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.

clickhereforallofit

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.