"They did everything they were trained to do[: murder]"

From the AP:

Eight Marines were charged Thursday in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians last year during a bloody, door-to-door sweep in the town of Haditha that came after one of their comrades was killed by a roadside bomb.

In the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to come out of the Iraq war, four of the Marines — all enlisted men — were charged with unpremeditated murder.

[...]

The most serious charges were brought against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, a 26-year-old squad leader accused of murdering 12 civilians and ordering the murders of six more inside a house cleared by his squad. He was accused of telling his men to "shoot first and ask questions later," according to court papers released by his attorney.

[...]

Defense attorneys have disputed that, saying their clients were doing as they had been taught: responding to a perceived threat with legitimate force.

"There's no question that innocent people died that day, but Staff Sergeant Wuterich believes, and I believe, they did everything they were trained to do," said Wuterich's lawyer, Neal Puckett.

click here for all of it

As these Marines' attorney said, they were doing what they were taught. The Marines have been taught to shoot every single target they can find in the vacinity of an attack, no questions asked. That doesn't sound like spreading democracy to me. What are we doing over there?

Iraq troop buildup idea worries generals

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

A White House laboring to find a new approach in Iraq said Tuesday it is considering sending more U.S. troops, an option that worries top generals because of its questionable payoff and potential backlash. President Bush said he is ready to boost the overall size of an American military overstretched by its efforts against worldwide terrorism.

The military's caution on shipping thousands of additional troops temporarily to Iraq is based on a fear that the move could be ineffective without bold new political and economic steps.

Commanders also worry that the already stretched Army and Marine Corps would be even thinner once the short-term surge ended. Bush's newly expressed interest in making the military larger would have little impact on that worry because it will take much longer to add substantially to the size of the military.

Generals also question whether sending more troops to Iraq would feed a perception that the strife in Iraq is mainly a military problem; in their view it is largely political, fed by economic distress.

click here for all of it

Like I said in the previous post, he's the worst ever. We shouldn't send more troops, take it from the generals. They know a little more about war than the president, that's what they're there for. Bush has been notorious for doing the opposite of what his generals say, and putting his owns words in their mouths. Almost any time they talk about his strategy, it's like a negative critique. Isn't that tendancy a bit of a clue?

WORST EVER!

By far the worst

President Bush said today that he plans to put more troops in Iraq.

Who does this guy think he is? He's stuck in 2003 or something. This is absolutely, inarguably, undeniably, grounds for impeachment.

I'm stunned he thinks he can get away with this.

Does anyone still feel like explaining why it's dumb to still have toops in Iraq? Is it pointless to explain why we never should have gone in there?

"The search is on"

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Kip Davis and Jay Robison saw what they believed was an ivory-billed woodpecker on Thursday, one of thousands of reported sightings piling up as leaves in an east Arkansas swamp drift down.

[...]

Connie Bruce, a spokeswoman for Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, which is researching the possible re-appearance of the ivory-billed woodpecker, said the search continues despite no evidence being turned up last winter.

"The search is on," Bruce said. "This is very important to us. We all want to locate this bird."

click here for all of it

Seriously, if you've seen this woodpecker anywhere, please contact your local animal control office. This is a problem we've got to address. We're losing too many soldiers in Iraq as it is, we can't afford to lose this woodpecker.

America's Injustice System is Criminal

From Counter Punch by way of RealArt:

The Christmas season is a time to remember the unfortunate. Among the most unfortunate people are those who have been wrongly convicted and imprisoned.

The United States has a large number of wrongfully convicted. There are many reasons for this. One is that the US has the largest percentage of its citizens imprisoned of all countries in the world, including China. One of every 32 US adults is behind bars, on probation or on parole. Given a wrongful conviction rate, the larger the percentage of citizens in jails, the greater the number of wrongfully convicted.

According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London, the US has 700,000 more of its citizens incarcerated than China, a country with a population four to five times larger than that of the US, and 1,330,000 more people in prison than crime-ridden Russia. The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. The American incarceration rate is seven times higher than that of European countries. Either America is the land of criminals, or something is seriously wrong with the criminal justice (sic) system in "the land of the free."

click here for all of it

This is pretty wild. He gives a few examples of people who've been convicted with no evidence. This article mentions a whole bunch of specific issues regarding injustice, though not citing examples for all of them. It's a good read, but some of it is pretty arguable.

Calif. company faces immigration charges

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

A Southern California fence-building company and two executives pleaded guilty Thursday to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and agreed to pay a combined penalty of $5 million. The executives could also go to prison.

The penalty is one of the biggest fines ever imposed in an immigration case, and the case represents a rare instance in which prosecutors brought criminal charges over the hiring of illegal immigrants.

[...]

The two men admitted hiring at least 10 illegal immigrants.

[...]

Hirsch said prosecutors plan to ask for six months behind bars for the two men at sentencing March 28. The maximum sentence is five years. Prison time is unusual in such cases.

Among Golden State Fence's projects in recent years was construction of part of a 14-mile border fence in San Diego in the late 1990s.

Last year, in one of the biggest cases of its kind, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to end a federal investigation into the use of illegal immigrants at stores in 21 states.

Companies are rarely hit with criminal charges for hiring illegal immigrants.

[...]

The illegal hiring took place between 1999 and 2005.

[...]

Golden State, which has 750 employees, saw sales soar from $60 million in 1998 to $150 million in 2004, according to a biography of Kay provided by the company.

The plea bargain comes just days after federal authorities raided meat processing plants in six states as part of an investigation into the stealing and selling of identity documents so illegal immigrants could get jobs.

clickhereforallofit

That seventh little paragraph says it all. Companies rarely get busted for this because the government just isn't that concerned with illegal labor, though this article seems to show that the government is suddenly cracking down on this issue, which is what I've always said the government needed to do. I'd still like to hear this side of the illegal immigration debate more often, even though I can't stand the illegal immigration debate because it was so obviously sparked recently to distract us from Iraq.

Anyway, I'm right, always have been, thanks for stopping by, say no to corporate labor abuse.

Bush: I won't be rushed on Iraq

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

President Bush said Wednesday he would "not be rushed" into a decision on a strategy change for Iraq, saying that in a round of consultations he heard both some interesting ideas and some "ideas that would lead to defeat."

"And I reject those ideas," Bush said after meeting with top generals and Defense Department officials at the Pentagon. He said those ideas included "leaving before the job is done, ideas such as not helping this (Iraqi) government take the necessary and hard steps to be able to do its job."

clickhereforallofit

"Ideas that WOULD lead to defeat?" We're there Georgie! Get the fuck out!! There's no victory when there's no plan, and you can't decide on a plan! You keep changing your plan, you keep changing the whole fucking purpose of this "war." Get the fuck out!

"Before the job is done?" Give me a break and get the fuck out. Of Iraq. Right now.

Police: Ill. gunman [not terrorist] angry over invention

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Joe Jackson, 59, made at least one other attempt Friday to enter the offices of the intellectual property law firm Wood, Phillips, Katz, Clark & Mortimer, but was turned away because he didn't have an appointment, said Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline.

The next time he returned, Jackson had a revolver, knife and hammer hidden in a manila envelope, Cline said. He forced a security guard at gunpoint to take him up to the 38th floor, where shooting victim Michael McKenna, 58, rented office space. Jackson carried McKenna's business card in his pocked, Cline said.

click here for all of it

I don't mean to ignore the actual story, but I am. I've posted this to point out that Joe Jackson is not a terrorist, he is a gunman. He was angry, shot some people, his religion, or lack thereof, is irrelevant. Even the word "terror" is nowhere to be found on the entire web page.

Also in Illinois:

A Muslim convert is in custody accused of trying to trade two stereo speakers for a 9 mm pistol and the grenades authorities say he wanted to carry out an attack on holiday shoppers.

[...]

The imam of the Muslim Association of Greater Rockford, Shpendim Nadzaku, commended authorities for intercepting the alleged plot and reiterated "the Muslim community's condemnation of terrorism in the name of Islam."

click here for all of it (also from the AP via Yahoo! News)

This web page had "terror," "terrorist," and "terrorism," in several places, though the article itself only used the word "terrorism" once, but it was okay because a Muslim said it...

Joe Jackson the gunman actually killed some people, Derrick Shareef the terrorist never got the chance to.

I dunno about you but I'm about to saddle up for the War on Gumanism.

Bush's Meeting With A Murderer

From Tompaine.com (Dec. 4th, 2006) by Robert Dreyfuss:

President George W. Bush meets today with Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the [...] leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a Shiite fundamentalist party that is strongly tied to Iran. In so doing, the president is meeting with someone who, perhaps more than anyone else in Iraq, is responsible for trying to destroy Iraqi national unity, prevent national reconciliation among Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian mix, and push Iraq into civil war.

click here for all of it

Whats the difference between harboring terrorists and shaking hands with them?

I guess going and meeting with them on their turf takes a little more work, or maybe lack thereof. Enough joking, Bush is literally shaking hands with the enemy, with a real "evil doer," as he calls others. How does he continue to get away with this shit?

or

Just watched V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is one of the best movies ever. I am pumped right now! Wish I had seen it in theaters. Why didn't people revolt after that movie? It's so perfect, it lays out exactly whats wrong with several governments right now, it's basically a re-telling of Orwell's 1984, a story that still needs to be told. Every day. Until people wise up.

I'm gonna go torch some buildings now.

I coined 'turban street'

In the next few days you may hear various versions of a joke that I posted in a myspace bulletin with the punchline of "turban street."

I am using this blog to publish the joke and have concrete proof that I said it first.

The joke:

Jen: (after several emergency vehicles zoom by the cafe) Man whats going on?? They've caught Osama bin Laden in New Orleans!

Me: Yeah, they caught him on TURBAN STREET!

Just wait, turban streets gonna be HUGE, you'll see.

"Seeing money can change behavior"

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Kathleen Vohs, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues, conducted a series of nine experiments in which people were asked to do puzzles or other tasks and the behavior of people exposed to money was compared to others who were not prompted to think about it.

[...]

In another experiment 44 students at Florida State University were each given $2 in quarters — which they were told was leftover from a previous experiment — and asked to unscramble sentences that divided them into two groups, one that was reminded of money by the sentence and others that were not.

When they left, the researcher noted that there was a box by the door for donations for needy students if they wanted to chip in, but they didn't have to.

On average, students who had read neutral sentences donated $1.34 while those whose sentences reminded them of money kept more for themselves, giving an average of just 77 cents.

[...]

Vohs research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canada Research Chair Council.

clickhereforallofit

I dunno, [something about capitolism]. Its a really interesting study, I recommend reading all of it. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret the results, but they don't really suprise me. What would we do without Canada?

Will the Dems suprise me?

From the AP:

Dem scrutiny of drugs, defense expected

[...]

Generally speaking, Democrats have said they will differ from Republicans by being tougher watchdogs of corporate wrongdoing and government spending and bigger defenders of consumers and labor unions.

clickhereforallofit

Here's hoping.

Fundamentals of an Acceptable Democracy (for the United States of America)

Government leaders should put social goals above economic goals; human interests are more important than business interests.

Political candidates should not be supported by private corporations; politicians should not be allowed to accept contributions from businesses--only individual citizens, and large donations should be investigated and/or scrutinized.

Government should provide at least two years of free education for highschool graduates.

Study of the humanities should be emphasized in public school curriculum.

If they appear on more than half of all the states' ballots, third party presidential candidates should be allowed to participate in presidential debates with major party candidates.

The public should be allowed to vote on major national budget issues, i.e. considerable cuts or raises in funding for any government programs.

Personal privacy should not be infringed upon, even in established or declared national security crises or "troubled times" or "high stakes."

The public should vote on declarations of war and/or any kinds of military invasion, occupation or force against another country. Government should not order offensive military action without the consent of the public (by means of the voting process).

A truely democratic country will not use military intervention to change another country's governmental system, leadership, or philosophy.

All basic human rights that a government observes within its national borders should be equally observed outside of its national borders; war crimes are unacceptable, even if the opposing country/government has already committed them (even in greater volume or with higher severity).

Using Saddam's sentence to boost Republican votes

From AFP (Agence France Presse):

US voters weight Republican fate on election eve

[...]

Candidates in down-to-the-wire races cranked up get-out-the-vote efforts and Bush launched a final three-state campaign swing, with polls showing a tightening of a race expected to heap pain on his fellow Republicans.

[...]

On Sunday, he taunted anti-war critics by holding up the death sentence handed down on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as vindication for the 2003 US invasion.

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision, and the world is better off for it," he said.

clickhereforallofit

Its no suprise that Republicans, especially Bush, would try to use Saddam's death sentence as a last minute vote booster. Everyone hates Saddam, but will the American people be convinced that the world is better off now that Hussein is going to hang?

Lets not forget that the search for WMDs showed up practically empty, and there's no evidence that they were going to start a nuke program or supply "terrorists" with weapons or anything that extreme.

Are the American people gullible enough to keep Republicans in power just because Saddam has been sentenced to death? He's been captive for like two years now, whats really the difference? Troops are still dying, and Iraq doesn't appear to be stabilizing at all -- "Oh yay, Saddam's gonna hang!..."

If Americans are happy about Saddam's death sentence, they should remember that EVERYONE in Congress wanted to go to war back in 2003. Well, they voted for it, at least. But is his death sentence a victory in this so-called war on terror? Yeah right.

"Wrecker-in-Chief"

from nader.org:

On October 17th, George W. Bush, signed into law a bill he bulldozed through Congress that, in Senator Patrick Leahy’s prophetic words, would suspend “the writ of habeas corpus, a core value in American law, in order to avoid judicial review that prevents government abuse.” This law, whose constitutionality is in doubt and will be reviewed by the Supreme Court in due time, puts so much arbitrary and secret unilateral power in the hands of the Presidency that the ghost of King George III must be wondering what all the fuss was about in 1776.

If you want more evidence of how obsessively-compulsed George W. Bush is about his wars, their fabrications, budgets and cover-ups, consider his cue card statement on the legislation at the White House signing ceremony. “It is a rare occasion when a president can sign a bill he knows will save American lives,” he declared.

Hello! He has rejected all kinds of occasions to save American lives here at home. He has refused to do anything about the widespread and preventable mayhem known as medical and hospital malpractice, while fanatically pushing for restrictions on the right of such victims or their next of kin to have their full day in court. At least 80,000 Americans die from malpractice just in hospitals every year, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

The same Presidential pen could have saved thousands of more lives and prevented many more injuries were it to alight on safety legislation and larger budgets for reducing job-related sickness and trauma (58,000 lost lives a year) and air pollution (65,000 lives a year) – to name a few categories of preventable violence. But he signaled from the onset of his Presidency that such bills would be opposed from the getgo.

And once again remember his incompetence in letting U.S. soldiers – hundreds of them die in Iraq from the lack of adequate body armor.

At the signing event, Mr. Bush called the legislation “a way to deliver justice to the terrorists we have captured.” To him all captured subjects are ipso facto convicted terrorists. It is not as if his record gives any credence to such fantasies. But he persists in his deception none the less. Out of nearly 700 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, he has charged only ten after over four years of detention. Ten! Why? Mostly, as military, civilian lawyers and other monitors have said, because the vast majority of these abused or beaten prisoners were innocent from the day of their apprehension – victims of bounty hunters in Afghanistan and surroundings.

clickhereforallofit

I don't have time to write much about this, I just think its a damn good read. If you have second thoughts about George Bush when you hear sound bites on Fox News, just read Ralph.

Cops crash a country show at Walter's

From the Houston Chronicle:

A Houston police officer responding to a noise complaint Friday night at Walter's, a popular music venue on Washington Avenue, discharged his Taser at least three times when a melee ensued after he told a guitar player to turn down the volume.

[...]

[Sgt. Nate] McDuell said [Adam] Stephens, whose guitar was hanging from a neck strap, then used a sexual obscenity and shoved the officer with his shoulder.

[...]

Stephens said he was sideways and singing on the stage just before he turned around and saw the officer, who then shined a flashlight at him and said, "Stop."

Stephens, who denied shoving the officer, said he responded, "Why?"

He said the officer moved closer to him and yelled, "Stop!"

Stephens said he again asked why and that the officer then grabbed him by the neck and forced him to the floor.

Accounts vary, but apparently several people then charged the stage, there was a lot of pushing and shoving, and the officer called for backup.

[...]

[G.M.] Rodriguez suffered bruises and cuts on his arms, at least four people were arrested, a valuable bass was broken. A tall, slender 14-year-old with shoulder-length hair was Tasered, and a University of Houston sociology student doing a "field paper on the music scene" also was Tasered.

clickhereforallofit

I heard about this from my girlfriend a few days ago, but it was second hand from a Hot Topic employee so I wasn't sure if it was true (because that store's specialty is fabrication).

What suprises me the most is that these bands got the cops called on it. WAAAY louder bands have played at Walter's before, like The Casualties for example, who are actually coming back to Walter's this Friday, and I think Youth Brigade played sometime last week.

There's no question that this cop was an asshole and was completely out of line. So I'm not going to discuss that.

My theory as to why the cops targeted Walter's is that they were actually called about an earlier, louder show, the kind that Walter's has more often than these "laid back country" shows. It must have been just a slow night for this cop and he happened to drive by Walter's and recognized the name of the place and heard some noise. Hell, the neighbor who called the cops probably does so every single night! So this Rodriguez character decides he's actually going to humor the neighbors tonight and show up.

I can imagine how confusing it would be for a cop to be so pissed off about some laid back folk rock show.

Here's how it plays out in my head: you're up on the stage playing your guitar, the bright stage lights make it difficult to see anyone in the crowd, you seem to be ignoring the cop because you CAN'T FUCKING SEE HIM, so he gets up on the stage and approaches you; if you're facing away from the crowd (to the side in this case), you probably can't see him even after he comes up onto the stage so you accidentally run into him as you turn back to face the crowd.

Basically, if Stephens really did run into that cop first, it was quite likely just an accident, and this cop flipped out.

I've been planning on booking a show out at Walter's for my loud, rowdy punk rock band, The Drafted. Luck for us, Houston cops would rather raid the mellow college crowd!

Whats wrong with this picture?

From NPR:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters the United States is open to negotiations with North Korea to "keep the crisis from escalating."

[...]

Rice's trip to Asia is aimed at boosting support in South Korea and China for sanctions against North Korea.

clickhereforallofit

Maybe I don't fully understand what sanctions are, or whatever the Bush administration means by "sanctions" these days, but it doesn't seem like a form of negotiation to me. And I think the term "open to negotiations" kind of goes out the window when you're pushing for sanctions. Like, "We're open to anything, but mostly just sanctions." I can't believe Rice is actually trying to make it sound like the administration wants to negotiate.

I guess they really mean to negotiate with South Korea and China about placing sanctions against North Korea. Thats really the only way to make sense of it.

But, how dumb am I being by trying to rationalize something the Bush administration is doing?

Why I'm not scared of North Korea

Its been more than two years now since I wrote a song called "North Korea" for my punk band, The Drafted. The song was about my confusion after I first heard that North Korea claimed to have a Bomb. I couldn't understand why we were invading Iraq because they might be trying to start a nuke program (the first reason we were there) while another country, with a considerably more insane dictator, actually admitted to having such weapons and our leaders essentially ignored it.

The media paid closer attention this summer when they tested those missiles, but now that they've tested this nuke its really gotten crazy, on both sides. I mean, Kim Jong Il is out of his fucking mind. No one is disputing that; the man is insane, but he's not dumb enough to use his weapons before someone else does first. How do I know this? North Korea is all Kim Jong Il has! NO ONE likes that guy! If he tries to take the offensive and nuke another country first, he knows he's going to get creamed by one of the other several nuclear states, no matter who he nukes. Inversely, we can't do SHIT to them now, so we might as well humor them and include them in international dialogue.

The North Korean government has repeatedly said that they developed the nuclear weapons as a defensive measure. With Il's insanity aside, how hard is that to believe? Freaking out about it only displays everyone's belief that they're a bunch of animals, and maybe they will end up using them first if we keep acting that way.

Its like bees. If you don't bother them, they don't bother you. I've had wasps land on me before and I just froze; they fly away immediately. Whether North Korea deserves respect or not, we've got to give it to them now. The only way to get them to listen to dissarmament talks would be for the other nuclear nations to dissarm first, and who expects that to happen any time soon?

No one seems to be looking at the nuclear situation in the same way that I am, maybe I'm the crazy one.

A post from Nader.org

Options For Revision

Imagine the U.S. military – from the soldiers on the ground to the generals – saying publicly what they are thinking and saying privately about their two draft-dodging but bellicose rulers in the White House.

Sometimes, reporters have gathered a few excoriating statements from the frustrated, beleaguered, often body armor-less GIs. One even demanded Bush’s resignation from his barracks in Iraq, which was shown on national television.

There is also the under-reported Zogby poll released in January 2006 –
the only scientifically sampled field poll in Iraq – which showed over
seventy percent of the soldiers thought the United States should
withdraw in a time period ranging from six months to a year. And this
opinion in the war zone was registered when the situation was not as
bad as the quagmire is today.

As for the Generals, their dissatisfaction with Don Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, goes well beyond his brusque personality into the rigid and mistaken policies from the beginning of this fabricated, illegal war.

Now comes the New York Times reporter, Michael R. Gordon, with a page one story about a forthcoming Army and Marine Corps field manual with a “new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military strategy.”

Some might view this manual – drawing from the experiences of bottom to top military personnel – to be an indirect rebuke of the failed brute, force military policies of the Bush White House. Some may also wonder what took the Pentagon so long to rediscover old knowledge about what succeeded and failed in foreign military occupations. Old knowledge that says reliance on sheer military power, mistreating prisoners, and not safeguarding civilians and essential public services fails again and again.

Well, better late than never. This particular field manual went through many comments, consultations, and drafts before distilling nine “representative paradoxes” of counterinsurgency operations. Their theme is that the more force used, the less effective it is. Staying in touch with the civilian population, instead of staying in compounds, is more effective than a brute force and firepower approach. Dollars and ballots have more impact than sheer weaponry because they strengthen the host country’s restoration of basic services like police, electricity, drinking water, food, health and schools.

Other paradoxes include one that says “tactical success guarantees nothing," and that “most of the important decisions are not made by generals,” but by troops at all levels.

By now you are probably saying, “Isn’t that just repeating the obvious?” Why, yes, but when your dogmatic, messianic commanders are Bush and Cheney, shorn of history, common sense, and critical reactive thinking, the “obvious” has to be conveyed as something new, lest it be seen as what it is – a repudiation of disas trous policies from design to supply to logistics.

click here for all of it

If you're feeling confused about this whole "right and wrong" thing these days when you see all this shit about North Korea and what our responsibility is and whatnot, I recommend paying a visit to nader.org and reading Ralph's latest rants about Iraq.

I haven' read it all, as I write this, but it seems pretty entertaining at least.

I don't mean to blog once a month...

I can think of two people who read this blog, and to you two guys, I'm sorry I never post anymore.

I don't have internet at my house, hopefully once we move to our new location I will be able to get online regularly and with time to do stuff like this. I've blogged from UNO's library before but I've been doing actual work there lately for this "school" thing that I'm signed up for.

Politics: Ummmm, I'm going to be voting for the first time this year. Kind of exciting, I'm casting my govenatorial vote for independent Kinky Friedman for governor of Texas. If anyone has found a reason not to vote for him please let me know; I've read his site a few times and he seems like the best choice, suprisingly progressive. He's not some hopeless joke candidate who's doomed from the start, he looks like he could really win and he's got some good ideas despite his dumb ass ways of relating to dumb ass Texans.

Speaking of elections, I really don't think the Republicans are going down this mid term. Its okay, if they haven't dug their grave deeply enough yet, two more years should be enough to get rid of them for a while.

Keep stopping by guys (John and Ron), I'll get back in the blog habbit eventually. Haha, Ron-John.

"Islam, which I consider to be a cult religion"

I've been going to church at this place in Metarie called Calvary Chapel. Its this seemingly very cool non-denominational church that is oriented to more youthful and chilled out people. However, the particular pastor at the Metarie Calvary Chapel is a TOTAL fundamentalist.

All of the sermons that I've heard him give so far have included the following themes: 1)We're right 2)They're wrong 3)There can only be one Truth and that is the word of Jesus Christ, everything else is wrong.

This morning "Pastor Dave" (as I think of him in my mind, I can't remember his real name) once again got around to talking negatively about Islam. The exact term that he used was "cult religion" and my memory's quote is, "...Islam, which I consider to be a cult religion...". In all my life of going to church (pretty much every single sunday of my life, without fail) I have never heard a pastor blatently regard another religion as a "cult". But here's the real kicker: a few weeks ago, we had a guest pastor. I think this guy was from Colorado, he's the pastor for another Calvary Chapel. His views were not much different at all. His exact words were, "There's no life in Muhammad! There's no life in Buddha! There's no life in ME!". Once again, a Calvary Chapel minister openly disputed and denied other faiths.

I'm seriously thinking about bringing my minidisc recorder to a sermon and recording what this guy at the Metarie Calvary Chapel says. Its not suprising that these guys were from a non-denominaitonal church; they probably don't have to answer to as much authority as your standard Methodist or Baptist, or especially Catholic ministers, do.

The testimony of just two prechers probably does not reflect the belief of Calvary Chapel as a whole organization, but it does bring some questions to my mind. Particularly, could this be a church that America needs to look out for? Moreso than southern Baptist churches or the TV evangelicals?

That last blog sucked

What I was trying to say yesterday was that I started off last week with a lot of confusion about my classes. I just now straightened out my last problem and am feeling much better about my time here. I should probably be reading up on these issues that are coming up in my English class regarding the New Orleans tax assessor consolidation and the levee board consolidation, but whatever.

I just now had my first guitar lesson ever. I can't wait to kick ass. Its going to happen pretty soon.

The stuff I said yesterday about not making any friends is pretty true, but I do know a few graduate students who go to this church that my brother and I have been going to on Sundays, they're really nice.

I really do feel pretty out of control still, but at least I have a chance to get over it now that I've gotten all my class conflicts straightened out. I'll blog about political stuff soon.

My first weeks of college

I haven't blogged in a while. I am currently living in Gretna, LA (West Bank, yo!) with my brother Travis, and we don't have internet access right now. We're going to be moving to a different house in a few weeks.

Anyway, UNO has been a pretty flabergasting experience so far. I've been feeling quite out of control of my life for the past few weeks because I can't get on the net at any time that I want and I missed my first class of college because I didn't even know that I was supposed to be there! I found out the next day that there are three parts to this music theory course that I'm taking, at least I've got my schedule figured out now, I think.

I've got this constant feeling like I'm doing something wrong, like I'm forgetting something, or like there's another piece of important information that I'm unaware of. Every moment that I get to relax, I've got this fog in the back of my mind that says there's somewhere else that I'm supposed to be. And my dad keeps emailing me saying we're out of daytime minutes on our cell phone plan, haha.

The weirdest thing about this experience so far is that I haven't made a SINGLE friend yet, nor even had a conversation with any of my classmates. Nor do I feel like I'm accepted by them, as if that mattered. I go to school, sit in the front, listen to the instructors, do what they say, and leave without having shared anything with anyone. The only exception would have to have been yesterday at my ensemble class. At least I actually talked to a few people.

I must seem depressed but I expect things to improve.

George Allen’s Macaca

From Crooks and Liars:

Sen. George Allen has a funny way of communicating with the only non-white at an all Republican event.

S.R. Sidarth, a senior at the University of Virginia, had been trailing Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for the Webb campaign. During a campaign speech Friday in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, Allen singled out Sidarth and called him a word that sounded like "Macaca."

"Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," said Allen, who then began talking about the "war on terror." In an interview, Sidarth said he suspects Allen singled him out because he was the only non-white face in the audience, which he estimated included about 100 Republican supporters.

He could have at least asked him his name since he’s been around his campaign. And yes, what does he mean by Macaca?

If spelled M-a-c-a-c-a, the term refers to a species of monkeys in the Eastern Hemisphere. "Is he saying Sidarth is a monkey?" [Webb spokesperson Kristian Denny] Todd asked. The word M-a-k-a-k-a refers to a town in South Africa. Todd accused Wadhams of "reaching" for an explanation for Allen’s comments. "The kid has a name. This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person," Todd said.

Click here to see the original post from Crooks and Liars.

Here's the video below. I don't need to comment any further on this because its completely clear from this video that George Allen is a complete douche bag and should be sacked.

"The best one we've had so far"

I was eating at a taquaria in Pasadena, Texas yesterday with my boss, Larry, and two of his other employees. There was a picture of "The Mexican Elvis" on the wall; I didn't catch what his name was but the story about his alleged assassination by a past Mexican president led Larry to start talking about how "everyone wants to hang Bush". He actually said that President Bush is the best president that our country has had so far! Then he went on about how we should ANNEX ALL OF MEXICO.

He didn't explain why Bush is the best, so I'll explain why Bush is the worst.

1. The tax cuts that "help the economy" are really only helping the corporate elites who benefit from them the most. A glance at some of the numbers may tell you that the economy is strong right now, but a glance at any current personal bankruptcy statistic will show you that something is very wrong. If the economy is doing so well, why are so many people filing for bankruptcy these days? Why hasn't the minimum wage increased since 1997?

2. King George has changed the purpose of the war in Iraq twice now. Before 9/11, he was perpared to go to war because of the whole "No Fly Zone" thing. Immediately after 9/11, Iraq was supposedly stocking up on nukes. Now after thousands of our troops have already died not to mention a countless amount of Iraqi civilians, we're there to "promote democracy" in the region or "restore peace/freedom/stability", whichever sounds right at the time. How he has gotten away with this is completely beyond me.

3. His first veto of his career squelched research that could likely find cures or treatments to currently incurable diseases. His explanation was that stem cell research kills innocent life, even though the research would be done on stem cells that were never going to live in the first place.

4. Lets not forget that whole "Mission Accomplished" fiasco. That was just stupid. (He's the first president to appear in military uniform while in office, only preceded elsewhere by people like Castro and other totalitarian types).

5. He has not shown any kind of concern about the coruption of the Mexican government--corruption which forces so many Mexicans to flee here (sometimes legally). In fact, Bush's relationship with Vicente Fox (Mexico's current president) is quite a friendly one.

6. His administration's shaky consistency on getting permission for domestic wire tapping (which has always been approved when they actually ask for it) is suspicious at best.

7. His old "Axis of Evil" remarks jeopardized relations between South and North Korea, as well as secular progress in Iran. There was a tremendous amout of normalization being made, but North Korea shut its doors to the South after Bush put them in his Axis of Evil. Also, many people in Iran were becoming religiously tolerant and non-violent, but after Bush's remarks they fled back to the Ayatollas and other Islamic fundamentalist leaders.

Need I go on? You could find just as many bad things about every president that we've had, but in no way could anyone in their right mind truely believe that Bush has been the best.

Roots of hardcore

Dead Boys, 1977

Chomsky: media, government, truth

Something we should all think about: Zinn on human nature and war

Happy Birthday Gorni Kramer

Gorni Kramer is on accordian. I'll be honest, I'd never heard of Gorni Kramer until I saw his name on a list of jazz musicians who's birthdays are today.

This is REALLY funny though.

Texas state bird: the mosquito

I don't know what species of mosquito this is, but they scare the hell out of me.

Summer rain brings monsters.

I'm addicted to this song

Fox finally owns up to bin Laden's health

Last night my dad was watching the Astros game. During the commerical breaks he would click upwards one station (eerily convenient for most Southern sports fans' interest) to the Fox News Channel. As I walked in to the kitchen to adorn my pallent with tuna, I heard in the background something that I have known for a few years now: Osama bin Laden is extremely ill and is treated regularly with dialysis!

Apparently bin Laden is now requesting that his followers pray dilligently for his health, but for some odd reason I suspect that maybe Fox News is just a little late on mentioning this fact. Its not that he's gotten worse or recently got sick in the first place, its that this old information is somehow convenient for Fox News now, or perhaps the White House finally acknowledged bin Laden's condition so Fox routinely fell in line regardless whether they think its important.

It definately is important. It was important back in 2002 when Jello Biafra was talking about it in his spoken word performances. It was important when Michael Moore wrote about it in his book, Dude Where's My Country, in 2003. But now that news is credible beyond a shadow of a doubt because the White House or Fox News, whichever was first, has reported it.

Thanks for the info, Fox. Now everyone will finally believe that the big bad warewolf of 9/11 is on dialysis and is therefore not possibly hidden in the caves of Afghanistan or any caves at all, for that matter. When on earth will we ever find that mad man?

Life at the Plant

Yesterday I carried out my assignment of replacing the nozzels at each fire hose station in the power block. See, most of them had this red plastic nozzel and they found out recently (the hard way) that plastic nozzels can wear out and shoot off and hit someone in the head and injure them pretty badly. So they bought these new brass ones. I had to go into the insane maze of this multi-story, steel grated mass of power plant and find all the fire hose stations...with a map that wasn't too user friendly.

I know I just made that sound kinda shitty, but it was actually a lot of fun. It was essentially very easy: just walk to the stations with a bucket full of new nozzels and replace the old dangerous ones (they screw on and off, a monkey could do it...) . The hard part was finding them all, but at least the weird industrial scenery (complete with my hard had, goggles, ear plugs, and steal toe boots) was much cooler than my friend's job at Popeye's.

In my head I kept repeating, and believing: "Beats the hell out of flippin' burgers and dealing with customers!"

I'm a workin' man

I started working at my dad's power plant yesterday: AES Deepwater in Pasadena, Texas (where else?). Yes, I am very much a part of the problem for a change. Needed some variety I guess, but really just desperately need my own money as to not put my parents into debt.

They've got a summer program for college students. They're gonna hook me up with a mowing tractor and I'm gonna bascially be the groundskeeper of this area that they recently bought. I also get to use a forklift!!

Everyone has to have a hard hat and safety glasses and wear ear protection and steel toe boots and I got a bunch of petroleum coke on my hands today and felt like a badass factory worker. Even though I'm just a summer temp. Haha. But I changed the HELL out of them hose nosels!

A wake up call about illegal immigration from Mexico's elections

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Mexican expatriate voters hindered in U.S.

[...]

Apathy also was an issue. Some said that they came to the United States because Mexican governments had failed to create economic opportunities at home, and that they didn't see that changing anytime soon.

clickhereforallofit

That sentence that I bolded, enlarged, and italicized is the root of the problem of illegal immigration. Our government does absolutely nothing to stop it either, in fact, these "free trade" agreements that the Bush Administration touts so proudly are what causes that situation. "Free trade" means allowing corporations to go into foreign lands where they'll exploit poor people's labor with no penatly (thats the "freedom" of "free trade", freedom to exploit for the sake of profits).

Our president and Mexico's current president, Vicente Fox, are completely on the same page when it comes to economics, and thats what is causing the corruption in all the Latin American countries where we've installed and/or supported right wing governments who sign with our "free trade" agreements. Migrant workers flee Latin America because they can make more money if they're exploited in America rather than being exploited in their native countries, not to mention the social services that are available (and should be).

My church's new pastor claims an attack on Bush's "Faith Based Initiatives"

I go to church pretty much every Sunday. I've been going to Highlands United Methodist Church for my whole 18 years of existence.

We recently got a new pastor.

Today her sermon was about how "our church's history is America's history". She later got around to talking about how politicians try to "bump down religion" at every chance that they get, and told us about how the government "shut down" this rehabilitation facility because it was Christian and therefore unconstitutionally receiving federal funding. She called this a "huge blow on President Bush's Faith Based Initiatives", and said that the government did not replace the program with anything that was as effective at keeping ex-inmates out of prison.

I'll give her that; it definately was a blow to Bush's Faith Based Initiatives, but why can't the rehab facitlity simply become a private establishment? The government can't fund it, or own it, but that doesn't mean that the place can't exist. Being a religious establishment, how hard would it be to get donations from church's all over the country, especially with this supposed success in keeping ex-criminals from committing more crimes after they're released? With a success story such as that, what church wouldn't want to take constant donations for that establishment?

All of a sudden the government should be there to help, as long as its a church and not just some lazy "welfare queen" who abuses the system. You can help yourself, but we can't.

Warped Tour

I haven't posted anything in a while.

I'll just talk about today at the Warped Tour.

Anti-Flag
The Casualties
Less Than Jake
Bouncing Souls
NOFX
Against Me!

Underoath SUCKS. Thursday SUCKS. AFI SUCKS. Rise Against, whatever.

I lost my EFFING wallet during the Casualties cuz I tripped over all these people who tripped over this thing that was covering the cables that run from the stage to the sound booth. It never turned up at the lost-and-found places. Didn't lose a whole lot of cash though and my mom cancelled the debit card and gas card that were up in there. Guess I need a new drivers license. Damn Casualties.

Official: 7 arrested in Sears Tower plot

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., including the FBI office here, a federal law enforcement official said.

As part of the raids tied to the arrests, FBI agents swarmed a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City area, using a blowtorch to take off a metal door. One neighbor said the suspects had been sleeping in the warehouse while running what seemed to be a "military boot camp."

The official told The Associated Press the alleged plotters were mainly Americans with no apparent ties to al-Qaida or other foreign terrorist organizations. He spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt news conferences planned for Friday in Washington and Miami.

[...]

Security at the 110-floor Sears Tower, a Chicago landmark, was ramped up after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the 103rd-floor skydeck was closed for about a month and a half.

A spokesman for Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Illinois officials had been in contact with the FBI about the arrests. He would not comment further, referring additional questions to the FBI.

The FBI's headquarters in Miami sits near a residential neighborhood just east of Interstate 95.

clickhereforallofit

Those last three lines are how I think we should be defensively fighting terrorism. Bombing countries is offensive and does virtually nothing to solve the problem, if not actually make it worse, which is something I've asserted many times before.

So there are still Muslim fanatics living in the States. Bombing Afghanistan didn't drive terrorists away from our soil, and the civilian deaths over there and in Iraq are tailor made to ignite even more hatred of us with even more people who originally could have been ushered on our side had we left them alone. My point: the overseas "War on Terrorism" doesn't make us safe from terrorist attacks. I've lost count of how many times I've written about this!

Blogging from Louisiana

I'm sitting here at my brother's girlfriend's laptop at her house with the aroma of taco pie being cooked. I've just completed my first day of "new student orientation" at the University of New Orleans. It was mostly pretty boring but I'm glad they're doing this. Tommorrow we learn more things and set up our schedule and get our student IDs and whatnot.

I just went to this vintage guitar shop downtown, it was freaking awesome! It was like they took a typical guitar shop and took out all the guitars you don't give a shit about and kept the really freaking sweet ones, and more stuff that you don't always see, like authentic Gibson jazz boxes from like the 30s with one pickup in the neck position, or sometimes no pickup. I wish I could afford one of those guitars, maybe I'll get to use one at UNO.

I slept on this air mattress last night, I ended up having to use the couch next to it as a prop for my head so my spine wouldn't be straind. And the ceiling fan above me was nice and loud, good white noise for sleeping nice and not very much.

New Orleans is cool and I'm glad its about to be my home.

Pre-9/11 US-Iraq Relations

I was just now looking through the White Houses's website for any articles about Mexico's president, Vicente Fox Quesada. I was originally trying to see if I could get a status of our president's relationship with that of Mexico's (and I did find what I expected regarding that), but I found out something regarding Iraq that I wasn't aware of until now.

This is from a press conference in Mexico with Vicente Fox and George W. Bush from February 16, 2001:

Q What is the message that you want to send right now, what does the United States want to send to the world as a message with the new bombing of Iraq? [...] Is this a beginning of a new war?

[...]

PRESIDENT BUSH: [...] the United States is engaged in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. We will remain so. Since 1991, our country has been enforcing what's called a no-fly zone. A routine mission was conducted to enforce the no-fly zone. And it is a mission about which I was informed and I authorized. But, I repeat, it is a routine mission, and we will continue to enforce the no-fly zone until the world is told otherwise.

[...]

Q Sir, as you say, this is the first military action you've taken as President of the United States. I'm wondering whether it signals a hardening of the U.S. position towards Iraq. And specifically, is it your goal to drive Saddam Hussein from power? And, secondly, are you putting Saddam on notice today that American military action will be more frequent or more forceful than it was before you became President?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Fournier, Saddam Hussein has got to understand that we expect him to conform to the agreement that he signed after Desert Storm. We will enforce the no-fly zone, both south and north. Our intention is to make sure that the world is as peaceful as possible. And we're going to watch very carefully as to whether or not he develops weapons of mass destruction, and if we catch him doing so we'll take the appropriate action.

clickhereforallofit

Bush's statements from this press conference should be extremely noted, simply for the fact that they are pre-9/11. Here we are reminded (or informed, in my case) that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction began before the September 11th attacks. But Washington wasn't out for Saddam just because of the potential WMDs, they were apparently pissed off about the "no-fly zone" too. There was NO MENTION WHATSOEVER about Saddam's tyranny over Iraq and certainly nothing about promoting democracy there.

This should serve as a reminder that we did not invade Iraq because of 9/11, and that the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq were originally two different things. The war in Iraq may have started regardless of the 9/11 attacks, but because of the attacks, the public was much easier to dupe into backing the president in his John Wayne style efforts to control the middle east, and it made it possible for Washington to completely change the original mission in Iraq! 9/11 sucked for more than one reason.

However, regarding 9/11, it should also be known (as the American media didn't cover this at all) that the U.S. was planning to invade Afghanistan before 9/11, also. According to The Guardian via Jello Biafra, it was publicly known in Europe that U.S. diplomats met in the summer of 2001 with some diplomats from other countries in an informal meeting about a potential invasion of Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden. Biafra concludes that the representatives from Pakistan could have taken that information back to the Afghani Taliban, "which The Guardian suggests it did" (Biafra). Knowing that information made 9/11 look a lot less random and unprovoked to Europeans; the U.S. public was unfortunately kept completely in the dark and became conveniently vulnerable to manipulation. The rest is fresh, unfinished history.

Iraq al-Qaida names Zarqawi successor

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Al-Qaida in Iraq said in a Web statement posted Monday that a militant named Abu Hamza al-Muhajer was the group's new leader. Al-Muhajer succeeds Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed Wednesday by a U.S. airstrike on his hideout northeast of Baghdad, Iraq.

The successor's name — a pseudonym, as most militants are known by — was not immediately known and did not appear to be on any U.S. lists of terrorists with rewards on their heads. The name al-Muhajer, Arabic for "immigrant," suggested he was not Iraqi.

The choice of a non-Iraqi "emir," or leader, would be significant, signaling that the group was maintaining a foreign Arab command.

clickhereforallofit

This is what I was getting at yesterday. Does it really take outstanding leadership to control a terrorist organization? They just blow shit up, so what if we took out one of their bosses? How long will it take to realize that this is not the way to win a war on terrorism?

As Jello Biafra says, "Israel has been fighting a war on terrorism since the minute of their birth, have they won yet?...If killing people stops terrorism, why hasn't it stopped?"

Is Zarqawi's Death Really Such a Victory?

I thought this was a war on terrorism in general (as stupid of a term as that is).Do people really need some big leader like that to show them how to blow shit up? What I'm saying is: Zarqawi may be dead, but do we expect the threat of terrorism to diminish as a result?

No one ever said terrorism will diminish because of Zarqui's death.
-"Fuzzy Muzzy"

Well if his death is seen as a victory in the War on Terrorism, I think that point of view implies an assumption of less or diminished terrorism. I mean, we kill people every day. Just because this guy was a leader, why does it matter if its some sort of moral booster or phychological blow to the enemy? I mean, bin Laden didn't fly the planes himself on 9/11; even if the leaders go down, this kind of enemy isn't going to weaken just because there's one less person to tell them what to blow up and when.

Chilean Police tear gas student marchers

From Reuters via Yahoo! News:

Police used tear gas and water cannons to try to break up Chile's biggest student protests in decades on Tuesday as thousands of students marched to demand the government spend more of its fat budget surplus on education.

clickhereforallofit

We need protests like this in the States.

As my Economics teacher Mr. Jack Foster told us on a few occasions, education is the most underalocated resource in this country. Whether that is statistically true or just opinion, its definately something to think about. Mr. Foster's basically philosophy is based on the fact that people with higher education are less likely to commit a crime and more likely to vote and/or participate in other ways in their communities; therefore, the easier that higher education is to obtain, the less crime and higher voter turnout you will have. It also goes without saying that the more educated people we have, the less unemployment and therefore less poverty we will have, which is probably why having higher education reduces someone's chance of commiting a crime.

So the better alternative to building more prisons to accomidate more criminals is to instead give more money to schools to lower their tuitions. Its my own philosophy that other government functions should be cut as well to have more funds for education, the main one being National Offense (also called "Defense"). I've said before that we should cut funding to NASA too, and it pains me to say that because space travel is so freaking COOL, but it just shouldn't be such a high priority anymore. I mean, landing more things on Mars will not lower the poverty rate, nor anything but prove that we can land more things on Mars and that to me is pointless, lets cut their budget.

It may also help out our country a lot to FIX THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM, but you can read all about that at RealArt.

In summation, before our president became president, he was governor of Texas, Texas being having the second worste education system in the country, with Bush being responsible for the way the current Texas school system. With education being such an important resource to harness to fix very important things like crime, poverty, and participation in government, was Bush ever the right choice to be our country's leader? I think not, seeing as he and his Congress cut student loans a few months ago! Combined with his John Reagan Wayne foreign policy, was there a worse choice?

College is too expensive. Most people can barely afford it. If the government gave more money to their schools they wouldn't have to charge so much. The cheaper it is to go to college, the better off our society will be. Poverty poses a bigger threat to us than terrorism, this should be the hot issue today, not whether illegal immigrants should be made felons.

Bush Vows New Look at Iraq Military Needs

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

President Bush, facing political pressure for troop cutbacks, said Tuesday he would make a fresh assessment about Iraq's needs for U.S. military help now that a new government has taken office in Baghdad.

Bush also said Americans should not judge what's happening in Iraq solely on the basis of the unrelenting violence. "It is a difficult task to stop suicide bombers," Bush said at a news conference.

[...]

"We haven't gotten to the point yet where the new government is sitting down with our commanders to come up with a joint way forward," the president said. "However, having said that, this is a new chapter in our relationship. In other words, we're now able to take a new assessment about the needs necessary for the Iraqis."

[...]

"This is a new, permanent government that will chart a new path for Iraq," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. "Obviously, we will play an instrumental role in security operations, but as their capability grows and they centralize authority of Iraqi forces, our role will change."

clickhereforallofit

SEE! SEE! "Our role will change," now they're preparing us for it! Geez this is exactly what I've been talking about, its like this conference or whatever it is was conducted just for me. "We haven't gotten to the point yet where the new government is sitting down with our commanders to come up with a joint way forward [But they sure as hell will! Woo hoo we got us a Muslim state at our finger tips hee-yuck!],". I like that way of putting it, "joint way forward," more like, "whatever we want them to do,". Do we need anything more to see why we're there?

The true face of "democracy promotion"

From Noam Chomsky's newest book, Failed States:

In March 2004, concerned that elections in El Salvador might come out the wrong way, the democracy promotion misionaries warned that if Salvdorans made the wrong choice, the country's lifeline--remittences from the United States, a crucial pillar of the "economic miracle"--might be cut, among other consequences. They also clarified their mission by offering their achievements in El Salvador as a model for Iraq. In reaction to the favorable coverage of this audacious stand, one of the leading academic specialists on Central America, Thomas Walker, distrubuted an op-ed to newspapers around the country describing the "free elections" under US domination hailed by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others...The candidates, moreover, were limited to "a narrow spectrum from center to far right"; voter abstention was threatened with murder, and votes were cast using sequentially numbered, identifiable ballots "deposited in clear plastic boxes in front of armed soldiers--so translucent that [the ballots] could be read even when dully folded."
(my emphasis)

Just the other day, it may have even been my last post, I challenged the notion that the Iraqi people are actually receiving the government that they desire. According to Thomas Walker, our government intended to use the Salvadoran election as a model for that of Iraq's. If so, my allegations were completely correct, and Chomsky goes on to say:

And no doubt [war planners] want to withdraw--but only once an obedient client state is firmly in place, the general preference of conquerors...

Which also goes along with what I said the other day, I think it was along the lines of, "the new government that we're helping to form will naturally comply with our interests". I refered to Failed States in the beginning of that post but I had not yet gotten to the part that I just now quoted. I say all that to say this: I'M AWESOME.

I shall be a music major

I just now received a letter, finally, from the University of New Orleans Department of Music. I've been accepted.

I'm going to be a jazz student in New Orleans. This is cool. I still need to get me some money.

Iraqi Government Approved Amid Violence

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Iraq's parliament approved a national unity government Saturday, achieving a goal Washington hopes will reduce violence so U.S. forces can eventually go home.

But as the legislators met, a series of attacks killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens, and police also found the bodies of 22 Iraqis who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured by death squads that plague the capital and other areas.

[...]

The Bush administration hopes the new national unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds can calm violence and pave the way for beginning the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

clickhereforallofit

So once this new government gets rolling and starts trying to get things done and the violence continues, then will the Bush Administration rethink their insistence on keeping troups in Iraq? I seriously doubt it. Or lets say that in the next few months, the insurgents do just all of a sudden say "Gee, democracy's great! Lets go back home and forget all this!", and everything is alllllll better, will I re-think my opposition to the occupation? NO.

The Iraqi people voted for their new government, yes, but who decided who they were going to vote for? Twas US, of course, thats what this whole "giving them democracy" charrade really means. We invaded Iraq not to free its people (according to Chomsky in his newest book Failed States, the new Iraqi consitution gives fewer rights to women than they had under Saddam) but to secure our own oil interests and assert our dominance in that industry, and the new government that we're helping to form will naturally comply with us (otherwise we wouldn't be letting them take power, duh!).

And if we're the ones protecting or coordinating the elections, how do we know that the Iraqis are really getting what the majority of them voted for anyway?

Coerced Confessions - A Corporate Abuse

From nader.org

In a recent column I wrote about police interrogation tactics that lead a surprising number of people to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. It turns out that corporate America has followed suit. Many large corporations take a “loss prevention” approach that utilizes training manuals modeled after the leading police manuals -- using the very techniques that cause false confessions.

[...]

Last month . . . A civil jury struck a blow for corporate accountability, socking AutoZone with a verdict of $7.5 million in punitive damages.

The case stemmed from events several years ago, when a store manager became convinced that one of his employees (a loyal worker with a sterling reputation) had stolen $800. The manager followed the playbook. He had a security guard grill the employee in a small office for almost three hours, confronting him with false evidence and threatening his discharge and arrest unless he confessed. If he did confess, he was assured, he could pay the company back and keep his job, and the matter would remain private.

[...]

In the case of the AutoZone employee, the company didn’t even keep its coercive promise -- it fired him almost immediately after his confession and took the amount he “stole” out of his last paycheck. But Joaquin Robles turned out to be the wrong person to mess with. His lawsuit not only gave him justice, but also shed the spotlight on the corporate coercion industry. The trial exposed the manual used by AutoZone's so-called “loss prevention” managers and produced testimony from other employees about similarly coercive treatment.

clickhereforallofit

Yeah, I'm about to put in an application at Office Depot. I gotta save up some rent money this summer for New Orleans so I can just do school and not have to worry about working when I first move there. Anyway, this story is kinda scary, I would NOT want to be falsely accused of stealing and get damn near tortured for it.

I'm sure it won't, lets go over the Office Depot Code of Associates:

• Fair and honest treatment of every individual is the standard
• Communications of opinions is encouraged
• We attract, develop and promote the most qualified people
• There exists a balance between family, community and the company
• We recognize and reward accomplishment
• We encourage a positive approach to work
• We conduct ourselves with uncompromising honesty and integrity
• Hard work and having fun go hand-in-hand

Man, AutoZone should adopt Office Depot's school of thought, you know they care about their customers down there at the 'ol Office Depot...

They haven't even hired me and I hate them, haha.