Sunday, December 31, 2006

1000 hits!

Oh, there may be a few less, since I didn't hit that 'don't count my server' switch for a while, but hey! 1005 according to my latest Sitemeter report!

Thanks to all!

Starting in August, I made a resolution to post every day. Since then, I've been decent - a good start and then a falling away. Still, about 5 posts a week.

I want to thank Wege at Norwegianity, who is responsible for many of my peak days, as well as Melissa at Shakepeare's Sister.

Oh - I'm going to be dropping my nicotine monkey into the permanent (I devoutly hope) incinerator tomorrow (i.e., I'm quitting smoking) so I'll either 1) post more, 2) post less, or 3) post increasingly bitter and lunatic flights of withdrawl angst. Just be warned.

And besides this, Bush abdicandum est*.
(*Bush must resign)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

More on the Strib buyout

nihilix and Braniac4 discussing the Strib buyout:

They want to make more money on the Strib. If I had it, I'd cut it's size drastically and market to the niche of people who want good media. Since not too long ago, the Strib made 87% of it's money on adverstising, they have to increase their sale of ads. Since as Brainy says, they can't sell so many ads that the paper weighs 10 pounds and they need a new set of trucks to deliver them, how else do they make money?

One of my worries is that they will try and sell their news content - or what they call the 'news hole' - so you effectively get more ads in the same place. This includes things like poorly-marked 'adver-news' suppliments (oooh! one about the new fucking stadium!) or even more of the press-release driven journalism about new medical devices or whatever the fuck goes in where Camp Snoopy was.


And besides this, Bush abdicandum est*.
(*Bush must resign)

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Star Tribune bought. Layoffs to come?

Oh gods. First the news that Anders Gyllenhall leaves the Strib - and now they're sold.

To someone called 'Avista', which is bad, because companies with bullshit made-up-word names are there to screw SOMEONE. (Xcel. Qwest. Enron.)

Let's see what their website says about their media holdings...

"Avista targets companies that have strong, often proprietary, positions...
(...we like buying monopolies)
in attractive niche sectors...
(...that cater to rich people)
of the content-creation, content-packaging and content-distribution segments of the media industry.
(We don't really care about what they do - it's all just product for us
.)
These businesses are characterized by stable cash flows, attractive margins and low capital-expenditure and working-capital requirements.
(OK - we like stuff that makes money, makes good money, and doesn't take much money to set up or run. Hmm... Fond of running a tight ship... is that a layoff I smell?)


Avista prefers media businesses with lower technology risk...
(We aren't too dot-commie...)
and those that offer the opportunity to capitalize on Avista's operating expertise to build more robust revenue growth.
(... and give you the opportunity to make money on our expertise in squeezing the most blood out of every dollar.)
In addition, Avista has particular interest in well-branded companies that can exploit additional and emerging distribution channels and/or improve the geographic reach of their content.
(We're also going to be increasing our brand advertising and our monopoly power and drive out other competition. We won't be buying the Pioneer Press and shutting it down. No sir.)
Avista believes attractive investment opportunities will be found in niche markets and mid-sized companies that are not the focus of most mainstream media investors.
(Thar's money in fanatics and under those little stones.)

WELL! I feel relieved, don't you? They want to make more money on the Strib. If I had it, I'd cut it's size drastically and market to the niche of people who want good media. Since not too long ago, the Strib


And besides this, Bush abdicandum est*.
(*Bush must resign)

Hope everyone is merry...

Muslims are in the Hajj - thanks to a lunar calendar, things move around a bit according to our solar year, so this time around the crazy times in Mecca are December 31 to January 2. Hope all goes smoothly this year - there's a lot of pissed-ness in the Islamic world. Something about being used and abused and discriminated against.

Haven't had access for a couple of days - wonder if Virgil Goode has been repudiated by the White House. I'm not holding my breath.

And another counter-carol; we're still in the 12 days of Xmas, the 5 days of Saturnalia, and it's the first day of Kwanzaa (Unity, if I recall correctly)

Wal-Mart the Corporate Monster
Tune: Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer
New Words: nihilix and LeighAnne

Wal-Mart the corporate monster
Has a lot of sweat shop stuff
And if you call them on it
They begin to lie and bluff

All of the Wal-Mart workers
Get their health from Medicare
And if they’re feeling sickly
They’re no longer working there!

Then one muggy May the 1st
Joe Hill came to say
Workers now unleash your rage
Force them to pay living wage!

And they all formed a union
Kicked Sam Walton in the ass
That really showed ol' Wal-Mart
You can't stop the working class!


And besides this, Bush abdicatum est*.


(Bush must resign)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Little Hummer Boy

Spent some time caroling at the anti-war demo in Uptown Minneapolis today... realized that I've got tons of seasonally-appropriate content ready to go!

CounterPropaganda Carolers present:
Little Hummer Boy
Tune: Little Drummer Boy
New Words: nihilix

I use lots of gas
In my SUV
And on the roads I pass
In my SUV
you must look out for me
And my SUV
because I must drive free
In my SUV… my SUV… my SUV

My mileage is so vile
In my SUV
I'm in complete denial
In my SUV
Gas will be cheap once more
For my SUV
Good thing we've got a war
For my SUV… my SUV… my SUV

Let's fight that war for oil
And my SUV
Blood on Iraqi soil
For my SUV
Lets drop s'more bombs now
For my SUV
It might bring back the Dow
and my SUV… my SUV… my SUV…

Waste en-er-gy

And besides this, Bush must resign.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Blog Block

Ehh - holidays, more holidays, work crappyness (due in large part to the holidays), and more means very little blog posting. Sorry!

And besides this, Bush must resign.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Blair, Brits knew WMD was a lie.

There's a great line in this article about Tony Blair trying to "draw a line" under the justification for the illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Problem is, each time he draws that line, the blood seeps down and obliterates it.

This is from the Independent, and here's the whole damn thing.

Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war
By Colin Brown and Andy McSmith
Published: 15 December 2006

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."

Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained".

He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. "I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed)," he said.

"At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."

He claims "inertia" in the Foreign Office and the "inattention of key ministers" combined to stop the UK carrying out any co-ordinated and sustained attempt to address sanction-busting by Iraq, an approach which could have provided an alternative to war.

Mr Ross delivered the evidence to the Butler inquiry which investigated intelligence blunders in the run-up to the conflict.

The Foreign Office had attempted to prevent the evidence being made public, but it has now been published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act.

It shows Mr Ross told the inquiry, chaired by Lord Butler, "there was no intelligence evidence of significant holdings of CW [chemical warfare], BW [biological warfare] or nuclear material" held by the Iraqi dictator before the invasion. "There was, moreover, no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbours or the UK or the US," he added.

Mr Ross's evidence directly challenges the assertions by the Prime Minster that the war was legally justified because Saddam possessed WMDs which could be "activated" within 45 minutes and posed a threat to British interests. These claims were also made in two dossiers, subsequently discredited, in spite of the advice by Mr Ross.

His hitherto secret evidence threatens to reopen the row over the legality of the conflict, under which Mr Blair has sought to draw a line as the internecine bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.

Mr Ross says he questioned colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence working on Iraq and none said that any new evidence had emerged to change their assessment.

"What had changed was the Government's determination to present available evidence in a different light," he added.

Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he "discussed this at some length with David Kelly", the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had "sexed up" the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of "sexing up" the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.

Mr Ross, 40, was a highly rated diplomat but he resigned because of his misgivings about the legality of the war. He still fears the threat of action under the Official Secrets Act.

"Mr Ross hasn't had any approach to tell him that he is still not liable to be prosecuted," said one ally. But he has told friends that he is "glad it is out in the open" and he told MPs it had been "on my conscience for years".

One member of the Foreign Affairs committee said: "There was blood on the carpet over this. I think it's pretty clear the Foreign Office used the Official Secrets Act to suppress this evidence, by hanging it like a Sword of Damacles over Mr Ross, but we have called their bluff."

Yesterday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons who was Foreign Secretary during the war - Mr Ross's boss - announced the Commons will have a debate on the possible change of strategy heralded by the Iraqi Study Group report in the new year.

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."

Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained".

He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. "I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed)," he said.

"At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."

He claims "inertia" in the Foreign Office and the "inattention of key ministers" combined to stop the UK carrying out any co-ordinated and sustained attempt to address sanction-busting by Iraq, an approach which could have provided an alternative to war.

Mr Ross delivered the evidence to the Butler inquiry which investigated intelligence blunders in the run-up to the conflict.

The Foreign Office had attempted to prevent the evidence being made public, but it has now been published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act.

It shows Mr Ross told the inquiry, chaired by Lord Butler, "there was no intelligence evidence of significant holdings of CW [chemical warfare], BW [biological warfare] or nuclear material" held by the Iraqi dictator before the invasion. "There was, moreover, no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbours or the UK or the US," he added.

Mr Ross's evidence directly challenges the assertions by the Prime Minster that the war was legally justified because Saddam possessed WMDs which could be "activated" within 45 minutes and posed a threat to British interests. These claims were also made in two dossiers, subsequently discredited, in spite of the advice by Mr Ross.

His hitherto secret evidence threatens to reopen the row over the legality of the conflict, under which Mr Blair has sought to draw a line as the internecine bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.

Mr Ross says he questioned colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence working on Iraq and none said that any new evidence had emerged to change their assessment.

"What had changed was the Government's determination to present available evidence in a different light," he added.

Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he "discussed this at some length with David Kelly", the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had "sexed up" the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of "sexing up" the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.

Mr Ross, 40, was a highly rated diplomat but he resigned because of his misgivings about the legality of the war. He still fears the threat of action under the Official Secrets Act.

"Mr Ross hasn't had any approach to tell him that he is still not liable to be prosecuted," said one ally. But he has told friends that he is "glad it is out in the open" and he told MPs it had been "on my conscience for years".

One member of the Foreign Affairs committee said: "There was blood on the carpet over this. I think it's pretty clear the Foreign Office used the Official Secrets Act to suppress this evidence, by hanging it like a Sword of Damacles over Mr Ross, but we have called their bluff."

Yesterday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons who was Foreign Secretary during the war - Mr Ross's boss - announced the Commons will have a debate on the possible change of strategy heralded by the Iraqi Study Group report in the new year.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The Bush Regime - in pictures

All of this is gleefully credited to BAGnewsNotes. Great site for digging into those worth-a-thousand-words pictures that we don't usually see on the internets. There's a great analysis of a White House photo up there now - and here's the money quote:

It's President Bush, self-styled Leader of the Free World, who takes the prize for transparency: we can see right through him, and there's nothing there. Forget the shirt collar that's getting a little bit loose, or the cords beneath his chin that have started to pop in the past month or so.

It's the utterly blank stare that stops us. He's not looking at anything at all (this was the day before Hashimi brought up the light off in the distance.) He could be thinking of lunch, clearing brush or waiting for Santa Claus. It's that look of someone showing up at a funeral who's forgotten the name of the deceased, of a blind man without his guide dog.

...and here's the link to the story....

...and here's the photo itself.



And here's the rest of the commentary.

Light At The End Of The Corridor
by Chris Maynard

Sooner or later, someone was bound to bring it up.

Finally, on the afternoon of December 12, the "L" word was used in Washington. Tariq al-Hashimi, the vice president of Iraq, in direct view of President Bush, said that his country faces "a hard time, but there is a light in the corridor." The last man to talk of distant lights in narrow passageways was Lyndon Johnson, who had enough shame, and sense, to leave office in 1968.

The trio above has made a show of taunting anyone who even mentions sense and shame. On Monday they left the State Department, stopping only for a brief statement to the press, taking no questions. The answers were, visually, quite obvious. Vice-President Cheney, head lowered as usual to avoid looking at lesser mortals, appears to be folding up notes, or perhaps a cheat sheet with only the word "No" scrawled across it. Secretary of State Rice looks even glummer than normal, her chin diving toward her collarbone. Suddenly the years of staring down anyone impertinent enough to question her are over, and the world is tired of her rigged version of Musical Chairs.

It's President Bush, self-styled Leader of the Free World, who takes the prize for transparency: we can see right through him, and there's nothing there. Forget the shirt collar that's getting a little bit loose, or the cords beneath his chin that have started to pop in the past month or so.

It's the utterly blank stare that stops us. He's not looking at anything at all (this was the day before Hashimi brought up the light off in the distance.) He could be thinking of lunch, clearing brush or waiting for Santa Claus. It's that look of someone showing up at a funeral who's forgotten the name of the deceased, of a blind man without his guide dog.

The lid seems to be pretty tight on the meeting itself, with no mention of who exactly was there or what exactly was said. For this administration that's business as usual, but given the release of the Iraq Study Group report there might be some interest in what's going on in private. Tough luck for democracy, but government can be messy that way.

It could be a look of resignation, of finally biting the bullet and asking for help but that's pretty far-fetched. The deadlines are already slipping; his response to the study was originally scheduled for "before Christmas" but now the talk is of "early January."

"Their money spent, their wine gone sour," what's another couple of weeks, or months, or even years?

(hat tip: Gary. image: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. December 13, 2006. nytimes.com)

Sunday, December 10, 2006

O is for Oil. I is for Iraq. L is for Lies.

No debate about the future of the American occupation of Iraq is honest if it does not deal with oil.

To be sure, there are a couple of other important things - being the crossroads between ol' Persia and the rest of the Middle East, and having important water resources (which the neo-theo-cons will be starting wars over in 2020) but for right now, the big big big thing is the oil.

And not just Iraqi oil - it's having the troops nearby in case we need to, say, prop up the Saudis, or assist the poor struggling real-live-atrocities-as-seen-on-TV Iranian Resistance Fighters, or once again make Kuwait safe for western interests.

The total absence of oil politics in the current discussion of Iraq is one of the Big Lies of the Middle East. (The imbalance of power created by Israeli nukes is one of the other ones.) But the debate in the corporate media is like a two-legged stool. The Democrats, of course, won't bring it up if they don't have to, since so much of their party is based on the old 'multi-lateral' imperial system. This means instead of the US using it's military to wage aggressive war (that's the neo-con model) , the US and Europe and Japan get together and thug around the rest of the world, and just threaten to use military force. So when they talk about 'over the horizon' military force, about a pliant Iraqi government that can sustain and defend itself, they all mean 'we still get to call the shots on oil.'

The Iraqis know it's about their oil. From a post on the Booman Tribune:
"I love Americans but hate your military," says a college professor turned insurgent. "Americans have come here because you want our oil and because of your support of Israel. You bring democracy, but the Iraqi pays the price."
The Acting President, Dick Cheney, knew it was about oil. His secret energy meetings detailed our imperial interests down to the letter. From an old post on Counterpunch:
Judicial Watch... along with the Sierra Club, had argued that both the membership of the Energy Task Force chaired by Vice-President Cheney and the proceedings of its meetings should be made public and had sought the information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) since April 19, 2001. The Vice President had vigorously opposed this opening up of its activities and so a lawsuit was filed. On March 5, 2002 the US District Judge ordered the government to produce the documents, which was finally done by the Commerce Department just recently.

The Judicial Watch press release states that these released documents "contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts." The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org."

The press release continues: "The Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) documents likewise feature a map of each country's oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the projects, costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date."
For a long while, I've wondered what it would be like were there to be peace plans that included an honest discussion of oil. The issue is skirted in the partition plans, when people point out that the poor middle province would not have any oil, and that you need a strong central government to ensure the oil profits are spread around. George Bush made reference to the oil a couple months ago, when he said we don't want 'the terra-rists' to control the oil. But do Murtha, or Pelosi, or any of those folks talk about it? Nope. We get the Iraq Oil Lies, is what we get.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Bush Must Resign

I've been thinking about impeachment, about the Democratic dance around it.

Forget impeachment. Bush must resign.

The Bush government, and the forces that support it, are dangerous to most of the world. While changing parties in Congress will neuter this danger to some extent, that is not enough. The entire constellation of the ruling elites who back the Bush Regime - corporations, a section of the evangelical right, the hereditary wealthy, portions of the military and intelligence services - must be broken up, and denied access to the levers of power.

This will be a major shift in power dynamics in the US. Major shifts in power dynamics have been happening for a while - and the election of 2006 is one representation of this. But we cannot be satisfied with lukewarm reform - with surface change. Just as some parts of the business/corporate community bought into the New Deal until they could undermine it, the corporations and the rich and the military will want to minimize any shifts. Any radical can see this. Any progressive who takes their views to their logical conclusion will see this. Surface change is not enough - we need major change. Corporate power must be seriously cut back. People power must be mobilized. Media power must be busted from the trust that now holds it.

George Bush should resign. Frankly, Congress has better things to do (like taking care of the above list) to bother with impeachment. He should just resign. George Bush should resign.

Bush should be hounded out of office by the populace like the charlatan he is. The Acting President, Dick Cheney, will have to front for the crap he's been shovelling behind closed doors. The Neo-Liberal Neo-Con agenda should be chased from the public square with choruses of boos, tarred and feathered and a target of derision.

George Bush should resign. Congress can get to the business of cleaning up some of the dog turds that the Bush Regime has laid across the landscape: repealing the Patriot Act, actually fucking rebuilding New Orleans, getting the hell out of Iraq and closing that blot on the Constitution called Guantanamo Bay. We can save things like single-payer health care for after 2008, when the repealed tax holiday for the rich and the ultra-rich has had a couple years to stanch the flow of red ink out of the budget.

Bloggers must begin to call for Bush's resignation. The causes are ample; the man (or rather, the government that is fronted by George Bush) has committed enough atrocities against his office that the only honorable thing for him to do is leave it.

Join me in this call. George Bush should resign. George Bush must resign.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Aaarrrgh...

I'm tired of hearing about how Jose Padilla was brutalized. I'm tired of reading the UCLA Bruin as people try to rationalize tasering a student repeatedly. I don't give a rip about Daddy Bush getting all teary-eyed (over Junior dragging the family name in the mud, I bet... and the Gnomes of Wall Street telling him Jeb is no longer elegible for the Presidency...)

I want to hear about green growing things; I want to hear about love and laughter.

Maybe I should spend more time taking care of the houseplants and watching good comedies.

Grrr.

Monday, December 04, 2006

The APPO lives!

But it's taken a big hit...

Oaxaca seems to be in the shit right now. The PFP - the Federal Mexican police - have seized the city center. They've been beating people, disappearing them, beating them more once they're disappeared, gone into hospitals looking for injured protesters. Fucking third-world gang shit - and what the Bushies wish they could do to their political opponents. (Minutemen to the rescue!)

They may have also gotten the radio station - and that's big shit. I hope they get back on the air.

Fuckin' Obrador better start getting some left-party irons in this fire to pull the PFP out, or he's full of shit. The Zapatistas have been all over the support, however. And check this crazy shit out from Subcommandante Marcos:


Marcos: “We Are On the Eve of Either a Great Uprising or a Civil War
Calderón Will Begin to Fall from the Day He Takes Office, Warns the Rebel Leader

By Hermann Bellinghausen, La Jornada
November 24, 2006

Bagdad, Tamaulipas, November 23: December 1, the day that Felipe Calderón takes office, will be “the beginning of the end for a political system that, since the Mexican Revolution, became deformed and began to cheat generation after generation, until this one arrived and said, ‘Enough,’” warned Subcomandante Marcos during a press conference. Calderón, he added, “will begin to fall from his first day.”

Joining the Blorg

I've joined the Blorg - the blogger-borg that is Google. By signing up to the Blogger Beta, I fall under their TOS and grant them a licence to shovel for free my meanderings into their Content Channels.

Now, the Blorg seem very benign. They give me email for free with gigs of storage, they let me put up a spreadsheet for free, they will give us books for free. All for free! But they grow...

Nice Google! Funny little things you do with your logo!

Nevertheless, when you peel back the layers of geek chic, of caring company, of innocent startup - when you get to rending the cells to get to the DNA of the Blorg, of Google, you find a publicly traded corporation.

Sadly, like Sauron's Ring, which corrupts you if you have it, the genetic information that makes a publically traded corporation in America right now - that information is corrupt. The corruption spreads through the marrow, and you can see it in things like Google in China, or Google vs. the US Security Apparatus. (What? They were good? How good were they?) Or reading my email to sell my eyeballs to content-driven web ads.

So, I'll likely start another blog in some safer corner of Our Internets, and maybe switch. Who knows. Nothing for now - it's the holiday season and I've had a cold for like a freaking week. Sucks!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Great article on the media and Venezuela's Chavez

As I write, I find myself focusing on certain things - human rights violations in the US (which include authoritarian politics and constitutional desecration) and what's happening in the rest of the Americas - Mexico and South America.

The attempts of our government to overthrow Hugo Chavez of Venezuela are one of the things that really ticks me off. And the corporate press are going along - in a big way. This article, from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, lays it all out.


The Op-Ed Assassination of Hugo Chávez
Commentary on Venezuela parrots U.S. propaganda themes

By Justin Delacour
President Hugo Chávez Frias (700 Club, 8/22/05), the editors of several major newspapers were quick to denounce his outrageous incitement to violence. However, in criticizing the conservative televangelist, the prestige press overlooked its own highly antagonistic treatment of Venezuela’s president, which surely contributed to the heated political climate in which Robertson made his threat.

Even so-called “moderate” columnists have contributed to the deterioration of U.S.-Venezuela relations by distorting the Venezuelan government’s domestic and foreign policy record. Robertson may indeed be “just a garden-variety crackpot with friends in high places,” as the New York Times opined (8/25/05), but the televangelist’s erroneous characterization of Venezuela’s president as a “strong-arm dictator” is hardly distinguishable from, say, Thomas Friedman’s contention that Chávez is an “autocrat” (New York Times, 3/27/05).

In studying the opinion pages of the top 25 circulation newspapers in the United States during the first six months of 2005, Extra! found that 95 percent of the nearly 100 press commentaries that examined Venezuelan politics expressed clear hostility to the country’s democratically elected president...


Of course, Chavez is not only calling Bush the devil, he's also challanging neo-liberal economics. This means he's threatening the bloody pyramid of wealth that the US sits atop - which makes him more than just Bush's enemy.

The U.S. media’s distorted characterizations of Venezuela’s government were typified by Diehl (Washington Post, 1/17/05), who claimed that Chávez is “aggressively moving to eliminate the independence of the media and judiciary, criminalize opposition and establish state control over the economy.”

The Post more explicitly conflated democracy with U.S.-sponsored “free market” policies in a January 14 editorial, in which it asserted that Chávez’s “assault on private property is merely the latest step in what has been a rapidly escalating ‘revolution’ . . . that is undermining the foundations of democracy and free enterprise.”

The notion that U.S.-sponsored neo-liberalism (“free enterprise”) is the only economic model compatible with democracy was further promoted by the Miami Herald (5/8/05), which declared that “the pugnacious Mr. Chávez is determined to push his populist model to the people of the region as a competitor to real democracies...”


And as is common, Chavez is accused of committing the sins of the US.

Aside from neglecting to provide proof for the charge that Chávez destabilizes Latin America, columnists failed to recognize the hypocrisy of accusing Venezuela of meddling in a region where U.S. interference is second to none. In reality, it is the Bush administration—not the Chávez government—that is known to meddle in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. During recent presidential races in Nicaragua (2001), Bolivia (2002) and El Salvador (2004), Bush administration officials openly threatened to penalize the three countries if their citizens elected candidates who opposed U.S. policies.


Good article. I recommend it.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Retail purgatory

I can't call it retail hell, but it was a busy busy day at work. So busy I stayed late.

Which is why all you get is this placeholder. And I get the headache.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Returning from vacation...

It was good, but now I've got this - oh my god - anxiety about the coming week. It's going to be a busy one! One media project has a move, and a fundraiser; another has a scrambling rehersal for a show we agreed to do in a month, and another has a going-away party which should be fun but it's just another thing. Work is hitting the Xmas crap in a BIG way (and I work in retail) and I missed a deadline for the newsletter article.

Media note: I saw that Raw Story has the Karpinski claim - that she saw Rumsfeld's handwriting on the 'how to torture' note at Abu Ghraib - sourced to Spanish media. Amy Goodman had her with that same story a week ago. Bullshit on people for not picking that up.

Tha's all for now - just a little 'hey hello and online journalling, i got a priority list of 6 things before bed' post. (Two already done, and this post is a bonus. Rock-rock on!)

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I got nuttin...

So I'm saying it loud and proud!

Nihilix was a blogger for sure
He was suave and oh so mature
He blogged every day
And in every way
Unless he messed up.

Meta-limerick!

Monday, November 20, 2006

Once more into the breach!

I was going to use 'back in the saddle' but I've already used that on a post after I'd skipped a couple of days.

And I have to say that this Thanksgiving holiday will be rough on the old posting schedule. Starting Wednesday, I'll be in dialup-if-that territory, unless I can get the old Lombard laptop to work. (It's showing a corrupted system file. I don't even know if I can put the original 6 meg harddrive back in... I think I removed or moved some of the system files on that... which might be the problem...)

Anyway, leftist Mexican presidential candidate Luis Obrador of the PRD has had himself sworn in as the 'legitimate' Mexican president, after Vincente Fox's party, the PAN, gave their candidate a bare 1% of the vote. While the people of Oaxaca are trying to maintain their people's governement, Obrador is largely silent. This story about one of the re-appeared disappeared shows how the forces of oppression operate: you pick them up, hold them incommunicado, beat and torture them, and then maybe you let them go, maybe they have a little accident... The man, Rene Trujillo Martínez, was a lawyer and a broadcaster on the APPO radio station at the autonomous university; one of the last voices left to the movement.
At the warehouse the gunmen tortured them, sticking needles under their finger nails (the scars were visible three days later), applying electric shocks to their feet, beating them on the head, and choking them, according to the three men, who were later released.


On the "let's taser the shit out of a student in the library" front, the student has filed a lawsuit and the university cops have been identified. One of them is this winner:
In 2003, Duren shot Willie Davis Frazier Jr., a homeless man Duren encountered in a Kerckhoff study lounge, following a physical and verbal altercation.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Hunting for wabbits...

Well, deer, actually.

Using a camera, this year. Got a clear sight but no clear picture of two deer. If I'd had a gun, I probably would have missed with that as well.

Posting limited today and tomorrow. Maybe something late Sunday.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

More on the tasering

It's brutal. I watched the video (which I was afraid to the first time) and it is as shocking as Firedoglake says it is.

And then there's the statement from UCLA.



Date: November 15, 2006
Contact: Office of Media Relations ( media@support.ucla.edu )
Phone: 310-825-2585

Statement from UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams About Incident at Powell Library

University police are investigating an incident late last night in which police took a student into custody at Powell Library. Investigators are reviewing the incident and the officers' actions. The investigation and review will be thorough, vigorous and fair.

The safety of our campus community is of paramount importance to me. Routinely checking student identification after 11 p.m. at the campus library, which is open 24 hours, is a policy posted in the library that was enacted for the protection of our students. Compliance is critical for the safety and well-being of everyone.

-UCLA-

LB516


And here's my email to their lovely media department:

I've read your statement on the Tasering of a student in your library.

This is chilling.

"The safety of our campus community is of paramount importance to me. Routinely checking student identification after 11 p.m. at the campus library, which is open 24 hours, is a policy posted in the library that was enacted for the protection of our students. Compliance is critical for the safety and well-being of everyone"

Safety is paramount?? yet you endanger a student with a semi-lethal technology? Compliance is critical?? How in the world can you claim that your need for students to comply with showing a pass is such a critical compliance to use that force?

There were at least three officers on the scene. If three officers cannot remove someone who was not complying without repeatedly hitting that person with a cattle prod, you need to do some serious thinking.

I've considered schools in the California system for graduate school. I can assure you UCLA is no longer on my list.


And here's the video:

Tasers and people's governments.

May we live in interesting times...

The UCLA police tasered the shit out of a student who wouldn't show ID. Guess that showed him!

Firedoglake

It all started when campus cops at UCLA decided to run a student out of the library on suspicion of Using a Computer While Brown:

When Tabatabainejad, 23, refused to provide his ID to the community service officer, the officer told him he would have to show it or leave the library, the report said.

Vhee haff to see your papers…


(LA Times account.)


Excellent account from the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

On the plus side, the citizens of Oaxaca have formed themselves a people's government.

Oaxaca’s APPO Forms Permanent Government, Announces Escalation of Resistance (Narco News)

Three thousand Oaxaqueños responded to the first call of the Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Oaxaca (Popular Assembly of the Peoples’ of Oaxaca, or APPO) on Friday, November 10, to forge a new constitution for Oaxaca. The APPO sprang into life in the two days following the attempted eviction of striking teachers from their zocalo encampment on June 14, 2006. It has guided the social movement in Oaxaca since then, and now self-dissolves in favor of a permanent structure of government which includes an executive and legislative branch. The provisional directorship dissolved on formally initiating the work of the constitutive congress.


While the rights of Americans are brutally ripped away, people who are being killed in their struggle announce their determination to rule themselves. It was that kind of day.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Did K Street set us free?

Things are bad. When are we going to catch on? More and more of us are - catching on to something.

What is it that we fasten onto? We have all sorts of drowning going on - in debt, in malaise, in anger... and we fasten on to something we reach for something that provides some hope.

Some have fastened onto a black and white faith that gives simple answers while it supports the current system. As long as there's someone to hate, someone to blame, and someone to tell you with full sincerity that they know what the answer is, people will latch on.

Some have fastened onto political ideology. A secular faith (secular, except when part of the religious reich) which gives us some answers. The left as well as the right do this. If only we can get the majorities. If only we elect the right ones. If only... if only...

Some have had their faith dashed. The megachurch with the grinning formerly closeted fag at the helm. The macho scared male suburbanite with a football team and a tough man president who never loses. He's been losing a lot lately, hasn't he?

The Kossaks and so many others - these kids. I remember being politically active at 24. I was hella active. I loved it - and I thought things were great and big and never more important and we were gonna do it (ok, we lost a lot) but I see these kids now, and they don't remember Reagan. Hell - you got ten years to become aware, and 8 years of Clinton and 6 years of Cheney and you're 24 years old. And it was a loong time since the Democrats had Congress, and frankly, from what I remember, those Congresses weren't the same kind of Democrats. But maybe I'm forgetting - what kind of firebrands they had back then.

So a new Democratic majority in the House. So a feeling of politics mattering. I can see it in some ways - a progressive movement - and I can also see the sellout politics of the DLC and the other corporate Dems - and I wonder if the faith in the new Democratic majorities will soon be dashed.

I was a Naderite in 2000. And I was a WTO protester in 1999. And I formed a union in 1993, and was a Wobbly. I had and have a profound distrust of many structures of power. The Nader critique was a good one - because Bush-the-candidate and Gore-the-candidate weren't that far apart. Al Gore v 2.000 was the crappy southern stiff insider who was flogging his DLC crap. He was into oil in South America, he was death-penalty, he was good for business. His internationalism - and that we cry for that, for the good old days when we weren't unilateralists and instead the US and Western Europe and Japan (a bit) were all holding hands together (as we sucked the third world dry...) - things are so bad that this seems to be the bright and shining path... anyways, Gore was all those things. And Bush seemed like a mix between Dole's boring corporate stuff and Gingrich (but dumber) with a smallish dash of Robertson, and he didn't seem to be the monster.

Perhaps DeLay and Abramoff and Santorum and Grover did us a K Street favor. Maybe they were so good at sucking the corporate power into their machine that they lost some of their hold on the Democrats. Maybe we will be able to talk about things that challange - if not the system, at least the gains the rich and richer have made in the last few years. Maybe we'll be able to stop a war, maybe we'll be able to make some changes in the better. Mounting a better defense is very do-able; going on the attack (subpoena power, anyone) would be even better. Maybe the hand that fed the old Democrats has stopped feeding to the point where it can get bit.

So I am not fastening onto the new House majority. I will have to give them some room, and maybe do some trying to hold accountable (if they do some good accountablity holding themselves, it will be very nice.) I would like to have faith - but I'll wait to see some proof.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Short post - cable night

I do a cable show one Monday a month on Suburban Community Cable. We talked about the election - starting with Greg Palast's 'the election has already been stolen' piece. If vote suppression stole about 4.5 million votes, which is Palast's estimate, then the anti-Republican pro-Democratic sweep was that much greater.

In your face, Ken Blackwell! Right back at ya, Katherine Harris!

Also talked about Rummy's 'resignation' as a failed attempt to steal the news cycle, Allen's concession as a way to keep the lid on whatever is going on in Virginia, and the 13,000 undervotes in Florida.

A brief mention of Oaxaca, too.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Hanging with the kids...

Not mine - we have a great set of 'op kids' (other people's) - my niece and nephew. Who are as demanding as the dawg of time! Went to the Children's Museum in St. Paul, watched some movies, one of them got my sweetie to snap, very sad, that.

So this is rather of a filler post. At least I still remember much of my 8th grade history.

You Passed 8th Grade US History

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Friday, November 10, 2006

Still don't want to post...

I have in my head the theory that attending Drinking Liberally was the same as posting. This is definitely not the case - but it was still nice. Met a bunch of folks, although didn't talk to as many as I'd like. (And found some people uninterested in meeting me - which struck me as funny for a group that's supposed to be supportive and networking.)

I'm musing on the difference between liberal and progressive - what is it? Is there any, or is it all marketing?

Welcome your comments. And saying 'Drinking Progressively' isn't as clever as 'Drinking Liberally', while true, is not really what I'm looking for.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

I don't wanna post...

but I'll bang on this drum all night!

Oaxaca is still in turmoil. The Federales couldn't shut down the last radio station (they've attacked it and it was defended; someone lobbed a rocket at it, the antenna was destroyed and then rebuilt lower, for some loss in range.) The streets are full of resistance. Hundreds of thousands came - from Mexico City, through police lines - to march in support of APPO.

And the US House and the US Senate. Ahhhh....

That's it for now!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Election resulties

It ain't all done, but this is a gooooood night for democrats. And it's a decent night for the people of Amurrika, since democrats are shitty to good (as opposed to depth-of-evil to crappy)

Although I'm pissed pissed pissed about Pawlenty.

Since I already did a bunch of this work three weeks ago, I'll just go to my prediction post and use that to talk about these races.

Since I am only limited in my omniscience, the following prediction is particularly full of hot air.

National Prediction: Democrats Take House +10, Republicans Control Senate +1

Go to a more inside-baseball site to read more on this. I just think that the local littler races will fall Dem, while the larger targets will be worked hard by the Reps.
As of this second, the corporate media tell us that the Dems have gained 26 in the House, and the Senate is down to Virginia, Montana, and Missouri. And Webb is claiming victory >>YES!!<< so the Senate could be Dem +1, or not. Although Joe Fucking Liebermann (lost 5 bucks on that) (and another 5 on Hatch, if he loses... fucker...) anyway, Liebermann could sell out the Democrats. He lied about respecting the primary, why not this?

My prayer was for 235-200. I'm shocked by how widespread the Dem House pickups are across the country. Holy shit.
Minnesota Predictions

US Senate: Amy Klobuchar 57%, Mark Kennedy 45%, IP-Guy 4%, Mike Cavlan 3%, Right of the Fetus to Buy a Gun with Gold Coins (Constitution Party) 1%

Start with the easy one. Mark Kennedy is a creep, and people know it. Amy's personable and seems tough. While my hope is that Cavlan breaks 5%, the media blackout on all Greens militates against it.
Since the results were Klobuchar 58%, Kennedy 38%, IP-Guy(Fitzgerald) 3%, Cavlan .5%, Gold Fetuses with Guns (Powers) .25%, and since my predictions add up to 110%, I've got to give myself credit for hitting the Klobe number pretty exactly, and the depth of the disgust with the smarmy prick Kennedy was hidden by my extra 10%. Decent on the IP total, but silly-wrong on the Green and the Gold.

The media blackout on the Greens did its job.
Governor: Mike Hatch by a hair

Not much to say about this. Pawlenty is telegenic, but also a fucktard. Hatch's campaign? I've not seen it. Don't know if it's in the grassroots, but with his top-down management style, I somewhat doubt it. Hutchinson, who is propped up by people who (so far as I can tell) were liberal when they were younger, but can't quite sell out ALL the way (but they sure don't like real populism), gets crap. And deserves it! (Ooooh! My greatest accomplishment was that I tried to privatize the Minneapolis School System! And I failed!) (wanker)
Fuck fuck fuckkity-fuck fuck fuck. Fuck. My roomie bitched at me for bitching about Hutchinson - how can you diss third parties? My answer - the IPer's suck. That party exists to give Democrats who dislike poor people and pro-choice Republicans a home, and since there are more of the former than the latter, Hutchinson effectively gives it to Pawlenty.

The smears on Hatch were bad, but could have been countered with something grassroots. In the face of incredible anti-Republican sentiment, Hatch loses it. I predict that the top-down structure of the DFL will get some shaking up.
Attorney General: Lori Swanson

Because the Democrats are going to do well in the state.

Secretary of State: Mark Ritchie

Because more people are ticked off about Mary Evil Fucking Kiffmeyer than there are Republicans who really want to make sure she can bias elections.
Ding, dong, Mary Evil Fucking Kiffmeyer's dead (the witch is dead) The witch is dead!!!
(apologies to all witches.) (and see the original post for a long rant about the banal evil of Mary Evil Fucking Kiffmeyer.)
State Auditor: Don't know, but the best chance for the Greens to get 5%.

So if you want to see the Greens returned to major-party status, so the corporate media (and their MPR affiliate) will need to come up with a new reason to exclude them from coverage, vote Dave Berger for Auditor.
It was the best race for the Greens at over 2%. Not good enough. Otto - decent, who cares.
Congressional races: Two DFL pickups

I think that Wetterling's going to beat Bachmann because of Foley. I think Rowley or Walz will win, but not both. I think Wendy Wilde will give Ramstad the best run for a long time. Ellison will win. And I will celebrate. The rest of the pack are going to stick with the incumbent, even though Colin Peterson's a Torture Democrat.
Foley not good enough. We now have someone in the US House who follows a faith that calls the Pope the AntiChrist. Great news on Walz!!! (as I'm a 1st CD boy.) Too bad on Rowley. And Wetterling's campaign sucked.
State House and Senate: Democratic wins

Even without Matt Entenza's wife's money, the national mood and the creepiness of Pawlenty and Kennedy will give the DFL what they need to take over. Jesse Mortenson, the only Green running for one of these seats (in Entenza's old district) will get in the high 30s.
Mortenson only got 15%. But the Republicans were CREAMED by the DFL.

Overall, I'm pleased by the predictions - although they were mostly conventional wisdom. Like almost-pegging the Klobe number. And Webb - fuck yeah!!!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Voting

If voting does so little, why do the forces of evil want to stop us from doing it?

People I think are worth voting for:

US Senate: Michael Cavlan. (5% or bust! And we get rid of Kennedy!)

US Congress: Walz (1), Rowley (2), Wilde (3), Ellison (5), Wetterling (6) (the rest are safe seats - whatever)

Governor: Mike Hatch. (Sorry, Ken - Hatch is good and Pawlenty is so, so bad.)

Attorney General: Swanson. Or Papa John Kolstad.

Secretary of State: Mark Ritchie. (Ritchie is good and Mary Evil Fucking Kiffmeyer must go)

State Auditor: Berger.

And Jesse Mortenson for State House.

As you were.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Olbermann and Canes and Sumner

I love looking at why people come to my page. Many recent hits have been looking for the latest Olbermann commentary, about Bush's attempts to use Kerry's comment about education to beat him about the head and neck.

So here's the video. Enjoy!

The Brits know - Bush is dangerous!




In a recent survey, 75% of the British surveyed find the Preznit to be a threat to world peace.

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Both countries were once cited by the US president as part of an "axis of evil", but it is Mr Bush who now alarms voters in countries with traditionally strong links to the US.


Picture and story from the Guardian UK

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Oaxaca updates

The Fox government is intent on crushing the APPO - the people's movement in Oaxaca.

They have taken the city center, but the radio station at the autonomous university remains in the hands of the people.

Here in the Twin Cities, solidarity action is being planned.

Narco News, the Narcosphere, and La Luchita (Peace, Justice, and Liberty) are all good sources for news on this. The AP and the US corporate media are not.

The left wing political party, the PRD, is apparently doing little, while the Zapatistas are engaging in road blockades in solidarity.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Dawg care, laugh out loud

The dawg's healing is continuing, but she refuses to calm down (i.e., she's the same hyper bundle of muscle, bone, and skin she was before the surgery) and the cyst-removal on the leg is a constant lick-target. This is bad, since she still has staples in the leg, and too much pressure can make them bleed.

She's also requiring near-constant attention. If dogs are training for kids, I'm gonna be one tired daddy when junior finally shows up.

She's also training me to leave my computer.

So that's what's up nowadays.

In other news, this made me laugh out loud. It seems that the Bushies, who love blaming others for their own errors and faults, now think that Hugo Chavez is cheating with electronic voting machines.

If you ever thought that maybe they weren't cheating using electronic voting machines, this projection on their part should be proof certain.

U.S. digs for vote-machine links to Hugo Chávez

Federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, according to two people familiar with the probe.

In July, a Treasury Department spokeswoman disclosed that a Treasury-led panel had contacted Smartmatic, and a company representative said his firm was ''in discussions'' with the panel. At the time, those discussions were informal. The government has now upgraded to a formal investigation, the two sources said.

Sequoia's electronic voting machines operate in 17 states. In Florida, the machines are used in four counties: Palm Beach, Indian River, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Miami-Dade and Broward use other technology.

Concerns about Smartmatic are keen on the eve of the Nov. 7 election, given fears that someone with unauthorized access to the electronic system could create electoral chaos. Some critics believe that if the Venezuelan government is involved, Smartmatic could be a ''Trojan horse'' designed to advance Chavez's anti-American agenda.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Remembering the dead of war

I am Abbas Mehdi from Qana, Lebanon.

I died on July 30, 2006 at the age of seven.

I was killed with 53 others. 27 of us were children, in a bomb shelter. The building we were in was bombed by the Israeli defense force and collapsed.

I am the dead of war. Why did I have to die?

I am Brad Will from New York, New York. I died last Friday at the age of 36. I was killed by a bullet from government-supported paramilitaries in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. I was filming attacks on the barricades set up by the popular movement that is controlling the capitol.

I am the dead of war. Why did I have to die?

I am an unnamed child. I am from Ramadi, Iraq. I died with my family – my father, mother, aunt, grandmother, and my brother or sister on Saturday. I was killed by a US airstrike.

I am the dead of war. Why did I have to die?


I am Private Edwardo Lopez from Aurora, Illinois. I died on October 19th, 2006 at the age of 21. I was killed by enemy fire in Al-Anbar, Iraq. I died fighting for control of oil and wealth, in a war based on lies and greed.

I am the dead of war. Why did I have to die?

We are the dead of war. Why did we have to die?

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Get on the ACLU bus: Defending abortion, protesting anti-gay bigotry.

I recently looked at my ACLU card - since 1988, when good old George Spymaster Son-of Nazi Bush I was calling Mike Dukakis a 'card carrying member of the ACLU'. Student rate of $5, if I recall; the first and longest membership I've had.

And while I think that the National Lawyers Guild rocks, the ACLU is kind of like Consumer Reports; glad they're there, even if they don't get their hands involved in the dirty work. (I.E. - all the ACLU does is lawyer work.)

This is exactly the way to change my mind - the ACLU will put up people - room and board - if they want to get out and fight the S.Dak abortion ban or the Wisconcin bigoted anti-gay marriage ban.

To All Liberty Loving People in Minnesota:

Your neighbors in South Dakota need your help. Join us in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota, next weekend, November 3-5, to help local
activists repeal South Dakota's Abortion Ban.

South Dakota is the scene of a major showdown over reproductive
freedom. After their state passed a ban on virtually all
abortions, pro-choice South Dakotans came together and took the
anti-choice zealots by surprise when they collected more than twice
the necessary signatures to place a referendum on the ballot to allow
the people of South Dakota to repeal the ban.

We will cover most of your expenses as you hit the streets and
canvas with other volunteers. The ACLU will provide transportation (or
mileage reimbursement in some cirsumstances), a shared hotel room,
most meals (including vegetarian), as well as lots of hot chocolate
and cookies for those hitting the doors and turning the tide in this
critical election effort.

If you are able to travel to Sioux Falls to volunteer with our
campaign partner, the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families,
we're looking for volunteers to arrive on Friday evening and return
home on Sunday afternoon or night.

Please email rfp@aclu.org if you are able
to travel to Sioux Falls to volunteer with the South Dakota
Campaign for Healthy Families, and tell us:

* The city and state where you live
* The best email address and phone number to contact you at
* The number of people who will be joining you
* Whether you are able to drive with a group of your friends if we
don't get a bus (mileage will be reimbursed).

Once we assess interest in your state, we will be in touch to let you
know about the travel options available.

South Dakota has become a battleground between those who believe
that our most private decisions should be made by individuals and
those who want to put such decisions in the government's hands.
Your volunteer time is critical to win this fight.

*** HELP ALSO NEEDED IN WISCONSIN ***

A Wisconsin ballot initiative would prevent ALL unmarried
couples, gay or straight, from accessing the protections that come
with civil unions and domestic partnership.

If enacted, this marriage and civil unions ban would seriously
endanger existing legal protections for all unmarried couples, gay or
straight, including:

* Hospital visitation in emergency situations
* Being able to share health insurance
* The ability to make life and death decisions
* The right to a partner's pension

To learn more about the campaign and the 200 rights, responsibilities
and protections that would be denied to Wisconsin families if this
constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage is passed,
visit:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=TZ5a6-9VRP2metdfpt4xqA..

To get involved in the Wisconsin campaign, email ACLU organizer
Nora at nranney@aclu.org or call (646) 506-5560.

We hope you'll join us! As a friend of the ACLU, you value
autonomy, freedom of expression and equality all values counter to
these initiatives. Standing with our neighbors in
Wisconsin or South Dakota will make an important statement to
policymakers in our own state as well as send an important message
nationwide that the Midwest is no place for singling out people for
discrimination and limiting a woman's right to
choose.

Oaxaca update: Federal invasion to break uprising

Looks like killing a white boy got the local PRI paramilitary/cops in trouble; lame-duck Mexican president Fox sent the federales in. And they're going in now.

Oaxaca Burns: PFP invasion right now
What began as an article about the murders of Oaxacan protesters and a New York journalist changed as La Jornada is reporting that the invasion of Oaxaca by Mexican Federal Preventative Police (PFP) is happening RIGHT NOW. According to Radio Universidad, (reporting live over the internet) PFP have advanced to area around the Oaxaca City center and PFP elements wearing balaclavas over their faces are invading private houses and arresting protest leaders.


Federal Police March on Oaxaca
By Dan Feder,
Posted on Sun Oct 29th, 2006 at 04:28:36 PM EST
For just over an hour the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) have been marching on Oaxaca City. Police are advancing with water cannon tanks and riot shields. They have cleared several barricades but others are holding their ground. Whether or not police are armed is unclear, but there have been several reports on the movement station Radio APPO of PFP officers beating protesters. The station also reports that snipers are flying low over the city in three helicopters. Leaders continue exhorting the people to resist but to abstain from any violence against the police.


The gold standard of coverage for this stuff: Narco News Bulletin and the Narcosphere

On Brad Will, slain IMC journalista: NYC Indymedia

The election here had profound influence on Mexican politics. What happens in Mexico has profound influence on the rest of North America.

Costume party

Despite the fact that I don't have his hips, wierd eyes, and am carrying a good 80 pounds on him - here it is. The Goblin King from Labyrinth.



And while I'll try the Goblin King, given our differences of physical frame, no way in hell would I do this. But check it out - Bowie in a red power mullet and an eyepatch.


And for the hell of it - Tainted Bowie Love.

Death of a comrade - Brad Will, IMC journalista, shot dead in Oaxaca

This link, to this video, is one of the most chilling clips you'll likely ever see.

From the Narco News Bulletin:

Brad Will, New York Documentary Filmmaker and Indymedia Reporter, Assassinated by Pro-Government Gunshot in Oaxaca While Reporting the Story
Photographer Oswaldo Ramirez of the Daily Milenio Wounded in Attack by Shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in Santa Lucia del Camino

By Al Giordano
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Chihuahua

October 27, 2006

Brad Will, 36, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the chest when pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the neighborhood of Santa Lucia del Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca, Mexico. He died with his video camera in his hands.


I don't know Spanish worth a damn. Its a long clip, and I, with some trepidation, forwarded it to near the end.

Fuckers shot him.

This is capitalism. This is our fucking continent, which has had a state under popular revolt for months. This is covered how much? By you, if you have a blog? By me? This is the PAN, this is the PRI. These are the parties of accomodation; the struggle by APPO for dignity, control of their lives, and power; these are the corpses that litter streets in grimy third-world towns all over the world.

To Brad. Mourn the dead, and fight like hell for the living.

Update: Two others were killed that day; Esteban Zurrita and Emilio Alonso Fabian. They also died because the State refuses to share power with the people.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Dawg, baseball, white evangelicals, Iraq.

First off - the dawg is feisty and her spirit has healed in advance of her body. This means we have to slow her down to recover; doggie valium? The leg bandage comes off tomorrow - she had a cyst removed there.

I was hanging with some dudes tonight and one of them was bitching about the new Twins stadium, which is a travesty of public monies going for private profit - and the rich get the view and the bleachers get screwed. What's new?

So the guy says that the line between home, the pitcher's mound, and second base has to be north by northeast. I've spend two whole minutes trying to confirm this, but I can't. So we'll roll with it. So this means that the new location, right next to the garbage burner, gives the cool view of downtown to the rich boxes, and the shitty view of the garbage burner to the bleachers. "All the mercury and crap will drop on everyone, though, so it's OK." he says.

Juan Cole at Informed Comment has this to say about the collapse of the Bush base - southern white evangelicals.

In the past 30 days, support for the Iraq War among white evangelicals has fallen from 70 percent to 58 percent.

These numbers matter because evangelicals are a quarter of the people who actually bother to vote, and 78 percent of them voted Republican 2 years ago. Only 58 percent say they are satisfied with the party now, and Iraq and the Foley scandal are driving the discontent...

The only explanation of which I can think for the general collapse of this pillar of War party is that the political contests in mid-Atlantic and Southern states are generating television ads, candidate appearances and debates that highlight the catastrophe that is Iraq--and it is getting through to the church-goers at long last.

Mostly political discourse in the United States is dictated by the ruling party in Washington, and the mass media and press are most often nervous about getting out in front of the elected officials. But in an election season, the press is suddenly allowed to cover at least a narrow range of dissident views intensively-- that is, the views of political opponents of the incumbents. Since the vast majority of incumbents in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states are Republicans, the upshot is that a Democrat point of view is suddenly getting aired and reported on. And the Dems are mostly pretty critical of Bush's Iraq War.


Pretty cool. The article covers more, so I recommend you read it (it's short-ish).

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Dawg sitting

The dawg made it down into the computer pit for the first time today - she was apparently broken, because she went to the vet and got fixed.

So all can say 'good recovery to tatonka, queen of the prairie'! (and expect a light posting schedule)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

South Dakota Abortion Ban: Call to Action

I got this email from a friend who is now living in South Dakota. If you've been missing the news, what with all the coverage that's piled on to both the Dakotas at this time of year, the state has a total abortion ban on the ballot. I'll let Teresa speak for the rest of this post.

URGENT NEED FOR HELP:

I am living in the middle of a war zone. And we need your help.

South Dakota is about to decide historical legislation that would ban all abortions, including women who were impregnated from rape or incest. It is obvious South Dakotans are being used as a weapon by the fundamentalist extremists to test our federal legal system - if this passes it WILL go all the way to the US Supreme Court (and SD residents will pay for that battle.)

Also if this bill passes, the domino affect will provide the momentum for state after state to adopt equally repressive measures that will mark the swift disintegration of women's rights throughout the US and the world. Little do we here in SD know it, but what happens here could adversely affect women in Africa, South America and other developing countries of the world.

This threat is real the imminent - it very well could pass. It's pretty much even right now even though last week it was a better story. But, the extremists have decided to say that Plan B, the day after pill, would take care of any incest or rape victims, which apparently has changed many peoples' minds. And you know the extremists have millions of dollars to invest. They have done all the usual - gotten doctors to skew facts and statistics on commercials (luckily a Sioux Falls TV station ran a story about all the distortions - but how many people actually saw that?), and they have narrowed the issue to a simple moral issue with no other options. The worst of all, the majority who oppose the ban have been silenced.

People who live here are afraid to speak out against this legislation. I am continually disturbed at a peoples, whom I have always valued for their honesty, fearlessness and outspokenness, have become silent and afraid of social stigmas and loss of business. I recently moved back here to work on a project, and more than the physical isolation I feel living on this farm, I feel the social isolation.

This issue is dividing families, communities and the state. And of course it's taking the spotlight off of real issues like poverty, education, dying farm communities and the decline of agriculture - the state's #1 source of revenue.

We need bodies and lots of them. We need you to come here and make phone calls, put out door hangers, signs, literature drops.... Here in the NE part of the state where I live, are the largest cities in the state. This area is also one of the most conservative. Just driving through this area, I feel as if I am back in the south. Only this hatred is unspoken - focused towards women and children, cloaked in the deceit of the "pro-life" movement.

Logistics:

We need you Nov 3 - 7 most - but anytime between now and the 7th is helpful.

Call/e-mail Ben at SD for Health Families and let him know when you can come. 605-221-5642 or bj@sdhealthyfamilies.org

He will assign you to a location. If you can't afford a hotel, housing will be found for you. It would be good if you had your own car or can come with someone you can ride with. The main towns that will be focused on are Aberdeen, Watertown, Brookings, Madison, Vermillion and Sioux Falls. I can accommodate several people at my house though it is a drive from the major urban centers. (I live 50 miles from Aberdeen and 60 miles from Watertown.)

If you can't make any of these days - then please do what you can: Call friends or pass along this e-mail to whomever could possibly come Call friends in SD who you know are either undecided or are against the ban and urge them to get involved - to write op ed pages - to call their local news papers about the lack of dissent letters that are being published, etc. Donate to SD for Healthy Families.

There is a virtual media shutdown here in my area - Aberdeen. Last Sunday, despite hundreds of letters against the ban, only 1 letter was published, while 6 pro ban were published.

Thank you for any help you can give.

teresa

Busy Monday

So now it's two weeks to the election...

I wish someone would link up close races by which states have electronic voting machines. As prior posts say, the fraudulent machine is one of the tools of the anti-democratic corporate regime to stay in power; it's not universal, and it's not foolproof.

Ellison seems to be weathering the girl-shoe-drop. I was up in Stillwater - the west prefab 'burbs - and I could see Bachmann's field effort (sign war along 36 to Manning north to 75: Bachmann 65 - Wetterling 2) seems to be decent - I wish Wetterling's bench was deeper (but what do you expect with a DC campaign?) Rowley and Walz endorsed by Strib. Decent.

Dawg surgery tomorrow. Prayin' for good things.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Quiet weekend

I worked with a group of people on the banks of the Mississippi this weekend. We did a working for peace and health for our loved ones and the River, and a graceful change of state. We built snakes and a figure, and sent a barge with our prayers down the river.

It was cold, but not too cold.

Peace: We need it in Iraq, in Afghanistan. We need to keep it in - heh, I said 'keep it in' as in 'keep it in the pants' as in no more military adventuring by the Bush regime. We need peace in the class war declared on us by the rich, but a just peace, not the peace of being quiet while the boot grinds on our necks.

Health: My dog's going in for her spaying (and to get a lump removed) so I was heartily behind this prayer. If you're reading this, send good thoughts on Wednesday - clean operation, lump not cancerous. Another of our circle had a friend who needed health as well.
The river needs health - no toxins, protection of Coldwater Spring, clear flowing. It takes a raindrop at the top of the river 90 days to get to N'awlins. The channel that flows through my town is a mere 10,000 years old - the bottom third of the Mississippi has been flowing more or less in those banks for like 250 million years. Long time.
(The mouth of the river would normally shift - but we've held it in place for 150 years because there's a city - or part of a city - there. Hoping that the energy of the shifting mouth doesn't mess things up.)

Graceful change of state: Hah. This one was inspired by fall - the change from growth to death (or at least repose) - but it also applies to, oh, say, a change in the State. Let's hope the dig-in-their-heels, power-at-any-cost crew that's in charge in Washington sleeps too late to try and overthrow democracy (any more than they have) to remain in power.

So mote it be!

Friday, October 20, 2006

Military Commissions Act: A historic betrayal of the Constitution

Who would have thought that a former sportscaster would be the person? Keith Olbermann, yet again, with another special comment on the Military Commissions Act, blazing with the betrayal that is the Bush regime.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

And lastly, as promised, a Special Comment tonight on the signing of the Military Commissions Act and the loss of Habeas Corpus.

We have lived as if in a trance.

We have lived… as people in fear.

And now — our rights and our freedoms in peril — we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid… of the wrong thing.

Therefore, tonight, have we truly become, the inheritors of our American legacy.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.


What happens next - a blistering attack on the law and the regime that produced it - is exemplary for a number of reasons. First, it's being shown on the corporate media. While Olbermann's ratings have been rocketing, it is still the case that the system that supports the corporate-ordered status quo government is in place. When will the owners face pressure from their friends on the interlocking directorate boards they serve on to muzzle him? When will advertisers get the push, to pull him? When will the astroturf campaign begin to whip up hatred against him? (They've already started the smearing and the threats.)

The second thing is the commentary itself; and it's not the strident nature, the calling Bush a liar flat out - it's the historical context. I've not been educated in history, except by myself. Perhaps that's why I find the lack of historical context in a huge amount of what's on the internet so appalling. "This is the worst time ever, what they're doing." The Eternal Now - how I tire of it.

For instance, this post by Digby at Hullabaloo about the new "bi-partisan" meme. It's a well-written post, of course, and it's narrow point is correct - that the Reich Wing will bitch about any show of hardball politics by the Democrats if they regain office, despite Newt Gingrich's approach in 1994-onward.

It really can't be overstated how Newt's bare knuckle style of politics changed the way things worked in Washington. When it was combined with the big money media operations that finally came to fruition during that era --- Limbaugh, FOX etc. --- any old fashioned notions of political comity went out the window...

...There has rarely been a more vicious partisan environment than during the 1990's. And the media, as frightened as anyone of this marauding hoard of political hatchetmen, naturally sidled up to the bullies as a way of protecting themselves. Hence, David Broder saying that it was Clinton who came to town and trashed the place when it was really Newt Gingrich and his wild revolutionaries who broke all the rules of civility and comity.


Digby also points out the impeachment for no cause, and the seizure of power by the Supreme Court in 2000. These are certainly historic moves, and Digby is not calling it the worst time ever (but he's close).

But the phrase 'bareknuckle politics' is a metaphor. It's really happened. (C-SPAN)
There is a persuasive argument to be made that, when seen in historical context, recent decades have seen advances in matters of decorum and civility on the House floor. Instances of far more severe violence among Members of Congress were common in the 18th and 19th centuries. For example, in 1789, two Members brawled on the House floor using a cane and fire tong. In 1793, a House Member responded to a lingering dispute with a former Member by challenging him to a duel outside of the Capitol and killing him. In 1832, Rep. Sam Houston was formally reprimanded by the House for attacking Rep. William Stanbery with his cane. Stanbery's response was to shoot at Houston, but his pistol misfired. A duel between two freshmen Congressmen in 1838 ended in the death of one. In 1838, Rep. Abram Maury and Rep. William Campbell came to blows behind the Speaker's chair on the House floor. Campbell beat Maury bloody. In separate incidents in 1840, Rep. Jesse Bynum attacked Rep. Rice Garland with a cane, while Representatives Kenneth Rayner and William Montgomery broke canes over each other's heads. In the 1850's, a House Member (Rep. Preston Brooks) strode onto the Senate floor and beat a Senator (Sen. Charles Sumner) senseless with his cane. The Senator lived, but was not able to return to office for three years.


So Olbermann calling out Bush - metaphorically, on television - is by no means historic; it's just been rare in the last decade or so. The Bushies have indeed crapped on the Consititution, which is despicable but nothing new. (And must and will be fought against.)

For those who have made it this far: Mr. Olbermann.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Amy, what are you doing?

It was with trepidation that I approached the headline "Ellison: Woman has blackmail in mind." I thought – awww, shit. Bet this is about Amy.

Sure 'nuff.

The blackmail allegation surfaced Wednesday as part of a motion filed in Hennepin County by a lawyer for Ellison, who is running for Congress. The motion asks the court to dismiss a request for a restraining order filed against Ellison in September by Amy Alexander of St. Louis Park.


I've known Amy for nearly a decade. Our relationship has definitely been one of friendship, at times; it's been non-existent or arms-length at times. And her relationship with Keith Ellison was something that I'd heard about long before Martin Sabo's Congressional seat was a gleam in anyone's eye. There was supposedly some kind of affair, it ended badly. There was a job, then there wasn't.

I don't know what the relationship was like. Amy is smart, attractive, passionate, and dances to the beat of some other drummers. I've known her to have been under some kind of mental health care. I've known her to love crisis.

Right now, I see her being used to smear Ellison. It's sad, and it's sick. She and her daughter don't deserve this. I would say to her: Amy, who's benefiting by this? Is this something you want to do, or something others want you to do? What will these people have for you once this is done? Do they care?

Certainly the kind of crap that comes out of the Rove playbook: find some way for a personal smear. The Strib ain't helping.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Torture bill signed; Cole on Robin on Johnson and Baker (et. al.)

Preznit Bunchy McWaterpants scribbled his "Who's your Daddy" on the Torture Bill - a.k.a. the Military Commissions Act of 2006, a.k.a. the Military Gets to Commit Torture and Get Out of Jail Free Act.

A piece of crap article appeared today from the AP - before the bill was signed. It never used the word 'torture' (aggressive interrogation techniques), didn't mention the retroactive pass that people who were too 'aggressive' will get, claimed it was a major victory for Bush, etc. Never trust the AP.

Juan Cole used this to springboard into a discussion of why Republicans love making other people second-class citizens; because then there's justification for the ultra rich to be that way. Love this graf and a half:

So why? Why should a Right that claims a genealogy in egalitarian Enlightenment thinkers have these smelly entanglements with racial, sexual, religious and other hierarchies?

I think it is because of a central contradiction in capitalist democracy. As capitalism actually operates in real societies, advantages accrue to the wealthy.


Whoa! Juan!! Dissing on capitalism?

I think all this explains why Dick Cheney wants to create an underclass of non-citizen residents with lesser rights than citizens, and why he voted against having a Martin Luther King Day when he was in Congress. He is about there being unequal levels in society. Because they in turn justify the inequality in treatment of wealthy people like himself. And the issue of "security" is only a McGuffin that drives the plot. External threats are invoked to justify weakening civil liberties, which in turn allow the reinforcement of hierarchies of rights. The relationship of the concern for "security" and the actual legislation creating inequalities is usually tenuous to say the least.


Do not be mistaken: the PATRIOT ACT, this Military Commission of Sins Act, all those signing statements and executive orders have shit-all to do with protecting Americans from terror, and they're all about having the police state tools in place when the gap between the rich and the poor gets so big that people rise up.

Robin and Johnson and Baker? From this Corey Robin London Review of Books article. Cole cited it in his post. It looks like a good article. I'll be reading it tomorrow.

Monday, October 16, 2006

5 games that sucked my soul (and it was oh soo goooood)

OK, if I'm spending too much time playing something - maybe then it's time to admit it: in addition to being addicted to news, I have a gaming jones.

The games that I'm going to talk about here aren't anything but some of my personal faves. There might be better, there are definitely worse, some of them are on ancient platforms. My histories may be wrong. Whatever.

The game that's now doing it to me is Sid Meyers' Civilization 3. I started playing Civ when it was the somewhat related boardgame, put out at the time by Avalon Hill. An amazing game, it required at least four players and at least 6 hours. When I was in highschool, we used to get together in the little river cabin of a friend of mine outside of town, load up with Mountain Dew, run to the bar nearby for pizza when the time came. We got maybe 10 games fully played in about two-three years.

Avalon Hill (as I recall) had to give Meyers permission to use the name. Civ 1 was something I found at my dad's house, back when I had a Mac Centris. It came on several 3.5 inch disks and oh my god. I was living in an apartment by myself, kinda working and kinda going to school, and it was hours and hours. Then, when I'd switched to the PC world (work and games) I overcame my stingy and got Civ 3 (skipping Civ 2, which was a major PC title.)

I recently felt the need to play something a little deeper, because I'd been playing a couple of others; Freecell, Wierd Worlds (more later) and Fate, which was a Diablo clone.

Diablo and Diablo 2 are both examples of the kill things, take their stuff, sell their stuff, get better things to kill things, rinse and repeat game. (This genre is known as 'hack and slash') Blizzard titles, they have great interfaces, simple concepts, and good stragegy. (Fate, which was my last purchase, is Diablo-like, and it's OK but not the shit.)

I have a friend who refuses to put Diablo on any of his harddrives, bought upwards of 10 copies, and spent real money on fake game stuff. I never got that financially into the game, but man, did I put hour upon hour into it.

Both Civ and Diablo can take hours at a time. On the other hand, Wierd Worlds: Return to Infinite Space by scratchware developer Digital Eel can be over in 15 minutes. So it's time for another!!

The sequel to Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, Wierd Worlds is tasty fun. You fly around, get stuff, find enemies, blow them up and take their stuff. (Sound familiar?) And then you do it again!

This fits the same niche as card games, except it's science-fictiony and written by someone with 5 skill levels in Teh Funny.

And for those who want a politics-games crossover, go spend time at Man!festo Games.

Showing that I am indeed a true and deep geek, I will now drop two games in the huge D and D empire into the mix; Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Planescape:Torment.

I, with four of my friends, ran a 3 round AD and D tournament at Gencon (gamer mecca) for five years. My active roleplaying career stretched from ages 15 to 35. I've since gotten political, which eats into said time. (I did run a superhero game for many years.)

I ain't got much to say about D and D, except I was there, man, I was there. If you get it, you got it, if not - may Bigby's Extended Finger give you the message.

Planescape: Torment narrowly beats out Fallout as my fave CRPG. And the Wikipedia entry on CRPGs tells why:
In most computer role-playing games, character advancement does not affect the characterization of the player character. Planescape: Torment and Fallout both stand as notable exceptions to this trend for their inclusion of complex quest structures and NPC behaviors that were altered depending on the player's choices, with Torment taking into account the player's predilection for law or order and Fallout introducing reputation-based traits such as "Child Killer" or "Gigolo."


The richness of those two games - the writing - made them interactive novels in a way that most games don't. I got into Morrowind, yeah, with it's freedom to act, and create your own structures, and if I weren't a cheapskate and was willing to pay for a comptuer that would run Oblivion, I'd be blogging in two sentence entries every 3 days. But it is the writing (and the well-known game mechanics of D and D) that made it for me. I remember when I reached the end of the game, when the storyline peaked; and it wasn't a happy ending. Kudos to the writer. (who was either Colin McComb or Chris Avallone. (OK, the writer was Avallone, but Colin deserves a link as well.)

And while I'm on CRPGs, the cultural and political content of Grim Fandango deserve a link as well. Where else can you settle a strike by dockworker bees?

The final position (and yeah, I mentioned more than five) goes to World of Warcraft.

I spent more time on Everquest than I did WoW. I also spent way more money, because all of my WoW time was spent playing the beta. I got into it early, and it was awesome. Fortunately for my sanity and pocketbook, I recognized that the wonderful colors, beautiful art, clever characters, solid interface, and odd adventures would have threatened my job, my marriage, and most of my other relationships. But if you want to know what massively multiplayer online RPG to play, it's WoW.