“ALL GOOD GOES BAD”
William Hrdina
Commentary about the lot scene at the All-Good Music Festival 2004 at Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown, West Virginia.
July 9-11, 2004 

  
                I could write exclusively about all the positive aspects of the 8th Annual All Good Music Festival because there were a bunch.  The grounds were beautiful- snuggled in the hills of West Virginia maybe 15 miles off the highway.  The weather, infamously terrible for the past seven years, decided to cooperate and it didn’t rain until late Sunday night.  The music was absolutely first-rate with Keller Williams, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Dark Star Orchestra, the Grey Boy All Stars, and a whole bunch more.  There was a Family area right next to the stage where people with children could camp without having to drag their toddlers a half-mile back and forth to the venue.  On Sunday afternoon, when it got hot, the organizers started selling water for a buck out of the concession stand- a rare show of kindness in our modern corporate wonderland.  All in all, I would say the organizers at Walther Productions did an absolutely fantastic job.
                But there’s another side to the story.  Dark and violent vibes were coursing under our feet, unseen until they lashed out in a single act of violence so heinous it put a pall not only over the festival, but my entire summer. 
                In the midst of what was otherwise a very enjoyable festival I had the dubious distinction of being an eye-witness to a very nasty pistol-whipping; possibly a murder.  I never got word if the kid who got hit died and I haven’t been able to find any mention of the incident in the papers.  I hope he’s OK, but I worked in an ICU for 3 years and if the kid can still spell his name I admit I’d be surprised. 
                Before you get feeling too sorry for this guy, you should know; he brought the gun he was pistol-whipped with.
                I was sitting on the side of the road, selling my sci-fi novel Portal when I saw six guys walking behind another guy who appeared to be completely alone.  It was immediately clear from everyone’s body language the six guys were pissed at the one guy, and the one guy, hunched over and walking fast- certainly wasn’t presenting himself as aggressive in any way.  My first reaction was “What are these assholes doing?”  My sympathy was with the guy walking alone.  Six against one isn’t a fair fight in anyone’s book.
                  Then I began to hear what the six guys were saying and my anger turned to confusion.
                “What the fuck are you doing with that gun on the lot man?”
                “No guns on lot.”
                “Why you got a gun motherfucker?”
                Around this time the kid was passed directly in front of me and I got a clear look into his pocket.  There really was a gun there.  The matte-black rubber handle stuck out just a little bit.  I remember thinking at the time, “I wonder what on earth possessed this guy to bring a gun to a show?”
                The kid with the gun looked really scared.  He kept repeating,  “Leave me alone.  I just want to leave.  I’m leaving.”
                Around this same time the language of the 6 increasingly frantic guys started to get a great deal more threatening.
                “Give up the gun asshole.”
                “Give us the gun motherfucker or we’re gonna kick the shit out of you.”
                That did it.  I knew at that moment something really savage was about to go down.  The worst thing you can do to an outnumbered guy with superior firepower is back him into a corner.  In another testament to the fact this kid wasn’t about starting a confrontation- he tried to run when the threats of violence started.  He didn’t make it far, the six guys chased him and before I could even turn around in my chair to see what was happening the 6 guys were kicking the hell out of the guy with the gun.  It was like Rodney King with feet instead of batons.    
                I clearly remember one guy yelling, “Someone take his gun.  Take his gun.”  He couldn’t take the gun himself because he was busy: kicking this kid in the head.
                By this point I wasn’t sure who I wanted to have the gun less, the kid, who was by himself; or these crazy-violent morons who seemed hell-bent on getting somebody shot in the name of not having weapons on the lot.  The irony was lost on me at the time.  I knew they should’ve done what I was trying to do in the midst of keeping a close eye on what was happening, they should’ve yelled for Security, or even been smarter and got security on the sly.  Instead they had to be heroes in their own puny minds and do the one thing that almost guaranteed something bad would happen.  In a lot of ways they were just reflecting our culture, aping George W. by overreacting to a perceived threat that didn’t really exist.  I don’t know the kid who had the gun, but from his demeanor and the way everything went down, I really doubt that stupid gun ever would’ve seen the light of day if those 6 guys would’ve used their heads.
                After about ten seconds of getting kicked the kid with the gun managed to get to his feet.  His face was a mixture of anger, pain, and most clearly, pure animal terror.   Predictably, he went into his pocket and pulled out the gun.  What happened next really shocked me.  In what would’ve been a neat trick under very different circumstances, the kid closest to the gun reached out and yanked it out of the other kid’s hand like he was stealing candy from a kid on Halloween.  You almost expected the guy to yell, “Yoink!”
                It could’ve been over then. 
                Instead, the new guy with the gun turned it around so that he was holding it by the cylinder.  He reached back behind his head and took a full swing at the newly disarmed guy’s head.  The gun made contact pretty much right between the kid’s eyes.  There was a corresponding crack/thud of metal on bone and blood began to flow.  The pistol whipped and the pistol whipper then ran off in opposite directions.  The entire incident took maybe 25-30 seconds from start to finish. 
                One minute I was having a very nice time, the next I was just happy to be walking away without any bullet holes in my body.  On the grand-scale of violence, what I saw at All Good wasn’t really that big a deal.  After all, no one was actually shot, so things went a lot better than one could’ve reasonably expected.  But that’s out in the world.  I wasn’t out in the world.  I was at a show.
                “We are,” as Jamie Masefield of the Jazz Mandolin Project said on the second day, “…like a secret society.  We come out to these places out in the hills and just do our thing and it’s the greatest thing in the world.”
                He’s right.  But, the problem is, the wrong sort of folks are starting to find out about the password into our post-modern version of the Masons.  They’re getting in with words like, “molly” and “coke” instead of Icculus or Gamehenge.   Music doesn’t have a thing to do with why the hard-drug dealers are at the shows.  They’re at the show to make a lot of money and that’s it.  Gang-style violence and bullshit is inevitably going to follow.  Once the first shooting happens, and we are on a definitive curve in that direction, it’s gonna be too late.  Frankly, I resent the fact I had to witness these morons and their bullshit.  I don’t particularly feel sorry for the kid with the gun- he shouldn’t of been carrying it, and even though I think they’re total morons- I don’t particularly blame the kid’s who tried to take the gun away.  If I was a complete imbecile I probably would’ve done the same thing.
                I don’t know why the kid brought the gun in the first place any more than I know how the six kids who beat the shit out of him found out he had the thing.  But I’ve thought about the entire incident a lot and I think I can make a pretty good guess.
                First, reasons the kid wouldn’t use for bringing the gun.  It wasn’t self defense.  If it was in any way reasonable to think you’d need a gun at a show this single act of violence wouldn’t be so shocking.  It wasn’t because the guy was some aggressive bad-ass who shot people for screwing up his order at the drive-through.  Those sorts of people don’t need to be kicked in the face to spur them into pulling out their pistol, and besides, he tried to run away; that’s just not what a bad-ass guy does.  
                Maybe the kid had a violent past and carried a gun out of a deep seated sense of paranoia.  Possible, but unlikely.  The most coherent reason a guy like the one I saw would carry a gun, is because he was dealing either Molly- so called molecular MDMA, cocaine, or heroin.  Most likely it was coke. Unlike pot or mushrooms, you can carry highly valuable amounts of the powder drugs in your shorts pocket.  Because hard drug dealers generally work on a fronted basis, if the drugs get taken from you, someone’s gonna want their money.  Thus, the gun.
                If the kid was, in fact, a dealer, it would also give a likely reason how the 6 guys found out about the gun.  Maybe they bought some weight and the kid accidentally showed the gun in the transaction.  Maybe one of their buddies saw it under the same conditions and passed the word along.
                Anyone who’s seen a few shows this summer has noticed the ridiculous increase in hard drugs on the lot.  I think it’s important to point out I’m not talking about pot or the hallucinogenic.  I’m talking about the narcotics and the bath-tub drugs.  I’ve even seen and heard an increase in “pharmies.”  Come on people, that’s Rush Limbaugh’s trip.  You want to do the drugs he does?
                Let me break it down for you: 
                Hard Drugs à Much Money
                Much Money àDrug Dealers who don’t give a flying hoo-hoo about music coming to our shows  
                {[(Drug Dealers) + (Much Money)] + Large Market of buyers} à  Pistol Whippings and mayhem
                Pistol Whipping and Mayhem à The death of the scene and nothing but Christina Aguilera on the radio to listen to.
                The solution?
                Don’t buy your hard drugs at shows.  If you have to do Coke, get it from your dealer at home.  It’s that simple.
                It’s like shopping at Wal-Mart. Sure it’s convenient, the prices may even be cheaper, but those benefits don’t come without a flip-side, and that flip-side is packing guns and acting like total morons.  Most importantly, that flip-side couldn’t give a shit less about the music, and when that crucial ingredient is missing, you get the Dead at Deer Creek in ’95.  You get the disaster that was Corporate Woodstock.  And in spite of a nearly perfect effort by the organizers and musicians at All Good, you get pistol-whippings and fights.
                We don’t need cops.  We don’t need anal searches or John Ashcroft.  This is a self-restraint issue.  The Lot is sacred, I know I’m not alone in feeling that my church and my God are best expressed in the music I see at shows and the kindness and coolness I see from people in the lot.  I don’t want to lose that to a bunch of strung out shitheads or the leeches who supply them.
                I’m not the only one who sees the dark clouds on the horizon.  In Trey’s “Why Phish is breaking up for good” interview with Charlie Rose the following exchange took place:
                CHARLIE ROSE: What do you regret about what Phish was and what it became and what it is, and if you look from the beginning to this last concert that will come up...
                TREY ANASTASIO: OK. Do you want my honest opinion about that? I think you do. I`ll tell you what I regret. What I regret is that -- I don`t regret it, but I feel like in the last couple of years it started to become an excuse for people to show up in a given town and party. And it never was that for such a long time.
                Our scene thrives because of the music not because of the drugs.  If you’re at a show to get loaded first and see a concert second, do me a favor- stay home.  You can watch the DVD and I don’t have to get shot. 
  
  
 

Almost, but not quite

Just moved and got my internet reconnnected, but now I'm going back out of town to the ALL GOOD festival in West Virgnia. Should be a real good time. Until then, go see Farenheit 9/11. Then go see it again. Kerry's gonna lose though, as much as I hate to say it. And if he does win, it's gonna be because of F9/11, not becuase of Kerry who chose putter-ass Edwards as VP. Rove is going Edwards an ambulance chaser a million times. Plus, I'm signed up for Kerry's "newsletter" and all I get is anti-Bush stuff and endless begging for money. (2 to 1 in favor of money grubbing) I can't tell you anything about what KERRY is going to do. Which is nothing. I saw him giving a speech saying he was going to create jobs that paid as much as the ones that were sent to mexico. Kerry voted for the damn NAFTA bill. The WTO too, and Iraq, and the Patriot Act, and on and on. So screw him. I'll probably vote for the prick, but don't even try to make me feel good about it.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES
October 15, 1982
The Briefing Room
12:45pm EDT

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement - the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Q: No, I don't.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President -

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.

Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any -

Q: Nobody knows?

MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping - MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no - (laughter) - no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.

Q: Didn't say that?

MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)

Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)

MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)

Q: Oh, I retract that.

MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.

Q: It's too late.

From Prorev

Sorry.

I know my blogging has been atrocious. I apologize. I'm pretty much going to be on the road for the rest of this month and I'm in no way rich enough to have some fancy wi-fi connection, so I'll be gone until July. Once I return to home, I will continue my ranting. In the meantime, go to Prorev and read Common Dreams everyday.
Also, I really want to thank all of the really good folks I've met out in the world, shows and music really are good for the soul.
Peace.

NEW BOOK JUST FINISHED

Sorry I've been silent all this time, but I've been concentrating on finishing the 1st draft of my newest (and 4th) novel, Ialtaboath. An accomplishment I just officially achieved a few minutes ago.
I'm really proud of it.

A brief summary:
It's the story of 2 archeologists Nina Adams and Elias Spade, who discover a Gnostic temple in the desert on the outskirts of Cairo and an ex-student of Elias named Harry Bonden who gets involved with a secret religious cult known as The Family. The cult leaders believe there is a great secret connected to the temple Nina and Elias discovered. A secret that challenges our most basic assumptions about God.
Its a rollicking and humorous adventure story that just happens to be about free will and the very nature of our existence.

The Book Tour Begins!

I'll be in Chillicothe Illinois this weekend for Moe.'s Summer Camp with such notables as Keller Williams, Medeski Martin and Wood, and Particle. Cant' wait. I'll be there with books and my new "business cards" so hope there's a lot of sci-fi fans!

Bush Speech Writer

Yes now you too can write Bush's monosyllabic speechs and hear them too! Try it HERE

A Failed Presidency Summed Up in a Single Story

I openly admit I stole this whole cloth from www.dailykos.com which is a terrific blog. This story really kinda sums up what a fucking jerk-off Shrub really is. It's not really an important story, but it's really telling.

Here's the official story line from Crawford:
President Bush took a spill during a Saturday afternoon bike ride on his ranch, suffering bruises and cuts that were visible later on his face just two days before he was to deliver a major prime-time speech on his Iraq policy.
The president was nearing the end of a 17-mile ride on his mountain bike, accompanied by a Secret Service agent, a military aide and his personal physician, Richard Tubb, who treated him at the scene, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

"It's been raining a lot and the topsoil is loose," Duffy said. "You know this president. He likes to go all-out. Suffice it to say he wasn't whistling show tunes."

So it's been raining a lot in Crawford, we are told. So here's the recent precipitation levels from Crawford:
May 22: 0"
May 21: 0"
May 20: 0"
May 19: 0"
May 18: 0"
May 17: 0"
May 16: 0"
May 15: 0"
May 14: 0.03"
May 13: 2.79"
May 12: 0"
May 11: 0.15"
May 10: 0"
May 9: 0"
May 13th saw some serious rain, but other than some sprinkles on the 14th, Crawford saw nothing but sun. In the last week alone, the temperature was in the high 80s the entire time.
So rain on the 13th and (barely) 14th was blamed for a Bush fall on the 22nd. As everything else, it wasn't Bush's fault. Nothing is Bush's fault.

Ever.

Liars.

A Much Better Theory

Alex Cockburn, writer for the excellent, counterpunch.org has written a very interesting article on his take of the Ahmed Chalabi reversal of fortune. His theory is, I have to admit, more than a tad bit more likely (not to mention plausible) than my own of yesterday. Read it here.

Congratulations!!!

I just wanted to send Michael Moore my congrats on winning the Palm D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his new movie Farenheit 911! I can't goddamn wait to see it! The best news? Mike says he has every intention of making sure it comes out on DVD before the November Election. If Bushy isn't afraid, he should be.

The Mystery deepens.

The Chalabi web got a whole lot more complicated today. Now it's being (vastly under) reported that he was an agent for Iran, and may have been from the git go. So now comes the really big question. Is he really?
There seems to be two main possiblities to my cynical mind.
One, Chalabi really has put one over on the Rummy and the boys and really is a spy for Iran.
This is the more likely scenario.
Less likely, but still possible, they're doing this to start a war with Iran. This idea is a whole lot scarier and frankly I wouldn't put it past this particular group of thuggo murderers.
Chalabi goes home but finds that he hates it. There's no electricity, the phones don't work, and he needs a big mob of security around him to take a piss. So he agrees to be a fall guy to frame the Iranians and create the first building block in the argument to invade Iran. Again, highly unlikely, but possible, bone-chillingly possible.

Now we KNOW the wheels are coming off

In one of the strangest stories I've heard so far it seems that a joint Iraqi/US force entered Ahmed Chalabi's compound in Baghdad and grabbed a bunch of documents. Chalabi, for those who don't know, is a total scumbag who was the main "source" of fake information about Saddam's "WMD." He's been the guy the US has wanted to put in charge of Iraq since before the war started. He's Cheney and Rummy's guy. Which probably explains why Rummy sounded shocked and dismayed when he walked out of the congressional hearings and into questions about the raid. He stammered and ultimatly dodged the question. Chalabi claims it was the Iraqi faction of the Coalition Provisional Authority who was responsible. That's probably true, they know he's a crook. It's going to be interesting to see how much money we pay the bastard to forgive us.

The Truth Begins to Trickle Out

Rummy Knew. Read the Seymour Hersh article here.
Not surprisingly the Pentagon is Pissed!

On the Road again and an Engagement Announcement
I'm off to Vegas again until next week. Congrats to Vickei on her new job at the field museum and contrats to us for getting "officially" engaged yesterday!!

Oh yeah, fire Rumsfeld!

Important Article to Read!

Everyone should read this article by Robert Fisk. He's a reporter for the UK INdependent and is, in my opinion the man who most deeply reports what is happening in Iraq from the point of view of the Iraqis. This article, is about the torture and the way it has been done, not by dupes, but by pros. It pretty well reflects my opinion on the subject and it's nice to have a more reputable source to make my thoughts sound more, well, reputable.

A few tidbits from the Taguba Report

What follows are direct cut/paste from the report.

(S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included
the following acts:
a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for
photographing;
d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several
days at a time;
e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being
photographed and videotaped;
g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and
attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly
raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a
female Soldier pose for a picture;
k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten
detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

a. (U) Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;
b. (U) Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;
c. (U) Pouring cold water on naked detainees;
d. (U) Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;
e. (U) Threatening male detainees with rape;
f. (U) Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was
injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;
g. (U) Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
h. (U) Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats
of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

When asked why the rules in 1A/1B were different than the rest of the wings, SGT
Davis stated: “The rest of the wings are regular prisoners and 1A/B are
Military Intelligence (MI) holds.” When asked why he did not inform his chain
of command about this abuse, SGT Davis stated: “ Because I assumed that if they
were doing things out of the ordinary or outside the guidelines, someone would
have said something. Also the wing belongs to MI and it appeared MI
personnel approved of the abuse.” SGT Davis also stated that he had heard MI
insinuate to the guards to abuse the inmates. When asked what MI said he stated:
“Loosen this guy up for us.” Make sure he has a bad night.” “Make sure he
gets the treatment.” He claimed these comments were made to CPL Granier and
SSG Frederick. Finally, SGT Davis stated that (sic): “the MI staffs to my
understanding have been giving Granier compliments on the way he has been
handling the MI holds. Example being statements like, “Good job, they’re
breaking down real fast. They answer every question. They’re giving out good
information, Finally, and Keep up the good work . Stuff like that.”

They made them do strange exercises by sliding on their stomach, jump up and down, throw water on them and made them some wet, called them all kinds of names such as “gays” do
they like to make love to guys, then they handcuffed their hands together and
their legs with shackles and started to stack them on top of each other by
insuring that the bottom guys penis will touch the guy on tops butt.”

(U) There is a general lack of knowledge, implementation, and emphasis of basic
legal, regulatory, doctrinal, and command requirements within the 800th MP Brigade
and its subordinate units. (Multiple witness statements in ANNEXES 45-91).

However, MG Fast, according to BG Karpinski, routinely denied the board’s recommendations to release detainees in this category who were no longer deemed a threat and clearly met the requirements for
release. According to BG Karpinski, the extremely slow and ineffective release
process has significantly contributed to the overcrowding of the facilities.

The Iraqi guards at Abu Ghraib BCCF) demonstrate questionable work ethics and
loyalties, and are a potentially dangerous contingent within the Hard-Site. These
guards have furnished the Iraqi criminal inmates with contraband, weapons, and
information. Additionally, they have facilitated the escape of at least one detainee.

The various detention facilities operated by the 800th MP Brigade have
routinely held persons brought to them by Other Government Agencies (OGAs)
without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their
detention.

----There is an extensive list of escapes and riots in several Iraqi prisons over the months, the most commonly mentioned extenuating circumstance is lack of adequate training/personell. The section ends with the following:
As I have previously indicated, this investigation determined that there was
virtually a complete lack of detailed SOPs at any of the detention facilities.
Moreover, despite the fact that there were numerous reported escapes at detention
facilities throughout Iraq (in excess of 35), AR 15-6 Investigations following these
escapes were simply forgotten or ignored by the Brigade Commander with no
dissemination to other facilities. After-Action Reports and Lessons Learned, if done
at all, remained at individual facilities and were not shared among other commanders
or soldiers throughout the Brigade. The Command never issued standard TTPs for
handling escape incidents.

Over time, the 800th MP Brigade clearly suffered
from personnel shortages through release from active duty (REFRAD) actions,
medical evacuation, and demobilization. In addition to being severely undermanned,
the quality of life for Soldiers assigned to Abu Ghraib (BCCF) was extremely poor.
There was no DFAC, PX, barbershop, or MWR facilities. There were numerous
mortar attacks, random rifle and RPG attacks, and a serious threat to Soldiers and
detainees in the facility. The prison complex was also severely overcrowded and the
Brigade lacked adequate resources and personnel to resolve serious logistical
problems.

------This is a super important sentence as to where the motivation for the soldier's actions came from:
"This effectively made an MI Officer, rather than an MP Officer, responsible for the MP units conducting
detainee operations at that facility." The soldiers weren't listening to their own bosses, instead they were following Military Intelligence Orders.

During the course of this investigation I conducted a lengthy interview with BG
Karpinski that lasted over four hours, and is included verbatim in the investigation
Annexes. BG Karpinski was extremely emotional during much of her testimony.
What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness
to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP
Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her
command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its
soldiers.

Also very important not to leave out:
Throughout the investigation, we observed many individual Soldiers and some
subordinate units under the 800th MP Brigade that overcame significant obstacles,
persevered in extremely poor conditions, and upheld the Army Values. We
discovered numerous examples of Soldiers and Sailors taking the initiative in the
absence of leadership and accomplishing their assigned tasks.
The individual Soldiers and Sailors that we observed and believe should be
favorably noted include:
a. (U) Master-at-Arms First Class William J. Kimbro, US Navy Dog Handler,
knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite
significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib.
b. (U) SPC Joseph M. Darby, 372nd MP Company discovered evidence of abuse
and turned it over to military law enforcement.
c. (U) 1LT David O. Sutton, 229th MP Company, took immediate action and
stopped an abuse, then reported the incident to the chain of command.

The above listed people are heroes and should be treated as such by the military, the media, and all of us.

Notice that no where is there a single mention of the mercenaries which all parties agree are also present within the Iraqi detention system.

The ACTUAL REPORT

For that small minority of people who like to read things first hand for themselves, here's the now infamous TAGUBA report which is the source of my consternation about the torture of Iraqi prisoners.

So Many Things, So Little Time

I haven't written in a week because I've been at my Uncle's housesitting and he had no internet connection, but that doesn't mean the world stopped spinning. Far from it. Indeed, every time I think we've reached the height of our problems, something comes along that makes it worse. It's getting to the point that I'm starting to wonder if those rumors about Shrub trying to push us into "The Rapture" don't have something to them. I do know that those pictures of the torture of Iraqi prisoners, and the subsequent US reaction to them have done nothing but make the entire situation worse. I suppose we could nuke Fallujah or something, but that's the only way I can think of to make matters worse than they are.
Do me a favor, every time you hear phrases like "civilian contractors" and "private security forces," think one thing, "mercenaries." That's who they are. Hired killers from the US and more disturbingly, south america. That's right, remember all the "training" we did in the 80's (and to a lesser extent in the 90's) of "paramilitary" forces in places like Columbia and El Salvador? Training that led to some of the worst human rights violations in the southern hemisphere? Well, a lot of those folks are now in Iraq, doing what they do best, torturing and killing. IN fact, in terms of sheer troop numbers it goes, US military, UK military, Mercenaries. So much for a "coalition of the willing" yeah, willing to get paid. THe mercenaries make 100,000 a year plus, our troops, who we are supposed to be "supporting" make 30 at the outside. And ALL of the money is coming from the same place, our pockets. It's a sad state of affairs. Also, the mercenaries are in a grey zone as far as the law goes. They're not subject to US law, there is no Iraqi law, and they're not subject to military codes of conduct. According to the people they've arrested in connection with the torture, it was primarily the military Intelligence folks, and the Mercenaries that were "egging on" the despicable behavior. Oh, and since they are downplaying this as much as possible on the news, it should be stressed that the people in these prisons are NOT Iraqi soldiers. They are civilians, swept up in raids and middle of the night black bag jobs, often on little or no evidence of any wrong doing.
I heard Rush say that "this is war and war isn't pretty" in an attempt to justify or at the very least downplay the actions. Like that fat fuck knows what war is like, he's spent not a single minute in a uniform of any type. Neither has Hannity, or any of these other right wing nut jobs. The Pentagon's own report is said to describe the problem as systemic, no matter how much the Shrubsters say it was the act of a few bad apples.
Which brings us to the 25 billion dollars that's "for the troops." Let's save that money and bring them home. Besides, considering the disparity in pay scale between the troops and the mercenaries, most of the cash will make it into the coffers of the mercenary company's not the pockets of the regular military whose families are all too often on food stamps.
Oh and I wanted to repeat something I heard Jenine Garafalo (Sorry if I butchered the name) say on the Daily Show. "At this point, as much as I hate to say it, I consider a vote for Bush to be a character flaw." Amen. I mean how bad do they have to fuck up before you admit Bush is an incompetent ass who's done nothing but make us all LESS safe, not more.

Bush/Cheney and the 9-11 Warren Report, er Commission

It seemed for a while that the 9-11 commission, while a little watered down, might at least share some things in common with what is usually considered an "investigation." The commission stood strong on getting Condi (Alfred E. Newman's Sister- What her worry?) to say something (even if they were lies) to the public. But the commission's overall cave-in (by not having her speak under oath and letting her set the amount of time she would publicly testify) emboldened (Bush word) Shrub and Voldemort (Cheney). They are going to testify tomorrow. But there will be no video. No audio. No transcripts. No notes. Oh yeah, they won't be under oath, and they refused to speak at all unless they got to come as a team.

So, the long and the short of it?
Bush is so stupid, he can't speak alone, not under oath, with absolutely no way for anyone to prove what he said. How is this possible? How can this guy be called "President?" How do his Secret Service guys keep from laughing?

And real quick on the Kerry Military record controversy. I'm not a big fan of the guy, I'm really not. But how is it the man can be criticized by the Shrub White House when Bush was, at the exact same time, sitting in Texas sniffing coke and not showing up for his own "richguy" version of service to his country. I only served in Americorps and what I did was more important than Bush's "protection" of Texas airspace from the Viet Cong. Yet the military supports Bush. Life's full of mysteries, I gotta tell you.

Controlling the Debate

I just want to point a brilliant Orwellian maneuver by Rove and the White House in reference to the "coffin picture" issue. They're evil bastards, but they're really good at what they do.

You notice, in the current debate over whether or not showing pictures of coffins during a war is "disrespectful," a huge question is being completely ignored.
We don't ever see actual dead people. Us or them.
Don't you think if they were showing what was really happening over there; the death, the carnage, the intestines all smeared around, don't you think people would be more than a tad less aloof about the war and about keeping out troops in Iraq?
By making the debate about whether or not we can see coffins on TV we completely go around the issue. People on both sides yell back and forth at one another and we have the appearance of a debate. It's not. It's a distraction just as much as the stupid OJ Simpson... er, Michael Jackson case.
The idea that showing an anonymous coffin on TV is disrespectful to a family is ludicrous at best- it's a coffin. The debate should be about the actual people we (in my opinion) SHOULD be seeing everyday on the news. We should see our soldiers and the Iraqi dead alike.
700+ of our soldiers dead and not a single image of what that really means. These are really dead people. They're not video game figures or extras in a movie. It really pisses me off that people who say they "support the troops" are the same people who think we should censor all of the ickiness of war and focus on the bravado and bullshit that goes along with every imperial enterprise since Rome. War is blood and nastiness and terrible atrocities by its very nature; pretending this isn't the case isn't just disingenuous. It's morally repugnant. The people that do it have a special place in Hell waiting for them. (Or I would think so if I believed in Hell.)
So every time you hear people ranting back and forth at one another about the coffins, don't fall for the mirage. Your watching a magician waving his hands around while the assistant sneaks out of the box. The dead are far too important for us to fall for the smoke and mirrors.
Wait for the battle of Fallujah. There's going to be a bunch of coffins on both sides. It's going to be terrible. And we won't see it. We should. Our taxes are paying for the blood.

OVERWHELMED

There are so many things that are so crazy in the world of politics I almost feel stupid trying to nail down one thing to write about. The list keeps getting longer and longer and I honestly don't understand why even the Repub controlled everything is managing to not react. The fact that Kerry isn't beating Bush by 90 percentage points shows just how terrible a candidate he really is. Is it too late to switch to some guy with a pulse who's not in the back pocket of the special interests? That'd be nice.
Let's just have a partial quick run through.
The Iraq war.
Not for democracy. No WMD. Lying about lead up to war. 700 Million in misappropriated funds a'la Iran Contra. We're threatening to destroy Fallujah completely. Bush hasn't made any mistakes that he can think of, including his claim that Rumsfeld is the Secretary of State. Increased destabilization of US respect all over middle east because of our uncritical support of the only guy crazier than Shrub, Ariel Sharon. They're gonna roll Bin Laden out in October or if not we're going to be "attacked" and we'll never know if it's us or them whose doing it. They're firing people for having the nerve to show pictures that demonstrate people actually die in wars, like this is some kind of surprise. They've still not told us who narced out Valerie Plame. We told Prince Bandar about the war before Shrub told the spegghetti spined Powell. And that's just off the top of my head.
At home.
the environments fucked. the economy is fucked. There are no jobs that pay living wages, no benefits either. In Florida Bush's idiot brother is "fast tracking" graduates who can leave high school without any US history or government classes. That's what we need, LESS educated citizens. Great idea. Every child is being left behind. No bill of rights anymore, except to carry an assault rifle of course. And on and on...

But of course the news media is focusing on Michael Jackson. I mean, it's not like there's anything else to talk about right?

Phish Show Review
4/15/2004 Thursday Night Vegas

My first Vegas show after 10 years of seeing the band and I gotta say I wasn’t impressed. The lot was pretty cool even though there weren’t nearly as many people as I thought there would be in Vegas. For the first time I wasn’t just there to see the show but I also had my first novel Portal, self-published, to sell and found quite happily that I was correct that socially conscious sci-fi could sell on a Phish lot.

I got three tix for 20 bucks each which was really nice, this 42.50 a show thing is ridiculous, they need to play more and charge less- these are rough financial times and the high ticket prices are unnecessarily painful.

The whole show was general admission, a nice touch, but I agree that it was immediately obvious that Chris Kuroda is crucial as the lighting would be just that much off the entire show.

They started with Buried Alive and it was immediately obvious the sound sucked. And I was straight in front of the stage albeit in the balcony. Still, the sound was as bad as in the World Music Theatre here in Chicago and that’s reaaaally bad. I don’t know if the sound was screwy down on stage too but something was definitely going on down there. Even though it sounded like a bad old analog tape the ACDC Bag that followed was great until the end when the sound deteriorated even further. Trey said something about an annoying sound, but I couldn’t be sure what he was saying. He played a crazy distorted note that made me think they were going to bust into BBFCFM but it turned into Limb. The rest of the set list featured the band playing pretty, but very slow jams that sucked the life out of what was initially a very loving crowd. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t really interesting either. The Stash>Timber was cool, but very mellow and again the sound was ick.

Second set was a huge improvement. The sound was 100% better and it must have been apparent down on the stage too because the whole show had a lot more energy. Lights were off badly on several occasions. 46 Days was nice. But the highlight was the 2001>DWD>Free>Scent run which was more than worth the price of admission. Jenn came out and jammed with Trey with a sloppy but fairly humorous rendition of Jay Z’s Girls Girls Girls before returning to finish the Russian influenced portion of Scent. Then they played Secret Smile and Crowd Control the first time I’d seen either live and gotta say, I think Trey’s using his best material with the solo band cause yuck. I actually thought Crowd Control was a bad Cheap Trick cover. They ended with a pretty but standard Traffic Light and encored with a nice Sneakin Sally with a vocal jam that featured the cococut song “They put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up” I’m pretty sure I heard Trey saying “The sound was screwed up” during the end of the vocal jam but half way through traffic light the sound dropped out again and I couldn’t be sure.

After Miami, Vegas was a let down. Oh well, everybody has rough days, they’re still the greatest band in the world and I’ll be there with bells on all summer.

From the same article- Family Values Anyone?

Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice? (about iraq) “I asked the president about this. And President Bush said, ‘Well, no,’ and then he got defensive about it,” says Woodward. “Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his father, ‘He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength.’ And then he said, ‘There's a higher Father that I appeal to.’"

BUSH MUST BE IMPEACHED

THIS MUST BE READ TO BE BELIEVED!!!

Bob Woodward's got a new book out. And I'll be damned if he didn't get a second "Watergate" level story. El Shrubo apparently misappropriated funds that Congress was told was going toward the Afghanistan war and funneled it to make war preparations in and around Iraq. This quiet funding initially started 72 days after 9-11.
It's Iran/Contra with the same damn people all over again.

Oh yeah, watch the video clip too. In it Woodward says he asked the shrubster what he thought history would think of him. His response, "History; we won't know, we'll all be dead."
If you're not afraid, you're nuts.

President? What President?

Most Americans get 2 weeks vacation a year. Maximimum. And it's usually not paid, unless you're one of the lucky few who belong to the quickly dissapearing unions.
Yet, according to the Washington Post:

"This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."

40%. Hey! All you people that still support this jackass. 40% that means four out of every 10 days he was supposed to be at work he was sitting on his ass instead of running the country. How about you? Do you get that many days off? Or are you working your fingers to the bone to keep the damn cable on so you can numb your mind from your shit ass job?

What's the guy gotta do to lose your support? Rape your Mothers? He's killing our soldiers for his oil buddies (cheney), giving our air and water to polluting corporations, and turned our Bill of Rights over to a self righteous prig who can't beat a dead guy in an election (ashcroft). You're not safer. Period. If you think we're safer watch and/or read some news from other countries. Even our allies are pissed at us.

Oh yeah, and for the first time Bremer in Iraq said we might not be able to turn over power to the Iraqis on June 30th even though Shrub was adamant we were turning it over no mattter what just last week in his hilarious press conference of bumbling stupidity.

Bush's Hilariously Inept Press Conference and a Unique Take on The No Child Left Behind Act

OK, Bush’s “press conference yesterday was quite possibly one of the funniest things on TV in the last 10 years. The only problem, it was the leader of the free world talking.
I took notes while he spoke so let’s see what we learned by listening to the densest shrub in history:
The violence in Iraq is casued by 3 groups.
1) Hussein sympathizers. Yeah sure. 2)Islamic militants in Fallujah and Terrorists from other countries. 3) The riots in the south are being incited by al-sadr and his “illegal militia.” He wants to “destroy democratic hopes” and is trying for a “power grab.” The other major cleric “supports us” yet no one from his organization will talk to any American representative.
What it isn’t is a civil war or popular uprising which means that’s exactly what it is.
Most iraqis “oppose dictatorship.” Controversial statement there.
“they want freedom and independence” No shit
“Iraq will be peaceful or it will be a place of violence”
Transfer of sovereignty June 30 and we’re going to hold that date because “We’re not an imperial power” we’re a “liberating power.”
Shrub called the mercenaries “Contract workers”
We’re going to “prevent harm to innocent civilians” even though we will use “decisive force” to maintain order.
He keeps saying coalition forces even though it’s pretty much just US and Britain and mercenaries. He mentions the American embassy that will be opened but he doesn’t mention of how big it is. (It will be the largest embassy in the world.)
He also laid out a timetable for Iraq democracy. Elections for national assembly next january. By dec 15, 2005 iraq will be a democracy. It’s just that simple.
Then he said that Rumsfeld the secretary of state. Nope sorry dumbass.
He looks up for maybe one word per sentence, he’s reading off of a paper with little understanding of what he’s saying. He can barely read the goddamn paper.
Now is the time and Iraq is the place where the Islamic terrorists are fighting “the civilized world” Like in Beirut???? Beirut didn’t have Islamic terrorists.
911 911 911
The terrorists lost an ally in Iraq. LIE LIE LIE LIE The terrorists hated Hussein and he hated them.
So while we’re definitely leaving, we’re not leaving until we’ve won, which will be by June 30th no matter what.
That was just the speech part. Then he started to answer the reporter’s questions and things got really funny.
Vietnam question> He says the Vietnam comparison is false. That’s it. It sends the “wrong message” to the troops.
Freedom is hard to achieve we have “a hard time in our own country achieving freedom” what does that mean? Freedom is easy, it’s opressing people while saying they’re free that’s hard.
He doesn’t make decisions based on polls i.e. the will of the people.
The theme of the entire question and answer period was “we’re changing the world”
He informs us that the generals talk “all the time” Well that’s a relief.
We’re not going anywhere. “They need us there.”
Once we transfer sovereignty we’ll enter a “security agreement.” This is, of course, non-negotiable.
Criticizing iraqi security run by iraqis
Saddam was a threat. Why? He coddled terrorists????
He was threat to region and us
To UN: Either you take care of him we will
We needed to work with people by alienating them
Talking about Iraq and the UN he said Saddam had to “Disarm or face consequences” except he didn’t have anything to disarm so what exactly the hell was he supposed to do?
Then came my second favorite thing Shrub said in the whole speech.
Talking about Iraq he said, “they’re hiding things. If you hide things you are afraid of getting caught because you did something wrong.” This is coming from the most secretive white house in history. According to the man’s own logic Cheney is hiding the Energy policy meeting minutes because he did something wrong.
The Iraqis are pleased we got rid of Saddam BUT they have a fear of making decisions towards liberty.
Then he said the best thing of the whole press conference.
“I wouldn’t be happy if I were occupied either.”
He refused to answer the question if he felt in any way personally responsible about 911.
Our foreign policy was described thusly, “Go on offense and stay on offense to secure the country.”
He CANNOT say he fucked up, on anything. Rove and Condi are looking at Bush like he’s a stupid dumb puppy. On several occasions he’s just babbling for literally minutes on end.
Reporter asks about whether we deserve an apology and will you give them one?
NOPE. He’s sick when he thinks about the death. But he’s not sorry. The person responsible was Osama. He’s not. He keeps calling on John, 3 questions so far.
Then I found out something I didn’t know. In terms of troop numbers we have the most, Britain is second and third? Mercenaries. That’s right, the third largest contributor to troop strength are hired guns who are being paid @ $100,000 a year.
“They (terrorists)want us to leave. We’re not going to leave.”
He calls everyone who criticizes his policies racists by saying that some people don’t think “brown people” are capable of maintaining a democracy. Yes, he actually said “brown people.”
He won’t say why he needs Cheney with him for 9-11 commission. He gets really flustered and pissed off at the reporter who has the nerve to ask.
There’s an eruption and he asks some guy that gives him a meatball question that he then stutters through. You can tell he’s thrown by the Cheney question and he descends into mumbling and babbling again.
Probably going to be his last question
Will it be worth it if you lose your job?
“I don’t plan on losing my job.” I bet you don’t you cheating fuck. But he never says if it’d be worth it or not. He’s looking forward to the campaign. Yeah I bet.
He’s mad that he didn’t have time to plan for the question about what the biggest mistake of his life was. He doesn’t know. He liked Afghanistan. He still would invade iraq even if there’s not weapons. But then he backs up and says that we’re still going to find the weapons. He admits not a single mistake. NOTHING. What a total dick.
Then he’s confident he’s made mistakes-- but he can’t think of a single one. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. He can’t think of one. The worst administration in US history and he can’t even think of a single mistake he’s made. That’s how self-aware this guy is, he can’t think of a single mistake.
But whatever mistakes he made he says he learned from them.
Can you win the war on terror?
Of course. Number of times a large wountry has won a guerilla war in the modern era: ZERO.
Freedom is the Almighty’s gift to the world.
The almighty the Muslim’s believe in? That almighty? Or what about the Buddhist almighty. Which one?
“I need to learn to communicate better. I will say it as best as I possibly can.”
If he says something, he means it. That’s the end.
What a joke. Anyone who votes for this guy must’ve undergone some kind of lobotomy. But funny, man is he funny.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND- The Football Version

1 All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.
2 All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically or genetic abilities or disabilities…
3 Talented players will be asked to work out on their own, without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren’t interested in football, have limited athletic ability or whose parents don’t like football.
4 Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in fourth, eighth, and 11th grades.
5 This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent, and all teams will reach the same minimal goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child will be left behind.

John Kerry

If you're one of those overzealous Democrats that think John Kerry is the savior of the Democratic party you should read this article by William greedier. Kerry's heading towards corporate whoreship in it's most corrosive form. So the only thing we're going to gain by overthrowing the Fascist-Fundamentalist Christian (as opposed to the regular Christians who are on the whole very nice folks) Shrub Administration is to replace it with a Fascist Corporate Kerry Administration that makes us happy on the less-important social issues but screws us in our ability to make more than $8.00/hour with no benefits. And it's not like the profits are being fairly distributed in the countries the jobs are going to. Those people are being paid even less and 5,000 rich guys are taking all the cash. No matter what you think about whether Nader is right or wrong, the info in this article is why Nader is running.

Book News and a Smidgen about Condi

My novel, PORTAL came in yesterday. The books look great. I'm going to see how they sell and if I can increase my site traffic. If so, I plan to sell the book online through PayPal.
I'll be out of town this week so no new postings. Get to go see Phish in Vegas as well as Vickei's Master's defense. If you're one of the people who're here because they bought a book in Vegas, Welcome, I hope you had a good show.

Real quick,

Condi's a liar.
BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?
RICE: I believe the title was, Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.
Now, the ...
BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.
RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste ...
BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the ...
RICE: I would like to finish my point here.
BEN-VENISTE: I didn't know there was a point.
RICE: Given that _ you asked me whether or not it warned of attacks.
BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.
RICE: You said, did it not warn of attacks. It did not warn of attacks inside the United States. It was historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information. And it did not, in fact, warn of any coming attacks inside the United States.

See! She's a liar. Not only that, she seems to think the entire US population is dumber than a box of hammers. What's really scary, she might be right.
Oh yeah,
Check this out too! It's a picture of ashcroft made of porno pictures. Now that's a good use of free time!

Kerry and Nader

I am one of the minority of people that doesn't think that John Kerry has the right to my vote simply because the Corporate Arm of the Dems get him nominated. I have, up to this point, been a supporter of Nader. But then, at some point during the day yesterday, I heard a much better idea on the increasingly wonderful Air America radio.
John Kerry should call up Nader and offer him the job of Head of the SEC; (Securities and Exchange Commision) the agency in charge of keeping an eye on corporations. Then, if Nader accepts it, the Progressives in the party know there's someone hardcore going after the Corporados.
If Kerry offers the job publicly, and Nader rejects it, Nader's support evaporates like a glass of water on the sun becuase it shows he's not really concerned with anything other than being president, which isn't a good thing. I think he'd accept the job though, I really do. I know I'd feel better if I knew Kerry was insightful and clever enough to think of this on his own and the fact that neither Ralph's nor Kerry's people haven't yet isn't a good sign for either candidate.

Also, too many people are dying in Iraq. This is getting really scary. Please BRING THE SOLDIERS HOME! NO WAR FOR HALLIBURTON!

I Play Nostradamus

I've been saying this for a couple of months but I just wanted to post it publically so I can say "I told you so" when it happens.
Shrub and company are going to "capture" Osama Bin Laden in September or October. It'll be a big surprise so everyone pretend to be shocked.

How many people have to say it before the Republicans get it through their thick-ass heads?

Yet another report is coming out about Shrub's obsession with Iraq. Sir Christopher Meyer, the ex-British ambassador to Washington has gone public that Bush brought up attacking Iraq in a private dinner with Tony Blair a WEEK after 9-11. Balir reportedly said that Afghanistan was the priority and while Bush agreed, he used the opportunity to say that Iraq should come right after Afghanistan. I personally read a number of reports in July/August of 2002 that made it clear we'd be attacking Iraq in Febuary or March- there were about 50 nurses at the University of Chicago Hospital ICU's that can vouch for me, I drove them nuts talking about it all the time. The repeated statements that Shrub and Company didn't plan on attacking Iraq the minute they walked into office is crap. They're liars and should be put in jail.
First O'Neil. Then Clarke. Now Meyer. Wake up people. Iraq is a scam. Look at gas prices. If you don't think there's a connection between this and that, you're crazy.
Bottom line. I cannot fucking believe the people against this war are being told they're "not supporting the troops." That's a monumentally stupid statement. I want them to come home where it's safe. Where nobody wants to drag them through the streets. The people who Fox news say support the troops want them to stay in a forign country where they're not wanted and don't belong so they can get killed so we can pay 2.50 a gallon for gas and give Halliburton, Cheney, and the Christian Right a new set of silver spoons. Yeah. You support the troops alright.

Sorry about the abnormal degree of name calling, but I'm fed up with the people in this country who just refuse to see that the Shrub has no leaves.

April Fools Day

I only listen to a few radio stations. On April Fools Day I listened to three, WXRT, a rock station, Howard Stern on my way home from dropping off Vickei at work, and NPR. Of these three stations, XRT and Howie were doing jokes based on the idea that the FCC was going to start massively censoring their shows. Howard Stern didn't even go on the air for the first hour and a half. Two purposefully lame DJ's took his place. XRT's normal tag line is the "Chicago's Best Rock." They changed it to "Decent Rock." Everyone was saying it all of a sudden. You gotta be decent, they kept playing songs with swear words. They either bleeped the words out or a guy would say some random word that didn't fit with the rest of the lyrics. I don't know if other radio stations also made April Fools jokes along these lines but I'd be willing to bet there were quite a few.
Both of the jokes were funny. But they were scary too. I guess a whole bunch of people went apeshit, flooding both shows with angry and/or frightened calls. This is very telling.
How a society reacts to sarcasm is a good measuring stick of how bad things are. In this case I think it's obvious people are REALLY nervous about what lengths these Bush folks are willing to go to enforce their minority beliefs on the population as a whole. It didn't seem impossible at all that they would pull Howard Stern without so much as a warning. It's happened before. We're all so inundated with news we'd be pissed for a week and then something else insane would come up and we'd all forget. I think we were right to be worried, Powell's kid is a nutball. The President is so stupid he won't come in front of the 9-11 commission, even in closed session, without his puppetmaster Cheney. This is not the kind of man who's going to go to the mat for free speech, indeed, if the senate passed a bill turning over total control of all TV to Karl Rove, I have no doubt Bush would sign it.
I really have one thing to say about all of this.
"Four legs good. Two legs better."

AIR AMERICA RADIO

So it's finally here. The long touted Democratic answer to the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world. Democrat radio. Notice I'm not saying progressive radio, I'm saying Democrat radio.
Al Franken's a funny guy. But he's a Democrat in the Clinton tradition. He refuses to see the corporate takeover that's tainted his buddies. He's not progressive, even if he is a lot of times. He's someone touting a company line. Not to mention the fact one of his first guests was G. GOrdon Liddy. Already they're making gross errors in characterization. Al had Michael Moore on Wednesday and on Thursday he characterized the guy as a Gore supporter because he pointed out that GOre won the 2000 election.
Michael Moore in no way supported GOre against Bush. He called them Gush and Bore. He talked about the way they agreed about everything in the debates. I personally listened to Moore speak at a Nader rally at UIC in Chicago. Progressive voices are trying to get the "Democrats" to realize they've become the same thing as "Republicans" both of which should be called, "Corporate whores." I'm afraid the way the Air America Radio is going now it's just going to be a classic example yet again of the Chomskian Propaganda model. Two sides, the appearance of debate, while the true issues are patently ignored. We'll see.
Still, Chuck D rules and even though some moron put him on the morning show he's going to be the kind of person the station is going to have to build around if they want to be really successful. Smart, articulate, and LOUD. They should give Jello Biafra and Henry Rollins a show too. Michael Moore should have a show; and Warren Beatty with Tim Robbins. John Cusak can do sports. If they get the right people the station could potentially be hugely important.

Shrub Steals Cash to Fund the Destruction of Church/State Separation.

From NOW on PBS.
Shrub wants voucher programs for private religious schools.
Public Money for private corporations. Congress has shot bush down on this issue because it takes badly needed public money and siphons it to private corporations, which is clearly a bad idea. (Kids aren't "products" or "consumers" they're kids.)
SO not caring one whit about the way the government is supposed to work Shrub's people got him to use the Dept of Education. He took 77 million from their budget and put it into religious school vouchers. He did this for "Choice."
The amount he gave was 77 million because it was the only non-congressional discretionary money in the dept of education. He took every cent.
Public money to private religious corporations to promote the end of public education. And you know the only groups getting the money are Christian. Not a cent of the 77 million went towards Buddhist Private Schools.
But wait, you say, just because you have vouchers doesn't mean you want to destroy public education. That would be true, but look who's getting the money.
Bill Bennett.
Bill Hates public education. He's been railing publicly against it for 20 some years. Bennett's company got 14 million in public funds.
Another big company is called "Creo" which is Spanish for "I believe." Based in, you guessed it, Texas. "I believe..." So much for the separation of church and state.

Richard Clarke

Regarding the ongoing fiasco with the unfortunately named Richard (Dick) Clarke and the 9-11 commission. First of all the entire thing is crap. Clarke isn't a democrat. He's not trying to get a job in Kerry's administration, he's not weak on terrorism. He was hired by Reagan, worked for Bush I, and worked for Clinton. Shrub thought enough of the guy to make him his go-to fella on Counter-terrorism until CLARKE RESIGNED. He wasn't fired, he quit because Bush wanted to bomb Iraq since he came into office. The disagreement wasn't whether or not to bomb someone, it was WHO to bomb. Clarke wanted to bomb the Taliban, not Iraq. He was pissed about it, so he quit. Also, concerning the timing. Clarke's book was delayed not by him or his publishers, but by the Shrub White House who dragged their feet on clearing the book for publication.
But in the end, all of this is pretty much crap. I'll be the very first to admit, if Bush or Clinton would've unilaterally attacked Afghanistan pre-9-11they would've been crucified politically so all this talk about how Shrub "wasn't doing enough" to fight pre 911 terrorism is so much smoke up the butt. Post 9-11, that's a completely different story. And as Clarke pointed out, in 15 hours of testimony he was asked exactly ZERO questions about Iraq. That's the real story, not what happened before 911 but what happened afterward. The fact that Shrub and his gaggle of bitches USED 911 to attack Iraq is ridiculous and disgusting and is why no person who claims to be "in favor of the war on terrorism" should vote for him. All this stuff about how we could prevent something no one in their right mind expected is nothing more than 20 20 hindsight. Still, the Iraq question looms, and the Shrub factory just keeps lying, which is entertaining, but sad. It's no surprise Condi didn't testify, that chick opens her mouth and bullshit comes out like blood in a George Romero movie. They're not going to let her say shit on the record becuase statements like that are impeachable... same thing with Cheney and Shrub himself.

If you want to follow a truly terrific political blog stop by Atrios.

War Protests and War Coverage

2 quick things. First, I went to the anti-war protest in Chicago today. (Worldwide there were millions marching today) The crowd wasn't as big as last year, I'd guess 10-20,000 people, it's hard to estimate, but I do know we filled the streets from end to end for 8-9 city blocks, it wasn't as big as the protest a year ago, but it was a beautiful day, people were nice, and the cops, although dressed like Storm Troopers (or as one speaker described them Hockey Players) behaved themselves and curbed any neandrathal tendencies they may have felt. Also, I met Jessie Jackson. Not extensively, he walked by I shook his hand and said hello, he said, "Have a good day." Still, it was pretty neat.
Second, I wrote the other day about Chomsky, and how Chomsky's understanding of the media makes deconstructing the crap they put on CNN easier. The crux of his argument concerns the self-censorship that has so brilliantly been woven into our system. Now a reporter, a brave guy named Harvey Rice explains exactly how it worked for him in his coverage of the Iraq war, but don't listen to me, read it for yourself.

MSNBC and "Photo Propoganda"

Check out this bit of political propoganda.

You'll notice there are no American casualties. The only Iraqi casualty shown was killed by a terrorist bomb. Out of 30 pictures: 8 show US troops being either brave or compassionate. The only Iraqi body killed by us is showing only the hands. The one US casualty that's mentioned shows a family member reacting to the news. No mention there was 571 other phone calls last year for the same reason. Not one picture of one of our own wounded of which there's been 3,254 as of 3/19. The truth is that war isn't in any way glorious. There is no victory. Only the succession of violence. If you haven't read Chomsky on why these are the pictures MSNBC chose, you can here.

BRING OUR PEOPLE HOME. IMPEACH BUSH/CHENEY 2004.

THE ANNIVERSARY

Bush's Speech about Iraq and Terrorism on 3/19/2004
He's about to begin, I'm gonna assume what he says is going to be stupid. Let's see, shall we?
He's standing in front of a whole bunch of world flags, like he's talking to the UN.
He says anyone not with us isn't worried about terrorism. Idiot.
Terrorists "Murder at random and without remorse." Yes, so do cluster bombs and Depleted Uranium Munitions.
He's kissing Spains ass. "The civilized world is at war." "THEY've targeted Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan." Not us, them; we've not targeted Muslims.
Each attack must be answered...with greater determination. deeper resolve and bolder action."
He keeps saying "fight" and "destroy."
Says Terrorists give less value on life while we have AN ENTIRE ARMY occupying a 2 countries.
"We must be certain of convictions. We do love life." Who's he trying to convince? Himself?
"There's no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, life and death." ORWELL ORWELL ORWELL.
He still hasn't learned why they're mad at us. "No accomodation will satisfy their endless demands." That's crap. Ask the IRA.
He's trying to link AlQueda to every terrorist on the whole planet, like they have tea together or something.
He keeps listing countries that are our "allies" like Howard Dean listing the states in his infamous speech. WHoo HAAA.
He mentions that Pakistan sold nuclear stuff to Iran, yet they're our allies?!
He's trying to say that things aren't a total mess in Afghanistan. It's a nightmare there. The government only exists in the capital city Kabul. Everything else is controlled by warlords. "That nation has a democratic government????? Warlords are democratic now?
Says we entered Iraq to uphold UN sanctions. Does he say they had WMD? NO. No he did not. FUCKER! This man is such a lying asshole, I can't even stand it. Why aren't people throwing tomatoes at him?
"There's still violent thugs and murderers in Iraq." Yeah. Us. "Do we want the oppressors back in the palaces?" They are, only now they're us. Against our will.
He's listing all our allies again. (This happens 3 times in a half hour speech) Britain, Poland? El Salvador, Macedonia? Khazakstan? Estonia? Is he fucking kidding? He's blaming the continuing problems on AlQueda, refuses to even suggest the idea that the Iraqi's might not want an occupying army driving around their country in tanks.
Now there's a "intercepted terrrorist planning document" Sounds like fake intelligence again. Not surprisingly we're supposed to be EVEN MORE AFRAID than we're already supposed to be.
He keeps listing countries to give the impression that we're not alone. We are. Period. Britain alone does not the world make.
He's talking about places where a democratic movement took hold and changed a region of the world. Democracy in Poland leading to Eastern European democracies. The difference? Poland didn't have another country come in and FORCE them to have "democracy." There's a difference between an INTERNAL democratic movement and a EXTERNAL FORCED ONE.
"May God bless our efforts." Your God sucks buddy, please keep him to yourself.

YOU MUST WATCH THIS.

Rumsfeld got totally busted out on Meet the Press. Bold faced lie, thrown up in his face. It's totally classic! WATCH IT HERE

Howard Stern

I'm gonna say straight away, I'm not a Stern booster. He's a smidge funny, but just a smidge. For the most part I think he's a misogynist jerk. I liked when he went off on Rosie for attacking Tom Sellick about gun control when she did KMART commercials and they sell guns and ammo. I also liked when he passed the law that said no roadwork was allowed before 10pm. Good common sense stuff.
Then Stern started to criticize his holiness the surpassed and his administration about their handling of the Iraq war. All of a sudden Clear Channel decides to throw him off the air. Out of the clear blue sky.
Coincidence? Nope. And the next thing Bush knows he's got Stern all the way down his throat. When Howard gets on something he's not kidding around. And thank God, for once he's picked a soap box worth climbing onto.
Now he's rabidly going after Bush like a pitbull on a steak bone.
To a caller on Tues the 16th of March, "Your so called President has admitted to branding people in his fraternity. I mean that's the equivalent of burning people with cigarettes. You know who else burns people with cigarettes? Serial Killers!"
That hilariously snarky comment aside, for the most part Stern's looking at the big picture. High gas prices, tax hikes for the rich, sweetheart deals for Halliburton, and the fact that the War on Terrorism is being fought in the least responsible way possible. He's pulling this different threads together and arguing against Bush to people that usually wouldn't hear such information. If Shrub's gigantic war chest fails him then I think Stern will have something to do with it. Karl Rove knows this too, Stern's been pulled from several battleground states, including Florida. Again, coincidence? I think not. This is one to watch no doubt.

Democracy in Action

Hey! I voted today. I love voting, especially since I consistently back the losing guy. For example, I voted for Dennis Kucinich for everything. He should win, but he's not gonna. Still, it feels good to vote my conscience and not just for the "sure thing" like all the folks who don't really like Kerry but are going to vote for him anyway. He's got the thing locked, we should vote for a candidate, not against one.
I was a little bummed I couldn't vote Green locally and Democratic nationally, but oh well.

The Price of Dissent

Here's a list of stuff the Shrub White House has done to intimidate those who dissent against it's authority. There's quite a few with links to the original stories.

In Rememberance of the Election of 2004.

For those who don't remember (or don't know) how The Shrubster stole the Florida election, here's a reminder.

HAITI UPDATE

It's taken long enough, but it seems that the Shrub Administration might finally have to answer some of the lingering questions about Haiti thanks to the Congressional Black Caucus and Senate Dems. Let's hope so. Full story, HERE

The Proofs Are Here!

In a personal note, I've decided to print up 500 copies of my novel Portal (Click to read 1st three chapters.) to sell at music festivals this summer. I just received the proofs for the book and it looks as nice as I hoped it would. Once they arrive and I get them printed I'm planning on selling them on the website as well. If all goes as well as I hope I'll do the same thing for my other 2 books at the end of the summer.
In other book notes, my latest novel, titled Ialtaboath, is going very well and should be finished (barring unforeseen development problems) by the end of May/ Beginning of June.

The Gateway Definition and Does Scalia Have Any Scruples?

If you've been near a TV in the last couple of days you've probably heard the new lastest argument being put forward by those who are afraid that someone, somewhere is having sex of a nature they don't like. They are saying, "OHH NOO. It's not that we're closed minded bigots intent on re-introducing Jim Crowe Laws into America. It's not gay marriage at all. It's just if we open the door to re-defining marriage in a new way we'll slide into arnarchy. Why, if we define Marriage as being able to include homosexual relationships it will open the door to people marrying their children, their pets, and (as I heard one guy say) even a rock!"

Can you believe it? That argument is in the running for the most stupid argument in the history of public debate. My buddy John put it best. These yutzes are trying to say that Gay marriage is like pot. It's not so bad in itself, but it can lead to really bad things. Gay Marriage is a gateway term. Like pot, if we legalize it the next thing you know people will be trying to marry a needle of heroin. Or something. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

Same topic, different angle. He's at it again.

"As the Supreme Court was weighing a landmark gay rights case last year, Justice Antonin Scalia gave a keynote dinner speech in Philadelphia for an advocacy group waging a legal battle against gay rights."
"A month after the dinner, he sharply dissented from the high court's decision overturning the Texas law."
Full Story Here

The Texas law in question made having homosexual sex a crime. What does he have to do to get a hearing about this stuff, stand up in the middle of testimony and pee on opposing council?

John Kerry's "Offhand" Remarks

In a positive development for news junkies John Kerry has found himself a Carl Rove. (Carl Rove being the evil mastermind behind the spin machine of the Shrub administration. He's a political genius from Hell. Like Lee Atwater before him.)
From the Boston Herald:
"Kerry, speaking to a supporter in Chicago who urged him to take on Bush, said, ``We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary.''
The comments, picked up on a microphone Kerry was wearing, marked the toughest talk yet in an escalating early war of words between the presumptive Democratic nominee and Bush."
Kerry claims he didn't know he was on camera and was speaking "off the record." He just "happened" to be wearing a mic? Don't want to get a bad audio feed of the comment you weren't planning to make. Yeah right. He knew he was on video and audio. That's why he said it.
Kerry's not a great candidate. He's a big money politician with an atrocious voting record. But this was a nice trick, which means he's hired some decent group of "lying cheating bastards" to run against Shrub's lying cheating bastards. It's a tough act to top, Bushy boy has one of the best propaganda machines in history behind him. This "off the record" trick was smooth. I hope we see more on both sides. Politics, if it's not going to be for the good of anyone except a few rich elites, should at least be entertaining.

Evil Vs. Free Will

I've been thinking a lot about the problem of free will vs. the problem of evil. Mainly because it's become the center theme of the novel I'm working on right now. The argument, for those not familiar, has been bandied about for centuries. The non-believer in God says, "If God is omniscient (a universally accepted charectaristic of the Judeo/Christian/Islamic God commonly referred to as Jehovah) then I cannot do evil because everything I do is predetermined and pre-known by God." But, "God can't do evil because he is, by definition, good and loving." So how is there evil?
"Free will." Is the answer.
"But how do we have free will if God knows everything? Can you honestly tell me I have a choice if there is anyone anywhere who can guarantee with 100% certainty what I'm going to do? That doesn't sound very free to me."
And so we spin and spin in circles.
Still, there are more people in America who believe in this version of God than don't.
I don't believe in it, but the Gnostic conception of the same God is much more interesting, and I think satisfying. In this version, God isn't actually God. He's a flawed, angry creature who is the manifestation of the smallest bit of the real God. That's why we die. That's why there's sin. We've been worshiping the wrong God all this time. Jehovah created the world of matter to try to recreate his hazy memories of the true realm of God. He's insane and basically evil. He's jealous becuase humans were given the "breath of life" (a soul) by the parent as consolation for being created out of matter and having to go through the trauma of living and dying.
What are the charectaristics of the Gnostic God, a figure referred to in their writings as "The Parent?" It's all about balance and the harmony of opposites. It favors neither opposite but chooses the middle path, all things at rest, calm like a pond. In other words, it's Buddhist.
There have been exactly ZERO wars started by Buddhists. What if the Western conception of God had been Buddhist instead of what it is. Everything would be different. I imagine it would be better but there's no real way to say one way or the other. (The grass is always greener after all, and Buddhist priests are hardly beyond the kind of petty corruption found everywhere in everything.) Of course, the fact that things are the way they are might not be the result of our choices. We could easily be on invisible strings that we can no more fight than the urge to pee. I don't think so, but he'd want me to think that wouldn't he?
I think I'll be done with the novel by June 2004 so I'll probably have more to say on this subject once the story works itself out.

Censorship

MoveOn.Org has had a rough year. First they had their commercial censored from the Superbowl even though they were willing to pony up the ridiculous amont of cash necessary to run it. Instead we got tits and horse farts and old people erection pills.
Now the Republican National Committee wants to ban MoveOn's newest set of ads as a violation of campaign finance laws. The RNC who steals Democratic files illegally? Yeah, that RNC. The article is here.
Everyday its something. Yeesh.

Anthony Scalia is a Rat

I know this story isn't exactly brand new but I just came across it and it too falls under the "Why the hell isn't this on the front page of every newspaper in America" column.
Dick Cheney has refused for a couple of years now to so much as release a list of people he met with in creating the W administration's energy policy. It is a well known secret that most of the people his Lord Voldemort talked to were multinational energy corporations who many groups have accused of literally writing the energy policy. (There are too many to link to, just google search Dick Cheney Energy Policy controversy.)
Cheney keeps getting sued over it and in January the Supreme Court upheld the idea that he didn't have to release the records. Anthony Scalia, Supreme Court Justice was apparently playing golf with Cheney A WEEK before he ruled on the case. Bad enough, apparently he then did the same thing with another guy, a Kansas Law School Dean.
Scalia was also one of two justices, Clarence Thomas being the other, who had family members who directly benefitted from W stealing the election. Impeachment proceedings should be well on their way. But they're not, and they surely won't be for some time. Are there any non-criminals in government right now?

The Meatrix

I'm not a super big animal rights activist, more because I think we have humanity problems that should take priority. But I definitely am not in favor of factory animal production. I came across this site called "The Meatrix." It's really clever and gets it's point across without feeling the need to show you nasty slaughtered animal remains.

The Shrubster cashes in on other people's pain

Bush's new "campaign ads" (Read- propaganda campaign) have the gall to show footage of 9-11. This is hardly surprising. I can absolutely guarantee they're going to use that fake-ass picture of Saddam Hussein too.

Still. I think this is important. Let's look at what our President actually did when he heard a plane crashed into the world trade center. This man has a hazier sense of reality than Nixon did. Yet the country is split 50/50 over the man. Apparantly half of us are crazy. Good times.

Watergate Reloaded

Remember Watergate? Nixon's gestapo broke into the Democratic offices at the now infamous hotel. THis led, eventually, to Nixon's downfall. Well it turns out our friends in the GOP have been at it again.

" A three-month investigation by the Senate's top law enforcement officer found a systematic downloading of thousands of Democratic computer files by Republican staffers over the past few years as well as serious flaws in the chamber's computer security system. " According to the Washington Post.

Again, somehow this isn't news. I wonder how many gay marriages were performed today?

Rich People

Today I'd like to say a little bit about rich people. Not, gee I can afford to go out to eat every night at a fancy restaurant rich. I mean really, really rich. I mean this rich:

1. William Gates III, U.S., 48, $46.6, Microsoft
2. Warren Buffett, U.S., 73, $42.9, Berkshire Hathaway
3. Karl Albrecht, Germany, 84, $23, supermarkets
4. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, Saudi Arabia, 47, $21.5, investments
5. Paul Allen, U.S., 51, $21, Microsoft, investments
6. Alice Walton, U.S., 55, $20, Wal-Mart
6. Helen Walton, U.S., 84, $20, Wal-Mart
6. Jim Walton, U.S., 56, $20, Wal-Mart
6. John Walton, U.S., 58, $20, Wal-Mart
6. S. Robson Walton, U.S., 60, $20, Wal-Mart

These numbers are in BILLIONS. You notice these people are almost all from the US. In the United States there are 275 billionaires whose worth combines for 908 BILLION. That's a lotta meatballs! I want to focus especially on #6. The Wal-mart family. Wal-mart sucks. They don't pay their managers shit. They refuse to allow unions. They've been responsible for the loss of literally millions of small business jobs. The family's worth combines for 100 Billion dollars. Since the current world population is around 6 billion the Wal-mart family has the cash to buy every single person on the planet earth a Value Meal at McDonalds.
Or even better. This one stupid family could end world hunger. All by themselves. It's the least they could do to make up for their staggering greed.
What will it cost to feeed the world? According to the UN it will take an estimated $5 billion a year to solve world hunger. Together they could make sure no one on the entire planet starved for twenty years!! When people complain about the tax cuts for the rich, THESE are the people we are talking about. Rich people are not a family making a combined 150,000 dollars a year. Rich is 5 million and above. Rich is Billions. And there aren't that many of these people. A few thousand in a world of billions. Are we really still so naive to even suggest there are a few thousand people who deserve to be worth a Billion dollars? They aren't. No one is.
I'm not a socialist or a capitalist. (I think there should be a hybrid. Food, clothing, shelter, health care, education is socialized, everything else can be capitalism) But we need to revoke inheritance laws for amounts over, I don't know, 20 million dollars a person. If you cannot live on 20 million, you'all can kiss my ass.

Remember the other day (2/28) when I gave that link about us going to war in Pakistan in the spring? Well it's definitely going to happen. But at least W made some kind of a deal first. Story here.
At the same time there's increasing rumblings that we're gonna get out of Iraq before the election. THis could be really good, or more likely, really bad. I'm undoubtably a "Bring the boys back home" guy. I want the men and women of the armed forces to be removed from their illegal, unfortunate position. My fear is that W is just yanking them out of Iraq so that they'd be available to go into whatever country is next on his radar. This Haiti thing stinks more by the hour, but it's not even a story on the news. We've taken out 3 countries now. I'm hoping the number doesn't rise any higher.

Super Tuesday

John Kerry's the nominee. Big whoop.

But there's something else going on as well. For the entire election cycle I've been complaining that Dennis Kucinich is getting the Nader treatment mainly because the media doesn't want an anti-corporate candidate to get any attention. He's still not getting any, but he has gotten himself on most of the ballots and he is getting into the debates which has raised his exposure slightly. Sure, the media's doing their best not to ask Kucinich any questions in the debates, but his message is able to trickle out in starts and stops. And the polls are reflecting it. I'm not trying to overstate this, he's a distant 3rd right now. But after initially being perpetually stuck with 2% of the vote (The percentage of progressive and politically aware people who delve into this stuff make up about 2% See- Nader voters.) Dennis is doing better. In Minnesota, New York, and Ohio (his home state) he did quite well with 17/5/9 % respectively. Like I said, not spectacular, but improving- especially Minnesota. It seems to indicate the more people know he's there, the more votes he's attracting. It seems obvious, yet the indication is actually quite depression. No TV, no votes. Lots of TV, votes. So the media can, like Sharpton says, "Pick the candidate for the people" Not a good thing.
Kerry is going to get creamed because there are a huge number of basically progressive people who don't vote because the democrats cannot find a non-wanker to run for office. It happened to Gore (and he still won) and it's gonna happen to Kerry. I would like to see a candidate like Kucinich get his message out for one reason. I want to see what happens. It's easy to pontificate about the size of the untapped progressive base. If, just once, the corporate whores would let a candidate with a progressive message into the mainstream coverage we would see whether people voted for them or not.
Everyone is voting for Kerry because the media is telling us "He can beat Bush." No he can't. And even if he could, he will continue being the same crap-ass corporate slave he is now. The AFLCIO gives him an endorsement and he's still in favor of NAFTA. Please. Edwards, same deal. So, of course, the media's gonna say that.
I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist, but come on. There doesn't have to be collusion of any kind. All five of the giant Media Corps can do the equation on their own. Big money corporate candidate helps who? Why big corporations of course. An Anti-corporate candidate? S/He helps workers and the environment. (Walmart absolutely refuses to allow their workers to unionize, they buy a whole lot of commercials) S/He fights against the military industrial complex (NBC owned by GE who makes all kinds of weapons stuff) and basically tries to reign in the out of control ,madness of international conglomerations. (Halliburton Halliburton Halliburton) The media doesn't want that. No gigantic company wants that. So we get stuck with Kush and Berry. Again. Yippee.

Haiti

As usual the truth that is beginning to trickle out about Haiti bears almost no comparison to the truth as its understood by everyone on the planet except the white House. Aristide didn't leave Haiti voluntarily. We made him. Now, as per usual I should point out that I'm not a very big Aristide supporter. He's an autocrat with a crappy human rights record, but in an argument that starting to get stale I'm forced to use it so often with this white house, this DOES NOT give us the right to throw him out of his country. He was elected, whether we like it or not. Aristide's election was, all things considered, MORE legitimate than Shrub's. There's a whole plethora of stories on this here

Why we're culpable. Again. Haiti, you may remember was a hot spot all through the 90's. Everyone from us to the UN did their best to calm things down in this terribly poor nation. A lot of progress was made, even if things were in no way perfect. But they held elections and Aristide, took power. He was deposed after a coup d' tat but was reinstated by international decree. So things went through the 90's. Then Shrub gets elected and his admin. makes it clear that he doesn't give a rat's ass about Haiti and there are rumors that we funneled money to the rebels there. (We won't know the truth about this for 10 years) What is incontrovertible is the tacit approval Bush's minions gave to the violence that is happening there right now. By saying outright the US wouldn't step in to stop the violence over the past 3 weeks or so BushInc. was giving the rebels the green light to try to take the country. This understanding of events may have been subject to interpretation. I was glad when I heard Aristide left on his own- we shouldn't have encouraged the rebels, but it was an internal affair (assuming we were not giving the rebels cash). But then Aristide comes on TV and says, "I didn't want to go. The US made me." Now, if there was any question as to what Bushco wanted, it's gone. Once again we've shat on democracy, and I won't be a bit surprised if Bush comes on TV at some point and says we did what we did (or didn't do) in Haiti to protect democracy. If he was ready to go on his own, good. If not. Well the man was elected and as much as we might not like him, that's the way democracy works, not matter how much that fact causes furrows of confusion to appear on Shrub's overprivelaged brow.
America has become so Orwellian it almost seems pointless to talk about anymore. Once again we are openly meddling in the affairs of foreign powers. Will anyone even say the word "war crimes?" I doubt it. But they probably should.

Lord of the Rings and the replacement of Cheney

Well, it won everything. Clearly the oscar voters were rewarding the entire series and not just the Return of the King. I was torn, Lost in Translation is a great movie, it was the best movie this year. LOTR is the best movie over the past three years. It almost should have it's own category. There is mere mortal film and then there's LOTR which was directed by a man who by all reports is an actual hobbit.

In the news, there's a rumor, originally floated by the MSNBC gossip columnist that Cheney is getting replaced, most likely by Guliani. I think the funniest thing about it is anyone's ability to know how much of it is bullshit. This white house is so closed that nearly anything could actually be happening in there. For all we know of Bush's decision making process he's reading the cracks in chicken bones. Paul O Neill was the Secretary of the treasury and according to Suskind's book with him The Price of Loyalty, Bush never really gave any sign he followed or cared about the substantive points of any given debate. His mind was made up when he walked into the meeting. How he came to the decision is a mystery. So maybe Cheney's out, maybe he's not. Not like it really matters. He could go back to Halliburton and duck out of those nasty question about him and selective intelligence reading and those ever-present energy meeting questions. Or they could reinstall him in Rumsfeld's job and Rummy could knock Powell out of the administration. Powell's been battling the WH all along on everything (Iraq, Afghanisatn etc.) in spite of playing ball in the end on every occasion. The whole thing could just be a trial balloon. Rove makes a call and sees what happens...

Oh yeah, we're finally going to Haiti. Too little too late.

Now it turns out that the US was probably bugging Hans Bilx's offices in New York. This comes amid allegations we did the same to Kofi Annan.
"As well as the claim that Mr Annan was bugged, another former secretary general, Boutros-Boutros Gali, also expressed suspicions yesterday. Richard Butler, a predecessor of Mr Blix as chief UN weapons inspector, joined in too, saying it was "plainly silly" to think his phone calls were not being monitored during his tenure."
These are our allies. How would you feel if your friends felt the need to bug your house?
Read the story here

everyone should watch Now with Bill Moyers on PBS every Sunday on Channel 11 (wttw0chicago) at noon. It's the most progressive news cast on TV.

I'm watching the Democratic "debate" and Al Sharpton just called the media out something fierce. For ten minutes the debate goes back and forth between Kerry and Edwards, completely ignoring Kucinich and Sharpton. Finally Al speaks up. "Is this a four or a two man debate?" He demands. Dan Rather tries to defend himself by saying that the people have spoken and they want to hear from viable candidates. Al blows up. He points at Edwards. "The people have not spoken. This man won one single primary. That's it. One. You're trying to decide who the nominee is. You're trying to pick and choose candidates. If this is only a 2 person debate, if you want to choose the nominee, please just admit it." (paraphrase) It gets better after that but still 4 out of 5 questions are to Kerry/Edwards and Sharpton and Kucinich are given 10 seconds to answer instead of the 30 Kerry/Edwards get. Kucinich is getting more opportunities than Sharpton. They're mostly ignoring Dennis and completely ignoring Al. It's really frustrating. Al's a great speaker, they should let the man talk.

Elisabeth Bumiller (NY Times- one of the moderates) is an idiot. She keeps cutting people off, not to force them to answer the question, but to change the subject to something else. She actually just asked Kerry if he's learned how to be likable from Edwards? That's simply not a question. Even Dan Rather was like, whatever you loon, and totally recast the question. He asks, "Does Sen. Kerry have enough Elvis to beat GW." Yeah, he really raised the bar. Morons. Bumiller asked Edwards a good question on gay marriage though.

Kucinich and Sharpton are actually answering questions. Kerry and Edwards (Kerry is much worse.) are just mush talking. Dennis keeps trying to call out Kerry on Iraq. "Answer the question John." Of course he doesn't.

Elisabeth Bumiller actually said that John Kerry was the most liberal senator. That's like calling a cat a whale. Dennis then defines what liberal is. John Kerry isn't. He's offering "mainstream American values." Kucinich is like, "I'm a liberal. I'm progressive. Kerry/Edwards are not."

Fucking Bumiller just asked, "Is God on America's side?" What the hell kind of question is that? Did she really just ask that? We Americans really freak me out. It was the last question. Fitting.