We saw in this year's election that the Internet is becoming a fully realized tool for people to participate in their democracy. Political fundraising and organizing went far beyond anyone's expectations. Tools like Youtube and Facebook played a key role in the election. Blogs broke stories, framed messages and gave people an outlet for their opinions like never before.

And on the more mundane side, local governments are providing more and more services online to their citizens. People are able to register to vote, watch streaming video of city council and school board meetings, fill out forms for tax reimbursements, etc. all online.

But what happens if you don't have broadband Internet? What if you do have broadband but your local municipality doesn't even have a website? Or the website they have doesn't offer any online services?

That's what we found when Common Cause Montana partnered with Dr. Richard Wolff from the  Montana State University on a new study released today.

Common Cause New York this morning released a new report titled, "The Cable TV Industry: Hardwiring Influence." The report brings together New York State lobbying and campaign finance data for the first time to demonstrate how the cable television industry has used its financial resources to fight for industry self-interest at the expense of New York cable subscribers, who Common Cause deems to be the ultimate "Loser" in the report.

Hardwiring Influence (and its additional background) documents the veritable "army" of lobbyists employed by the cable TV industry, which paid more than $24 million for these lobbying efforts in recent years, as well as $4.3 million in campaign contributions made to politicians, their political parties, and party slush funds.

White spaces?

What the heck are those? How does that have anything to do with democracy?

Well, just let me tell ya.

In the midst of a very historic Election Day, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) met and voted on a very important (if a bit wonky) new rule. This new rule allows for unlicensed use of "white spaces" for a variety of uses - including wireless broadband internet.

This is a big election year. There will be records broken all over the United States for voter turnout, individual campaign contributions and campaign volunteer hours. The public has gotten involved at levels never seen before. But the way it seems on television, you wouldn't know there is much more than a Presidential race and a question about the balance of power in Congress.

Unfortunately, while there are thousands of races for city council, state legislative seats, ballot measures and school board all across our country, the local TV stations have given them short shrift. When you consider that it is your school board, your city council and your state legislature that is going to impact your day to day life more than who is in the White House, it's a real shame that so little attention is devoted to local issues.

Joe Torres at Free Press posted a blog yesterday titled "Hate Speech Rises in the Media" which gives some examples of the increase of hate speech in the mainstream media.

ANY hate speech is more than our society should have, but it's especially alarming when it is increasing. So where are the voices to counter the hate speech? Silenced. Not by force. Not by intimidation. But by the media ownership structure.

People of color who are being attacked by talking heads in the media have little capacity to respond or frame the message themselves because they can't get into the media market.

Watch it live online!

Today and tomorrow St. John's University School of Law in NYC is hosting a symposium titled MAKING HISTORY: Race, Gender and the Media in the 2008 Elections.

This symposium will investigate the subject of race, gender and the media in the 2008 elections. Many democracies, such as the United Kingdom, Argentina, India, Israel, the Philippines, Pakistan, Liberia and other countries have or have had women heads of state, and other countries, like Peru and Bolivia, have elected presidents who are members of racial minority groups. However, the United States has never elected a woman or a person of color as president and has traditionally discriminated against both women and minority voters and candidates. In 2008, we stand poised  to witness the historic event of a black male or a white woman heading the presidential ballot on behalf of a major political party.

WATCH LIVE
All sessions of the MAKING HISTORY Symposia will be broadcast live via the St. John's University Web site. Viewers are also encouraged to submit questions to panelists for any session.

Today is Constitution Day.

221 years ago, the United States Constitution was crafted to guide the great experiment known as American democracy.

Four years later, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, were ratified and became law of the land. The First Amendment does something not found in any other part of the Constitution or its amendments. It protects one particular industry - the press. (Read our media reform plan for a new administration)

Why?

Simply said, a democracy can not function properly without the press informing the public, exposing voters to the marketplace of ideas, and holding public officials accountable.

But here's how the founders of our country put it...

This morning, journalists, citizens and supporters called upon the City of St. Paul Minnesota to drop the charges against the journalists arrested at the RNC convention. Our friends at Free Press helped organize the delivery of over 50,000 petition signatures collected online in 2 days to St. Paul City Hall calling on Mayor Chris Coleman and local law enforcement officials to drop all charges against journalists arrested while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention.

The arrest of obvious journalists is a crime against our democracy. It was clear from the videotape and other evidence that the people arrested were members of the press and were not involved in rioting. Their arrest was either an attempt to intimidate the press into not covering protests or it was incompetency on the part of the police force. I am not sure which is worse.

Not only should all charges be dropped, the police chief and the mayor owe these journalists an apology.