I apologize for my lack of effort on this blog.
Far too many other concerns have clouded my thoughts.
Yes, ...money is one all pervasive aspect... housing uncertainties, and some good diversions like trying to get a new band off the ground.
I'm currently in the process of moving out the place where I've resided for the last 8 years. Of course no one has it very easy in this day and age. Economic adversity has hit every corner of the globe. And none of us are immune.
I've had to get by on my unemployment pay... and gone back to my old avocation -busking. I'm sure many musicians occasionally fantasize traveling to europe and busking in the different cities for the adventure of it.
And I've done my fare share of that ...but it's a very different adventure when you've kids to feed.
I can't complain too much.
Busking has helped my guitar playing skills quite a bit.
I've played in alot of bands... but it's more of a challenge to set yourself out there in the thoroughfare with just a guitar.
I've been wanting to keep it interesting. To find that balance between exploring and mastering those songs that have influenced me, finding rare songs (something unexpected for the public to stumble upon) and to entertain without ending up feeling like a complete musical whore ...like just another hack with a tin cup and a tin ear.
I try to offer interesting renditions ...but sometimes you find yourself standing out there, singing yourself hoarse to the indifference of passers by.
Oddly enough I used to go busking the day before important band gigs for that express purpose... just to overcome any impending stage sickness. To have people pass by while I sing and play my guitar...so that the following night I could jump on stage with nothing but attitude.
But here and now... the punters' lack of reaction has a different effect.
In those moments I'm thinking...'Oh come on, I wasn't that bad!'
Well, it depends on the day really.
And usually at that moment I decide 'fuck it!' and choose to just play my guitar...just let myself jam a bit.
I'll drift into something bluesy... maybe in the tradition of ala Johnny Winter, Peter Green, Jonathan Richman.... or maybe tryout a more gothic style of guitar playing.
And it's at that instance of completely losing myself into my guitar that people surprize me by responding and rushing in with cash. Right at the moment when I don't even care about the money anymore or even want to be distracted from my jam.
For that reason I probably suck at being an entertainer as such.
Seems like I always put other considerations before just trying to satisfy assumptions of what the crowd is there for. That either exploring musical ideas, or artistic or political statements seems always be my first inclination.... to varying effect.
My current band effort though has forced me to learn a more conciliatory approach in that regard. I have a large repetoire of songs I've written for the last 28 years. But for this band (where I'm twice the age of my fellow bandmates)I decided to avoid wallowing in my own idiosyncracies by leaving it all to consensus... the end result is a departure from my own niche of post punk era stylings.
And the people of this day and age care nothing of loyalties or prejudices of that bygone period. Anyone of the punk scene eschewed anything from the hippy period. These days people here see it all as a musical lineage... even if they give you blank stares when you mention bands like The Fall, Gang of Four, WIRE, The Damned, Suicide or other pioneers like MC5, Blue Cheer... and yet they know of Slim Harpo or John Lee Hooker or memorized all the songs of The Pixies or Creedance Clearwater Revival.
While it may seem frustrating when trying to create a sense of atmosphere by offering something rare in one manner; -it's liberating in realizing those other traditions can be drawn upon and interwoven to create something new.
Even back in the day I never remained within the confines of one scene.
I loved it all.
I had good, loyal friends in the hardcore punk scene. Yet quite surreptiously played in synth bands, and went to new wave clubs, ska gigs, goth gigs, artpunk shows and reggae parties. One thing I learned from The Clash...who fearlessly ventured out from the strict confines of the anglocentric punk scene... that there is so many more musics to enjoy, to engage in and to allow one's world to widen by.
And now I explore those different traditions, in my own way.
I take them out on the street with me.
Just a guy with a guitar.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tea Bags...I Gotcha Muthafucking Tea bags!
* FOX Noize, Rush Limbagofgas, Michelle Malkin and the GOP made a big fuss the last couple of days over the DHS report that cited rightwing radicals as being the greatest terror threat.
As if the vice presidential campaign speeches of Sarah Palin didn't exascerbate suspicion, hate and fear of a black presidency enough...
When I think of the language that anti Obama people use in regards to Barak... 90% of the time has a strong subtext of racist hatred. I don't believe I'm exagerating. All the 'Not My President' tags seem to belie a pathological aversion to accepting what the semi democratic process has determined. Maybe they picked it up from those of us who recognized that the elections were stolen by the GOP in 2000 and 04'... I don't consider that bad sportsmanship but justified outrage considering the massive electronic voter fraud, disfranchisement and minority vote caging they engaged in.
If they can't have your gov't ...then they're taking their ball and going home
Meanwhile the GOP is doing everything in its power to foment civil war. The Governour of Texas Rick Perry exhorted participants at a tea bag protest to secede from the Union as Glen Beck & Ann Coulter go into hysterical fits over perceived fascism ...where were they during the Bush years? Oh yeah,... cheerleading for torture, the rounding up of dissidents and gov't surveillance. The air in the room just gets more and more poisoned and filled with fear and hate as it did during Bush's reign whenever they wanted you to keep voting GOP.
Not particularly sportsmanlike or democratic of them. ....They've mutated into a party of political trolls.... tea bags? ...I gotcha' teabags right heah!
So how could any of this incessant hissyfitting by the right do anything but encourage rightwing gun groups into becoming more racist in nature?
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_50_rise_0415.html
Southern Poverty Law Center:
50% rise in violent hate groups
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday April 15, 2009
As if the vice presidential campaign speeches of Sarah Palin didn't exascerbate suspicion, hate and fear of a black presidency enough...
When I think of the language that anti Obama people use in regards to Barak... 90% of the time has a strong subtext of racist hatred. I don't believe I'm exagerating. All the 'Not My President' tags seem to belie a pathological aversion to accepting what the semi democratic process has determined. Maybe they picked it up from those of us who recognized that the elections were stolen by the GOP in 2000 and 04'... I don't consider that bad sportsmanship but justified outrage considering the massive electronic voter fraud, disfranchisement and minority vote caging they engaged in.
If they can't have your gov't ...then they're taking their ball and going home
Meanwhile the GOP is doing everything in its power to foment civil war. The Governour of Texas Rick Perry exhorted participants at a tea bag protest to secede from the Union as Glen Beck & Ann Coulter go into hysterical fits over perceived fascism ...where were they during the Bush years? Oh yeah,... cheerleading for torture, the rounding up of dissidents and gov't surveillance. The air in the room just gets more and more poisoned and filled with fear and hate as it did during Bush's reign whenever they wanted you to keep voting GOP.
Not particularly sportsmanlike or democratic of them. ....They've mutated into a party of political trolls.... tea bags? ...I gotcha' teabags right heah!
So how could any of this incessant hissyfitting by the right do anything but encourage rightwing gun groups into becoming more racist in nature?
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_50_rise_0415.html
Southern Poverty Law Center:
50% rise in violent hate groups
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday April 15, 2009
A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks the activities of violent hate groups in the United States, has found an alarming rise in the number of such groups, from 602 in 2000 to 926 in 2008.
This comes on the heels of a controversial report on "violent extremism" from the Department of Homeland Security, which has outraged many conservatives by seeming to lump them in with extremists.
Morris Dees, the founder of the SPLC, told CBS's Harry Smith on Wednesday that he believes the two reports do "synch up pretty much" and that "the report from the Department of Homeland Security should be taken very seriously."
However, the SPLC's own report focuses very narrowly on groups which actively preach violence, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and the "racist skinhead subculture." It also notes the surprising rise of "anti-Semitic black separatists calling for death to Jews on bustling street corners in several East Coast cities."
"A key 2008 hate group trend was the increasing militancy of the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement," the report states, "whose adherents believe that Jews are creatures of the devil and that whites deserve death or slavery. These radical black supremacists have no love for Barack Obama, calling him a 'house nigger' and a puppet of Israel. They preach to inner-city blacks that evil Jews are solely responsible for the recession."
Dees told Smith, "The political climate, the election of Obama, the immigration issues ... and now, especially, the economy is almost causing a resurgence of what we saw in the days of Timothy McVeigh, almost a militia movement that's being reborn. ... I think that an American person is much more likely to be harmed by a domestic terrorist extremist group than by one from abroad."
Dees also emphasized that many extremist groups are recruiting Iraq veterans and even active-duty members of the military because of their expertise with arms and explosives. "It's a serious issue," he stated, "especially with a lot of these guys coming back with post-traumatic stress syndrome, coming back to a failing economy, the inability to buy a home and get a job and get credit."
The tea bag protests aren't grassroot populist events but staged by millionaire republicans according to Paul Krugman.
The tax rate on the top income earners will be raised under the Obama plan which interestingly is about ten percentage points less than when Reagan was president. However, the squawking GOP parrots will swoop into their fake spontaneous tea parties to express their outrage over taxes even though it will not affect 99.9% of those attending the rallies. In fact, most of the attendees have already been notified about the reduction of their tax rates which in simple terms is a lower tax rate! - Fake Spontaneous Tea Parties and Socialism - Paulie Brading
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Twisted Logics & Manipulative Definitions
The arguments of the rightwing conservatives just dipping further into the area of loopier and meaner. As we get closer to legalizing pot it would appear that the rightwing has gone off their meds.
Same-Sex Unions and Child Sacrifice
A judeo christian organisation that makes the claim that allowing same sex couples to marry will facilitate a societal slide into child sacrifice and rampant paganism ( ...ooh,... do ya' think?)
Lately I've been getting emails from a conservative site called 'Human Events' which features numerous conservative luminaries such as Coulter, Gingrich and Chuck Norris.
Sorry to bore you with this ...but it is interesting watching them losing it in a very public fashion.
That they'd practically coronated Rush Limbaugh at last weekend's GOP just tells volumes of how far they've chosen to sink. Limbaugh at the convention reiterated his wish that President Obama would fail... seems to me I remember being often admonished to "support the President" no matter who he is because "we're in wartime" and "because he's the commander-in-chief"...and any less than that was condemned as 'unpatriotic' and even 'treasonous'.
...but, that's just for when they're in power.
Human Events couldn't sell this hate propaganda trash so now they're trying to give it away...
Mark Steyn: 'Why America will have to fight alone
in the battle for Western civilization'
Mark Steyn claims that the "anti-american" democracies of europe are allowing radical islam to spread and because of it "western european culture as we know it will disappear"... his suggestion is -' intolerance'.... "the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn’t violate the "separation of church and state"
Human Events calls his book "humorous" and Steyn "witty"?
In europe the dilineations between political groupings and ideologies are quite numerous and unequivocally clear, -and the only ones making the claims Steyn is making and Human Events is promoting, -are far right nationalists (i.e., ...neo nazis)
Multiculturalism is not the failure he makes it out to be, nor is the socialism in the social safety nets necessarily dragging europe down and encouraging islam to spread.
I think he's jealous that europe doesn't have the same rampant hunger and homelessness and healthcare insurance deprived citizenry that America has.
Meanwhile Human Events posts other conservative concerns
Bernard Goldberg: 'A Slobbering Media Love Affaire with Barack Obama'
Exposed: How the liberal media actively worked to elect Barack Obama President
They were fine with the media when the media unquestioningly reposts verbatim whatever the Bush White House issued through its press office.... including when the White House and the GOP invented journalists and publications (re: Jeff Gannon and his Talon News site)
Meanwhile ...
Anne Coulter;
I thought Anne liked fratboys? What's her beef? Aside from whining about the fact that Wall St firms knew there'd be fallout from the financial institutions' collapse so they've tried to cosy up to the other side..."pinko professors?" ...without much credibility left she resorts to stock conservative vitriol... kinda like using stock film footage of car crashes, plane wrecks and battle lizards dressed like dinosaurs.
She doesn't mind it when CEO's and criminal investors like Maddoff play with other people's money... when in a corner and left looking for someone to blame she targets those losing their homes because of the jobs that are disappearing at a rate of more than a half a million a month.
Anne Coulter is an endless well of hate and rancour... eventually, when it runs out of fashion ...she'll find herself out of a job.
The far right are mourning the loss of their empire and pining away for the halycon days of both the Reagan era and even the early days of the Bush jr administration.
We are just now starting to get a glimpse as to how far the assumption of 'executive priviledge' went.
I blogged about alot of this back then. There were hearings and interviews with Pentagon staff where we were forwarned of their 'Continuity of Gov't Plan' and the suspension of civil rights and imposition of martial law. Given the current info trickling out... lawyers like Roberto Gonzales and John Yoo were busy laying the legal groundwork for extra-legal actions like domestic covert actions like assassinations of what they called terrorists. But keep in mind that at the initial debate and passing of the Homeland Security Act , their definitions of what constituted a 'terrorist' was broadened to include not just terrorists in the conventional sense but even to those in the figurative as including those who advocate for enviromentalist causes such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and those that support them by giving them money ...and, pro human rights groups like Amnesty Intl, and those that give them money.
In fact, it was anyone who protested against industries and corporations, or were critical of gov't policies.
The definitions of 'terrorist' and 'subversive' were quite vast in the post 9/11 mindset of the Bush admin, and its targets were on the long held hitlist of the GOP.
The maintainance of their control was almost absolute.
Diebold voting system sported 'delete' button: report
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE KIDS RETURN HOME:
* Imagine having a glimpse of a completely different life to bask in for a week or two; -and then being returned to a life of misery.
It's possible that Slumdog Millionaire' Director Danny Boyle felt he was doing the right thing by bringing them along to enjoy their share of the limelight. He's tried to compensate them for by creating trust funds for them. But could he forsee the what the ignorance, greed and desparation of those around them is likely to do to endanger them?
Was he familiar with the fates of many child actors in coping with sudden fame and sudden anonymity?
Certainly in the areas of both drama and documentation certain areas of human existence need to be examined and brought to the greater public's consciousness, -and yet by examining it under a camera's lens they become changed.
This to me is a question that filmmakers need to ask themselves very similar to that of a Schroedinger's Cat-type conundrum.
I remember watching the Oscar awards and being struck by what seemed self serving justifications used by film makers on social subjects.
Like, forinstance the acceptance speech of Megan Mylan (resplendant in her designer dress for the occasion) winning an Oscar in the short subject documentary category for her film titled ' Smile Pinki' about an impoverished girl suffering from being a social outcast for her cleft lip in a small village in India.
"All I could think of is 'oh, lucky, lucky me!'"..."and this is for all the children suffering cleft lips"... I dunno, at the time it just struck me as being incredibly self serving... But I might be taking this a tad out of context given the subject matter and extraodinary circumstances.
March 5th
Listening to the Live California Prop 8 hearing right now...
Ken Starr arguing his view that constitutional rights garanteed to all are revocable through the initiative amendment process.
He wants a de facto retroactive anullment of all gay marriages under the aegis of Prop 8 ...according to him to 'protect the children'.
He's cited cases where the 'right of privacy' and against 'unreasonable search and seizures' can be abrogated and revised.
"'The people' have carved out an area of exception in regards to constitutional equal protection rights."
"We want to restore the definition of marriage to what it was when this state was founded"
He goes on to cite initiatives that cause revisions to laws regarding individual rights...forinstance, the death penalty...mainly as the locus of his argument.
The California AG has been quoted as wanting to strike down Prop 8 as a point of 'inalienable rights' has been raised... Ken Starr rejects this and refers to freedom to contract.... wants to "deny" "Only is to deny the validity and recognition of the full panopoly rights " in regards to pre Prop 8 marriages and civil unions.
" there was a swirl of uncertainty"
The analogy has been raised by the panel...what if a law were passed that raised the age of consentual marriage from 18 to 21 and subsequently invalidated all marriages?
"Context, ...170 years of California history"
"we rely on the exception buried in Article 1 section 7.5"...he's arguing about the original "architect's' intent in the writing of marriage statutes and the voters' intent of continuing the definition that was written 170 years ago.
The rebuttal begins... "popular sovereignty versus the history of institutional discrimination" against same sex couples. That same sex couples would be put into a class that would virtually exclude same sex couples from the rights contained within the constitution normally extended to ALL american citizens... and in a sense a revision meant to exclude a substantial minority from protected rights and to reduce them to 2nd class citizens.
Then she gets cut off by one of the justices.
Next to argue that definitions in language in California statute that revised issues focused on gender specific definitions.
Stewart argues that anti Prop 8 arguments are not about changing the structure of revision whereby the people's constitutionally guaranteed (electoral) sovereignty would be undermined but to recognize what the framers of the constitution who created built in limitations as protection to ourselves and the shifting electoral whims.
Court justice argues about inalienable right of the people to invoke changes in the constitution... the power of the people to limit the power of the executive... that the executive may not override a statute.
I couldn't really keep up with this but in essence it's an argument between the people's right to set limits and create revisions and amendments in deciding the language of definitions in regards to the stat constitution. The opposing view is that it was never intended for these rights to ever be subject to change or limitation by initiative of one part of the population concerning the rights of a minority population. That all are protected equally under the constitution.
However eloquent Ken Starr was... he's still a fetid bag o' pus!
Same-Sex Unions and Child Sacrifice
A judeo christian organisation that makes the claim that allowing same sex couples to marry will facilitate a societal slide into child sacrifice and rampant paganism ( ...ooh,... do ya' think?)
Lately I've been getting emails from a conservative site called 'Human Events' which features numerous conservative luminaries such as Coulter, Gingrich and Chuck Norris.
Sorry to bore you with this ...but it is interesting watching them losing it in a very public fashion.
That they'd practically coronated Rush Limbaugh at last weekend's GOP just tells volumes of how far they've chosen to sink. Limbaugh at the convention reiterated his wish that President Obama would fail... seems to me I remember being often admonished to "support the President" no matter who he is because "we're in wartime" and "because he's the commander-in-chief"...and any less than that was condemned as 'unpatriotic' and even 'treasonous'.
...but, that's just for when they're in power.
Human Events couldn't sell this hate propaganda trash so now they're trying to give it away...
Mark Steyn: 'Why America will have to fight alone
in the battle for Western civilization'
And why, if we fail, mankind faces a new Dark Ages
Mark Steyn claims that the "anti-american" democracies of europe are allowing radical islam to spread and because of it "western european culture as we know it will disappear"... his suggestion is -' intolerance'.... "the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn’t violate the "separation of church and state"
Human Events calls his book "humorous" and Steyn "witty"?
In europe the dilineations between political groupings and ideologies are quite numerous and unequivocally clear, -and the only ones making the claims Steyn is making and Human Events is promoting, -are far right nationalists (i.e., ...neo nazis)
Multiculturalism is not the failure he makes it out to be, nor is the socialism in the social safety nets necessarily dragging europe down and encouraging islam to spread.
I think he's jealous that europe doesn't have the same rampant hunger and homelessness and healthcare insurance deprived citizenry that America has.
Meanwhile Human Events posts other conservative concerns
Bernard Goldberg: 'A Slobbering Media Love Affaire with Barack Obama'
Exposed: How the liberal media actively worked to elect Barack Obama President
They were fine with the media when the media unquestioningly reposts verbatim whatever the Bush White House issued through its press office.... including when the White House and the GOP invented journalists and publications (re: Jeff Gannon and his Talon News site)
Meanwhile ...
Anne Coulter;
"Dear Fellow Conservative,
Do you know which special interest gave more money to the Obama campaign than any other?
If you guessed "trial lawyers" -- well, okay, that's too easy. But can you guess which special interest came in second?
Labor unions? Nope. The Green Lobby? Nope. AARP? Wrong, again. NEA? Nyet.
Give up? Okay, here's the answer: Wall Street.
That's right. According to CNNMoney.com, Wall Street securities and investment firms gave over $35 million to Democratic candidates this election cycle. And the amount they gave to the Obama campaign was nearly five times the amount they gave to McCain.
If you've been wondering why the financial industry is in meltdown -- and taking your 401(k) or investment portfolio down with it -- now you know.
Let's face it: The former frat boys who populate Wall Street today understand economics about as well as the pinko professors whose courses they snored through.
That's why betting their entire industry on "subprime" loans to people with no jobs and no collateral made sense to them -- and why betting the entire U.S. economy on the likes of Obama makes sense to them now.
These jokers don't even know what's in their own self-interest, much less yours. Trusting them with your money is like trusting Bill Clinton to babysit your underage niece.
But I know someone you can trust to manage your investments -- or rather, to help you do it yourself, without paying a nickel in commissions to some Wall Street frat boy.
His name is Dr. Mark Skousen -- that's "Dr." as in "Ph.D. in Economics and Monetary History," something you don't get by playing Beer Pong with your frat buddies.
I thought Anne liked fratboys? What's her beef? Aside from whining about the fact that Wall St firms knew there'd be fallout from the financial institutions' collapse so they've tried to cosy up to the other side..."pinko professors?" ...without much credibility left she resorts to stock conservative vitriol... kinda like using stock film footage of car crashes, plane wrecks and battle lizards dressed like dinosaurs.
She doesn't mind it when CEO's and criminal investors like Maddoff play with other people's money... when in a corner and left looking for someone to blame she targets those losing their homes because of the jobs that are disappearing at a rate of more than a half a million a month.
Anne Coulter is an endless well of hate and rancour... eventually, when it runs out of fashion ...she'll find herself out of a job.
And now for Goebbels' illegimate son;
"In his campaign and inaugural address, Barack Obama cast himself as a moderate man seeking common ground with conservatives.
Yet, his budget calls for the radical restructuring of the U.S. economy, a sweeping redistribution of power and wealth to government and Democratic constituencies. It is a declaration of war on the Right."
I will admit it... Buchanan stands out to this crew as being the most intelligent of the far right pundit lot... and even man enough to admit it when' capitalism has crumbled'. Yes, the far right crowed about the disintegration of the former U.S.S.R. and Buchanan has been one of the few to admit that it's been our turn. He has castigated the greed of neocons and neo-liberals alike as being the cause of this downfall. If he weren't such a blatant racist and totalitarian statist you'd think he'd turned marxist.The far right are mourning the loss of their empire and pining away for the halycon days of both the Reagan era and even the early days of the Bush jr administration.
We are just now starting to get a glimpse as to how far the assumption of 'executive priviledge' went.
Declassified Memos Provide Look Into Bush Policies
I blogged about alot of this back then. There were hearings and interviews with Pentagon staff where we were forwarned of their 'Continuity of Gov't Plan' and the suspension of civil rights and imposition of martial law. Given the current info trickling out... lawyers like Roberto Gonzales and John Yoo were busy laying the legal groundwork for extra-legal actions like domestic covert actions like assassinations of what they called terrorists. But keep in mind that at the initial debate and passing of the Homeland Security Act , their definitions of what constituted a 'terrorist' was broadened to include not just terrorists in the conventional sense but even to those in the figurative as including those who advocate for enviromentalist causes such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and those that support them by giving them money ...and, pro human rights groups like Amnesty Intl, and those that give them money.
In fact, it was anyone who protested against industries and corporations, or were critical of gov't policies.
The definitions of 'terrorist' and 'subversive' were quite vast in the post 9/11 mindset of the Bush admin, and its targets were on the long held hitlist of the GOP.
The maintainance of their control was almost absolute.
Diebold voting system sported 'delete' button: report
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE KIDS RETURN HOME:
* Imagine having a glimpse of a completely different life to bask in for a week or two; -and then being returned to a life of misery.
It's possible that Slumdog Millionaire' Director Danny Boyle felt he was doing the right thing by bringing them along to enjoy their share of the limelight. He's tried to compensate them for by creating trust funds for them. But could he forsee the what the ignorance, greed and desparation of those around them is likely to do to endanger them?
Was he familiar with the fates of many child actors in coping with sudden fame and sudden anonymity?
Certainly in the areas of both drama and documentation certain areas of human existence need to be examined and brought to the greater public's consciousness, -and yet by examining it under a camera's lens they become changed.
This to me is a question that filmmakers need to ask themselves very similar to that of a Schroedinger's Cat-type conundrum.
I remember watching the Oscar awards and being struck by what seemed self serving justifications used by film makers on social subjects.
Like, forinstance the acceptance speech of Megan Mylan (resplendant in her designer dress for the occasion) winning an Oscar in the short subject documentary category for her film titled ' Smile Pinki' about an impoverished girl suffering from being a social outcast for her cleft lip in a small village in India.
"All I could think of is 'oh, lucky, lucky me!'"..."and this is for all the children suffering cleft lips"... I dunno, at the time it just struck me as being incredibly self serving... But I might be taking this a tad out of context given the subject matter and extraodinary circumstances.
March 5th
Listening to the Live California Prop 8 hearing right now...
Ken Starr arguing his view that constitutional rights garanteed to all are revocable through the initiative amendment process.
He wants a de facto retroactive anullment of all gay marriages under the aegis of Prop 8 ...according to him to 'protect the children'.
He's cited cases where the 'right of privacy' and against 'unreasonable search and seizures' can be abrogated and revised.
"'The people' have carved out an area of exception in regards to constitutional equal protection rights."
"We want to restore the definition of marriage to what it was when this state was founded"
He goes on to cite initiatives that cause revisions to laws regarding individual rights...forinstance, the death penalty...mainly as the locus of his argument.
The California AG has been quoted as wanting to strike down Prop 8 as a point of 'inalienable rights' has been raised... Ken Starr rejects this and refers to freedom to contract.... wants to "deny" "Only is to deny the validity and recognition of the full panopoly rights " in regards to pre Prop 8 marriages and civil unions.
" there was a swirl of uncertainty"
The analogy has been raised by the panel...what if a law were passed that raised the age of consentual marriage from 18 to 21 and subsequently invalidated all marriages?
"Context, ...170 years of California history"
"we rely on the exception buried in Article 1 section 7.5"...he's arguing about the original "architect's' intent in the writing of marriage statutes and the voters' intent of continuing the definition that was written 170 years ago.
The rebuttal begins... "popular sovereignty versus the history of institutional discrimination" against same sex couples. That same sex couples would be put into a class that would virtually exclude same sex couples from the rights contained within the constitution normally extended to ALL american citizens... and in a sense a revision meant to exclude a substantial minority from protected rights and to reduce them to 2nd class citizens.
Then she gets cut off by one of the justices.
Next to argue that definitions in language in California statute that revised issues focused on gender specific definitions.
Stewart argues that anti Prop 8 arguments are not about changing the structure of revision whereby the people's constitutionally guaranteed (electoral) sovereignty would be undermined but to recognize what the framers of the constitution who created built in limitations as protection to ourselves and the shifting electoral whims.
Court justice argues about inalienable right of the people to invoke changes in the constitution... the power of the people to limit the power of the executive... that the executive may not override a statute.
I couldn't really keep up with this but in essence it's an argument between the people's right to set limits and create revisions and amendments in deciding the language of definitions in regards to the stat constitution. The opposing view is that it was never intended for these rights to ever be subject to change or limitation by initiative of one part of the population concerning the rights of a minority population. That all are protected equally under the constitution.
However eloquent Ken Starr was... he's still a fetid bag o' pus!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Milk of Human Kindness & General Hysterics
'Phelps bong' owner, seven others arrested
Well, this may have run its course. The sheriff's insistence on pursuing an investigation of alleged pot possession based on an infamous photograph backfired on him leading to hundreds of phonecalls criticizing him for expending taxpayer money and manpower on a crime that's very quickly becoming a moot point. Recent polls suggest that far greater numbers of americans favor the legalisation of marijuana than to continue prosecuting offenders.
California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has recently introduced legislation to legalize the sale licensing and taxation of medicinal marijuana.
Nestle's decision to drop Phelps' endorsement at this point is going to look more an more short sighted... not that I ever needed this issue to boycott Nestle's for. Back in the 1970's there was a major boycott campaign against Nestle's for marketing a baby formula through some aid agencies insisting that their baby formula was more nutritional than mothers' own milk. In those days they were just coming to the realisation that mothers' milk had nutrients that help strengthen childrens' immune systems through their lives... alas for me a bit too late.
"Under the influence of the hormones prolactin and oxytocin, women produce milk after childbirth to feed the baby. The initial milk produced is often referred to as colostrum, which is high in the immunoglobulin IgA, which coats the gastrointestinal tract. This helps to protect the newborn until its own immune system is functioning properly, and creates a mild laxative effect, expelling meconium and helping to prevent the build up of bilirubin (a contributory factor in jaundice)" ...from the Wikipedia-Breast_milk.
Nestle's main crime then, which, given their long history as a Swiss (baby foods/formula and condensed milk manufacturers since 1866) may owe something more to corporate naiveté as well as overzealous marketing. But how much were they willfully ignoring the fact that the water sources used for mixing their formula in developing nations often came from wells heavily contaminated by toxic chemicals or pathogenic bacteria?... factors which increased the likelihood of infants suffering dehydration and weakened immune systems and possible deaths. In 1977 there was an average of about 1.5 million infant deaths in developing countries attributed to lack of breastfeeding. In developed nations there were also infant deaths cited as stemming from the same cause. Nestle's has since been compelled to put a warning on their products 'Warning: "this product is not to be used as a breast milk substitute."
Glenn Beck warns Al Gore is building anti-climate change 'Hitler Youth'
State Brainwashing Children To “Re-Educate” Their Parents For Green Dictatorship
Just goes to show whose trough the Watson brothers are feeding from. They call themselves 'truthers' but throwing oneself in league with a complete far right nutter like Glenn Beck doesn't exactly pad one's anti establishment street cred.
I'd already called Beck on his anti global warming contentions; -and now the Watson brothers with their anti global warming rant- which they insist is part of the illuminati plan to thin the world's population. I've never quite understand how they could make the claim how the "global warming hysteria is a scam" created by corporate and world elitists when the most elitist gov't (being the Bush administration) did everything from supressing scientific reports and hiring pr firms that formerly worked for the tobacco industry to promote the 'anti global warming' view.
I do understand Paul Joseph and Steve Watson's concern about populate control conspiracies.
I too was obsessed with the whole Club of Rome pronouncements that began with the 1972 report titled The Limits to Growth in part inspired by Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book 'The Population Bomb' and the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). Back in 1981 I had read articles in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Club of Rome making anouncements connected to a report commissioned by then US President Jimmy Carter titledThe Global 2000 Report to the President.
What got me going was an article (that I saved for a time) that a group connected to the Club of Rome called 'the Committee for the Global 2000' comprised of elitist industrialists, aristocrats, scientists, military leaders made a statement saying that most of the world are just "surplus humanity ... eaters that just consume" and that somehow ' atleast 2/3's of the world's population would have to just cease to exist'. I was so unnerved by this article that I even wrote a stageplay about it ....7/8's of one atleast.
And apparently I wasn't the only one who caught it ...googling 'Global 2000 club of rome' usually yields a number of links each with specious claims exposing this group's link to conspiracies involving the World Health Organisation, AIDS, etc...
I admit... I have very 'X-files' tastes and much as I insist that the CIA killed President Kennedy and all that... I have a hard time making that leap of faith with some of these theories and assertions. So it goes with the Watson brothers. I mean, how can they claim industrialists are leading the 'pro-global warming theory' movement when since already a decade now corporations have stood as an almost united front in funding propaganda that contends the exact opposite... one of their main contentions (and rightfully that is) the economic costs to their investors in retooling industry to meet the standards of reduced carbon emissions. (well, atleast in utilizing the 'trickle down' economic logic in saying that healthy dividends for their investors spells a healthy national economy...wherever did they learn to spell,btw?)
Of course now with President Obama hoping put tens of thousands of americans back to work as part of the process of greening american industry the old commerce claims seem to ring hollow. Not that I'm going to re enter the debate about global warming at this still hour of the night... but suffice it to say that I find the Watson brothers logic to often be more illogic than anything. And Glen Beck to be a hysteric on the verge of imploding.
There are greater dangers looming to the world than Obama's centrist social justice aspirations and had the conservatives' darling GWBush truly been the tough guy they painted him to be then the Iraq War debacle wouldn't have been an excercise in flaunting international law by violating Iraq's national sovereignity over fabricated WMD threats and leaving verified inhuman systems like the North Koreans with their WMD's completely intact.
Which brings us to...
US Ready to Respond to N.Korea Missile Launch
But I should be easier on GOP'ers.
They are a party that is sinking by the minute.
I've been subscribing to Human Events... a far right conservative blog that such leading conservative "thinkers" like Newt Gingrich, Patrick Buchannan, Anne Coulter and Chuck Norris post on. Lately it's funny as I receive their notifications apparently there's somehow of a fire sale going on there where their books usually selling at around $60 a doorstop are now selling a $2 or $3. They almost virtually can't even give them away.
I suppose the reaction to Gov. Jindal's speech as the GOP response to President Obama's address hasn't helped any.
Jack Cafferty: 'GOP in position to talk fiscal responsibility?'
I'm glad someone was paying attention.
Bank under fire for lavish SoCal weekend
Bout' what you'd expect from those benefitting from the kind of 'socialist bailout' that the GOP doesn't seem to mind.
Well, this may have run its course. The sheriff's insistence on pursuing an investigation of alleged pot possession based on an infamous photograph backfired on him leading to hundreds of phonecalls criticizing him for expending taxpayer money and manpower on a crime that's very quickly becoming a moot point. Recent polls suggest that far greater numbers of americans favor the legalisation of marijuana than to continue prosecuting offenders.
California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has recently introduced legislation to legalize the sale licensing and taxation of medicinal marijuana.
Nestle's decision to drop Phelps' endorsement at this point is going to look more an more short sighted... not that I ever needed this issue to boycott Nestle's for. Back in the 1970's there was a major boycott campaign against Nestle's for marketing a baby formula through some aid agencies insisting that their baby formula was more nutritional than mothers' own milk. In those days they were just coming to the realisation that mothers' milk had nutrients that help strengthen childrens' immune systems through their lives... alas for me a bit too late.
"Under the influence of the hormones prolactin and oxytocin, women produce milk after childbirth to feed the baby. The initial milk produced is often referred to as colostrum, which is high in the immunoglobulin IgA, which coats the gastrointestinal tract. This helps to protect the newborn until its own immune system is functioning properly, and creates a mild laxative effect, expelling meconium and helping to prevent the build up of bilirubin (a contributory factor in jaundice)" ...from the Wikipedia-Breast_milk.
Nestle's main crime then, which, given their long history as a Swiss (baby foods/formula and condensed milk manufacturers since 1866) may owe something more to corporate naiveté as well as overzealous marketing. But how much were they willfully ignoring the fact that the water sources used for mixing their formula in developing nations often came from wells heavily contaminated by toxic chemicals or pathogenic bacteria?... factors which increased the likelihood of infants suffering dehydration and weakened immune systems and possible deaths. In 1977 there was an average of about 1.5 million infant deaths in developing countries attributed to lack of breastfeeding. In developed nations there were also infant deaths cited as stemming from the same cause. Nestle's has since been compelled to put a warning on their products 'Warning: "this product is not to be used as a breast milk substitute."
Glenn Beck warns Al Gore is building anti-climate change 'Hitler Youth'
State Brainwashing Children To “Re-Educate” Their Parents For Green Dictatorship
Just goes to show whose trough the Watson brothers are feeding from. They call themselves 'truthers' but throwing oneself in league with a complete far right nutter like Glenn Beck doesn't exactly pad one's anti establishment street cred.
I'd already called Beck on his anti global warming contentions; -and now the Watson brothers with their anti global warming rant- which they insist is part of the illuminati plan to thin the world's population. I've never quite understand how they could make the claim how the "global warming hysteria is a scam" created by corporate and world elitists when the most elitist gov't (being the Bush administration) did everything from supressing scientific reports and hiring pr firms that formerly worked for the tobacco industry to promote the 'anti global warming' view.
I do understand Paul Joseph and Steve Watson's concern about populate control conspiracies.
I too was obsessed with the whole Club of Rome pronouncements that began with the 1972 report titled The Limits to Growth in part inspired by Paul Ehrlich's 1968 book 'The Population Bomb' and the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). Back in 1981 I had read articles in the San Francisco Chronicle about the Club of Rome making anouncements connected to a report commissioned by then US President Jimmy Carter titledThe Global 2000 Report to the President.
What got me going was an article (that I saved for a time) that a group connected to the Club of Rome called 'the Committee for the Global 2000' comprised of elitist industrialists, aristocrats, scientists, military leaders made a statement saying that most of the world are just "surplus humanity ... eaters that just consume" and that somehow ' atleast 2/3's of the world's population would have to just cease to exist'. I was so unnerved by this article that I even wrote a stageplay about it ....7/8's of one atleast.
And apparently I wasn't the only one who caught it ...googling 'Global 2000 club of rome' usually yields a number of links each with specious claims exposing this group's link to conspiracies involving the World Health Organisation, AIDS, etc...
I admit... I have very 'X-files' tastes and much as I insist that the CIA killed President Kennedy and all that... I have a hard time making that leap of faith with some of these theories and assertions. So it goes with the Watson brothers. I mean, how can they claim industrialists are leading the 'pro-global warming theory' movement when since already a decade now corporations have stood as an almost united front in funding propaganda that contends the exact opposite... one of their main contentions (and rightfully that is) the economic costs to their investors in retooling industry to meet the standards of reduced carbon emissions. (well, atleast in utilizing the 'trickle down' economic logic in saying that healthy dividends for their investors spells a healthy national economy...wherever did they learn to spell,btw?)
Of course now with President Obama hoping put tens of thousands of americans back to work as part of the process of greening american industry the old commerce claims seem to ring hollow. Not that I'm going to re enter the debate about global warming at this still hour of the night... but suffice it to say that I find the Watson brothers logic to often be more illogic than anything. And Glen Beck to be a hysteric on the verge of imploding.
There are greater dangers looming to the world than Obama's centrist social justice aspirations and had the conservatives' darling GWBush truly been the tough guy they painted him to be then the Iraq War debacle wouldn't have been an excercise in flaunting international law by violating Iraq's national sovereignity over fabricated WMD threats and leaving verified inhuman systems like the North Koreans with their WMD's completely intact.
Which brings us to...
US Ready to Respond to N.Korea Missile Launch
But I should be easier on GOP'ers.
They are a party that is sinking by the minute.
I've been subscribing to Human Events... a far right conservative blog that such leading conservative "thinkers" like Newt Gingrich, Patrick Buchannan, Anne Coulter and Chuck Norris post on. Lately it's funny as I receive their notifications apparently there's somehow of a fire sale going on there where their books usually selling at around $60 a doorstop are now selling a $2 or $3. They almost virtually can't even give them away.
I suppose the reaction to Gov. Jindal's speech as the GOP response to President Obama's address hasn't helped any.
Jack Cafferty: 'GOP in position to talk fiscal responsibility?'
I'm glad someone was paying attention.
Bank under fire for lavish SoCal weekend
Bout' what you'd expect from those benefitting from the kind of 'socialist bailout' that the GOP doesn't seem to mind.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Probable Cause
Just because you think they're out to get you doesn't mean they aren't
I've been alittle hot under the collar lately.
Watching the flurry of anti Obama bulletins flying around Myspace calling him a fraud and a traitor.
They were doing so before he even took office.
And we have Rush Limbaugh loudly wishing for his failure.
I'm alittle confused.
I thought the "patriotic" types are supposed to support whoever the president is, blindly. That was usually the heat I got from them for being critical of national policy.
Now the shoe is on the other foot, and the heels are revolting.
I see the comments supporting him and declaring their opposition to 'sharing of the wealth' ...like, they've so much personal fortune that the idea of a middle class tax cut seems outright communist in nature. As if the last 8 years of Bush and Cheney giving the nation's CEO's and top 8% every imagineable advantage like cutting the inheiritance tax, giving KBR no bid contracts, making federal oversight agencies like the FDA, EPA and the BLM subserviant to corporate interests and appointing to federal courts pro-corporate Federalist Society alumni...to where now we're weathering the after effects of nearly a decade of greed and naked self-interest so wanton as to make even Ayn Rand cringe in her grave.
The bailouts have been approved and CEO's are still getting their golden parachutes while we're averaging nearly a half a million jobs lost each month and ever growing numbers of home reposessions. Yet somehow the phrase...'redistribute the wealth' causes conservatives and rightwing conspiracy theorists to start hoarding bullets and cans of baked beans.
I've even run into the self canceling logic that claims that 'zionists and illuminati elites are pushing socialism on us so they can control us and enrich themselves'. Paranoids always want to have it both ways... to be able to blame those they've always wanted to pass the blame onto.
They'd rather obsess about the possible effects of flouridation and chemtrails than about oil spills and bad educational policies.
Areas of conjecture and the intangible seem more appealing than the more quantifiable effects of bad social, enviromental and economic policies.
Whatever.
I'm an occultist so I guess I can understand the need for a leap in faith once in awhile.
But I'd like to think my priorities aren't that askew.
FBI agents posting bogus links and entrapping people
Maybe they set themselves up... I can't say... but what bothers me about this is wondering what's to prevent them from using the same constitutionally suspect methods from setting other people up for political or philosophical reasons.
But on a similar note...
Teen "Sexting" Worries Parents, Schools
Wtf !!!..... so, ...we're turning sexually curious and playful teens into registered sex offenders presumably to save them from themselves???? Ah yes,.... the sex negatives out to scare teens away from the evils of their own raging hormones.
Fuck,...how I hate the mothers of prevention! And they wonder why most teens don't want to grow up to be just like them.
Wherein 'voter fraud' no longer matters to Republicans...
Their memories seem to be slipping of a simpler time.Stolen Election 2004:
"....In Cleveland, election officials rejected 8,099 provisional ballots - one out of three of the 24,472 provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election."None dare call it voter suppression and fraud
A few other headlines of note from this last week, before I forget;
Income of 400 richest Americans doubled during Bush era
Fannie Mae's Overpaid Board: Can President Obama Turn Words Into Action?
Fox host: Capping bailout executives' pay 'slippery slope' to socialism
Dismay on Wall Street over Obama pay cap
Savings lost to Madoff, elderly forced back to work
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Double Edged Sword
It's bad sports season
Once again, missiles fly and civilians die in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The "truthers" and conservatives are already howling about this.
Let the 'I told you so's ' rain.
Endless bulletins racing around the social networks and the blogosphere exclaiming 'see, we told you so!'...attached with images of Obama in place of Jim Carey from the poster from the film 'Liar, Liar!'
As if that took any prodding.
Well, let's face it. Most of us had candidates that we'd have rather seen in the final race.... Kucinich, McKinney, Edwards, Paul, Huckabee, Clinton. Only some had supporters who just didn't take losing very well.
I was taking the view that while I didn't trust Obama, he was better than McCain/Palin.
Now Obama is here and for the most I've been glad to see him reversing a number of longstanding Bush policies. Considering I wasn't expecting alot, only that he wouldn't die in office and leave us with Sarah Palin as pres, then I'd say so far I've been pleasantly surprized.
Surprized even in spite of his staff decisions.
Including that of leaving Bush appointees Gen. Petraeus and Robert Gates in charge of the war theatre. Yet in doing so he's left us with results that are no surprize.
Bombing by US drones kills 21 , including women and children
This will remain a source of anguish for those that supported him... especially those that hope that he'll get us out of Iraq. And a couple of days ago just after Obama asked the Pentagon to draw up an exit strategy for Iraq Robert Gates responds at a press conference that we're likely to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan for years to come.
All the 'NObama's were jumping the gun... though they predicted the downfall of the republic before he even got to say the oath of office for the second time. Nothing he could ever do will ever please them. Unless he dismantles the Federal Reserve and ends all taxation... so that the rest of us can live without gov't services like education, health or aid... so that some people can hang onto alittle extra on their paychecks.
I suspect there are many just not coping with the idea of having a black president... while others just don't like democrats...
But I didn't much like the GOP's insistance on a ban of american funds going to third world aid agencies that offered information on abortions or birth control or safe sex. Which instead they helped to fund christian agencies that emphasized abstinence over safe sex.
Yeah, look how well that worked for Sarah Palin's daughter.
I keep rewriting this entry.
Earlier I went on a long tirade about rightwing truthers, Alex Jones fans and Ron Paul supporters and their kneejerk 'NObama' attitudes.
I just clipped it away thinking whygo on about such people...and yet,
Nothing Obama is going to do will ever please them.
They are conditioned to seeing an illuminati in every closet and under every bed.
I see what floats around the Prison Planet forums where they blame him for ending torture by exuecutive decree by insisting quite the opposite occured that by lifting the ban on funding for organisations that give abortion information he is in fact exporting torture.
Isn't getting AIDS from not using condoms because the local christian aid agencies refuse safe sex alternatives... or slow death from starvation because you have too many kids a form of torture?
See, we can twist this argument any way that we want.
Let's face it, the conservatives have a vested interest in seeing Obama fail .
Look,... Obama is not off the hook about the war even though he never promised us he'd end the war promptly. It's up to us to stay on his ass about it.... he doesn't get a free ride.
But give him a bit of time and wait and see what he does.
Once again the BBC's management come under fire over policy decisions
The BBC's isolation for it's refusal to air appeal for aid.
" ..The BBC's unrepentant stance has stirred up rebellion in the ranks of it own reporters and editors. One senior BBC news presenter told the Observer: "I've been talking to colleagues and everyone here is absolutely seething about this. The notion that the decision to ban the appeal will seem impartial to the public at large is quite absurd.." - Guardian.co.uk
Morally they're wrong about their stance in not airing an appeal for aid.
The need is too urgent and dire to play out the politics of it.
They're not wrong about needing to maintain an objective image as an outlet for the news.
In fact they're a bit oversensitive to oversite and criticism these last few months, still from the Radio 2 incident back in October where radio/tv show host Jonathan Ross along with his guest Russell Brand had left obscene phone messages for 86 year old actor Andrew Sachs... describing Brand's sexual tryst with Sach's granddaughter.
" ...Astonishingly, senior BBC executives cleared the offensive messages for broadcast, even though making abusive phone calls is a criminal offence. "
It's weird to see them standing up to criticism for supporting Ross' bad judgement in making the prank phonecalls and now to see them standing defiant against politicians and colleagues in the media over their decision about the Gaza appeal.
And yet where was this defiance during the 2003 furor over the death of Dr David Kelly (which may or may not have been a suicide) and resulted in a pro government biased inquiry conducted by Lord Hutton which stated that the BBC management was culpable in airing the unverified and unsubstantiated claims by reporter Andrew Gilligan for Radio 4's Today programme that Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy, Alistair Campbell had altered a government report in a manner that emphasized a claim that Saddam Hussein has WMD's with such sufficient capabilities that Iraq was able to deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so'. A claim that even the Defence Intelligence Staff seriously doubted.
As a result of the Hutton inquiry, BBC's chairman, Gavyn Davies had to accept responsibility and resign as did its director general, Greg Dyke; both whom were so widely respected by BBC staff that there were spontaneous walkouts and protests.
Interestingly, you'd never see anyone in the US take responsibility like that. When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accepted responsibility for the events at Abu Ghraib prison... he just stayed and just non com officers and guards were court martialed even though they were just following directives issued from the very top... directives that according to former VP Dick Cheney were executive decisions that 'he doesn't regret making'... hopefully we'll get back to him on that.
But back to the BBC and the Hutton Inquiry, ... (if you hadn't heard this one before) back in April 2005 a government memo was leaked dating further back to July of 2002 which was the minutes of a meeting of the British Prime Minister's senior ministers (of which Alistair Campbell was in attendance) which described the United States executive branch's intention to invade Iraq acknowledging Iraq's feeble defensive capabilities,stating that" his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran", and went on to theorize possible political routes to finding justification for an invasion... and for Britain's involvement.
This part seems especially key;
" C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justifi ed by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fi xed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action. "
Moreover, it proves that even President Bush advisors knew the claims to be ludicrous and played the claims out as just intentional political theatre.
And Lord Hutton is just a pompous gov't shill.
I do agree with the truthers on the fact that there should be another 9/11 Commission inquiry without an obstructionist administration preventing important figures from being subpoena'd.
We should start with investigating the truth about the whole last 8 years... from the very beginning.
Once again, missiles fly and civilians die in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The "truthers" and conservatives are already howling about this.
Let the 'I told you so's ' rain.
Endless bulletins racing around the social networks and the blogosphere exclaiming 'see, we told you so!'...attached with images of Obama in place of Jim Carey from the poster from the film 'Liar, Liar!'
As if that took any prodding.
Well, let's face it. Most of us had candidates that we'd have rather seen in the final race.... Kucinich, McKinney, Edwards, Paul, Huckabee, Clinton. Only some had supporters who just didn't take losing very well.
I was taking the view that while I didn't trust Obama, he was better than McCain/Palin.
Now Obama is here and for the most I've been glad to see him reversing a number of longstanding Bush policies. Considering I wasn't expecting alot, only that he wouldn't die in office and leave us with Sarah Palin as pres, then I'd say so far I've been pleasantly surprized.
Surprized even in spite of his staff decisions.
Including that of leaving Bush appointees Gen. Petraeus and Robert Gates in charge of the war theatre. Yet in doing so he's left us with results that are no surprize.
Bombing by US drones kills 21 , including women and children
This will remain a source of anguish for those that supported him... especially those that hope that he'll get us out of Iraq. And a couple of days ago just after Obama asked the Pentagon to draw up an exit strategy for Iraq Robert Gates responds at a press conference that we're likely to remain in Iraq and Afghanistan for years to come.
All the 'NObama's were jumping the gun... though they predicted the downfall of the republic before he even got to say the oath of office for the second time. Nothing he could ever do will ever please them. Unless he dismantles the Federal Reserve and ends all taxation... so that the rest of us can live without gov't services like education, health or aid... so that some people can hang onto alittle extra on their paychecks.
I suspect there are many just not coping with the idea of having a black president... while others just don't like democrats...
But I didn't much like the GOP's insistance on a ban of american funds going to third world aid agencies that offered information on abortions or birth control or safe sex. Which instead they helped to fund christian agencies that emphasized abstinence over safe sex.
Yeah, look how well that worked for Sarah Palin's daughter.
I keep rewriting this entry.
Earlier I went on a long tirade about rightwing truthers, Alex Jones fans and Ron Paul supporters and their kneejerk 'NObama' attitudes.
I just clipped it away thinking whygo on about such people...and yet,
Nothing Obama is going to do will ever please them.
They are conditioned to seeing an illuminati in every closet and under every bed.
I see what floats around the Prison Planet forums where they blame him for ending torture by exuecutive decree by insisting quite the opposite occured that by lifting the ban on funding for organisations that give abortion information he is in fact exporting torture.
Isn't getting AIDS from not using condoms because the local christian aid agencies refuse safe sex alternatives... or slow death from starvation because you have too many kids a form of torture?
See, we can twist this argument any way that we want.
Let's face it, the conservatives have a vested interest in seeing Obama fail .
Look,... Obama is not off the hook about the war even though he never promised us he'd end the war promptly. It's up to us to stay on his ass about it.... he doesn't get a free ride.
But give him a bit of time and wait and see what he does.
Once again the BBC's management come under fire over policy decisions
The BBC's isolation for it's refusal to air appeal for aid.
" ..The BBC's unrepentant stance has stirred up rebellion in the ranks of it own reporters and editors. One senior BBC news presenter told the Observer: "I've been talking to colleagues and everyone here is absolutely seething about this. The notion that the decision to ban the appeal will seem impartial to the public at large is quite absurd.." - Guardian.co.uk
Morally they're wrong about their stance in not airing an appeal for aid.
The need is too urgent and dire to play out the politics of it.
They're not wrong about needing to maintain an objective image as an outlet for the news.
In fact they're a bit oversensitive to oversite and criticism these last few months, still from the Radio 2 incident back in October where radio/tv show host Jonathan Ross along with his guest Russell Brand had left obscene phone messages for 86 year old actor Andrew Sachs... describing Brand's sexual tryst with Sach's granddaughter.
" ...Astonishingly, senior BBC executives cleared the offensive messages for broadcast, even though making abusive phone calls is a criminal offence. "
It's weird to see them standing up to criticism for supporting Ross' bad judgement in making the prank phonecalls and now to see them standing defiant against politicians and colleagues in the media over their decision about the Gaza appeal.
And yet where was this defiance during the 2003 furor over the death of Dr David Kelly (which may or may not have been a suicide) and resulted in a pro government biased inquiry conducted by Lord Hutton which stated that the BBC management was culpable in airing the unverified and unsubstantiated claims by reporter Andrew Gilligan for Radio 4's Today programme that Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy, Alistair Campbell had altered a government report in a manner that emphasized a claim that Saddam Hussein has WMD's with such sufficient capabilities that Iraq was able to deploy biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so'. A claim that even the Defence Intelligence Staff seriously doubted.
As a result of the Hutton inquiry, BBC's chairman, Gavyn Davies had to accept responsibility and resign as did its director general, Greg Dyke; both whom were so widely respected by BBC staff that there were spontaneous walkouts and protests.
Interestingly, you'd never see anyone in the US take responsibility like that. When Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accepted responsibility for the events at Abu Ghraib prison... he just stayed and just non com officers and guards were court martialed even though they were just following directives issued from the very top... directives that according to former VP Dick Cheney were executive decisions that 'he doesn't regret making'... hopefully we'll get back to him on that.
But back to the BBC and the Hutton Inquiry, ... (if you hadn't heard this one before) back in April 2005 a government memo was leaked dating further back to July of 2002 which was the minutes of a meeting of the British Prime Minister's senior ministers (of which Alistair Campbell was in attendance) which described the United States executive branch's intention to invade Iraq acknowledging Iraq's feeble defensive capabilities,stating that" his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran", and went on to theorize possible political routes to finding justification for an invasion... and for Britain's involvement.
This part seems especially key;
" C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justifi ed by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fi xed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action. "
Moreover, it proves that even President Bush advisors knew the claims to be ludicrous and played the claims out as just intentional political theatre.
And Lord Hutton is just a pompous gov't shill.
I do agree with the truthers on the fact that there should be another 9/11 Commission inquiry without an obstructionist administration preventing important figures from being subpoena'd.
We should start with investigating the truth about the whole last 8 years... from the very beginning.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration Day
Somehow all my good feelings leading up to the moment of Obama's inauguration are ruined by the opening speech of Diane Feinstein and Rev. Rick Warren's invocation.
Considering that last week Warren was exhorting his followers to 'follow Christ, like youth followed Hitler' as if creating a Christus jugend bewegnung is going to help anything other than to further the cause of creating a theocracy out of a democracy and giving the rightwing a 'by any means necessary' speech, I was somewhat relieved to see Warren didn't slip anything insulting or ideologically top heavy into his invocation speech. I was expecting that his followers were going to try to hijack the event.
Brilliant.... great..... the queen of soul.... Aretha Franklin singing 'America tis of thee'... absolutely beautifully sung and very moving, -although tell me some comedian hadn't already predicted this for the first african american president's inaugural?
Joe Biden gets sworn in... could you get anymore 'insider' than that? Aleast they both weren't claiming to be "maverics".
Obama stumbles after the word "execute"...hmm, 'who are you thinking of executing' (I can hear the usual paranoid anti-NWO truthers buzzing on that one)...big embarassing pause there... but its done.
Apparently it was Justice(?) Roberts' slip up that caused it.
A big corner has been turned here.
I can't help but be moved by it.
"I thank him for the cooperation he's shown in the transition" (Bush gives a look like 'the hell I have!')
Mentions the challenge... healthcare, education, financial crisis.
Acknowledges the difficulty of the challenges ahead and exhorts the US to unite to deal with the problems and reminds us that "all are equal".
"pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and do what's got to be done " to rebuild the republic.
restore science to its rightful place" ....predicts green technologies growth.
Derides cynics and critics... assuring them of american capability to achieve results.
On defense...
rejects the paranoid fear policies of the Bush Admin for the sake of natl security ...but to restore the literal meaning of the constitutional gaurantees of rights.
Reiterates american resolve against terrorism but not at the price of civil liberties.
But signals to the arab world that a different tact will be taken; one that shows respect and not just a 'christian crusade' against islam.
Acknowledges americans' use of resources... will employ more sensible use of them.
Mentions the many virtues he wants to see...
like" the willingness of a factory worker willing to take fewer hours than to see a friend lose their job" (maybe signaling to unions a bullet or two they'll have to bite... vaguely anti-unionist in nature)
Personal responsibility and the price of citizenship.
QReminds us that 60 years ago his father couldn't sit in alot of restraunts but he "now stands before you to take America's most sacred oath"
The rest of the speech you can read online somewhere.....
I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that I hear a president speech that doesn't make me seethe and react with anger
Elizabeth Alexander poet ..." say it, plain... that many died for the day that brings us here"
"praise song for the day for every hand written sign written at kitchen tables"
Rev. Joseph E Lowry's benediction... civil rights leader.... someone who's lived long and been through alot to get to this day. One can't help but be moved by the significance of this moment for him. .....LOL! he takes a jab at the Bush Admin for their favoritism towards the rich elite.
I love him for his humility, rationality and humour!
A BBC anouncer reminds us that this moment was promised us ... a long time in the coming.
They sing the national anthem.
It's more than just the arrival of America's first black president which in and of itself is monumental in nature -but a deliverance of the reigns of power from a failed and abusive presidency (that lasted 8 years) to a presidency that will have to work three times as hard to undo the damage that was done to the republic in that time...
There were so many subtle jabs at the subtle racism and elitist policies of the previous administration, their wanton disregard for the rights of average americans.
That this moment, in part, fulfilled but was not solely pivotal on the importance or realizing Rev. Martin Luther King jr's dream but in realising the equality of all americans also recognizes that as equal americans requires equal responsibilities.
The presidents...former and incoming... standing together on the steps....... I'm awaiting a raining of shoes on GW Bush... in fact, I think his eyes have been busily scanning for any 'incoming' footwear throughout the whole event.
Cheney.... shamming I think, in his wheelchair.......... 'you wouldn't prosecute a man in a wheelchair, would you?'
---------------------------------
Okay, event over.
President Obama is still a product of party politics and he still owes alot in some part to corporate benefactors. And despite the progressive sounding speech, he's already warned us in his speech that ...for instance... unions may have to bite a bullet or two to save jobs.
I didn't like Justice(?)John Roberts swearing him in... the federalist scum.
The contempt was apparent in his voice... but he did his job.
Now that the important moment is over:
I was interviewed on local belgian tv as an american living in Gent and this event's meaning to me...
Americans living in Belgium react to Obama inauguration
I have to say to my defense... they woke me up with a telephone call, and in one hour they were there and I just wasn't prepared for an interview.
And, they took my least interesting soundbytes. But witnessing it... I can't blame them, I really was too tired to have done this.
I made a quip about how previously the White House really was the "White" House... that it was previously unthinkable.... they left out that I mentioned that the Dem leadership had previously snubbed him and that all during the primaries he'd had a racial double standard thrown at him despite Clinton supporters' claim of 'sexism' on the part of the dem leadership and the media.
That the media took Obama more to task on a number of occasions that they didn't of McCain or Palin.
But they chose my less important comments.
I mentioned the corporate favoritism of the previous admin... but used my comment about the lack of respect for the right of privacy.
But I did stumble a bit... so I can't really blame them... unaccustomed to public speaking as I am.
I did say that I was "wary, but still hopeful"... hey, ...what do you want? I am at the end of the day, an anarchist.
I don't trust any gov't really, and especially the dems who talk a good game but have stabbed us (their progressive base) in the back on so many occasions ...like war funding, like the quashing of Dennis Kucinich's efforts to impeach Bush, like the bailout, like the uncondintional support for Israel's brutal war against Gaza's residents, like the many concessions to the Bush administration. I get tired of hearing them tell us how unrealistic the progressive agenda is, especially when progressive activists kept the dems in the running.
I detest Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for all their progressive lipservice and backroom deal making. We do need either more in the way of political pluralism like that which exists in parliamentary political systems, an end to the "two party" system where both parties are just shades of one another,
... or a revolution, a rise from the bottom of direct workers' democracy.
But, today is the day before Obama's first day on the job so, I'll wait see what he does tomorrow and celebrate today some of the important parts of what today meant.
Considering that last week Warren was exhorting his followers to 'follow Christ, like youth followed Hitler' as if creating a Christus jugend bewegnung is going to help anything other than to further the cause of creating a theocracy out of a democracy and giving the rightwing a 'by any means necessary' speech, I was somewhat relieved to see Warren didn't slip anything insulting or ideologically top heavy into his invocation speech. I was expecting that his followers were going to try to hijack the event.
Brilliant.... great..... the queen of soul.... Aretha Franklin singing 'America tis of thee'... absolutely beautifully sung and very moving, -although tell me some comedian hadn't already predicted this for the first african american president's inaugural?
Joe Biden gets sworn in... could you get anymore 'insider' than that? Aleast they both weren't claiming to be "maverics".
Obama stumbles after the word "execute"...hmm, 'who are you thinking of executing' (I can hear the usual paranoid anti-NWO truthers buzzing on that one)...big embarassing pause there... but its done.
Apparently it was Justice(?) Roberts' slip up that caused it.
A big corner has been turned here.
I can't help but be moved by it.
"I thank him for the cooperation he's shown in the transition" (Bush gives a look like 'the hell I have!')
Mentions the challenge... healthcare, education, financial crisis.
Acknowledges the difficulty of the challenges ahead and exhorts the US to unite to deal with the problems and reminds us that "all are equal".
"pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and do what's got to be done " to rebuild the republic.
restore science to its rightful place" ....predicts green technologies growth.
Derides cynics and critics... assuring them of american capability to achieve results.
On defense...
rejects the paranoid fear policies of the Bush Admin for the sake of natl security ...but to restore the literal meaning of the constitutional gaurantees of rights.
Reiterates american resolve against terrorism but not at the price of civil liberties.
But signals to the arab world that a different tact will be taken; one that shows respect and not just a 'christian crusade' against islam.
Acknowledges americans' use of resources... will employ more sensible use of them.
Mentions the many virtues he wants to see...
like" the willingness of a factory worker willing to take fewer hours than to see a friend lose their job" (maybe signaling to unions a bullet or two they'll have to bite... vaguely anti-unionist in nature)
Personal responsibility and the price of citizenship.
QReminds us that 60 years ago his father couldn't sit in alot of restraunts but he "now stands before you to take America's most sacred oath"
The rest of the speech you can read online somewhere.....
I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that I hear a president speech that doesn't make me seethe and react with anger
Elizabeth Alexander poet ..." say it, plain... that many died for the day that brings us here"
"praise song for the day for every hand written sign written at kitchen tables"
Rev. Joseph E Lowry's benediction... civil rights leader.... someone who's lived long and been through alot to get to this day. One can't help but be moved by the significance of this moment for him. .....LOL! he takes a jab at the Bush Admin for their favoritism towards the rich elite.
I love him for his humility, rationality and humour!
A BBC anouncer reminds us that this moment was promised us ... a long time in the coming.
They sing the national anthem.
It's more than just the arrival of America's first black president which in and of itself is monumental in nature -but a deliverance of the reigns of power from a failed and abusive presidency (that lasted 8 years) to a presidency that will have to work three times as hard to undo the damage that was done to the republic in that time...
There were so many subtle jabs at the subtle racism and elitist policies of the previous administration, their wanton disregard for the rights of average americans.
That this moment, in part, fulfilled but was not solely pivotal on the importance or realizing Rev. Martin Luther King jr's dream but in realising the equality of all americans also recognizes that as equal americans requires equal responsibilities.
The presidents...former and incoming... standing together on the steps....... I'm awaiting a raining of shoes on GW Bush... in fact, I think his eyes have been busily scanning for any 'incoming' footwear throughout the whole event.
Cheney.... shamming I think, in his wheelchair.......... 'you wouldn't prosecute a man in a wheelchair, would you?'
---------------------------------
Okay, event over.
President Obama is still a product of party politics and he still owes alot in some part to corporate benefactors. And despite the progressive sounding speech, he's already warned us in his speech that ...for instance... unions may have to bite a bullet or two to save jobs.
I didn't like Justice(?)John Roberts swearing him in... the federalist scum.
The contempt was apparent in his voice... but he did his job.
Now that the important moment is over:
I was interviewed on local belgian tv as an american living in Gent and this event's meaning to me...
Americans living in Belgium react to Obama inauguration
I have to say to my defense... they woke me up with a telephone call, and in one hour they were there and I just wasn't prepared for an interview.
And, they took my least interesting soundbytes. But witnessing it... I can't blame them, I really was too tired to have done this.
I made a quip about how previously the White House really was the "White" House... that it was previously unthinkable.... they left out that I mentioned that the Dem leadership had previously snubbed him and that all during the primaries he'd had a racial double standard thrown at him despite Clinton supporters' claim of 'sexism' on the part of the dem leadership and the media.
That the media took Obama more to task on a number of occasions that they didn't of McCain or Palin.
But they chose my less important comments.
I mentioned the corporate favoritism of the previous admin... but used my comment about the lack of respect for the right of privacy.
But I did stumble a bit... so I can't really blame them... unaccustomed to public speaking as I am.
I did say that I was "wary, but still hopeful"... hey, ...what do you want? I am at the end of the day, an anarchist.
I don't trust any gov't really, and especially the dems who talk a good game but have stabbed us (their progressive base) in the back on so many occasions ...like war funding, like the quashing of Dennis Kucinich's efforts to impeach Bush, like the bailout, like the uncondintional support for Israel's brutal war against Gaza's residents, like the many concessions to the Bush administration. I get tired of hearing them tell us how unrealistic the progressive agenda is, especially when progressive activists kept the dems in the running.
I detest Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for all their progressive lipservice and backroom deal making. We do need either more in the way of political pluralism like that which exists in parliamentary political systems, an end to the "two party" system where both parties are just shades of one another,
... or a revolution, a rise from the bottom of direct workers' democracy.
But, today is the day before Obama's first day on the job so, I'll wait see what he does tomorrow and celebrate today some of the important parts of what today meant.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
