Don't tell me boycotts don't work

Don't tell me boycotts don't work: I'm tired of hearing those self-defeating arguments. DON'T SHOP AT WAL-MART, YO. Fuck the man. It's easier than you think.

Howard Dean rocks. We should all be so outspoken.

Downing Street Memo comes under Judiciary Committee scrutiny. My hat's off to Representative John Conyers for this. There's a man with cojones. Representative Moore, are you listening?

Culture of death

Culture of what?

Impeachable offenses. Excellent letter. Time to bring the bitches down. Approval ratings are so low right now, that many Republicans are jumping ship: now is the time to pressure your Representative to support the introduction of Articles of Impeachment!

Don't believe the network news: America is still fundamentally progressive. Religious conservatives only have the upper hand because they're loud and have a few charismatic leaders (who happen to have ingratiated themselves to the Bush cartel). WE ARE THE MAJORITY, we just need to raise our voice. Speak up! Time to be heard!

Contact your congressman

Sign Rep. Conyers' letter demanding Bush answer to the Downing Street Memo

kicking ass and taking names

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan may be getting close to making real trouble for the Bush administration. He needs your signature on a letter, that's all, just to show that we mean business. Check it out.

Does this monkey know something we don't?

I'd say "told ya!" because I saw this coming, ...but I don't think I actually said anything about it here. This rift is something that I've been predicting since November. I'll keep the rest of my prognostication to myself, lest I jinx it.

This might be a good time to learn Mandarin. China has been leveraging its position as the West's manufacturing bitch for some time now, and is on the verge of turning the tables. Very interesting article.

I've been reading a lot here recently. He covers a lot of territory, some of it troubling, some simply disturbing. He and I seem to share many interests, and seem to be approaching similar hypotheses about UFO-related phenomena, but I first got hooked when reading some of his research into the surprisingly widespread phenomena of ritual sexual abuse and pedophilia. This is scary, scary stuff. Listen: if your kids tell you something that sounds crazy, believe them. Believe them. They haven't learned how to use their cultural blinders, so they may well see more than we do.
In the words of Norman Brown, "all that is, is metaphor." Chew on that a while.

I got a rock.

"Oh, that's where I left it..." Too weird for comment.

Everything you need to know about how Newsweek embarrassed the Bushistas

George Galloway (MP) kickin' ass and taking names! Did you hear this guy? WOW. I heard some of his testimony on AirAmericaRadio, and let me say this: our congress should be ashamed of itself. I have never heard such an eloquent and stinging (not to mention well deserved) dressing-down in my life. Transcript here.

The mainstream US press promptly dropped this story like a hot rock. Why? Because all the fingers the senators were pointing, eventually pointed back to their friends. Go figure.

B-b-but it's not racketeering when we do it...

*click*

True Tales from the Underbelly

Harper's Weekly, it's just a column. "Just" a column. Check it out. Hang on to your hat.

True Tales from the Underbelly Halliburton: Your tax dollars at work!

George sez "Strip malls for everybody! If a crack develops in the integrity of another culture, American greed will be ready to fill it."

More and more every day, people are flocking to cities. The implications of this are huge. Go ahead, use your imagination: what do you think might change as this comes to pass? Among other things, short-term natural disasters like earthquakes or storms will have greater impact when they hit cities. Long-term natural disasters like droughts or El Nino may have greater impact too: both development of arable land, and the flight of rural populations to cities will leave us with a less flexible agricultural infrastructure, less able to adapt to change (like, say, long- and short-term climate change).

And that's to say nothing of this. What then?

Irony: not for children

Here's irony for ya: Mainstreaming 'creation science' is evolution at work. Or more specifically, "In the long run, the teaching of 'creation science' to children will produce evidence of evolution."*

It's not newsworthy. Stories like this (Kansas Board of Education is having a hearing about including creationism/excluding science in the curriculum...) and the story about the girl in Florida who got cold feet on the day of her wedding (and then lied about it, telling cops she had been kidnapped...) are not newsworthy. We have instantaneous access to information from all corners of the world, every second of every day, and this is what we're told is news?

Hey, major media, listen: Fuck you.

We're expected to believe that nothing newsworthy is going on anywhere else in the world? We're expected to be that self-indulgent, that self-involved, that we would be more interested in whether or not some normal girl gets prosecuted at the local or state level for ditching her finace? Is that really our business? Why are we being told that it's news?

Because the rest of the world is reporting on things like this, or this, or -god forbid- this, and your handlers don't want you to get upset. You are theirs, their prey, as long as you watch.


*Here's how: The world is watching. The appearance of poor education in America will lead to waning confidence in Americans. Simple.

Agape

Amazing ants. This goes beyond simple "tool use."

Primate language acquisition research goes to a new level. This is exciting stuff- the days of trying to teach apes to speak English are gone: these researchers are trying to find common ground with Bonobos, while providing the Bonobos with innovative challenges and stimuli. What happens when we can no longer pretend that we're the only animals with emotions, culture, and complex motivations? Our awareness of the world, our consciousness, will be irrevocably altered. You watch!

Hippos are aggressive. They've been known to eat people. This one drinks coffee with them. I've read this story over and over, and I'm still slack-jawed: she drinks coffee, and nudges people out of the water. Amazing.

Fork tongued, red handed

Hilarious: a call to Unitarian Jihad!

Condi Rice is BUSTED

Au revoir, rational politics. Frightening. Excellent essay though.

Wow! Some of FDR's radical ideas revisited. It's sick that the Neocons, having only been able to climb the American socio-political ladder because of FDRs policies, now want to dismantle them. "Burn the ladder behind you!" There's good thinkin'!

We don't need no education

Worst invention ever? 1. It fails utterly to encourage communication of ideas between humans. Rather, it encourages students -who should be asking questions- to let machines solve their problems and tell them the answers, in lieu of turning to the giants on whose shoulders they're standing (the giants are apparently napping, or out driving their SUVs to their giant therapist appointments). 2. It presumes -and forces all users to similarly presume- that there is one correct "best" way to express an idea. Sayonara, creativity! But gosh, how convenient for the teacher/professor -er, shall we say operator.

We have always been at war with Iran...

Other nominees for Worst Invention Ever include the gas-powered leaf blower, the wristwatch videocamera, and chocolate covered Cheez-its. What would you nominate?

Go, Turkmenbashi! Never a dull moment in Turkmenistan. I wonder if one has to be a citizen, to run?

Wal-Mart hates you. Encouraging companies to pay sub-standard wages, invites poverty and crime into your community. Resist! Shopping there is only saving you a few dollars a week, if that, and even then you'll have to replace that crap you bought too soon, because it's crap. Further, it's costing your city more than that to keep them here, and you'll pay that bill too, when taxes come due. Who do you think paid for that parking lot, and those traffic lights? Wal-mart: it's not worth the scar.

The goods behind the hoo-hah

The goods behind the hoo-hah about Tom Delay.

Bill Bradley speaks up after what seems a long media silence. Sen. Bradley ran a helluva race against Gore in the 2000 primaries; I say Gore won because of his proximity to Clinton, while Bradley should have won because he'd have fought harder. Maybe this suggests he'll want back in for 2008?

Animals laugh. This story blew my mind. Anyone who knows me, knows that I try not to underestimate non-human intelligence, especially in social animals, but laughter? Wow! I had never thought of it this way before.

My mind already having been blown yesterday, I then tripped across this gem. A new theory of yawning, now based on actual evidence! I've always found it curious that we have traditionally attributed yawning in humans to anoxia (lack of oxygen, from shallow breathing I guess?), while attributing it in other apes to shows of aggression or dominance. Curious, and often amusing, as I watch who yawns in the company of whom. Even more fun now!

Not pretty, but important.

Scott Ritter, no holds barred. Tough!

We've been had.

That's right: Secret plans for Iraq's oil fields were being drafted just weeks after George took office in 2001. Weeks. Long before the "new Pearl Harbor" (in the words of the PNAC) of 911. Ahem. From the brilliant Greg Palast: as usual, well written and thoroughly documented. That's right, folks: we've been had.

So, why is gas still so expensive? Primarily because oil companies are in business for one reason: to make money. Cha-ching!

South America Watch: Otto "The Fourth" Reich versus the Western Axis of Evil, Hugo! and Evil Genius Fidel Castro

The Long Emergency. Scary.

Kill your television

Are you listening? AirAmericaRadio has been doing The Work for over a year now. The morning show, "Morning Sedition," is great mix of humor and news/analysis, and Randi Rhodes (late afternoons) is probably one of the best-informed personalities on the air. Janeane Garofalo comes across better on screen though. Al Franken, well... let's just say he comes across better on paper... but he's on while I'm at work, so I don't hear his show. Good stuff! Stay informed! Kill your television!

Very good, short essay from Noam Chomsky. Say it with me now: Kill your television!

Syria's relationship with Lebanon is more complex than George seems able to understand.

Who's surprised by this, at this point? Hussein wasn't really captured hiding in a hole.

Congressman Tom Feeney told a then-employee to "design a software prototype that could "flip" the vote in South Florida voting machines." If this bothers you, as it probably should, take a minute to write a letter to whatever paper you read/news show you watch asking them: where's the coverage of this?

Scary thought.

Is it getting hot in here?

Is it getting hot? Seems like fights are breaking out all over...

The emotional lives of... cows. Fun, funny article about a subject with staggering implications.

And in robot news... yikes.

and proud we are of all of them

An excellent point.

Hugo and Hu, go

Yikes!

Hugo!

Hugo calls George out, bam! Hugo Chavez is a man to watch. He's no freaked-out paranoid little Napoleon, either: the Bush administration has every reason to fear him, and vice-versa. Venezuela is one of our biggest sources of oil, and Hugo has no intention of selling it cheap, like so many other little dictators have done in the name of greed and nepotism. In fact, within a year of Chavez winning the Presidency -legally and transparently, I might add- the Bush administration sent flunky Otto Reich to organize a coup (it failed: Chavez's support among the people was genuine). Typical of the Bush administration, they didn't even have a viable candidate to put in Chavez's place had they managed to pull it off....

This could be very big. I mean, what if -all of a sudden- Africa could stand on its own again? You think India is a big market? heh

VERY interesting take on the Putin/Bush press conference following their meeting last week.

Just a few of the many reasons to boycott WalMart. Who wants a crappy neighbor?

Who to smite?

Paul Krugman on Social Security: . Sorry, but it's important.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Whoaa. Beautiful -if frightening- illustration of how just a few people control all of the news. Also a chilling portrait of DC society, and Presidential politics. Robert Parry is a journalist with integrity.

Umm... isn't this feudalism? Didn't we fix that or something?

Great. Faith-based environmental policy. Let's hope it's better than our faith-based intelligence on Iraq and North Korea.

Science news. I don't really think a device like this could 'predict the future,' but the implications of their findings are immense anyway. What do you think? Seems to threaten the notion that consciousness is isolated to our brains, doesn't it?

Georgie wargie

Excellent -excellent- speech given to the House on Wednesday. Forget that he's a republican; he's asking hard questions about our foreign policy, questions that no one else in government seems to be asking. It's about damn time!

This is hardly news, but little Georgie is lying to you again. -er, still.

Third columnist found in Bush's pocket. Perhaps Georgie's most blatant, flagrant flaunting of US law yet. And further evidence that he -and the rest of his neo-con pals- are utterly bereft of ethics and morals.

Good essay. Let's kick some ass.

Don't look. No, don't. It's not funny. Stop laughing!



And in robot news...

"Bag o' skin, comin' right up!" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4184627.stm

Social security: divided we fall

FINALLY someone refutes the idiotic Bush rhetoric about Social Security. Thank you, Rep. Rangel.

Social Security is only threatened by privatization. Social Security is what keeps many elderly people housed and fed.

Who might benefit from "privatization" anyway? Well, we're expected to invest it all in the stock market; it will cost us to play that game. So the first to benefit will be the stock traders, who extract a portion of your invested money as fees for their services (let's call it a "privately levied tax," because it is). Stock trading is VERY restricted, a very private club. They're not interested in you, they're only interested in your money. Do you want to trust your future to someone who is only interested in your money?


But you have to have a certain amount of money to even make it worth their time to deal with you. So, if you don't have $1,000.00 or so (minimum) laying around to get started with, get started on saving that (if you work for minimum or near-minimum wage, you'll know how difficult this can be, but I don't think anyone more privileged can imagine). Once you get that saved up, it's time to look around at how best to invest.

Obviously we want to earn interest, to make sure our investment is growing faster than inflation (otherwise, we're losing money). Savings accounts don't do that. Ever. Checking accounts -even "free" ones, or ones that pay interest, cost money. Money market accounts and CDs sometimes offer higher interest, but rarely exceed the official rate of inflation, so we're still losing money on our money.

How much money does it take, to make money? Inflation right now is supposedly low -about 3-4%- but you should know that fuel and food prices are NOT included in that figure, so let's include that for our own adjusted inflation rate, which I'll estimate at about 7% (on the basis of the rising food and fuel prices I've seen, and which affect me directly). So, we want to be earning at least 7% interest on our money, just to be breaking even. To get rates like that, we would either need to a) have enough money to get a banker's or broker's personal attention (a mere grand is not enough, trust me), b) be really good at poker, or c) make some very lucky picks on the stock market. Or I suppose we could get on a game show and get really lucky, but in the end, it's all about getting lucky.

Luck. The real problem with having everybody depend on the stock market for their safety net, is that the very nature of the stock market is that someone has to lose. The whole point is "every man for himself." Every profit results from someone else's loss. Dependence on this cruel system is what got us this economic disparity in the first place.

Destroying Social Security in the name of "ownership" and "privatization," will only serve to send more money into the hands of the wealthy, and further isolate the less-fortunate in shitty minimum-wage service-sector jobs.

Divided we fall, my friends: divided, we fall.

Armstrong Williams is a whore, and George Bush is his john.

I can't believe this shit.

American politics sinks to new lows every day under the Bush administration. Ethics shmethics.

I suppose we all sell ourselves, one way or another, to make a living. Such is life in a money economy. But there are whores, and there are prostitutes: whores will sell anything, just for the sake of a buck, but prostitutes have limits. Whores sell their self-respect, their ethics, heritage, their grandmothers, for a little bling-bling. Prostitutes sell a service, to put food on the table.

Kill your television.

I mean it.


I'm so tired of harping about the Bush junta, that I'm not even going to touch the problem of our President, the Leader of the Free World, buying journalists.

Is it even news anymore?

Ramsey Clark, man of principle

Great interview with Ramsey Clark, defender of the defenseless

Praising Failure, or "It's all good!"

You gotta read this

Vote fraud? Enron started out as a conspiracy theory, too. As did Watergate, and Iran-Contra, and October Surprise, and election 2000 and...

Straight from the horse's mouth: a Republican spills the beans and explains how the voter fraud was perpetrated. No, really!

Ohio is the new Florida.

Vote fraud gold mine here, good stuff!

Buy blue, a nifty guide for the boycott-inclined. Details about which major corporations supported which political parties.

How does $130,000 bucks sound? It could be yours, if you can prove the World Trade Centre buildings crashed the way the Government says they did. Good luck ;)

Child prostitution... in the White House? You betcha. It gets worse, too: don't miss the very last link on the page. These are the people we're dealing with.

A viable strategy

I've said before that all of us progressives need to be reaching out to the sleepwalkers; that the closer you get, the harder it becomes to hate; that all we need to do to win is close the emotional-geographic gap and show them that their fears of us are unfounded.

That's a tactic. Here is a viable strategy. Excellent bit from an ex-conservative. We have two years.

Remember: they're sleepwalking, so rouse them gently.

Ohio and the UN

A UN for this century, not the last one. Very interesting article from the Guardian, about the place of the UN in politics. Surprising.

Things are getting hot in Ohio. Rep. John Conyers and a number of other Representatives have sent a strongly-worded letter to Ohio Sec. of State Ken Blackwell, asking that he explain a number of irregularities and incidents of apparent fraud or gross incompetence. Sweet!

Let's get small

Well, with the election mostly over, I've had time to get back to thinking. My other priorities had been sitting quietly, patiently, taking orders even, while my social conscience and consciousness held court in my effort to help defeat the impostor president. We fought the good fight, and that was our downfall: we played fair, presented evidence and empirical support, and they responded with spin, propaganda, and threats. It's apparently not over yet, and I'm glad of that, but seeing as how I'm in Kansas, and the trouble is in Ohio, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Florida, I came to the conclusion that this issue is pretty much out of my hands.

I started this blogthing as an email habit- I thought too much US-related news was only being covered in less-prominent international news sources, and I wanted my friends to know. As the election approached, I focused on Kerry because the mainstream US press wasn't giving him fair time, or fairly representing his record. Alas, it wasn't about facts at all. Silly me!

Damn the elections. They provide such a seductive story-line. So reassuring, so convincing, that we continue to look for storylines in the news after the big show is over, but The News is not a story in the storybook sense, so there's almost never any real resolution. Enron? 911 investigation (don't even show me the Warren Report Jr.)? Valerie Plame? Diebold? You get the idea.

"There is only one thing bigger than a very big thing, and that is a thing so very small that it can be seen and understood. " -Sinclair Lewis.