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.

clickhereforallofit

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.

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.

clickhereforallofit

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.

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.

clickhereforallofit

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

clickhereforallofit

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:

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

clickhereforallofit

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

re: this week in real art #2

My first attempt at video blogging

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

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.

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).

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Unseasonably cold weather does not debunk global warming

When I stepped outside and felt how cold it was the other day, I immediately expected to hear someone at some point in the day say, "So much for global warming, huh?" I didn't hear it until about 1am Sunday morning (my band played Saturday night and it was fucking awesome by the way) from a Denny's hostess.

I've noticed something that many oldish people do when they talk about things that they don't know anything about. They kind of trail off and use sentence fragments and buzzwords to kind of display their point (though it is scarcely a point at all) without taking any definate stance on the subject. The Denny's hostess said something like, "So much for all this global warming--supossedly affected so many people for the last 20 years or so." Granted I may have misquoted, what the hell kind of sentence is that in the first place? My shoulders drooped and I let out a long sigh after I heard this nice oldish ignorant lady try to make a clever comment in defiance to all the smart guy scientists out there who outa just shut up and get over it.

If she had been talking to me, here's what I might have said:

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER THE GLOBE IS ACTUALLY GETTING HOTTER!

POLUTION IS BAD!

PROPONENTS OF GLOBAL WARMING HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT SUGGEST THAT HUMANS STOP POLLUTING THE AIR SO MUCH!

IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?

We shouldn't have to argue about whether global warming is actually happening, we need to stop out wasteful and dangerous ways. Let's invest in alternative fuels for automobiles. Let's use environmentally safe prodcuts. Let's make electricity from the several other ways that we can make it that don't involve releasing bad shit. Let's stop farting or something, I don't know, why does this need to be a debate?

Senate writes a timetable bill

I'm not going to post an article or anything just because I know that everyone understands that the Senate passed a bill that includes a timeline for an Iraq pullout. I also appologize for not posting anything for a while. I suck, I know.

Anyway, I think this bill is pretty cool, I just don't expect it to succeed. The Democrats have basically said, "alright, we've done our part, if Bush vetos this it's his responsibility." They're right about Bush, but I don't think it should end at Bush's veto. It sounds like they're not planning to reverse the veto, and that's fucked up.

They'll sit back and let the war go on after Bush vetos their bill, and when it indefinately gets worse they can at least say, "Hey, we tried to stop it but Bush wouldn't let us! There's nothing else we can do!" If the war somehow, by some stroke of complete insanity, gets better, they can probably get by with saying that the bill displayed America's impatience and pressured Iraq to take responsibility for the country. Of course, there's NO way that this bill is going to do any good if it get vetoed.

In any case, next order of business: IMPEACHMENT.

the wal-mart rock

The Drafted - "I Hate Rick Perry"

Ban the Cluster Bomb

From nader.org

The global movement to ban cluster munitions received a big lift last month when forty-six nations at the Oslo Conference agreed on an action plan for “developing a new international treaty on cluster munitions by the end of 2008.”

Neither the United States, China, Russia nor Israel – manufacturers of cluster bombs – were participants in Oslo.

clickhereforallofit

Suprised?

If rich Americans get richer off of something--ANYTHING--even something dangerous and wrong, the US government will never stand in their way. Even after we kicked the GOP out of Congress, our government is not taking responsibility for anything. How are we supposed to win a so called "war on terrorism" when we can't even fight it morally? Because that doesn't even work out logically in the first place. Moral war? Give me a break. We've got to get the fuck out of there.

Patriot Act abuses

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies.

clickhereforallofit

Too tired to comment extensively. How 'bout this: "we told them so." Nah, I dunno, I guess I'm glad that people are actually looking in to the possibility of Patriot Act abuses and not immediately labeling such concerns as conspiracy theories.

Libby Convicted!

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that reached into the highest levels of the Bush administration.

clickhereforallofit

It was October 29th, 2005 when Libby was indicted. You may remember this nice little picture I made:



We've got to remember that there are a LOT more where Libby came from, and this little nugget of justice is only the tip of a big ass iceburg that's already cracked a whole in our hull. We're still sinking, and the Democrats are not going to patch it up.

Adam vs. BK Quad Stacker

I know I know I know. They still taste damn good.

The China Fantasy

I bought a book yesterday called The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression by James Mann, and I'm finding it extremely enlightening.

James Mann is basically a China expert. He used to be Cheif of the Beijing Bureau for the LA Times and is now senior author in residence at the Centre for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) (according to Wikipedia). To put it crudely, he knows a fuck of a lot more about China than you or I do.

I haven't finished but he starts by laying out the two popular American misconceptions regarding China. One is that China is on the road to democracy, thanks to the United States doing business with them, and Chinese people are becoming "like us" because they can wear jeans and eat at McDonalds. The second is that China will soon become a miliary rival against the US. They both assume that China is changing. Mann insists that China is not changing like that. They're not becoming more democratic and they're probably not going to wage future war against the US. He constantly reminds the reader that China's countryside is far different and far more populous than it's cities.

I'm not going to spoil the whole book for you (because I haven't read it all yet) and I'm really dumbing it down right now so I'll leave it at that and encourage you to pick up a copy.

Childish international policy

From the AP:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. would hold direct talks with Iran if Tehran suspended its nuclear program.

[...]

Iran says its energy program is peaceful.

[...]

"We have contingency plans around the world. We had contingency plans with the Soviet Union, and we had specific targets. That didn't mean that we were planning to strike the Soviet Union," said Rep. Duncan Hunter , D-Calif.

He said Hersh interprets that "into an intent to attack Iran in the near future. That's not the case."

clickhereforallofit

Condi says she'll talk with Iran if they stop their enrichment program. Iran insists that their program is peaceful. The New Yorker says that the US is planning on attacking Iran; the Pentagon insists that just because they have contingency plans for Iran, it doesn't mean they're planning on attacking them.

What it all boils down to is that the US thinks they can have nukes and entire bombing strategies against other countries, just in case, but Iran is a rogue state because their nuclear enrichment program must be intended for more than just energy purposes.

What makes the US superior to every other government? Not a goddamn thing. What negotiations are they even talking about? Isn't Condi talking about negotiations regarding Iran's nuke program? So she's saying Washington will talk with Tehran about their enrichment program only after it's abandoned? How can you negotiate about something that no longer exists? That makes absolutely no sense and it's childish of the administration to make such blatantly biased assumptions about another government.

record numbers are plunged into poverty

From the AP:
the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005

I know there are several factors involved, but obviously the main one is that the Bush regime refuses to accept the idea that the government should help poor people. That's it, plain and simple. We can talk about all the technical and mystical economic details we want, the fact is that our government doesn't do enough to help it's impoverished population, by which I mean they do not appropriate their budget in a way that helps needy people. Fuck the war, fuck our nukes, fuck NASA (to a certain extent), fuck the psuedo two party system and the true one party state, fuck our support of Isreal and other violent regimes, fuck corporate welfare and the whole corporate system, and fuck George Bush.

Saturday Dog Blog? - Hooch

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a whole week and a day, I went back to Texas for Mardi Gras and I've just been real disinterested with everything right now. I thought today was Friday for some reason but I'm posting a dog blog anyway. Here's my brother's girlfriend's dog, Hooch. I'll get back to good blogging soon. Sorry.

Friday DAWG Blog

Here's a dog I saw at a parade last weekend:




(The term "dawg" simply referrs to the guy's clothes, not his ethnicity.)

White House opens doors to Iraq refugees

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

The Bush administration plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.

here's the whole thing

I thought this was very interesting. Back during Christmas break I recall thinking to myself, "What would all these right wingers [I was in Texas at the time] think if we let Iraqis take refuge in our country?". My immediate assumption was that most Bush fans would absolutely despise the idea of letting anyone from that region come here, regardless of their desperate situation. Of course, our government has no choice but to let at least some Iraqis take refuge in our country, since we started this goddamn war in the first place.

This article points out that 7,000 people is only 1% of the total Iraqis who've been displaced. Most go to Syria, but it's getting full. Some neighboring countries have already stopped letting new refugees into their countries, and the one's who are already there can't stay forever.

I read about this a few weeks ago, I can't remember where, but at the time I had no idea that the US was letting any Iraqis take refuge here. I guess all I have to say is that any pro-war asshole who objects to these refugees coming here is a complete hypocrite, and I'm sure most '04 Bush voters are scared shitless about them brown people comin' to our cuuuntry. To them, I say, "BAH!"

Obama may publically fund his presidential campaign

Over at Realart today, Ron posted an article about all the new Democratic congressman who are using loopholes that are getting them better perks than what the Republicans were getting before the lobbying "reforms" that the Democrats helped put it place. I went to PBS's NOW for the first time today, just to see what it was, and I found this article:

Obama's apparent intention is to keep open the option of using the public financing system as a way to fund his campaign if he becomes the Democratic nominee [...] if the Republican candidate agreed to do the same

clickhereforallofit

Of course, this is all just talk right now, and he may not even end up as the Democratic nominee, but it's still good talk. I've been kind of on and off about Obama, not sure whether he's really progressive or just using his image to appear that way while officially siding with corporate interests. Right now I'm turned back on to Obama, but we'll see what happens, as the media is all over him right now and it's only going to get more intense.

WE'RE starting it

Courtesy of Eschaton, this article explains how we're intentionally provoking a war with Iran.

In other.....stuff...I finally switched to the new blogger. I hate Google. Screw those guys. Nah, can't hate on them too much, after all, they've got the BEST image search you could ever dream of.

Lucky for me, the new Blogger didn't promt me to use a new template, as they did Ron at Realart.

Happy Carnival

Mardi Gras is literally outside my window. It's pretty cool.

Here's some media:

Friday Dog Blog freaturing: DON JUAN

Don Juan is a "chaweenie," he's a mix of two small breeds of dog, can you guess what they are? My brother's girlfriend found him living in her dog's house. He's pretty much the coolest dog ever.

Perry's Vision for Texas = Ted Nugent

This is old news but I just now found it so I'm posting it because it's really, really funny.

From Austinist.com

Below are a few comparisons between what Gov. Perry said in his moving speech and what his hired entertainment, Deadly Tedly, said and did on stage later that evening at the ball:

On Racial Prejudice & Hatred
Perry’s Inaugural Speech: “140 years ago a segment of our people was enslaved and considered less than equal. But we are overcoming past prejudice for the sake of the common good…[...]…Imagine the possibilities in a Texas blind to color, class and ethnicity, where no one is invalidated because of their heritage, but valued because of their humanity.

Ted Nugent at the Inaugural Ball: The Motor City Madman played his scorching set draped in a confederate flag shirt – a symbol of slavery in just about everyone’s book – showing his pride for the South and his disrespect for African-American heritage in one crushing blow of 70’s-era guitar force. Perry danced on stage in his tuxedo, grinning contentedly.

On Immigration
Perry’s Inaugural Speech: “My vision for Texas is a tremendous tapestry of diversity woven together by common threads. We are of many faiths, traditions, heritages, but we are all Texans. And in Texas, it is not your identity that matters most, but your ideals.”

Ted Nugent at the Inaugural Ball: During his performance, The Nuge shouted several offensive remarks about non-English speakers and made plain his disgust for foreigners in general and giving them what for. Illegal aliens and people lacking English grammar got a taste of real guitar attack that evening, thanks to the handy work of Theodocious Atrocious. Perry danced on stage in his tuxedo, grinning contentedly.

On Bipartisanship
Perry’s Inaugural Speech: “Texas is better off when Republicans and Democrats work together. Our potential is too vast to be spoiled by a politics leavened with partisanship. There is so much we must do together.”

Ted Nugent at the Inaugural Ball: During his set, Nugent made several comments about Perry’s competitors in the gubernatorial race, suggesting in particular that Kinky Friedman should be “court jester” during Perry’s reign and generally scorning all Perry's non-Republican competition. At the high point of his set, The Kansas City Bad Boy played a fierce guitar solo, at the end of which he screamed out “George W. Bush!” with frothy-mouthed bravado and barbaric angst. Perry danced on stage in his tuxedo, grinning contentedly.

On Moral Values
Perry's Inaugural Speech: “…I also believe no great society can be built, or maintained, if we cultivate in our children the vanity of self rather than the virtue of selflessness...Young Texans must never be taught about rights without also learning about responsibilities. [...]The fabric of our society is not government or individual freedom, it is the family. And the demise of the family is the demise of any great society.”

Ted Nugent at the Inaugural Ball: Terrible Ted actually sang the 70’s hit “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” to the assembled black-tie crowd, complete with pelvic thrusts, using his American flag guitar as a phallic prop in true rock and roll style. The stage was covered with machine guns and skulls as props. Perry danced on stage in his tuxedo, grinning contentedly.

Austinist has deciphered the code of Perry's Inaugural Speech. We see his true vision for the future of Texas. Forget peace, equality and a functioning democracy unburdened by partisan agendas. The future of Texas is rock and roll.

clickhereforallofit

Wal-Mart, unions unite on health care [what the FUCK?]

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Executives from Wal-Mart and three other major U.S. employers on Wednesday joined hands with union leaders in setting a goal of providing "quality, affordable" health care for every American by 2012.

However, they did not propose any specific policies to achieve this goal, or commit to spending any extra money in the near-term to provide health coverage to more workers.

[...]

Despite praise from SEIU and Communications Workers of America leaders who called for universal health care for every American within five years, Paul Blank, the campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com, gave only tepid support for the plan in a prepared statement.

"If Wal-Mart is truly serious," Blank said, "we challenge the company to provide universal health care to all of its uninsured employees and their families today." Blank's group is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers, which did not participate in Wednesday's press conference.

clickhereforallofit

"I smell a rat," would be an under-statement right now. More like, "I smell a week old beached whale in the middle of July."

Here's what I've come up with:
Lee Scott and those other suites are actually trying to undermine the national health care movement by claiming to be a part of it. They'll make some changes, claiming to be fighting for national health care by 2012, and when we don't get it, all of corporate America (including Lee Scott and the others) can say, "SEE, we can't have national health care, we tried! It didn't work! Lets move on," and every Faux News pundit will follow suite. They're trying to squash the effort for good by manipulating it to their own advantage from the inside! It's quite brilliant, if that's what they're doing.

I simply can not believe that these corporate guys are actually sincere about this. After all, they're not increasing health coverage for their own employees, even while they claim to be fighting for better health care. Then again, maybe this is the epidome of Wal-Mart's current practice: "we don't have to pay a decent wage, the government can pay the difference!"

Wal-Mart assists their employees in applying for welfare money. They make a point to inform their employees that "there is help available (just not from us)." The big boys at the top don't get enough of their own government assistance (i.e. subsidies and income tax breaks), they have to screw their workers out of a decent wage and make the biggest possible profit while their most loyal customers bitch and moan about welfare queens taking all of their hard earned money and praise Wal-Mart as the greatest store ever. This is the way it's always been, and it just got a few notches more looney.

What America Needs to Know About Rudy Giuliani

From Crooks and Liars:

You might recall that several New York firefighters died when the towers collapsed. Giuliani testified to the 9/11 Commission that firefighters had been given an evacuation order, but they chose to stay because they were rescuing civilians. This testimony was not exactly, um, true.

[...]

"On perhaps the most painful of these, the loss of at least 121 firefighters in the north tower, Mr. Giuliani suggested that they stayed inside the trade center because they were busy rescuing civilians — never mentioning that they could not hear warnings from police helicopters, that many of them never learned the south tower had collapsed or that they were having serious problems staying in touch with their own commanders.

[...]

It is clear, witnesses said, that even after the south tower collapsed, many, if not most, of the firefighters had no idea that they were in dire peril, or that it was time for them to leave. In contrast, police officers received strong guidance from their commanders to get out of the building, the commission reported, thanks in large part to the information sent to the ground by police helicopters."

The police could not talk to the firefighters, however, because the two NY departments used different types of radios set on different frequencies. Giuliani offered the 9/11 commission a lame excuse about the limits of technology, which is absurd on its face. In fact, there had been many complaints about the radios before 9/11, and the Mayor had done nothing.

[...]

Wayne Barrett (author of Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 and Kevin Keating (director of the documentary “Giuliani Time” were interviewed by Amy Goodman recently; see the transcript here. Wayne Barrett said,

"The firefighters were using the same radios that they used at the ’93 bombing, even though we found a report that was written in 1990 that said that they were already obsolete and that they were a danger to the life of firefighters. And the firefighters are still carrying those same radios eight years after the 1993 bombing."

clickhereforallofit

The list goes on, it's long and disturbing. I haven't even read the whole thing. Since Rudy's a presidential hopeful for '08, I thought it'd be good to discuss this. I'm still trying to decide whether all of this stuff was all his fault. I never really thought of Giuliani as a "lame-duck" mayor, as this post said, but I guess that's because I'm not from New York, and I've mostly seen Giuliani on old episodes of SNL, where he appeared often back in the day.

I'm also still not sure of what a mayor's job actually is...

Take that Bears, I hate you

The Colts avenged the Saints' defeat last night in one of the coolest Super Bowls I've ever seen.

I wouldn't call myself much of a football fan, but I sure as hell am a Saints fan after this season, and I'm glad that the team who kept them from playing in the Super Bowl got raped pretty hard, so I'm a Colts fan now too (and I think the Saints could have done much better against them than the Bears).

The Saints are the one thing that anyone in New Orleans can agree on. They're one of the only positive influences in the city; when they win, everyone feels good, even for just a little while. Watching the Saints do well is the footballical equivalent of eating a big bowl of gumbo on a sat'day afternoon, or biting into an overstuffed po-boy after work. A Super Bowl victory would have been so good for New Orleans, it broke my heart that they didn't make it. I'll start off next season rooting for the Saints, then the Colts, then maybe the Cowboys since I still consider Texas my home (and the Texans are a fucking joke).

Revisiting old wisdom

From the first chapter of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States:

What did people in Spain get out of all that death and brutality visited on the Indians of the Americas? For a brief period in history, there was the glory of a Spanish Empire in the Western Hemisphere. As Hans Koning sumit up in his book Columbus: His Enterprise:

For all the gold and silver stolen and shipped to Spain did not make the Spanish people richer. It gave their kings and edge in the balance of power for a time, a chance to hire more mercenary soldiers for their wars. They ended up losing those wars anyway, and all that was left was a deadly inflation, a starving population, the rich richer, the poor poorer, and a ruined peasant class.

You can paste this quote directly into our war with Iraq and pretty much anything we've ever done over there, changing "Spain" to the US. Skeptics would of course point out their knee-jerk disconnect where the American Indians were not a "direct threat to Europe's security" like them gol-dern terrrists is. What they would of course be missing, as they always have, is that Islamic fundamentalists would not have gained so much power in that region had we not screwed it up so severely already. This quote doesn't just apply to the current war that we're still losing in Iraq, it applies to our days as early back as the 1950's when we installed the Shah in Iran, and maybe even before that. Iraqis, Afghans, Kosovars, you name 'em, they're the Indians. We're the Spaniards, English, Dutch, Italian, you name them too. It's the same thing, with a big horrific attack on our soil to distort our rationality and still give war mongers' racist, nationalist, imperialist, and bigoted points of view any miniscule amount of substance.

This is one of those rants that seems like it should have been posted a long time ago, but I think that even though America is overwhealmingly against the war, most Americans are probably just physically and mentally tired of it. It's not some kind of ideological shift, it's just a repeat of Vietnam: the longer it goes on, the more we hate it. We still don't really question why the war is happening, or why it was allowed to happen in the first place. We're just fatigued and simply want it to go away.

If I don't stop now I never will.

Friday DOG BLOG

My dog snickers, once again.

Here's a video