| | Current Music: | Stevie - Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer | | Time: | 09:19 pm |
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| I made it through the week alive. By yesterday I was feeling much better about my new job though it's still going to be a ball-busting exercise in patience on my part.
Today, I went to my favorite record store. This place has some of the best vinyl I've ever come across. I was happy to pick up this Stevie Wonder album on vinyl
This album marked the beginning of the incredible string of albums that Stevie Wonder would release throughout the 70's. It's generally considered by collectors and critics to be a "lost classic" due to its absence on compact disc. I had never heard this album until today so I picked it up. It's an incredible piece of work. All of the songs were written by Stevie and Syreeta Wright, who, if I remember correctly, was his wife at the time. For those of you who'd like to hear this exceptional record without the trouble of looking for it on vinyl, you can find the entire album at the itunes music store. | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment   |
| | Current Music: | Buddy Holly - Well....All Right | | Time: | 09:57 pm |
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| This past Thursday I was promoted. It was decided that I, rag-tag moribund and addicted to schtick, should be rewarded for my attention to detail and the pride I take in my work.
So there I was sitting in the office of my supervisor nodding my head hither and yon, not quite sure what I was taking on but willing to give it a try nonetheless.
The pay raise was considerable and, at the end of the day, driving home, it hit me that I now had what the folks refer to as a "real job". No more "Monkey-Boy U.S.A." for me, no sir.
Obviously I have mixed blessings about the deal. More money is nice and I'd be lying if I said their trust in me wasn't flattering. On the other hand, I felt like it was the end of some kind of personal golden age if you can believe such hogwash.
It is true, I have been an office rat in the corporate maze for close to ten years but I have always kept myself on the periphery of the whole business by doing, essentially, easy jobs such as Data Entry, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Mailroom and Data Entry. This jobs offered you a better than standard paycheck and a feeling that you hadn't completely involved yourself in the rat race. It felt good, truth be known, to walk into work in the morning, sit down and understand the common duties you were to provide. Even the technological destruction that chipped away at the skills offered couldn't persuade me to take it up a notch.
For one I figured that I needed to remain reasonbly clear of any and all responsibility as the very thought of it sickened me to no end. I was a little immature, true, but I had one hell of a record collection and my shoes and shirts fit just right. On the weekends I'd loosen it up with friends and wannabes, drink into the night, and only become slightly annoyed when Monday rolled around. After all, a Monkey could do my job or so they said. They also said a Monkey, given enough time, could write a bestseller. My aspirations for becoming a writer embraced this notion and I soldiered on, oblivious to the idiotic pandering of the "starving artists" as I did my thing and had enough cash on the weekends to actually think about abusing Capitalism.
Until now. My decision to take what was behind door number three has left me with more means and a lot more headaches. The job itself up to this point has been fairly brutal, with numbers, reports and paper, paper, paper filling my days with an unusally heavy load that I don't mind saying I find disagreeing.
The first question at moments such as these is "why did you accept the offer"? Survival, my dear fellow, survival. I have spent enough time in Corporate Circles to understand the art of the offer that can't be refused. Anytime a meeting with your supervisor begins with "What do you wish to accomplish with the company?" you know that you have possibly been selected for inclusion into the club or a slow death brought about by your perceived apathy in climbing that ladder to the mutherfoogin' top.
So I took it and it's been bloody rot so far but I've made progress. In the end I'm smart enough to learn the position well enough to retain it but I'll never be what they think or want me to be due to the fact that I have a penchant for falling short of expectations ho ho heh heh.
In other news: I'm working on an idea with a friend of mine for a screenplay though the progress is horrendously slow thanks to my working eight hours a day and the stubborness on my part of writing everything in a spiral notebook instead of on a computer like any other modern-day lunkhead. I like how writing always seems to flow easier when one is using a pen and paper like dem old folks did in the days before '49. It certainly doesn't add up to convenient or speedy when I have to take these gobbly-gook, scribble-scrabble notes and attempt to transcribe them for my friend to counter with. Bless his soul, he has been patient.
The story itself is primarily concerned with the premature ejaculation that comes with young people in nowhere towns hoping for the endearing quality of rock and roll to save them from a life less ordinary. I remember growing up in my own little nowhere town and having the opportunity to see these bands playing the local dive bars that passed for night-time entertainment in my pain in the neck and thinking how for all of their excitement and, in some cases, talent they would probably go absolutely nowhere due to a lack of luck, intelligence, who they knew and the unfortunate realization that rock and roll was slip-sliding down a hole (and, no, I don't mean Courtney Love). However, there was something enjoyable watching those people fumble it out on the line for a handful of dreaming drunkards who were allowed a brief respite in order to hear them play their songs.
I thought these people would make a fine idea for a story so I jettisoned the tired idea of rags-to-riches (you can forget that shit in a nation run by Republicans) for a story about the lost heroes from the Rockabilly Psychos and Garage Rock Looneys to the Underground Superstars. Which reminds me: I could be transcribing this pile of paper sitting in front of me. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Here is today's winner of the "Dumbass of the Day" award:
KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.
"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.
"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."
The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an "animal island" protected by thick concrete blocks.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Guns N' Roses - November Rain (Help Me!) | | Time: | 11:49 pm |
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| For the last couple of days, I've had November Rain by Guns N' Roses on a friggin' loop. Not sure if I should seek professional help by now but I'd forgotten what a sweet tune it was/is, easily outshining a lot of the songs that people choose to remember them by.
The moral here is: you go looking for nostalgia and end up with Guns N' Roses. And it's not always a bad thing.
Mandy and I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" - the Al Gore film concerning Global Warming - this weekend. Pretty scary stuff, unless you're a lobbyist for the oil industry. I knew a little about Global Warming and its effect on the planet, but that film really break it down for anyone to understand.
As I sat there listening to Gore speak so clearly about a clear and present danger to humanity, I was suddenly struck by an incredible depression that this man should be our President instead of this stuttering dip-shit we currently have. What a different world it would be.
And in perhaps an ironic twist my car suffered more internal injuries over the weekend and will require more repairs. This will bring the total of repairs done to my car over the past year to a staggering $2,000. I still have a little over a year before the thing is even paid off. So much for Volkswagen and that ballyhooed engineering. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Game Theory - 24 | | Time: | 12:09 am |
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| Head over to Rolling Stone's website to read the latest article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. entitled Was the 2004 Election Stolen
In this article Kennedy provides a wealth of evidence that points towards a series of injustices that were carried out leading up to election day. I encourage you all to go read this. It's lengthy but absolutely necessary to read as we prepare for the mid-term elections. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I see the Senate has confirmed Hayden to lead the CIA. It's a little unsettling to see the consolidation of power that is happening right now.
Would it kill the Democrats to fight against this? I know they're the minority but, for God's sake, show some backbone. There needs to be a massive change in direction for the Democrats come November. I think you will see several prominent Democrats replaced by stronger, more progressive candidates when the smoke clears. It has to happen because the current Democratic leadership is soft and incapable of offering any kind of leadership. It's cowardly for them to do nothing in the hopes they will take back the House and Senate in November at which time they will do this and that because they finally have some power. The most important statements are made by the powerless.
You expect nothing from Republicans. This is a party that has consistently shown that it cares more about the preservation of its party than the United States of America.
I vote Democrat. I believe the Democratic party, at its core, is the party for the people but it needs new leadership. Dean was a good move towards that new mindset. I hope it continues come November. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, as usual, here is another post regarding my fears for the country I love. Today, with his bitch Tony Blair standing by his side, Bush said "it's their choice right now — they're the ones who walked away from the table. I think we ought to be continuing to work on ways to make it clear to them that they will be isolated."
Okay, so Iran has obviously been the problem from day one. However, the following story would seem to contradict that viewpoint.
Published on Thursday, May 25, 2006 by Inter Press Service
Iran Proposal to U.S. Offered Peace with Israel
by Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON - Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel and to cut off material assistance to Palestinian armed groups and pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel's 1967 borders, according to the secret Iranian proposal to the United States. The two-page proposal for a broad Iran-U.S. agreement covering all the issues separating the two countries, a copy of which was obtained by IPS, was conveyed to the United States in late April or early May 2003. Trita Parsi, a specialist on Iranian foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies who provided the document to IPS, says he got it from an Iranian official earlier this year but is not at liberty to reveal the source.
The two-page document contradicts the official line of the George W. Bush administration that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region.
Parsi says the document is a summary of an even more detailed Iranian negotiating proposal which he learned about in 2003 from the U.S. intermediary who carried it to the State Department on behalf of the Swiss Embassy in late April or early May 2003. The intermediary has not yet agreed to be identified, according to Parsi.
The Iranian negotiating proposal indicated clearly that Iran was prepared to give up its role as a supporter of armed groups in the region in return for a larger bargain with the United States. What the Iranians wanted in return, as suggested by the document itself as well as expert observers of Iranian policy, was an end to U.S. hostility and recognition of Iran as a legitimate power in the region.
Before the 2003 proposal, Iran had attacked Arab governments which had supported the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The negotiating document, however, offered "acceptance of the Arab League Beirut declaration", which it also referred to as the "Saudi initiative, two-states approach."
The March 2002 Beirut declaration represented the Arab League's first official acceptance of the land-for-peace principle as well as a comprehensive peace with Israel in return for Israel's withdrawal to the territory it had controlled before the 1967 war.. Iran's proposed concession on the issue would have aligned its policy with that of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, among others with whom the United States enjoyed intimate relations.
Another concession in the document was a "stop of any material support to Palestinian opposition groups (Hamas, Jihad, etc.) from Iranian territory" along with "pressure on these organizations to stop violent actions against civilians within borders of 1967".
Even more surprising, given the extremely close relationship between Iran and the Lebanon-based Hizbollah Shiite organisation, the proposal offered to take "action on Hizbollah to become a mere political organization within Lebanon".
The Iranian proposal also offered to accept much tighter controls by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange for "full access to peaceful nuclear technology". It offered "full cooperation with IAEA based on Iranian adoption of all relevant instruments (93+2 and all further IAEA protocols)".
That was a reference to protocols which would require Iran to provide IAEA monitors with access to any facility they might request, whether it had been declared by Iran or not. That would have made it much more difficult for Iran to carry out any secret nuclear activities without being detected.
In return for these concessions, which contradicted Iran's public rhetoric about Israel and anti-Israeli forces, the secret Iranian proposal sought U.S. agreement to a list of Iranian aims. The list included a "Halt in U.S. hostile behavior and rectification of status of Iran in the U.S.", as well as the "abolishment of all sanctions".
Also included among Iran's aims was "recognition of Iran's legitimate security interests in the region with according defense capacity". According to a number of Iran specialists, the aim of security and an official acknowledgment of Iran's status as a regional power were central to the Iranian interest in a broad agreement with the United States.
Negotiation of a deal with the United States that would advance Iran's security and fundamental geopolitical political interests in the Persian Gulf region in return for accepting the existence of Israel and other Iranian concessions has long been discussed among senior Iranian national security officials, according to Parsi and other analysts of Iranian national security policy.
An Iranian threat to destroy Israel has been a major propaganda theme of the Bush administration for months. On Mar. 10, Bush said, "The Iranian president has stated his desire to destroy our ally, Israel. So when you start listening to what he has said to their desire to develop a nuclear weapon, then you begin to see an issue of grave national security concern."
But in 2003, Bush refused to allow any response to the Iranian offer to negotiate an agreement that would have accepted the existence of Israel. Flynt Leverett, then the senior specialist on the Middle East on the National Security Council staff, recalled in an interview with IPS that it was "literally a few days" between the receipt of the Iranian proposal and the dispatch of a message to the Swiss ambassador expressing displeasure that he had forwarded it to Washington.
Interest in such a deal is still very much alive in Tehran, despite the U.S. refusal to respond to the 2003 proposal. Turkish international relations professor Mustafa Kibaroglu of Bilkent University writes in the latest issue of Middle East Journal that "senior analysts" from Iran told him in July 2005 that "the formal recognition of Israel by Iran may also be possible if essentially a 'grand bargain' can be achieved between the U.S. and Iran".
The proposal's offer to dismantle the main thrust of Iran's Islamic and anti-Israel policy would be strongly opposed by some of the extreme conservatives among the mullahs who engineered the repression of the reformist movement in 2004 and who backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last year's election.
However, many conservative opponents of the reform movement in Iran have also supported a negotiated deal with the United States that would benefit Iran, according to Paul Pillar, the former national intelligence officer on Iran. "Even some of the hardliners accepted the idea that if you could strike a deal with the devil, you would do it," he said in an interview with IPS last month.
The conservatives were unhappy not with the idea of a deal with the United States but with the fact that it was a supporter of the reform movement of Pres. Mohammad Khatami, who would get the credit for the breakthrough, Pillar said.
Parsi says that the ultimate authority on Iran's foreign policy, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was "directly involved" in the Iranian proposal, according to the senior Iranian national security officials he interviewed in 2004. Kamenei has aligned himself with the conservatives in opposing the pro-democratic movement.
Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service
So three years have passed and this sick, venal administration has not sought one diplomatic approach to this issue, even when the possibility exists. Instead they make threats and plan to set off a huge bomb in the Nevada desert in the next few weeks in the hopes they can make a better bomb. What signal is that supposed to send? "We want peace?" I don't think so.
The problem is this administration is incapable of diplomacy. The only thing they know is tough talk, war, deception and insanity.
In other news: My friends Johnny and Tricia came into Austin this past weekend and had a lovely time. It had been close to two years since I had seen them and it was nice that they were finally able to meet Mandy.
We did some record shopping - I received a few vinyl presents for my troubles (Johnny: that Charley Pride record is getting a serious work-out). It was nice to just mess around, buy records, eat, drink good beer and just talk about trivial matters. That's the kind of world we should have. After the weekend ended, however, and I had some quiet time to myself, the realities of our world came back into focus. You can't run away from this stuff. Perhaps you can for a little while but it finds its way back into your bloodstream unless you're so completely oblivious you couldn't find Iraq on a map.
But that's why we all need friends, I suppose. We need someone to help take our mind off the madness and just go record shopping. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, Pat Robertson has come forth and claimed that God - holiest of the holies - has told him that, gasp, a
Tsunami may hit the U.S.
It may hit the U.S.? God isn't sure, he's still mulling it over. I thought God was absolute? Oh darn, nothing's sacred in this old world any longer.
You may remember Pat Robertson. He's the same man who brought you Fags Caused 9/11 w/ Jerry Falwell, Assassinate Hugo Chavez and Israel's Pullout from the Gaza Strip Pissed God Off So He Caused Ariel Sharon's Stroke. What a guy.
Of course, this is Bush America. This is the place where the President of the United States claims he was put into office by God (who probably rigged the elections in Florida and Ohio, I just betcha ya) who told him to fight this war against terror and all those nasty Muslims who worship that other guy. What a couple of freaks.
Here's the thing: if you or I were standing on a street corner talking to a group of a people and told them that God had been holding conversations with us, they'd think we were nuts and completely ignore us or call the guys with the white coats. Robertson preaches to millions and the decisions by Bush affect billions.
Where are the guys with the white coats? | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| Is Al Gore Running for President Again?
By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer
WASHINGTON - Al Gore is running to California, New York, Utah, Washington, France and points in between to promote "An Inconvenient Truth," a film chronicling his elaborate slide shows to educate people about global warming.
But is the former vice president running for president again?
( Read more... ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Miles Davis Quintet - Orbits | | Subject: | AlGore | | Time: | 12:10 am |
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| On May 24th, An Inconvenient Truth will open in select theaters. This film, "starring" Al Gore, tackles the subject of Global Warming and the effects it is and will have on our planet and, subsequently, our civilization over the next ten years. Hit the link to go to the website for information as well as see the trailer. No matter what you think of AlGore, he has always been very passionate about Global Warming. I think we should all take this incredibly serious.
That's what I love about this government and its whore media. They spend all day telling us that the terrorists are coming to get us, while passing legislation that pisses on environmental laws and regulations. The media follows suit. Meanwhile, the temperatures are rising, the polar ice caps are melting and natural disasters (if you don't think Katrina is connected to this you're living in a fool's paradise) are becoming more prevalent.
In an age when we are spending billions of dollars on oil wars that insure the continued existence of terrorism, global warming goes unabated and diseases like cancer and aids continue to spread due to restricted funding. Do we have to see Florida or New York submerged under water before we realize our priorities have been in THE WRONG FUCKING PLACE!
Good Night | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend - Legacy Edition in Stores 6/13
In 1991, Matthew Sweet rose out of obscurity with Girlfriend, a convention-defying album of blazing rockers and haunting heartbreak ballads that connected with its listeners on a remarkably deep level.
On June 13th, Girlfriend - The Legacy Edition hits stores with three previously unreleased in the US bonus tracks, and includes a second disc containing Girlfriend’s collectors’ item companion piece, Goodfriend. This rare and highly sought-after set features home demos, live performances and Sweet’s renditions of classics from Neil Young and John Lennon - commercially available for the first time ever. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Joni Mitchell - Coyote | | Time: | 12:55 am |
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| I realize I have to try and disconnect from all that is happening in the world. At least long enough to recharge my batteries. The shit gets so deep sometimes that it's easy to lose sight of all the other things in life from friends and loved ones, a cat demanding you pet her, a great song (Coyote), writing a screenplay about youth memory time and all that is inbetween, or this week's Guilty Pleasure. This is when the desire to resume heavy drinking or digging a little smoke comes on so strong. Why do any of us get fucked up if it isn't to forget everything?
Next weekend, I have some old friends coming into town. One of them I've known since we shared the horrors of high school math class together while the other one is, quite possibly, the most down-to-earth person in the history of man. He's one of the few people I've ever met who isn't gutted by pretentiousness.
And the other, my best friend if one keeps score, is a challenging but rewarding friend who is both inspiring and frustrating at the same time. We share some similar beliefs but we also disagree completely about other issues, which we debate endlessly, each one believing that he is right when the simple answer is probably eluding us both.
My ideas are formed by a passion that I've never been very good at articulating while he represents a more erudite point of view that demands much more grey than black or white. Pragmatic would be a good way to describe him, I think. I'm always a bit intimidated when I find myself debating with him because of his education, which, right or wrong, puts him in a better position in my mind to argue the issues, whereas I might have completed three full quarters during my brief stay in college which translates to scoring huge points in any debate that concerns Taco Bell and the forgotten merits of Use Your Illusion I & II.
For whatever reasons I never cared much for that structure known as school but he thrived in it. Perhaps I feel that because he made it through that he possesses a bit more strength than I do. However, he has never been condescending in his education the way most academics are. This has contributed mightily to our friendship lasting the better part of thirteen years now.
In pure musical nonsense terms: I've always seen him as Bob Marley to my Peter Tosh in that he's willing to search for a universal understanding of the issue while I would prefer to confront it face-to-face and carve any injustice that exists from its hide. That's a fairly common generalization of the two men, I know. Marley could be just as angry and Tosh could be just as touching in his humanity, but Marley was able to reach a wider audience because he was willing to do whatever it took to get the message out while Peter understood he could never embrace that which he distrusted or despised so he rejected it with an intense passion that very few possess in this life. So, long story short, my friend will reach more people and find more success while I will hold fast to my convictions and both of us will be the happier for it. And I'll live longer than he will, but we will both meet rather unfair demises - he from a terrible disease and yours truly from a swift beating and shooting. Hrm, perhaps another analogy is in order.
Anyway, we have made a promise to leave the world alone for the few days they are here and just have a good time. The one person who benefits from this the most will be my poor Mandypants who is subjected to so many of my rants that the poor girl must feel like a power drill to the temple is, at times, a viable alternative. She loves me, she really does, but I suppose I am quite a pain in the arse at times.
Anyway, the most important to me is that everyone have a good time as they realize why Austin is one of the best cities in the country. Not to mention, I'll have an excuse to buy more records.
My writing proceeds slowly as usual. I have written seven episodes of my perceived idea for a television show. I'm going to finish twelve episodes and then clean it up as well as I can before shipping it out to anyone and everyone who may have some use for it. The most important thing is just to finish it. A lot of it is based on my growing up and it's a rather cathartic exercise in writing characters based on yourself and people you know. The protagonist is obsessed with his past and where it all veered off-course. I'm like that in a way; I reminisce about my younger life so much that it's very possible I'll have nothing to reminisce about concerning my present life.
I have several other ideas that I am slowly putting to paper. The best thing I ever did was realize that I wasn't going to write the Great American Novel. My ideas have always been moving pictures, and since I decided to write them that way they have flourished though still at a snail's pace as far as I'm concerned.
So this week's Guilty Pleasure is Men at Work. Not the band, but the 1990 film written and directed by Emilio Estevez. Boo-Yaa. It also stars Charlie Sheen. I remember catching this in the theater back in the day. I was a fresh-faced punk trying to make the friday night movies scene. Me and a friend hoped to find a date at the movies but we were side-tracked when I found myself enjoying the movie much more than the vapid bitches that we trying to score. The interplay between Charlie and Emilio is really quite good. They are garbage men who dream of opening their own surf shop. Everything is momentarily put on hold when they find a body in the trash who may have been killed by Sheen's high-powered pellet gun the night before. Sheen and Estevez (who I always thought was a little under-rated as an actor in his heyday) are great but the movie is stolen by Mr. Keith "What Can Brown Do For You" David who plays a supervisor who has to ride with them on their route to grade their performance. He's a former Vietnam vet who is a little more than nuts. The movie even touches on political corruption and illegal toxic waste dumping. Not a bad movie for weekend afternoons with nothing to do. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Let's seeeeeeeeeeee: Tens of millions of Americans are being watched by the NSA. Who didn't see this coming? And you 65% polled who approve of this program - FUCK YOU! You need to get a clue people before something about your personal life is seen as a threat and they knock on your door. Jesus Christ, what is wrong with people in this country? I'm much more afraid of a government with the most powerful military in the world morphing into a totalitarian regime than I am of some rat-ass terrorist group who lives in caves. Yeah, whatever.
"But, Mitch, they're only listening to Al-Qaida calls. There must be millions of terrorists in America and they have to know what they're planning....yeah. Omigod, did you know Chris was voted off American Idol?"
Where is the outrage? This is absurd. Republican, Democrat, Independent...it doesn't matter. This is OUR country that is on the line. Everything we have accomplished despite all of the nastiness that has pervaded this country's history is in danger of being swept away. This is a serious matter. There should have already been an investigation launched against the NSA, the telecom companies who supplied this information without alerting their customers(I'm a Verizon customer)and the Bush administration who have defended their law-breaking FROM DAY ONE! If people don't stand up, speak out, DO SOMETHING! then we are going to lose everything. And stop shaking your fucking heads like it can't happen here. IT IS HAPPENING HERE! The politicians are selling us down the river, but most importantly, the citizens of this country are doing it to themselves.
We just don't have the energy to do it anymore. We're just beaten down. Who knows, maybe a majority in this country are tired of doing the work that is needed in a democracy and are ready to give it away and let someone else run the show. They just want their ipods, their flat-screen televisions and whatever eye candy they can get to completely lose themselves. We've become like the junkie sitting in the corner of a room staring at their toe for hours, numb to life and its exquisite richness. The junkie has seen ugliness in life but there is no ugliness to be found in the simple construction of that toe for the hours they wait until they have to be fulfilled again. At that time, they will do anything and ignore everything in order to regain that state of imagined bliss.
This is just so crazy. I'm scared of what is going to happen. Are we going to drop nukes on Iran? Will another terrorist attack be orchestrated or allowed to happen in order to psychologically attack the American populace? Why is Bush considering sending thousands of Reserve troops to the border (and don't give me that shit about Immigration).
And Republicans and even a Democrat like Reid praising Hayden as he prepares for the hearings to become the next head of the CIA. Here is a guy (Hayden) who has supervised this illegal surveillance program, who defends it, was a deputy to "Death Squad" Negroponte, and doesn't even know what the hell probable cause is or how it relates to the 4th Amendment. But you know what? He'll probably pass through unmolested because these Senators haven't stood up to any of Bush's other nominees who had questions surrounding their qualifications and beliefs.
And now there's this story of a NSA whistleblower named Russell Tice who is going to testify:
A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. …
[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. … “I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It’s pretty hard to believe,” Tice said. “I hope that they’ll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn’t exist right now.” …
Tice said his information is different from the Terrorist Surveillance Program that Bush acknowledged in December and from news accounts this week that the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of millions of Americans. “It’s an angle that you haven’t heard about yet,” he said. … He would not discuss with a reporter the details of his allegations, saying doing so would compromise classified information and put him at risk of going to jail. He said he “will not confirm or deny” if his allegations involve the illegal use of space systems and satellites.
Space Systems? Satellites? Dick Nixon has nothing on these people.
And I love it how it's so clear that Bush's television time to discuss Immigration this - what is it - Tuesday on the fly is such an obvious attempt to direct the focus away from this USA Today story by tapping into the fear and racism of citizens in this country concerning illegal immigrants. This is the election year issue for the Republicans, much like gay marriage was in 2004. Jesus Christ. Sometimes I wonder if we're just at the end. We had a good run but we just couldn't do it.
But this really tops it all off beautifully. I was born and raised in Alabama. I have some good memories of growing up there but this story really drives home the point of what's wrong with the state.:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general denies the Holocaust occurred and said Friday he will speak this weekend in New Jersey to a "pro-white" organization that is widely viewed as being racist.
Larry Darby concedes his views are radical, but he said they should help him win wide support among Alabama voters as he tries to "reawaken white racial awareness" with his campaign against Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson.
The state Democratic chairman, Joe Turnham, said the party became aware of some of Darby's views only days ago and was considering what to do about his candidacy.
"Any type of hatred toward groups of people, especially for political gain, is completely unacceptable in the Alabama Democratic Party," said Turnham.
Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Darby said he believes no more than 140,000 Jewish people died in Europe during World War II, and most of them succumbed to typhus.
Historians say about 6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, but Darby said the figure is a false claim of the "Holocaust industry."
"I am what the propagandists call a Holocaust denier, but I do not deny mass deaths that included some Jews," Darby said. "There was no systematic extermination of Jews. There's no evidence of that at all."
Darby said he will speak Saturday near Newark, N.J., at a meeting of National Vanguard, which bills itself as an advocate for the white race. Some of his campaign materials are posted on the group's Internet site.
"It's time to stop pushing down the white man. We've been discriminated against too long," Darby said in the interview.
OH YEAH! THE WHITE MAN IN THIS COUNTRY HAS REALLY HAD IT ROUGH! YOU SICK FUCK! JESUS, THESE PEOPLE MAKE ME PUKE. AND THE NERVE OF THESE PEOPLE CLAIMING THE HOLOCAUST DID NOT EXIST AND THAT THE WHITE MAN HAS IT ROUGH. WHAT THE FUCK IS HE TALKING ABOUT. THE WHITE MAN HAS OWNED THIS COUNTRY FROM THE MOMENT HE STEPPED HIS SICK FUCKING FEET ON THE LANDSCAPE. HE DESTROYED A CULTURE OF PEOPLE, ENSLAVED ANOTHER AND HAS CONTROLLED THE CORRIDORS OF POWER EVER SINCE. GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK. WHEN THE REVOLUTION COMES, I WANT THIS PUNK. | | comments: 6 comments or Leave a comment |
| First of all, anyone who knows a goddamn thing knows that Godsmack is a fucking terrible band. However, their music is being used in army recruitment commercials. Now, unfortunately, this band of pissants sells millions of records; their last record debuted at number 1.
An interview was set up with Arthur Magazine. The cat doing the interview took exception to this pitiful excuse for a band whoring their music out to the military and he went after them lock, stock and barrel. I think it's beautiful. You can listen to the actual interview here.
The military is getting more and more desperate, not to mention underhanded, in its attempts to recruit soldiers for Zee American Occupation of the World. In many cases, young people have no other choice from an economic point of view than to join the Army. Some are looking for free college as well as a few other perks the military might offer them. That was all well and good before we became the bad guys and allowed a psychopathic son of a bitch to make the rules and plunge this country into a moral dilemma that it may never recover from. Wasn't the main issue in the last election "Moral Values"? What a crock of shit! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the the difference between Iraq as seen on the corporate news and the real news, such as the return of US-trained and armed death squads, reminiscent of Central America and Vietnam. : Pilger :04 May 2006
RETURN OF THE DEATH SQUADS - IRAQ'S HIDDEN NEWS
The lifts in the New York Hilton played CNN on a small screen you could not avoid watching. Iraq was top of the news; pronouncements about a "civil war" and "sectarian violence" were repeated incessantly. It was as if the US invasion had never happened and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians by the Americans was a surreal fiction. The Iraqis were mindless Arabs, haunted by religion, ethnic strife and the need to blow themselves up. Unctuous puppet politicians were paraded with no hint that their exercise yard was inside an American fortress. And when you left the lift, this followed you to your room, to the hotel gym, the airport, the next airport and the next country. Such is the power of America's corporate propaganda, which, as Edward Said pointed out in Culture and Imperialism, "penetrates electronically" with its equivalent of a party line.
The party line changed the other day. For almost three years it was that al-Qaeda was the driving force behind the "insurgency", led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a bloodthirsty Jordanian who was clearly being groomed for the kind of infamy Saddam Hussein enjoys. It mattered not that al-Zarqawi had never been seen alive and that only a fraction of the "insurgents" followed al-Qaeda. For the Americans, Zarqawi's role was to distract attention from the thing that almost all Iraqis oppose: the brutal Anglo-American occupation of their country.
Now that al-Zarqawi has been replaced by "sectarian violence" and "civil war", the big news is the attacks by Sunnis on Shia mosques and bazaars. The real news, which is not reported in the CNN "mainstream", is that the Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq. This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration.
The ministry of the interior in Baghdad, which is run by the CIA, directs the principal death squads. Their members are not exclusively Shia, as the myth goes. The most brutal are the Sunni-led Special Police Commandos, headed by former senior officers in Saddam's Ba'ath Party. This was formed and trained by CIA "counter-insurgency" experts, including veterans of the CIA's terror operations in central America in the 1980s, notably El Salvador. In his new book, Empire's Workshop (Metropolitan Books), the American historian Greg Grandin describes the Salvador Option thus: "Once in office, [President] Reagan came down hard on central America, in effect letting his administration's most committed militarists set and execute policy. In El Salvador, they provided more than a million dollars a day to fund a lethal counter-insurgency campaign... All told, US allies in central America during Reagan's two terms killed over 300,000 people, tortured hundreds of thousands and drove millions into exile."
Although the Reagan administration spawned the current Bushites, or "neo-cons", the pattern was set earlier. In Vietnam, death squads trained, armed and directed by the CIA murdered up to 50,000 people in Operation Phoenix. In the mid-1960s, in Indonesia, CIA officers compiled "death lists" for General Suharto's killing spree during his seizure of power. After the 2003 invasion, it was only a matter of time before this venerable "policy" was applied in Iraq.
According to the investigative writer Max Fuller (National Review Online), the key CIA manager of the interior ministry death squads "cut his teeth in Vietnam before moving on to direct the US military mission in El Salvador". Professor Grandin names another central America veteran whose job now is to "train a ruthless counter-insurgent force made up of ex-Ba'athist thugs". Another, says Fuller, is well-known for his "production of death lists". A secret militia run by the Americans is the Facilities Protection Service, which has been responsible for bombings. "The British and US Special Forces," concludes Fuller, "in conjunction with the [US-created] intelligence services at the Iraqi defence ministry, are fabricating insurgent bombings of Shias."
On 16 March, Reuters reported the arrest of an American "security contractor", who was found with weapons and explosives in his car. Last year, two Britons disguised as Arabs were caught with a car full of weapons and explosives; British forces bulldozed the Basra prison to rescue them. The Boston Globe recently reported: "The FBI's counter-terrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering that some of the vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior government officials."
As I say, all this has been tried before - just as the preparation of the American public for an atrocious attack on Iran is similar to the WMD fabrications in Iraq. If that attack comes, there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no truth. Imprisoned in the Hilton lift, staring at CNN, my fellow passengers could be excused for not making sense of the Middle East, or Latin America, or anywhere. They are isolated. Nothing is explained. Congress is silent. The Democrats are moribund. And the freest media on earth insult the public every day. As Voltaire put it: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
First published in the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.co.uk | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | The Mike Malloy Show | | Subject: | The 32% | | Time: | 11:12 pm |
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| First things first: Many people make jokes about Alabama - many of them justified - but there are some shining examples in the state. One of those examples is a young woman named Ava Lowery who is 15 years old. Ava has a website called Peace Takes Courage, which I recommend for the videos that Ava makes. One of these videos, entitled What Would Jesus Do, caused outrage among these Bush supporter freaks. This fifteen-year-old girl received death threats as well as other messages foul and putrid in their content. These cowardly sons of bitches send threats and insults to a 15 year old girl because she makes a video questioning the morality of our presence in Iraq. In response Ava has made a new video, 32%, which uses the messages of these idiots to make a simple point.
And if you want to see the video that inspired all of this hate from these conservative nutbags: WWJD
Second, the Times online reports on the new $592 million (that's tax dollars, boys and girls) that's being poured into the 104-acre - 104 fucking acres! - US Embassy in Iraq. This structure is bigger than Vatican City and CAN BE SEEN FROM SPACE!
All of this while the unemployment rate remains above 50% and Iraqi civilians, three years after they were "liberated", go hours each day without air conditioning or water. Yep, freedom is really on the march.
From the Times Online( Read more... ) | | comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
| I celebrated the big 3-0 last night. Mandy took me out for dinner and, with the help of some birthday money from my folks, I picked up the first two Meters (great funk band from New Orleans circa 1970s) albums at one of our great local record stores, Waterloo. Add to that the first season of The Monkees on DVD thanks to the Sweetness and I had a pretty good haul.
We had dinner at this Italian place in Round Rock we like called Al Capone's. We've been there several times and the food has always been good. There's also never a wait which I like just fine, yes I do. I hate waiting at restaurants. Something about it just annoys the hell out of me.
Also, I must be getting soft in my old age. It's my birthday and the strongest thing I drank last night was Dr. Pepper. So it goes.
To sum up: 30, so far, hasn't been a drag at all.
Now, back to current events as it's seemingly all I can think about these days. I think any sensible person has seen over the course of the last twenty years or so the continued threat of the christian right in this country to transform our democracy into a theocracy.( Read more... ) | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| For those of you, like me, who drink sodas:
The Charlotte Observer reports
NUTRITION / SUZANNE HAVALA HOBBS
FDA knew of benzene problem in sodas years ago
SUZANNE HAVALA HOBBS
Could soft drinks cause cancer?
It's a question that deserves attention following the disclosure that some soft drinks contain the cancer-causing chemical benzene.
The news hasn't gotten much attention.
But a science administrator at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed for me that recent government tests found benzene in soft drinks purchased off grocery store shelves. Long-term exposure to benzene is associated with higher rates of leukemia.
What makes this situation scandalous is that the FDA knew about the issue 14 years ago. The agency left it to industry to address the problem.
Even now, FDA says it would prefer that industry voluntarily get benzene out of our colas.
How is benzene getting in?
Benzene forms when sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, used to inhibit the growth of bacteria, reacts with ascorbic acid, also called vitamin C.Glen Lawrence, now a biochemist and professor at Long Island University, performed the FDA tests that documented the problem in the early 1990s when he worked for the agency as a science advisor.
"People at FDA who were testing foods told me they found benzene in orange soda," Lawrence said. "I said, `I think it must be coming from the sodium benzoate.' "
Lawrence said he was able to demonstrate that sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid in soft drinks reacted to form benzene. He published his findings in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry in 1993.
Industry agreed at the time to spread the word among drink manufacturers and to reformulate their products, reported the online trade publication BeverageDaily.com.
Follow-up tests found no benzene in soft drinks.
But that has changed.
"An issue we thought went away in the 1990s has come back," said George Pauli, associate director of science and policy in the FDA's Office of Food Additive Safety.
FDA officials were recently alerted to the problem by a lawyer in New York who has campaigned to remove soft drinks from schools. BeverageDaily.com reported in February that a former industry scientist turned whistleblower helped organize tests that rediscovered the problem.
The FDA responded by going shopping, Pauli said. They went to a store, bought sodas and tested them for benzene.
"We found occasional levels significantly higher than expected," Pauli said.
How much is too much?
The federal standard for benzene in drinking water is 5 parts per billion. The soft drink samples tested by FDA contained higher amounts, Pauli said.
There is no federal standard for benzene in soft drinks aside from the one used for water.
Pauli said that since the BeverageDaily.com report, he has received calls from industry representatives about the situation.
"It's got the soft drink industry's attention," he said. "I expect they're looking at this now."
A spokesperson for the American Beverage Association did not return a phone call seeking comment on this column.
Pauli said he expects FDA will take action, but the agency prefers to seek voluntary action. He says voluntary agreements often can be reached faster than instituting new regulations.
Pauli makes a valid point. But this is a problem that was first discovered almost 15 years ago. It's not good enough for our government to rely on unannounced, voluntary agreements with industry representatives to remove a cancer-causing chemical from such a widely consumed product.
Our elected representatives in Congress and in the executive branch should ask hard questions about why regulations have not been established requiring reformulation of drinks to prevent the creation of benzene.
Meanwhile, readers may want to scrutinize drink labels and avoid products that contain both sodium or potassium benzoate and ascorbic acid. According to Lawrence, citric acid is not a problem.
Lawrence says industry shouldn't include the three ingredients in products.
"If they know this has a chance to form benzene, they should leave it out," he said.
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Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC; suzanne@onthetable.net; www.onthetable.net. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Subject: Congress is selling out the Internet
Hi,
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet.
Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your computer.
If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why these high-tech pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort to gut Internet freedom.
You can do your part today--can you sign this petition telling your member of Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%7C7004223-e9ggYSVKsmFXfmwCotS2_Q
Snopes.com, which monitors various causes that circulate on the Internet, explained:
Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's...Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend's MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user's web browser with the same priority. In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane.
If companies like AT&T have their way, Web sites ranging from Google to eBay to iTunes either pay protection money to get into the "fast lane" or risk opening slowly on your computer. We can't let the Internet--this incredible medium which has been such a revolutionary force for democratic participation, economic innovation, and free speech--become captive to large corporations.
Want to get more involved? Here's how to get started:
CALL Congress now (most important):
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1670
BLOG about this issue, or put the "Save the Internet" logo on your Web site:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/netblog/
MYSPACE: Add "Save the Internet" as a friend:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1658
WRITE A LETTER to Congress:
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet
VISIT our coalition Web site for more information:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/ | | comments: Leave a comment |
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