November 2008
Actions for Restoring America - A To Do List for... →
The ACLU has set forth a list of actions to re-wind our lost constitution:
This paper lists many of the actions that the new president should take in order to decisively signal a restoration of American values and a rejection of the shameful policies of the past eight years.
Mistreatin’ Mama Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
October 2008
The make-your-own-universe kit →
The kit, created by Jonathon Keats - a conceptual artist from San Francisco - relies on the multiverse theory of the universe that arises from quantum mechanics.
Bailout = Bush's Final Pillage →
When European colonialists realized that they had no choice but to hand over power to the indigenous citizens, they would often turn their attention to stripping the local treasury of its gold and grabbing valuable livestock. If they were really nasty, like the Portuguese in Mozambique in the mid-1970s, they poured concrete down the elevator shafts. The Bush gang prefers bureaucratic instruments:...
“Work is of two kinds: First, altering the position of matter at or near the...”
– Sir Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness (1932)
Marine motorcycle deaths top their Iraq combat... →
Motorcycles are slightly more lethal than war:
Twenty-five Marines have died in motorcycle crashes since last November — all but one of them involving sport bikes that can reach speeds of well over 100 mph, according to Marine officials. In that same period, 20 Marines have been killed in action in Iraq.
“McCain’s and Palin’s attacks on Khalidi are frankly racist. He is a...”
– Juan Cole (via azspot)
“Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the...”
– Tim Keller (via azspot)
The Big Chart →
Sorting out good things from crappy things.
Tribler Set to Make BitTorrent Sites Obsolete →
The Tribler BitTorrent client, a project run by researchers from several European universities and Harvard, is the first to incorporate decentralized search capabilities. With Tribler, users can now find .torrent files that are hosted among other peers, instead of on a centralized site such as The Pirate Bay or Mininova.
“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul:...”
– Acts 4:32-35 (Clearly the early Christians were Socialists)
Greenspan Concedes Error on Regulation →
My daughter Jen called my attention to this amazing event - stark honesty in the face of reality. For the first time ever, I admire Alan Greenspan. I can think of no one else who has been so privately and publically invested in free market ideology who has been brave enough to say “I was wrong.” In fact, no one faces clear facts and speaks the truth anywhere in the public or private...
“The Disabled American Veterans gave McCain a veterans issue support rating of 20...”
– Jeff Huber (via azspot)
Assigning U.S. Troops to U.S. Soil and Other... →
The Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878 following Reconstruction, prohibits federal military personnel from acting in a law enforcement capacity in the United States, except if authorized by constitutional amendment or Congress. Also important to note is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which authorizes the president to deploy federal troops to quell lawlessness, insurrection, or rebellion, yet...
WatchReality Check! Wasilla AK
“This financial crisis and the feeling that things are going in the wrong...”
– Demographer Cheryl Russell the former editor in chief of American Demographics magazine, the editorial director of New Strategist Publications and the author of the just-published “Bet You Didn’t Know: Hundreds of Intriguing Facts About Living in the USA” in Salon.
Advertising Age Names Obama Marketer of the Year →
“Baghdad witnessed another demonstration with more than one million Iraqi, Arabs...”
– Another Million Iraqi demonstrators: Get out of our country (via azspot)
Ain't it ferny
magicmolly:
Remember when Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan were always being photographed at Taco Bell or Burger King? Is this the current form of “slumming”? The practice of slumming is based on the clichéd idea that those with less money have access to vivid, unadulterated pleasures that can be dipped into at the whim and discretion of the wealthy. (eg. that scene in Titanic where...
The mystery of the missing opium →
A crop of 7,700 tonnes [of opium produced last year in Afghanistan] will produce around 1,100 tonnes of heroin - it basically works on a 7:1 ratio. The mystery is that the global demand for heroin is less than half that. In other words, Afghanistan only needs to produce 3,500 tonnes to satisfy every known heroin user on the planet. [What’s happening to the rest?]
Watch Chomsky says while it’s true that the two parties are essentially like factions of one party - the party of business - the differences do matter to ordinary people. If you are living in a swing state, there is nothing wrong with picking the lesser of two evils.
WatchLearning your ABCs
Naomi Klein speaks to a sold out audience at the...
“To switch metaphors, let’s say that we are witnessing the two stages of a...”
– Jim Kunstler (via azspot)
“In the U.S.S.R. — and remember state monopoly capitalism of the kind Henry...”
– Roger Cohen in the NYT
“The recession will go on until about 2011, but the shooting was great today and...”
– A.I.G. big shot Sebastian Preil during an $86,000 partridge shooting holiday at Plumber Manor, a 17th century country house in Dorset England.
The global financial crisis has galvanised world... →
The US bank bail out alone totalled $850bn. That would clear the accumulated debts of the 49 poorest countries in the world twice over. It is about 53 times as much as the annual cost of getting every child into school. And more than it would cost to give basic healthcare to every man, woman and child on the planet for an entire decade
Here is what we urgently need to stop the Poverty Crisis:
...
WatchRIP - A remix manifesto [Trailer]
EFF sues to overturn telcom immunity →
The immunity law puts the fox in charge of the hen house, letting the Attorney General decide whether or not telecoms like AT&T can be sued for participating in the government’s illegal warrantless surveillance,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “In our constitutional system, it is the judiciary’s role as a co-equal branch of government to determine the...
China and the bailout: Happy to help →
As if anyone who is paying attention didn’t know this:
Two weeks ago, the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Daily reported China’s government had expressed interest in purchasing “at least” $200 billion worth of new U.S. Treasuries, to be issued soon by Hank Paulson and Co. in order to pay for the ballooning operating expenses of the U.S. government. China already owns about 20...
Salon: Your children's books seem to appeal to your gentler, Charles Schulz side. But how -- without Opus -- will you exercise your Michael Moore side?
Breathed: I'll be on my couch Sunday mornings screaming at Brokaw and Stephanopoulos to call out the blathering bastards on their stupid fucking talking points and pin the dancing, lying, spinning Tasmanian Weasels down about something, ANYTHING for Christ Bloody Sake THE COUNTRY IS GETTING STEERED INTO CHAOS AND INSOLVENCY AND WAR BY ITS UNREAD UNINFORMED DULLARD SHEEP CONSTITUENCIES AND YOU JUST LET THE CANDIDATE SAY ONE MORE TIME WITHOUT OBJECTION THAT HE'S GOING TO CUT TAXES WHILE HE CALLS FOR FREE 24 KARAT GOLD FRANKFURTERS TO BE INSERTED INTO EVERY AMERICAN'S ASS JUST BECAUSE BUTT BULLION POLLS WELL.
You see right there why I can't have Opus involved with this anymore.
