that what happens in these wack-o right-wing/super-religious communities in the south and west and midwest when they have all this local control and begin violating the rights of minorities, homosexuals, etc. since there will be few progressive voices to oppose them in those communities? For example, if local control was how we did things in the US, then we'd probably still have segregation, teaching of creationism, etc. in many communities down south (not that we don't, effectively).

Personally, I blame Ralph Nader for all this. Isn't he the one who made us think of ourselves as consumers rather than citizens?

If we repeal the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution, then everything will suddenly become "local" and globalization is dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Clause

It's all Taco Bell now.

And no - Nder didn't cause you to think of yourself as a mere consumer. He alerted you to the new reality caused by other institutions - he didn't create it. sheesh.

I have spent most of the last 25 years travelling around the US and have watched first hand the homogenization of this country. When I started there really were no ATM's, 24 hour gas in most places, cell phones and a likable unfamiliarity as I passed through regions. Fastfood was there but not as prevelent and sometimes welcomed.

As time had past, upon returning to the places previously visited, the change became obvious and as Mr Sirota has described. Strip malls replaced by indoor malls replaced by mega malls. Most of the friendly little stores and resturants vanishing. Some are still there, saved by the few locals not taken by this commercial homogenization, that's usually where you'll find me.

Unfortunately so many are gone, that one has little choice but to head to the Wal Mart in many places (out side of town). And downtown, the boarded up doors of an ancient Woolworths. I wonder, when they came to town, who did they push out?

Walk the streets and you see the youth plugged in to their cell phones, talking, texting, listening to pirated mp3's or just pretending. But these things have a way of balancing out over time. The rebellious nature of youth will eventually push back. Get to know them, and get to know your own place, find those local treasures. Pay a little more to keep them in buisness so the young people can experience that feeling of local flavor. I little taste of that honey will best explain why the corporate machine must be reigned in. Only then can those ideals of community regain control.

I disagree with the author's glass-half-empty premise that there are no alternatives to the homogeny he's painted. Yes it's possible to find the corporate retail zone in any American town if that's what you're looking for. But those same towns also offer up uniqueness to all who are open to it.

There's no end of media resources to help in the search. For example, just browse Chowhound or watch any travel-oriented FoodTV show for dining ideas when traveling. And within larger cities, read neighborhood blogs to find out what's really happening. Wherever I've travelled, it's been easy to find very local business where one can still meet the owner.

DogLeg, I presume you meant Article.I.Section.9., clause 3. If this indeed meant a damn thing why did it take the Supremes to restore Clause 2 of the same Article and Section, you know, the 'Great Writ'?
Skytouch, you may prefer the moving of the keys to 'browse', I like the moving of the legs whenever I'm in Europe. Take a walk, take a load off and take a very long, decidedly European norm of enjoying the food and taking your time.
I'd say hegemony not homogeny, the homogeny is true and McMansion's have been built ev-er-E-where?, if not for the Murderer and his penchant for political hegemony and being a War ?president? without any knowledge of the simpelist of strategy like not going to "War" absent a Declaration of War, deceiving the citizenry into Illegally Invading a Sovereign nation and becoming foreign Occupiers of said Nation this thread would be non-existant.

Skytouch, sometimes "glass is half full" doesn't work. While localists are working on localism, globalists are working on globalism, hierarchy, hegemony and predation, leveraging the power of the US government and others, in direct conflict with the charters of those governments. While the world may only be half broken by the claw of global capitalism, we're don't want to wait until it is fully broken to correct it.

Wal-Mart and its peers aren't directly responsible for public enslavement to the most expensive military misadventure in the history of the planet but they are indirectly responsible because the warmongers ignored the public will in favor of the corporate will and corporations are neutral over anything except their own bottom line, right? So we can see that minus Wal-Mart and its peers, the people get their political power back in which case the multi-trillion dollar military misadventure would not have happened. Localism has many diverse benefits. "Trickle Up" public policy is one of them.

It will take local action to solve the energy crisis, and it will take local laws and planning to do the right thing regarding business and transportation issues. When local communities demand that all development have solar power, that is one way to tackle the problem. When light rail systems, expanded bus service, bike paths, and car-pool organization is the choice over freeway widening, that's another solution. Communities need to buy their own radio and TV, perhaps, and get community access and/or public radio. Local laws and regulations need to encourage smart growth, with newer homes and businesses near public transportation.
This is the case in Watsonville, California, where new housing has to have solar panels; but then again, down in San Juan Capistrano, solar panels cannot appear on any roof of any building: it's against the law! Here in so-called progressive Santa Cruz County, the powers that be, bending over backwards to a minority of homeowners, have managed to get funding for a freeway widening project, costing some half a billion, to the exclusion of restarting passenger rail service (the last regular service was in 1959), but we can pat ourselves on the back for not allowing a Wal Mart, except there's now Borders, two Home Depots, etc.; yet there's some five public radio stations in the Monterey Bay Area, and one AM progressive talk station, and community access TV has Democracy Now and Free Speech TV, and all sorts of other public and local programs; and the three established local bookstores still have their doors open, unlike Cody's up in Berkeley. There's lots of locally-flavoured restaurants in the Santa Cruz and Monterey areas. OK, so we're a little ahead of the curve to some other communities that have totally destroyed the Mom and Pop's, the local diners, and sold out their local radio to Clear Channel, and don't establish community access TV, and have the big boxes in every strip mall.
I was in St. Louis several weeks ago, and in watching some local TV in the hotel room, on the community access station, there was Jeremy Scahill! Free Speech TV right in the Heartland on St. Louis community access!
So it really is up to local communities to just by-pass Washington DC, which really seems to be out of touch with most of the USA. Seems California tried that as a state a while back, passing a law demanding that so many cars had to be pollution-free by a certain date: GM made a bunch of electric cars, and then they took them back when the leases were up, and crushed them, but that was before $4.50/gallon gasoline.

What happened to the "uprising", David?

Can't see it anymore through all the hang overs?

Laguna Beach, California. Act locally? This community has had the same city manager for 30 years. Is the city council the decision making body? Only on the most irrelevant issues. Democracy here? The last council member who spoke truth to power-the city manager- was the subject of a vicious smear campaign.
This place is run like a banana republic. It is full of faux liberals who are afraid to take a stand on anything more controversial than smoking or not on the beach. Occasionally some motion or proclamation is made and passed that sounds "green" and the whole city does back flips in praise of self. There are two weekly papers that read more like bulletins and self-congratulatory press releases than real newspapers and the few real activists in town are held up to ridicule and scorn for being so unfun. The cops are out of control, having tased a homeless man who died in the city jail, gunned down a mentally ill woman at the Montage resort and been the subject over the years of countless excessive use of force lawsuits. There is a mansionization ordinance that from the appearance of the city would seem to have mandated mansionization rather than sought to limit such monstrosities, a "lets pretend everything is perfect here in paradise" mentality and the city in a state of constant traffic gridlock. What with all this, focusing on Guantanamo, FISA and Obama or McCain seems almost relaxing. I can feel like I'm making a difference and not have to face the fact that here in my own backyard, I've become completely powerless. Hey, Pageant of the Masters, anyone?

As a Lafayette, IN resident, this article hits very close to home. While I can certainly identify with Sirota's complaints, there are plenty of hidden local gems in this community and many others--you just have to do your homework and act accordingly. These places usually exist a good distance from the most traveled highways and don't have the benefit of mass advertising as big corporations do. Finding them takes more time and effort, and they're sometimes more expensive, but in the long run, you and others will be better off by patronizing their businesses.

The big money wing of the political right complains ad nauseam about the power of the federal government and that more responsibility should be turned over to local levels, but they push policies behind close doors that favor national/multinational corporations over local businesses. Progressives should milk that for all that it's worth--sense of community and helping one's neighbor are ideas that appeal to a wide cross-section of the public.

Last but not least: contribute to the chat lines of your local papers and do so in a manner meant to either change people's minds or at least, move them to a more progressive point of view. Do NOT use it as an opportunity to bash anybody who disagrees with you as so many on the right (and I'm sorry to say, some on the left, including this website) do. This website is a great asset, but if we're using the Internet to preach to the choir and/or blowing off steam, we're shortchanging ourselves.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Theodore Parker.

Anybody remember Frank Zappa's "Two Hundred Motels?" That every town (his traveling band passed through) had churches and liquor stores. That was the common denominator.

Turce,

I have just become aware of your inquiry to my assertion. Obviously you are aware, or you should be, that 3 Federal Appeals courts have already ruled against this criminal conduct prior to the passage by the Legislative branch of the new, improved FISA. Essentially stating this law is illegal, unconstitutional, and the behavior by telecoms and the POTUS administration is equally illegal. If you notice in the 2nd clause to which you are referring the last three words,"...may require it." Also note that the U.S. Supreme court just ruled on that issue (Habeas Corpus) further dismantling this neocon fantasy, which you are aware of also by your own statements. I know you read all this stuff, so please don't play dumb. I have better things to do than lead you by the nose when you already know the answers. So pressure your collusive reps to impeach. It's already been established of Herr Bush's criminal, if not treasonous, behavior.
Thankx. and sweet dreams....