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CULTURE BLOG

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

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ABBREVIATIONS FOR SITES I OFTEN STEAL NEWS ITEMS FROM:

u = Progressive Review's Undernews

PUBLIC AFFAIRS/HISTORY READING:
(r) = re-reading

amazon wish list

amazon.ca wish list

alibris wishlist

The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers -- and What They Expect in Return

Arrogant Capital

Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism & Toxic Warfare

The Velvet Coup: The Constitution, the Supreme Court and the Decline of American Democracy

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of the Free Press

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

Saturday, September 06, 2003

Iraq, denial and shrubco propaganda in America

WaPo poll says 70% of Americans still think Saddam linked to 9/11 despite lack of evidence

What can you say?

Also: troop carrier flaws suppressed by Pentagon will endanger US troops further.

And Shiite militia defies US ban due to US's inability to provide security.

11:29 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Ex-cadet says she was raped in retaliation for reporting earlier crime

Time to close down the Air Force Academy

11:20 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

US claim that Aung San Suu Kyi is on hunger strike denied by Red Cross as Burmese military announces democracy moves

Not that I trust the military particularly, but why would the US do this?

Also from the BBC: Brazil threatens to break AIDS drug patents if BigPharma doesn't lower prices.

11:02 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Treatment of US military victims of radiation exposure/chemical exposure/whatever pretty shoddy

3:55 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Musing on the effect of a Yellowstone caldera eruption, which might easily be imminent
Although it's a long shot to happen in the next few days, over a longer period of time, there's a good chance that Yellowstone will blow its top and the simmering caldera will let rip with Mt. St. Helen's (or greater) magnitude. I've been watching this sort of out of the corner of one eye because if or when the Yellowstone Park area goes in any kind of massive eruption, the impacts on food supplies worldwide will be horrible. The plume area from Yellowstone covers a good-sized chunk of the Midwest.

Reader reports and items which we have picked up off news groups are sounding pretty scary. Areas are being closed off, there are reports of dead animals and even fish are reported dying off in large numbers.� Against this background, the USGS says there is an increase in government monitoring...

3:51 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, September 05, 2003

Military/govt search referrals
"steven doran" corruption [Los Alamos Nat Lab]
"dod fraud waste and abuse" [Joint Intel Pacific]
thinking of joining the cia [DoD]
adm john poindexter biography [US Euro Command]
parallax army cadmium [DoD/Navy]
Chaim Kupferberg [HUD].
ambassador khalilzad biography [DoD]
evil stories of insane asylums [Dept Vet Affairs]
mick ronson, mormon [DoD]
rudi bakhtiar [Caltrans]
howard tutman [SSA]
biff baker [DoD]
rudi bakhtiar pics [Carrier Air Wing 5 (navy)]
hermetic esoteric organizations denver [Navy Intel]
jtf-170 logo [DoD] (see post for what "jtf" is; no logo unfortunately, and this site was the only search return on the WebSearch page)

12:24 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Interesting

My other site got a hit from someone at (or using the proxy of, which I doubt) Navy Intel at Cheltenham MD, searching for "hermetic esoteric organizations denver"

Curious, isn't it?

12:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

On the "Recovery"

Many of the 3 million jobs lost since shrubco assumed control won't be back, says Fed

9:00 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, September 04, 2003

GOP judicial nominee Estrada withdraws

9:37 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Masturbation ref gets Doonesbury pulled in some papers next Sunday

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

Mutual funds ripping stockholders off for billions

2:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

2 blows to American worldview:

Indonesian cleric accused of being local al Qaeda rep given "light" sentence
The verdict will reinforce the view of many Indonesians, including senior political leaders, that the United States has exaggerated the terrorism problem here. In spite of major diplomatic efforts by Washington, the majority of Indonesians, who are moderate Muslims, view the war on terrorism as a war on Islam. The U.S. war against Iraq has fueled those views.

Courts here are not known for being independent, and there was a widespread feeling here on Tuesday night that the judges had acted in accordance with what the Indonesian government wanted. The judges had also expressed concern about their safety if they convicted Bashir on the terrorism charges.

[...]

It took the panel of five judges, including one woman, nearly seven hours to read out their findings, which included a recitation of evidence. When they finished they had sown considerable confusion among nearly everyone, from courtroom spectators to Indonesian lawyers to diplomats.

"It is curious," a diplomat said.

Adnan Buyung Nasution, a member of Bashir's legal team, said, "On the one hand, the judges acquit him on charges of being a mastermind of terrorist acts, but on the other hand, they say that he was involved in treason."
And the EU is going ahead with pans to establish a military HQ outside the purview of a US-dominated NATO.

Both developments seem to showcase the diplomatic weakness of the US's strident and defiantly unilateral foreign policy since 9/11.

8:57 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The only thing that will save the Republic is firing everyone in Washington and moving the Capitol to Denver file:

"Bowing to pressure from a powerful member of the House Appropriations Committee, the Federal Communications Commission says it plans to largely eliminate its longtime practice of accepting free travel and entertainment from the communication industries it regulates." [link]

If you're wondering about the first line, read Kevin Phillips' Arrogant Capital.

1:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Just good business file:

As shrubco makes it easier for ERs to turn away patients, and hospitals file liens and sic collection agencies on people who won't or can't pay bills -- perhaps we're on our way to seeing a medical care underground, in lieu of universal care

11:11 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, September 01, 2003

BBC to make huge archive of radio and TV programs available for download

1:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

New bill on fast track in Congress to allow corporate defrauders to indefinitely de-Lay -- if not escape completely -- prosecution [u]

1:43 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

GOP outsourcing campaign calls to India [u]
We do hope and trust here at the INQUIRER that the irony of underpaid people in Harayana helping robots to call possibly out of work Americans because of a widespread policy of corporate outsourcing is not lost on our readers.

1:35 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Black hole of taxpayer funds documented by GAO [u]
[Comptroller General David] Walker again has raised the issue of the apparent inability of federal agencies properly and accurately to account for funds entrusted to them by taxpayers. For example, the Department of Defense (DoD), which has in the last two years received tens of billions of additional funds to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has been on the high-risk list since the list's inception. According to Walker, "DoD's financial-management deficiencies represent the single largest obstacle to achieving an unqualified opinion on the U.S. government's consolidated financial statements. To date, none of the military services or major DoD components have passed the test of an independent financial audit." In other words, because of DoD's inability properly to account for its funds, the entire federal ledger cannot be balanced.

Among the DoD's financial-management "deficiencies" is the agency's inability to account for $1.1 trillion.

1:29 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

PATRIOT Act makes history illegal [u]
"I'm sorry," the clerk at the U.S. National Archives says: "You can't see the Saudi Arabian documents." I'm surprised. All the National Archive's documents are already reviewed and then declassified or removed. In theory, whatever's there is no longer secret.

Until 9/11.

"It's part of the Patriot Act," the clerk averred, referring to Public Law 107-56, the hastily-passed legislation entitled, "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001."

"The U.S. State Department records you requested are indeed declassified and theoretically available. But they also may contain information that terrorists can use, like names and addresses and information of U.S. citizens." I gave a blank look. "So?" The clerk's brow furrowed with concern. "A terrorist could come into the National Archives and try to steal their identities or target them for assassination."

I protested: "The documents I seek are over thirty years old and even older." Now the clerk's smile became nothing but teeth, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

I persisted: "Any person the record concerns will be either quite elderly or already dead."

The clerk's brittle smile remained fixed. "I'm sorry, you can't look at the Saudi records even if they are a hundred years old."

I tried again. "Come on. Who's identity would a terrorist be able to steal from these records? Dwight Eisenhower's? Nixon's or Kissinger's? King Faisel's? They're not easy identities to steal."

Getting no response, I tried again. "Who'd want to be Kissinger, anyway? I guess you could get a good table at Lutece."

I smiled at my own joke, but the clerk's smile disappeared. "Ask again," he hissed, "and I will call security to remove you from the building and have you barred as a security risk."

1:20 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

In a few days your editor will return to that town of which
- in Gore Vidal's novel of the same name - Senator Burden Day remarks,
"hypocrisy is our shield; inaction is our sword." It is a place where
(as Russell Baker once noted) solemnity is confused with seriousness and where clich�s pass for ideas, projections cross-dress as reality, and no one can remember what anyone did more than six months ago.

Sam Smith on Washington.

Of course.

1:13 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, August 31, 2003

shrubco/EPA claimed post-9/11 air in Manhattan OK when they knew better, for "national security reasons" [u]

Once again, read Juan Gonzalez's Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Attack.

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

Did Chalabi and shrubco/the Pentagon know about the impending attack on the UN building in Baghdad ahead of time and not tell the UN? [u]
The frightening possibility that Chalabi knew it, the Americans knew it, the UN didn't and the Americans did nothing to improve security at the UN headquarters will only benefit one player: the Pentagon, according to which Iraq is now the central battle in the "war against terrorism". And right on cue, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and US Central Command chief General John Abizaid, in a joint briefing, declared Iraq now to be a sort of terrorist Woodstock.

1:51 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Referred to without humor by subordinates as "The Supreme Being"

Progressive Review on Wesley Clark

Clark, by the report of some who have worked with him, is an egocentric, marginally qualified officer of questionable judgment who made his way to the top with the help of fellow Rhodes Scholar Bill Clinton.

1:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"...blank check for corporate anarchy..."

In case you haven't heard, US oil companies have been granted total legal immunity as they descend on Iraqi oil reserves [u]
The [Executive Order] exempts US oil companies operating in Iraq not only from international law, but from American civil and criminal liability as well. It renders any commercial activity within the US involving Iraqi oil exempt from judicial accountability. Devine notes that this legal exemption covers everything from laws concerning workplace safety, minimum wage requirements, environmental protection and consumer fraud.
Life under shrubbco: rights for citizens erode faster than under any other administration in history, corporations enjoy blanket immunity for all crimes.

1:21 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mass grave found on site of military base in Guatemala

1:15 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Call (1-888-382-1222) or visit website to block telemarketing calls by end of today (Sunday) or wait til next year

1:08 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

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

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

Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

-- Mark Twain

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

CULTURE LINK

Philip K. Dick

DEEPER NEWS LINK

PR Watch

charging the canvas

The Link Section