visualizing the oil spill
>> Tuesday, June 29, 2010
view the oil spill in a real personal way...
via count zero's facebook
Onward
14 years ago
Showing posts with label scandal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scandal. Show all posts
don't buy rockstar energy drinks!
>> Sunday, April 26, 2009
don't buy rockstar energy drinks if you care about gay rights...
"Whenever you buy a can of Rockstar Energy Drink you're putting money in the pocket of a man who says this about gays: "When you hear "human rights," think only one thing: someone who wants to rape your son. And you'll get it just right. OK, you got it, right? When you hear "human rights," think only someone who wants to molest your son, and send you to jail if you defend him."... these words (are) from ultraconservative shock jock Michael Savage, whose real name is Michael Weiner. (It's easy to see why he adopted a pseudonym.) Back in 2003, the Savage Weiner was fired from a blessedly brief gig at MSNBC when he told a caller to "get AIDS and die."... ...Savage/Weiner is co-founder and part-owner of Rockstar Energy Drink."
via my buddy poe via: The Progressive Puppy: Rockstar Energy Drink: Hate in a Can
noticías de latino america
>> Thursday, April 23, 2009
"when it's truly alive, memory doesn't contemplate history, it invites us to make it... ...up until a few centuries ago, the spanish word for "remember" also meant "wake up" and it's still used in that sense in some rural parts of latin america. a memory that's awake is contradictory, like us... ...it was born not to be an anchor but a catapult."
i was reminded of eduardo and (one of) his great books recently by the storm over hugo chavez handing barack obama one of his books. i read it during john jota leaños's AMAZING class, "technomythologia" at carnegie mellon university. "upside down" is chock full of facts and stories, blurbs and boxes, pictures and power. it takes on the odd (upside down) relationship between the latino/latina/chicano/chicanas in the south and the gringos of the u.s. it tells tragic tales, but his writing has a humanity and humor and respect it think is crucial to actually make the truth digestable and inspirational.
things could be said to be going a little better in latin america, what with hugo chavez and evo morales and michele bachelet and christina fernández de krichner in power, but there are still sketchy things going on, with help from america. of course there is plan colombia, but did you know about the ILEA(international law enforcement academy)?
"Though lack of transparency makes it impossible to know the content of courses, the conduct of the Salvadoran police—who compose 25 percent of the academy’s graduates—has shown an alarming turn for the worse since the ILEA was inaugurated. In early May 2007, the Archbishop’s Legal Aid and Human Rights Defense Office (Tutela Legal) released a report implicating the Salvadoran National Police (PNC) in eight death squad–style assassinations in 2006 alone. Meanwhile, the Salvadoran Human Rights Defense Office has also published reports connecting the PNC to death squads and repeated cases of corruption and misconduct. While US interest in ILEAs is to ensure an environment that protects free trade and US economic interests, the PNC has played an active role in a crackdown against civil liberties, aimed at curbing both crime and social protest."
that veiled gazette #349
>> Tuesday, April 14, 2009
editor's note: sorry for the delay getting out this issue. i've been super busy, so blogging has been hard to get to, but admittedly i've also been a little geeked out on using facebook for the first time. finding old friends, writing letters, posting little things for them, becoming a "fan" of hummus, etc... for real though, it has been fascinating watching people from completely different periods of my life talking with each other. not that that doesn't ever happen here, but, well, it's a different audience. i love you both, and that veiled gazelle isn't going anywhere...
painter in bangladesh, via wall street journal's picture of the day
ART: the delicate special works of rachel sumpter. the composite (time not space!) photography of peter funch. the (street art blog) wooster collective truly continues to put out great stuff. check out sally's blue wall or this colorful wheatpaste. my old friend fran (thank you, facebook) documented a cool piece that involves ink drawing on walls and an air compressor. design is fun, but "hyperbolic bronnerism" is even more fun. it's a little hard to navigate, but the site neocha is a collection of independent chinese culture. also, check the vibrant, subtley pagan, mucha-like (mostly) nudes of svetlana valueva. also, while he's a bit miffed about watchmen (his work, originally...) that's o.k., because alan moore is a super-genius. witness video (direct link here):
MUSIC: wizards are better posts some good bassline & dubstep stuff (and some hipster crap). are you annoyed that pirating music takes so much time? take the wait out with skipscreen. blackdown makes a mind map on the origin of scenes. promotion services for world musicians. frieze article by dj rupture on the "decline" of digging. also, i hadn't heard about soul singer phyllis hyman, but she's got a nice voice (video) (and is from pittsburgh!) three more youtube music links here: kinsmen (indian jazz ensemble), carl craig classical remix, and some ethiopian heat. anyway, i've been posting A LOT of DUBSTEP. so here are seven songs that aren't:
your's truly spinning at global beats march 2009. photo by carla.
TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, DIY: great rhyme writing resource in writerhymes. inflatable hood for sleepy travelers. do dumb shit to photographs with pikipimp. laura's always been a proponent for local currency... learn about algebra (i forgot all mine in art school...) create large wall posters with little printers. nice home-made picture frames out of jars. and for the record, artificial life could be created within 5 years, whatever that means...
ECO: meditate on the size of the earth and how lucky we are. 25 reasons why you should consider earth-sheltered technology. paris is grey, and sarkozy has a plan. another weird plan on the table for global warming issues. or is global warming all a hoax? i dunno, i'm not a scientist... something tells me that it's not a bad idea to act like it's real, if only because we might help with the bio-diversity problem. good soy milk recipe. candle-powered heat? i don't live in these cities, but: space in detroit. space in baltimore. i found some nice eco stuff on chelsea green, including this article on the case for "small" hydro-electric power.
BABYLON, SCANDAL, POLITICS: you know about Carnivore and ECHELON, right? their giant spy networks that troll everyone's communications for these words, among others... well there is at least one more ghost-net recently discovered, this time in china. here's what you might look like to your government. there are some sneaky shenanigans in the obama copyright treaty... france is ready for rebirth of the "violent left"... that's a hilarious article, but to be fair, they have had some history of awesome riots (which in turn left us a lot of slogans.) there's been a tiny crack made in the travel restrictions to cuba, but then there's the wholeembargo thing. why? chomsky has some ideas on that... also an OLD scandal may be getting some light shed on it.
SUFI, WEIRD: perfect memory, anyone? bahauddin's book sounds pretty great. my friend found one of the (super rare) copies ofthis book in a junk shop... still haven't seen it yet. for free, an archive of female sacred poets. amazing horse dancing in pakistan (video... jump ahead for the fast parts.) the thousands of inscriptions are getting translated, finally. i'm starting to think i ought to learn a bit more about ramon llull. creationist science fairs... first prize in the high school division actually sounds pretty interesting... top ten secret scientologists. get your daily weird at the daily grail. finally, the sisters of perpetual indulgence celebrate 30 years.
Read more...
a quick link dump via the huffington post.
>> Sunday, March 22, 2009
industrial hemp
>> Saturday, February 28, 2009
ever since listening to the erudite, funny and irreverant "grow more pot" by jello biafra, i've been a big advocate of industrial hemp. the more i learn about the specific uses of hemp, the more ludacris it's marginalization seems to me. the debate about the industrial (and medical) uses of marijuana/cannabis/hemp should supercede the debate over the psychoactive uses, in my opinion. the criminalization and over-regulation of the hemp industry is really stupid, and denies the world some truly excellent products. i shot these pictures in a hemp store in glastonbury, england. i wrote the captions underneath the photos so you don't have to click to read them.
"bast fibre - from the outer cortex of the stem are the strongest fibres in the plant kingdom, with a tensile strength 4 times greater than cotton. can be made into twine and rope, woven into fabric, made into fine quality papers (like bank notes) or used in insulating materials."
"hemp rope - did you know that henry VII passed laws making the cultivation of hemp mandatory for farmers? the hemp was used to make the rope, sailcloth and sailors uniforms needed for the royal navy which he set up."
"hemp hurds - from the inner stem very high in cellulose can be compressed into fibre board, mixed with lime and water to make 'hempcrete, pulped to make paper, processed into a wide range of plastics, or simply used as insulation or animal bedding."
"hempcrete brick - made from hemp hurds, lime and water. as it cures it draws carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and petrifies the cellulose into stone. within 50 years it is solid as rock. this building technique is at least 2000 years old."
"hemp plastic sandles - compressing hurds at very high pressures extracts the cellulose that can then be used to make a wide variety of plastics. did you know that henry ford built a hemp plastic car and feuled it on hemp ethanol?"
hemp composite chair - this was really strong and smooth to the touch. it would make a great desk...
that veiled gazelle digest issue #306
>> Thursday, January 1, 2009
well, despite the atrocity in gaza (and the ufo-believer's sex orgy being canceled!) 2008 ended up pretty well, all things considered. the greek riots gave hope to anarchists everywhere (and made me obsessed with no-go laws...) 2009 looks to be quit exciting. it's the international year of astronomy, for instance, and international year of natural fibres... most importantly though, it's the year of conflict resolution... i hope your year is filled with beauty (and underwater bliss-scapes!)
ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN, GREATSITE, MUSIC: there have been a couple of HUGE music archives found recently... pretty much all the trojan reggae box sets are available on this site. props to rupture for locating that. the boxes are great, especially if you need help learning about the various forms of reggae. a ton of (pre-2008) grime hip hop albums can be found here. in thanks for uploading a request of mine on extra music new, i uploaded the entire ernst catalog here. they are some of the first records i bought (1999!) and i love them. a deep minimal tech/house series by thomas brinkmann. you can really hear the evolution of his sound. fun stuff. a couple other music blogs i've been digging recently are disturbed beats, which is full of fidget house and bassy dance stuff (thanks conway!), blog to the old school, which is a spectacular service that uploads vinyl rips of old jungle and hardcore records (run by devnull!) and the elephant's child is loaded with videos of mostly modern african & middle eastern music. in the too much music category... i plan on posting my 7 reggae mixes from 2001 soon... i gave them to my local pizza shop and they bump 'em all day some times.
MOVER, MUSIC: 2008 saw the passing of odetta... brief eulogy and 1963 folk songs album here. also, miriam makeba passed away... brief eulogy and her debut album is here. others (like teo macero) passed, but those two i had just learned about...
MUSIC, MP3: alright, here's some track i've been diggin on. some really different stuff here, this time. some chunky, faltering house, an old illbient track, 1 serious epic pounding dustep tune, more, all .zipped up on mediafire again.
(mp3)passion pit - sleepyhead (streetlab mix)
(mp3)mokobé feat. mohammed lamine & mory kante - africa tonik
(mp3)babylon system & noah d - examination of time (VIP mix)
(mp3)qaballah steppers - the conqueror and the mute sea
(mp3)mwamway & radioclit feat m.i.a. - rain dance
(mp3)a made up sound - sunday
ART: if you are unfamiliar with swoon, (and even if you are) you might want to check out these videos of her work... sort of like a paper-cut-out banksy with a lot less myopic view... these snow sculptures (sort of bas reliefs, really are amazing. i found the image on this guys front page cool, but the rest is fairly boring (and very NSFW). yulia brodskaya's paper work is unique. i like the text ones mostly. demakersvan made an awesome lace fence. make your own fractalized photos with this plugin (windows only, :( ) also, i never saw this olympic water cube... gorgeous (as was the opening ceremony, which i finally saw)...
BABYLON, POLITICS, SCANDAL : even if you escape to a beautiful monastery, world politics will surely find you. it's hard to be surprised any more by popular newscasters slinging bullshit, government contractors exposing military people to toxins, or google unnecessarily disrupting music bloggers (ripley covered this too). but what about people with intimate knowledge of rove, bush & cheney dying mysteriously? also, on a brighter note, this is an idea whose time should come.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, WEIRD: clump together rat's neurons and they can learn to fly an airplane. seriously. cool, but i'm much more impressed by scientists making matter out of pure light. or if they pull off MAKING a fucking STAR.
NATURE: the world's oldest cat, mischief, the world's weirdest animal, adorable miniature creatures, natural aphrodisiacs and potential ARMAGGEDEON (probably not?).
ECO: only thing that crossed my radar was an improvement in passive;y heated homes that allows the heat to be captured during ventilation so that you can be warm and breathe at the same time (with super low fuel costs). article.
LEFTOVERS: top five visualisation methods of 2008. top ten astronomy photos of 2008. how to travel the world for free (basic, but good stuff if you don't know it already...) woddy harrelson and co blog. poem/video thing from said blog (it's good!). oh, HUGE machines.
VIDEO: dj fly dmc winner 2008 (anyone see any dubstep at the dmc? seems like jungle took over after craze... anyway, he's fly!
i'm not dead...
>> Tuesday, December 2, 2008
image by peter callesen
we just went east for thanksgiving, and now we're west for early december (and then north for christmas). as such, blogging has been tough and may be tough. no promises for now. so i will just toss a smattering of stuff again out there for chewing... mp3s at the bottom.
absolutely DO NOT MISS laura's awesome nature find. it let's you put in your zipcode and gives you pictures and information about all the species that live there. super cool. get your naturalist on, people!
i read this fascinating article this morning on how the web was almost completely compromised, and the security threats to come. surprisingly readable...
this is good news from the president-elect. obama is going to post the groups he meets with on change.gov, along with the policy wish-lists they bring with them and allow the public to discuss them. he doesn't have to listento the public, but at least he's sharing the dirt. can you imagine bush (or mccain) doing that?
my good friend the yinsurgent posted this thought-provoking letter to anarchists who voted for obama. i disagree with much of his assessment, but it's worth a gander. the comments get a little feisty. i'm waiting to post my detailed response to the yinsurgent, because there are a ton of points to cover, but in the meantime, watch this video showing bush knew katrina was a big danger before the levees were breached. if nothing else, it makes me feel like the choice of president, while certainly not offering the choices we may prefer (say, "none of the above"), does still have some impact on people's lives. it's three minutes. watch it.
i find this collection of photographs a funny twist on this style of photograph.
if you've ever known someone to get hurt because of stupidity about drugs, consider buying one of these glass molecule reproductions from erowid.org, the webs premiere clearing-house of unbiased information about drug health and law.
and these are the dubstep tunes that have been making me explode recently. they are all .zipped up. whine in the comments if that makes it harder for you. if you are the artist and want your track taken down, no sweat. email me. i took down l.v. and dandelion's track "cctv", but it's still hot.
(mp3)shackleton - el din pt. 1
(mp3)bassnectar - heads up
(mp3)modeselektor - the black block (rustie remix)
(mp3)subswara - alabaster dub
(mp3)clouds - too much
(mp3)osc - evolution
Read more...
false equivalencies
>> Saturday, November 8, 2008
well, after the election much is the same, but some things are diferent...
you've got community farmers getting evicted, but the dead are being brought back to life.
you've got politician's double-talking, but also a right-wing smear baron going bankrupt.
you've got cops and prison owners fighting for drug laws, but drug laws getting repealed.
you've got "christian" bankers worshiping the golden calf (pictured), but, well...
barack obama!
shocking statistic?
>> Sunday, October 26, 2008
about half of american doctors surveyed recently said that they regularly give their patients placebos.
article here.
wiki on placebos here.
"Half the doctors reported using placebos several times a month, nearly 70 percent of those described the treatment to their patients as "a potentially beneficial medicine not typically used for your condition." Only 5 percent of doctors explicitly called it a placebo treatment.
Most doctors used actual medicines as a placebo treatment: 41 percent used painkillers, 38 percent used vitamins, 13 percent used antibiotics, 13 percent used sedatives, 3 percent used saline injections, and 2 percent used sugar pills.
In the survey, doctors were asked if they would recommend a sugar pill for patients with chronic pain if it had been shown to be more effective than no treatment. Nearly 60 percent said they would."
i have mixed feelings about this. sometimes the patient is wrong, foolish or suggestable. in those cases the placebos may be the best thing. if you are trying to help, honesty can sometimes be a barrier. but n the other hand, i think the disconnect between doctors and their patients, and the general disregard for a patient's agency that i see in american medical practice leads me to believe the practice is surely abused.
voter suppression, voter expression
>> Friday, October 24, 2008
my main argument to vote is that already there have been major attempts to disenfranchise minority voters and young voters. so vote for obama for them, if not for yourself. denying the right to vote isn't patriotic, isn't conservative, isn't right. end of story.
for those of you shocked that i've been focused on the electoral politics, i suggest reading my initial endorsement of obama and my discussion of the relationship between my anarchist ideals and electoral politics here. the short version is "it takes an hour to vote, you stupid hipsters." that doesn't mean i find the voting climax of this video any less disappointing.
where have i been?
>> Thursday, September 11, 2008
i've been working on lead remediation in my house after finding out my son river (on the wheels of steel above) has high lead levels in his blood. we're doing everything we can to fix it, and that involved not blogging for a while.
anyway, here's a bit of news:
carlos slim helú, the world's second richest person, bought a substantial portion of the new york times. i haven't been reading the times much recently... i feel it's dropped off a bit. they did break that very under-reported pentagon media story, though. they're struggling to stay afloat with all the web news.
oliver north apparently still gets to lie in an official capacity. following the biggest civilian casualties of the afghani war, the pentagon denied that it had happened... their source? embedded reporter oliver north. beside the horific quotes this link has of ollie's he was central to the iran-contra affair. luckily the pentagon is investigating anew the slaughter....
i think while sarah palin's insanity is easy to get distracted by, and the real target should be mccain and HIS insanity, i couldn't help but notice that she's recently said some doozys recently. think progress is tallying how many times her lie about the bridge to nowhere is repeated (29 at this moment), and she recently said war with russia might be necessary, fannie mae and freddie mac cost the taxpayers too much already (they haven't cost a penny yet, the bailout proposed, which she "supports", will cost the taxpayers tens of billions) and also said the iraq war is a task from god. yikes, yikes, yikes.
in more historical news, this is an interesting article on the intersection of republicans and music, featuring the startling revelation that johnny ramone was a republican!
some music coming soon... and don't forget that my list of john mcshame's bullshit keeps growing.
John McShame
>> Wednesday, September 3, 2008
this will be a compilation of all the fucked up things about john mccain i find. while i will continue with my normal blogging of music, art, life and whatnot, i will continue to add to this post until McCain loses in november...
this man is no maverick. he may have been one time, but he sure isn't now. here's some proof...
UPDATE 3: jon stewart does his civic duty and sums up the problems with mccain here and then here...
let's start with the late tim russert owning mccain on meet the press:
UPDATE 5: this one is AWFUL. McCain, along with peabody coal, forced the relocation of a navajo tribe (over 10,000 people) onto a nuclear waste dumping site to exploit the coal for mutual gain. even the UN condemmed this under the indigenous peoples laws. the wonky but well documented official site for this is here. american computer science association condems it here. the angryindian calls it genocide... there's a good case for it, in my opinion.
UPDATE 6: this is a more psychological piece on McCain's focus on violent solutions. it makes an impassioned case for being wary of McCain's support of very deadly policies, discussing "usable nuclear weapons" and his famous temper. WARNING: contains some graphic images of american and iraqi casualties, but if you can't see this reality, you shouldn't be voting for a man who helped cause it.
McCain was against the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was for it.
McCain was against torture before he was for it. Really for it.
McCain was against jerry falwell and pat robertson before he was for them.
McCain was against Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them.
McCain was against shady Bush “Pioneer” Texas billionaire swift-boat financiers before he was for them.
McCain was for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law before he was against it and began breaking it.
McCain was against Grover Norquist, whom he called “corrupt, a shill for dictators“ before he was for him.
McCain was against BJU because of its “hateful,” “racist and cruel” policies before he was for it.
McCain was against ethanol before he was for ethanol and then he was against it again.
McCain was against a Martin Luther King holiday before he was for it. …
there's a lot more here (and here)... he's pandered and buckled about abortion exceptions for rape and incest, taxing cigarettes for anti child smoking education, immigrants children's citizenship, gay marriage issues... you name it. this is the scratching of the surface.
UPDATE 8: this is a good list of mccain flip flops from think progress, responding to McCain's "assertion" that no one could name ONE flip flop he had made...
FOREIGN POLICY
* Attacking Terrorists In Pakistan
* Defense Spending
* Detention Of Detainees
* Divestment And Sanctions
* Donald Rumsfeld
* Henry Kissinger
* Illegal Wiretapping
* Law Of The Sea Convention
* Long-Term Troop Presence In Iraq
* Negotiations With Hamas
* Negotiations With Syria
* Normalization Of Relations With Cuba
* Nuclear Reactors
* Nuclear Waste Storage At Yucca Mountain
* Rogue State Rollback
* Torture
* 21st Century GI Bill
ENVIRONMENT/ENERGY
* Ethanol
* Everglades Restoration
* Offshore Drilling
ETHICS
* Criticizing The Media
* Katrina Investigations
* Lobbyists
* The Wyly Brothers
ECONOMY
* Americans Live Better Under Bush
* Balancing The Budget
* Bush Tax Cuts
* Earmarks For Arizona
* Fairness Of The Estate Tax
* Job Losses In Michigan
* Social Security Privatization
* Tobacco Industry Regulations
* Windfall Profits Tax
IMMIGRATION
* The Dream Act
* Comprehensive Immigration Reform
RADICAL RIGHT
* The Confederate Flag
* Jerry Falwell And The Religious Right
* The NRA
* Teaching Intelligent Design
CIVIL RIGHTS
* Gay Marriage Amendment
HEALTH CARE
* Abortion Exceptions
* Repealing Roe v. Wade
* Taxpayer Funding For Contraception In Africa
also for a guy who only released his 1,173 pages of medical records to a handful of reporters (for 3 hours!) to pick a v.p. candidate as appalling as sarah palin isn't putting his country first. it's putting a dying man in office first, before his archaic book-burning, bible-humping, lying and cheating henchwoman takes over.
and if you can even piss off van halen (by stealing their music), you're an asshole.
more to come...
UPDATE 1: a protestor interupted john mccain's acceptance speech thursday night... his sign was true. john mccain voted against the g.i. bill, and voted against a lot of other bills that benefit veterans of the wars he likes to help start.
UPDATE 2: the republicans also stole heart's music. (actually, it turns out that they paid the royalties, but the band didn't want them to use it, so they are donating the money to obama!) and jackson browne. browne is suing them. also, the McCain campaign has decided that Sarah Palin doesn't have to answer any questions from the media, not even about the scandal issues, but any. they are all relevant to me, but this just seems like a terrible response given the importance of the election... it's bad judgement. good thing that despite Palin and McCain's efforts to block the investigation the case is getting fast-tracked.
UPDATE 4: McCain has talked about raiding colorado's water supply for the benefit of lower states by re-negotiating the 1922 western water compact. he later tried to say he didn't want to renegotiate, but the damage was done. there are some questions that this may be related to mccain's love of the craps tables in vegas. that's dispicable if it is, but even if it's not, it's worth checking out this comparison to obama's poker playing for a psychological profile.
UPDATE 7: this is a compelling argument by medical doctors as to why mccain's health is a serious liability...
Read more...
amy goodman arrested at the r.n.c...
>> Tuesday, September 2, 2008
she said it... "this is outrageous". amy goodman... host of the 12 year running "democracy now!" an ESSENTIAL piece of freedom of the press arrested at the repuglican national convention. article and live thread here. WATCH THIS VIDEO AND SEE WHAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT THINKS ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION:
(UPDATE BELOW)
update from democracy now!
Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC
Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar
ST. PAUL--Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.
All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Salazar's violent arrest by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, "I'm Press! Press!," resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman's arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.
On Tuesday, Democracy Now! will broadcast video of these arrests, as well as the broader police action. These will also be available on: www.democracynow.org
Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were arrested on suspicion of rioting, a felony. While the three have been released, they all still face charges stemming from their unlawful arrest. Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion of felony riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a "peace officer."
Democracy Now! forcefully rejects all of these charges as false and an attempt at intimidation of these journalists. We demand that the charges be immediately and completely dropped.
Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities' law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.
During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, including a photographer for the Associated Press.
Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and the subsequent criminal charges and threat of charges are a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists.
Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.
Mayor Chris Coleman can be contacted at: 651-266-8510 or e-mailed at: https://mn-stpaul.civicplus.com/forms.asp?FID=69
Governor Tim Pawlenty can be reached at: (651) 296-3391 or e-mailed at tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us
Ramsey County Jail: 651-266-9350
the trolley problem and bill ayers, sort of...
>> Saturday, August 30, 2008
i didn't know a bout the trolley problem until recently, but the complexities one has to face while dealing with it beautifully illustrate my feelings about bill ayers, the weather underground and revolutionary violence in general.
the problem, according to wikipedia, is thus:
"A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5 people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you can flip a switch which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch?"
most people would decide to flip the switch, to save five lives by sacrificing one... some wouldn't and that would amount to killing five people to save one.
a further variant example goes as such:
"A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor.
as rare as it is to find someone who does not think we should turn the trolley, it is even rarer to find someone who thinks it is permissible for the doctor to murder this patient and harvest his organs... ...yet both cases seem to involve a choice between one life and five."
THIS is the real question of violence. in the face of immense state-perpetrated violence, the revolutionary may risk the lives of others to stop a greater threat. is it a slippery slope? yes. do they always know it will help? no. is morally superior to sitting on the sidelines not addressing the issue at all? maybe.
it keeps coming up in ads that bill ayers says he "didn't do enough" and falsely implying that means he thinks he didn't commit enough violent acts. but even if that IS what he meant, is it more morally reprehensible than the people who fought in the war, or funded it, or defended it?
these are questions of nuance, and historical context, and research, not bold opinions to slash through any conversation of "radicals vs. the state" or "hippies vs. the straight"... each situation need be analyzed. the ends just may justify the means, afterall...
a people's history of american empire
>> Thursday, August 21, 2008
there's no question that "a people's history of the united states", and it's companion oral history history "voices", are two of the most important modern historical efforts. howard zinn is criticized by some for his obvious lefty leanings, but i saw howard zinn speak once, and he was an erudite and open-minded speaker, and despite being very charming, didn't at all come off as a blind partisan or foolish radical... he came off as someone who documented some very sad truths and took what delight he could in the struggle that he saw as necessary... long sentence, but the point is that book is now available in comic book form... here's a video preview, narrated by danish hunk, viggo mortensen:
the far "right" and obama fears
>> Sunday, August 17, 2008
it occurred to me almost instantly when obama came into focus for me in early 2008. what will happen if he's elected in this country with some population of violent bigots?
ignoring for a moment the dangers of a racist secret service, what about klan people claiming he'll be shot?
what about those who want barrack to win to push people to their "cause", or so he "fails" and provokes race war?
it's particularly disturbing to me considering how this country seems to ignore the (larger!) percentage of white terrorists in (lack-luster) search of the darker variety. in this story of bradley khale, the judge let him go after he said he wanted barrack obama dead, and that he planned to go to pittsburgh (my home city) and to et aon rooftops and shoot black people. the article asks,
"Would I be crazy to suspect that if he were a Muslim talking about shooting white people from a high rise and hoping John McCain would get killed, no judge on earth would let him go?"
no, you wouldn't.
the mccain campaign isn't going out of it's way to avoid making matters worse. a lot of the crazies involved in racist violence identify as christian, though any real christian would find them abhorent, and mccain's ads like "the one" have stoked the popular right-wing narrative that obama is somehow the anti-christ. some have drawn comparisons between the ad's portrayal of obama and the main character in the "left behind" novels, but even the creators of the christian fiction series say obama is clean. that doesn't stop the smear machine though, and the emotional decision making is a serious factor in american politics.
a breif addendum on the "law enforcement approach to terrorism" that i found while researching this story is here.
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