CAKE POLICE

2012-01-22T04:10:00.000-08:00

Righteous

2012-01-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

Dan Savage on public homophobes' (specifically in this case, Rick and Elizabeth Santorum) claims that they have gay friends and their perceived victim status:

Opposed to same-sex marriage herself, Elizabeth said she has gay friends who support her father's candidacy based on his economic and family platforms. But her father's doctrinaire opposition to change on these fronts has made her the occasional target at school and on the trail—"never aggressively," she said, though "obviously, there are certain people that aren't [respectful]."

Yeah, Elizabeth, it's tough out there for a 'phobe. You know what else is tough? Losing your home after the death of your spouse because your marriage isn't recognized by the federal government. Seeing your husband deported because your marriage isn't recognized by the federal government.

What really interests me about the HuffPo interview, however, is Elizabeth's claim to have gay friends. Elizabeth Santorum—follow her on Twitter@esantorum2012—has gay friends. Just like her father. And Rick Warren andJoel Osteen and Donny Osmond and Sarah Palin. All the high-profile homophobes seem to have gay friends. Or at least they claim to have gay friends. No one has ever met—and no reporter has ever asked to verify the existence of—one of Rick Santorum or Elizabeth Santorum or Rick Warren or Joel Osteen's gay friends.

Um... political reporters? Stop accepting homophobes' claims of gay friendship at face value. Elizabeth Santorum says she has gay friends who support her dad based on his family platform? That is an astonishing assertion. Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his having compared sex between consenting adults of the same sex to child rape and dog fucking? Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his having asserted that gay relationships are a threat to "homeland security"? Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his opposition not just to gay marriage, but to any legal recognition of same-sex relationships at all (no civil unions, no domestic partnerships)? Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his promise to write anti-gay bigotry into the US Constitution, forcibly divorce every same-sex couple that has gotten legally married in the US over the last decade, and reinstate DADT? Who are these gay people who support Rick Santorum for president despite his opposition to adoptions by same-sex couples?

Who are these faggots?

Political reporters? When Elizabeth Santorum says, "I have gay friends and they support my dad because they agree with him about family issues," i.e. her dad's opposition to gay people having a families of their own, your immediate response should be a request for the names and phone numbers of some of these gay friends. Because that claim requires checking out before you put it in print or pixels. Reassure Elizabeth you'll quote her friends anonymously to protect them from potty-mouthed gay bloggers, they can talk to you on background or whatever, but tell her that you're going to need to verify the existence of these gay friends. Because you're a journalist, not a stenographer. You'll either catch Elizabeth Santorum in a revealing lie—what does it tell us about this moment in the struggle for LGBT equality that even homophobes like Elizabeth and her dadperceive a political risk in being perceived as homophobic?—or you'll land a fascinating interview.

And then there's this:

She is aware of her father's so-called "Google problem," part of a campaign by columnist Dan Savage to redefine the candidate's last name after he compared same-sex relationships to bigamy, polygamy and incest. "Savage and his perverted sense of humor is the reason why my children cannot Google their father's name," Rick Santorum wrote in a letter to supporters earlier this year. "That just makes me sad. It's disappointing that people can be that mean," she said,

I'm sorry I gave Elizabeth Santorum a sad. You know what gives me a sad? This does:

Ed Watson wasn't a "policy thing." He was a human being. And he died in December, still waiting for the Prop 8 decision to come down, still denied the right to legally marry the love of his life.

And you know what, Elizabeth? Making a dirty joke at the expense of a politically powerful elected official with designs on the White House—a man who has pledged to do everything in his power to make sure that gay people continue to lose their homes, see their spouses deported, and watch their partners die while waiting for their full civil equality to be recognized—is whole lot less mean than attacking a minority group and pledging to strip members of that minority group of the few rights they have secured.

Well, This Is A Thing

2011-12-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

United States of America: Officially a Third World Country

2011-12-14T03:28:00.000-08:00

Well, New York City, anyway:

"Independent Budget Office report on New York city income disparity.

The poorest tenth (decile) of the city’s population has an average income of $988, and claim 0.1% of the city’s total income.
The richest 10% of New Yorkers have 58% of total income, and the richest 5%, 49%.
The average income of the poorest 30% is $6,373, on a par with Egypt and about $1,200 below China’s.
The city’s median income—the level at which half the population is richer and half is poorer—is $28,213. That’s roughly the level of Greece.
The average income of the top 10% (a category that begins at $105,368) is $387,259.
The average income of the top 1% (a category that begins at $493,439) is $2,247,515.

How does the city’s income distribution compare with that of Brazil, a country with a worldwide reputation for stunning inequality?

The income of the top 20% of New Yorkers is 64 times that of the bottom 20%. In Brazil, that ratio is 17 times.
The income of the top 10% of New Yorkers is 582 times that of the poorest 10%. In Brazil, that ratio is 35 times."

occupyduniya.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/new-york/

i punched my fist into my face

2011-12-01T01:40:00.001-08:00

BETTERLATETHANNEVERNIRVANAMONDAY

2011-11-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

" Courtney Love has stunned Nirvana fans by offering Simon Cowell her late husband Kurt Cobain's songs for use on British talent show The X Factor.

In a tweet to the music mogul, who fronts the hit show, Love appears to be a fan of contestant Janet Devlin and suggests she should have her pick from Nirvana's back catalogue, which she owns, for an upcoming show.

Love writes, "@SimonCowell you want some Nirvana songs? @JanetJealousy is from same town as Kurt? I have the perfect idea for that, call me babe." "

The Police State

2011-11-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

Here's an article that compiles videos and images of acts of police brutality against Occupy protesters. It's horrifying and dystopic.

Here's an article that argues the obvious fact that, yes, pepper spray used in situations like the ones above, below, and in the previously linked post is a form of torture.

And, fine, here's Glenn Greenwald on this:

"The intent and effect of such abuse is that it renders those guaranteed freedoms meaningless. If a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist. Every time the citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed — or hears that an Occupy protester suffered brain damage and almost died after being shot in the skull with a rubber bullet — many become increasingly fearful of participating in this citizen movement, and also become fearful in general of exercising their rights in a way that is bothersome or threatening to those in power. That’s a natural response, and it’s exactly what the climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to achieve: to coerce citizens to “decide” on their own to be passive and compliant — to refrain from exercising their rights — out of fear of what will happen if they don’t.

"The genius of this approach is how insidious its effects are: because the rights continue to be offered on paper, the citizenry continues to believe it is free. They believe that they are free to do everything they choose to do, because they have been “persuaded” — through fear and intimidation — to passively accept the status quo. As Rosa Luxemburg so perfectly put it: “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” Someone who sits at home and never protests or effectively challenges power factions will not realize that their rights of speech and assembly have been effectively eroded because they never seek to exercise those rights; it’s only when we see steadfast, courageous resistance from the likes of these UC-Davis students is this erosion of rights manifest."

"This is the most important effect of the Occupy movement: acts of defiance, courage and conscience are contagious. Just as the Arab Spring clearly played some significant role in spawning, sustaining and growing the American Occupy movement, so too have the Occupy protesters emboldened one another and their fellow citizens. The protest movement is driving the proliferation of new forms of activism, citizen passion and courage, and — most important of all — a sense of possibility. For the first time in a long time, the use of force and other forms of state intimidation are not achieving their intended outcome of deterring meaningful (i.e., unsanctioned and unwanted) citizen activism, but are, instead, spurring it even more. The state reactions to these protests are both highlighting pervasive abuses of power and generating the antidote: citizen resolve to no longer accept and tolerate it. This is why I hope to see the Occupy movement — even if it adopts specific demands — remain an outsider force rather than reduce itself into garden-variety partisan electioneering: in its current form, it is demanding and re-establishing the indispensable right of dissent, defiance of unjust authority, and sustained protest."

Glenn Greenwald on Democratic Party Co-option of OWS

2011-11-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

One used to be able to leave it up to Dave Mattos to re-post items from Glenn Greenwald's blog, but times have changed: there's an international left movement, Vincent D'Onofrio is making his directorial debut, Kings of Leon is taking a half-year hiatus, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned exactly one week ago. Plus this shit is rock solid:

"How does anyone think these protesters will be convinced that it’s exclusively the GOP — and not the Democratic Party and the Obama WH — who 'protect the rich' when: Wall Street funded the Democrats far more than the GOP in the 2008 election; the Democrats’ key money man, Charles Schumer, is one of the most devoted Wall Street servants in the country; Obama empowered in key positions Wall Street servants such as Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Bill Daley, Rahm Emanuel, and an endless roster of former Goldman officials; JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been dubbed 'Obama’s favorite banker' after Obama publicly defended his post-bailout $17 million bonus; the President named the CEO of GE to head his jobs panel; the DCCC and DSCC exist to ensure the nomination of corporatist candidates and Blue Dogs whose political worldview is servitude to the lobbyist class; the Democratic President, after vocally urging an Age of Austerity, tried very hard to usher in cuts to Social Security and an increase in the age for Medicare eligibility; and the Obama administration has not only ensured virtually no accountability for the rampant Wall Street fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis, but is actively pressuring New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and others to agree to a woefully inadequate settlement to forever shield banks from the consequences of their pervasive mortgage fraud."

Read the whole hyper-hyperlinked piece here.

Is This Going To Be The Best Movie Ever???

2011-11-18T22:25:00.000-08:00

Yes.

Repost from Verso Books blog

2011-11-15T15:58:00.000-08:00

Verso NY found itself in a strange situation last night: we were putting the finishing touches to our new book on the Occupy movement, written and edited by our comrades at n+1, at the very moment that NYPD were evicting Liberty Park. While doing so, the city authorities threw the 5,000-book People’s Library into a sanitation truck—joining, in their own sordid way, a tradition that stretches from the the sacking of the libraries of Alexandria and Baghdad, through the Nazis burning Jewish books, to the destruction of libraries in Sarajevo and Baghdad in 1992 and 2003.

The Occupy movement has now spread its roots across the globe, with over 100 occupations in the US alone—and brutal evictions in other cities have tended to lead to new, stronger encampments, often within twenty-four hours. As I write this post, lawyers are fighting the city and NYPD in court, to allow protesters back in, with their belongings. The OWS general assembly met in Foley Square last night—and a new poll shows that a clear majority of New York voters support the 24-hour occupation. The Writers and Artists Affinity Group is planning to help restock the People’s Library, and Verso will of course be contributing (once again) a lot of books. As the protesters chanted last night: “You can't evict an idea.”

http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/800-biblioclasm-or-you-cant-evict-an-idea

FETISHISM OF DIGITAL COMMODITES AND HIDDEN EXPLOITATION

2011-11-09T23:29:00.000-08:00

A repost. Wu Ming 1 (a member of the Italian writers' collective of the same name) has produced the most theoretically definitive political economy of the internet, social media, Apple gadgets, and all the other components of so-called "cognitive capitalism" that I've ever read.

Read it here.

"Are you one of the 700-and-something million Facebook users? Well, it means that you produce contents for the network every day: any kind of contents, including emotions and relations. You are part of Facebook’s general intellect. To put it short, Facebook exists and works thanks to all the people like you. What is Facebook if not a mass of collective intelligence that is not produced by Zuckerberg & Company, but by users?

"In fact, you actually work on Facebook. You do not notice it, but you’re working. You work and do not earn—-others are making money with your work.

What turns out to be useful here is the Marxian concept of 'surplus labour'. It is not an abstruse concept: it is the part of work that, albeit producing value, is not converted into salary but in profit for the capitalist, since the latter owns the means of production.
If there is profit, it means that there has been surplus labour. Otherwise, if all the labour were paid according to the value it creates—-well, that would be communism, a society with no classes. It is obvious that the capitalist must pay the workers less than the sum he earns with the sale of commodities. This is what 'profit' means—-it means paying workers less than the actual value of their labour.
For several reasons, the capitalist may not be able to sell those commodities and make profits. But this does not mean that the workers have not provided surplus labour. The whole capitalist society is based on surplus value and surplus labour.

"Your whole work is surplus work on Facebook, because you are not paid. Everyday Zuckerberg sells your surplus work—-that is to say, he sells your life (your sensitive data, your navigation patterns, etc.) and your relations. He makes several million dollars each day, because he is the owner of the mean of production, and you are not.
Information is a commodity. Knowledge is a commodity. In fact, it is the quintessential commodity in Post-Fordism (or whatever you want to call it). It is a productive force and a commodity at the same time, just like workforce. The Facebook community produces pieces of information (on individual tastes, consumption habits, market trends) that are wrapped up in form of statistics and sold to others and/or used for customising ads and any other kind of offer.
Moreover, as a representation of the most extended network of relations on the planet, Facebook itself is a commodity. The company is able to sell information only if, at the same time and incessantly, it keeps selling that particular representation of itself. That representation too is generated by users, but Zuckerberg is the one who pockets the cheque.

"Of course, the kind of 'work' described above is not comparable for toil and exploitation to the labour mentioned in the early paragraphs. In addition, Facebook users do not form a social class. The point is that we must always consider both the toil at the base of hardware production and the continuous, predatory embezzlement of collective intelligence taking place on the internet. As I wrote above, they are two 'co-existent levels'. The production of value depends on both activities, and they should be pictured and analysed together."

the amazing leopard slug

2011-11-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

2011-10-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

via Reddit

2011-10-19T02:12:00.000-07:00

"Anyone who expressed difficulty seeing or understanding what motivates these protests revealed many things about themselves. None is flattering. The only thing that’s surprising is that these protests didn’t happen sooner and that they’re not more widespread and intense. I think it’s become increasingly clear that that is likely to change, and soon. Like the Arab Spring, the rapid growth of these protests should be a permanent antidote against defeatism. It’s unclear what these protests will accomplish — that still depends on how many people join them and what they cause it to be — but, already, they prove that the possibility always exists for subverting even the most seemingly invulnerable power factions. That hasn’t happened yet, but the possibility that these protests are only in their incipient stages is one of the more exciting and positive political developments in some time. It’s been clear for quite awhile that unrest and disruptions — and the fear which they alone can put in the hearts and minds of those responsible for widespread ills — are absolute prerequisites for meaningful reform (our fundamentally corrupted electoral process certainly can’t and won’t accomplish that). These protests at least reflect the possibility, the template, for that to happen. And anyone expressing confusion about why these protests are erupting is almost certainly someone" invested in keeping things exactly the way they are.

- Glenn Greenwald

To Serve and Protect, I'm Sure

2011-10-09T20:44:00.001-07:00

More "Occupy" Things

2011-10-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is so much bullshit:

Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express, says the Wall Street demonstrators “don’t even know why they’re out there protesting on Wall Street.”
“I don’t think it’s the left’s answer to the tea party movement, and there are a lot of people there that don’t support Barack Obama,” Kremer told POLITICO. “I think they’re just unhappy people that don’t know really what they want.”
Kremer insisted that the protesters have “completely unrealistic” goals and lack a unified message, and that the absence of clear objectives make it difficult to take the demonstrators seriously.

“You know, it’s really kind of bizarre. These kids are out there and have on these T-shirts that say ‘F capitalism.’ It’s really ironic that they’re out there and communicating through their gadgets that were created through competition and free enterprise and capitalism,” she said.

First, there is a very typical source of confusion at the get-go. This is the Left standing up, not liberals or Democrats. There is some crossover, but this is related to the Democratic Party only insofar (and I would argue less) than the Tea Party is/was related to the Republican Party, a connection they themselves uniformly reject. So it's strange to hear their spokesperson claim they're not like the Tea Party because they don't support a leader of one of the "teams" they should ostensibly be supporting.

Secondly, I keep reading over and over and over that the protesters "lack a clear message," "aren't unified," and "don't know what they want." This is a totally nonsensical way to dismiss this movement categorically (as with the emphasis on the large numbers of young people among the protesters, as if we didn't just witness young people driving massive social and political change in the Middle East). Did the Tea Party have a clear message when they were at this stage in their development? Do they now? Furthermore, the message seems to be pretty clear. We are hearing the long-dormant voice of the Left reassert itself in this country right now. It is incredibly exciting, though no one should really be surprised at this point.

As to the opinion that demands like "the wealthy shouldn't get to make all the decisions in a democracy," "corporations shouldn't have the same legal status as people," and "the banks that ruined our economy and left a massive number of us unemployed as a result shouldn't be rewarded for those actions, but rather held accountable" are "completely unrealistic," if that is true things are darker than even I see them.

And smart phones have nothing to do with this.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-04T01:31:00.000-07:00

http://socialistworker.org/2011/10/04/see-you-october-5

http://socialistworker.org/2011/10/03/heat-on-wall-street

http://nplusonemag.com/notes-from-an-occupation

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-we-take-manhattan.html

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/30/labor-unions-begin-voting-to-support-occupy-wall-street/

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12029/labor_movement_rolls_into_wall_street_occupation/

http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/30/shaking-a-fist-at-the-nypd/

http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/29/the-occupy-wall-street-non-agenda/

http://jacobinmag.com/blog/?p=1663

Everything at http://kasamaproject.org/

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/04.htm#v25zz99h-333

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/02/1022031/-JP-Morgan-buys-NYPD-for-$46-million

etc.

Whoa!

2011-10-03T10:38:00.001-07:00

It is so weird to see media people doing their jobs, but this guy does it very well in this video!

video platform video management video solutions video player

Peace Out NYC

2011-09-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

"New York has a couple of characteristics that are undeniable and one of those is that it’s a magnet for assholes who couldn’t get any attention at home and decided that the problem wasn’t that they weren’t interesting but that there were all these squares around them in Dubuque or whatever and they need to go to some big cosmopolitan city like New York where people will appreciate them."

-Steve Albini

NIRVANA MONDAY RETURNS

2011-09-26T00:15:00.001-07:00

"What we are dealing with now is not the incorporation of materials that previously seemed to possess subversive potentials, but instead, their precorporation: the pre-emptive formatting and shaping of desires, aspirations and hopes by capitalist culture. Witness, for instance, the establishment of settled 'alternative' or 'independent' cultural zones, which endlessly repeat older gestures of rebellion and contestation as if for the first time. 'Alternative' and 'independent' don't designate something outside mainstream culture; rather, they are styles, in fact the dominant styles, within the mainstream. No-one embodied (and struggled with) this deadlock more than Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. In his dreadful lassitude and objectless rage, Cobain seemed to give wearied voice to the despondency of the generation that had come after history, whose every move was anticipated, tracked, bought and sold before it had even happened. Cobain knew that he was just another piece of spectacle, that nothing runs better on MTV than a protest against MTV; knew that his every move was a cliché scripted in advance, that even realizing it is a cliché. The impasse that paralyzed Cobain is precisely the one that Jameson described: like postmodern culture in general, Cobain found himself in 'a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, [where] all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices and styles in the imaginary museum'. Here, even success meant failure, since to succeed would only mean that youw ere the new meat on which the system could feed. But the high existential angst of Nirvana and Cobain belongs to an older moment; what succeeded them was a pastiche-rock which reproduced the forms of the past without anxiety." - Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism

Julian Assange: Statement on the Unauthorised, Secret Publishing of the Julian Assange “autobiography” by Canongate

2011-09-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

statement:

http://www.wikileaks.org/Julian-Assange-Statement-on-the.html

product description:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Julian-Assange-Unauthorised-Autobiography/dp/0857863843/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316954000&sr=8-1

Troy Davis

2011-09-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Troy Davis is a man whom any reasonable system of justice would have declared innocent twenty years ago. Instead, he's been on death row since his August 1991 conviction for the murder of Georgia police officer Mark MacPhail, a conviction which rested solely on the testimony of nine eyewitnesses, seven of whom have since recanted. One of the two witnesses who has not recanted is himself considered a suspect in the murder (and was instrumental in Troy's arrest). Troy was twenty years old when he was arrested. Here's a picture of him (not in prison):

I said his conviction "rested solely" on the testimony of nine eyewitnesses. In other words, there was (and still is) no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime. His execution has been stayed three times since his conviction, and in 2007 the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles vowed not to allow Troy to be executed "unless and until its members are convinced that there is no doubt" as to his guilt, a vow which has now been broken with the board's decision this morning to deny his petition for clemency. Davis is now scheduled to be executed tomorrow at 7 p.m. Amnesty International is petitioning Savannah, Georgia District Attorney Larry Chisolm to seek a withdrawal of the death warrant against Troy. This is a campaign which is supported by everyone from Jimmy Carter and Jesse Jackson to the pope and former Republican member of congress Bob Barr. So overcome your squeamishness about feeling like a liberal and sign the petition. And keep Robespierre's sage words in your mind as you do:

"Listen to the voice of justice and reason. It cries out to you that human judgements are never certain enough to justify a society of men subject to error dealing death to another man. Even if you could imagine the most perfect judicial order, even if you had found the most upright and enlightened judges, there would still remain some room for error or caution. Why forbid yourselves the means of repairing them? Why condemn yourselves to the inability to lend a helping hand to oppressed innocence? What do sterile regrets, illusory reparations matter to a vain shadow, to insensible ash? They are the sad testimony of the barbaric temerity of your penal laws. Take from a man the possibility to expiate his crime by repentance or acts of virtue; pitilessly close off to him any return to virtue, self-esteem, rush his descent, so to speak, into the tomb still covered by the recent stain of his crime is, in my eyes, the most horrible refinement in cruelty.

"The first obligation of a legislator is to form and preserve public morals, the source of all freedom, source of all social happiness. When in running to a particular goal he turns away from this general and essential goal he commits the most vulgar and dire of errors.... If in place of this powerful, calm and moderate severity that should characterize it they place anger and vengeance; if they spill human blood that they could spare and that they have no right to spread; if they spread out before the people cruel scenes and cadavers wounded by torture, it then alters in the hearts of citizens the ideas of the just and the unjust; they plant the seed in the midst of society of ferocious prejudices that will produce others in their turn. Man is no longer for man so sacred an object: we have a less grand idea of his dignity when public authority puts his life at risk. The idea of murder inspires less fear when the law itself gives the example and the spectacle. The horror of crime is diminished when it is punished by another crime. Do not confuse the effectiveness of a penalty with the excess of severity: the one is absolutely opposed to the other. Everything seconds moderate laws; everything conspires against cruel laws."

still cool

2011-09-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

Smoke Up, Then Move To Cuba

2011-09-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

From Popular Science:

"From the island nation known for the quality of its cigars comes some pretty big news today:Xinhua reports that Cuban medical authorities have released the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. CimaVax-EGF is the result of a 25-year research project at Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology, and it could make a life or death difference for those facing late-stage lung cancers, researchers there say.

"CimaVax-EGF isn’t a vaccine in the preventative sense--that is, it doesn’t prevent lung cancer from taking hold in new patients. It’s based on a protein related to uncontrolled cell proliferation--that is, it doesn’t prevent cancer from existing in the first place but attacks the mechanism by which it does harm.

"As such it can turn aggressive later-stage lung cancer into a manageable chronic disease by creating antibodies that do battle with the proteins that cause uncontrolled cell proliferation, researchers say."

Egypt Update: Yikes Town

2011-09-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

"Since it took over patrolling the streets from the police on January 28, 2011, Egypt’s military has arrested almost 12,000 civilians and brought them before military tribunals, Human Rights Watch said today. This is more than the total number of civilians who faced military trials during the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak and undermines Egypt’s move from dictatorship to democratic rule, Human Rights Watch said."

"In a September 5 news conference Gen. Adel Morsy of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) said that between January 28 and August 29, military tribunals tried 11,879 civilians. The tribunals convicted 8,071, including 1,836 suspended sentences; a further 1,225 convictions are awaiting ratification by the military."

"Defendants in Egyptian military courts usually do not have access to counsel of their own choosing and judges do not respect the rights of defense. Judges in the military justice system are military officers subject to a chain of command and therefore do not enjoy the independence to ignore instructions by superiors."

"Military courts have acquitted only 795 of the nearly 12,000 cases they have tried, a conviction rate of 93 percent, Human Rights Watch said.

"In July, the SCAF issued statement number 64 in which it announced that it was limiting the use of military tribunals to three categories of crimes: “thuggery,” rape, and assault against police officers, a limitation of little practical relevance since these categories cover the vast majority of cases before tribunals over the past months. The vast majority of those sentenced by military tribunals are not political cases but involve individuals arrested in connection with alleged regular criminal activities. Those sentenced included a 16-year-old child, Islam Harby Raga, currently in Tora prison serving a seven-year sentence after a military trial in February in which he was convicted on charges of assaulting a public official."

Blogger Maikel Nabil, currently on hunger strike, is serving a three-year prison sentence for “insulting the military establishment” and “spreading false information” – in fact, for peaceful expression of his views on his blog and on Facebook. Nabil’s lawyers have appealed his sentence and another military court will hear his appeal on November 1. On September 5, Morsy insisted that there were no cases regarding freedom of expression before the military courts, saying that Nabil was a case of “insulting the armed forces.”

Full article

Maybe the worst thing I've ever seen in a major newspaper

2011-09-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

This column. Make sure to read the last paragraph especially.

Why Are We In Haiti?

2011-09-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

An article on the Guardian's website asks this question after a video came to light that showed UN "peacekeeping forces" raping an 18 year old boy in Port Salut. The video is in the article, but I won't post it here. The soldiers are laughing throughout.

"The incident is likely to pour more gasoline on the fire of resentment that Haitians have for the UN troops who have occupied their country for more than seven years. There has been a dire pattern of abuses: in December 2007, more than 100 UN soldiers from Sri Lanka were deported under charges of sexual abuse of under-age girls. In 2005, UN troops went on the rampage in Cité Soleil, one of the poorest areas in Port-au-Prince, killing as many as 23 people, including children, according to witnesses. After the raid, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders reported: "On that day, we treated 27 people for gunshot wounds. Of them, around 20 were women under the age of 18."

"WikiLeaks cables released in the last week reveal that the Timothy Carney, representing the United States government as the top-ranking diplomat in Haiti in 2006, warned that such raids would "inevitably cause unintended civilian casualties given the crowded conditions and flimsy construction of tightly packed housing in Cité Soleil". But Washington – showing its lack of respect for human life in Haiti – offered no objections to further raids, which continued into 2006.

"And make no mistake about it: the UN occupation of Haiti is really a US occupation – it is no more a multilateral force than George W Bush's "coalition of the willing" that invaded Iraq. And it is hardly more legitimate, either: it was sent there in 2004 after a US-led effort toppled Haiti's democratically elected government. Far from providing security for Haitians in the aftermath of the coup, Minustah stood by while thousands of Haitians who had supported the elected government were killed, and officials of the constitutional government jailed. Recent WikiLeaks cables also confirm that the US government sees Minustah as an instrument of its policy there.

"This latest incident could shed some light on the nature of its mission, just as the photos from Abu Ghraib made plain for most of the world the brutality of the US occupation of Iraq. Images cannot be so easily dismissed or buried as words. And the images from this video are symbolic of what the "international community" has been doing to Haiti since the country won its independence from France in the world's first successful slave-led revolution.

"There is no legitimate reason for a military mission of the United Nations in Haiti. The country has no civil war, and is not the subject of a peace-keeping or post-conflict agreement. And the fact that UN troops are immune from prosecution or legal action in Haiti encourages abuses. The occupying troops don't speak the language either, which severely limits their capacity for any positive security role; can you imagine how effective a police force in Washington, DC would be if it spoke only Japanese?

"To make things even worse, it is now virtually certain that Minustah brought the cholera bacteria to Haiti that has killed more than 6,000 Haitians and infected more than 400,000 in the last 10 months. This was an act of gross negligence: there should have been supervision to make sure that fecal waste from UN troops was not dumped into the water supply, given the risks of such a deadly contamination and the known incapacity of Haiti's water, sanitation and public health system."

...

2011-08-30T10:00:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYl-2Wsvfrc&feature=related

2011-08-29T14:26:00.001-07:00

Schaefer had barely added the orange-and-yellow depiction of fire shooting from the roof of a Chase Bank branch when police rolled up to the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sylvan Street on July 30.

"They told me that somebody had called and said they felt threatened by my painting," Schaefer said.

"They said they had to find out my intention. They asked if I was a terrorist and was I going to follow through and do what I was painting."

No, Schaefer said. He explained that the artwork was intended to be a visual metaphor for the havoc that banking practices have caused to the economy.

A terrorist certainly would not spend hours on a public sidewalk creating an oil painting of his intended target, he told the officers.

The police took down his name, address and telephone number on a form — Schaefer declined to provide his Social Security number — and departed.

"They were friendly. They weren't intimidating," he said. "I figured that when they left, they probably decided the episode was stupid and they'd just wad up the form and throw it away."

Wrong. On Tuesday, two more officers showed up at Schaefer's home. This time they were plainclothes detectives.

"One of them asked me, 'Do you hate banks? Do you plan to do that to the bank?' " Schaefer again explained what his painting symbolizes.

He is actually doing a series of paintings depicting banks ablaze, he said. His first one two months ago featured a Burbank Chase branch, and he has a Bank of America painting in progress, he said. He will feature other large banks' branches as well; he does his own banking at a small community bank, Schaefer said.

"The flames symbolize bringing the system down," he said. "Some might say that the banks are the terrorists."
FULLSTORY

A Post Asking You To Give Money

2011-08-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

Not going to happen ever again, probs, this place has been important to me and many other Olympians, so I wanted to post about it. Plus Jessie already posted a Kickstarter for the Che, so fair game. This venue is called the Northern, and it is in Olympia, WA. In addition to being a venue it is also a gallery space. They have amazing all-ages shows there, and the only other venue for all-ages shows in Olympia is houses, so it's important. Two of the best shows I have seen in my entire life so far have been there. Their building just got bought and they got kicked out by the new owner, and need some money for a deposit on a new location. Give them your money please, if you have it to spare.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/northern/relocating-northern-the-olympia-all-ages-project

2011-08-28T15:49:00.001-07:00

bay area

2011-08-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

The Revolution Will Be Liveblogged

2011-08-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

A typically great article by Glenn Greenwald went up on Salon today in which he discusses the government's efforts to control the flow of information on the internet. As Glenn has said many times before:

"The free flow of information and communications enabled by new technologies -- as protest movements in the Middle East and a wave of serious leaks over the last year have demonstrated -- is a uniquely potent weapon in challenging entrenched government power and other powerful factions."

Worth excerpting here are two things. First, this:

"Earlier this week, when San Francisco residents gathered in the BART subway system to protest the shooting by BART police of a 45-year-old man, city officials shut down underground cell phone service entirely for hours; that, in turn, led to hacking reprisals against BART by the hacker collective known as "Anonymous." As the San-Fransisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation put it on its website: "BART officials are showing themselves to be of a mind with the former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak." Those efforts in Britain and San Fransisco are obviously not yet on the same scale as those in other places, but it illustrates how authorities react to social disorder: with an instinctive desire to control communication technologies and the flow of information."

And also this:

"It is not hard to understand why the fears driving these actions are particularly acute now. The last year has seen an incredible amount of social upheaval, not just in the Arab world but increasingly in the West. The Guardian today documented the significant role which poverty and opportunity deprivation played in the British riots. Austerity misery -- coming soon to the U.S. -- hassparked serious upheavals in numerous Western nations. Even if one takes as pessimistic a view as possible of an apathetic, meek, complacent American populace, it's simply inevitable that some similar form of disorder is in the U.S.'s future as well."

"The intensely angry "town hall" political protests from last August, though wildly misdirected at health care reform, gave a glimpse of the brewing societal anger and economic anxiety; even Tea Party politicians are now being angrily harangued by furious citizens over growing joblessness and loss of opportunity as Wall Street prospers and Endless Wars continue. This situation -- exploding wealth inequality combined with harsh austerity, little hope for improvement and a growing sense of irreversible national decline -- cannot possibly be sustained for long without some serious social unrest."

"Economic suffering and anxiety -- and anger over it and the flamboyant prosperity of the elites who caused it -- is only going to worsen. So, too, will the refusal of the Western citizenry to meekly accept their predicament. As that happens, who it is who controls the Internet and the flow of information and communications takes on greater importance. Those who are devoted to preserving the current system of prerogatives certainly know that, and that is what explains this obsession with expanding the Surveillance State and secrecy powers, maintaining control over the dissemination of information, and harshly punishing those who threaten it. That's also why there are few conflicts, if there are any, of greater import than this one. "

2011-08-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

"They called it a riot in Newark, when the people arose as one
In Detroit and Boston and Cleveland and Watts they fought back with firebombs and guns.
'What's the matter with these n*ggers?' they said. 'They seem to be going wild!
All of this fuss over one incident - a policeman killing a child?
And why are they burning and looting the stores? The merchant has been their friend!
Well, maybe he cheated for a few cents, every now and then.
And what about the tenements they're burning down in the slums?
Some dog they call a slumlord is losing his income!'
What a scare they received when the brothers said, 'No, let's not burn the ghettos down,
We'll break up in groups and firebomb and loot on the opposite side of town!'
So then they called in their army, machine guns, and tanks and ordered them to attack
The people arose together as one and used what they had to fight back
And now that's it happened, the question arise: why all the fury and fuss?
If they look over their past and examine their deeds, they'll know what's the matter with us.
When will the promises be fulfilled that they've made to us over the years?
Where's the pay we have not received for our blood and sweat and tears?
Where's the employment that we need, the decent salary?
The welfare payments will not do to feed a family.
They say conditions are this way because we don't have skills
But instead they offer us extermination pills.
So we sound a warning - they'd better change their tune,
They don't have long to make things right; they better do something soon!
Their law enforcement will not work, whatever they conspire
Will only serve to make us strong - we will fight fire with fire.
No, that was not a riot that they saw down in the slums,
That was a dress rehearsal for things that's yet to come."

- The Last Poets, "Black Soldier"

http://socialistworker.org/2011/08/12/urban-revolts-and-social-change

"Violence allows those who feel powerless to gain a sense of empowerment. Looting allows people who feel betrayed by the system to seize a bit back. A provocation (stories of police killing an innocent child or man from the neighborhood) can unleash a firestorm of protest, and a weak police response can encourage people to indulge their desires to ‘strike back’ against the system, unleashing wave after wave of opportunistic looting and destruction (something similar also occurred in the banlieu riots in the immigrant suburbs of Paris in 2005.)

"Oddly, such destructive riots are more likely in democracies, if people feel they have no chance to gain within the system, or to change it. Where people are fighting to gain democracy (as in the Middle East) they are more likely to act in a way that helps them gain support and appear deserving and capable of self-government. But where people live in a democracy, and feel that democracy is doing nothing for them, or is being manipulated and tilted against, them, they may well rage. And when the ‘state’ in the person of police, which is supposed to protect them, instead kills one of their own, that is just the kind of action that justifies retribution against the existing order.

...

"Today, Harold Myerson reported in the Washington Post that Senate Republican Whip and GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander have 'no appetite for extending either the payroll tax [reduction] or the unemployment benefits.' What that means, even though few people seem to realize it, is that Republicans want to impose a $1 trillion dollar tax increase over the next ten years on EVERY AMERICAN earning $100,000 or less, while continuing $400 billion in tax breaks on American households earning more than $250,000 per year (see my post 'The Republicans’ Trillion Dollar Tax Increase'). AND they want to cut the last supports of long-term unemployment insurance out from under those unable to find jobs....

"At some point, if this continues and Obama is stymied in his efforts to continue payroll tax cuts and extend unemployment benefits, rage at this injustice will grow. It will be directed against those who stopped Obama, but more generally against ‘the system.’ It will break out after some striking provocation, but will continue in a fury of destruction."

http://newpopulationbomb.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/london-is-burning-will-new-york-or-l-a/

2SOON

2011-08-15T17:00:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDSLFovtMCw

2011-08-13T14:35:00.001-07:00

2011-08-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Why am I surprised that these young people behave destructively, "mindlessly," motivated only by self-interest? How should we describe the actions of the city bankers who brought our economy to its knees in 2010? Altruistic? Mindful? Kind? But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that's why not one of them has been imprisoned. And they got away with a lot more than a few fucking pairs of trainers.

These young people have no sense of community because they haven't been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron's mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there's no such thing.

- Russell Brand

VERY GOOD ANALYSIS OF THE WHOLE DOWNGRADING THING/ A VERY GOOD RESPONSE TO A SHITTY "JOURNALIST"

2011-08-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show - Rise of the Planet of the AAs
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

I used all caps in the headline just because it was fun and no one reads this blog anyways so what the hell, fyi.

So, these riots are a very hard thing to get a grasp on? Because, on the one hand, I really, viscerally like watching a major city burn! It gets my blood pumping in a way I didn't know it could pump anymore (mid-20's people problems). This is the dominant thing that I am feeling about this whole situation. THEN AGAIN, these don't seem to be even remotely directed attacks?

I'm certainly not going to pretend to know anything about the political climate in the UK, but maybe someone else has heard or read something illuminating on this subject they could steer me towards?

Let's Stop Pretending

2011-08-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

"Obama is not a flaccid Jimmy Carter, as some of his critics insist. He is instead a Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- but a bizarro FDR. He has mustered the legislative strength of his New Deal predecessor -- but he has channeled that strength into propping up the very forces of "organized money" that FDR once challenged.

On healthcare, for instance, Obama passed a Heritage Foundation-inspired bailout of the private health insurance industry, all while undermining other more-progressive proposals. On foreign policy, he escalated old wars and initiated new ones. On civil liberties, he not only continued the Patriot Act and indefinite detention of terrorism suspects but also claimed the right to assassinate American citizens without charge.

On financial issues, he fought off every serious proposal to reregulate banks following the economic meltdown; he preserved ongoing bank bailouts; and he resisted pressure to prosecute Wall Street thieves. On fiscal matters, after extending the Bush tax cuts at a time of massive deficits, he has used the debt ceiling negotiations to set the stage for potentially massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare -- cuts that would be far bigger than any of his proposed revenue increases.

As hideous and destructive as it is, this record is anything but weak. It is, on the contrary, demonstrable proof of Obama's impressive political muscle, especially because polls show he has achieved these goals despite the large majority of Americans who oppose them."

Full Article

DO IT DO WITT

2011-08-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

There is no reason that any of you should not contribute to this:

http://checafebenefit.tumblr.com/

See Any Trends?

2011-08-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

You could almost replace the green with blue and it would be a voting map. Read about it, if you want. The most important thing here, of course, is this latest piece of an already significant body of evidence that Washington > Oregon. Suck it, Oregon.

More Of The Same

2011-08-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here's today's Democracy Now, where Amy Goodman has some people on to talk about how shitty this "deal" is:

They get into it at around the 12 minute mark, after the headlines.

Hot Damn!

2011-08-02T00:16:00.000-07:00

As I have said on this blog before, I am hot as fuck for Keith Olbermann's prose and delivery. Here's his "Special Comment" on the debt ceiling deal, with an incredibly rousing call to arms in the second half (too bad no one watches Current TV, right? Do people watch Current TV?):

Another thing that struck me from tonight's episode of Countdown was the statement made by Al Gore that over 75% of political campaign expenditures go towards 30 second TV ads. Really? I get "Middle America" and how they don't know how to use the internet or read there but, come on, who really decides on the candidate they're going to vote for based on a 30 second TV ad? Especially for fucking PRESIDENT. But, then again, as we continue to see, some people in this country are stupider than we could ever imagine. This is a place where nothing gets better anymore, it just gets more morbidly humorous, at best.

Another Win For Exploitation and Idiocy

2011-08-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of the deal made to raise the debt ceiling (hint: it involves cutting up to 2.2 trillion dollars in spending with NO new revenue coming in), here's Paul Krugman on how fucked up this really is (he sees it as the worst "compromise" Obama has made yet, by far), and here's why I put the word compromise in scare quotes.

From Krugman today:

"Make no mistake about it, what we’re witnessing here is a catastrophe on multiple levels.

"It is, of course, a political catastrophe for Democrats, who just a few weeks ago seemed to have Republicans on the run over their plan to dismantle Medicare; now Mr. Obama has thrown all that away. And the damage isn’t over: there will be more choke points where Republicans can threaten to create a crisis unless the president surrenders, and they can now act with the confident expectation that he will.

"In the long run, however, Democrats won’t be the only losers. What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question. After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t."

The Icelandic Phallological Museum!

2011-07-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

Go get poked I mean poke around.

JIHADI RETROCAUSALITY

2011-07-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

"The punditocracy knew who was responsible. It wasn’t pretty to see the righteous certainties of Islamic savagery crumble in the face of mere truth. The efforts to continue to apportion blame where all blame must lie have been fervent but disappointing. The attempt to defend Breivik as a paladin of The West displays a regrettable lack of savoir faire: one may indulge such strategies, but one does not speak of it at table. Insinuations that multiculturalism is to blame feel a little oblique. Insistences that yeah but still Islam is the enemy have the whiff of fire-fighting.

We’ve come to a pretty pass if court experts are going to allow bagatelles like irrefutable proof that they are talking bullshit to undermine the baiting on which their livelihoods depend. Fortunately, we can build on by far the most ambitious of the rhetorical strategies deployed in rearguard defence against the terrorist’s white Christianness: the impressively ex nihilo insistence that the Muslim-hating fascist learned his craft from Muslims, ‘adopted the language’ of jihad. In fact the perfidy is worse even than that.

Avant-garde physics is open to the idea that the future can affect the past. It is not disputed that Breivik technically did it: the question, surely, is who is going to have made him do it?

Europe awake. Yestermorrow there will was be going to have been Jihadi retrocausality to contend with."

-respectfully lifted from China Mieville's Rejectamentalist Manifesto

Capital Punishments

2011-07-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

Oh, and below is a slide show of the prison where Anders Breivik (killer of 90+ people) is staying for 21 years.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1989083_2137368,00.html

Paperback vs. Hardcover, Plus Deception

2011-07-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

Cool article from the NY Times on publishers releasing paperbacks sooner after the hardcover editions are released, tying it to the rise of e-books, which are closer to paperback prices and are easier to carry around than a large hardcover book. Personally, I take this as fantastic news. I hate hardcover books and the prices that come with them (And the jackets? Ugh.), and I look forward to the day when I won't have to wait a year or more to read a book that's already out. I also just got a Kindle for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and it's not as unpleasant of a reading experience as I thought, though it certainly doesn't challenge my preference for the paperback.

Also, the picture they use for the article (above) is from one of my top 5 favorite bookstores in the world, Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle. Stop by if you're in Capitol Hill, it's a gem. I'm also reading one of the books on that table right now. Cool, right?

Similarly, this article on Salon about the fact that everything we hear these days about Al Qaeda and Bin Laden's death comes from "unnamed government sources" (a tendency Glenn Greenwald has bemoaned at great length), and how that leaves us more or less in the dark where the truth is concerned is well worth reading.

The Nadir of Food Marketing

2011-07-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

ORGANIC WATER!!!!!!!

Even inorganic compounds can now be called organic. There is no possible direction to go from here but up, right? Can we just press the delete button on this whole "marketing" thing now?

2011-07-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

2011-07-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

This Is How Corporations Work

2011-07-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Remember the gulf oil spill? Things like that tend to be forgotten rather quickly these days if they aren't periodically shoved back in our faces, which, given the predominance of sensational headline chasing over in-depth reporting in the media landscape, tends to come from alternative media outlets much more frequently than traditional ones (Thanks, Harry Shearer and David Simon). Or maybe you do remember, thanks to those BP commercials that emphasize how, thanks to their help, the gulf economy is back "stronger than ever."

Right now, according to the New York Times, the tourist-backed economy in the region is indeed pretty strong. Which turns out to be bad news, because BP is now attempting to back out of the remainder of their reparation payments to families and businesses in the region, citing one strong tourist season as definite proof that things are all totally better foreversies. Who says you can't trust corporations to do the right thing without any sort of oversight?

Am I naive for thinking that this is shocking? It has been barely over a motherfucking year, and BP thinks that public opinion is sufficiently tilted back in their favor that it will be totally cool if they cut and run on what is indisputably their responsibility? This is disgusting.

From the article:

"BP has been arguing that this “future factor” is too generous. That argument is revisited in its 29-page filing, pointing out the strong revenue figures for lodging in coastal tourism areas in the fall and spring, most surpassing figures from comparable times in 2009 and early 2010.

"BP makes the same argument in regard to the strong performance of much of the seafood industry, though the filing devotes less attention to it — possibly because unresolved questions about the long-term ecological effects of the spill, as well as a lingering nationwide skepticism about gulf seafood, have made its recovery more debatable."

"While initial BP payments and a strong fall and winter helped, some business owners are still carrying around bad credit ratings from those lean days, or paying off loans, or working under franchise agreements that were renegotiated to their disadvantage."

"It was the topic of another document sent out last week, this one to state and local officials from the command center of the spill cleanup operation in New Orleans. It is a draft version of a “decision matrix,” a list of several factors to consider in deciding when and when not to remove submerged mats of oil that are still being found, some even in recent days, sitting just offshore.

"The prospect of not removing a mat for just about any reason is unacceptable to Taylor Kirschenfeld, an environmental officer for Escambia County, Fla. If a tropical storm or hurricane comes through and whips up those mats, sending tar patties onto the beach, 'it could be the whole thing all over again.'

"Thus the gamble that really keeps business owners here on edge: if this happened, it could be devastating, and a business’s final settlement with BP might fall far short."

shit

2011-07-13T19:06:00.001-07:00

FLICK

2011-07-05T22:41:00.000-07:00

I found out about Flick back in November when Cults opened for Best Coast at Georgetown University. The Georgetown radio station doesn’t play vinyl anymore so they said that we could dig through their collection and take whatever we wanted. In the fit of drunken excitement, I grabbed the first stack of singles within reach. On top of the stack was a single called “The End” by Flick. I had never heard of Flick before but judging by the ’90s style black and white press shot on the back, I had a feeling that I would really dig it. After just a few listens I was hooked. There’s not much information available about Flick but you can still download their debut album “The Perfect Kellulight” from iTunes. Below is their press kit.

2011-07-04T13:30:00.001-07:00

2011-07-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Good news, indeed

2011-06-26T19:32:00.001-07:00

Good News!

2011-06-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Gay marriage is now legal in my soon-to-be home state! Of course, I am not gay and believe marriage to be the silliest of social institutions, so the impact of this decision on me is negligible. But this is the rare thing in this world that is not about me! And as it concerns the promotion of social equality, this is GREAT!

Also, Keith Olbermann is back! I find him and his program, first on MSNBC and now on Current, whatever that is (Al Gore something liberal something), to be utterly compelling. Even if I don't always agree with the content of what he is saying (and I agree with the content of what he says more often than anyone else with a comparably large platform), the way he says it is so irresistibly poetic that it is great to listen to anyways. Here is Keith on this story:

Cold Summer

2011-06-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

Ya, I finally finished reading The God Delusion and, ya, it took me a while to get through it. So what? I'd say I'm a pretty fucking fluent when it comes to reading, but this book forced me (my brain, mostly) to truly comprehend what Dawkins was writing, sentence by sentence. Nonetheless, I recommend all to give it a read if you haven't already.

I know O'Reilly is an easy target for any debate, but I found the following bit nonetheless amusing:

Wow!

2011-06-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

So, I posted an interview of Jon Stewart on Chris Wallace's show on the network that shall not be named (Harry Potter, nerds), on a day that I will tentatively call yesterday. It was kind of weird, and didn't make a lot of sense, but there were a couple of points that Jon Stewart made well, and others he didn't, like always. HOWEVER, I just now saw the unedited version of the interview, and, guess what? It makes so much more sense! It is a good reminder of two things:

1) Fox News is straight-up, hardcore propaganda.

2) They are bad at that job! The propaganda at Fox News is so thoroughly cheap and unconvincing that it could not possibly exist and be successful in any comparably socially-advanced nation in the world. Politically conservative Americans should be alerted to this fact more than any other. Heads up, Red-heads! Fox News thinks you are all a bunch of dummies, and watching their network only proves the theory!

(Side note: It just dawned on me that the color of the Republican party in this country is red. Irony!)

Unedited interview:

Last Bit Of Weiner

2011-06-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I'm less interested in the partisan aspects of this scandal than the media angle, because the fact that partisan politics have reached a fever pitch, and that Republicans are better at playing the game, is old news and boring. But the way this played out in the media was utterly fascinating to me, for some of the reasons Maddow points out in the above video. I don't believe that this was the intent, but the crass questions that that ambassador of Howard Stern's was shouting out were as perfect as they were inappropriate, precisely because they gave direct voice to the subtext of the entire line of questioning throughout this absurd spectacle, and revealed that spectacle itself to be wholly inappropriate.

Honestly, can anyone watch the video and listen to the questions being asked of Anthony Weiner and feel anything but sympathy for him and revulsion at the members of the media present? Do they feel proud of themselves now that they have successfully shamed and destroyed the career of a man who was "guilty" of engaging fully legal, commonplace, and nonsexual activity? Are they themselves capable of feeling shame or hypocrisy?

A lot of the criticism with pretensions toward enlightened understanding claims to be unconcerned with the lascivious acts and more troubled by the fact that he initially lied about those acts. But is there any more harmless, understandable form of lying? Weiner lied to save himself and those close to him embarrassment. How does that at all reflect on him as a politician? It only means he is a human being, with normal human responses.

Even worse is the criticism coming from those who audaciously claim to be offended for the sake of Weiner's wife, as if they have any idea what she knew about this beforehand, how she feels about it, or what their marital agreement entails. The people giving voice to this opinion, who pursued Weiner and put pressure on him to resign on these grounds, were so obviously acting directly and unambiguously against anyone close to Anthony Weiner, as, if they were really concerned for the wellbeing of his wife, the kindest thing to do would clearly have been to stop talking about this whole mess and let it be what it indisputably should: a private matter.

This whole thing proves a point Jon Stewart made well on Fox News this morning: the so-called liberal bias of the mainstream media does not actually exist. Rather, the media is heavily biased towards sensationalism and laziness.

FRIED CEREAL anyone?

2011-06-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

SICK BROTHER

2011-06-18T03:27:00.001-07:00

sick bro.

2011-06-17T19:42:00.001-07:00

Michelle Bachmann: Candidate For President

2011-06-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

"Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

"I was wondering, if most employers are already doing this anyway, isn’t minimum wage really just superfluous? Why do we even have one?"

"If raising the minimum wage to $7.00 an hour is a good idea, that why dont we just raise it to $20.00 an hour, that must be even better."

"If we allow businesses to be prosperous and accrue capital, they’ll be giving their employees more than they can even begin to imagine. But when we continue to tie cement blocks on businesses (like the minimum wage) and constrain them, they can actually do less than their employees."

"No one that I know disagrees with natural selection — that you can take various breeds of dogs ... breed them, you get different kinds of dogs," she said. "It's just a fact of life. ... Where there's controversy is (at the question) 'Where do we say that a cell became a blade of grass, which became a starfish, which became a cat, which became a donkey, which became a human being?' There’s a real lack of evidence from change from actual species to a different type of species. That's where it's difficult to prove."

"I had high heels on and I just couldn't stand anymore. I was not in the bushes."

"Many teenagers that come in should be paying the employer because of broken dishes or whatever occurs during that period of time. But you know what? After six months, that teenager is going to be a fabulous employee and is going to go on a trajectory where he's going to be making so much money, we'll be borrowing money from him."

In Case You Don't Watch Parks & Rec

2011-06-16T15:31:00.001-07:00

Ron Swanson is a very funny character. Parks and Recreation is a pretty good sitcom. Community and 30 Rock are better.

YIIIIKES

2011-06-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

As if we needed another reason to be paranoid:

"A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

"Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.

"In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful."

(via NYT)

This is particularly scary since I also write critical things about the administration on a VERY influential blog. Jk, lol. But seriously, as we get further away from the Bush Administration (in time, not policy) it just keeps looking worse, as is to be expected. The sheer number of our most important laws and checks that were blatantly disregarded is utterly massive, and the fact that none of them are being prosecuted or even given much attention in mainstream venues should answer any lingering questions over whether the rule of law is anything but empty rhetoric. When they are brought to light, it is in lightly worded pieces like this one, constructed in a way that leaves you inclined to shake you head and hiss a couple of tsks before taking another bite of your doughnut and throwing the paper away when you go back to work. No one cares anymore. The very concept of the rule of law is now an antiquated relic of a bygone era, deemed not fit for the "challenges of the 21st century." But, you know, the Bible is still a reliable moral compass.

In other news that I was just alerted to, the War on Drugs turns 40 this year! That's pretty old! It should get cancer or something!

we made a puppet show

2011-06-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

this is episode 3

Just the Best Sloth Video Ever

2011-06-11T19:55:00.001-07:00

Meet the sloths from Lucy Cooke on Vimeo.

Why Are We Still In Libya?

2011-06-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

This, maybe?

The relationship between Gaddafi and the U.S. oil industry as a whole was odd. In 2004, President George W. Bush unexpectedly lifted economic sanctions on Libya in return for its renunciation of nuclear weapons and terrorism. There was a burst of optimism among American oil executives eager to return to the Libyan oil fields they had been forced to abandon two decades earlier. . . .

Yet even before armed conflict drove the U.S. companies out of Libya this year, their relations with Gaddafi had soured. The Libyan leader demanded tough contract terms. He sought big bonus payments up front. Moreover, upset that he was not getting more U.S. government respect and recognition for his earlier concessions, he pressured the oil companies to influence U.S. policies. . . .

When Gaddafi made his deal with Bush in 2004, he had hoped that returning foreign oil companies would help boost Libya’s output . . . The U.S. government also encouraged American oil companies to go back to Libya. . . .

The companies needed little encouragement. Libya has some of the biggest and most proven oil reserves -- 43.6 billion barrels -- outside Saudi Arabia, and some of the best drilling prospects. . . . Throughout this time, oil prices kept rising, whetting the appetite for greater supplies of Libya's unusually "sweet" and "light," or high-quality, crude oil.

By the time Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited in 2008, U.S. joint ventures accounted for 510,000 of Libya's 1.7 million barrels a day of production, a State Department cable said. . . .

But all was not well. By November 2007, a State Department cable noted "growing evidence of Libyan resource nationalism." It noted that in his 2006 speech marking the founding of his regime, Gaddafi said: "Oil companies are controlled by foreigners who have made millions from them. Now, Libyans must take their place to profit from this money." His son made similar remarks in 2007.

Oil companies had been forced to give their local subsidiaries Libyan names, the cable said. . . .

via Washington Post and Glenn Greenwald

Or maybe, as was the obvious case in Iraq which no one could ever possibly question, we're staying and waging war (illegally) solely to fight for the dignity of Libyan women? President Obama sure is quiet these days. Luckily everyone is nice and distracted by Anthony Weiner's penis.

See this movie...

2011-06-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

...and then we'll talk.

Just a Very Good Essay

2011-06-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

First, there was a very bad essay written in the Wall Street Journal about Young Adult Lit being "too dark" these days, which proves that the Wall Street Journal should probably just steer clear of writing about literature.

In response, Sherman Alexie wrote a defense of exactly this type of literature that the writer for WSJ so loathes and Alexie himself writes very well. It is one of the best essays in defense of a genre of literature I have ever read. Here's a taste:

"So when I read Meghan Cox Gurdon’s complaints about the “depravity” and “hideously distorted portrayals” of contemporary young adult literature, I laughed at her condescension.

"Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life has been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?"

"When some cultural critics fret about the “ever-more-appalling” YA books, they aren’t trying to protect African-American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their way into school. Or Mexican-American teens enduring the culturally schizophrenic life of being American citizens and the children of illegal immigrants. Or Native American teens growing up on Third World reservations. Or poor white kids trying to survive the meth-hazed trailer parks. They aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists.

No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children."

In other words: Go back to eating cake and leave the rest of us alone.

I Wish This Was My Movie Theater

2011-06-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

Poor Weiner

2011-06-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

World's best sex advice columnist and secularly sainted progenitor of the amazing It Gets Better Project, which serves as a positive referendum on the value of the entire internet, singlehandedly canceling out hundreds of celebrity gossip sites and right-wing blogs to bring the scales closer to balanced (though this obviously does more than any noble cause ever could in that respect), shares his very good thoughts on the scandal currently swirling like a tornado around Rep. Anthony Weiner.

To paraphrase his thoughts and mine: Who the fuck cares? Yeah, it was stupid of him to mistakenly tweet a picture of his semi-erect but nonetheless underwear-bound junk publicly instead of privately, but in a political world with its priorities this out of wack - where things like politicians engaging in clandestine internet flirtations and whatever stupid thing fell out of Sarah Palin's mouth this week are treated with more importance than things like the illegal war currently being conducted or the ever-worsening record of the Obama administration on civil liberties and the defense thereof (though this is heartening) - the real import of these things and the amount of coverage that they get are wildly disparate. It's just a real shame that this is most likely going to end Weiner's chances of being mayor of New York City. I would have voted for him.

While we're on the topic of Dan Savage related things, have you ever wondered if you are a sociopath, or are otherwise incapable of feeling? Your reaction to this video should provide a somewhat conclusive answer:

Cake Police 3.0

2011-06-03T19:30:00.001-07:00

I went ahead and skipped 2.0 to make this next-level internet hotspot

gif attack

2011-06-02T11:37:00.001-07:00

2011-06-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

How Do You Beat a Democrat Who Looks Unbeatable?

2011-05-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Take a page out of the sacred text of electioneering, the 2000 presidential heist in Florida. Namely, make sure as few minorities are allowed access to their constitutional right to vote as possible. From the NYT:

"Less than 18 months before the next presidential election, Republican-controlled statehouses around the country are rewriting voting laws to require photo identification at the polls, reduce the number of days of early voting or tighten registration rules.

"Republican legislators say the new rules, which have advanced in 13 states in the past two months, offer a practical way to weed out fraudulent votes and preserve the integrity of the ballot box. Democrats say the changes have little to do with fraud prevention and more to do with placing obstacles in the way of possible Democratic voters, including young people and minorities."

"The battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania are among those moving ahead on voter ID bills, part of a trend that seems likely to intensify the kind of pitched partisan jousting over voting that has cropped up in recent presidential races."

"Democrats, who point to scant evidence of voter-impersonation fraud, say the unified Republican push for photo identification cards carries echoes of the Jim Crow laws — with their poll taxes and literacy tests — that inhibited black voters in the South from Reconstruction through the 1960s. Election experts say minorities, poor people and students — who tend to skew Democratic — are among those least likely to have valid driver’s licenses, the most prevalent form of identification. Older people, another group less likely to have licenses, are swing voters."

“'Over the last 20 years, we have seen Florida grow quite rapidly, and we have such a mix of populations,” said State Representative Dennis K. Baxley, the Florida Republican who wrote the law to tighten third-party registration here. “When we fail to protect every ballot, we disenfranchise people who participate legitimately.'”

There are a couple of things to note in the text above. First, the NYT's use of the phrase "partisan jousting over voting," which comes across unbelievably casually. Because, you know, the power wielders in DC are just playing a little game with the single most important remnant of our democracy, as they will. No biggie? Reading the NYT makes me feel increasingly dirty these days.

And then, of course, that last sentence. Protect every ballot from what? Voter fraud? Never mind that the only significant case of that in recent history came about as a result of exactly this type of measure, and that there is absolutely no need for Democrats to fudge the numbers on this one, even if they were so inclined. I mean, look, I've voiced many concerns with Barack Obama the President on this space, but you should definitely vote for him if you vote next year. Democratic administrations tend to do much better in their second terms (when reelection isn't priority #1, and they start thinking about their "legacy" instead), and he's sure as hell better than any potential Republican candidate for office. But, while you should still vote, I wouldn't get too stressed out this time around. He's going to win.

As for the second part of the sentence, well, this is just classic Republican bullshit, echoing the official conservative line over every fight for minority rights in this country's history. That when they (the LGBT community, racial minorities, women, etc. etc.) can do what we (white, male, rich, undeniably enfranchised folk) can do, that makes us slightly less special little snowflakes, and I DON'T LIKE IT! (For further reading on this subject, see this absolutely disgusting piece by hack extraordinaire David Brooks)

Lest I bury the lede, I should close with this: Take a valid form of picture ID (drivers license, passport, or a standard ID you can get at the DMV) to the polls in 2012, and tell your family and friends to do the same.

2011-05-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

He's Dead Now; It's Sad

2011-05-28T09:17:00.001-07:00

here we go! WAAAHOOO!

2011-05-26T21:30:00.001-07:00

couldnt finish watching

2011-05-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yep.

2011-05-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

This is just a very informative video.

Hope you learned something, kids!

RIP Oprah's TV Show

2011-05-25T19:12:00.000-07:00

2011-05-25T08:58:00.001-07:00

Apocalypse Watch: Kind Of Just Everything

2011-05-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

Bill McKibben on the recent pattern of storms that of course isn't really a pattern because if it were we might actually have to confront some cultural issues that deal with our own patterns of consumption and God forbid maybe even cut back on some of the shit that amounts to what we call standard of living:

"Caution: It is vitally important not to make connections. When you see pictures of rubble like this week's shots from Joplin, Mo., you should not wonder: Is this somehow related to the tornado outbreak three weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala., or the enormous outbreak a couple of weeks before that (which, together, comprised the most active April for tornadoes in U.S. history). No, that doesn't mean a thing.

"It is far better to think of these as isolated, unpredictable, discrete events. It is not advisable to try to connect them in your mind with, say, the fires burning across Texas -- fires that have burned more of America at this point this year than any wildfires have in previous years. Texas, and adjoining parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico, are drier than they've ever been -- the drought is worse than that of the Dust Bowl. But do not wonder if they're somehow connected.

"If you did wonder, you see, you would also have to wonder about whether this year's record snowfalls and rainfalls across the Midwest -- resulting in record flooding along the Mississippi -- could somehow be related. And then you might find your thoughts wandering to, oh, global warming, and to the fact that climatologists have been predicting for years that as we flood the atmosphere with carbon we will also start both drying and flooding the planet, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold air."

More like this here. Also, you should read Bill McKibben's books. They are great.

Another Movie Rec

2011-05-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

This isn't out here in the States yet, but it will be next weekend. I saw it earlier this week in Paris, and it is a masterpiece. I have said that of two other Malick films in the past, but this is the new bar. It is by far his most experimental and ambitious film. It tells the story of a family in a small town in Texas and the story of the history of the cosmos. It will most likely resonate strongly with you if you grew up with siblings, or parents, or if you are a human. Sean Penn is barely in it. Brad Pitt is in it quite a bit, and the physicality of his performance is terrific. There are dinosaurs.

See this movie in theaters.

2011-05-19T22:14:00.001-07:00

2011-05-19T22:11:00.001-07:00

2011-05-19T22:05:00.001-07:00

uhh..

2011-05-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

a great resource

2011-05-19T09:58:00.001-07:00

fuck it. be a link

2011-05-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxJ-oCzGQAM

insert your own zelda thing

text guy

i still don't get this shit

2011-05-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE
http://youtu.be/OKw5e-OqJPE

NO SNARK

2011-05-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

i'm sorry i haven't posted in a while. i'm busier than you. no really. no matter how hard your job is that requires you to do that thing that you just can't stand. i work harder and i make more money than you. and i'm poor still because of creative ambitions.

i think therefore i am..... poor.

don't be a piece of shit. work for what you want, you fucking fruit booter

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

2011-05-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

This documentary

If you have a Karagarga account, it's on there.

SFist

2011-05-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

the internet: a retrospective

2011-05-10T23:58:00.000-07:00

Totally Predictable, Obscenely Noncontroversial

2011-05-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration has been hovering around this one for a while now, and obviously found their perfect moment to pull the trigger, literally. Glenn Greenwald on the newly emboldened Obama administration's assassination attempt this Friday, whose target was American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who, it should be noted, has never been accused of carrying out any acts of violence, but merely engaging in rhetoric that allegedly inspires people to carry out violent acts:

"The attack does not appear to have killed Mr. Awlaki, the officials said, but may have killed operatives of Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen. "

"The other people killed "may have" been Al Qaeda operatives. Or they "may not have" been. Who cares? They're mere collateral damage on the glorious road to ending the life of this American citizen without due process (and pointing out that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expressly guarantees that "no person shall be deprived of life without due process of law" -- and provides no exception for war -- is the sort of tedious legalism that shouldn't interfere with the excitement of drone strikes).

"There are certain civil liberties debates where, even though I hold strong opinions, I can at least understand the reasoning and impulses of those who disagree; the killing of bin Laden was one such instance. But the notion that the President has the power to order American citizens assassinated without an iota of due process -- far from any battlefield, not during combat -- is an idea so utterly foreign to me, so far beyond the bounds of what is reasonable, that it's hard to convey in words or treat with civility.

"How do you even engage someone in rational discussion who is willing to assume that their fellow citizen is guilty of being a Terrorist without seeing evidence for it, without having that evidence tested, without giving that citizen a chance to defend himself -- all because the President declares it to be so? "I know Awlaki, my fellow citizen, is a Terrorist and he deserves to die. Why? Because the President decreed that, and that's good enough for me. Trials are so pre-9/11." If someone is willing to dutifully click their heels and spout definitively authoritarian anthems like that, imagine how impervious to reason they are on these issues."

"What's most striking about this is how it relates to the controversies during the Bush years. One of the most strident attacks from the Democrats on Bush was that he wanted to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants. One of the first signs of Bush/Cheney radicalism was what they did to Jose Padilla: assert the power to imprison this American citizen without charges. Yet here you have Barack Obama asserting the power not to eavesdrop on Americans or detain them without charges -- but to target them for killing without charges -- and that, to many of his followers, is perfectly acceptable. It's a "horrific shredding of the Constitution" and an act of grave lawlessness for Bush to eavesdrop on or detain Americans without any due process; but it's an act of great nobility when Barack Obama ends their lives without any due process."

With regard to Greenwald's last point, I think there are two ways to interpret this (at least). The obvious one is that the vast majority of Democrats will support anything that is done by a Democratic president. This is a fact. A second point that Glenn fails to consider however is the "otherness" of Anwar al-Awlaki. Warrantless wiretapping is something that could happen to any American ("Hey, wait, that means me!"), and is therefore much more likely to incite widespread public outcry than an attempt on the life of someone with links to Al-Queda who preaches radical Islam and is named Anwar. Even after Barack Obama was elected President of this country there was/is a large faction that weren't even capable of accepting he was a fellow citizen.

My heart dropped as soon as I read the title to this post, as it confirms the fears Glenn laid out in his post I quoted here last week, fears I shared. Those who were writing in the wake of bin Laden's killing that this may signal the end of the War on Terror were being incredibly naive. What bin Laden's killing much more likely signified was the setting of a new precedent of what the president could get away with, or, optimistically, the establishment of "grace period" during which no patriotic US citizen will pay even the minimal amount of attention they're normally willing to begrudgingly give to US actions abroad because they don't want their buzz killed. And, as Glenn notes, if this is the new bar for what is acceptable, what could there possibly be that is not? The President sending American troops to war without Congressional approval? Oh, whoops. I forgot.