Cool Internet sites

OK, we will concede the point that to a great many people, there can by definition be nothing “cool” about any politician or political party. But then, when a nation is in trouble and facing a big decision about which way to take to get out of it, there are few people more uncool than those who are politically uninformed. In this issue we will feature the websites of the two major US political parties and the leading third party. Now if you are a Democrat and you just visit this website and ignore the others, that's kind of uncool. Not that plenty of cool people don't pick the Democrats and scorn the others --- but the coolest Democrats will be well informed about exactly what the opposing parties are saying.

Homer Simpson tries to vote for Obama
http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=1aBaX9GPSaQ&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
2008/10/02/homer-simpson-tries-to-vo_n_131119.html

Latin American Idol --- Margarita Henríquez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymknZfpjKdo

The way that 17-year-old Santeña singer Margarita Henríquez became headline stuff in Panama says exceptionally nasty things, when you think about it. Copycat television culture from northern latitudes; a money-based “voting” system that's largely a scam for the multinational phone companies; all of the obnoxious prejudices that go into the Latin American advertising industry's “celebrity” system; scandal-tainted politicians making conspicuous shows of support for “their” countries' contestants as a pseudo-patriotic “reality TV” diversion from what's real; frivolous news media --- all of those things and more are downright creepy. (See also Genesis 20 --- you shouldn't have idols, and most of all you shouldn't treat human beings as idols.) This self-proclaimed idolatrous idiot box competition from whence Margarita Henríquez came to be noticed by the public is not news. However, this young woman is talented, and just because the jerks who control our region's cultural institutions created an ugly imported commercial package for her is no good reason not to recognize her abilty as something special and beautiful.

Libertarian Party
http://www.lp.org

Many of you will remember Bob Barr as this Georgia Republican who rose to prominence in the House of Representatives when Newt Gingrich took a contract out on America and then played a part in a particularly mean 1990s political context. But Bob isn't Newt, and in fact he's not even a Republican these days. Polls say that he's the leading third party candidate in this year's US election, running on the venerable Libertarian Party ticket. It seems, in fact, that Barr and the Libertarians are running strongest of all among the voters who know GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin best, the people of Alaska.

Republican National Committee
http://www.rnc.org

They've held the White House for the last eight years, so you might want to visit here to see what they have to say for themselves.

Also in this section:
Poets' corner
Reggae --- the real stuff
Photography, José Ponce's urban scenes
Arts Vote 2008
Coming next to the Ancon Theater
Movie Nights at Finca La Maya in San Carlos
Words to the wise from Sparky the Wonder Dog
A Panamanian art outpost in Chicago
Cool Internet sites

Make the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://ww.executivehotel-panama.com
Find the boat of your dreams through Evermarine --- http://www.evermarine.com