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READING

Silent Coup: The Removal of a President - Len Colodny & Robert Gettlin

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin (free online version/download here)

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all art/music/culture links (including music biz/file sharing news), fiction I'm reading and what I'm listening to and watching -- all moving here

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NOW AVAILABLE AT ME-ZINE

STOP TERRORISM

ABBREVIATIONS FOR SITES I OFTEN STEAL NEWS ITEMS FROM:

og = J Orlin Grabbe
u = Progressive Review's Undernews
a = Antiwar

amazon wish list

alibris wishlist

Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia

Amazon Light

Just consider what current events will sound like two thousand years from now -- the greatest nation on Earth bombing some of the smallest and weakest for no clear reasons, people starving in parts of the world while farmers are paid not to plant crops in others, technophiles sitting at home playing electronic golf rahter than the real thing, and police forces ordered to arrest people who simply desire to ingest a psychoactive weed. People of that era will also likely laugh it all off as fantastic myths...

It is time for those who desire true freedom to exert themselves -- to fight back against the forces who desire domination through fear and disunity.

This does not have to involve violence. It can be done in small, simple ways, like not financing that new Sport Utility Vehicle, cutting up all but one credit card, not opting for a second mortgage, turning off that TV sitcom for a good book, asking questions and speaking out in church or synagogue, attending school board and city council meetings, voting for the candidate who has the least money, learning about the Fully Informed Jury movement and using it when called -- in general, taking responsibility for one's own actions. Despite the omnipresent advertising for the Lotto -- legalized government gambling -- there is no free lunch. Giving up one's individual power for the hope of comfort and security has proven to lead only to tyranny.

from Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs

* * * *

You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping, though by the time I was nine or ten most people used plastic cards. . .It seems so primitive, totemistic even, like cowry shells. I must have used that kind of money myself, a little, before everything went on the Compubank.

I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.

It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.

Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.

. . . Things continued on in that state of suspended animation for weeks, although some things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful. They said that new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them. The thing to do, they said, was to continue on as usual.

from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

* * * *

By the time Oscar reached the outskirts of Washington, DC, The Louisiana air base had benn placed under siege.

The base's electrical power supply had long since been cut off for lack of payment. The aircraft had no fuel. The desperate federal troops were bartering stolen equipment for food and booze. Desertion was rampant. The air base commander had released a sobbing video confession and had shot himself.

Green Huey had lost patience with the long-festering scandal. He was moving in for the kill. Attacking and seizing an federal air base with his loyal state militia would have been entirely too blatant and straightforward. Instead the rogue Governor employed proxy guerrillas.

Huey had won the favor of nomad prole groups by providing them with safe havens. He allowed them to squat in Louisiana's many federally declared contamination zones. These forgotten landscapes were tainted with petrochemical effluent and hormone-warping pesticides, and were hence officially unfit for human settlement. The prole hordes had different opinions on that subject.

Proles cheerfully grouped in any locale where conventional authority had grown weak. Whenever the net-based proles were not constantly harassed by the authorities, they coalesced and grew ambitious. Though easily scattered by focused crackdowns, they regrouped as swiftly as a horde of gnats. With their reaping machines and bio-breweries, they could live off the land at the very base of the food chain. They had no stake in the established order, and they cherished a canny street-level knowledge of society's infrastructural weaknesses. They made expensive enemies. . .

Louisiana's ecologically blighted areas were ideal for proles. The disaster zones were also impromptu wildlife sanctuaries, since wild animals found chemical fouling much easier to survive than the presence of human beings. After decades of wild subtropical growth, Louisiana's toxic dumps were as impenetrable as Sherwood Forest.

from Distraction by Bruce Sterling

and s-integrator

Thursday, August 22, 2002

Having trouble posting, here's summary just in case:

German Iraqi embassy raid CIA-run?

(P)resident runs a lot, still no blood reaching head.

Brooks Brothers Riot during Election 2000 confirmed tied to shrub.

Cryptome on potential Hatfill-Bloodhound scam.

8:02 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

File-Sharing in US = Prison
The US Department of Justice is prepared to begin prosecuting peer-to-peer pirates, a top government official said on Tuesday.

John Malcolm, a deputy assistant attorney general, said Americans should realise that swapping illicit copies of music and movies is a criminal offense that can result in lengthy prison terms.

"A lot of people think these activities are legal, and they think they ought to be legal," Malcolm told an audience at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual technology and politics summit.

[...]

A few weeks ago, some of the most senior members of Congress pressured the Justice Department to invoke a little-known law, the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, against peer- to-peer users who swap files without permission.

Under the NET Act, signed by President Clinton in 1997, it is a federal crime to share copies of copyrighted products such as software, movies or music with anyone, even friends or family members, if the value of the work exceeds $1,000 (about �640). Violations are punishable by one year in prison, or if the value tops $2,500, "not more than five years" in prison.

Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), said his industry would "welcome" prosecutions that send a message to song-swappers.

7:41 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer touts an anti-drug message while proudly displaying his sponsorship by Busch beer

Click here to fax the Drug Czar about this nonsense.

10:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ghosts haunt Pocahontas Highway in Virginia

9:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

shrub wants to save forests by "thinning them" -- "just a little trim" . . .

Oh yeahhh. . .

9:36 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Pentagon's credit racket indentures servicemen/women [Metafilter thread]
Concocted by Congress in 1998, the GTC [Government Travel Card] was designed to privatize the accounting of federal travel expenses and touted to save taxpayer money. (It also reaps huge fees by the financial conglomerates that issue the cards.) It works like this: Servicepeople are ordered to apply for personal GTCs -- interest-free credit cards issued exclusively by the Bank of America. Instead of requesting vouchers or getting cash to pay for travel expenses, servicepeople pay up front with the their own GTC cards --essentially floating interest-free loans to the government. As a result, they have to submit expense reports and wait for reimbursements.

But reimbursements often come late, according to a recent report issued by the General Accounting Office, which means the GTC bills aren't always paid on time and servicepeople are getting branded as "delinquents." The GAO found "substantial" delays in reimbursements; in one command unit, for example, the California National Guard failed to pay its personnel within a month 61 percent of the time, and of those payments, 42 percent were inaccurate.

Just in the past year, the names of more than 10,000 military personnel have been reported to national credit bureaus as "credit risks," according to the Military Times. Instead of changing the mechanics of the travel card system, however, the DOD and the bank have only tightened their grip on cardholders; since October, the Pentagon has garnished over $19.5 million from military paychecks to pay off "delinquent" GTC bills, according to DOD accountants.

9:25 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

McKinney kicked out

Well, at least maybe now she won't contract some "mysterious" disease or perish in an "accident."

1:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

There's a referendum in a Washington county on the Canadian border to dissolve the library system to cut taxes [Metafilter]
A group of antitax crusaders are trying to shutter them, in an effort that the American Library Association says may be the first aimed at dissolving an entire county library system by referendum. In the last decade, parts of the rural West have had tax revolts against schools, public transportation and new parks. Now comes the first tax revolt against books.

Leaders of the campaign to eliminate the Stevens County Rural Library District say they are tired of paying property taxes for a service that helps people largely in the most out-of-the-way crannies, where a majority of the county's libraries lie. Besides, they say, rural libraries are increasingly obsolete, given the Internet, video outlets and discount bookstores.

Supporters of the initiative say they have gathered 2,800 signatures in a county of about 20,000 registered voters, far more than the 10 percent required to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

[...]

"We're seeing a disconnect in our society," Ms. Robinson said. "People don't understand that you need tax money to pay for the public good. I'd like to see someone face the women I see every day with three kids and a stack of books and tell them they can't have a library anymore."

1:17 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

I WANT TO BE A MACHINE

I found the bones of all your ghosts
Locked in the wishing well
While birdsong gourmets dragged empty nets
I slumbered in my shell

In mitternacht, die mensch-maschine
Kissed me on my eyes
I rose and left the fire-ladies
Glowing lonely in the night
With all the pornographers
Burning torches beneath the sea

Chorus:

I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine
I want to be a machine

I stole a cathode face from newscasts
And a crumbling fugue of songs
From the reservoir of video souls
In the lakes beneath my tongue
In flesh of ash and silent movies
I walked at boulevards again
A nebula of unfinished creatures
From the lifetimes of my friends
My how your innocence has depraved me

(Chorus)

Broadcast me, scrambled clean
Or free me from this flesh
Let the armchair cannibals take their fill
In every cell across wilderness
We'll trip such a strangled tango
We'll waltz a wonderland affair
Let's run to meet the tide tomorrow
Leave all emotion dying there
In the star cold beyond all of your dreams

(Chorus)

-- Ultravox (w/ John Foxx)

6:03 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

In Russia, idle factories turn to illegal business -- even ones owned by the government
For pirates, government facilities and military factories offer a wall of secrecy that protects against police inspections. For military plants, which now stand mostly idle after a precipitous drop in military procurement in the 1990s, disk production can be a lifeline.

[Plant owner Oleg] Gordiiko, 40, chairman of the intellectual property rights committee at Russia's Chamber of Commerce, vigorously denied accusations of piracy. All 500,000 of the disks produced by his factory each month are legal, he said.

"The ambassador was given the wrong information" by American companies, he said.

Even so, Gordiiko acknowledged with a shrug that he has neither the time, resources nor inclination to check that each order he fills has the appropriate legal permission.

"If I have a good printer, and someone prints money on it, why should I be responsible for the counterfeits?" said Gordiiko.

5:23 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

US Media Consensus on post 9/11 reality starting to crack [a]
US news organisations "censored" their coverage of the US campaign in Afghanistan in order to be in step with public opinion in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a CNN senior executive has claimed.

Coverage of the war in Afghanistan was shaped by the level of public support that existed for US action, Rena Golden, the executive vice-president and general manager of CNN International claimed.

Speaking at Newsworld Asia, a conference for news executives in Singapore, Golden said: "Anyone who claims the US media didn't censor itself is kidding you. It wasn't a matter of government pressure but a reluctance to criticise anything in a war that was obviously supported by the vast majority of the people.["]

11:46 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

From In passing. . .
"I thought asking to borrow my toothbrush was weird, but I thought hey, it was better than him wanting to bring his own over. But you don't ask to borrow contact lenses. That doesn't even make sense."
--A girl talking on a cell phone outside La Burrita

2:29 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Vongfong Chinese flooding Lake Dongting could destroy millions of homes

That's millions.

Vongfong is the name of the tropical storm, named after a nasty insect.

2:03 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, August 19, 2002

Update on the muhnochwa ("face-scratcher") -- the object with flashing blue and red lights which Indian villagers claim attacks people sleeping outside
Villagers across the region no longer sleep outside, as they usually do during the sweltering summer heat and long power failures, fearing that they will be easy prey for the muhnochwa.

In some villages the entire population are squeezing into the headman's house for the night, seeking shelter and safety in numbers.

Having lost faith in the police, villagers have formed nocturnal protection squads.

[...]

Officials have suggested a raft of explanations, from an alien invasion to a new and unknown breed of insect.

[...]

Local doctors, however, have dismissed the phenomenon as mass hysteria, saying that most of the injuries have been self-inflicted by panicked villagers, evoking memories of the "monkey man" hysteria in Delhi last year.

9:36 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Boy the media and the shrub spin doctors did some scrambing today to counter the perception from the NY Times article on Friday that claimed Kissinger was against the Iraq invasion

It was all over the news this morning, though I can't find anything much about it now. Guess they figure the message got out that Kissinger wants Iraqi blood too.

I got the impression from reviewing the articles I found that Kissinger was really cautioning about the lack of support here and abroad, not opposing the war period.

Like his opinion is The Voice of God right? Boy does shrub have the media eating out of his hand. . .

6:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Water & the Corporatocracy file: a British entrepreneur wants to tap huge ancient lakes under California's Mojave Desert [newsmakingnews]
Under Cadiz's proposed $150 million deal with the Metropolitan Water District, the company would store Metropolitan's water from the Colorado River in years when the river is running high. Cadiz would bank the water in cavities beneath its 35,000-acre ranch, 60 miles southwest of Needles, and then pump it out and ship it to Southern California during dry years.

But the Cadiz project isn't just a water bank. Along with storing water, Cadiz would siphon some natural groundwater and sell it to Metropolitan for a fluctuating price.

"It's a good deal for both sides," said Mark Liggett, a Cadiz hydrologist who co-founded the company with Brackpool in 1983. Metropolitan could hedge itself against droughts and help the state head off a looming showdown over the water it takes from the Colorado River, he said.

Cadiz, meanwhile, would stand to earn a minimum of $560 million over five decades, putting [hopeful water-mogul Keith] Brackpool at the top of California's fledgling water industry.

It's a stature he's been seeking for years. Over the past five years, the British-born entrepreneur has hired politicians such as former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and former U.S. Rep. Tony Coehlo and has actively courted Davis, who has received more than $200,000 in campaign funds from Cadiz and Brackpool.

He's also served as Davis' unofficial water adviser -- a relationship that critics say is too cozy for comfort.
But you can believe him because he's bought high-quality politicians and he promises not to do anything bad.

Really.

6:28 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Meat-Processing Giant Announces Restructuring of Swine Division

OK, I admit it. I just posted this because of the way it sounds. No other reason.

It's bad news for 159 pig farmers though.

12:12 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Anti-war/nuke film banned in India for "desensitizing" images

Classic Orwellian doublespeak from demented fundamentalist government.
"The cuts that they asked for are so ridiculous that they won't hold up in court," Patwardhan said. "But if these cuts do make it, it will be the end of freedom of expression in the Indian media."

"War and Peace" is about India's celebrations after successful nuclear tests in May 1998. There are chest-thumping scenes of Hindus praising Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the secret tests near the western desert town of Pokhran, with fireworks, rallies and cheers of "Atom Bomb Vajpayee," and "Pokhran has ignited every atom of manhood.'"

The film is also about the consequences of nuclear bombs and the power of the Hindu fundamentalist forces steering Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP-led coalition won re-election in 1999, aided by the national jubilation over joining the club of nuclear nations.

The Central Board of Film Certification demanded the cuts, even after "War and Peace" won top honors at the state-run Bombay International Film Festival in February.

2:38 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Brainwashing America has cool remixed WWII posters from The Ministry of Homeland Security, which is on overload at the moment

2:17 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Municipal wells in western Nebraska are going dry after an extended drought

Because most of the state's water is unregulated, there may be court cases pitting farmers against city-dwellers, since irrigation is tapping water before it gets to the wells.

There's a huge aquifer that can be drilled into, but the levels are dropping a foot and a half a day in some places, making expensive new wells and water restrictions the only option.

The water being tapped is 1000 years old.

1:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Andromeda lets you store your music, video or whatever files on a server -- or a PC with broadband access I guess, I'm no techie -- and access them as streams from anywhere or share them [boing boing, which has a lot of fun items right now]

1:12 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, August 18, 2002

There are probably people who think this Times piece on the hidden expense of being a corporate polluter is "prescient" [u]
Munich Re, a large German insurance company, estimates that global warming could cost $300 billion annually by 2050 in weather damage, pollution, industrial and agricultural losses and other expenses. Companies may also face unexpected expenses because of compliance with future regulations, fines, taxes and caps on products that produce greenhouse gases.

The impact of climate change varies by sector. Oil, gas and utilities, of course, are directly affected by changes in energy policy, while real estate is affected by coastal flooding and drought. But environmental activists and a growing number of investors have started to catch the corporate world's attention with their warnings that nearly all industries are exposed to some risk. Of particular concern are the costs of complying with a patchwork of regulations in the United States and abroad and the potential harm to a company's reputation if it is contributing to global warming.

In another ominous sign for chief executives and board members, some experts in corporate governance say company officers could be held accountable for failing to protect their companies from climate-related risk. And the lawsuits could come from governments as well as investors and other aggrieved parties. Peter Lehner, chief of the New York attorney general's Environmental Protection Bureau, said it was studying the issue of climate change and might sue polluters along the lines of the successful tobacco litigation by states in the 1990's.
I can hear them crying "But we didn't know. . . " now.

Exactly what part of the phrase "shitting in your own backyard" don't they get?

6:53 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

New altershrub appointee to travesty Florida Dept of Children and Families wants to spank you because Jesus said so. Hard. [u]
The man named by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes "bruises or welts" as acceptable punishment.
The revelation did not come to Bush's attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush's father, as the new chief of the state's Department of Children and Families . . .

[...]

He and [co-author George] Rekers at one point urge Christians to take "whatever actions we can, within our biblical and constitutional limits, to realign county, state, and federal legislation regarding family issues in order to make it conform to the Bible's view of reality and morality."

6:38 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The IDF's occupation of the Bethlehem Peace Center [u]
While the structure of the building itself was left largely intact, the inside of the building was defiled in every possible way imaginable. This Bethlehem Peace Center which had been a gift of Sweden to Bethlehem and is dedicated to the promotion of peace, democracy, religious tolerance and cultural diversity was coated in a mixture of dirt, beer, wine, urine, eggs, rotting food, spilt coffee and tea from wall to wall, room to room and floor to floor. The bathrooms had feces and vomit in the toilets, on the floors and on the walls.

The entire furniture of the building was rearranged to meet the need of the military administration, with not a single desk or chair remaining in its original place. In fact, chairs have been found scattered in the municipality and in the street behind the Peace Center. Those chairs that were still in the Peace Center were, without exception, soiled, torn, ripped or cut to pieces.

Doors and drawers have been forced open, a number of them having been blasted with dynamite. Hundreds of keys were strewn throughout the building, including under various toilet seats. All cash boxes were compromised. The kitchen, which was recently installed and has never been used, has been soiled beyond recognition, knee deep in oil and grit and grime, with egg yolks dripping from the walls and spread across the kitchen floor. The store of food purchased with humanitarian donations and intended for distribution to the needy was entirely looted. Rotting food and drinks are everywhere - on the tables, on the floor, on the walls and on the ceilings.

1:52 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Copenhagen's successful plan to encourage pedestrians and discourage vehicles [u]

1:34 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Earthships -- houses made out of trash and pretty off-grid capable -- are getting lots of attention again
Though they were conceived 20 years ago by new-age architect Michael Reynolds, it is only now that they are beginning to take off around the world. And suddenly politicians and planners are beginning to pay attention.

Reynolds was driven by the urgency of the '70s energy crisis to build a cheaper, energy-efficient home that would help tackle another environment nightmare -- growing mountains of trash. With their growing popularity Earthships, could now put a dent in those mountains.

He hit on the idea of earth rammed tight into old tires. The tires are laid flat on their sides and stacked like bricks. The result is an incredibly stable wall with all the benefits of thermal mass -- heat transfers from warm areas to cold, so Earthships are cool during the day and warm at night.

[...]

Earthships use an array of sustainable techniques and renewable energy systems to allow them to function "off the grid" -- without any connection to water, sewage or electrical supply.

These techniques not only render them cheap to run but also ideal for remote areas devoid of services. Earthships can also be finished with any traditional building methods -- like plaster for the interiors and cladding for the exteriors -- to make them look like a modern home.

1:22 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Under Construction

I'm trying to add amazon links in the left column but something's up with the client and Wayne's away. The links still work but the graphics for
3 of the books are missing.

We'll fix it soon. Sorry.

12:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

That's one of the great things about living in America: moral superiority is so damned cheap.

-- James Crumley

This country is going so far to the right you won't be able to recognize it.

-- John Mitchell, 1973

Those who think history has left us helpless should recall the abolitionist of 1830, the feminist of 1870, the labor organizer of 1890, or the gay or lesbian writer of 1910. They, like us, did not get to choose their time in history but they, like us, did get to choose what they did with it.

-- Sam Smith

REVIEWS

from Sassafrass (9/23/02)
"Unconventional viewpoints at 'charging the canvas'

Opinions that will ruffle feathers, from someone who clearly knows their way around information and the blogosphere."

Blog of the Day
1/18/02

WEEKLY QUOTE

They tell us it's about race, and we believe them. And they call it a "democracy," and we nod our heads, so pleased with ourselves. We blame the Socias [gangsters], we occasionally sneer at the Paulsons [latest crop of craven pols] but we always vote for the Sterling Mulkerns [good old boys]. And in occasional moments of quasi-lucidity, we wonder why the Mulkerns of this world don't respect us. They don't respect us because we are their molested children. They fuck us morning, noon, and night, but as long as they tuck us in with a kiss, as long as they whisper into our ears, "Daddy loves you, Daddy will take care of you," we close our eyes and go to sleep, trading our bodies, our souls, for the comforting veneers of "civilization" and "security," the false idols of our twentieth century wet dream. And it's our reliance on that dream that the Mulkerns, the Paulsons, the Socias, the Phils, the Heroes of this world depend upon. That's their dark knowledge. That's how they win.

-- Dennis Lehane, A Drink Before the War

In the eyes of posterity it will inevitably seem that, in safeguarding our freedom, we destroyed it; that the vast clandestine apparatus we built up to probe our enemies' resources and intentions only served in the end to confuse our own purposes; that the practice of deceiving others for the good of the state led infallibly to our deceiving ourselves; and that the vast army of intelligence personnel built up to execute these purposes were soon caught up in the web of their own sick fantasies, with disastrous consequences to them and us.

-- Malcolm Muggeridge

NOT IN OUR NAME
(link to list against Iraq War)

charging the canvas

The Link Section