Army of...none

When I was 18 I wanted to join the Army. I went to the recruiting station and met all manner of colorful characters who blew smoke out their asses in red white and blue. They lied and were over the top about it. I still wanted to join because I was 18, not that bright and it looked "cool".

The soldiers don't get the equipment they need to do their jobs and the VA doesn't give them the medical help they need either. If you know a kid ready to sign up, have them watch this before they do. It might just cut through the romatic view of the army...

ACLU Poetry Slam

I'm not a fan of poetry and never have been, but these two pieces from the ACLU podcast that I really like...

InSecurity

Take America Back

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Turn the other cheek, not this time...

Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Tom Delay and many others used the Christian right as a tool to support forced abortions and virtual slave labor in the US Marianas.

In "Capitol Crimes," Bill Moyers does a good job of detailing this lobbying scandal. The lobbyists used various Christian groups to keep US labor laws from being extended the our holdings in the Pacific. This allowed a sweatshop industry to be continue on the Marianas that is a blight on our nation. The interesting thing about the Bill Moyer's documentary is that many right wingers were willing to talk to Bill Moyers and his team. It speaks to an under current of anger with this attack on Democracy that I hope will bear fruit in the upcoming election.

Its time to start fitting many in Congress for orange jumpsuits. If the Democrats take the Congress in the next election, it is my hope they launch an ethics probe that goes after everyone who strayed, regardless of party. It is my expectation that the only change will be to whom the corporations right their checks.

This corruption is destroying our democracy and is on such a grand scale that apathy and cynicism are all that is left in its wake. If we cannot count on our leaders to do their job, then from the grass roots we must organize and remind them for whom they work and that they are not above the law.

Free Speesh has Limits

A man told the Vice President that his policies in Iraq were reprehensible, he was arrested. Where's the "Clear and Present Danger" in that. Read about his story here:

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

By Matthew Rothschild

Who Voted For Torture in the House

Here the list of who voter for the Torture bill. The breakdown by district is quite sad. Our founding father's would be pissed...

Torture Voting Breakdown

What is the Difference

Burn a village of people, up close and personal, and you are a war criminal.
Drop a cluster bomb and dismember hundreds and you're not.

Killing is still killing. Pain is still pain and those people are still dead or worse.

Aren't both situations crimes against humanity?

Gonna Parody ABC... think again

ABC just use the word clintonistas in a sentence in a news report. I'm not sure, but I think Stephen Colbert has copyrighted this word.

Now, 14 years later, little has changed, except this time the Clintonistas have aimed their fire not at Republicans but at ABC, for its two-part miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which is scheduled for broadcast Sunday and Monday evenings.

ABC must be taking a page from William Shatner's book, parody yourself before someone else does. If they think that this will protect them from Stewart and Colbert they're oh so wrong.

--
Sub Commander Kahn,
3rd Bridage, Massachusetts Clintonistas

Suckage-maximosus isn't the scientific name for the media, but I think it should be

While some really important things were going on we got to hear about JonBenet Ramsey, Tom Cruise and other things that just aren't that vital to my daily existence.

I saw this on Reddit.com, its an article about an article about 10 news stories that slipped through the cracks (well, through the gaping fissures actualy) this past year.

The 10 big stories the nation's major news media refused to cover last year by Sarah Phelan

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

If you have a chance to see this (on the web, on your TV via HBO, or at a friend's house) then it'd be well worth your time.

Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke"

A Greg Palast documentary about the evacuation plan and what happened around Katrina. This one made me pretty pissed.

Katrina and how our nation handled it, or failed to, speaks volumes of where we are as a country and its not pretty. If John Barry, the author of Rising Tide is correct, the last time something like this happened it resulted in the new deal era.

We have work to do and before we begin we need to look in that place that makes us all uncomfortable, sad and angry.


A Ray of Hope: There are people out their working to help rebuild in a pragmatic way that works hand in hand with the local commnuity. Take a look at Architecture for Humanity and what they are doing.


Links:

• Donation Links - Habitat For Humanity, Houston's Katrina Aid Program, United Way
• Legendary KO "George Bush Don't Like Black People"
• Bill Maher's parody

Get into the Driver Seat of your Life

• How is your life?
• Do you use your history or is it using you?

Men and women are meeting to discuss how to get in control of the one thing we can, ourselves. If you are interested you can checkout these web sites or visit our group. We are having an open circle to introduce folks to the work we do.

If you are interested please RSVP so we know how many chairs to setup.

Web Resources:

• Women Within
• Mankind Project

Time: Wednesday Sept 27 2006, 7pm-10pm

Place:
Unitarian Universalist Church of Grafton
3 Grafton Common, Grafton MA 01606

Take the Mass Pike to exit 11 (Millbury).
After the tolls, turn right onto rte 122 S.
Follow 122 S past Stop and Shop.
You will come to a light where 122 veers off to the
right. Here you want to go straight through the light
- you will be on rte 140 S now. Go up the hill - you
are now on Grafton Common - you want to turn left
here and find a place to park. The church is right
there. (There are two churches on the common - the UU
church is to the right of a small place called Cafe on
the Common. The other church doesn't have any other
buildings next to it)

If you are interested please RSVP with me at 508-958-2996.

Power Through Fear

Here is an excellent BBC documentary on the rise of fear as a weapon used by governments against their people.

• Part 1 (above)
  
• Part 2
• Part 3

It is time for us to recognize that the only fear we need to fear is fear itself. Let's shake off our bad dreams and get down to the job of solving real problems.

FYI, if after seeing this you think that 9/11 might not be what you thought it was, check out this documentary, it asks some very interesting questions and makes some good points.

There Aren't Enough Bullets

Israel seems to be pursuing a plan of trying to kill all of Hezbollah. This plan will not work and is morally flawed. How can unleashing violence create peace? Each member of Hezbollah is a person integrated into society. When they are killed, others step up to fill their place and many more will donate to the "cause." Every bullet fired, every shell spent only results in a larger and more powerful foe.

Violent organizations who have suicide bombers need two things to keep on going: money and new recruits. If you want to fight them put down the gun and start using your head. Figure out how those two vital resources move into the organization and then block those pathways.

Violence upon people, be it from a state or a small group, is a war on all civilization. We, the ones without the guns, need to find away to block those pathways and get those with the guns to stop. Accounting, legislation, engagement and talking will be our tools. One example of this is that the author of Freakonomics has been charged with looking into how to track terrorist organizations. If you can tell what kind of pattern is made by the money flowing into the organization you can find the cell or disrupt their cash flow. Another example is the group Combatants for Peace. If former combatants preach the message of peace and dialog they have great power to get others to rethink their own actions.

Destroying your enemy may work if your enemy is really small or you have the capacity to destroy his homeland utterly without any consequences. No one is really in that situation. Vigorous engagement and looking at the deeper causes to isolate the violent organization while cultivating moderation seems a better plan.

A More Inconvenient Truth

We feel that we must get this post out prior to the Wall Street Journal's exposure of the blog. Yes, it is true, this blog is written by the staff of a public relations firm on hire by the Christian Corporate Coalition for Family Values and Against Bad Things (CCFVABT, pronounce like it looks).

We, the members of the staff (from Frank who ran the focus groups to Mary who performed the market research and Bob our prooof reader) feel that it doesn't matter if that the blog didn't come from an actual disgruntled individual who has poor English skills. Its the message that counts.

We also support our friends in the DCI group who made the Al Gore spoof and hope that they are hiring. At the very least, take a look a Bob's resume, he's realy good.

One Good move on the Exxon DCI Fake UTube Video

Whitehouse Attacked by Mobious Strip

The President has been arguing that the domestic spying program was legal by virtue of the patriot act and justified by the attack on September 11, 2001. The problem is that the domestic spying program started some seven months prior to 9/11 according to Bloomberg news. Therefore, that which looked somewhat impeachable before now looks “wicked impeachable” (a legal term meaning very).

It seems clear that the President and the Whitehouse staff are trapped inside some kind of Mobius strip that crosses the time-space continuum (ask a star trek fan for details) or they could be all be suffering from an estranged relationship with the truth and have impacted colons.

Mr. Bush had better hope that his party keeps the legislature and doesn't decide to jettison his administration or many of them staffers will be doing time…

note: anyone how bought an enema and never sent it to Bill Oreilly as a holiday gift could perhaps send it to the Whitehouse as they do appear to be in dire need of them...

Beware eFax: Its like a disease

I joined eFax so I could send a fax to a representative for some issue. I really didn't need to service, so I tried to cancel it. This is when I found that there was no cancellation option on any of the forms.

After hunting through the help, I found that I could cancel the account via an IM chat with a sales person. I attempted to cancel several time and that sales person just wouldn't do it. I received many offers, but I just wanted to cancel.

I finally, got the person to cancel the account or so I think. I will receive no confirmation and if eFax changes continue to show up on my credit card bill my only defense will be "but, I had this awesome IM chat where they said they'd cancel it"

Avoid eFax....

Now that you have virtual reality what are you going to do?

"I'm Going to Disney World...."

Ok, virtual worlds let people experience cool things that would be hard to do in the real world. Well, now we have Virtual Disney Kingdom.


It's just like being there. I can wait in seemingly endless lines for hours (I use a controller with force feedback to get the full effect).


I hear that the Registry of Motor Vehicle is coming out with a virtual world as well. I can only hope the do a good job of the combat system....

Can you say "appropriation"? I thought you could..

Good news from the archives...

Fred Rogers Defends PBS in 1969

Round and Round Learnin' Nothin'

I just read Haliburton's press release about how it was awarded a contact from Homeland Security to build containment facilities. I have two concerns:

1. Why are we building what amounts to interment camps?

2. Why was Haliburton awarded a contract after they have been caught stealing from the government multiple times?

Didn't the Japanese interment camps during World War II teach us anything? The McCarthy era also started with laws against aliens and then transformed as an attack against the civil right of citizens. We have seen this before.

We need our legislators to:

• Choke off their funding
• Start investigations
• Block their legislation like that man who stopped the tanks heading towards Tienamen Square

If we cannot stop the administration from this foolishness our nation will enter into a time of troubles from which it may not emerge.

For Republicans: Take back your party from these extremists. When did the party of Lincoln become the party of Delay, Robertson and Bush? Is trashing the US Constitution really what the party stands for?

For Democracts: Tell your leaders to stop playing it safe, if you want to lead start leading from the back. Sitting back and waiting for November to sweep you into power is lunacy. You want to lead then act like it NOW.



-------------------------
Haliburton's Press Release

2006 Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 24, 2006

KBR AWARDED U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY CONTINGENCY SUPPORT PROJECT FOR EMERGENCY SUPPORT SERVICES

ARLINGTON, Virginia – KBR announced today that its Government and Infrastructure division has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency. KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL).

With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term, consisting of a one-year based period and four one-year options, the competitively awarded contract will be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005.

“We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract because it builds on our extremely strong track record in the arena of emergency operations support,” said Bruce Stanski, executive vice president, KBR Government and Infrastructure. “We look forward to continuing the good work we have been doing to support our customer whenever and wherever we are needed.”

The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.

The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts.

ICE was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

KBR is a global engineering, construction, technology and services company. Whether designing an LNG facility, serving as a defense industry contractor, or providing small capital construction, KBR delivers world-class service and performance. KBR employs more than 60,000 people in 43 countries around the world.

Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries. The company serves its customers with a broad range of products and services through its Energy Services Group and KBR. Visit the company's World Wide Web site at www.halliburton.com.

The Real cost of global climate change

My mom lives in Florida and I love her very much, but I'm kind of OK having my own place. If global warming raises the sea level by 14 meters, her home will underwater and she'll be moving in with me.

Please, let's stop global warming or I'll be in for much nagging, many broken appliances and therapy. For those of you who have relatives who retired in Arizona, take pitty on the costally screwed of our nation, and don't forget that this phrase may be your future too:
"get a hair cut, stop dressing like a schlub and make sure you wear a jacket!"

FYI,
Fossils fuels are good and bad. Their consumption produces green house gases and particulate matter that is thrown up into the atmosphere. This means that we have global dimming that masks the effects of global warming (in short, if we fix the pollution problem without fixing the carbon dioxide emissions problem we are in a world of trouble).

So, beware or uncle Fred will be moving in with you...

Fat Pipe, Always On, Stay Out of the Way

I use the net for my job, my political activity and my life. Let's not balkanize the internet into a bunch of incompatible corporate fiefdoms.

For our country to prosper socially and economically we need broadband penetration without restrictive policies of monopolies strangling the flow.

Fake News, I want a damn label

Want to see propaganda displayed in the news? It’s easy to find WPGH does it.

I think that the FCC should get off of its ass and do something about this problem. If the alleged news segment I'm watching was produced by an organization with an axe to grind (say the federal government) I want a banner on the bottom and the top of the screen.

We label cigarettes even though we all know they cause cancer. We label hot cups of coffee, bags of marbles and probably have signs up warning us not to run with scissors. If we label the obvious stuff, why not label the things that aren't.

I want a label because I want to know two things: a) that my local station finds it too difficult to produce the news, b) who it is that is telling me that an ipod will lead to my child’s slow decline into a life of dirty movies and poor morals. If my local station finds news just too hard, then we should lighten its load by pulling its spectrum license and giving it to someone who will perform this task. It’s our bandwidth and if broadcasters want to use it to make money, they can provide a community service.

Side note: if an ipod help my kid get access to porn, how did the porn get on to the ipod, by magic? No, the little devil downloaded it on my computer first. All an ipod would do is to enable the child to consume it alone (and I'm ok not walking in on that consumption thank you very much).

So, if you are annoyed by this, put down the ipod, place both hands on the keyboard and take action via the free press organization's action center