From nader.org:

The big time gamblers are on Wall Street and they are gambling with your money, your pensions, and your livelihoods.

Unlike Las Vegas casinos, these big investment banks, commercial banks and stock brokerage houses are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with your money. They are supposed to be trustees for the money you have given them to safeguard, and tell you when they are making risky investments.

Because Washington, D.C. has increasingly become corporate-occupied territory, the Wall Street Boys have been taking even greater risks with your money. The more they produce cycles of financial failure, the more they pay themselves through their rubberstamp boards of directors.


[...]

Still, there is no regulatory action in Washington which doesn’t even move on behalf of consumers to regulate the New York Mercantile Exchange where rampant speculation, not supply and demand, decides what you are paying for gasoline and heating oil.

click here for the whole thing

I meant to post this back when it was new but I've been pretty busy with work, more so than when I was at school, which I guess is a good thing

Anyway, you're paying more and more for gas because of rich people. Be angry.

John McCain's Gramm Gamble

By Patricia Kilday Hart of the Texas Observer:

In the early evening of Friday, December 15, 2000, with Christmas break only hours away, the U.S. Senate rushed to pass an essential, 11,000-page government reauthorization bill. In what one legal textbook would later call “a stunning departure from normal legislative practice,” the Senate tacked on a complex, 262-page amendment at the urging of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

[...]

Gramm promised that the amendment—also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—along with other landmark legislation he had authored, would usher in a new era for the U.S. financial services industry.

[...]

Gramm created what Wall Street analysts now refer to as the “shadow banking system,” an industry that operates outside any government oversight, but, as witnessed by the Bear Stearns debacle, requiring rescue by taxpayers to avert a national economic catastrophe.

[...]

Gramm serves as co-chair of the McCain 2008 presidential campaign. As one of the candidate’s chief economic advisers, he is mentioned as a possible secretary of the treasury in a McCain administration.

click here for all of it

Basically, one of the main guys whose responsible for our screwed up economy, the man who enthusiastically made it possible for corporations to run rampant at the publics' expense: good friend of John McCain, co-chair of his campaign.

Will the mainstream media point this out? Doubtful. They surely won't emphasize how TOXIC Gramm has been to our economy. In fact, I guarantee you they're going to spin it as if Gramm's policies had no effect on the economy whatsoever, they'll just blame it on the terrorists or something. That is, if they ever mention his name at all.

I'm not supporting Obama or anything, but for the love of God: don't vote for McCain.

No, really. Don't vote for John McCain.

The Muffs

A long time ago my brother and I tuned in to 91.7 ktru Houston (Rice University's station) and they were playing this punk/garage set. We caught the latter half of a song that was obviously called "Oh Nina." I was enthralled with this song. The chorus was so infectious to me I just couldn't stand it; the raunchy female vocals strummed my newfound punk rock heartstrings with a strength they hadn't yet felt before. The song haunted and alluded me for years, as I didn't catch the name of the group who performed it. I never even heard the song again or found out who played it until literally about five minutes ago. Funny thing is, I've known about the Muffs for a while but never bothered to check them out.

Without further adieu, I give you The Muffs and "Oh Nina":



..and here's some Wiki info:

After releasing their initial 7" EPs and singles independently and on local labels, The Muffs signed to Warner Bros. Records in the early '90s. After the release of their first album, Warner Brothers failed to promote the band. In spite of this the Muffs set the stage for the success of bands like Green Day, and producer Rob Cavallo. Despite the wide exposure afforded by appearing on a wide variety of movie soundtracks (Clueless director Amy Heckerling, in particular, had taken a keen interest in their songs) as well as a lucrative Fruitopia commercial, The Muffs were eventually dropped from the label. The Muffs have since continued to release new records on various independent labels.

Baytown, Texas has a curb-side recycling program!

From the Baytown Sun:

“We’re really anxious to get it started,” deputy city manager Bob Leiper said of the long-awaited curbside recycling program that kicks off next week.

Baytown City Council members unanimously approved the program in January and the purchase of 21,000 18-gallon plastic tubs that will hold residents’ newspapers, plastics 1 and 2, (labels can be found on the bottom of bottles), and aluminum cans until they can be picked up and sorted.

click here for the whole thing

OH MY GOD I had no idea about this program until today, when I found this article at the Baytown Sun's website. Curbside recycling makes Baytown like a hundred points cooler in my book. It costs residents only $2.25 a month to get their recyclables picked up by Waste Management, according to this article. Supposedly it was originally going to cost $2.50 but Bayer Material Science supposedly purchased the recycling bins for the city and that brought down the monthly cost by $.50.

Now all we gotta do is petition Exxon and Shell to start getting serious about alternative fuels.

This Brave Nation: new documentary

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm working back at the power plant again with my dad, making money for school. My band is also kinda busy trying to learn some new material and record and recruit a new sub bass player.

Anyshways, there's a cool new documentary by Brave New Films called This Brave Nation and you can watch it at this website.

War profiteering

By Greg Palast:

In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now British Petroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.

The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remain there, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.

[...]

In response, Senators Obama and Clinton propose something wrongly called a “windfall” profits tax on oil. But oil industry profits didn’t blow in on a breeze. It is war, not wind, that fills their coffers. The beastly leap in prices is nothing but war profiteering, hiking prices to take cruel advantage of oil fields shut by bullets and blood.

I wish to hell the Democrats would call their plan what it is: A war profiteering tax. War is profitable business – if you’re an oil man. But somehow, the public pays the price, at the pump and at the funerals, and the oil companies reap the benefits.

click here for the whole article

Thing is, it's not enough just to demand that gasoline be cheaper and that those who profit so much be taxed for their greed. We need a whole new fucking system. We need a new way to fuel and power our cars and our homes. There's got to be a push for a fundamental change in how we get energy.

Search for "Nikola Tesla" on YouTube and check out some of the vidoes that come up. Seems like conspiracy theory stuff, I know, but some of them are really interesting. Long story short: FREE ENERGY.

Gay Marriage legalized in California

This is really a victory for everyone, not just gays. But I'm not going to explain how. Instead, I will simply post a video I made a long time ago about the subject.

It's called "Gay Marriage: Legalize It":

Could the people on Fox be any dumber?

I don't know who said it, and I don't remember the precise, exact to-the-tee quote, but this is what some idiot said on Fox News this morning:

Diplomacy with Iran would be like throwing a match into a tank of gasoline.

How completely off-the-deep end, stark raving mad do you have to be to think that diplomacy, rather than going to fucking WAR, would be more like throwing fuel to a fire?

Friends don't let friends take Fox seriously.

One Flea Spare

I'm not going to pretend like I know how to review plays.

But I saw one the other day and I feel compelled to promote it.

It's called One Flea Spare, you can get all kinds of info right here.

This play offers all the great offerings a play could offer: sex, drugs, and classical music (not because it's in the public domain and therefore free to use but because it seems to fit the setting). But really, One Flea Spare is a new piece (written by Naomi Wallace) that takes place in England during the Plague and an aristocratic couple gets locked into their home with a couple of peasants: wackiness ensues!! Just kidding, but there are plenty of funny bits, most of them involving the character Kabe (played by Ron Reeder who pretty much stole the show every time he appeared, rock on, bro!).

There's a strong social message in this play, it addresses the main dividing issues between the upper and lower classes, and it does so with very modern style weirdness. Pretty freaking awesome.

If there's just one reason to go out and see it, it's the building. The Convergence Center for the Arts on Magazine Street is COOL, it's like a million years old and has to have some ghosts in it. It looks like you could hide somewhere in the building and just live there in secret forever, go check it out. Also, the play is performed in the middle of the audience on the third floor, it's just really cool vibes all night long baby.


Yeah, One Flea Spare.

Guess what! The surge didn't fucking work.

From The Independent courtesy of Alternet:

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Hits 7-Month High

The U.S. military death toll has reached a seven-month high as America's war in Iraq enters a new phase -- with its troops primarily engaged in fighting insurgents from the Shia rather than the Sunni community.

click here for the article via Alternet

Oh wait, no, it's because of the liberal media. If them damn liberals in the MEDIA would have acknowledged that the surge worked, it would have boosted morale and Iraq would look like Connecticut right about now! 50,000 more troops and we should be able to git 'er done for good, as long as that there faggot terrorist LIBERAL MEDIA don't hurt the troops' feelings!!!!!!!!!!!1

Wright is Right

Anyone who bitches about Jeremiah Wright after hearing his very name for the first time a grand total of two or three months ago:

shut the fuck up.

How about listen to what he actually says instead of what Fox and NBC say he says? Context. Reality. Stop freaking out after every fucking sound bite you hear on the news, it's DESIGNED to stimulate. Try thinking.

And what the hell does it really have to do with Obama?

Obama was baptized in Wright's church in 1988, after being a religious skeptic for some years. I think it's pretty obvious that he's still a religious skeptic, he just joined a church so he would eventually have a chance at politics, because no president has ever been an atheist or agnostic, and no politician has ever won office with a lot of people knowing they weren't a good, married, Christian straight guy. That's why he joined a church. Hell, if you're going to sit in church every Sunday to make yourself look like a decent guy, you might as well go to a church with an entertaining preacher.

But get this: Reverend Wright isn't crazy. Like, at all, actually. I think about 98% of what he preaches is fricken genius, based on what I've actually heard HIM say.

Weird, weird union stuff

From nader.org:

Andy Stern, the president of the 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is embroiled in the politics of accepting sweetheart union contract deals that and, ironically is being condemned by the Wall Street Journal. What gives here?

It seems that Stern wants to put heat on the private equity funds that have bought hospitals, nursing home chains and other firms whose employees he wants to organize.

[...]

The California Nurses Association (CNA) is a fast growing union that fights for patient rights, for adequate nurse-patient ratios and bargains for strong contracts with hospital chains.

[...]

In Ohio, the CNA exposed a SEIU deal with nine hospitals owned by
Catholic Healthcare Partners. SEIU let the employer pick SEIU as its chosen union without a single signed union card. The company-union collaboration scheduled elections.

CNA sent representatives to Ohio and sounded the alarm about a
top-down agreement sealed by a mutually imposed code of silence.

CNA’s actions threw SEIU into a rage. Buses of SEIU people from Ohio were sent by Mr. Stern to break up an annual meeting of 1000 labor activists sponsored by the magazine, Labor Notes, in Dearborn, Michigan. CNA’s Executive Director, RoseAnn DeMoro was scheduled to speak to the assemblage.

Shouting, scuffling, overturned chairs and the arrival of the Dearborn Police to impose order led A.F.L.-C.I.O. president John J. Sweeney, to denounce what he called “a violent attack” orchestrated by SEIU.

click here for the whole thing

I had no idea what the dynamics of American labour were like, with the whole SEIU vs. AFL-CIO partition. I thought those people only existed in Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" ....

Restaurants, Mayors Toast Earth Day with Tap Water

From Corporate Accountability International:

BOSTON – Prominent restaurants and mayors kicked Earth
Day off early this year by cancelling bottled water contracts and instead
promoting local tap water. The move has been part of a nationwide effort, dubbed “Think Outside the Bottle,” that exposes the social and environmental impacts of bottled water.

“Restaurants have always showcased the highest standards of cuisine and new culinary innovations,” said Henry Patterson, owner of The Other Side Café in Boston. “Now we are reducing waste and encouraging more sustainable eating practices when we serve safe, clean and reliable water from the tap instead of its higher priced, bottled alternative .”

click here for the whole thing

Once in a while it's good to think society is actually making some sort of environmental progress.

That's about all I can say.

Matt Gonzales on Democrat complicity in the war

Eight Reasons Our Changing World Will Turn You Into an Environmentalist, Like It or Not

From Alternet.org:

AlterNet picked eight topics -- water, global warming, food, health, energy, pollution, consumption and corporations -- that pose real dangers to the future of human life and selected a series of recent essays that illustrate these problems, along with links to organizations and further resources that address these issues.

click here for the whole thing

I haven't read all of this yet but I think it serves as a decent Earth Day oriented post.

I don't know how much the people of Alternet really know about this but they've certainly done their research in finding people who do. It's awesome how passionate they seem to be about getting the word out about environmental crises.

To toot my own horn, I'll share what's been on my mind recently. I've come to a certain conclusion that wind and solar power are the way to go as far as energy, both for lighting our homes and for powering our cars (solar). Well upon reading some of this Alternet article, I'm probably right. Biofuels not only use up essential resources for human life, they might not be as eco-friendly as some would have you believe. When burned they emit carbon dioxide, which is the same compound that humans exhale, BUT according to my biology professor at UNO (Dr. James Grady) there's already an excess of CO2 in our atmosphere. I don't believe we're going to be helping anything by switching to biofuels to run our internal combustion engines. I honestly think that electronic (battery) and solar powered cars are the only way to help the environment, BUT that's only if we also switch to solar and wind power energy generation.

So before we keep building hybrid cars, or any new cars at that, we need to generate clean energy first, so that when we charge our electric cars in the future, we're not relying on a dirty way of getting that electricity. Just manufacturing a new car, hybrid or not, is dirtier than driving that car for a year (no source, that's just what I've heard). All of the machinery that goes in to manufacturing EVERYTHING needs to be running on solar panels, in factories that are powered by solar and wind plants, NOT coal or nuclear facilities.

That's my two cents.

Bush is in town [here's a new Greg Palast article]

From Gregpalast.net

José Can You See? Bush’s Trojan Taco
By Greg Palast

While you Democrats are pounding each other to a pulp in Pennsylvania,
the President has snuck back down to New Orleans for a meeting of the NAFTA Three: the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico.

[...]

More important, the agenda-makers, the guys who called the meeting, must remain as far out of camera range as possible: The North American
Competitiveness Council.

Never heard of The Council? Well, maybe you’ve heard of the counselors: the chief executives of Wal-Mart, Chevron Oil, Lockheed-Martin and 27 other multinational masters of the corporate universe.

And why did the landlords of our continent order our presidents to a
three-nation pajama party? Their term is “harmonization.”

[...]
Harmonization means making rules and regulations the same in all three
countries. Or, more specifically, watering down rules – on health, safety, labor rights, oil drilling, polluting and so on - in other words, any regulations that get between The Council members and their profits.

click here for the whole thing

I left out a part of the article that says New Orleans still looks like Dresden 1946, which I don't entirely agree with because it's really the outskirts like Chalmette that are still pretty bad, not necessarily New Orleans itself.

Anyway, I overheard that Bush was going to be in town just this morning in the French Market where I work. A few minutes after I found out about this suprise visit, I saw a guy in a car with Ohio plates ride down the street with a bullhorn shouting "George Bush has betrayed the American people!" out the side of the window. Most onlookers thought it was comical, I thought it was awesome. Supposedly he almost hit someone but I didn't see it.

But about the article, it's awesome. Greg Palast is really smart, go read it.

"All done, go home." - IRAQ

Another one from Alternet, an interview with Jonathan Steele, author of Defeat: Why they Lost Iraq:

Also, people expected great things from Americans, things that were perhaps a bit unrealistic -- electricity and water and jobs immediately. But they had the idea, "It's a superpower; they toppled Saddam in three weeks, how come they can't get the electricity going?"

Encapsulating the mood, about three months after the invasion, a graffito appeared on the plinth of the famously toppled Saddam statue. The graffito said, "All done, go home." I think that summed it up. It's the same sentiment I remember hearing on great march of [Shia] pilgrims through Karbala within three or four weeks of the toppling of the statue -- "Thank you, and now goodbye."

click here for the whole thing

I think American discourse often overlooks the fact that a lot of Iraqis, a majority according to most polls I've seen, want the US troops out of their country, now. Most Americans are against the war now, but as far as I can tell there's not much support for a total withdrawal either. The fact that every reason the White House, CIA, and Pentagon gave us to justify the invasion turned out to be total crap should be reason enough to withdraw all troops yesterday. But let's also not forget what most Iraqis actually want.

"Turns out black people don't even want to be white!"

From Alternet:

Last month, it was revealed that the New York Times and Manhattan publishing world were deceived by Love and Consequences, a faked memoir by a white girl who claimed to live the life you only hear about in Dr. Dre songs.

click here for the whole thing nigga

This is an awesome, hilarious review of another phony memoir that earned some liar six figures.

Is there anyone still out there who hasn't seen my racism videos?

Union victory in Houston

From the Texas Observer:

The National Nurses Organizing Committee, née the California Nurses Association, broke through an important barrier last month. On March 28, a majority of participating nurses at the Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center voted to let the union negotiate a contract on their behalf, making the Houston facility the first privately owned hospital in the state to unionize.

click here for the whole thing (scroll down)

Cool. For those who don't know, Houston's no union town. At all. By any means. Whatsoever. So this is really surprising and uplifting.

All I gotta say is, nurses: rock on!

Latest YouTube vid: Affirmaive Action is not "reverse discrimination"

Damn, he didn't choose my melodies

I guess there's always next time.......yeah right.

Weezer fans dream comes true

fucking school

DAMN fucking son of a bitch there's too much shit to do.

Fucking taxes. Stupid fucking Turbo Tax, pieces of shit.

Stupid ass people.

fuck

New Nader article

I haven't read much of it but here is Ralph Nader's latest In the Public Interest column.


YEAH.

In other news, one of my combos at UNO is playing with Johnny Vidocovich next week. HOLY SHIT.

"Survival of the Squeebiest"

By Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, courtesy of Alternet:

The word "squeeb" is a crude mix of squid and dweeb, and by inventing it I mean no disrespect to the squid...

[A squid] has no heart, and its first instinct when trouble comes is to hide in a cloud of its own excretions. This is why a squiddy word like squeeb seems to me to be a good way to describe the American voter during a presidential election season.

That's especially true now, during a "controversy" like this latest flap over Barack Obama pastor Jeremiah Wright. This Wright business is a perfect example of the American electorate at its squeeby worst -- panicky, gutless, acting more on reflex than thought, incapable of retaining information for more than a few minutes at a time. It's also a great example of how the presidential election process has become more about enforcing the attitudes of a cultural orthodoxy than a system for choosing leaders.

Through scandal after idiotic scandal, the election process has become a painfully prolonged, deeply irritating exercise in policing conventional wisdom, through a variety of means keeping the public in a state of heightened, dumb animal panic, and ultimately turning the election itself into a Darwinian contest -- survival of the Squeebiest.

click here for the whole thing

I highly encourage reading more of this article, it's jam-packed with very funny comments about this so-called scandal and the dolts who created it.

Actually, I've got nothing to ad, I just wanted to share this with all the people who stumble upon this blog after googling "eminem backmasking," (there really are a lot of them...)

Is lead overhyped? Doesn't matter.

I tuned in to some down-home Fox News talk radio this evening, as I do from time to time for laughs.

This particular pundit was ranting in typical Faux fashion about the "lead scare," and about how "lots of parents are freaking out" because of lead presence in children's toys. The pundit said that his generation, as parents, worry too much about their kids. He said something like "many" parents are opting not to buy plastic toys for their kids this Easter, because a Chinese company was found to have Easter eggs with more than the legal amount of lead in the coloring. His argument was that the hype about lead in kid's toys (made in China, of course) is overkill, because lead levels were much higher in the past and everyone turned out relatively well. "Where are th heaps of dead?" he asked.

To scare a Fox pundit you have to have PILES of dead people, not just a few poisoned children throughout the years and scores of mentally disabled people, linked directly to things like lead paint and other pollution...

Anyway, this particular rant really got my bullshit detector humming, and I wanted to document all my thoughts about it right here:

1) ARE "a lot of parents" really freaking out about this, or is Fox hoping that after hearing someone mention the latest "lead scare," that more of them WILL freak out? So, a few articles come out documenting a violation from a Chinese toymaker, some parents post some shit on the Fox Forum, and all of a sudden scores of parents are needlessly freaking out and not buying Easter eggs for their kids. Right, I'm sure Wal-Mart is bogged down with unsold Easter shit (bunnies and candy to commemorate the crucification of your savior? FUCK YOU!).

2) This pundit pointed out that the EPA's standard for lead levels in products was less than .6%, and asked "What IS .6%? I can't see that!" Something like "the average Joe doesn't know what .6% is!" just a bunch of useless whining. At the end of his bitch fit, he was careful not to sound like he was advocating laziness, or carelessness, saying that "they" (the EPA) keep "lowering the standard" of what is too much lead. Yes, the actual percentage of what is legal has been lowered over the years, but most sane people recognize that as raising the standard, not lowering it. This wording, of course, was a lousy attempt at sounding like he wasn't advocating regression in consumer safety.

Country of Laws - Ralph Nader on Spitzer/Bush hypocrisy

From nader.org:

Eliot Spitzer violated certain laws regarding prostitution and transferring of money through banks—though the latter was disputed by some legal experts—and for such moral turpitude emotionally harmed himself, his family and his friends.

George W. Bush violated federal laws against torture, against spying on Americans without judicial approval, against due process of law and habeas corpus in arresting Americans without charges, imprisoning them and limited their access to attorneys. He committed a massive war of aggression, under false [pretenses], violating again and again treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, federal statutes and the Constitution.

click here for the whole thing

Yeah, Nader is really smart. I'd kick myself for not thinking of this legal conundrum myself, but Ralph is really, really smart.

Bottom line: Spitzer broke the law, he resigned; Bush has broken the law many times, he claims he will leave office with his "head held high."

Free Tibet! (and the rest of China too, damnit!)

From the AP via Yahoo:

BEIJING - Soldiers on foot and in armored carriers swarmed Tibet's capital Saturday, enforcing a strict curfew a day after protesters burned shops and cars to vent their anger against Chinese rule. In another western city, police clashed with hundreds of Buddhist monks leading a sympathy demonstration.

the whole thing

I had to click this headline when I saw it because I saw a "Free Tibet" table outside the UNO library not but three days ago. When I saw them, I thought about their cause and realized that it's kinda short-sighted. While Tibet probably deserves freedom, so does ALL of China! In other words, don't just free Tibet, free the rest of China as well, it's still a one party state and this is the 21st century.

Read "The China Fantasy" by James Mann.

Happy 400th Post!

Wow this is my 400th post.

I've been doing this since the '04 election, and now the next election is at our doorsteps.

Let's recap the last Bush term:

• still in Iraq
• still have disproportional taxes
• Supreme Court is basically Margaret Thatcher's wet dream
• still aid terrorist states
• still have NAFTA
• the gears of war are shifting towards Iran
• and a whole lot more

Guess I better keep blogging.

An excersize in bullshit detection

I was looking through some British news sites, ones I don't usually read like The Independent and The Times, and I found this article about Hamas/Iran at the latter 'news' paper. The article is really short and to the "point," and to the average reader, this article would probably present a reasonable excuse for starting a war with, or at least placing sanctions on, Iran. Is it possible that that's what the article is designed to do, make the average Joe who happens to read it feel like the authorities are doing the right thing at that time? Just consult your bullshit detector, here's how:

THE Palestinian group Hamas, blamed for last week’s massacre of eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, has revealed that hundreds of its fighters have been trained in Iran.

So Hamas was "blamed," but were they actually responsible for it? Did they admit to committing the "massacre"? While the subject of the article is aside from that detail, the addition of "blamed for killing school girls," makes sure the reader knows these are the bad guys, regardless of who actually trained them (that's the subject of the article). Let's continue:

A senior commander interviewed by The Sunday Times said 300 of the group’s “best brains” had been secretly sent to Tehran.

You can't tell from just this quote, but the senior commander they're referring to is supposedly a commander from Hamas. This may seem like a weightless argument, but why would a senior commander of Hamas reveal a "secret" to a reporter from The London Times, much less agree to an interview in the first place? Is this a credible testimony? The article doesn't name who the commander was, so if what "he said" was actually true (considering the interview really happened), he must be sabotaging Hamas from the inside. That would make sense, except that the article also says this:

“Iran is our mother,” the commander said. “She gives us information, military supplies and financial support.”

Forgive me again, for sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but isn't that statement kind of.... exactly what certain people want to hear from groups like Hamas, so they can continue to label Iran a "terrorist threat" and therefore legitimize sanctions or even war? and once again, why would a senior commander of Hamas, who says things like "Iran is our mother," expose all of this to a Times reporter if the training was supposed to be a secret?

Enough with my pointed questions, I'll just say this: I think it's highly likely that this article is complete bullshit. There's no way to confirm that this interview even took place, that's the beauty of the story: the guy was giving away a secret about his big bad terrorist organization, he'd be killed if he were identified. But therein lies another contradiction: if this guy is a commander of a big ol' bad schoolgirl killing organization, why hide his identity and protect him? What does The Times owe to this guy, who's part of an organization who supposedly kills innocent people? It is physically impossible that everything in this article is accurate, there's at least one fabrication here.

The Ritter lecture I saw

This is the actual lecture I attended with Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector/Intelligence Officer/US Marine.

Austin domestic abuse officers more efficient than Houston's

In this really short article from the Texas Observer, Houston is compared with Austin in terms of how its law enforcement deals with domestic abuse. There's also information about the Bush administration's undoing of legislation that protected undocumented women from the "catch-22" of calling the police after being abused by husbands with legal US citizenship.

It's a good, important read for everyone, check it out.

Gaza Under Siege

Gaza Under Siege is the latest article from Ralph Nader. Here's the most interesting quote:

Hamas, which was created with the support of Israel and the U.S. government years ago to counter the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has repeatedly offered cease-fire proposals.

Just another example of how spot-on and direct Ralph is on the issues. Here's an idea: vote for him.

Friday Face Time: Instant Runoff Voting

Definitely Not Safe for Work

Sitting here in a simultaneously liberal and conservative city, I'm reminded of how equally crazy my home state is.

If you're in a place where you can read a story and watch a video about dildos/sodomy and the legality of owning one/participating in it in the Lone Star State, click here now. The article, courtesy of Alternet, is called "The Great Texas Dildo Wars of 2008."

Bottom line: sexual discrimination is still a problem in this country, depending on where you go.

Commanding Heights

Go check it out, it's a PBS feature.

I haven't finished watching it so you may see an update on this later.

The US, UN Security Council, and EU are BREAKING THE LAW

From the AP via Yahoo!:

The U.N. Security Council approved a third round of sanctions against Iran on Monday with near unanimous support, sending a strong signal to Tehran that its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment is unacceptable and becoming increasingly costly.

For the first time, the resolution bans trade with Iran in goods which have both civilian and military uses and authorizes inspections of shipments to and from Iran by sea and air that are suspected of carrying banned items.

Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty circa 1976 (when our puppet leader, The Shah, was in power), and has every legal right to enrich uranium. The UN Security Council is punishing Iran for NOT breaking the law.

Imagine if a police officer gave you a ticket for going the speed limit. That would be illegal. This is the EXACT same thing.

Iran was under the control of the Shah when they signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were there, probably grinning like idiots. Now that Iran is under leadership who don't answer to the United States or United Nations or European Union, all of a sudden it's "unacceptable" for them to enrich ANY uranium AT ALL.

The Shah did studies back in the 70s and concluded that, despite Iran's oil capacity, the country would hit an energy crisis within 30 years if they did not begin to find an alternative way to generate energy. Eager to help, Rumsfeld and Cheney oversaw and approved Iran's signing on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

IT'S A FISH CONSPIRACY

You know there's a conspiracy afoot when something smells fishy, and this time it's actually fish.

Have you noticed how every single fast food chain (including Subway) has starting featuring their fish sandwiches in more ads lately? McDonald's has the double Fillet O Fish, Jack in the Box has a new fish sandwich, Wendy's has a new fish fillet sandwich, and I just saw a Subway commercial that featured their tuna sandwich.

Is this a result of the beef recall? Seems like it. Probably is. I dunno, it's kinda stupid seeing as most of the recalled supply of beef has already been eaten, and there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with it in the first place.

So maybe it's not because of the recall, maybe there's something else wrong with the beef..... more than the big corporate farms, the fast food chains, and the media tare elling us.......IT'S A CONSPIRACY! That's the only explanation.

(yes this was a joke......) But really, is fish any better right now than it's been before? Could there be something wrong with the current beef supply? I guess it's always better to opt for fish if you're gonna have meat, maybe this is an overall good thing. But that just wouldn't be blog worthy, would it?

The Senate "appologizes to Native Americans"

It's an election year, and a Republican decides to act as the spokesperson of a heart-warming, feel-good...piece of paper. A piece of paper that says something to the effect of: "The US government apologizes for any misdeeds it committed against the Native American community over the coarse of this nation's history."

Hundreds of years of exploitation, humiliation, subjugation, genocide....."Sorry."

'Yeah, sorry about destroying your way of life and everything, man our great great grandfathers were NUTS! Well, here's a piece of paper that says we acknowledge that people like us did horrible things to people like you, happy now?'

Okay, to be fair, the Senate is putting more money into "health care for Native Americans" or something like that, but I still get this weird vibe from this story. Seems kinda like....a diversion or something.

Happy March - I just found some vodka in the freezer

I'm feelin' pretty good right now.

I just opened the freezer and saw a bottle of "spring water." I picked it up and realized the stuff inside was not frozen. I took a whiff and concluded that it was some sort of clear liquor.

So I took some sips.

And I'm diggin' some Weezer, I can't wait until their new cd comes out, here's a link to a vid I made about Weezer fans:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wSp5Ov_6Zho

Friday Face Time: Clinton and Obama are Conservative

I dunno, weird

There's transition going on in my environment. I feel strange.

But here's an article from the Guardian about the Army. Seems pretty cool.

Also, I've been reading about one of my favorite bands, Weezer. It makes me really, really, really really, really, really, really, really want to play music for a living.

Yet, I still just sit and read.

Spring Break Shark Attack [video]

I reviewed them the other day and here's the vid from the show I saw:

Clinton and Obama are conservative

In the true sense of the word, Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama are running conservative campaigns.

This quote is in large letters at the top of Obama's "Economy" page:

“I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery…We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers.”

— Barack Obama, New York, NY, September 17, 2007

If you read down the page and look at his actual plans, it says he wants to promote fair trade by "fixing" NAFTA so that it benefits American workers. Sounds great, but how is it possible? I think to "fix NAFTA" to help workers, you just have to outright scrap it, and I don't think that's an unreasonable change to make in trade policy. Therefore I consider Obama's economic plan pretty conservative.

According to both candidates' websites, they want to lower the taxes of middle class families. Super. Neither of them plan to get rid of the breaks Bush gave to the wealthiest Americans, though Obama's site says the tax cuts for the rich are a problem.

It's one thing to criticize Bush's tax cuts, it's another to actually undo what he did. They're scared of saying they're going to raise taxes, so they don't. They just do half the job that needs to be done. That's literally a conservative approach, doing less because it's convenient, conserving time and effort.

Spring Break Shark Attack (a review)

Today I went to this big block party at the Big Top.

There were like 15 bands, most of them fantastic, but the one who stuck out the most to me was the one who played the second slot on the bill: Spring Break Shark Attack of Baton Rouge, LA.

This band transcends all expectations of what a local band can sound like, but first I'll just explain that they're an instrumental surf rock band. Right off the bat, that's something you don't often see, but something more rare is their ability to take an old style and modify it for a modern audience. This isn't a carbon copy of the Ventures we're talking about, this is a truly unique band who doesn't deserve my pigeon-holing them into the surf rock genre.

Most of their song titles have to do with shark attacks (like "Red Tide" and my personal favorite, "Army of Sharkness"), but these comical touches are just icing on top of the rich cake of pure talent that these guys possess. At times their songs transitioned to fast-beat punk sections, but without actually playing power chords (an impressive feat all it's own). At other times they had more metal sounding riffs, which made sense later when I saw one of SBSA's guitarists, Andy, playing with a down-tempo and severely down-tuned (drop F# to be exact) hardcore band called Thou (I tried to hate them but I just couldn't, I sincerely dug that band in spite of my general disgust with modern "hardcore").

SB Shark Attack also had something of a progressive quality. As a trained guitarist, I can say that both their guitarists rival and possibly excel the picking technique of their well known predecessor, Dick Dale. Their songs are well thought-out as well, and I suspect that these guys are former band nerds (takes one to know one, I guess).

Being a surf rock band, they could have easily written a bunch of songs that all sounded alike, but once again they impress in that area as well: each song really holds it's own, while sticking to the surf rock vibe. Not a task easily accomplished, hell the Ventures themselves could barely do it.

I truly cannot express how much this band's mere existence makes me hopeful of rock 'n roll's future in America.

Maybe we don't have to grow jet black bangs that cover one eye; maybe we can wear jeans that fit properly; maybe bands can actually not suck! Check out Spring Break Shark Attack today and see for yourself (myspace.com/sharkattacksurf).

A news story that doesn't focus on the sex side of McCain's trouble

Of course, it's from Democracy Now! A legitimate source of legitimate news.

I heard a little bit of it in my car earlier, I've heard NPR many times on many different stations but I was surprised to hear Democracy Now!, I think it was on WWNO, my school's station.

Anyway, here's a link.

Friday Face Time: My immediate response after the Scott Ritter lecture

Scott Ritter was right: Turkey invades Iraq

The other night I went to a lecture with Scott Ritter, a former Marine/intelligence officer/weapons inspector. He spoke about Kurdish Iraqis in the north of Iraq and how the PKK (essentially a terrorist group who the U.S. essentially supports) goes into Turkey and kills people (for whatever reasons, because they're terrorists). They use U.S. built weapons and U.S. training.

He said Turkey was about to retaliate. Well, check out this headline from the Associated Press:

Turkish Troops Enter Iraq Seeking Rebels

Holy moly perhaps this guy knows what he's talking about, unlike every pundit you'll find on TV and probably talk radio.

Find out if Scott Ritter is coming near you.

Castro

Wow, Castro finally had to take himself out of power, since no one else could.

I guess it's best to quit while you're ahead, or while you're old as fucking dirt, either way.

Hey remember when he fell down? Good times.

Holes in the Wall

From the Texas Observer:

"...a 1.63-mile proposed fence will cut through the backyard of several modest homes and stop at the edge of a resort and golf course."

click here for the article

Fucked up.

Another day, another recall

Schools and fast food chains were supplied beef from cattle that were "unable to stand at the time of slaughter."

The beef isn't necessarily contaminated but it's being recalled because the beef supplier broke the rules by slaughtering those sickly cows. But the meat has probably all been eaten already anyway.

Oh well, free trade still kicks ass, right?!

NIU Shooting: what's wrong with White culture?

Please excuse the title if it's a tad disrespectful.

The NIU shooting is definately as strange as it is tragic. If you read a little bit about the gunman, you'll find that those who knew him didn't find anything troubling about him. He studied criminal justice and according to the Associated Press he was interested in political violence and even social justice. There was also no suicide note.

So all we can really do is ask, "Why did he do it?" Because white people aren't violent, are they? Nice, hard working white guys don't do bad things. If Kazmierczak (the NIU gunman) were black, how many headlines would read "What's Wrong with Black Culture?" How many pundits would be asking the same thing?

I'm trying to balance out the universe in some way. I know that this guy was nice, had no criminal record and no history of mental illness, so the question of "Why on earth would he do this?" is certainly a valid one. It's just that I know a black man of the same reputation committing this crime would surely be villainized in the media. So, to keep everything equal, I'm just going to leave it at this: what's wrong with white people (like me) ?

"Which attack would they have hoped that we wouldn't have prevented?"

Not that we needed any further proof, but Geoge W. Bush is a raving lunatic in every sense.

In a BBC interview, he defended the use of waterboarding, and implied that everyone in Guantanamo Bay is guilty, despite the fact that many, many people there are completely innocent of every charge they have.

Friday Face Time

This is a video I made a week or so ago just to add a little something different to my YouTube content. I taped myself practicing my transcription because I knew I'd practice for a longer amount of time doing so. Recording yourself is a good way to practice music because it makes you try harder to perfect it.

Nader has a new article

He admits right off the bat that the subject is a little dry, but nonetheless important.

It's about

hundreds of billions each year of federal government contracts, grants, leaseholds and licenses given to corporations to run our government, exploit our taxpayer assets and lay waste to efficient, responsive public services.

It's from Nader.org, click here for the article.

They all support the death penalty

As if you didn't already know that.

But there's an extremely short article (if you can even call it that), over at the Houston Chronicle about how every single major presidential candidate in the '08 race supports the death penalty.

I'll concede that Obama's stance and practice with the death penalty is more reasonable but the fact remains that he supports it, and that's just ONE example of how he's actually conservative.

I think I'm going to end up making a video about how conservatives have nothing to fear from the current frontrunners.

"zero-carbon, zero-waste car-free city"

The article from the BBC is really short but it's got a few nuggets of pretty interesting information, though it glosses over supposed fears that the city will be a haven for the rich.

The city is Masdar City, and lies within Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emerites.

We'll see how it turns out, it's supposed to take only 8 years and 22 billion dollars.

Voter Disenfranchisment

It's happened in pretty much every election ever held in the US and it could get worse before it gets better.

Check out this story from PBS NOW. The page has a link to a video on the subject of "voter restrictions," or new and up-coming laws that are likely designed to keep certain voters out of the booths. What's really interesting is that the same lawmakers who claim to be fighting "voter fraud" also try to make it easier to vote absentee, which is supposedly an easier way to commit voter fraud and just happens to be more widely used by whites.

“I didn’t volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors ...”

From the Texas Observer, Col. Ted Westhusing's supposed suicide is reconsidered.

Either way, it's pretty obvious there's something dreadfully wrong in the way we're "saving Iraq."

Shitt Bomb-ney is out

The Stormin' Mormon is out of the race.

Now all we need is both McCain, Huckabee, Obama, and Clinton to step aside and let Nader/Kucinich lead us to a better future.

Shyeah right.

Need another reason to hate the Coca Cola company?

Well, they deplete the resources of 3rd world people.

They also take municipal tap water, add salt to it and call it Dasani.

Coke sucks. I wish they didn't make Delaware Punch, one of the greatest beverages known to man.

John McCain is Dr. Strangelove

But seriously, don't let this guy be president.

A short convo about Super Bowl commercials

[my girlfriend]: i wonder what kind of commercials there will be
bebop is better: expensive ones
[gf]: indeed
bebop is better: crazy ones you'll never see again
[gf]: a lot of beer commercials im sure
bebop is better: of McCourse
bebop is better: but dont drink and drive
[gf]: haha
bebop is better: just drink
bebop is better: but buy a car

Anyways, enjoy the game you SHEEP! I'm just messin with ya.

Amnesty Day...

So I just read about Blog Amnesty Day for the first time...

Where people share blogs with others.

Well the only actual blog I read is Real Art (more so than Atrios I'm proud to say) and I highly recommend it.

That's all I got. That's my contribution. I'm sure I'll stay very, very unknown.

No Debate

By Ralph Nader:

It was billed as the great debate that, in the words of moderator Wolf Blitzer, “could change the course of this presidential race and the nation.”

Situated at the packed historic Kodak Theatre—site of the Hollywood Oscar awards, thousands of people, including anti-war protesters, were outside, where tickets were being scalped for $1,000.

The burgeoning excitement swept up Mr. Blitzer into an introduction reminiscent of a heavyweight boxing title fight. Referring to the “glamour on this stage…one of the great stages of all time,” he declared that “this will be the first time that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be debating face to face, just the two of them, one-on-one.” The crowd ROARED!

[...]

The two candidates were unperturbed by any questions from the reporters that they had not answered before or they were soft balls they could hit out of the ball park.

As in all debates involving presidential candidates, the reporters were unwilling or incapable of asking the unconventional questions reflecting situations and conditions widely reported or investigated by their own colleagues.

This phenomenon of invincible reluctance should be studied by anthropologists or psychologists.

clickhereforallofit

"Gee, why ask tough questions when we could simply have a black or woman president?!" seems to be the sentiment Ralph is talking about.

Everyone wants superficial change of the White House, few seem to be pushing for fundamental change of our false democracy. Having a black or woman president is not enough, the particular candidates do not own up to progressive ideas and I fear they never will. The fact of the matter is that they're corporate Democrats who just want the office. Both of them have done a minimal amount of fighting on behalf of We the People.

I'm not voting for either of them.

I'm not being pessimistic, Clinton and Obama are conservatives. They use the most vague language possible about "change," and don't take strong stances on the tough issues like getting the fuck out of Iraq. They don't want to say they're going to end the war immediately, even thougt that's what most Americans want. They don't want to push for straight up universal health care. They pretend to have their own brand new health care plans that will benefit everyone but it's really the same old junk.

Face Time Friday

I'm starting up a new feature here at SSB called Face Time Friday, where I'll post one of my videos about various topics.

This one technically doesn't have any actual face time with me but it's my voice in the background. This is just a funny late night scenario I've run in to a few times before (this video may get deleted eventually) :



This video is technically a violation of the YouTube user policy. I deleted it immediately after it finished uploading last night but it was there when I logged in today so here it is until they delete it.

My humble attempt at a viral internet image

This is a mutant offspring of the internet and twisted boredom. I found all of the pictures on Google Images, the fonts were downloaded off of some site that I can't even remember, and of course the background color and action lines are courtesy of Microsoft Paint.



Hope ya like it. If you do, spread it around, I 'accidentally' put the name of this blog on there so maybe it will get some steady traffic over here if it actually does get viral...

Greg Palast on the State of the Union

From gregpalast.com:

One Bush Left Behind

Here’s your question, class:

In his State of the Union, the President asked Congress for $300 million for poor kids in the inner city. As there are, officially, 15 million children in America living in poverty, how much is that per child? Correct! $20.

Here’s your second question. The President also demanded that Congress extend his tax cuts. The cost: $4.3 trillion over ten years. The big recipients are millionaires. And the number of millionaires happens, not coincidentally, to equal the number of poor kids, roughly 15 million of them. OK class: what is the cost of the tax cut per millionaire? That’s right, Richie, $287,000 apiece.

Mr. Bush said, “In neighborhoods across our country, there are boys and girls with dreams. And a decent education is their only hope of achieving them.”

So how much educational dreaming will $20 buy?

-George Bush’s alma mater, Phillips Andover Academy, tells us their annual tuition is $37,200. The $20 “Pell Grant for Kids,” as the White House calls it, will buy a poor kid about 35 minutes of this educational dream. So they’ll have to wake up quickly.

clickhereforallofit

Wow.

Some great plan for America, right? Does Bush not expect anyone to do the math? Maybe he wasn't thinking of all 15 million impoverished children, I'm sure that's just a "whiny liberal guestimate or something."

One more year of Bush is too long.

Untraceable: don't let it fool you (some spoilage)

I saw that movie Untraceable last week.

It was pretty good, it was entertaining and everything, and it' s a pretty awesome idea for a movie. I'd go as far to say that it's one of the most inventive original movies to come out in a while. But I've just got to say that anyone who thinks that anything in that movie could actually happen really needs to come to terms with reality.

There's this quick, totally incidental scene about a politician who supports net neutrality. The first victim in the movie gets placed in this politician's car as a sick joke from the webmaster/murderer. The main character explains the irony to her co-worker who, despite being an FBI agent, has to ask, "Net neutrality, what's that?" And, within about three seconds, the main character spits out this over-simplified, sarcastic, and false remark about net neutrality....unfortunately I can't remember what the remark was, it was so much in passing that I couldn't retain the actual quote, just the meaning.

Long story short:the movie's probably intended to scare people into opposing net neutrality.

The whole reason why there's such great hype around the movie is because "It could really happen!" But there's no way in Hell that it could. See if I'm right, here's what happens:

The FBI hits a major roadblock right off the bat: "The NSA won't let us use their technology to track the website, DANG!" For some strange reason I don't think the National Security Agency would just simply tell the FBI, "Sorry, we can't help you track this guy who's killing people with his website, we're not aloud to violate privacy, blame the craaaaazy liberal Democrats in Congress."

(This has to happen in the movie, obviously, otherwise it'd be a hell of a lot shorter and less interesting and wouldn't make piles of money for people that already have many piles of money.)

The reason why the site is so hard to track is because somehow it uses several different IP addresses from all over the world, eventually settling on Russian IP addresses that are totally out of their jurisdiction. Not once do they contact Russia and ask if they can help. "He's using Russian IP's, it's out of our jurisdiction, let's wait for the next victims to show up and look for clues in the live stream as they die! MAN this is hard!"

Now that I've spoiled much of the basic plot line for you, I think you can see why the events in Untraceable are unrealistic at best. I could go on, but I gotta ask, who reads this blog?

Exactly.

The NOSAVAGE campaign is excersizing free speech, not stifling it

From Huffington Post courtesy of Alternet.org:

Michael Savage's Hate Speech Catches up with Him

At least four major firms have pulled advertising from Michael Savage's nationally syndicated radio show following a campaign highlighting his inflammatory rhetoric.
One other company, Geico insurance, is expected to follow suit. The campaign, launched recently by Brave New Films, generated thousands of calls urging advertisers on the Savage Nation show to sever financial ties to the widely popular (and frequently offensive) talk host.

In less than a week, four agreed to pull their ads from the show, including Union Bank of California (whose representative says they were advertisers on the Savage show by mistake and were glad to be taken off), Intuit, Chattem, ITT Technical Institute.

clickhereforallofit

I emphasize "pulled advertising" and "highlighting" because I think they're the backbone of the NOSAVAGE campaign, whether they know it or not. NOSAVAGE is calling up the sponsors of Michael Savages show and telling them what he actually says on his show and asks them if they really want to support this guy's program. A handful have already said, "You know what, we don't want to be associated with such a racist motherfucker," and pulled their ads.

THAT'S NOT STIFLING FREE SPEECH, that's expressing it. Savage can be a racist, Brave New Films and their NOSAVAGE campaign can be liberal ask his sponsors if they really want to support him. They're not trying to make it illegal to spout racist and uninformed garbage, they're trying to make it unprofitable. There's nothing hypocritical about it, and I say this because I'm sure there are plenty of people saying just the opposite (or will as soon as they hear about it).

It's not like they're trying to get the government to ban fascist rhetoric from the media. THAT would be stifling free speech. If sponsors don't want to fund a show, no matter what the content, they don't have to. That's business, quite literally. If there's a "major firm" that doesn't mind being associated with Savage, they can sponsor him and he can stay on the air. All the NOSAVAGE campaign is doing is just making sure that the sponsors know it's contents.

So Savage fans, or "supporters of free speech," don't bash Brave New Films for calling attention to what Savage actually says on his show, take it up with the sponsors, they're the ones who pulled the ads. (and it ain't like he's off the air yet)

White separatists protest in Jena, La.

From the AP courtesy of mercurynews.com:

JENA, La.—About 50 white separatists protested the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday in this tiny town, which was thrust into the spotlight months ago by 20,000 demonstrators who claimed prosecutors discriminated against blacks.

Police separated participants in the "pro-majority" rally organized by the Learned, Miss.-based Nationalist Movement from a racially mixed group of about 100 counter-demonstrators outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse. There was no violence and one arrest, a counter-demonstrator.

clickhereforallofit

50 racist protesters, twice as many counter-protesters. As horrible as it was to piss on Dr. King's grave like those supremacists did today, it's good to know that for every American racist there's two people who are willing to go out and meet them in the streets to protest their ignorance.

Last month I made a couple of videos about American whites who claim to be the new victims of racism. It's bullshit and we've got to call them on it at every instance possible. We're never going to tackle corporate crimes against humanity if blacks and whites still can't get along after all of this time.