GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Cyrano has THREE main blog areas and more may be added later. They all possess their own flavor and fill specific functions within the CJO informaitonal structure. As the regular sections, the blog areas carry discussions of politics, history, culture, media, and economics, with principal focus on politics and media, but they also allow readers the opportunity to file comment. (Please read the intro we offer below for more details on this aspect). Commentary is of course fluid so there is bound to be some overlap in all Cyrano blogs. We hope you will join us!

VOXPOP: OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO THEATER FOLK

THE FIRST BLOG AREA, denominated VOXPOP, has as its main focus POLITICS, MEDIA, CURRENT EVENTS, and the ARTS, with the stage and cinema for a departure point. The uniqueness about this blog, whose main categories are PLACEBO ART and TRAVELS IN BOURGIEDOM, resides in that its format is essentially that of an ongoing dialog between our two resident critics, stagecrafters John Steppling and Guy Zimmerman, with occasional guest appearances by CJO editor Patrice Greanville. This is the place to check for lively and tough-going commentary on the state of the stage, the arts in general, and their quasi-infinite ramifications from daily life to dreams.

The URL for this general blog area is https://bestcyrano.org/voxpop/ .

Make a note of it.

THOMAS PAINE'S CORNER

Boldest political commentary anywhere.

The second, and core blog area for Cyrano, is essentially a totally independent site within a site, as this area is managed by our Associate Editor, Jason Miller, who prior to joining us as AE, had founded and created this extraordinary and highly respected blog. The URL for this special area is https://bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/

AVENGER: NEGATIVE SPACE

AVENGER: NEGATIVE SPACE is run by Rowan Wolf, a senior contributing editor to Cyrano's Journal. Rowan is a sociologist, teacher, writer and activist. Her areas of interest include social justice, environment, and globalization/corporatization at the core. She frequently writes where these issues intersect which takes her from empire and fascism, to civil liberties and politics, to the links between corporatization and genocide. Rowan was a member of the City of Portland's Peak Oil Task Force, which submitted its efforts and recommendations to the City in February of 2007 (Descending the Oil Peak: navigating the transition from oil and natural gas). She also maintains her own site Uncommon Thought Journal, and may be reached by email at |

The AVENGER NEGATIVE SPACE blog is located at https://bestcyrano.org/avenger212/

THE GREANVILLE JOURNAL

This is the flagship blog reserved for Patrice Greanville, Cyrano's Journal Online's founder and editor in chief. It accommodates guest writers as well as his own ruminations. The Greanville Journal is located at: https://bestcyrano.org/cyrano/

BY THE WAY...

Anti-First Amendment S.1 Passes Congress Friday January 19th 2007, 3:29 am

It was bad enough George Bush Senior found it necessary to blame bloggers for creating what he deems an "adversarial and ugly climate" (never mind his particular bit of ugliness in Iraq more than a decade ago, eventually resulting in the murder of more than a million people), last month we had the Manchurian candidate, John McCain, introducing legislation "that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards, effectively nixing the open exchange of ideas on the Internet, providing a lethal injection for unrestrained opinion, and acting as the latest attack tool to chill freedom of speech on the world wide web," as Paul Joseph Watson writes for Prison Planet.

Since Watson wrote his piece about McCain's anti-First Amendment bill, Richard A. Viguerie has warned that Congress is attempting the silence bloggers and other critics of the government. "We have the First Amendment right to speak and urge citizens to contact Washington—without the intimidation inherent in federal regulation of our activities."

Of course, as a Republican partisan, Viguerie concentrates on Pelosi and the Democrats while quite naturally ignoring Bush and the neocons. But even so, his warning about Section 220 of S. 1, a lobbying reform bill that went before the Senate should not go unheeded—it will "require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself," according to Viguerie.

The above is a warning that should be heeded. The System will eventually move to choke and destroy ANY conduit for the fair informaiton and mbiliation of the populace. The following post, dating back to 2005, articulates this vision well:

Fears

If the liberal blogosphere is so much bigger than the conservative one, then it is only a matter of time until the Republicans try to destroy it. We should be using all our energies to think of ways to protect ourselves from whatever they can do to us...they can use Congress--to sponsor legislation to restrict, tax, or censor the blogs...they can use the courts, to sue bloggers...are we ready to defend ourselves...sorry to sound so paranoid, but the US is creeping towards totalitarianism, the blogs may be our only respite, we need to be thinking about these issues.

Happy posting..while you can!

USING THE BLOGS:

WHEN YOU FIRST ARRIVE AT THE BLOG AREAS YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ EXISTING MATERIALS BUT NOT POST ANY COMMENT(S) UNTIL YOU REGISTER, OR PROVIDE A NAME AND AN EMAIL ADDRESS (basic login requirement).

If formally registered (click on REGISTER) you will be sent a password combination to the email address you filed. When the password arrives, go back to the blog and, well, enter it using the provided information. Once inside the blog, you will be given tehe option to CHANGE your password and enter some personal profile information (optional). Once this is done, you're ready to go. ALL CJ BLOG users are given the rank of AUTHOR, which allows you to create POSTS, and of course COMMENT on previous materials. If you want to create a new CATEGORY, please send us a mail at .

Use your browser's BACK button to return to the main Cyrano site.

BLOGGING INSTRUCTIONS

WRITING A COMMENT

There are several ways to do this.

(1) LOG IN;
(2) YOU'LL SEE THE DASHBOARD;
(3) On the right you'll see the panel "Latest Activity"; it lists the existing COMMENTS by POST.
Click on any of the listed POSTS (say, THE WORD RULES, or A MEXICAN INVASION).
It'll take you to the main body of the POST (article) and when you SCROLL DOWN to the bottom, you'll see the COPY INSERTION BOX, for you to place your COMMENT.
When done, click SUBMIT and that's it for the comment.

A SECOND WAY of accessing the COMMENT STREAM is by simply clicking on any existing link on the date/poster id bar, right at the top of any article. This link usually shows the number of comments. It may say "3 comments", or it may read "Add comment." Either way you get in.

FINALLY, you can just do it the formal, straight way.

(1) LOG IN;
(2) Dashboard. Click on MANAGE button on the menu bar in blue.
(3) The POSTS roster opens. Here you'll see the CATEGORIES, and the number of posted comments, so far. CLICK VIEW on the category you want to work with.

The CATEGORY opens with its lead article, followed by attached comments, if any.
Scroll DOWN to find the COMMENT BOX.
(There you are recognized, i.e., "son_of_Zorro. logged in"

Just write your comment and SUBMIT.
If you need to change anything, say a typo, go back one page to the posting page (by pressing SUBMIT, the page cycled one rank forward.)

WRITING A POST (If you have permissions to do this, as 'AUTHOR' or 'EDITOR')

This is where you really get to have fun. This is where you place your articles, not just comments, online.

Again, LOG IN.

You're in the DASHBOARD.

At present, you'll see something like this:

AT the very top, the name of the blog ("Cyrano Blog", or "Placebo Art"), then
DASHBOARD —WRITE — MANAGE — PROFILE

Beneath that, again DASHBOARD.

Welcome to WordPress
Then, "Use these links to get started:"

• Write a post
etc.

Well, click on WRITE A POST.

The WRITE POST page opens.
Be sure to enter TITLE for your post.
Next enter your copy in empty box.
Lastly, make sure you check off the categories you want your post to appear in. (On the right.)

Tip: Be sure to "save and continue editing " from time to time, to make sure you don't lose accidentally what you have posted already.

When done, click SAVE, then, PUBLISH.

You're done.