The
Associated Press today tells the story of how Democrats in Washington
clearly do not want to end the Iraq War. This story includes all of the
tell-tale signs of both a party that disdains the will of voters and a
media unwilling to report even the most basic facts: Nancy Pelosi reading
Fox News talking points that claim conditioning funding on American
troops’ training is
supposedly not supporting our troops; Harry Reid nonchalantly saying
in the face of mounting casualties that there’s no real urgency to do
anything on the war because "Iraq is going to be there"; and the AP writer
refusing to acknowledge consistent public opinion polls by
CNN and the
Washington
Post that show the public strongly supports Congress cutting off
funding for Bush’s military escalation and conditioning funding on
adequate troop training, respectively.
Make no mistake about it: The
renewed refusal by Democrats to use their majority in even the most basic
way to stop the war is a declaration that the new majority is not close to
using even the most basic powers afforded to it to stop or slow down the
war. In other words, in backing off, the Democrats have just weeks after
the 2006 anti-war election mandate effectively declared themselves as
supportive of the Bush administration’s stay-the-course policy - a truly
sickening act of cowardice.
This is all the more reason for
folks to head over to the
Progressive
States Network’s Anti-Iraq Escalation Campaign and use our website to
demand your state legislature tell Congress that its behavior on Iraq is
absolutely unacceptable. Clearly, the folks in Washington are so drunk off
power they have decided to ignore the majority of Americans who want an
end to the madness in Iraq. They need to hear from our states - and they
need to hear from our states right now.
And
get well Steve Gilliard. Look, I'm no doctor but when the phrase "open
heart surgery" pops up...this would be a tremendous loss.
Feb. 26
I spent all
day working on this. This happens to be the future. I just programmed my
own one hour music and politics show. I think its pretty good. No fluff. No
reality programming. Just good music and selected ideology. Quake in your
boots Reginald Hudlin and BET on J...in about another six months. This is
just the first of these kinds of services. They'll get better. Bugs: Doesn't
work with explorer. In fact, it sabotages my entire jazropo page. Only works
with Firefox. I can't figure that out. His code is buggy.
Feb 25
World Record Average Around the
Internets or Stories I Need to Read More Carefully
I
liked the interview that
2 Political Junkies snagged with Mike Doyle. I didn't agree with one
point he made as to why he wouldn't impeach the president. He said he didn't
want to make Cheney the President. I suggested, in the comments, that you
could impeach both the President and the Vice President at the same time.
You could even go after Cheney first. And right on time, here's
Raw Story offering up six articles of impeachment for our favorite vp
hunter. That would mean President Pelosi, which I could live with. Just to
review: impeachment would be popular, would show the dems have spine, work
politically (monicagate cost the dems the 2000 presidency among other
things) and put the republicans on the defensive. Finally, and not least,
it might be the only way to save up to a million Iranian lives.
Here's
a place to create your own
playlists that looks good. My first
effort is here. I think the way to sell politics is the same way you
sell other products. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Just like the Geico
ads.
A
long time ago I was the only guy on the Better Humans staff who thought that
people who were worried about GM foods had a point. I was of the opinion
that while those foods shouldn't be banned you should at least know what
you're eating and it should be labeled. I believe all of those initiatives
were defeated so your every meal is a surprise. Turns out that one company
knew that their GM potatoes caused cancer six years ago,
but they didn't tell anybody. I think Chris Mooney
owes us all an apology. And for
this.
"The media's the most powerful entity on earth.
They have the power to make the innocent guilty
and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power.
Because they control the minds of the masses."
(approximation of the
Evil One or the Instapundit.)
I see that the
Instapundit is getting a much deserved beatdown. How can I put this?
Glenn Reynolds is a crazy person. A right wing extremist. He's that blonde
guy in that first Matt Damon Bourne movie who clenches his teeth and jumps
out a window as opposed to being interrogated. Keep in mind whenever you
hear how Al Gore couldn't win Tennessee that radical extremist Glenn
Reynolds was "helping" him in that state. And why is hot Boing Boing girl
Xeni Jardin
linking to a guy who likes death squads? He supports them in Iran,
certainly Iraq (a half million Iraqi civilians gone and he knows no shame)
and he probably supported them in Latin America. Its who he is. He's an evil
little man. If he were a Marvel villain he'd be too over the top...
(approximation of Senator Joe Leiberman)
Apparently, another evil man, the
independent senator from Conn. Joe Leiberman, is holding the entire
Democratic Party hostage, according to the Booman Tribune. Here's the whole
thing:
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman
of Connecticut told the Politico on Thursday that he has no immediate
plans to switch parties but suggested that Democratic opposition to
funding the war in Iraq might change his mind...
"I have no desire to
change parties," Lieberman said in a telephone interview. "If that ever
happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a
direction that I don't feel comfortable with."
Asked whether that hasn't
already happened with Iraq, Lieberman said: "We will see how that plays
out in the coming months," specifically how the party approaches the
issue of continued funding for the war.
He suggested, however,
that the forthcoming showdown over new funding could be a deciding
factor that would lure him to the Republican Party.
"I hope we don't get to
that point," Lieberman said. "That's about all I will say on it today.
That would hurt."
Leiberman, by the way, is Exhibit One
as to why some of us think that the Jewish delegation in congress supports
the Iraq War--and will probably be the first to support an Iranian war. He
certainly is the most obvious exhibit. Its certainly a question that a real
press should be asking: are you more loyal to Israel--not unlike fighting
for the
white South Africans--than you are to the United States? Are you willing
to invest American troops and treasure in a war that you think will protect
Israel (Mistakenly, as even a number of Jewish and Israeli thinkers have
pointed out.)? I think in Leiberman's case the answer is clearly yes. And
you can't write about it and politicians can't talk about it. Jewish
American money, which is a different thing than the majority of Jewish
American voters who voted with the wave and realize that the Iraq War makes
the world a much more dangerous place for Jews everywhere, seems to support
the war and punishes people who criticize it.
JEWISH WEEK - The Brandeis
campus is reeling in the wake of former President Jimmy Carter's visit.
Major donors to Brandeis University have informed the school they will no
longer give it money in retaliation for its decision last month to host
former President Jimmy Carter, a strong critic of Israel. The donors have
notified the school in writing of their decisions — and specified Carter
as the reason, said Stuart Eizenstat, a former aide to Carter during his
presidency and a current trustee of Brandeis, one of the nation's premier
Jewish institutions of higher learning. . . Brandeis history professor
Jonathan Sarna, who maintains close ties with the administration, told The
Jewish Week, "These were not people who send $5 to the university. These
were major donors, and major potential donors. "I hope they'll calm down
and change their views," Sarna said. . .
This kind of thing affects parties, blogs and newspapers,
in case you're wondering why you're not getting a full debate on this issue
on your "news" outlets. You can read about such things on the Internets,
which is why some people love the Internets. Of course, I imagine, there
might be lots of people who hate the Internets for the very same reasons.
Short 30 word reviews of cable movies
that I have watched:
I believe I also saw this
Woody Allen movie ("Match
Point") when it was called "Crimes
and Misdemeanors", one of the strongest of his post Annie Hall period.
It wasn't bad it just felt like I had seen it before except without British
accents. I should look more into the history of the film. Allen might
acknowledge that. One major problem and a spoiler: He never would have
gotten away with it because of all those cameras they have in Britain. He
wouldn't have been "lucky" so to speak. Meanwhile, "The
Squid and the Whale" is the kind of striking and shocking movie that
Woody Allen used to make. If you're married, I highly recommend that you
watch this film and Allen's "Husbands
and Wives" and then just get about the business of slitting your wrists.
Very painful yet funny. Great performances from both Linney and Daniels. I
swear I could read every evil thought from Daniels just by his expression.
Disturbing insights into writers and failure. Anna Paquin was hot too...
Unspace, or Mullah Rob,
wrote a review of "Black Snake Moan" which I hadn't even heard of. It
apparently features a black man (Samuel Jackson) who finds a beaten up
Christina Ricci on the road. She wakes up and then finds that she's chained
to his house in her underwear. The Sam Jackson character won't release her
until he's cured her of her "wickedness"...so far, this sounds like a
completely logical movie. I would do the same. I would have to use rope
because I can't afford chains and I would be fine with her "wickedness" but
I understand the motivation. I guess I'm hoping it has no redeeming
religious values attached to it but then why is Mullah Rob reviewing it as
he scratches his Spock goatee ever so suspiciously? Trailer here:
Feb. 19
In this month's The Humanist:
It's not a war over democracy and freedom. If you didn't
know that already...You can also care about human life even if you're not
being threatened with eternal Hellfire to do so. Related: This post
over at Max Sawicky's
site about how we're stealing their oil.
Mark Crispin Miller gives us the rundown
on the Voter Reform movement after the election. He criticizes these
nonbinding resolutions so he won't be invited on the Daily Kos Blogroll
anymore, not that he ever made that blogroll.
I'm
going to repeat the whole thing here:
The Senate unanimously punks out
If the Senate Democrats weren't
suffering from a severe collective case of battered spouse syndrome, they
would be all fired up about the sorry state of our election system, and
doing everything they could to make it better. By "better," I mean,
basically, "more honest," which, in this case, could work only to the
Democrats' advantage. After all, the party's top dogs tend to care far
more about (a) their own careers and (b) the party's welfare than they do
about the state of the Republic.
Such short-sightedness is all too
human, and so there's little point in our decrying it. In any case, such
self-interest would at least help save us from the looming fascist
order--if (again) the Democrats would only act out of self-interest,
rather than continuing to acquiesce so masochistically in BushCo's grand
subversion of American democracy, or what's now left of it. They cannot,
will not, face the truth about the nature of BushCo's regime. Thus they
keep rubber-stamping Bush's steps toward absolute control of the election
system, as they just did last night, approving the appointment of an
outright Bushevik to Bush's EAC.
This cave-in--and the
current rush to pass Rush Holt's bill’ which will finally do more harm
than good--make clear that the Democrats feel much assured by their big
"victory" in November. They tell themselves that they gave Bush the "thumpin'"
that he so quaintly mentioned in his first press conference after E-Day.
They tell themselves that their big win of 29 House seats was a sort of
proof that things can't really be so bad, or they would not have been
permitted to perform so well.
What they cannot, will not, face is the unpleasant truth about that
last election: that there was vast election fraud from coast to coast
again; that the volume of complaints from the grass roots (remember
them?) was evidently greater than it was two years before; that the
Dems arguably won not a mere 29 states but at least 50 (and probably did
better in the Senate than they think). In short, they will not, cannot,
face the fact that Bush did not just get a "thumpin'," but was routed--and
that it was not Rahm Emanuel/Chuck Schumer who deserve our praises
for the (actual) devastation of the Bush Republicans, but the people, who
turned out in record numbers, and with a new doggedness, to vote
against the Bush regime and all its works. The Democratic party will
not give them any credit for that action, or help those who were
disenfranchised once again.
There are currently four
Democrats, all of them in Florida, challenging the outcome of the 2006
election, and collecting evidence of election fraud in every case;
and they're doing it with no help from the party, which also pressed a
number of other "losing" Democratic candidates to do the "gracious" thing
and shut their mouths--as if it were "ungracious" to assert, and to
defend, the right to vote.
Before Election Day, Republicans
refused to talk about election fraud because it would hurt their
interests, they having lately "won." Now it's the Democrats who play the
issue down, or keep ignoring it, for the very same reason. Thus both
parties seem inclined to sell the voters out.
This is not about affixing
printers to the DRE machines, or any other trivial (and useless) technical
adjustment. It's about confronting those who can't and won't confront the
enemies of what was once was the world's most promising democracy. We must
confront them now, and force them to confront and overwhelm those
enemies, or we can kiss the Constitution, and the Planet Earth, goodbye.
Let me add a few thoughts to this: One of the advantages
of controlling the ballot isn't just controlling when you win, but
controlling when you lose. In a chess game sometimes its to your advantage
to sacrifice a queen or a rook or even a mid term election (What better way
to quiet the critics? See
Steve Gilliard.) in order to better position yourself for a long term
win. Right now it looks as if the dems retook the congress in order to
continue the war. Long range that sucks for the dems. It was great knocking
on doors against the republicans last fall. It won't be so great in 2008
when you're the party that did nothing to stop the war, an evil unjustified
war of imperialist greed at that. True, there's hope on the Murtha front but
he won't even get help from the more powerful blogs and he'll get killed by
the Corporate Press. Murtha will need all the help he can get.
One more thing: there is vast
disagreement about the merits of the Holt bill as its currently authored.
People for the American Way supports it. Here's the best critique I've
read so far from Josh Mittledorf.
I think the argument that this is
"achievable" doesn't carry much weight, when it is likely we will get only
one bite at the apple this legislative session. The threshold for support
has to be higher than simply "doesn't hurt" or even "better than what we've
got".
Consequently, I hold any election legislation accountable for making a
significant improvement in the situation. I don't think the Holt bill rises
to this standard because
Effective legislation must be
explicit about consequences and remedies when, inevitably, their mandates
are violated. There are already ample rules, especially at the state
level - some might say more than ample rules - that are not being
enforced. For example, tens of thousands of precincts have suffered
violations and corrupted vote counts, while the only prosecutions of which
I am aware are the two Democratic officials recently convicted in
Ohio. Another example:
Pennsylvania, like many other states, provides that computer code
for electronic voting machines must be certified by the state; but in
practice, the code is routinely altered by manufacturers up to the day of
the election, with no possibility of state supervision. Whom do we sue?
What are the appropriate remedies?
There is a huge loophole in Sec
327, providing that when states recount an election because it is close,
they don't have to use the very paper trail that the bill works so hard to
provide! So when exactly are the paper trails counted?
The bill is likely to entrench
both DREs and the EAC as albatrosses on our voting system for years to
come.
Meanwhile,
from the Post Gazette, here's a profile
on our local
voter reform activist hero, Marybeth Kuznik. There doesn't seem to be
any mention of the Holt bill or the split in the voter reform community
about that bill's worth. If you want that, you have to read the Internets...
Feb. 18
So, Reginald Hudlin is kinda of a
dick. I got banned (I seem to have a talent for that, at least when I make
an effort...) from that web forum of his. Luckily I
saved the page and you can read it here. Its fair use and all and its
news when a Ted Turner type doesn't answer questions on his own web forum.
He doesn't address any of my arguments. What this means: BET on J will turn
into yet another Viacom music channel that has nothing to do with good
music. Its almost like Viacom hates music. It just feels that way. One more
note to Reggie: Why is your forum moderator 10 years old? Is that the
audience you're aiming for? Wait. Don't answer that.
Then again, we're very close to being
able to create our own channels and saying fuck viacom and probably cable tv.
All you need are playlists and somebody that won't yank your vids after two
minutes. French Daily Motion would be perfect if they did real playlists.
But they don't offer playlists, yet. Now, there is
Mania TV, which allows you to create
channels. The embeds are shaky plus they're windows media only. That doesn't
bode well. I can't get it to work with mozilla. It sure would be nice if the
Pirate Bay people offered a video service...Oh,
here's
a channel: it only has three vids so far because the service seems to be
buggy and slow (Yep. Definitely a Microsoft product...) but there might be
more later from the Steely Dan Channel. Guaranteed to be better than BET on
J. It also has a zoom function.
As people may or may not know, I have
been banned from both the Daily Kos, for
writing this and having the nerve to defend myself and also the Booman
Tribune, even though I think Booman is actually a real progressive. I
thought in both cases that the bannings were unwarranted and not the actions
of people that you call "progressive" or even "liberal".
I think those are all fairly good
rules. Hey, at least you have them. I kind of wonder what brought them on.
I'm sure there was a lengthy and fair process going on when Markos dropped
you from his blogroll. Well, if it takes experience to make you better...
Philip Shropshire
www.threeriversonline.com
PS: I think you were dropped
because you wrote about AIPAC and whether members of the jewish delegation
of a certain house committee were objective when it came to
Israel...perfectly appropriate questions by the way that a vigorous online
press should be asking. And I'm sure, in an alt universe, where there were
10 Iraqi sunnis sitting on a US house committee you would be asking the same
questions.
More on the purges from the Daily Kos
blogroll here
and
here.
If you're a normal person or a couple
on Valentine's Day then I recommend
"Michelle"
by the Beatles. If you're a serial killer in training, then I highly
recommend
Vincent Gallo's "Honey Bunny", also featured over at the Red Light
District. I don't think I've ever seen Paris Hilton so...appealing.
Yet another edition of "I Love You Steve
Gilliard/Gawd I Hate You Steve Gilliard". Agree with
Steve
that appealing to racist white evangelicals is not the way to go. Agree
with Steve that
we really don't know a lot about Obama and that black voters are all
distrustful that he's a trojan horse for NAFTA Two or eliminating Headstart.
Or a black republican who represents the whims of the powerful and not the
interests of the black community. Agree with Steve that if you keep
calling him
uppity Salon you'll push me into his camp out of rage. But Gawd I Hate
Steve for
not
recognizing that the blogroll stuff matters. I suppose I would feel
better about his position as the lone black on the blogroll who doesn't care
about being on the Daily Kos blogroll if he wasn't at the very tippy top of
the Daily Kos blogroll, which, according to people who have been purged can
cut your traffic by up to a third. Of course, like Chairman Markos, Steve
does hate those dirty fucking hippies like Max Sawicky...
I haven't chosen a presidential nominee
yet. For me its between Obama and Edwards. I was leaning toward Edwards
until his statements on Iran (probably won't immediately withdraw if Bush
starts yet another ill conceived war...)and this blogger controversy. I
definitely am hostile toward religion--for good reasons--and probably
wouldn't make for a blogger that should be hired by the Edwards campaign,
although I'll probably end up knocking on doors for whoever the presidential
nominee is for the dems unless its an uninspiring choice. I can understand
the politics of respecting religion, but I can't understand letting your
enemies determine who your friends are let alone your employees and that
apology thing...I would have tendered my resignation. So Obama is going up
and Edwards down but I still can't make a call....
Feb. 9
I see
someone else has used the newspaper generator for hilarious effect. Note
to self: Tell the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
that I'm black no matter what whitey sez.
Read all about it. You
can create
your own snark headlines/stories here if you're interested. Meanwhile,
all's quiet on the Mullah Rob front. Since he didn't answer my challenge of
what is the evil atheist agenda I will answer it for him, karate chop and
muay thai knee included. There is no evil atheist agenda. We're just the
people at Jonestown who say "Let's not drink the koolaid." We're the ones at
the Branch Davidian ranch saying "You know, I never thought Koresh was the
messiah." We're the ones who don't commit suicide in order to catch the
interstellar ride on the comet. And we're the ones who don't believe in
fairy tales no matter how nice they make us feel. Its an honorable way to
see the world and to live.
(Great toon by Stephanie McMillan,
who I will never eat
with. "Yes that's right I don't think I can vote Green Stephanie... and
this is delicious! What do you call it? Garlic Oleander stew? That's got a
kick...and, hey, I don't feel so good...")
I see Ralph Nader is considering another
run. I have never voted for Ralph Nader because we live under a terrible
gawdawful winner take all system. Terrible for democracy. And, now, of
course there are hit teams aimed against Third Party candidates.
Ask Carl Romanelli. When we run off to Mars I say let's all use
proportional representation and auditable ballots. The democracy would be
refreshing.
But I do know why Nader is running. The
Republicans gave us a gift today in that they voted down even a worthless
bill condeming the war, but the dems really have to go further. They have
the power to cut off the funds, but simply won't use it. They're just not
that much of an opposition party are they? Just look at how they handled the
filibuster issue. Let me get this straight: the dems can't use the
filibuster when they're in the minority but the republicans can. How nice. They
really are the Washington Generals Party. The Republicans can play
hardball and do everything within their power to destroy the dems. The Dems
want to "work" with the Republicans, the most evil party on the face of the
planet. The party that could teach Emperor Palpitine a thing or two. A
party, that by all rights, shouldn't exist. There shouldn't be a party that
just represents the oil and insurance industries and works against the long
term public interest at every turn. Right? But that's what we got. The
Ruthless Dark Side Bidness Party and the less ruthless Joe Biden/Leiberman
business party that enables them, and, oh look, Unity 08 is right between
them giving me a "choice".
The odd thing is that I really think
that a well funded Third Party effort could work well in 2008. I still think
if you had 30 million to blow the Greens should shoot for five Senate seats
and 10 to 15 house seats. That way they would hold, in theory, swing vote
say on just about every issue. That's why I wasn't happy that a progressive
guy like Craig Newmark won't improve his net worth by taking google ads. The
American Left needs money to create infrastructure and to work year round.
Hey we're not all rich white kids doncha know. (See
"My Brilliant Career at ACORN.")
There's also a real opportunity for a
well funded progressive Third Party presidential candidate but he has to
play to win. Well funded means 25 to 30 million in at least 17
states..Perhaps Ralph will win the lottery or that famed Hollywood Left will
do something besides give money to Dems...
"We believe our current societies are fundamentally
flawed and based on wealth accumulation, and wish to create a model nation
based on what we believe are the most important ideals."
I'm going to join the message boards and recommend seven
large cruising ships and space space and....space. I say Mars and/or orbital
habitat or bust. I'm also rejoining the Space.com message boards...
Feb. 4
I think this is my favorite blasphemy
vid. If someone ever gives the Richard Dawkins foundation 10 million and we
could run public service ads... Of course then the question would be: who
would run them? Out here on the Internets, though, there are men and women
of free will that can post this:
If that "cure" (it actually looks like a fairly
long-term treatment) works in humans and if there isn't a deadline beyond
which it doesn't work, it still only works for Type Is.
I'm type II. Crapola. Still, there's stuff coming down the pike. Hang in
there...
And by the way, if you are type II, go to a periodontist. There's some
research showing a startling link between Type II and periodontal disease.
If periodontal disease is present, cleaning it out and clearing it up will
do wonders for blood glucose levels. Even if you're Type I, infections make
your BGs worse.
Happy holidays, btw.
Well, if I understand this and its a little technical, the
breakthrough isn't just the process but the point of view. They attacked
diabetes as if it was a disease of the nervous system. I guess, logically,
then, if you could improve your nervous system you could eliminate your
diabetes, type one or type two. Well, I couldn't do it but a former
paramedic might. By the way, there is a man who's managed to cure
his own diabetes and his name is Ray Kurzweil. His father died of the
disease and Ray used a radical approach to the disease. It seems
complicated. He's eliminated sugar from his diet and takes about 250 pills a
day. Sounds hard. He says he's stopped his cellular aging though, despite
his silver hair...
Festivus Christmas Eve
Kwanza
Imaginary Diety Holiday Around the Internets.
Powering cars with coal might seem like a recipe for
ecological disaster. But if fuel experts are right, a liquefied form of the
notoriously dirty mineral will be providing much of the world with its
transport fuel within the next two decades.
A while back Steve
Gilliard claimed that people who claimed that election theft was possible
were wrong and bad and awful and such. Steve needs proof,
not deductive logical proof but a Republican dumb enough to say "We
cheat and here's how we did it." By that same standard the Iraq war is
glowing success because Bush says it is. He would do well to take a good
look at what's happening in Florida's 13th district. Some
Highlights from Bradblog:
Christine Jennings and her lawyer, Kendall Coffey,
appeared Wednesday on Lou Dobbs Tonight with guest host Kitty
Pilgrim to discuss the latest news concerning Florida's 13th Congressional
District. As BRAD BLOG
has reported often (most recently
here, here and
here), Vern Buchanan was
declared the winner in Florida's 13th after the disappearance of 18,000
votes left the Republican with a paltry 369 vote lead over his opponent
Jennings. Subsequently, a handful of experts including one provided by
e-voting manufacturer ES&S, concluded that the inclusion of the missing
votes would have propelled Jennings to an easy victory based on an analysis
of the Sarasota votes which did not
spontaneously combust.
Unfortunately, the will of the people is a foreign
concept among those controlling the Florida election apparatus which
declared Buchanan the winner after recounting nothing a couple of times.
With no paper trail (much less a paper BALLOT, and there is a
big difference!), a "recount"
merely refers to state election staffers testing whether a few selected
machines are working properly and is entirely unrelated to the vote count.
By certifying Buchanan the winner, the state forced Jennings to seek relief
in the Florida courts.
This did not sit well with Sean Hannity who, with
Buchanan on as a guest a few weeks ago, found the entire affair
"unbelievable" and further evidence that Democrats are sore losers.
Juxtaposing the Hannity clip
as well as Tom Feeney's reaction to the election controversy, recounted by
Brad here, to Jennings
appearance on CNN (clip above right), makes for quite an interesting
experiment. While hardly evidence that could be used in a court of law like
the damning statistical evidence, the contrast is, nevertheless, telling.
So the black guy won the slots
deal? And he wants to invest 350 million into the lower Hill District?
Sounds good to me.
Dec. 17
The Lost Room is probably
the best show I've ever seen that's centered in Pittsburgh even though it
only looks like exterior shots and soundstage and/or Canadian proxy
shooting. Its one of the best fantasy shows ever made, better than
Heroes. They're repeating the whole six hour series tonight from 5 to 11 on
the sci fi channel. There's probably a torrent somewhere. Try not to look
into Kevin Pollack's glass eye. I haven't seen anything this good that was
made for television since the 70s version of "The Lathe of Heaven". Really
good. I hope they make this a series. It was also written on the CMU campus.
"There is no sin in making a
living changing the world. There is no sin in being able to eat, and pay
your rent, and go to sleep at night without worrying if the power is going
to be shut off tomorrow. Activists who eat, who get sleep, who have a
place to live, and know that they can put gas in their car (for however
long we have it) tend to do much better work than activists who are
starving, hungry and poor. It's the Rockefellers who have sold activists
on the notion that you have to be poor, and that's for the precise purpose
of making you ineffective."
This is the kind of advice
that the ACORNS, the PIRGs, and the Grassroots Campaign would be well
advised to actually take. If you're looking for more info on this, then
here's Greg Bloom's
complete series of articles about the failed attempt to organize both
canvassers and callers in Los Angeles. Note to DAM phone callers: The Fund
simply shut down the offices in LA. The DAM phone center used to be local
but it's now owned by a
national calling chain that could probably use the nuclear option as
well. I really think the solution is to rebuild both the field and phone
canvasses from scratch, with worker protections and standards already in
place. More info on the Internets about this: Here's Greg Bloom's complete
series of articles about the
Fund's unionbusting
activities in LA. (Pittsburgh's Working America, run by the
AFL-CIO, and which used to canvass, also has a union but I'm not
sure what its status is. That would be a legitimate story by the way:
Union shop engages in union busting tactics. I'm not sure what the answer
is there.) Here's the official
website for that group that organized the union efforts in LA. Earlier
I mentioned that there was a recent book published that talked about the
history of the canvass but I couldn't recall its name, until now. That
book is called "Activism,
Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling
Progressive Politics in America." Here's a short excerpt that the
America Prospect
published.
Here's a thought that I just
concluded: The Jews are right that Jesus Christ, if he ever existed,
wasn't the son of God and probably that virgin birth thing too. However,
the message of Christ is superior to the one in the Old Testament. Still,
I have to agree with Bertrand Russell that if you're going with fantasy
gods Buddha seems to be the best of the lot. I also prefer the afterlife
in "What Dreams May Come". And a flying Pony. Or a flying dinosaur raptor
I could ride. Or a working Moller aircar. It's all good in fantasy land...
I find this reworking of the Star
Trek franchise frightening, although it is more Battlestar Gallacticaish.
Vulcan no longer a member of the Federation? Heresy I sez.
Philias writes "A new
web-based Star Trek Animated Series may be in the works. CBS is
considering a pitch by veteran Trek producer Dave Rossi for a 'Clone Wars'
style animated series for StarTrek.com. Like Clone Wars the episodes would
be just a few minutes long. Unlike the old animated Trek show from the
70s, this one would be with a whole new crew set in a new time period. The
setting is to be a war-torn post-9/11-like Trek universe 150 years after
the time of Picard." From the post: "The Zero Room team felt that
the time was right for a new approach to Trek. The setting is the year
2528 and the Federation is a different place after suffering through a
devastating war with the Romulans 60 years earlier. The war was sparked
off after a surprise attack of dozens of 'Omega particle' detonations
throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to
warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the
rest. During the war the Klingon homeworld was occupied by the Romulans,
all of Andoria was destroyed and the Vulcans, who were negotiating
reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation. The setting
may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show's hero
Captain Alexander Chase comes in."
Possible
cure fo diabetes? This disease killed both my father and my uncle and
is due to kill me within about 15 years. So this would be nice if it was
true....
Dec 12
A Pedestrian by the book Tuesday Morning Around the
Internets
I missed
Laura
Staniland and the Wool Gathering blogger at Scott McCloud's thing last
Thursday afternoon. That was a great slide show presentation. If you love
comics, then those images just have a lot of meaning for you. He even had
his daughter give a brief presentation. I guess he's trying to turn his kids
into show people. Might as well have named 'em Dweezil and Moon Unit.
They're blogging
about their book tour here and
the Pittsburgh gig specificially. (One reason I missed the
Wool Gatherer is
that I don't know what she looks like and I don't link to her. (Not
political enough.(She must have a career she wants to keep..)). I did check
out her site though. She writes children books and does the audio work for
them. I
honestly thought she gave great voice. She sounds like a professional
actress...NPR Quality.)
Dec 11
End of Monday Night Around the Internets
The IWW strikes another Starbucks.
I learned that from this professionally written
Indy Media report. It features my old pal Lisa Stolarski who has
just a fantastic athletic body and whom I lust after despite her bouts of
Ker- Razy...Please don't sue me. I've always admired for her
progressive politics. Lisa is also a very good writer and I wonder if she
wrote this press account, which, has the Mark of a Professional. Even
features poetry. Take it away Lisa:
"IWW member Lisa Stolarski stated that workers will
keep its focus on why the Union is protesting Starbucks—to stop anti-union
behavior and reinstate the six pro-union Starbucks workers fired for
exercising their legal right to organize. "The corporate world is watching
Starbucks right now,” said Stolarski. “If Starbucks gets away with illegally
firing workers for organizing activity, then this behavior sets a precedent
for chain corporations worldwide. It is essential that every worker and
every unionist stand up for the Starbucks Six, because in defending the
baristas' right to organize we defend the foundation of unionism."
Coincidentally enough
I met Lisa at DAM (where we both used to make calls on behalf of the
Sierra Club, NARAL, the DNC etc.) a call center hothouse that has since
moved to the South Side. I understand the workers there are thinking about
unionizing. They could probably use a hand from the IWW...does the IWW pay
its organizers anything? Just curious...
Dec. 6
Late Wednesday night early Thursday morning Around the
Internets.
Scott McCloud is speaking at 4:30
pm at CMU which means I don't have to choose between his presentation and
the Stillers.
Praise Science.
The people
behind the great yet very depressing documentary "The Corporation" have
released a shareware version of their film
with tipjar in hand. If you're
one of the readers out there with a few cents to share this holiday season
(based on delusion of course) then consider
giving. This is part
one.
Nov. 30
"Lament and Anger"--That's the title of tonight's
Around the Internets. Not to be confused with "Love
and Anger" or "Love
and Money."
Scott McCloud will be
speaking here in Pittsburgh December 7th at CMU. He's probably the best guy
on Earth when it comes to the theory of comics. His books are also wonderful
and elegant reads. I reviewed one of
his books
here. Check out some of
his online essays here. Definitely will try to make that.
Interview
with Ed Burns, the creator of The Wire, one of the best shows ever. Ed
Burns not only used to work homicide but taught as a public school teacher. More tube news:
preview of the
Monday night's Heroes. Two disturbing vids
from Kurt Nimmo about the history of
our wars against the Third World (short version: generally we just
murder poor brown and yellow people.) and
a trailer for a movie about the
many mercs in Iraq who, quite frankly, are completely unaccountable. Kurt
writes a longer piece where he argues that these private forces are death
squads. That does have a Latin American kind of familiarity to it.. Atheism
student has been expelled for talking about atheism, or, in this case,
expressing his out of control idea that he doesn't think leprechauns are real.
There's a great
series at the Daily
Kos/MYDD about how people were trying to organize a PIRG office in Los
Angeles and the predictable Wal Mart like response to the effort from the
Nader spawned PIRGS. Its part of a bigger story--I think someone wrote a
book about it--about how most jobs on the left--ACORN, the PIRGS, the
Grassroots campaign--kinda suck. Its not just the low pay. It's the fact
that there's no job security and you're kind of treated like just another
disposable retail worker. I can publicly
testify that ACORN is the zaniest. For God's sake stay away from them.
Related:
Here's kind of a defense, sorta. It matters because people's first
experience with the American Left is likely to be a very negative one. ACORN
and PIRG people are almost cult like. Not good for the movement. Even more related:
The IWW is in town and they're attempting to unionize canvasses. Or at least
that's
what I read at the bottom of My ACORN piece:
No one doubts that the canvass industry is notorious for underpaying and
undervaluing its workers. The high turnover rate and low morale are clear
indications that canvass workers struggle each and everyday. As frontline
workers in the most high profile, successful and lucrative political,
environmental and social justice movements of our day, we deserve better. We
recruit and build membership and fill the coffers of some of the biggest and
most respected non-profits in the world. Without professional canvassers,
these organizations would collapse.
The Pittsburgh Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) want you to know that
canvass workers have a right to demand better working conditions, pay, and
hours—but we can only stand up for ourselves and our families if we organize
across the industry. By the remarkable similarity of unacceptable working
experiences for most canvassers, it is clear that the bosses have conspired
to prey upon us as expendable, transient, and voiceless workers.
But let us remember the famous words of IWW
founder, Mother Jones: “My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do
not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say
to each other: ‘We must be together; our masters are joined together and we
must do the same thing.’”
DON’T AGONIZE, ORGANIZE--with the Pittsburgh IWW Canvassers Union. For more
information, contact:
PghIWWCanvassersUnion@yahoo.com
Richard Dawkins had some really
interesting things to say about South Park, Ted Haggard and the Steven
Colbert show here:
Finally, I have repeatedly been asked what I think of South Park and of
Ted Haggard’s downfall. I won’t say much about either. Schadenfreude is not
an appealing emotion so, on Haggard, I’ll say only that if it wasn’t for
people of his religious persuasion, people of his sexual persuasion would be
free to do what they like without shame and without fear of exposure. I
share neither his religious nor his sexual persuasion (that’s an
understatement), and I’m buggered if I like being portrayed as a cartoon
character buggering a bald transvestite. I wouldn’t have minded so much if
only it had been in the service of some serious point, but if there was a
serious point in there I couldn’t discern it. And then there’s the matter of
the accent they gave me. Now, if only I could be offered a cameo role in The
Simpsons, I could show that actor how to do a real British accent.
and here:
I had a good time in New York. The Colbert show was
fun, notwithstanding my misgivings before (which I have removed, because
they now seem misplaced). While I was waiting, he came in to see me as
himself, introduced himself and made sure that I understood his act: “You
know I play a complete idiot?” I must say, when he is in character, he does
it extremely well. The real Colbert is obviously highly intelligent and a
very nice man. Aficionados seem divided about 50/50 over whether the real
Colbert is religious. He is obviously too intelligent to be religious in any
simple conventional sense. I suspect either that it amuses him to blur the
distinction between his ‘character’ and the real Colbert. Or perhaps he is
religious in the Einsteinian sense that all of us are, and goes to church
because, like Martin Rees, he ‘believes in belief’ (Dan Dennett’s happy
phrase).
Related: There's 15 hours online
of the Beyond Belief conference. I was blown away by
session 9. Features atheists going at each other at a much higher level
than, say, Ted Haggard vs. Dawkins. (Personally I think its just
professional jealousy on how successful both Harris' and Dawkins' books have
been...)
Nov. 26
Looks like
Laura
Staniland and
Mark Rauterkaus have come out against gambling in the Hill District. I
understand that the black clergy is against because they're against
"gambling"--it appears that they must have missed those Pennsylvania lottery
ads.
I'm going to disagree. The question for
me has to do with civil liberties and also costs versus benefits. From what
I've read, Capri, the bidder with the most amount of money on table is
promising millions of dollars in public redevelopment and a 30 percent
hiring rate for minorities (And in Pittsburgh that just isn't a small thing.
In fact, considering the forces that are pushing deindustrialization it
could be years before it won't be such a small thing.) Second, gambling
seems to be the only kind of taxation that people actually like. Its not as
if you stop gambling in the hill then people stop gambling. They just go to
the tracks in West Virginia or Vegas or Atlantic City. Ditto for
prostitution by the way. Legalize and decriminalize I sez. Might as well
keep the money local. From what it looks like the benefits outweigh the
costs. I also find this somewhat spontaneous opposition to be suspicious.
Tonya Payne
has never heard of the opposition. I suppose if I was jaded I might
think that they were funded by opposition gambling bidders and not a
spontaneous opposition but I like to bask in the ocean of my naiveté.
But I would
like to know their point of view. Over the next couple of days I'll be
listening to
this
and
this.
I had totally forgotten about this
but who did the Pittsburgh Courier finally endorse? Well, they
didn't endorse Lynn Swann, but they did endorse Rick Santorum. Yeah,
right. If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times: There is no
legitimate black press in the US. There is no African American Al Jazeera
that represents the interests of Black Americans who vote for the Democratic
Party,
as opposed to traitorous black republicans and generally
dim people.
It's a fucking crime. If you want to find legitimate non sellout black
opinion you must journey to the Internets, period.
Speaking of the legitimate black
press, the people behind the Black Commentator, the closest thing we have to
the late and missed Emerge Magazine,
are doing a new project.
They do nice safe corporate media stories like "The
Niggerization of Palestine." (hat tip to Uncle Scam at Amsam for that
story.)
I
I have to admit that I wasn't that impressed with the new Bond film. Should
have blown my last six dollars on The Fountain. Perhaps next week. I thought
the performances were interesting. I like the athleticism of the new Bond. I
suppose at the core of Bond movies is always a troubling politics. In the
real world, half of the things that Bond would be doing I would kind of
hate, probably destabilizing Chavez or working overtime to fix the
Nicaraguan elections. Here, we know he's trying to stop a funding network
for "terrorists" (Good
luck.). We don't know if they're people whose eyes bleed blood or if
they're just nationalists who want the US out of Iraq. Just once, at 24 or
one of the Bond films, I would like one of those bad terrorists to tell us
why they hate the US. I bet they could give us a
legitimate reason or two.
But all they do is snarl and torture people, which is something that
only really really bad
Bond villains would authorize, in movies anyway. For me, while it was a
nice gritty recentering of the series, the world needs a stylized reshoot
like in Sin City. Of course, there's always my fave unwritten science
fiction masterpiece: James Bond in outer space. That way you could do more
with locales. That's what I enjoyed most about the Star Wars movies: those
snazzy alien worlds. You could even do interesting things with alien virtual
worlds. Even came up for a name for the journalist hero, kind of Greg Palast
with weapons: His name would be Skychom. Izzy Skychom. If I ever write
it...don't bet on it.
The reasons given for this
congressional Stockholm syndrome don’t stand up to scrutiny. “It would
tear the country apart,” many say, as if that hasn’t already happened. It
was the Clinton impeachment which accomplished that, and perhaps the
nation would benefit psychically from a well justified tit for that
brazenly opportunistic tat. But even if it doesn’t, Bush needs to be
impeached.
Bush needs to be impeached
because Bush worshippers just plain deserve it. It was they that were
giddy with self-righteous rage, so desperate to take Clinton down that
they didn’t care how pathetic their excuse was. They need to be paid back,
and to know they asked for it. They need to be demoralized and dismissed
before they take the government back and damage it further. They need,
after all, to know their reign was a colossal failure, a blight on the
record. They need to know that now and forever, George W. Bush will be to
presidents what OJ Simpson is to all-star running backs. These people
understand things in terms of winning and losing, and they need to know
that, in the end, they lost.
Bush
needs to be impeached because the only language these people understand is
power. Their hearts will not be touched by forgiveness. Any mercy is a
sign of weakness to them. If you want to earn a thug’s respect, you’ve got
to kick his ass up and down the block. No negotiation. No compromise.
Slash and burn. Teach these assholes a lesson. Leave them broken and
gasping in a puddle of their own urine. Don’t ever let them forget the
humiliation and the shame of it.
But
beyond revenge and humiliation—the reasons that Republicans will actually
understand—Bush needs to be impeached because he is a criminal of the
highest order, and because tolerating criminals at the seat of power is
itself a crime against the nation. The core problem in Washington today is
not the president’s lack of respect for the law; it’s that congress has
done nothing about it. The first step toward restoring a reasonable
government is correcting that.
Bush needs to be impeached for
the same reason any conservative will tell you that drug offenders need to
go to jail forever. In other words, if a president abuses his power,
misleads the nation, flouts the constitution, breaks longstanding
international laws and ignores congress—and then, when the opposition
takes power, nothing happens—what kind of message does that send to the
next power-mad president? Bush—and Cheney—need to be impeached because
that’s how this thing works.
Bush needs to be impeached, but
it’s not going to happen. Not a chance. Because as wrong as the
Republicans are, they’re right about one thing: the Democrats just don’t
have the courage to do what’s right.
Related: Debate
over at the John
Conyers blog over impeachment. Look, this frak-up of an idiot
president stole the presidency twice by making sure that African Americans
couldn't vote. I want my vengeance. By the way, impeachments work great
for the party pursing the impeachments. Politically, its great for the
dems. Even if they had relentless and ruthless hearings day after day
without impeachment it would be great. So the corporate media and
Washington's wise old men won't report it and don't want it--probably
because they want the republicans to win.. Fuck 'em. We don't need or even
want them anymore.
Introduction: Pre-Election
Concern, Election Day Relief, Alarming Reality
There was an unprecedented level
of concern approaching the 2006 Election (“E2006”) about the vulnerability
of the vote counting process to manipulation. With e-voting having
proliferated nationwide, and with incidents occurring with regularity
through 2005 and 2006, the alarm spread from computer experts to the media
and the public at large. It would be fair to say that America approached
E2006 with held breath.
For many observers, the results
on Election Day permitted a great sigh of relief—not because control of
Congress shifted from Republicans to Democrats, but because it appeared
that the public will had been translated more or less accurately into
electoral results, not thwarted as some had feared. There was a relieved
rush to conclude that the vote counting process had been fair and that the
concerns of election integrity proponents had been overblown.
Unfortunately the evidence
forces us to a very different and disturbing conclusion: there was gross
vote count manipulation and it had a great impact on the results of E2006,
significantly decreasing the magnitude of what would have been, accurately
tabulated, a landslide of epic proportions. Because virtually all of this
manipulation appears to have been computer-based, and therefore invisible
to the legions of at-the-poll observers, the public was informed of
“isolated incidents and glitches” but remains unaware of the far greater
story: The electoral machinery and vote counting systems of the United
States did not honestly and accurately translate the public will and
certainly can not be counted on to do so in the future.
Only 7,000 votes separates the
Democratic Senatorial candidate Jim Webb from incumbent Republican George
Allen. Leading up to the election, the State of Virginia rejected more
than 91,000 names submitted from voter drives, blocking their
registrations. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law
School says that Virginia’s +methods of rejecting voters had a notably
racial bias. Golly. Put the two numbers together — the 91,000 citizens
questionably barred from voting and the teeny-weeny Senate vote margin,
and Virginia begins to look a lot like Florida on the Potomac.The blockade
of voters at the Virginia polling station doors followed on last year’s
promise of Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman to mount a,
“challenge to voter eligibility” in Virginia. Mehlman vowed, through an
attack on the voter rolls, to “do whatever we can” to keep control of
Virginia. And he did. Voters blocked (and other purged from voter rolls)
received “provisional ballots.” The state only counts about 15% of these.
You do the math and tell me who
really won Virginia and the Senate.
And let’s not talk about the
Montana vote - and we won’t now that Rumsfeld’s useless carcass has been
thrown in front of the TV cameras.
--From Greg Palast
And from the Free Press:
The percentage of uncounted votes
in the allegedly "fraud free" 2006 Ohio election is actually higher than the
fraud-ridden 2004 election, when the presidency was stolen here. A flawed
voting process that allowed voters to be illegally turned away throughout
the morning on Election Day may have cost the Dems at least two
Congressional seats and a state auditor's seat.
The evidence comes directly from the official website of GOP Secretary of
State J. Kenneth Blackwell
Blackwell website. But researchers wishing to verify the number of
uncounted ballots from that web site should do so immediately, as Blackwell
is known for quickly deleting emb+a+rrassing evidence. In 2004, Blackwell
deleted the evidence of excessive uncounted votes after the final results
were tallied.
Despite Democratic victories in five of six statewide partisan offices, an
analysis by the Free Press shows a statistically implausible shift of votes
away from the Democratic Party statewide candidates on Election Day,
contrasted with the results of the Columbus Dispatch's final poll. The
Dispatch poll predicted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland
winning with 67% of the vote. His actual percentage was 60%. The odds of
this occurring are one in 604 million.
So let's define the election the
right way: It was great that the Democrats won majorities in both the House
and the US Senate, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a need for serious
reform of our election machinery. But first, one more quote from Steve
Gilliard, who,
here, speaks his master's voice, Markos (thoughts on him
here and
here). Turns out, after about six years of work, seven or eight books by
great writers and world class thinkers, Kos wants to
help the voter integrity movement. I mean its a good turn and all and
we'll take the hope but Greg Palast, Mark Crispin Miller and Bob Fitrakis
were way out front on this. Okay here's his quote from Steve:
After all
the bullshit about how Rove was going to steal our elections, after all the
times I explained how this was not possible, here's the case. Diebold
machines simply suck. Hacking is less of a problem than that they just don't
work. But it's easier to whine and bitch than do.
Well, first,
it wasn't bullshit. In fact,
had the "white redneck" vote turned out as usual it would have worked.
"It", as
has been stated many a time by various voter rights advocates, would
have been a combination of both voter suppression (and the notorious non
counting of provisional ballots in Ohio and elsewhere.) and machine hacks.
Of course, as has been pointed out here and other places we're not allowed
to even look at the election machines to even figure out if there has been a
hack. There was a massive legal fight to preserve the 2004 ballots that was
won without the help of Markos.
So, to sum up,
its great that dems won but that doesn't mean that the machines worked
because your side won. In fact, it means nothing if you believe in
democracy. Our goal now is to push Conyers and/or Waxman to look into this.
Ask him to invite people like Greg Palast, Mark Crispin Miller, and Bob
Fitrakis to capital hill. This is still the most important issue. The
overall goal, of course, is to restore and protect the black and latino
vote. If that happens, then the current majorities in congress can be held
and expanded upon.
You never know.
The Republicans might figure out not to charge the rednecks 3 dollars a
gallon or more--and not to lower the prices right around election time that
tells everybody "we think you're stupid"-- by 2008 and all our gains will
vanish. (I really hope Conyers
reads and
helps enact this.)
Nov. 16
Well, what do you know.
Someone, with little respect for
the law, posted my review of
Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat" at Daily Motion where I can watch Veronica Mars
and Superman reruns all day. Damn those French. Just awful. But it is cool
to hear my words read by a cool Bill Curtis like pro actor type.
And I'm having
a very civil discussion with Steve Gilliard about the merits of Greg
Palast. Very polite with a Masterpiece Theater tone.
I have also now seen both Richard
Dawkins episodes of South Park and read the aforementioned Time.com debate.
I wanted to comment on one aspect that appeared in both venues, and also
even in the Wired article which I have yet to comment on. And that's this
idea that telling people that their god given delusions are, well,
delusions, isn't very nice. Or as it was so eloquently put in South Park,
and I'm going to paraphrase from memory: "being a dick about it".
Well, it should be said that sensible
Brights like
myself were quite okay to live and let live...until it became clear that
religious forces won't allow us to do this. It started for me with this
overall realization that when fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist
Moslems get their hands on nukes then we're probably all dead. It started
showing up specifically when these backward delusions started getting in the
way of science policy--everything from the teaching of evolution to stem
cell research. I'm okay with you believing that Santa Claus has a wonderful
place for you after death full of virgins and hellish eternal torment for
your enemies/people that don't agree with you (how Christian) but not if it
interferes with the greater good in the here and the now. I think that the
major religions are life hating and as Bertrand Russell has stated they are
unworthy of strong independent men and women, as opposed to childlike sheep.
And, frankly, while I'm uncomfortable with puncturing the delusions of
believers, if rudeness is necessary to save the world then a dick shall I
be...as Funky Dung can certainly attest to.
Nov. 10
From wild comics
stylist Warren Ellis of all
people. I guess because of shows like Comedy Central and the Colbert Report
Brits know our bad apples as well as anybody. By the way, when Howard Dean
told Jon Stewart "thank you" for the wave he was right. Success has many
fathers as they say. (Gawd, look at that scary Home-Schooled glaze of
theocratic hatred from the son..."Begone satanic forces...I shall avenge
thee..!")
On Friday,
November 10, the Thomas Merton Center will honor Professor Angela Davis,
educator, civil rights activist and anti-prison industrial complex
advocate, at the annual Merton Award Dinner. The event will be held at the
Sheridan at Station Square on the Southside of Pittsburgh. The social hour
will start at 6pm and dinner will begin promptly at 7pm. Entertainment
will be provided by local spoken word poet, Nathan James and special
musical guests. Raffle prizes include a one-week getaway at a cabin in the
scenic Allegheny Mountains, a package of tickets to local entertainment
and cultural events and a refurbished bike from Free Ride, Pittsburgh's
only recycled bike program. The raffle winners will be drawn and announced
at the event so make sure to purchase your tickets ahead of time! Raffle
tickets are $5.00 a piece.
The Dinner is now sold out. There are no more seats available. Thank you
to everyone who reserved their seat!
Nov. 8
Obviously I'm thrilled with the election results. But I
just wanted to win the house. It looks like we're going to win the US
Senate. Of course, now, the filibuster will be completely legal and used
every other minute to thwart meaningful legislation. The problem this
creates is that the dems still won't have real power and the republicans can
run against the Democratic Congress in 2008. I don't know how many problems
dems can solve within two years. Still, its a nice problem to have. And good
riddance to Rumsfield. Can't wait for the Dingell, Rangel, Waxman and
Conyers chairmanships to begin.
I have also replaced this
icon in the lefthand corner:
with this:
Until I'm dragged off to one of those detention centers
for reeducation of course....
Well I'm still tired from knocking on doors Saturday. Over
the last three weeks I've knocked on doors for Ed Rendell, Bob Casey, Jason
Altmire and even Shawn Flaherty. The democrats should win but we should have
won in 2000 and 2004 as well. I really really hope this piece by Greg Palast
is wrong. Even if they're cheating its much harder to rig house races
throughout the country. The dems are competitive in 40 house races and they
just need to win 15. Anyway, I'm leaving to go vote. Again, hope Greg is
wrong.
Nov. 3
America, founded in secularism as a beacon of
eighteenth century enlightenment, is becoming the victim of religious
politics, a circumstance that would have horrified the Founding Fathers. The
political ascendancy today values embryonic cells over adult people. It
obsesses about gay marriage, ahead of genuinely important issues that
actually make a difference to the world. It gains crucial electoral support
from a religious constituency whose grip on reality is so tenuous that they
expect to be 'raptured' up to heaven, leaving their clothes as empty as
their minds. More extreme specimens actually long for a world war, which
they identify as the 'Armageddon' that is to presage the Second Coming.
--Richard Dawkins quote I think...
Well, if the idea that any
publicity is good publicity, then Richard Dawkins appearing on South Park
Wednesday was pretty cool. (You can see the episode here
at Daily Motion which never pulls down anything. I 'm still waiting for
one thing to be withdrawn. Those damn French.) But it didn't show Mr.
Dawkins in a very flattering light. According to the message board at
Dawkins net one of the South Park boys hates Atheism as much as he hates
Scientology, Mormonism and Catholicism. That just isn't intellectually
consistent. And did they have to show Saint Richard having sex with that,
you know, unattractive creationist...I mean, Jesus Christ. Or "Oh Science!"
By the way, when we succeed in our evil plan to turn everyone into an
atheist I don't think that will mean the end of human conflict. I just think
that we will find better things to kill each other over. Dying over
Christianity or Islam is not unlike dying for the Easter Bunny or the Great
Pumpkin. What could be sillier than dying for myths and pretend after
worlds.
Speaking of why some of us are put
off by the hypocrisy of the Christian Church, then let us look
no further than Mr. Haggard. If you watched Mr. Dawkins first special
"The Root of all Evil" then you've already met this fundamentalist preacher
and alleged partner of male prostitutes and meth addict. This is why I
admire Richard Dawkins and have very little respect for these modern day
Elmer Gantrys. Check out
Dawkins vs. Ted
Haggard.
One more
thing: "Hacking Democracy" will be on tonight on HBO. News
about that here and Diebold's
attempts to quash it.
I'm
adding Laura Staniland's new blog "The
Ideas Bucket" to the local Pittsburgh blogroll. She's an activist with
the League of Pissed off Voters and she's pretty. Please don't hold either
against her. More blogging tonight when I have time. Yes, there will be some
comment on the Richard Dawkins South Park. Quick review:
Disrespectful
and contemptuous of all sides, but funny. Per usual.
Oct. 31
Trick? You're living in a
country where the will of the people can be subverted by computer hacking
and the Democratic Party seems to be in on it....Boo! Scary stuff huh? You
can fight it by way of parallel elections. Or even by photographing your
vote by cell phone. Got this from Richard "Our
Bob Fitrakis" King:
Dear friends,
The Theft of American Elections
is a Media Issue
The loss of our right to vote (or have it
counted) is a media issue which is why you are all getting this
email. I've talked a lot about the effects of media ownership
consolidation on the destruction of democracy by permitting a few
corporations to fail to report the essential information we need to
be a self-governing people. Not only does the main stream media
refuse to investigate and report on the impossible discrepancies
between the 'official' count and the exit polls, but they are
actively complicit in this fraud. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and the
AP own the exit polls and have defied John Conyers' request for the
raw data, keeping that data secreted from even qualified independent
researchers.
We are all trying to take optimism from the lead
democrats have in the polls going into the election. Keep in mind
that they had these leads in 2002, when the Republicans got
themselves total control, and they had even greater promise going
into the 2004 elections. If you are still not convinced of the
massive fraud that is going on, you can look at my 'cliff notes'
version about the theft, which I wrote thinking people might read a
few pages as opposed to an entire book
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/16/2006/1865 .
Exit polls have historically been seen as the
gold standard of reliability and are still considered as such
everywhere in the world, except here. How is it that exit polls
were relied on for a half century in this country and then suddenly
they were wrong in 2000, and again in 2002 and again in
2004? Steven Freeman, author of Was the 2004
Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the
Official Count,
http://www.electionintegrity.org/book had analyzed the exit
polls of the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida in 2004
and concluded that the odds of the exit polls being as far off as
they were are 250 million to one! And still the media utterly
failed to question the evidence before its eyes.
It is precisely because the exit polls are so
reliable in proving the actual vote that for the first time in a
half century, there will be no exit polls this year. The media
consortium which owns the exit polls is actively suppressing the
evidence we need to maintain our democracy: in this case information
about how we've lost the ability to elect or evict our government.
Without exit polls, it will be exceedingly difficult to have the
evidence establishing the theft. Just like electronic voting, not a
trace of evidence should be left to expose the greatest theft of
this country's history.
How to fight back?
Firstly, we need the most massive turnout -- some
people think if it's high enough we can overcome the level of the
theft. Others think it will at least make it more difficult for the
Republicans to explain how they somehow won again, even though
Americans have never returned, and never would return, such an
unpopular, incompetent and corrupt crew to office.
Secondly, we need independent exit
polling. Independent exit polls have been used successfully to
prevent fraud. See for inspiration, Thom Hartmann's How to Take
Back a Stolen Election, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1129-26.htm,
in which he describes how the elections in post Soviet countries --
where, like here, there was evidence the regime in power was
planning to steal the elections and where, like here, the main
stream media was either controlled by, beholden to, or owned by
supporters of the regime in power -- were saved from the
intended theft by the use of independent exit polls. If the
Ukrainians can do it, why not us?
Why People Vote Third Party or
Why Ralph Nader May Run Again: Its the bought off dems, stupid.
I
liked the interview that
