December 6, 2007

Two From the Baytown Sun

In celebration of my upcoming holiday return to my home town (Highlands), here are two impecibly combined quotes from the Baytown Sun website's front page today:

Civic leader honored for service to Baytown

The distinguished guests – state and local elected officials and leaders of the Baytown community – rose to their feet Tuesday night to salute the 2007 Exxon Mobil Refiner of the Year, and everyone agreed no one was more deserving than Doug Huddle.

[...]

Huddle [...] said Exxon Mobil taught him what it meant to be a volunteer.

and

Nooses get noticed

[...] two nooses were found hanging from scaffolding at the Exxon Mobil refinery.

(My emphasis), with all due respect to Doug Huddle, this was just too funny of a coincidence not to point out, given Baytown's reputation as a generally bigoted city.

It's become a joke in itself to have "sensitivity training" meetings at the workplace. I've overheard sarcastic remarks about such meetings at the power plant I used to work at (and will probably work at again) in Pasadena, TX. A common phrase used is "I'm okay-you're okay PC bullshit." Political correctness has become kind of an offensive term in itself, yet it's clear that some men in the professional realm do need schooling in racial sensitivity, or maybe just an ass-kicking for being racist assholes.

I know for sure that there are plenty of white people in Baytown who just do not care about racism.

December 1, 2007

"Jena justice is Louisiana justice, which is United States justice"

From the Texas Observer:

Twenty minutes later, the officer calls James and me to her. He and I trade one last look, eyebrows up, and smile at each other. The officer hands me a ticket and tells me I am free to go. Then she grabs James and handcuffs him. “You have a parking ticket you haven’t paid, and there is a warrant for you because of it,” she tells him, and begins to recite his rights.

“No!” I tell her before I can think. “Ma’am, no, you can’t do that. He didn’t do anything. He has a 3-week-old baby in the car.”

“The judge wants to see you,” the cop tells James. “That’s all I know. So you are going to go to jail.”

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I've been thinking and talking about racism lately. I've posted some videos of myself doing so on YouTube. The titles are "White People: you're not victims of racism!" parts 1 and 2. They got immediate responses in their comment sections, and they're still snowballing.

Many white Americans truely believe minorities receive preferential treatment in this country. I can't put into words how backwards that is, it's just not true. Some call affirmative action "reverse racism," they think it only works for non-whites. They seem to think that anything done on behalf of another ethnic group is some kind of blow to their own. They don't see our government for what it is and what's it's been since our country's birth: mostly white. They can't see that white people are still in enormous positions of power.

I don't know how else to convince them, other than to talk about it, that racism is still a problem today and it still affects blacks the most.

Many naysayers remind me that white immigrants were treated poorly when they came to America, but they "worked hard," and "didn't bitch about it," and "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps," and so on. They ignore the fact that white immigrants were accepted nearly instantly compared to how long it took for blacks to gain ANYTHING in America.

Further, there are still Italian and Irish stereotypes, to be sure, but racism against whites just doesn't happen, and if it does, it doesn't come from the government or people with authority. THAT'S the difference, and it's important. It usually comes from uneducated minorities who's only experiences with whites have involved getting screwed over. Can you blame them? And how horrible is it to be called a "cracker" or a "honkey" or "white boy"? It's sure never gotten me into an "I'm a victim!" tizzy, and it never will.

November 29, 2007

Rudy spells out the hypocrasy, unknowingly

From Eschaton:

Jim Cramer is interviewing Rudy. I don't have the sound on, but the captions are funny. First one.

Giuliani: The US Should Increase Its Coal Supply Through Government Subsidies

About 4 minutes later:

Giuliani: Business And Government Are Separate - And That's Non-Negotiable

atrios.blogspot.com

Rudy inadvertently spelled out the "free trade" fallacy with these two statements.

Where would Wal-Mart or any big corporation be without subsidies? Fewer places. They'll take all the government money they can get, but anything else the government (or the People) try to give them (like regulations and taxes) is "socialist," "unAmerican," the like. I can't think of any better way to describe what is so fucked up with free trade cheerleaders than this contradiction.

All you have to do is listen to them speak for 4 minutes and they'll prove their stupidity on their own.

November 28, 2007

Want change? Restore democracy

From Alternet:

Consumer-Driven Culture Is Killing Our Democracy
Terrence McNally interviews Robert Reich

TM: I've been saying since the 2004 election that we need a Restore Democracy Trifecta: media reform for a more informed democracy -- stop (and reverse if possible) media consolidation, offer less false balance (i.e., global warming skeptics are equal to global warming scientists) and more statements of fact. Campaign reform -- public financing, free TV time. Election reform -- transparent, accurate, inclusive and verifiable.

If all progressives got together, campaigned for those three things and succeeded to a meaningful extent, only then would they have a realistic chance to get environmental, healthcare, education, civil liberties or whatever legislation passed. Is that basically in sync with what you're saying?

RR: Absolutely. I keep telling progressives who have particular issues they want to advance [that] nothing is going to happen on your issue or any other progressive issue unless you get together with everybody else who wants change and rescue democracy first.


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Every time I ponder the social changes that must be made in my lifetime, I end up at the same conclusion: we need campaign finance reform. Bottom line, no buts about it, it's the only way to get government back on the people's side. Most people would agree, yet they don't seem fired up to do anything about it. I for one will never stop talking about the need for this reform and I'll never stop endorsing independent and good Green Party candidates who take anonymous campaign donations.

A wise man once said you need social change before policy change, and that's how we have to go about it. Everyone who realizes that their representatives are putting corporate interests first needs to stop voting for corporate candidates. More people need to talk about candidates who are going to do good for the people. As Jello Biafra says, don't hate the media BECOME the media, and that's what blogs, vlogs, whatever, have made much easier. But it doesn't stop at the internet. Call your representatives and tell them what you want. Make sure they know that you know they're not really working for you. And tell them why you didn't vote for them, or why you won't vote for them and their party again. Tell them. Email, letter, phone, picket line, anything.

The time for change was yesterday.

November 23, 2007

Greening the Corporation

From Nader.org:

When business sees environmental management as saving it money, increasing productivity, becoming more competitive and attracting young talent, the prospect of sustainable policies taking root becomes more likely.

Obviously, it was not always viewed this way by corporate bosses who, not long ago, saw our air, water and soil as their toxic sewers.

[...]

No corporation illustrates this broad continuum better than the Atlanta-based Interface Corporation—the country’s largest commercial carpet tile manufacturer. In 1994, founder Ray Anderson started his company on its goal as a “restorative enterprise,” which he described as zero net pollution and 100% recycling by 2020. The company is 45 percent there, he estimates. (http://www.interfaceinc.com/)

[...]

“Sustainability,” Anderson told the New York Times, “pays in customer loyalty, employee spent-hard cash,” plus 336 million dollars in savings since 1995.

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If I'm not mistaken, this Anderson guy speaks in The Corporation, a Mark Achbar documentary about....corporations. Anderson (if I'm right) is a capitalist gone conservationist who is one of the few legitimate corporate voices for sustainability.

I was recently disgusted to see corporately owned NBC parading "Green Week" earlier this month, complete with an all-green peacock logo and public service announcements about conserving energy, "brought to you by WAL-MART." Something is going either incredibly right or incredibly wrong when Wal-Mart is preaching green ideals, and in this case I'm pretty sure something is going incredibly wrong. Greens have been gaining ground for a while, and the boys at the top have seen the progress. They're using the bandwagon for their own wasteful gain, and that just burns my grits.

If Wal-Mart is going to be the new spokesman for energy conservation and green living, they're gonna have to make some changes. Stop building new stores RIGHT NOW, start selling more American made products, and get rid of the Wal-Mart gas stations if you want any kind of credibility in the eyes of true greens. It's not enough to encourage us to buy "this funny looking lightbulb" from Wal-Mart. Sure, I'll buy those kinds of bulbs but I will buy them from whoever I fucking choose.

I'm glad that the whole idea of "going green" is catching on, but I think it might be getting watered down and tainted by corporate interests, we have to be really careful about who might profiteer off of whole-hearted green efforts. If we leave it to Wal-Mart to help save the planet, I get the feeling we might get the opposite of what we want.

November 19, 2007

The Texas prison system sucks, and it's going to get worse

From the Texas Observer:

Break the Chain

Voters just approved $233 million in bonding authority to build three more prisons without considering how much it will cost to operate them. Building prisons and increasing sentences is like crack cocaine for ambitious politicians. There are nearly 2,000 felonies in the Texas penal code. Between 1997 and 2002, the average amount of time served by prisoners increased 83 percent in part because of harsher sentencing laws.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Increasing parole rates for nonviolent, first-time offenders by only 4 percent would eliminate the need for any new prison beds in the short term, according to the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. The group’s Web site (www.criminaljusticecoalition.org) has a number of commonsense solutions to prison overcrowding, including increased drug treatment and probation reform. For what we spend on each addict in a Texas prison, five could be given drug treatment at nearly the same cost.

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The editorial also notes the poor conditions of the prisons themselves and gives more statistics. It just goes to show that militant, close-minded people who vote for corporate candidates (mostly Republican in this case) are really the ones who squander tax payer money. Anything to lock up minorities for as long as possible, that's what they care about, justice and logic be damned. Some Republican (and Democrat) voters probably don't realize the consequences of building more prisons and increasing sentence terms. They think they're cleaning up the streets but they're really cleaning out the state's pockets, and making the streets and communities worse in the long run.

November 12, 2007

Why we should pull out now: Peace lies in the Iraqis' hands

Courtesy of Alternet:

The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq
By Brandon Friedman
DailyKos

When someone tells you that the "surge" is working, you must walk them through this chain of events:

On August 7, 2007, near the end of America's bloodiest summer in Iraq, the New York Times reported the following:


Attacks on American-led forces using a lethal type of roadside bomb said to be supplied by Iran reached a new high in July, according to the American military.

[...]

Such bombs [...] are used almost exclusively by Shiite militants.

The "Shiite militants" described by the New York Times were, in fact, members of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

[...]

Then, barely three weeks after the New York Times article ran, 50 Muslim pilgrims were slaughtered in sectarian fighting in Karbala. In response, Muqtada al-Sadr announced that he had

ordered his militia to suspend offensive operations for six months.

[...]

But rather than recognize this for what it was, notable Republicans and other right-wingers immediately began to spin the story as if this was the result of the "surge"[.]

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It's clear the US military presence HAS NO CONTROL over Iraq. They've got no credibility in the region either, never had it. Every government they try to set up fails, I wonder why. The best thing we can do is pull out all combat forces, give our "Green Zone" back to Iraqis, and switch the mission to "lets fix all the shit we blew up and put the Bush mob on trial." What ever government comes to power in Iraq after that, it shouldn't be too hostile towards us (at least in the long run) if we do what I just described.

Of course, the real issue at hand (that the corporate media will not touch with a ten foot pole) is that our government, our bureaucracy, Blackwater, Halliburton, the oil industry, and every leading presidential candidate, has NO PLAN TO LEAVE Iraq in this life time. There's too much money to be made, too many brown people to subjugate and kill It's gonna take a lot more opposition than the trendy, polite, "Bush sucks!" shit we've got right now, it's gonna take mass protests, EVERY DAY, for months or years, to get us out of the new Vietnam.

I think we can do it.

November 6, 2007

WELCOME to 1984

From Yahoo! News:

RFID Chips in School Uniforms Track Students

How would feel about this: Tracking chips in kids' school clothing so that school officials can know their whereabouts during the school day?

Oh, it's happening. Ten students in a secondary school in the United Kingdom are being tracked through RFID implants in their school uniforms in a pilot program.

[...]

One possible side effect: Uniform sales may pick up as kids try to procure extra non-RFID-tagged clothing. As security expert Bruce Schneier writes on his blog: "So now it's easy to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you're elsewhere."

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That last statement there from Bruce Schneier says it all. It's not enough to implant the chips in the clothes, it's too easy to trick the computer if you just have your friend carry around your shirt. Eventually, to make the system really work, the chips would have to be implanted into the body. Can you say SCARY? This idea needs to be shot down before it reaches more people, like the general public. In America. Or Oceana, as it might be called by then.

November 4, 2007

Bush Is Right to Worry If Waterboarding Is Defined as Torture

By Jane Smiley, HuffingtonPost.com via Alternet:

"Jack L. Goldsmith, who served in the Justice Department in 2003 and 2004, wrote in his recent memoir, The Terror Presidency, that the possibility of future prosecution for aggressive actions against terrorism was a constant worry inside the Bush administration." Another expert points out that future prosecutors "... would ask not just who carried it out, but who specifically approved it. Theoretically, it could go all the way up to the president of the United States; that's why he'll never say it's torture."

[...]

One of the enraging things about the Bush administration is the way that they have consistently written their own rules [...] (and in fact, George W. Bush, according to Gail Sheehy, was well known among his friends for changing the rules of a game until he could engineer a win -- and isn't that how they won in 2000?).

[...]

Someone whose car hits another person in a crosswalk might have been too frightened to stick around or might not have even realized he had hit someone, but the law still prosecutes these crimes, because a responsible citizen is expected to conform to the laws no matter what his emotional state. Same with Cheney and Bush.

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This article pretty much says a lot of stuff we already know, but it's good for reiteration. The article has some pictures of a waterboard from Cambodia and a painting by an ex prisoner there showing what waterboarding looks like.

I was listening to NPR this Thursday on my way to the Houston area for a visit and on a program called "Fresh Air" they interviewed one of the main overseers from the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison, who's name I forget. The NPR anchor was excrutiatingly polite (as I suppose they always are) to this asshole who never answered a single question asked him. When asked "Are torture tactics used at Guantanamo Bay?" he said that last year, the Army redefined their definition of torture to fit the definition commonly used in the international community (like Saudi Arabia and Turkey?). He never answered "yes" or "no," he simply went on to talk about all the nice things the prisoners have, like Subway sandwiches and 5 prayer times a day. To top it off, after listing all the "perks" the prisoners get at Guantanamo Bay, the man douchebaggedly concluded that "If that's what the UN sees as torture then..." yada yada yada, the guy was full of shit and though I'm an NPR fan, they should have called him on it.

October 31, 2007

Crappy Halloween: Haunted House Films Are Really About the Nightmares of Gentrification

From PopPolitics.com courtesy of Alertnet:

Artemio and I always end up having long discussions about horror films and politics, so he called me up after seeing the haunted house film
Cold Creek Manor. "It's all about gentrification!" he said. "It's a piece of crap, but still ...

[...]

Rich city folks move out into the country and find themselves up against nasty poor locals and a ghost in another recent vengeful-spirit film,
Wendigo. The more I thought about this recurrent motif, the more I realized: the modern haunted house film is fundamentally about gentrification. Again and again we see fictional families move into spaces from which others have been violently displaced, and the new arrivals suffer for that violence even if they themselves have done nothing wrong.

[...]

The spate of slow-moving zombie films that followed in the wake of "Night of the Living Dead" represent a capitalist nightmare of communist revolution: the brain-dead bloodthirsty working class, desiring nothing but our destruction, rises us up to besiege "us" in our comfortable homes, our malls, our military bases.

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This is a really good read, an insanely over-analysis of the underlying messages in monster movies. It's usually a display of classism from the perspective of the elite, where dirty poor peope or "monsters" have good reasons to hate "us" and try to kill "us" but "we're" still the "good guys." I'll never watch a zombie flick in the same light.

[Why Hillary should not be president] Weapons Industry Dumps Republicans, Backs Hillary

From Independent UK courtesty of Alternet:

The U.S. arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months

[...]

This week, she said that, if elected president, she would not rule out military strikes to destroy Tehran's nuclear weapons facilities.

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It's clear to me, and hopefully most liberals, that Hillary is not one of us. I still refuse to accept that she's got an automatic win if she's nominated for the candidacy, I think Democrats are way too scared of NOT nominating her. Kucinich may not look like a winner, but put him in the presidential debates with the Rebublican candidate and I guarantee you a landslide. It's not going to happen though. And at this point I wouldn't be satisfied with Obama either, at least not much moreso. I guess now that the defence industry has taken their eyes off him he might not be obligated to cater to them if he gets the presidency, but he probably will anyway.

Obama and Clinton are corporate Democrats who I do not want to be president. How can people like me possibly get Kucinich where he needs to be?

October 30, 2007

Voodoo Fest grocery list

Who I saw at Voodoo Fest:

FATTER THAN ALBERT!
Earl Greyhound
Vavavoom
GALACTIC (featuring Chali 2na [of Jurassic 5] and Lyrics Born)
Jose Conde y Ola Fresca
Lez Zeppelin
Donald Harrison plus the Congo Nation
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!!!

Bones
Rotary Downs
Circa Survive
ZYDEPUNKS!!
Fleur de Tease
BIG SAM'S FUNKY NATION
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
(the fake) Smashing Pumpkins

Plain White T's
(Red Jumpsuit Apparatus SUCKS)
Christian Scott
TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVE.
The New Orleans Bingo! Show
Paolo Nutini
COMMON!
Wilco

October 29, 2007

Rumsfeld Flees France, Fearing Arrest

From IPS News courtesy of Alternet.org:

U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years.

Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.

[...]

"Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when U.S. forces were hunting him down," activist Tanguy Richard said. "He may never end up being hanged like his old friend, but he must learn that in the civilized world, war crime doesn't pay."

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BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

October 24, 2007

Wiretapping at its Worst

By Brian Beutler of Media Consortium, posted on Alternet.org:

In an Oct. 12 letter to Democratic lawmakers, Randal S. Milch, senior vice president and general counsel to Verizon, admitted that, in tens of thousands of instances over the last two years, his company has provided government officials with subscriber information without court orders. According to the letter, that information has included subscriber names and addresses, local and long-distance telephone connection records, and methods and sources of payment.

[...]

He argued [in 1995] that, [...] "It is impractical to identify a particular phone. This is perfectly in line with constitutional protections. After all, the right to privacy guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment is an individual's right to privacy; it is not an inanimate object's right to privacy. Roving wiretaps targeted at particular suspects rather than specific phones should not cause alarm."

Barr's testimony was cited in the House Report on the Comprehensive Antiterrorism Act of 1995 as justification for an expansion of federal wiretapping authority.

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Randal S. Milch is a scumbag. He claimed in 1995 it was okay to wiretap a phone because the Fourth Amendment doesn't guarantee a phone's right to privacy, what kind of lunacy is that? The kind that Congress eats up 24/7, even today.

September 18, 2007

Jena Six Case Shows Black Teens Get Short End of Stick

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, via Alternet:

Four years before an indifferent, drowsy press and public finally fumed at the news that a prosecutor and judge tossed the book at six black teens in a small Louisiana town for beating up a white teen following a racially charged incident, a Louisiana legislative investigating team sternly warned that the state's juvenile justice system was horribly mangled.

Though alternative sentencing programs are far more cost effective than jailing, they are scarce and under-funded, and Louisiana officials have resisted calls to increase funding and resources to boost these programs.

[...]

Nationally, blacks make up 40 percent of youths tried in adult courts and nearly 60 percent of those sentenced to state prisons.

In Jena, the prosecutor, mostly because of the public furor over the case, reduced charges against two of the youth. But that's an exception. Prosecutors nearly always push for hard time for offenders. This is infuriatingly apparent in Jena. One of the defendants, a star football player, was convicted on a reduced battery charge. Yet, he still could get a 15-year prison sentence.

[...]

The legislators read and watch the same relentless stream of newspaper and television reports of drive-by shootings, drug shootouts, and gang wars, most of them involving young blacks.

[...]

They are convinced that teen violence has spawned a new class of youthful "super predators" and that the juvenile justice system is far too easy on them.

The notion that juveniles are running wild though is a myth.

According to recent FBI crime figures, the rates for murder and assault among teenagers have plummeted since 1993, even among black teens.

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This article effectively destroys any good reason to lock up any of the Jena Six for any extended amount of time. To say that the judge and/or prosecutor needs to "throw the book at them" because youths, especially black ones, are out of control "these days" is competely unfounded by real statistics. It seems like most people who are for throwing the book at them base it simply on their belief that, "If white kids had done the same to a black kid, they'd have been hung by the NAACP and ACLU by now!" which may be true, figuratively, but it doesn't matter because that's not what happened. The small town and random white asshole resentment of the Jena Six is pure racism.

September 10, 2007

Explosions strike Mexico gas pipelines

From the AP:

VERACRUZ, Mexico - Mexican gas and oil pipelines were attacked in six places before dawn Monday, causing explosions, fires and gas leaks that forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

[...]

Mexico is a major oil producer and exporter, with oil and related taxes accounting for over a third of the federal government's revenue. The United States imported 12.7 million cubic feet of natural gas from Mexico in 2006, about 0.3 percent of total imports that year.

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Why on earth would anyone want to blow up a pipeline in their own country? Well people in the middle east do it because all the oil is destined to leave the country and benefit someone else, with no gain to anyone but the people in government and big business. So basically what people think when their resources are being stolen is, "If we can't have it, no one can!" I think that's what's happened in Mexico, I'm suprised it doesn't happen more often.

As the article says, the US imported 12.7 million cubic feet of natural gas last year alone. Do Mexican workers see the bulk of the profit? I guarantee you they don't. So eventually people decide to screw over the people they think are screwing them over first.

August 29, 2007

Katrina & Rita tribunal begins today

From internationaltribunal.org:

On December 8th and 9th, 2005 hundreds of Internally Displaced People from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita gathered in Jackson, Mississippi in a Survivors Assembly to demand accountability, reconstruction and restitution from all levels of the U.S. government. The Survivors Assembly was convened as a democratic institution to provide Survivors, with a vehicle for self determination. Their demands were in response to the government’s campaign of terror and genocide against the Katrina-Rita victims and survivors. Katrina and Rita were category 5 hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi leaving over 2000 dead or missing and over 800,000 without homes, jobs or help.

Why a Tribunal?

Since Katrina and Rita, the government has:

  • Forcibly removed tens of thousands of New Orleans and Gulf Coast residents
  • Disenfranchised tens of thousands of African-American voters;
  • Refused to adhere to its own policies and procedures pertaining to the security and well being of internally displaced persons (IDP’s);
  • Grossly mismanaged resources for the reconstruction of the region, including awarding no-bid contracts to big corporations connected to the Bush administration;
  • Eliminated environmental and worker protection laws;
  • Unjustifiably criminalized thousands of Survivors, particularly the displaced;
  • Set up a reconstruction process that excludes effective input, oversight, and control over the process by the majority African-American population;
  • Currently threatening to seize large portions of New Orleans owned and occupied by African Americans to ethnically cleanse the city to prevent the return of its historic majority.

I wish I could afford/had the time to go to this, since I live in New Olreans and all, but like Ron over at RealArt I've got no job and little money, but I will still be making a trip to Houston this weekend for a show with my band (hopefully).

I think a tribunal is an absolutely appropriate measure to take. The government is trying to get rid of the poor black populations of New Orleans and other places in the gulf coast, and there aren't nearly enough people fighting it, which includes myself. I hope they get what they want, but who knows if this will get any media attention at all? The corporate media, which means quite literally all media now, don't like to report on issues that might illustrate that there is still a huge racial problem in this country.

I'll just leave you with this thought: it's fucked up.

August 27, 2007

DROPPING LIKE FLIES

Roberto Gonzales has resigned. Obviously to escape criminal judgement. Lets see how low the White House approval rating goes by next fall, I think we can get a 0%, why not?

August 20, 2007

Back in NOLA

I don't know if I ever said anything but I stayed in Texas all summer and I'm about to head off to my first day of my third semester at UNO.

It feels so strange being back here after the last few months, last year was a brand spankin' new experience for me and it was so overwhelming it's hard to believe I'm about to do it ALL over again. I'm caught between depression and excitement. I really just hope my biology class isn't too hard. And english.

Anyway, that's all I'm gonna post about what's going on in my head, I'll proceed to post every three millenia, g'day.

August 15, 2007

Innocent Man Sentenced to Death Under Cruel Texas Law

From The Brooklyn Rail via Alternet:

On Tuesday, August 7, in a six-to-three decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied his final writ of habeas corpus, giving the legal green light for his execution. Foster, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 30, is now at the mercy of the merciless Board of Pardons and Paroles. The odds are bad. Five out of seven board members must recommend clemency before Governor Rick Perry will consider it -- and in a state that has executed nearly 400 people in thirty years, clemency has only been granted twice. But Foster's supporters, who are spearheading a letter-writing campaign to the board and governor, are relying on one particularly salient detail to move their minds, if not their hearts: Foster didn't kill anyone.

[...]

Foster was convicted under Texas's "law of parties," a twist on a felony murder statute that enables a jury to convict a defendant who was not the primary actor in a crime. This can mean sentencing someone to death even if he or she had no proven role in a murder.

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So in Texas, and apparently most states that still have the death penalty, you can get a death sentence for NOT killing someone, NOT knowing about it, and NOT intending it to happen, just UKNOWINGLY helping it happen.

When a lawyer wants to get an accomplice convicted like this, they bring the jury in to decide whether the defendant "should have known" a murder would take place.

Texas: the big fat, lone star, fascist state.

The Official WHATTHEFUCK? clip of the week

Courtesy of Moveon.org:

August 13, 2007

Move over Rover!

Karl Rove?

Good effing riddance I say. That's some good ol' fashioned ridance.

But it's a little fishy. Why now?

Remember when Ken Lay left Enron, then like two days later the whole company collapsed...what if something's about to go down on the Hill...


UPDATE 8/14:
I think I was talking about Jeff Skilling leaving and Ken Lay taking over for that brief period before Enron collapsed, ANYWAY...

August 10, 2007

Friday Art Blog!

These are from a place The Drafted played at in Beaumont called The Art Studio, Inc. We played in this huge warehouse behind the actual studio and there was this back part that used to be offices or apartments or something and there was a lot of cool shit there. The photos of the paintings are from inside the studio and the ones of cool objects are from the warehouse.

All the creepy stuff was inside that opening you see to the left, there were a few rooms up there and below there was something that looked like it used to be a shop.




Really artsy pic!


Cool painting in the warehouse, reminds me of my mom, she loves roosters.


Very creepy markings, probably not authentic though


Old car, pretty rare I think


Scary elevator shaft







Very cool


My personal favorite


*Note these paintings were for sale and I could probably get in trouble for having them on this page, but no one stopped me from taking pictures of them so until I get a lawsuit threat, they'll stay here. You can purchase them at The Art Studio, Inc. in Beaumont, TX

August 9, 2007

Holy shit it's the movie of the century!



Superstar rap mogul C-Note runs into fierce opposition when he tries to join the super stuffy Carolina Pines Golf & Country Club. Undeterred, C-Note gets the brilliant idea to buy the land adjacent to the golf club's 17th hole, which he cleverly leverages to gain membership. C-Note's crew wreaks havoc as they bring their larger-than-life style to the club.


YESSSSS!!!

and.......ANDY MILONAKIS!


I smell an Oscar! (Oscars smell like goat cheese right?)


None So Blind as the 'Color Blind'

I was thinking some of these exact same things yesterday in the context of the Jena Six, as well as a slightly unrelated (or maybe not) Baytown event, so instead of my own rant I'll use this guy's.

By Sean Gonsalves via Alternet.org:

No matter how many times a disturbed white male shoots up a school, church or workplace, bombs an abortion clinic or is arrested for being a serial killer, nobody raises questions like: is something wrong with white suburban culture? The response is either: that's one sick individual, or it just goes to show you how bad society is getting

[...]

Quarterback Tom Brady knocks a girl up, then starts dating some other chick while the first girl is pregnant. And the water-cooler talk is: Tom is such a stud. Why did he leave the first girl? She's so pretty ... But if it's not Tom Brady, but Antoine Brady in the spotlight there's a whole different conversation, variations on the what's-wrong-with-those-people theme.

[...]

[...] it completely misses the point when "color blind conservatives" talk about "playing the race card," or making whites feel guilty. It's not about making anyone feel guilty, or making excuses for the morally questionable behavior of individuals who happen to be black. It's about being honest about cultural dynamics and majority power in a race-conscious society. As Rabbi Heschel said: we are not all guilty but we are all responsible.

clickhereforallofit

The not-so-unrelated Baytown event I've been pondering is this little-big uproar in about how we have to "take our city back," because supposedly Baytown has become just ridden with "crime." I haven't seen any such changes myself, but then again I live in Highlands. I'll tell you what change I have noticed in Baytown though: more minorities. Hmmm, could it be that the group I'm speaking of could really be worried more about keeping Baytown predominantly white than predominatly safe?

Someone said--I don't remember if it was quoted in a Baytown Sun article or if it was on their website's message board--but someone said, "I don't care what the stats say, crime has gotten worse in Baytown." This suggests that there are some numbers out there that are telling a different story than this psuedo-vigilante group, and makes me further wonder if these people are just looking around Baytown at the growing number of minorities and thinking, "These folks are up to no good! Crime is out of control!"

I use the term "psuedo-vigilante" because this group is actually planning on cooperating with the authorities about this supposed issue, and our new mayor was at their El Toro gathering. This isn't some kind of Minutemen thing, but at the moment it's still a little silly to me. Maybe I'm just naive, and I'll admit I've witnessed a tad bit more crime in recent years, but I still can't rightfully testify that Baytown's crime has really gotten BAD.

July 18, 2007

Neocons on a Cruise

From Johann Hari, Independent UK via Alternet, and with my emphasis:

From time to time, National Review - the bible of American conservatism - organises a cruise for its readers. I paid $1,200 to join them. The rules I imposed on myself were simple: If any of the conservative cruisers asked who I was, I answered honestly, telling them I was a journalist. Mostly, I just tried to blend in - and find out what American conservatives say when they think the rest of us aren't listening.

[...]

To my right are two elderly New Yorkers who look and sound like late-era Dorothy Parkers, minus the alcohol poisoning. They live on Park Avenue, they explain in precise Northern tones. "You must live near the UN building," the Floridian says to one of the New York ladies after the entree is served. Yes, she responds, shaking her head wearily. "They should suicide-bomb that place," he says.

[...]

"I went to Paris, and it was so lovely." Her face darkens: "But then you think - it's surrounded by Muslims." The first lady nods: "They're out there, and they're coming."

[...]

"Down the line, we're not going to bail out the French again." He mimes picking up a phone and shouts into it, "I can't hear you, Jacques! What's that? The Muslims are doing what to you? I can't hear you!"

[...]

" thank God for Fox News"

[...]

A Filipino waiter offers him a top-up of his wine, and he mock-whispers to me, "They all look the same! Can you tell them apart?"

[...]

"The coverage of this war is unbelievable. Even Fox News is unbelievable. You'd think we're the only ones dying. Enemy casualties aren't covered. We're doing an excellent job killing them."

[...]

"The election in the US is being seen by [the bin Ladenists] as a victory on a par with the collapse of the Soviet Union. We should be prepared for whatever comes next."

clickhereforallofit

I think "bin Ladenists" is my favorite. I know it's in brackets but I'm pretty sure the person really said that in another sentence or something, that's why Hari included it. These quotes aren't coming from your run-of-the mill Republican, these are conservative elites. But the really disturbing part is that ordinary people who label themselves as conservative look up to some of these cruise-goers that Hari meets.

If this is such a rich country, why are we getting squeezed?

From Alternet:

The commercial media is telling us two perfectly contradictory stories about the American economy. The first is how wonderfully rich we are in the United States. The stock market's booming -- some analysts predict the Dow will break the 15,000 this year -- the economy is expanding at a healthy clip, productivity growth is up and unemployment and inflation are relatively low.

But, at the same time, we're also told that we don't have the money to pay for a robust social safety net. When it comes to paying for universal health coverage, affording retirement security for our elderly, investing in programs for the poor or educating our children, we need to pinch pennies.

[...]

Saying that the majority of the country's economic gains in recent years have gone to the top one percent of the income ladder understates the trend. You have to cut the pie into even smaller slices to get the full picture. Because while the bottom half of the top one percent of the income distribution have done far better than the average wage slaves, it is a smaller slice still -- the top .01 percent -- that has grabbed most of the gains--seeing an impressive 250 percent increase in income between 1973 and 2005 -- from an economy that's grown by 160 percent.

[...]

An analysis by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez gives us the best perspective of what's going on for everyone else. They found that despite several periods of healthy growth between 1973 and 2005, the average income of all but the top ten percent of the income ladder -- nine out of ten American families - fell by 11 percent when adjusted for inflation. For three decades, economic growth in the United States has gone first and foremost to building today's modern Gilded Age.

[...] economists like to mention globalization, mechanization, or other factors that require us to be lean and mean and more "competitive."

[...]

But that's simply not true.

The economy--as measured by gross domestic product (GDP)--has grown by over 160 percent since 1973 (PDF).

click here for the whole thing

I really like how they used the term "Guilded Age," because that's exactly what we've been living in. Corporate media and corporate politicians boast about our economy, but most Americans don't benefit at all. We're systematically being ripped off, and it's completely intentional.

Meanwhile, talk radio pundits, and most cable news pundits, chomp at the bit about how poor people and anyone who questions our corporate system need to shut the hell up and realize how great our country is, and supposedly "liberal" CNN blatantly lies about the facts presented in Sicko and no one but Michael Moore himself calls them on it (just one example of many others I could name).

Some people don't realize how FUCKED UP this is.

July 12, 2007

While Europeans Vacation, Americans Toil

From Marie Cocco, Truthdig, via Alternet:

Stingy leave policies in the United States go hand and hand with weekly work hours that exceed those in many industrialized countries. And they parallel skimpy sick leave and family leave policies that give millions of Americans no effective safety net when illness or emergencies strike. Nearly half of private-sector workers--57 million people--have no paid sick days, according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a chief sponsor of a measure to require at least some sick days for employees who work more than 30 hours per week. The problem is particularly acute for low-wage workers, more than three-fourths of whom get no paid leave when they are ill.

clickhereforallofit

Yeah, I'm at work right now, and I thought this was a good article to post. This topic is actually covered a little in Sicko, Michael Moore's new documentary. It's kinda early in the morning right now so I don't have much to say about this, other than it sucks but I'm not suprised in any way. I actually haven't read the whole thing yet, as I type this, perhaps I'll waste a little more time and do that. Hey, my boss straight up told me yesterday that he was running out of work for me to do this summer, might as well kick backk a little.

July 10, 2007

The Rise and Fall of Immigration Reform: Language Had Everything to Do with It

From HuffingtonPost.com, via Alternet, by Drew Westen:

To be compelling, and to defuse the morality tale on immigration of the right and righteous, our story needs to begin with the most important truth, for which we needed no reminder this week from London and Glasgow, that the protection of our borders and safety is the first task of government. It then needs to steal the thunder from the right that readily reverberates through the middle by adding to the incantation, "If they're going to live in our country, they need to learn to speak our language," the simple, progressive, and quintessentially American phrase, "because if they don't, their children will never know the American Dream, and we will have done nothing for them but to relegate them to second-class citizenship."

And it should remind those of us who can sometimes be moved to hatred or callousness when it is intermingled with the language of terror or prejudice, but whose better angels will heed our call if only we summon them, that we were all once strangers in a strange land, and that when we look in the face of an immigrant who wants nothing more than to work hard for a better life for his or her children, we are looking in the mirror.

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hereforallofit

I'm at work so I can't spend long on this. I just thought this was a really good post on immigration.

In other news, I recently ordered this shirt from Alternative Tentacles' website:




July 5, 2007

Quite bored, quite at work

So I'm working at my dad's power plant again, here in Pasadena, Texas, but I'm doing slightly different work than I did last time. For the past two weeks my partner and I have been entering into a computer three pieces of information for each piece of equipment IN THE ENTIRE PLANT as according to records printed on May 4th, 1988 (just a few days after I was born).

I'm down to the last few pages right now, but I'm so tired (it's not even 7:30 yet) my body keeps cramping up while I type this stuff in. I'm trying to loosen up by taking the risk of slacking off and maybe getting in trouble, you know how blogs are.

There's hardly anyone here so I don't feel too bad about half assing it, thought it should probably mean the opposite, what with the whole 'holding down the fort' idea. But I feel the fort is pretty well held down here, even with everyone gone on vacation (including my entire immediate family, who are on the way to Califuckingfornia at the moment).

I've concluded that this new job I have here is easier on the body, but much harder on the mind. I used to mow grass all day. It was a riding mower and everything, but I had to wear long sleeves, jeans, boots, a hardhat and goggles, and in the summer that's not so comfortable. If I had that job today I'd have nothing to do at all, so this blog wouldn't be a total waste of time, but anyway, I think I'd much rather be doing that one despite the toilyness.

HA, but I really like how my work is at a computer, faced away from the doorway, so it looks like I'm working while I type this.

July 3, 2007

I'M GOING TO VOODOO!!

My crazy girlfriend bought me a three day pass to Voodoo fest 2007 for an aniversary gift!!! I can't believe I'm gonna see Rage Against the Machine!!!!

That's all I got right now, I think that's a pretty good entry.

July 1, 2007

Sicko

Last Friday morning I went and saw the first showing of Sicko's premiere at the one theater in Houston that is showing Michael Moore's new film.

I've written about his film's before and praised his work, but I'll admit I've become less of a fan as time has gone on. Sicko didn't turn me a born-again Michael Moore fanatic, but it's definately his best work to date. I think his film's have gotten progressively honest, each one looking more at all sides of the conflict in question and keeping everything relevant. I think this film could be his most influential one yet, if we just get the word out...and that's all I'm really trying to do with this entry.

For those who don't know (because this film has been waaaaay under promoted) Sicko is about health care, and it addresses the issue of whether universal health care could work in the United States. While he might paint a too rosey picture of France and Canada's (and others') health care systems, it's pretty obvious that the US's is much, much worse, not just by poor results but by its actual design (especially post-Nixon). Most people realize this, but the film does a pretty good job of debunking the myths about an evil, authoritarian result from adopting socialized health care. Fox pundits are already spouting the same old "we'd have to sacrifice everything" rhetoric that this film destroys!

The best line of the film:
"If we have the money to kill people [with war], we've got the money to help people."
-Tony Binn, former British MP

So go see Sicko, you won't regret it.

June 13, 2007

comment: why america hates paris hilton

This is a long insightful comment I posted at RealArt the other day. I didn't find anything to really write about so I'm just pasting this to make a new entry. I'm trying to blog more, even though it really shouldn't be a high priority...

I think people truely hate Paris because she's so needlessly rich. If that's true, this hatred doesn't say as much about sexual attitudes as it does about class attitudes.

I think "slut," and "cuntrag" and the like are just dirty words people use to express their anger towards her. Like when Michael Richards called those hecklers 'niggers,' not because he was racist but because it was sure to get them to shut up and leave (and they surely did). He was pissed (and I admit, out of line) so he used [the] most offensive word possible to piss them off too, not because he had anything against their ethnicity.

Not to say that sexism isn't a problem, I just don't think this gleeful reception of Hilton's incarceration is a text book example. There's more to it than sexuality, it's about money. After all, her money is why she's famous in the first place.

I've actually come to disagree with what I wrote, but it's still a valid argument I guess.

June 11, 2007

FUCK the system

From Yahoo! as usual with my lazy ass self:

Republicans blocked a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday, rejecting a symbolic Democratic effort to force him from office amid blistering criticism from lawmakers in both parties.

[...]

"They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Bush said in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe.

"This process has been drug out a long time," Bush added. "It's political."

clickhereforallofit

1) I was about to say there were more important issues that the Democrats should be dealing with, but no, this is a serious issue and it's good that they're addressing it, but are their hearts are actually in it? I guess the real question is whether the Democrats have any heart left at all. FUCK them anyway, as Ron said yesterday, I don't care what they do anymore, I know they're not on my side, they could care less whether Gonzales keeps his job.

2) How much more proof do we need that Bush is a downright dumbass and a total douche bag? "They can have their no confidence votes and 'rule of law,' Gonzo's my guy and I'm stickin' to him, right Bulgaria?" FUCK George Bush.

3) NO SHIT "it's political," it's the fucking Senate!! Know what else is political? Spontaniously firing off several lawyers who might oppose the administration, I'll be damned if that's not political. FUCK Gonzales.

June 7, 2007

Ron?

Okay, my videos suck

Well, I officially have to copy everything Ron from Real Art does in one way or another, and you should notice that we both have some video blogs, but mine are really short and weird while his are longer, funny, and hence entertaining. (Yes Ron, they're entertaining, especially the second one so keep it up, I'm diggin' it.)

Anyway, I just want to confirm that I know my videos suck. Ron's an actor so he's super comfortable with it, which is why he does it. So perhaps I shouldn't because I feel really awkward talking to a camera, especially alone. That last one was a little of my "poetry" which I use in quotes because I'm neither a poet nor a real artist anyway (check Ron's blog to get what I mean, and yes that's just more proof that I'm his little blog bitch). But yeah sometimes I come up with strings of words that sound interesting together and it's...not really poetry but pretty fucked up nonetheless.

Oh, and I guess I just don't blog much in general because I'm a lazy motherfucker.

June 5, 2007

June 1, 2007

My first attempt at video blogging

Hope you got your fill of wisdom.......habinis?

May 31, 2007

Air-Car Ready for Mass Production

From Yahoo! Green:

The world's first commercial compressed air-powered vehicle is rolling towards the production line. The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre, will be built by India's largest automaker, Tata Motors.

The Air Car uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons. It is anticipated that approximately 6000 Air Cars will be cruising the streets of India by 2008.

[...]

Unfortunately, the streets of North America may never see the Air Car, though; it's light-weight, glued-together fiberglass construction might not do so well in our crash tests. However, that does not mean the Air car is confined to the sub-continent. Nègre has signed deals to bring its design to 12 more countries, including Germany, Israel and South Africa.

And this isn't the last we'll hear of the technology. The folks making the Air Car are already working on a hybrid version that would use an on-board, gasoline-powered compressor to refill the air tanks when they run low. Negre says that technology could easily squeeze a cross country trip out of one tank of gasoline.

clickhereforallofit

I'm not sure why I post so much stuff straight from Yahoo's headlines, because being from Yahoo, everyone's probably already read it or at least seen the headline. But I thought this was pretty cool. I'm a little too tired for any kind of scholarly commentary, but I think we can all agree that this kind of technology doesn't fly in the States not just because the "glued together" nature of these particular cars "wouldn't do well in our crash tests," but because the oil industry is so powerful and influential here. Fuck them. They're literally killing us slowly every day, in more ways than one.

May 17, 2007

proof



Not only did Omeed and I talk to him afterwords, but he aknowledged a reaction of mine during the show. He was about to continue talking about some horrifying Bush facts and after he saw me burry my forehead in my hands he said something to the effect of, "Yes, burry your face in your hands," and he gestured toward me (I was in the front row, go figure).

May 16, 2007

I saw Jello Biafra...I met Jello Biafra

Last night my friend Omeed and I saw Jello Biafra's show in Houston. It was AWESOME. He talked for hours and it was all soooooooo good.

Then after the show I got his autograph, asked him why he wasn't in American Hardcore, took a picture with him (which is on Omeed's camera and will probably NEVER reach any place near the internet), and we gave him our cd. I'm not exactly sure why we gave him our cd, there's no way in hell he's going to listen to it.

It was a singular experience in my life. It inspired me to try and boycott more places and remember why I keep my band going and why I ever wrote blogs. I want to discuss issues with people I disagree with. I want to get ideas flowing, I want to rile up resistance, I want to make change.

I won't get burnt out on my principles.

May 5, 2007

20 million chickens held because of feed

From the AP:

Federal officials on Friday placed a hold on 20 million chickens raised for market in several states because their feed was mixed with pet food containing an industrial chemical.

clickhereforallofit

How much more scary does the grocery store have to become before we realize that deregulation is bad for all of us?

April 26, 2007

Congressional probe of student loans widens

From Reuters:

Senate investigators have obtained information indicating lenders may have told a borrower's spouse that the borrower would go to jail if he did not pay, which is "a blatantly false assertion," said Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Investigators are also looking into whether lenders have refused to negotiate with borrowers on payment deferment, called borrowers on the job after being told to stop, harassed borrowers' neighbors, family and co-workers and used profane language to intimidate borrowers.

Kennedy asked Fitzpatrick to provide information about Sallie Mae's collection practices under the federally guaranteed student loan system.

Sallie Mae spokesman Tom Joyce said, "It is a shame that Senator Kennedy's staff is continuing to investigate through press releases ... The media received this letter before we did."

clickhereforallofit

As a college student, this kind of ruffles my feathers. The quote from the Sallie Mae spokesman kind of gives away that they're organization is pretty douche bagged, "It is a shame that Senator Kennedy's staff is continuing to investigate through press releases." Yeah, didn't give you enough time to cover this stuff? Wish they'd have told you about it and negotiated to keep it quiet instead of getting the bad press?

Okay, maybe nothing happened. I kinda just wanted to blog cuz I haven't done very much lately.

April 25, 2007

Panel votes to subpoena Condoleezza Rice

From AP via Yahoo:

In rapid succession, congressional committees Wednesday ramped up their investigations of the Bush administration by approving a subpoena for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and granting immunity to a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

By 21-10, the House oversight committee voted to issue a subpoena to Rice to compel her story on the Bush administration's claim, now discredited, that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.

Moments earlier in the committee chamber next door, the House Judiciary Committee voted 32-6 to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, Gonzales' White House liaison, for her testimony on why the administration fired eight federal prosecutors. The panel also unanimously approved — but did not issue — a subpoena to compel her to appear.

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The Democrats are doing a few cool things, but
the Supreme Court is running wild (link courtesy of RealArt).

Now I gotta go to class.

April 24, 2007

From the AP via Yahoo News:

Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) on Tuesday of pursuing a defeatist strategy in Iraq to win votes in the next election — a charge Reid said did not warrant a response.

here's all of it

I love how the Bush crowd acts like we haven't lost the war already. What is victory anyway, in this situation? Going into Iraq in the first place was a defeatist strategy that was used to win votes in the next election.

We need to cut the White House's Dick off.