College...

... Those were the days. Free from most life's responsibilities we had so much time to play around and just have fun. Good ol'days.



Some of us looked rather swave, if I might add!

RIP

RIP Terri Schiavo

Terri Schiavo, 41, Dies in Fla. Hospice

Update:

: MSNBC just reported that Bush will make a live statement about Schiavo at the start of a statement about WMD. He doesn't make live statements about the soldiers who die in Iraq but he makes a statement about this.

Her death is political to the end.

From BuzzMachine.

Dear War Supporter

I came across this wonderful quote here.

"''I have to infer from that (statement) that you would be happier if Saddam Hussein were still in power.' - Paul Wolfowitz.

'It's the classic retort given by neocons and other war supporters when anyone questions the wisdom of the Iraq War. … But let's say I get disturbed by a spider crawling the garage wall. I slam the car into it at 50 miles an hour, destroying the car and causing a few thousand dollars in damage to the garage. When my wife objects, I say: 'I have to infer from that statement that you would be happier if that spider were still crawling up the wall.' No, schmuck, she says, I'd be happier if we still had a car and didn't have to fork out ten thousand dollars to fix the garage.'"

Democracy? We Don't Need No Stinkin Democracy.

Someone tell the Bushies that this is not Iraq.

"Three Denver residents yesterday charged that they were forcibly removed from one of President Bush's town meetings on Social Security because they displayed a bumper sticker on their car condemning the administration's Middle East policies.

The three, all self-described progressives who oppose Bush's Social Security plan, said an unidentified official at an event in Denver last week forced them to leave before the president started to speak, even though they had done nothing disruptive, said their attorney, Dan Recht."

Three Were Told to Leave Bush Town Meeting

A Comment on the SFI...

I think this comment sums it all up rather well.

A very valid comment about the SFI

A Week of Kindness? My ass...

And here is this stupid fucking idiot (SFI) who for a laugh has played around with someone's academic career. The long and the short of the story is that he gets an IM from a kid looking for someone to write a paper for her. She indicates that she is willing to pay for the service. The SFI tells himself that he could use this for laugh. He then arranges to write a shitty paper for the kid--one that would surely make the professor wonder--and then plans to notify the Dean after the kid has turned the paper in for her grade. The little SFI then proceeds to posting all this on his blog available via the Internet for all to see.

He then sends the shitty paper to the kid, get her money (and her real name). The SFI also omits to mention that he had not notified the Dean when he told everyone that he had.

What happens next is that the story gets circulated around the Internet. Hundreds of people become aware of the first and last name of the kid along with the name of her college. Needless to say that evidently many calls begin to land at the Dean's Office regarding this event--the Dean then calls the kid asking for explanation. Further, people begin calling the kid's home.

Public embarrassment ensues.

And all this... for a laugh. So the SFI can feel good about himself thinking he has had the opportunity to teach the kid a lesson. So the SFI thought.

Here is the SFI now:
"God, I honestly had no idea this would become an Internet-wide thing. My imagination had told me that this could be a funny story kept between me, her school, and a couple dozen friends of mine who visit this site. Maybe we’d get a couple extra people out to our sketch shows. But it’s done, we’re here, and you can’t go home again. Time to share the new developments, and some old ones I may have neglected to tell you."

You SFI! You had no idea that the Internet was the Internet? You SFI! Oh, how much I loath self righteous mother fuckers who permit themselves to play the role of some sort of a Messiah and cloak their cruelty in self righteous wiles reaching at the bottom of the pit o’shit eating and reveling in it.

So what did the kid learn?
1- That next time make sure she takes more precautions should she find the need to plagiarize and ask for help over the Internet;
2- That committing fraud, and lying and conniving to get someone you only suspect of dishonesty into trouble is OK;
3- That people laugh and applaud the one who lies, commits fraud and knowingly and deliberately misleads a kid into a trap.

You SFI.

You wanted to teach her a lesson? You could have directed her to places where she would be able to find her way to a 5-page paper.

You wanted to teach her a lesson? You could have advise her that plagiarism is not ethical.

You wanted to teach her a lesson? You could have refused to participate in her scheme instead of becoming a willing participant and perpetrate a fraud upon her and invade her privacy such as you did.

You SFI.

No, You did not want to teach her a lesson. You wanted to hurt her. You wanted to humiliate her. You wanted to burn her. You are no teacher. You are a fraud.

Bravo! You SFI... Bravo!

A Week of Kindness Blog

You need to remove "%5bremove%20this%5d" inside the URL--I did not want to give unnecessary additional links to this SFI's blog- at least so far as Google is concerned.

It's The Money Stupid... (Take 2)

Via Billmon

"The parents of Terri Schiavo have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters, making it likely that thousands of strangers moved by her plight will receive a steady stream of solicitations from anti-abortion and conservative groups.

'These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri,' says a description of the list on the Web site of the firm, Response Unlimited, which is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo's father."

The New York Times story here.
It's The Money Stupid... Take 1.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Media

Ummm... The Bush Administration seem to have forgotten to tell them Iraqis that the first rule in Democracy is the People's oversight in the going ons of the Government... Unless of course the entire thing is for show only then one can understand that the media would be locked out when things do not take place according to pre-approved plans.

"Then officials ordered a ban on media coverage when criticism started being voiced over the intercommunal deadlock."

Splits paralyse Iraqi parliament

"If it doesn't fit...

... you must acquit"

RIP Johnnie Cochran.

Brace Yourself for the Future

"Herbert Hoover was vilified for doing nothing about the depression that followed the stock market crash. When we look back on the years of George W. Bush we will marvel at his failure to lead, especially his failure to inform the public that our habits of daily life would have to change, that we could not continue to burn twenty million barrels of oil a day, and spend money we hadn't earned; that we desperately had to reform our suburban land development habits, that the WalMarts and other predatory corporations had to be restrained in their systematic destruction of local economies, that our railroads needed to be rebuilt, that our borders needed to be defended, that our local small farmers needed to be supported, that our industries needed to be re-scaled and retained here, that corporate chiseling had to be policed, that finance had to be qualitatively different than a craps game in some casino.

The Hooverization of George W. Bush has begun."

The Hooverization of Bush

It Sure Is Good to Know

Via Airbagindustries — Green: "Let me make this perfectly clear, crystal clear:

If ever I am in some kind of an accident or suffer some unknown natural cause that turns me into a human vegetable do me a favor and take out the food tube. And leave it out, for good. Don’t pull it out and put it back in like how you play with the vacuum wand on your hand.

Unless you can make me sound like Darth Vader, then by all means put me in a black cape, throw the helmet over my head and charge fan boys to have their picture taken next to me. Don’t worry about flash photography because at that point I could stare directly at the sun and it wouldn’t phase me.

Also, should some asshat politician try to champion my 'right-to-life' cause in order to take media attention away from his criminal investigation, tell him that I said to go blow smoke out of his rear and face the music like a man.

Let me have the dignity to pass away while you can still remember who I was when the upstairs lights were still on and people were home. I'd rather be in Heaven hanging out with the Good Lord than a human cadaver in some stupid hospital, staring at ceiling tiles all day long."

This holds true for yours truly as well.

Is No One Accountable?

Evidently not. Rumsfeld is still in office isn't he?

"he Bush administration is desperately trying to keep the full story from emerging. But there is no longer any doubt that prisoners seized by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have been killed, tortured, sexually humiliated and otherwise grotesquely abused.

These atrocities have been carried out in an atmosphere in which administration officials have routinely behaved as though they were above the law, and thus accountable to no one. People have been rounded up, stripped, shackled, beaten, incarcerated and in some cases killed, without being offered even the semblance of due process. No charges. No lawyers. No appeals."

Is No One Accountable?

Quote

"War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.
– Percy Bysshe Shelley"

fatfood

Will This Ever End?

Will the Bushs and the Legislature weigh in on this issue as well?

"With the legal battle to keep Terri Schiavo alive all but over, her husband and her parents are now disputing what should happen to her body.

Michael Schiavo, who won his fight to have his wife's feeding tube removed by court order 10 days ago, has made arrangements for her to be cremated and her ashes interred in his family's plot in Pennsylvania.

But Bob and Mary Schindler want their daughter, a churchgoer until her collapse in 1990, to have a Roman Catholic funeral service and be buried near their home in Clearwater, Florida."

Schiavo's relatives in row over funeral

It's A Long Road

"While Westerners are transfixed by the occasional kidnapping of one of their own here, Iraqis are far more vulnerable. As many as 5,000 Iraqis have been kidnapped in the last year and a half, according to Western and Iraqi security officials."

Rings That Kidnap Iraqis Thrive on Big Threats and Bigger Profits

Persepolis

" The two volumes of Persepolis, the implacably witty and fearless "graphic memoir" of the Iranian illustrator Marjane Satrapi, relate through an inseparable fusion of cartoon images and verbal narrative the story of a privileged young girl's childhood experience of Iran's revolution of 1979, its eight-year war with Iraq, her exile to Austria during her high school years, and her subsequent experience as a university student, young artist, and wife in Tehran after her return to Iran from Europe in 1998. That Persepolis 1, a book in which it is almost impossible to find an image distinguished enough to consider an independent piece of visual art, and equally difficult to find a sentence which in itself surpasses the serviceable, emerges as a work so fresh, absorbing, and memorable is an extraordinary achievement."

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return

by Marjane Satrapi

All That Makes One Wonder

But living wills, while desirable, are only part of the package of documents that Americans today should have in order to resolve not only end-of-life issues but also broader questions that arise from serious medical conditions.

Experts recommend that the medical and end-of-life documents be part of a broad estate plan, one that includes a regular will and perhaps trusts and other legal instructions that will result in an orderly disposition of a person's property and affairs in ways that minimize family strife, taxes and other costs.

"That's ideal," said attorney Deborah A. Cohn of Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg, Eig & Cooper in Bethesda, "but frankly, if the only issues a person is willing to address are these medical ones, [doing that] at least . . . solves that problem."

It Takes More Than Living Will

Clever!

We all have heard about thieves hitting museums and stealing from it some art work... This is the contrary of that act. Clever!!! Very clever!!!

"A Wooster Exclusive: Banksy Hits New York's Most Famous Museums (All of them)"

Culture Jamming

Fantastic!!!

This is truly precious!

Photography

Occasionally I come across great photography sites. This one is amongst the ones where the photography is very out of the ordinary, creative and there is something deeper in them that I find very emotional.

Oh Yes... Freedom and Democracy!

Thank you Mr. Bush. What a savior you and your cohorts are. We really really love you.

Afghan Women's Mission has found that:

* Warlords still dominate Afghanistan

* Outside Kabul, women are still fearful of being in public spaces

* Refugees returning from Pakistan find misery in Afghanistan

* Women's unemployment is rampant

* Rural women's healthcare is dismal

* Education for girls is dismal

* Women have no political freedom

* Independent media are under constant threat

"Why is it these stories aren't getting covered? A lack of coverage has led to an enormous drop in our donations - our projects for Afghan women and girls are being scaled down because donors assume Afghanistan is free, democratic and independent. Nothing could be further from the truth!"

And so is Iraq to follow?

Photographie: expression du corps

Great photography.

Photographie: expression du corps

Happy Easter?

It's the Money Stupid...

"That is what I see as the blessing that dear Terri's life is offering to the conservative Christian movement in America," says Rev. Lou Sheldon whose organization Traditional Value Coalition has been raising money using Schiavo as a tool.

Conservatives Invoke Case in Fund-Raising Campaigns

Payback Time...

So it is that special time after the elections...

"MBNA Corp., the credit card behemoth and fifth-largest contributor to Bush's two presidential campaigns, is among those on the verge of prevailing in an eight-year fight to curtail personal bankruptcies. Exxon Mobil Corp. and others are close to winning the right to drill for oil in Alaska's wildlife refuge, which they have tried to pass for better than a decade. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., another big contributor to Bush and the GOP, and other big companies recently won long-sought protections from class-action lawsuits."

Business Sees Gain In GOP Takeover

Ol' Pinochet Couldn't Have Done It Better.

"A military tribunal determined last fall that Murat Kurnaz, a German national seized in Pakistan in 2001, was a member of al Qaeda and an enemy combatant whom the government could detain indefinitely at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

[...]

"In fact, that evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities."

[...]

"Kurnaz has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since at least January 2002.

"The U.S. government has known for almost two years that he's innocent of these charges," said Baher Azmy, Kurnaz's attorney. "That begs a lot of questions about what the purpose of Guantanamo really is. He can't be useful to them. He has no intelligence for them. Why in the world is he still there?""

Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee

The DIDDLY award

"AND THE WINNER IS...Katherine Harris, who later apologized, sorta, saying, 'I regret that I had no knowledge of the sensitive nature of this situation,' adding that 'the story' she had shared 'illustrated the need for each of us to remain alert and vigilant in fighting terrorism.'"

The DIDDLY award

Anything for a Gain!

Wrong Premise

If you assume that the Democratic Party is in fact the party of opposition and the party to stand up for the working class, then you may indeed find that the Democrats have been MIA. However, the premise is wrong. The democrats are no longer what they have portrayed themselves to be. Viewed under this new light, they are not MIA--in fact very much to the contrary they have been willing participants in the masquerade we call Congress.

"After giving George W. Bush far too easy a ride in his first term, the Democratic leadership in Congress promised that the second term was going to be different. 'This is not a dictatorship,' announced Senate minority leader Harry Reid. The new head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel, declared, 'The President neither has the mandate he thinks he has nor a majority to make policy.' But three months of watching the Democrats' stumbling, often incoherent responses to Administration appointments and initiatives shows clearly that the party is making the same mistakes that cost it so dearly in the 2002 and 2004 elections."

Democrats:MIA

Iranian Art

"Ms. Homa Taraji is the president of Paradi Corporation, an international fine arts company based in Los Angeles with focus on contemporary Iranian art. Since 2002, Paradi has organized several successful exhibitions of contemporary Iranian paintings in Los Angeles, New York and Houston. "

Homa Taraji
Paradi

Shideh Tami

See more here.

Is Anyone Surprised?

" Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats."

Iran Stockpiling High-Tech Small Arms

Good Reads!

The Convent of Hell, Butterscotch... The Art of Spanking... You can find it all here!

Comix

Quote

"The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.' 'To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art."

-- US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Fear Works...

Evidently the current atmosphere of fear has now (or was it there before?) spread into the world of selling products. Here is a response to Symantec's statements about Macintosh computers becoming more and more a target for the hackers and viruses...

Symantec's Self-Serving Ravings Spread Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt about OS X Security

What is Good For The Goose...

... Is certainly good for the gander.

"In a speech Monday to a two-day conference on nuclear energy for the 21st century, Constance Morella, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, told the audience of government officials and nuclear experts from more than 70 countries that American support of nuclear energy 'has never been stronger.

Nuclear energy is clean, reliable, necessary for the world to have a secure energy supply and "a benefit to humankind," she said. She quoted a study estimating that the global energy demand is expected to rise by about 60 percent over the next 25 years."

Iran and the U.S. have one thing in common

Some Man of Action!!!

From Today's Salon.com:

On Aug. 6, 2001, George W. Bush was given a Presidential Daily Brief that carried the headline: 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' The president went fishing. On Sept. 11, 2001, Andy Card told Bush: 'America is under attack.' The president continued to listen to a second-grade class read 'The Pet Goat.' On Dec. 26, 2004, Bush learned that a massive tsunami had caused unimaginable devastation all around the Indian Ocean. The president waited three days before making any public comment.

But let the record show, when important issues demand presidential action, George W. Bush is a man of action. The House of Representatives passed emergency legislation in the Terri Schiavo case just after midnight this morning, and the president was on it immediately."

"George W. Bush, man of action"

Sue Google?

Via: clarkstooksbury

Stephen Schwartz has been having fits because Justin Raimondo linked to a copyrighted picture of him in his Antiwar.com column last Friday. Schwartz seems to have problems understanding that a link simply points in the direction of another webpage. Perhaps he should sue Google."

State Rights... What State Rights?

I though the Republicans were the Party of State Rights and frowned upon the Feds' intervention into the State's affairs and blah blah blah and yadi yadi yada... States this and States that...! And then we have this:

"The House gave final Congressional approval early today to legislation that would allow a federal court to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, and the measure was signed quickly at the White House by President Bush, who flew back to Washington from his Texas ranch on Sunday."

Congress Passes and Bush Signs Legislation on Schiavo Case

What Would Jesus Wear?

"Tomorrow, Christ on the cross will be selling socks."

I do not see the why the "Last Supper" cannot be used to sell socks, pants or any other item of clothing. Jesus and Co. have been selling BS for more than 2000 years... so what is the problem with selling some shorts in addition?

French court bans Christ advert

Never Ends...

Be careful. This image is hypnotizing...

Here...

How Time Flows

I came across these family websites where they take a picture of themselves at a given date, each yea, year after year. I find it fascinating to see how time affects people, the changes they go through both physically as they grow older and visually as their views of themselves change from each to the next.

Absolutely fascinating.

Diego Family
Raj & Anut
Diego, Eli & Martin

Is This Really...

... The End?

Amazing...

Isn't it?

A Thumb On the World's Pulse

Now this is interesting:

"For both breaking news and obscure information alike, people around the world search Google. This flurry of searches often exposes interesting trends, patterns, and surprises."

Google Press Center: Zeitgeist

The Little Detail Overlooked by The White House

"Nearly three-quarters of workers who opt for Social Security personal accounts under President Bush's 'default' investment option are likely to earn less in benefits than those who stay with the traditional Social Security system, a prominent finance economist has concluded.

A new paper by Yale University economist Robert J. Shiller found that under Bush's default 'life-cycle accounts,' which shift assets from stocks to bonds over a worker's lifetime, nearly a third of workers would bring in less in benefits than if they remained in the traditional system. That analysis is based on historical rates of return in the United States. Using global rates of return, which Shiller says more closely track future conditions, life-cycle portfolios could be expected to fall short of the traditional system's returns 71 percent of the time."

Retirement Accounts Questioned

Thanks to TheStakeholder

Do Onto Others...

The official National Defense Policy now includes "preemtive strikes" where necessary and without the participation, notification or approval of our allies or the United Nations.

Common sense has now completely left the mind of the current policy makers. The Preemptive Strike Policy is sure to invite more attacks against the United States and the creation of a more terroristic world rather then the opposite. Perhaps this is the exact result intended because any 3rd grade student would be able to tell you that if one person believes that it is OK for him to go around slapping kids in the face if he feels threatened by them, it is only natural that other kids will act exactly the same by planning on slapping that kid before he slaps them... and there, my friends, lies the true recipe for chaos--Which incidently is a world in which the Neo-cons thrive!

Perpetual fear, perpetual war, perpetual terror. It has worked for them so far...

It's Downhill From Here...

Fuck!

Back in 1998 when the Inernet was getting more and more commercial I wrote about the fact that the Internet was going the same route as TV went back in the 50s and was fast becoming simply a tool for the delivery of commercials and advertising. Content back in 1998 on the Internet was already dwindling... and fast.

Now we have this from GM's Vice Chairman:

"'This is the first of many commentaries I will make on this forum,' wrote General Motors Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz in January when he first started his blog, fastlane.gmblogs.com, 'and I'd like to begin with, surprise, some product talk -- specifically, Saturn products.'"

Oh goody... let's us hear about them Saturn products Bob. That is why we are here for.

More PR Than No-Holds-Barred On Bosses' Corporate Blogs

Playing Into the Conservative Agenda

"despite the obvious cable-news-and-blogger code that you have to have an opinion about everything. Part of what's so dispiriting about this place at this time is the sense that, in a totally non-economic sense, the public sector is crowding out the private sector (almost a reverse of what the Administration is trying to do economically--see the BBC's report on the original plans for Iraq's oil, and try to find the good guys in that tussle between the neocons and the oil companies). Laci and Scott Peterson were private people having a private tragedy. Their lives were literally none of our business. Same with [the Schiavo family]. I understand that in both cases, the stories were ginned up because they played into the social-conservative agenda, but that's no reason for everybody to jump in. So my lips are zipped.

-- Harry Shearer"

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: March 13, 2005 - March 19, 2005 Archives

Events of March 18, 2005 in Chicago - Peace Demonstrations

Chicago, IL
No To War and Occupation
Saturday, March 19th 2005 14:00 Central Time
Federal Plaza, Adams and Dearborn St., Chicago
With feeder marches across the city (see below)

The U.S. government uses our tax dollars to bankroll occupations in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, threaten military intervention against Iran and Syria, support right-wing regimes in countries that include Colombia and Haiti, and overthrow the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. The hundreds of billions of dollars our government spends on war and occupation could instead fund affordable health care, housing, education, social security, public transportation and a host of other social and economic needs at right here at home. Send the government a message. Join us on March 19.

We are currently battling for our constitutional rights to free speech and public assembly, and are seeking legal action to force the City of Chicago to honor our right to assemble and march according to the scenario proposed below:

For more info and updates on the court battle for our constitutional rights, email ccawr@aol.com or call 773-209-1187.

Organized by the March 19 Chicago Coalition.


Chicagoland 2nd Protest against the Iraq War
Saturday, March 19th 2005 12 noon
STAND UP FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES AT HOME and
SELF DETERMINATION ABROAD
Protest against the Iraq War
Chicago 2 PM Saturday March 19, 2005 Federal Plaza Adams & Dearborn St.


No to War & Occupation! Bring the Troops Home NOW!
Saturday, March 19th 2005 12 noon
A March and Rally for Civil Liberties at Home and Self-Determination Abroad.


RSVP • PALESTINE SOLIDARITY FEEDER MARCH
Saturday, March 19th 2005 10:30am

The PALESTINE SOLIDARITY feeder march in Chicago will begin with a brief rally at the Israeli Consulate. At 11:15AM, we will march to the starting point (Michigan & Oak St) for beginning of the main March 19 protest march..


Downtown March to M19 Rally
Saturday, March 19th 2005 Noon CT

Feeder marches from across the city will converge on Oak Street just west of Michigan Avenue for the main procession to Federal Plaza. The site selection is significant as the place where hundreds of peaceful protesters were arrested on the night of the 2003 invasion protest.


Lesson of Iraq: War is Not the Answer
Sunday, March 20th 2005 3:00 pm

Lessons of Iraq: War is Not the Answer - Pursuing the Path to Peace

Program at the Temple will be followed by short procession to
outdoor flag lowering ceremony and silent vigil

Hear:
Lila Lipscomb, mother of Michael, who was killed in Iraq. Lila was featured in Fahrenheit 911

Abdul Malik Mujahid, Chair, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago

Rabbi Bruce Elder, Congregation Hakafa

Deyar Gamil, Iraqi-American

Debbie Lucey, sister of Jeffrey, a Marine who committed suicide shortly after returning from Iraq


Download flyer


No to War and Occupation! Bring the Troops HOME NOW!
12:00
Yearly Event
No to War and Occupation!
Bring the Troops HOME NOW!

-------------------------------------------------------------

March and Rally for Civil Liberties at Home and Self-Determination Abroad.
Saturday - March 19 - Chicago

Noon March: Assemble Oak St. between Michigan and Rush [proposed]

2 PM Rally: Federal Plaza, Adams and Dearborn St., Chicago

-With feeder marches across the city

The U.S. government uses our tax dollars to bankroll occupations in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, threaten military intervention against Iran and Syria, support right-wing regimes in countries that include Colombia and Haiti, and overthrow the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. The hundreds of billions of dollars our government spends on war and occupation could instead fund affordable health care, housing, education, social security, public transportation and a host of other social and economic needs at right here at home. Send the government a message. Join us on March 19.

We are currently battling for our constitutional rights to free speech and public assembly, and are seeking legal action to force the City of Chicago to honor our right to assemble and march according to the scenario proposed below:

For more info and updates on the court battle for our constitutional rights, email ccawr@aol.com or call 773-209-1187.

Organized by the March 19 Chicago Coalition. Endorsers’ list in formation. Labor donated.

United For Peace Calendar

Lobotomy Without Frivolous Lawsuits

We hear a lot about frivolous lawsuits these days. President Bush and his cohorts are blaming medical malpractice lawsuits for anything that is wrong in today's medical world--we put a cap on said lawsuits and the world will begin to spin in the right direction and the sun will come up warmer and it will be Spring all year around...

Of course that is nonsense. I suspect Mr. Bush knows it as well, but demagoguery and appealing to certain constituency oblige taking the position the Bush and Co. have taken.

What made me think about this was this article I read about Dr. Freeman. "From 1936 to 1967, Freeman performed 3,400 lobotomies. Given nearly unfettered access to patients in mental institutions across the country, Freeman performed surgeries -- which involved sticking an ice pick-like instrument through a patient's eye socket -- that left many paralyzed or comatose and at least 68 dead."

It is amazing to see what went on and what Dr. Freeman did to people in such a cavalier manner even if it turned out that for a few people the process was helpful. The article describes a death directly having been caused as the result of Dr. Freeman posing in the middle of a surgery for a photograph...

Medical malpractice? Of course. The events pertaining to this Dr. Freeman and the manner he practiced surgery (he wasn't even a surgeon) on people goes to show what the medical industry is capable of without fear of being hit with multi-million dollar lawsuits. Understandably, the doctors and their insurance are hoping to take away this safeguard leaving patients without adequate protection against predators such as Dr. Freeman.

Our Best Interest in Mind

Who Is The Audience?

I was listening to the NPR and heard the opening of the Iraqi National Assembly and the speech made... in English!!! Now, does anyone find this interesting that the Iraqis choice of language in the first opening of their "freely" elected National Assembly--a presumably historic moment--choose to make the speech in English. I wonder who is the audience? Mr. Ali Baba in Mosul or Mr. Smith in Iowa? My money is on the latter...

Don't we think that this is not lost on the Iraqis?

Iraqi Assembly Convenes

Why Not All Of it?

Wait a minute!

The woman was taken hostage by the Courthouse Killer, and then let go, at which time she calls the police and tell them where he is. The police then, based on the information, arrests the killer and returns him to jail.

Out of the $60,000 reward money she is only going to get $10,000? Unfair!

Hostage will get part of reward

Banned from Spymac.com

Today I got banned from Spymac.com.

That I got banned from Spymac was no surprise to me--I called a racist a racist and according to spymac rules, this constitutes a personal attack and therefore not allowed. That I called a racist a racist of course requires no apology and none will ever be forthcoming. What I do find regrettable in my view is the fact that Spymac.com condones racism and racist thoughts and threads as allowing such thread to continue and silencing the voice condemning racism evidence it.

I can see one think twice before calling a troll a troll--after all other than a temporary nuisance, a troll is harmless. A racist and racist thoughts however, are not merely momentarily harms one can put up with and forgive or forget or allow to pass without calling it, pointing a finger at and yell and stump in order to have it erased and/or stopped. Racism is criminal. Racism is immoral. Racism is unethical. Racism has no place in civilized society and to allow it to continue is all that and ignorant.

The thread that got me banned began here. What was said is racist. The author is using an event that is regrettable and not necessarily a Muslim event, as a tool to ignite feelings of hatred against Muslims, in general--after all why would this racist person entitle his thread by referring to all Muslims?

Now, I am not a religious person by any means. In fact, religion and religiosity offends me. Priests offend me. God offends me. Heaven and Hell and all that fiction offend me. Islam, Christianity and Judaism offend me. But, my views of religion are personal and private. I have been at the same dinner table with a priest and have kept my manners and smile and good conversation ensued.

Racism is different. Racism is dangerous. Racism is not private. Racism goes to the core of a person and attacks the very dignity of a person to exist. While Religion may create generation of drones, Racism creates criminals who attack the very foundation of a free society. That Spymac.com appears to condone this is simply regrettable.

My comment, which essentially called the racist author as such, was erased (click here and scroll down--you cannot miss it!). While I find being banned distressful, I find remaining silent before racism unimaginable.

The News According To Who?

It is simply disheartening. Fox is number 1 in ranking* and it goes without saying that the findings by the Project for Excellence in Journalism is simply scary. Putting the two and two together, we have reached the obsolescence of reality.

"In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them, a new study says.

By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists' own views.

These findings -- the figures were similar for coverage of other stories -- 'seem to challenge' Fox's slogan of 'we report, you decide,' says the Project for Excellence in Journalism."

Media Notes Extra

*Fox received a boost in rating with help from the Super Bowl... but still!

The War President

...

Iraqi Point of View

Many Iraqis found bitter irony in President Bush's insistence last week that Syria must withdraw from Lebanon before it holds elections, for Iraqis have lived with foreign tanks in their streets for two years and voted barely a month ago under the watchful eye of the U.S. Army.

"He must have forgotten that his army is occupying Iraq," said Sa'ad Abdul Aziz, 21, an engineering student at Baghdad University. "What about the Republican Palace that they are using as a U.S. embassy?"

. . . "America should get out of Iraq immediately and without conditions, just like it is asking neighboring Syria to withdraw from the Lebanese Republic," said Sheikh Nasir Al-Saidi, imam of a mosque in the restive Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, in a front-page article Saturday in the newspaper Azzaman.

. . . "For us it is a joke said by the U.S. president," Ahmed Mushref, 25 an English literature student in Al-Mustansyria University in Baghdad. "I am not defending Syria, but this is the truth."

"What Bush said is an insult and a joke at the same time," said Wissam Hashim, an engineering professor at Al-Anbar University. "He is condemning himself."

Thanks to Needlenose.

Ripped Off?

I was waiting for something like this for a long time!!!

"Victim of a consumer Rip-off? Want justice? Rip-off Report™ is a worldwide consumer reporting Website & Publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file & document complaints about companies or individuals who ripoff consumers.

Unlike the Better Business Bureau, badbusinessbureau.com / Rip-off Report™ does not hide reports of "satisfied" complaints. ALL complaints remain public in order to create a working history on the company or individual in question; unedited."

Useful Things to Know

What if someone was to ask you: "How Aircraft Carriers Work?"

Gustav Szathmáry 1867-1907

Ok, I don't have a clue as to what this site is all about, but the photographs presented there are haunting. Take a view... I think "weiter" means "next" or something...

Rainer Maria Rilke um 1900

Gustav Szathmáry 1867-1907 Ein Leben für Paula Auf den Spuren einer historischen Person - Der Künstler - Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst Worpswede Dirk Hennig

It's the Propaganda Idiot...

Is it any wonder then people vote for this Administration? It is a well known formula: if you control what people sea and hear, you can then also control the conclusions people reach. So if you tell them and show them, no matter the reality and truth, that the Bushola is the MAN, people come to that conclusion... It's called Propaganda. Ideally, it has no place in a free society. Yet, here we are...

"Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgment of the government's role in their production."

Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News

Salvador Dali!

Many years ago I read 'My Last Breath', Luis Bunuel's autobiography. In it, he described Dali as an exhibitionist because Dali had chosen to go commercial and have his works be shown in commercial galleries and be bought and sold by people who Bunuel looked with disdain.

But, Dali was also a good artist.

Take a look.

What the Hell Are They Waiting For?

...

Flying Idiots

Can you get any more pathetic than this?

Perhaps: the fact that these idiots are protesting the totalitarian Mullahs while reminiscing about the totalitarian King whose ass was kicked some 20 years ago... The name says it all and it is curious that the New York Times decided not to translate this crucial piece of information tending to show the motive of this motley crew...

``We are not terrorists, we are messengers of peace,'' Ira said, adding that his group, which he called Anjoman-E Padeshahi Iran, wanted the overthrow of Iran's government.

Monarchists!!! Fuck 'em... once each day and twice on Sundays (just because).

Google Art

We all have noticed them. They are interesting. Here is a collection of them... Fun to go through.

You Wanted Democracy, Mr. Bush?

Even the New York Times could not fudge on the numbers as they did with the anti-war demonstrations all around the world. The pictures do not lie... The Pro-Syrian crowd far out-weights those who want the Syrian troops to leave Lebanon. You want democracy? Here it is Mr. Bush. Seat down and enjoy it.

"Hundreds of thousands of pro-Syrian protesters poured into a central Beirut square this afternoon in a demonstration called for by the militant group Hezbollah that vastly outnumbered recent rallies demanding that Syrian forces leave Lebanon.

Thousands in the vast crowds waved Lebanese flags, as called for by the head of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who made a surprise appearance and reiterated his opposition to a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate pullout by Syria and Hezbollah's disarmament .

Others held up banners proclaiming in English, 'Thanks to Syria' and 'No to Foreign Interference,' as well as pictures of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, his ally, President �mile Lahoud of Lebanon, and Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister."

Huge Pro-Syrian Protest Fills Square and Streets in Beirut

So What Else Is New?

We knew that, didn't we?

"In contrast, Wilson said army planners failed to understand or accept the prospect that Iraqis would resist the U.S. forces after the fall of the Saddam regime. He deemed the military performance in Iraq mediocre and said the army could lose the war.

'U.S. war planners, practitioners and the civilian leadership conceived of the war far too narrowly,' the report said. 'This overly simplistic conception of the war led to a cascading undercutting of the war effort: too few troops, too little coordination with civilian and governmental/non-governmental agencies and too little allotted time to achieve success.'"

WorldTribune.com: Army report: U.S. lost control in Iraq three months after invasion

Energy

I was at the gym today and was on one of those elliptical machines going nowhere fast, and was looking at everyone else who was either on the same type of machine or on others from treadmills to climbing stairs etc...etc... It occurs to me that all that energy is going to a waste. If I was Bally's I would hook up some sort of generator to each machine and make it so everyone moving these mechanical devices would send the energy generated into batteries... which then could be used to at least power the same machines or even to light up the place or any other usage.

Today is March 6, 2005 and I came up with this idea at 12:30 p.m. Central Time.

So The Abuse Shall Continue...

Let me get this straight: The Senate votes down measures to curb abusive penalties and fees and votes for making it harder for people to discharge their debt using Bankruptcy Laws. This time this assault on consumers will probably pass--with the Assaulter in Chief in the White House posed to cease any opportunity to make it harder for the regular people...

"Punitive charges -- penalty fees and sharply higher interest rates after a payment is late -- compound the problems of many financially strapped consumers, sometimes making it impossible for them to dig their way out of debt and pushing them into bankruptcy.

The Senate is to vote as soon as this week on a bill that would make it harder for individuals to wipe out debt through bankruptcy. The Senate last week voted down several amendments intended to curb excessive fees and other practices that critics of the industry say are abusive. House leaders say they will act soon after that, and President Bush has said he supports the bill.

Bankruptcy experts say that too often, by the time an individual has filed for bankruptcy or is hauled into court by creditors, he or she has repaid an amount equal to their original credit card debt plus double-digit interest, but still owes hundreds or thousands of dollars because of penalties."


Credit Card Penalties, Fees Bury Debtors

Worse Than Watergate

On the To Read list:

"In Dean's estimation, the secrecy with which Bush and Dick Cheney govern is not merely a preferred system of management but an obsessive strategy meant to conceal a deeply troubling agenda of corporate favoritism and a dramatic growth in unchecked power for the executive branch that put at risk the lives of American citizens, civil liberties, and the Constitution. Dean sets out to make his point by drawing attention to several areas about which Bush and Cheney have been tight-lipped: the revealing by a 'senior White House official' of the identity of an undercover CIA operative whose husband questioned the administration, the health of Cheney, the identity of Cheney's energy task force, the information requested by the bi-partisan 9/11 commission, Bush's business dealings early in his career, the creation of a 'shadow government', wartime prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, and scores more."

Amazon.com: Books: Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush

George W. Bush - President of America and the World

"As the leader of the world we have to set an example for those not so fortunate to reside within our borders. America has, and always will be the chaperone of justice and liberty to other peoples, and I am the custodian of these good principles. Presently we are a nation at war, as we have been for most of the 20th century. That is what makes us special. Not that we make war, but that we care. "

The War Office

Whose Butt?

"Match the butts to the celebrities..."
Whose Butt?

Out of the Mist

Some more interesting art.

"These paintings are part of 'Out of the Mist: A Panorama of Contemporary Iranian Art' presented by Homa Taraji, president of Paradi, in collaboration with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art."

Out of the Mist-contemporary Inranian Art

Hail to the Insurer

See the movie here.

Arash Khodabandeh-Artist Portfolio

Interesting photography I came across.


"Taking a photo". "shooting".
Both sound egoistic and
violent. Photos are all gifts
I received from the subjects.
A moment of life they decided
to share. A sight I was
offered. They decide what to
give and what to hold.

Arash Khodabandeh

More on Civil Liberties...

This article along with the other one I posted today by Justin Raimondo have the same premise--the danger to our civil liberties and the efforts by the Right to excuse past transgressions, using their hacks such as Malkin to advance that goal. Who are these people anyhow: Malkin, Coulter, Limbaud, O'Reilly... Geezuz. And then people talk about "liberal" media?

And one more thing: Terror is a sentiment. How do you wage war on a sentiment?

"Yet today there are renewed attacks on civil liberties in the name of the 'war on terrorism.' Legislation such as the Patriot Act and the government's willingness to arrest and charge innocent people contribute to an atmosphere that could lead to future internment camps.

Some ideologues on the right seek to rewrite history in order to justify government policy and racial profiling. One example is Michelle Malkin's 2004 book, 'In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror,' which not only rehashes the untruths that Japanese Americans have heard for years but also asserts: 'The most damaging legacy of this apologia and compensation package [redress won by Japanese Americans] has been its impact on national security efforts. The ethnic grievance industry and civil liberties Chicken Littles wield the reparations law like a bludgeon over the War on Terror debate.'

There is no justification for racism or denial of civil liberties — not in 1942 and not in 2005."

Los Angeles Times: 1942-Style Bigotry Targets Muslims in the U.S. Today

A Fascist America

This reminds me of the boiling frogs who stay in the pot and do not feel the water getting hotter and hotter until it is too late. This article is long but worth the read and the research behind it is rather solid and thorough.

"If 'everything changed' on the foreign policy front in the wake of 9/11, then the domestic consequences of 9/11 II are bound to have a similarly transformative effect. If our response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was to launch a decades-long war to implant democracy throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world, what will we do when the battlefield shifts back to the continental U.S.? I shudder to think about it.

The legal, ideological, and political elements that go into the making of a genuinely fascist regime in America are already in place: all that is required is some catalytic event, one that needn't even be on the scale of 9/11, but still dramatic enough to give real impetus to the creation of a police state in this country.

The legal foundation is already to be found in the arguments made by the president's lawyers in asserting their 'right' to commit torture and other war crimes, under the 'constitutional' aegis of the chief executive's wartime powers. In time of war, the president's lawyers argue, our commander-in-chief has the power to immunize himself and his underlings against legal prosecution: they transcend the law, and are put beyond the judgement of the people's representatives by presidential edict. Theoretically, according to the militarist interpretation of the Constitution, there is no power the president may not assume in wartime, because his decisions are 'unreviewable.' On account of military necessity, according to this doctrine, we have to admit the possibility that the Constitution might itself be suspended and martial law declared the minute war touches American soil."

A Fascist America- by Justin Raimondo

Shut The FOX Up!

The best $8.95 you would ever spend.

"Purchasing a FOXBlocker and telling the advertisers at FOX News why you did it will encourage advertisers spending their money somewhere else.

If we band together and tell the advertisers to shut the FOX up, we can help limit the scope, or at least the profitability of FOX News.

FOXBlocker is an innovative new product that filters out the FOX News network. Simply screw the filter into the back of your TV and never be exposed to right wing propaganda again (at least through FOX News). Using a proprietary technology, the FOXBlocker works to filter out FOX News from your cable lineup."

Do As We Say... Not As We Do...

President Bush is grandiose! Spreading freedom as one spreads seeds across a fertile land , marching forward... (read this part to the tune of Victory Day in the background...

Regarding Syria's occupation of Lebanon, as reported by the Independent, he says: "'Syria, Syrian troops, Syria's intelligence services, must get out of Lebanon now,' Mr Bush said. 'The world is beginning to speak with one voice. 'We want that democracy in Lebanon to succeed, and we know it cannot succeed so long as she is occupied by a foreign power and that power is Syria.'"

Huh??? Did he really say that?

And when the Liberals say that Iraq cannot succeed so long as she is occupied by a foreign power, is then wrong?

Meanwhile, Syria has announced that they will pull out entirely from the Lebanon if the puppet Lebanese Government ask them to do so... The bushola says we will withdraw from Iraq if the puppet Iraqi Regime asks us to do so.

This is hilarious!!

Making Competition Illegal

professor Lessig has an article in Wired regarding several municipalities passing laws prohibiting the government to compete with broadband companies.

Why Your Broadband Sucks

Word...

"Four more years of George Bush will be like four more years of syphilis. Only a fool or a sucker would vote for a dangerous loser like Bush. He hates everything we stand for, and he knows we will vote against him in November."

— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing Campaign 2004

I find the analogy rather hilarious...

Wayward Foreign Policy

Everyone knows that Washington Times leans toward the right more than the rest of the media. That should give you a stern warning when the WT runs an article under the title of "Perfect Storm Warning" regarding all the gaffs of the current Administration in its handling of UN Foreign Policy--although the WT has sense enough not to directly describe the unsavory outcome or the resulting "odd man out" position of the US via a vis the EU, China and Russia as gaffs, but for all practical purposes that is what has been intended.

Left, Right, & Wrong

I began reading this and it read like some right wing writer squeezed himself into the Progressive section and began ranting about what it wrong with how the left is dealing with the Moral Issue. See, I agree with Keiser's assessment of what it is missing from the rhetoric landscape painted by the left... Then I began thinking: "what left?" There is nothing to hope from the Democratic Party (although perhaps with Dean in Charge... who knows).

"If there is anything the left fails to appreciate, and that politicians on the right exploit with unerring tact, it is the nature of that woman’s struggle. I mean the class nature no less than the moral nature. You may call it universal if you wish, because it is common to parents everywhere and, in fact, to anyone who loves anything at all, but the struggle to preserve what you cherish becomes especially acute when you live in poverty, or close to poverty, when your well-kept prefab sits on its half-acre lot a quarter mile up the road from the shack with all the dogs. Or, tougher still, when you live in the shack with all the dogs and try to teach your kids not to treat animals like the little sadists up in the prefab house. Sophisticated people of independent means can afford to be disdainful of lower-class attempts at “respectability,” chalking it up to religious prejudice or provincial narrowness, but when their own kids come anywhere within the smell of social dysfunction, they have the private-school applications in the mail. To be sure, the private school they choose will be very “diverse,” which is to say, diverse according to every criterion but class. There will be that very nice boy from the Philippines, but there won’t be any rough boys from Podunk."

Left, Right, & Wrong

We come back to an observation (a true and accurate one at that) about the Democrats and their projected persona... and how true it is that the Democrats did not show the vitality and the single mindedness of the Right.

“You know where I stand,” George W. Bush said any number of times before his 2004 electoral victory, and I certainly did: on the wrong side of every issue. But did voters know where the Democratic Party stood or, more to the point, on what it stood? Did it stand on anything? If the question offends you, permit me to ask another. Had Howard Dean been an evangelical Christian with an evangelical Christian base, would his followers have deserted him because his Iowa holler made him “unelectable”? Or would they have closed ranks behind him because his stand on the Iraq war made him right?

The underlying assumption of course is that it is possible for the Liberal Mind to be single minded, focused and dismissing of any opposing view--and going after extinguishing any opposition with a vengeance. This sort of attitude may be too much to ask. Can the Liberal Mind accept Religion and Religiosity as a tool to achieve ab end? That may also be too much to ask. That would mean to forgo certain "values" such as a woman's right to choose, gun ownership, warmongering, right to marry and benefit from a committed relationship no matter the gender of the participants in that Social Contract, etc...etc....etc...

Perhaps it is that the Liberal camp is condemned to play the part of a perpetual player who only participates from the side lines screaming foul hoping to force the debate's direction and content to include something other than pure talk of profits and bottom lines to include something humane.

A June Attack on Iran?

Gary Leupp talks about the status of the country in year four of a five year plan. According to General Wesley Clark, there has been plans to attack, conquer and permanently occupy not only Afghanistan and Iraq but other countries in the Middle East.

"Flexibility is of course built in to the Plan. One can't predict all the international factors that might affect its timing, or the specific strategy appropriate for the planned regime changes. But plainly the first priority is to manipulate public opinion to acquire support for the planned attacks. That means coordinating the dissemination of disinformation through a compliant corporate press; posting paid agents within that press, and purchasing the services of others; and favoring the most bellicose and fascistic organs with official appearances. It means maintaining the population in a state of anxiety and paranoia through color-coded terror alerts, vague but alarmist announcements of al-Qaeda actions (although there have been none in the U.S. for three and a half years), and the repeated official assertion that another 9-11 is 'inevitable.' It means inculcating the belief in the masses that the 'War on Terror' is a war on acohesive thing (like 'communism') that will, like the Cold War, continue for generations, and must be accepted fatalistically as the destiny of the USA, and subtly linking that 'war' with Christian fundamentalists' belief in an inevitable confrontation between Good and Evil leading up to the End Times. It means obtaining from a slavish, intimidated Congress carte blanche to attack and contain dissent through a regimen of regulations that vitiate the Constitution."

Gary Leupp: A June Attack on Iran?

Drinking Liberally

Why not? It's not like anything else we did changed the world.
At least we should have a bit of fun now that all our dreams and efforts went down the drain.

Sign up, check out where in your area and have fun.
We have another 3 years and 8 months of this to endure.
Drinking Liberally

HOTEL...

Flip is about to enter 'Hotel' to volunteer for a series of medical test run by Dr. Doglin. Does the phrase "You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave..." ring a bell? A Han Hoogerbrugge creation

See HOTEL, an interactive tale...

They Did It Again...

Today again, Chicago Tribune has refused to run Boondocks in an attempt to protect President Bush and the fact that he was recorded pretty much admitting he smoked weed back in the days. Even if he smoked back then, it would not have been a big deal (at least not that big of a deal aside from the hypocrisy of it) had it just been ignored and not censored.

"Liberal Media" at work...

"The Trib tells readers: 'Today's original Boondocks strip presents inaccurate information as fact. Please enjoy this substitute.' The Detroit News and Star Tribune of Minneapolis also dropped today's strip, reports Dave Astor." Poynter Online - Romenesko.