Someone stop this shit!

I am trying hard not to start this post with an accusitory statement directed at Bush and the Media but its really hard when everything is their fault. Ok heres an idea, its your fault! Why havent you done something to let the media know you dont want anoother war, let alone one with Iran? Why dont you tell the government? You have elected representatives that are supposed to listen to you. If enough of us said something mabye it wont happen. Instead, war with Iran looks like a foregone conclusion.

Centcom has been gathering info on Iranin targets.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2512097.ece

The administration has been gathering dirt to use to point out Iran's many flaws.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/30/wiran230.xml

The U.S. trains middle eastern militaries to fight against Iran.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/30/wiran130.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

But now that I go back and look for stories it appears that the freedom hating British are the only ones who care enough to report this.

In the immortal words of Kent Brockman, "this reporter places the blame squarely on you, the people."

Arresting protesters is what the cool kids do.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=19100

No big suprise, so of course there will be no outrage, and reprinting this is probably pointless. I guess thats one of the reasons the older generations decrys the utter cynicism of ours.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=19099

Texas Legislature Antics

This is so funny that it requires very little introduction, but it does seem really funny considering the voting reform legislation the piece begins with.

Wisconsin Crazy of 27 Sept, follow-up

Good news for those freshmen who live on the west end of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus, Jeremy Miller, who made news earlier this week, was arrested without incident by military police in San Diego. Apparently, the criminal mastermind who shut down half the campus and disrupted the lives of many, was caught when he tried to use his brother's military ID to get some medical attention. I would hate to see what this guy would do to the MPD if he were actually in the city.

Images to delight and taze

The Friday Bacon

Myanmar, Continued

It would appear that the military dictatorship in Myanmar has started taking coercive actions against the protesters. Here are updates, from the Guardian and from the BBC. However, in rounding up Buddhist monks and nuns by the hundreds, the military might be picking one enemy too many, the entire Buddhist population of Myanmar, that is. With cutting off the internet, though, I fear that unless the rest of the world finds a way to productively intervene the key statistic of this affair may be bodies in mass graves. After all, the worst acts of violence are wrought in silence, ala Abu Ghraib.

Religious opression comes in many flavors.

In this country if its not the Christians that are opressing you, its usually a school.

http://www.ksat.com/news/14214756/detail.html

the more you know

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/26/AR2007092601024.html

I'm in ur phonez stealin all ur rightz

Basically the phone companies gave all your calls and emails and internet activity to the government. The courts have said it was illegal. Now, in order to avoid being sued, basically by all of us, the telecom companies are asking the government for immunity from prosecution.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20884696/site/newsweek/page/0/

Wright your elected representatives at every level of government and tell them to hold these companies responsible. We may not be able to hold the old media responsible for failing in their duty to us in the run up to the Iraq war, and the Democrats are still too chickenshit to hold the administrations feet to the fire, but hopefully we can make the telecom companies pay for the greveous wrong they have done us. Ma-bell folding under the pressure from a huge law suit is a small price to pay for freedom. Some people have to pay for our freedom with their lives.

The Crazies of Wisconsin, 27 Sept

The crazy of the day actually struck very close to home. According to the Associated Press, the student body has nothing but praise for the alert system. I, however, have personally heard students complain that the alerts were mostly confusing, especially the last of the three e-mails that were sent out.

Here's the text of the first e-mail that was sent over the UW email system, from Captain Johnnie Diamante, sent 24 Sep at 6:06 pm.

UW Police and City of Madison Police are currently searching for a suicidal
man who claims to have a gun. The search is focused on the area of UW
Hospital at 600 Highland Drive. Police are asking people to stay away
from the area. The entrances to the Hospital are blocked. The emergency
room is open. The emergency room can be accessed from University Avenue
to University Bay Drive.

Police are seeking Jesse A. Miller, a white male, 6 feet tall, 160 lbs.
Miller may be moving in the west campus area and armed.

More information will be forthcoming. Tune to local media for additional
information.

Here's the second e-mail, sent at 8:26 pm.

UW Police and City of Madison Police are continuing to search for a
suicidal man who claims to have a gun. At this time, police are asking
people to avoid the campus area. If you are currently on campus studying or
attending a campus activity, please stay indoors. If you must leave the
campus area, do so by traveling in groups or by campus buses, which are
still operating.

All UW-Madison classes held west of the Veterinary Medicine Building,
2015 Linden Drive, are canceled for the evening and the UW-Madison women's
soccer game against Northern Iowa University at 7 p.m. at the McClimon
Track and Soccer Complex also has been canceled.

For more continuing updates on this situation, visit <http://www.wisc.edu>.

And, finally, the last e-mail, sent out at 11:24 pm.

University Police have information to believe that Jesse Miller, the person
of interest in this situation, is a danger to himself, but not to members
of the UW-Madison campus community. Police believe that Tuesday's incidents
reflect a cry for help.

As of 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, campus operations had returned to
business-as-usual for tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 25, with continued
heightened security at UW Hospital and Clinics and in the West Campus Area.

Students should plan to attend classes, all employees should report to work
and anyone with an appointment at UW Hospital should plan to arrive at the
designated time.

Check the <http://www.wisc.edu> home page or your local news for the most
up-to-date information.

"This has been an unusual and troubling situation, but we have confidence
that UWPD and other police agencies have handled this situation well," said
Provost Pat Farrell. "I want to thank students, faculty and staff for
heeding campus safety alerts and spreading important information."

One can only assume that this particular Wisconsin crazy is still on the lamb. What I find most interesting about the whole affair is the scare tactic of the second e-mail, contrasted with the 'it's okay, he's only dangerous to himself' tone of the third. I, personally, am glad that I can dispel a mistaken nationally syndicated news article. How many students did that guy talk to, after all?

More insane Christianizing

They better think fast before this ends up in court.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709220333

The Wisconsin crazy

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070924/APC0101/70924081/1003/APC01

Ya but could they shave a bear?

Its the new meme!

This one matches the suspect discription

Myanmar

So far this whole series of events has given me hope for the people of Burma. I have recently taken to saying that people deserve the type of government they have. The fact that this has not been violent at all yet is tremendous and encouraging. Hopefully it will be unthinkable for the army to harm a monk, because at this point as long as the monks have the peoples intrest at heart this can conceveably end with a representative government that looks out for its people.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/09/26/myanmar/index_np.html

Mukasey, continued

Here is an article from the Raw Story that purports to shed more light into the 1995 trials of the Blind Sheikh and his co-defendants. The article is written by an individual who wrote a book on the same subject.

Rage, Smoke, and Mirrors

For those of you who don't know what Hillary Clinton's voting record is when it comes to the war, Tim Russert called her on it, brought to the Log Cabin by Raw Story. I would like to, hopefully briefly, discuss a couple of the points brought up by the video.

The first is, and I cannot stress this enough, Hillary Clinton voted to authorize the war "with conviction." She believed that invading Iraq was the right thing to do, in the face of whatever evidence or testimony that may have existed to the contrary.

The second is her mention of "presidential action." Touching this particular theme should be like touching the third rail for a presidential candidate, especially after Bush's excessive disregard for the separation of powers and his ever-expanding definition of presidential authority. Anyone on the Democratic side of the aisle that supports this idea should not have a viable chance for the Democratic nomination.

The third is her notion that we must assign responsibility, but focus on the problems that the country is facing now. I find this argument to be slightly disingenuous as if she had opposed the war from the beginning, perhaps some of the more negative ramifications might have been mitigated, for instance, less of a significant portion of the Iraqi population having fled to surrounding countries, or perhaps a few hundred thousand of them might not have become casualties. However, if the American people choose to hold her responsible for supporting this geopolitical shell game by making her the Democratic presidential candidate, perhaps we should consider abrogating civics classes.

Why dont you understand that you are free?

About halfway through this article the Department of Homeland Security spokesman, Russ Knocke, points out why this kind of infringment of the rights of the people is wrong. Its easy to exercise your freedom when what you are doing isnt controvercial, but then you arent really exercising your freedom. You may be saying to yourself that if you havent done anything wrong then you dont have anything to be afraid of. Allow me to point out that reading a book on marijuana is not illegal. Also it is not evidence of doing anything illegal. You may find that last statement disagreeable but consider that someone of the libertarian perspective might be interisted in changing the laws on marijuana but have never used such and even if marijuana becomes legal, never intends to use marijuana. I happen to be that kind of person. The point is that this is a search of a person to collect information about them with the intent of finding criminal activity. The more you look for something the more you are likely to see it, even when it isnt there.

Also, the collection of data about people exercising their rights is something that should worry everyone. For example, imagine if the government were to collect a database of everyone that is excercising their 2nd amendment rights. What purpose do you think would be behind this? Ultimately what do you think the government would use this information for?

This is why I am a member of both the ACLU and the NRA. They protect your rights even if you dont know what they are or why they are important.

Or I could alternatively draw your attnetion to the fact that the government collected files on those that worked with Martin Luther King Jr. to end segregation and on Dr. King himself. They may not have used those files to any profoundly nepharious purpose but I bring this up to point out that what is the law today may not be tomorrow, and may not be right. Persecuting the people who are fighting to change things is not only wrong but its not what the police are there to do. They are supposed to be protecting us not rooting around in our luggage. Despite what they say, rooting around in our luggage does not protect us. There are drug and bomb sniffing dogs and xray machines that can give them reasonable cause to believe there is a threat presnted by the bag. This is all a waste of effort and is not necessary to prevent terrorism. The FBI knew that the 9/11 terrorists were in the country before the attack went off. The FBI knew they were planning an attack and were taking flight training. More information wont help them prevent the next attack and wouldnt have prevented the last one. They had all the information they needed they just didnt communicate across agencies efficently and failed to act.

All this activity to gather every bit of information about our lives is a waste of the valuable resolurce of a law officers time. More than that, the extra information creates noise of meaningless information that causes false positives and wasts more time chasing down people who have done nothing wrong but "acted suspicious" and oversensitive people, say in Boston, over react causing the police to over react which could in the end allow the real threat to slip by unnoticed. While we are harrasing medical marijuana activists, muslums, breast feading mothers, engeneering students, artists, and scantily clad co-eds, the person that is none of these things, the real threat, that just looks like the middle aged business man with a roll behind briefcase walks into the city.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/092207dnnatdata.37ebf94.html

Holding the Quran? Thats a tazing.

The cops present a likely story here. You be the judge. In this case did the cops use the tazers as a crutch or was this a situation where they would have had to shoot the subject?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOtuOwIe7GhBEi-pc_F702VREoJw

Tomb Raider

This article is being reprinted and reported alot this weekend. My undergrad degree having been Anthropology it is something that I am conserned with. Aparently the best way for Iraqi archaeologists to make a living now is destroying the history they once studied and preserved. For those of you who dont know much about archaeology and might say, "hey at least these artifacts are being preserved in a collection by someone who values them" misses the point. Usually collectors dont know how to preserve the artifacts they possess and would spend more time and effort making sure their cigars have the right humidity. Also the act of removing these artifacts from their buried location destroys almost any value they could have had. The proveniance of an artifact says more about what it was than what it appears to be, even for articles that have writing on them.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62810/

The Crazies of Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Crazy of the day describes growing up in Wisconsin as "very narrowing." By which, he of course means, narrowing in the sense that Wisconsin natives are crammed into the top three eighths of Americans in terms of education level.

OOh ooh please sue us!

I swear. Its as if schools want to be sued sometimes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wisc/20070922/lo_wisc/14177024;_ylt=ApWswnVuiuI1NOejE8qNaoAE1vAI

Central Banking

For those of you who might not have taken a course of instruction in all matters fiduciary, here's a primer, a movie called Zeitgeist. In case you, like me, end up screaming at the video for footnotes while you're watching it, they're sort of included on the movie's homepage, here. Even their online statement, which reads like a manifesto without the scathing vocabulary, mentions that they soon hope to add footnotes and other such materials on the website, but it has not, as yet, manifested.

The Friday Bacon

The Bacon Cypher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Friedman
Kevin Bacon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_kevin_bacon

Jena Louisiana

I know almost nothing about the happenings leading up to the march yesterday. This is just an attempt to benefit from some of the internet traffic generated by other bloggers on the subject.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071001/sorkin

Civil Religion

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2007/09/fifty-years-of-in-god-we-trust.php

Heres a link related to what I was discussing before regarding attempts to establish a Christian nation. I think this article brings us close to a hair the courts split when examining this issue and which I think is appropriate. This is the issue of "Civil Religion." One of the reasons Mr. Newdow's suits have failed in the past is that even the liberal 9th circuit court feels that there is a place for a non denominational God in the daily actions of governance. Basically the God that is referred to on the money and appealed to at the beginning of each legislative session is not the Christian God but a generic diety that has agency to which we can appeal. Of course the theological properties of this diety are not laid out by the court. Is it monotheistic? Gendered or genderless? Beneveolent, omnecient, omnipotent, the Creator? Some of these would conflict with the conceptions held by people in society, and even a nonspecific diety would conflict with most theologies. I think. however, that the courts point is that the government may appeal to God as long as it is not specfic about which God it is appealing to, and this is the way most of the courts have been deciding cases where issues of government endorcement of religion comes up. I refer to a case which I believe was in North Carolina where a Wiccan priestess was denied the opportunity to lead the traditional prayer before the local legislative session.

All of these alternatives are of course offensive to Atheists who believe there is no diety regardless of its theological parameters. (Which is diferent from but inclusive of not believing in God.) Mr. Newdow would rightly argue that all of the above misses the whole point of his suit. That the government is more than prevented from establishing a specific religion as the endorced faith of the state, it is prohibited from endorcing the very idea of religion. The article indicates that this conclusion can be drawn from language in the constitution stating that there shall be no religious test to hold ofice and that individuals of any religion or no religion at all can serve in the government. Its a strech but I may be making the argument into a straw man. I admit I have not read any of the court documents.

Personally I think the idea of a civil religion is appealing, but in practice every extremist group or religious nut with an agenda will use it as an excuse to say their beliefs are endorced by the deified figures of the founding fathers.

The concept of deifying the founding fathers also brings up the notion of the daily rituals of governance being a religon in themselves. With magic passwords, secret texts, sacred texts, ritual costumes, enormous temples and shrines, and art. Which also brings to my mind the concept of the cargo cult. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

Just because your cargo cult rituals occasionally seems to produce the desired result doesnt mean it actually works. You cultists.

An Abstract Measure of Progress in the War on Terror

The picture on the right is an unforgettable image that captures the spirit of the Bush Age. The presence of a clock reminds the viewer that Armageddon is nigh, while Mr. Bush's expression is one of confusion, and the kind of calculations that can be derived from a black/white, 0/1 decision-making process.



Here is a picture of Osama bin Laden, taken roughly around the time of 9/11. Notice how he appears to be sitting in a tent, probably in the middle of nowhere.








This picture of Mr. Bush taken at the recent APEC Summit in Sydney, Australia, places him perfectly within his element. He stands alone, against a colorful and confusing backdrop. Judging from the smirk on his face, his calculations, political and military, must be working out right about the way that he wants them to.




Bin Laden, I would say has fared the best from the War on Terror. Not only has his production value gone up considerably, but he obviously has enough free time to take care of himself and properly dye his beard. Also, when he tells people to rebel against the government of a particular country, he is taken seriously.

Tasers: Tool or Crutch?

As if tasering "helpless" people wasn't in the news enough, here's another great example. Apparently, if you're a 15 year old autistic boy, the police are gunning for you every way they can. Short of actually shooting a kid who has problems interacting with the outside world in head, of course, because people think that looks barbaric.

I don't mean to argue that there aren't good uses of tasers. Arguably, this example serves to demonstrate why police officers have tasers in the first place. On the other side of the "unwilling drunk" coin, here is another example. Note how the guy appears to be trying to sleep it off. Besides, how are you supposed to move any muscle in your body when there are 50,000 volts going through your body, ala this example.

What do you think?

Blame FOX for the weakness of the Democratic party!

The Democrats are perpetually weak and cowardly, continuing to falter to the same political rhetoric that has been defeating them since 9/11 and lets face it since Clinton left office. Probably since before but I am too young to remember a time before Clinton. So whats the solution? Blame Fox News! They are to blame for the same cowardly behavior in the media after all.

How do we stop Fox News? Fox needs to be counered by an equeally radical channel on the left. Air america failed not because Liberals can't shock people with the same circus but because the average person can't relate to liberalism. That's why the charge of being liberal elietists sticks. There is no clear common sense connection between liberal philosophies like single payer healthcare and the daily lives of normal people. Colbert hit the nail on the head with"truthyness." People believe in O'Riley even when he's lieing because they feel his truthyness and that underlying "moral" message speaks to them.Also, Liberalism does not benefit from years of intentionaly tieing the politics of the party to unrelated issues of morality like the Goldwater Conservatives. I don't just mean their lip service to the religious right, but the strong pathos associated with a work ethic in America. People hate anything broadly defined as wellfare because the American values independence and self reliance and feels shame at taking a handout because we are taught by our society to work for our bread. Until liberals can play the same dirty game the conservatives have been and play it correctly and earnestly by actually believing their own bullshit and tie issues of social justice directly to the common perception of what is right we will never hold on to the gains we have made in the last election.

Establishing a Christian nation

Heres another blog that explains why the concept should be scary to every normal person.

http://www.unknownnews.net/apocalypsenow.html#below

Basically the born again types believe that Jesus will return only when Israel is returned to its biblical boarders and there is then a massive war in the region, triggering the rapture and the end of the world.

So its not just the self serving ignorance bemoaned in these articles that we should fear,
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=19049
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=19031
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/pdf/SOFA2007results.pdf
http://www.unknownnews.net/apocalypsenow.html#below
but that we have these maniacs in the government and the military and want to start war in the middle east. Not for anything that makes sense like control of oil but to bring about the end of the world. They think the Bible is an instruction manual.

There is so much willful, self serving, ignorance among people out there that they would probably not even care if this were being reported in the old media. But CNN would rather report on skateboarding dogs than risk offending the 50% of maniacs out there who believe they are right and 26% who believe noone else has the right to think differently.

It Makes Even Tucker Look Liberal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDmAKnw7AJw

Michael B. Mukasey

Michael B. Mukasey, Mr. Bush's choice to replace Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General, is the latest name to hit the ears of pundits and the pens of editors all over the United States. The most common talking points about him refer to his service as the Chief Justice of the District Court of the Southern District of New York, a prestigious position, to be sure. He's seen to be smart enough to head up the Justice Department, and yet independent enough to sooth even the most partisan Democratic Senator. He's handed down tough sentences, most notably a life sentence to the so-called "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman in October of 1995 for masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Already, his nomination has served to lay the groundwork for a partisan battle in the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, between Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter, over issues surrounding the Bush Administration's lack of cooperation with the Congress.

However, how are we supposed to judge whether he is worthy of such a vaunted position as the chief law enforcement office of the United States? Thankfully, the retired judge pubhlished two op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal from which we can draw conclusions.

In the first piece, published on May 10, 2004, Mr. Mukasey seeks to redress critics of the USA PATRIOT Act for their "hysteria" in opposing the Act. Hysteria which he went on to describe as "recreational." He goes on to criticize the American Library Association forcriticizing the records disclosure portions of the PATRIOT Act and declining to denounce the Cuban Government for holding 10 librarians in prison, support the "sneak and peek" type warrant that has been the object of much criticism from privacy advocates, and equating Saddam Hussein with terrorism out of the side of his mouth. However, the most interesting and disturbing portion of the piece is the final conclusion in which Mr. Mukasey outlines his vision of the constitution. He argues that since the Bill of Rights is not included in the "boring part" of the Constitution, those freedoms and rights are subordinate to the government established by the body of the Constitution. He goes on to write: "It may well be that those who drafted the original Constitution understood that if you give equal prominence to the provisions creating the government and the provisions guaranteeing rights against the government--God-given rights, no less, according to the Declaration of Independence--then citizens will feel that much less inclined to sacrifice in behalf of their government, and that much more inclined simply to go where their rights and their interests seem to take them." I quote this entire statement as it stands on its own merits. It seems an interesting side note that he specifically refers to these rights as "God-given." His final conclusion is that the population should give the Government the benefit of the doubt because the same Government is notionally responsible for ensuring that you continue to enjoy the Bill of Rights.

In the second piece, published yesterday, Mr. Mukasey advocates for the creation of a special inferior court expressly for the prosecution of terrorism suspects, as these suspects require special handling and financial considerations that, in his opinion, strain the resources of the judicial system. He then goes on to justify his signature on the material witness warrant for the arrest of Jose Padilla. The arrest under this type of warrant, "used frequently" after 9/11," was necessary as authorities in the U.S. don't have the statute that allows for 'investigative detention on reasonable suspicion." The term almost sounds innocuous. In further critiques of the law of the land, Mr Mukasey critiques the requirements of a conspiracy conviction, that the prosecutor is required to release a list of unindicted co-conspirators to the defendant. Because of this provision, in 1995 Osama bin Laden, while in the Sudan, found out that the United States Government thought he might have something to do with the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing. Perhaps his most interesting point, though is a plea for the reader to "consider the distortions that arise from applying to national security cases generally the rules that apply to ordinary criminal cases." I would hope, perhaps against hope, that Mr. Mukasey, should he be confirmed as Attorney General, would keep that from happening. The most ominous and threatening statement of the whole piece is last: "Perhaps the world's greatest deliberative body (the Senate) and the people's house (the House of Representatives) could, while we still have the leisure, turn their considerable talents to deliberating how to fix a strained and mismatched legal system, before another cataclysm calls forth from the people demands for hastier and harsher results." Again, this statement stands on its own merits.

Okay, so his words might not portray him as the best candidate to repair an ailing Justice Department, but perhaps they are only words. The philosophical rantings, if you will, of an otherwise commendable public servant who is beyond reproach.

To reflect on some of Mr. Mukasey's actions, Melanie Lefkowitz of the Newsday, employed the mighty weapon that is the Freedom of Information Act and found some interesting results. To begin with putting this issue in its proper contrast, in 2004, the Inspector General for the Justice Department released a report stating that no federal judge had any credible threats against their lives. All told, the Federal Marshalls Service between 1999 and 2005 spent $22.2 million dollars on a full-time security detail for Judge Mukasey. Some of the highlights are rent that was paid to the judge for space for the security detail in each of his residences, budget categories such as "ATM fees," hundreds of blacked-out invoices, and $407.82 to fix a water pipe that burst in the judge's second home in the Hamptons.

Well, barring any other method, one can surely judge a man's character by the company he keeps.

Bloomberg.com has two articles singing Mr. Mukasey's praises, here and here. For anyone who's keeping score, the editorial board of the New York Times thinks that Senator Leahy should delay the nomination hearings for the former judge. On the other side of the question, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Jose Mercury News, the Baltimore Sun, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the San Antonio Express News, and, of course, the Wall Street Journal believe that Mr. Mukasey is the man for the job in terms that are various forms of glowing.

Mr. Bush, according to some has found the perfect choice for Attorney General. Perhaps they realize they have found the attorney who is smart enough to properly manipulate policy and personnel decisions and cold enough to have allowed U.S. Government officials to take custody of Joseph Padilla in 2002 and consider the Bill of Rights a granted privilege.

Freedom of speech is hard to tolerate

Examples of offensive speach http://wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=7083343
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/257463

The simple explination for why we need to allow all kinds of speech, especially the unpopular speech, is that opinion changes and our understanding of fact changes and evolves through time. That which seems impossible or ignorant may be fact. And things that are blatantly offensive could one day be stridently held public opinion. Besides freedom of speech is not needed to protect that which is popular or easy to say. You need the freedom not only to question authority but to intentionally offend people. Art may be intentionally offensive in order to provoke an emotional responce from people. It may be childish to do so but art is supposed to evoke our emotions, its not just pretty pictures, its supposed to draw up a sublime human emotion or the act of provoking political outrage it could draw your attention to beliefs that you hold and expressing them in that way points out to you that they are foolish.

But, even if absolutely no good is served and certain speech is only hatefull, hurtfull, and helps noone it needs to be protected because ligislating freedom of speech away is a slippery slope. That and I hate you. It would rip me up inside to not be able to tell you how much I loathe your existance. Legislating freedom of speech away is a slippery slope because of how difficult it is to design rules to govern human behavior.

I hate you

Government enforcement of religion

This is not a moral issue this is a Christian issue. This activist group is attempting to grab a special privilage, they are not fighting for their right to expression. You do not have the right to have your religious opinion stamped on a government issued licence.

http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/09/17/news/local/20070917_local_news_13.txt

CNN that's some hard hitting news

More crack investigative journalism from the most trusted leader in news.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/personal/09/07/olderwomen/index.html

Seriously the old media really has a hard case to make to prove that they are still relevant. They dropped the ball on the lead up to Iraq and still use the kid gloves when dealing with the administration and corporate welfare, like the government bail out of the housing market, but waste time and space on fluff. If people weren't dying because they failed to uphold their responsibility I wouldn't be so enraged. They say that primary source reporting would disappear if the old media was brought under by the power of the intertubes, but they are not doing it. All the old media is doing is following celebrities around cogitating about what they are wearing, and who they are fucking. If they expended this level of effort on Capitol Hill the corruption would be rooted out or driven deeper into hiding. But congress continues to misappropriate our money and people continue to die in a never ending war that we were lied into and the smug media just writes off our fully justified outrage.

You're on the ship, the USS Censorship

This is writen from an English perspective. As much as the limeys are afraid of freedom this article draws attention to a bill in the Senate will enact censorship here in the land of the free. Write your freedom hating senator and tell them to stop hating freedom.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2170822,00.html

go here to find out why you should care.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/

The Old Media

CNN takes a break from its coverage of the Blackwater story and delving deeper into the whole subcontracting the war thing, to tell us that men dont wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Perhaps its because we can pee standing up.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/09/17/dirty.hands.ap/index.html?nofarkingshit

Guess what doesnt work.

Abstinence only education. Here is a link to a story in Alabama that cites statistics. http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1189934476174290.xml&coll=3

The Numbers of Iraq

In the course of investigating this report about the most recent attempt to gauge the death toll in Iraq, I stumbled into a twisted web of public opinion companies. The organization responsible for the report, the ORB, is a member of the British Polling Council, which in turn is modeled on the National Council on Public Polls, an American organization. Thankfully, to help navigate this heady mix of numbers, acronyms, and propaganda, the NCPP on its homepage was nice enough to publish this list of 20 Questions That A Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results. The most significant question on the list for determining whether the poll is strong or not is #11, dealing with the notion of margin of error. According to the pollsters at the ORB, the aforementioned report on Iraq had a very strange +2%. I say strange in that normally, this measurement would be a plus or minus type of operation, but thankfully for the people of Iraq or the propagandists who will publish these data for their own ends, the results are only positive.

Food for Thought

Here's a list of the top 50 contractors for the US Department of Defense, in case anyone was wondering who is being contracted to support the ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, and elsewhere in the world where US troops can't or shouldn't go.

Ha HA!

Here for the benefit of the internet is the news thread so far:

this is my news thread, for all you guys who dont have g-mail and dont like my news trips, uh... get with the times?
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Russian_scientists_discover_radiation_absorbing_mineral
fucking sweet.

http://digg.com/politics/Police_break_up_anti_war_meeting_in_Washington_2
so much for our rights of assembly

http://digg.com/world_news/Russian_warplanes_intercepted_by_RAF_jets_Putin_Steps_Up_Cold_War
russia gears up for war

http://digg.com/world_news/Organised_sex_camps_for_Russia_s_teenagers
this is old, but if i said "russia is gearing up for war with their prodding nato airspace and the sex camps for teens encouraging reproduction to boister their man power," i would just look crazy. so i found the artical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EAfPgX7gs0horses breaking up a protest today, lead individuals arrested for the strength of the adhesive of their glue they used to put up signs. WTF?

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-wont-bow-down-to-weak-us-government-070907/
pirate bay is freaking cool."You should never tell people where they can't go or what they can't do."the most reasonable thing I have have heard in my entire life!
aggregated for your general consumption/enjoyment, here are some stories that some news people feel are important.http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6912662,00.htmlOur first item on the menu for the day is a really disappointing story that almost directly quotes the state-controlled China Daily about fears that minority groups in China may try to agitate for more rights, or any rights at all, during the 08 Olympic Games, but I suppose fear mongering has its use here. After all, if people are too afraid to leave their hotel rooms much, they won't notice the horrible air pollution. (Tianjin is also in the middle of that huge smog cloud.)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6988934.stmI wish I could say I told you so, but when you build your basic training facility within range of crude, unguided ordinance from the Gaza Strip, eventually something bad is going to happen. Unfortunately, for these four seriously wounded Israeli soldiers, it appears that conditions for the non-combat troops is comparable to the Palestinians who are launching the aforementioned munitions at them. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6988934.stmColumbian officials have purportedly destroyed another head of the hydra, but who knows how many may rise to take his place? This article comes with a brief scorecard in the the war on Cocaine. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-abe11sep11,1,2729772.story?coll=la-news-a_sectionFor all those keeping score at home, another government is having legislative issues because of its involvement in the "war on terror." Interestingly, this article also gives another interpretation of the common character combination "KY." http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6910396,00.htmlWisconsin spawns another crazy! http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=171515&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20Russia has "30 (intelligence) agents operating out of its London embassy." Which is interesting, considering the concentration of Russian exiles in London. Wait, wasn't there a story a few months back about one of them...? http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2166454,00.htmlIndia grows stronger in the nuclear field. Like the way they kept their nuclear program under wraps, they've also been keeping their nuclear submarine program under wraps. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200709102072.htmHowever, the parties of the Left have very little interest in dealings with the United States. http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/flash/cntower_timelapse.swfand here's a nifty picture for your enjoyment!http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/41187/A new, more appropriate presidential seal.
So were russian now? or was this Austrian empire?

I'm pretty sure that's based on an Austrian imperial coat of arms.Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

http://www.lefthandedtoons.com/blog/2007/09/10/subway-a-method-to-their-cheesy-madness/


this is the story, this is the comment, this is also why reading comments rock. :-)


In Soviet Russia, Cheese Overlaps You!
in North Korea, Overlapped Cheese in Only For Old People.
Now Rolland Fuckpaille just needs to copy paste the article onto his spamlog and write lol at the end of it, and have that written into an xckd comic, posted to reddit, and the reddit dugg, and then slashdot to pick up on it 4 months later with successive duplicate articles. At which point a Sub Sandwich LolCat is produced, along with a motivational poster about how to arrange cheese to piss people off on the internets, then mention apple in some context. Microsoft will then buy a smaller sub franchise, and replace their aging unix based POS terminals with microsoft POS, which will fail, so Microsoft will heavily subsized the industry, buying up exclusivity contracts with condiment suppliers, while funding a small coffee upstart to sue starbucks for violating their cup property rights.
Microsoft will then charge people to look at the crap post modern ironic artwork on the walls of their shitty sub shops, with their exclusive condiments and fillings, and as you walk out of the door someone wearing a DRM tshirt hits you on the head so you loose all recent memory of what you saw, and your stomach is pumped so you can repurchase your food.
SO that is why you shouldn't buy Xbox's, because you are funding global terrorism, Ron Paul FTW!
best comment EVAR.

That pollution cloud is huge. Unable to access LA times story. are you implying that the employees at the Russian embasy in london revealed the presence of the KGB agent that was poisoned? i'm shocked SHOCKED!

http://biz.yahoo.com/entrepreneur/070907/183770_id.html?.v=1
topic specific search engins

http://digg.com/world_news/Putin_DISSOLVES_government
russia desolves gov.

Ya, FindLaw is the best free search for legal info. As a law student you get access to LexisNexis and Westlaw, which have essentially everything about the law including scholarly articles and treatises. I saw that about Russia, and Putin put his chief economist in charge as the new prime minister. And Russia tested a conventional bomb with the power of a nuke. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6990815.stmI hate the BBCAlso the Japanese Prime Minister resigned.http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070912_967286.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives He was democratically elected in a free country though. Even though he had to use sexy female ninjas to win. That tactic would win my vote.

something of GREAT IMPORTANCE!!!!!! MUST READ OR BE DOOMED!!!!

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/11/artist-will-send-300.html

doomed with potassium.

Dude I swear I told you about this before. It was on a Discordian website a year ago. They were asking for donations.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17d677ca-62b7-11dc-b3ad-0000779fd2ac.htmlThe Duma rubber stamps Putin's choice for Prime Minister. This entire episode smacks of political purging to me. Of course, the new Prime Minister beats the drums for war with ominous signals of increased assertions of Russian military strength. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6920573,00.htmlWisconsin, not only going for one on the crazies, today also comes with crack cocaine! http://planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=44298&newsdate=13-Sep-2007Someone went through the effort of researching the worst polluted places on Earth. Perhaps not surprisingly, Tianjin, the city I studied in over this summer and last, is on the top ten list. Although I'm sure the number of people affected would skyrocket if they took a sample of the smog cloud. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/world/africa/14mali.html?ref=worldIf someone shoots at Americans in a country without oil or uranium, does it even matter? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091301889.htmlThe Stevens Clan runs into more legal problems. What intrigues me, though, is the notion that Stevens was appointed to the Alaska State Senate. I looked at wikipedia's entry on him and it had the same information (like looking at the reporter's source). That is par for the course though in corrupt enterprises such as politics in a mineral extraction state. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jBt2VB3MmkenuR6VjvdBgFG8-3TgDave? Have you been stashing away nuclear material and not telling anyone?

like i have often said, the laziness and incompetence of people have saved and doomed us more times than we know.

The Sunday Edition! Now with more lemons!Iraq: the Plan, the Debate, the Protests. At least people are marching now, for whatever that's worth. Admittedly, their efforts will do little to shape policy, but at least the rest of the world might recognize that the people are not quite as crazy as the Administration. Climate change has accomplished what thwarted Europe for centuries, and opens the Northwest passage! As Japan heads towards a potentially messy race for the office of Prime Minister, here's a look at one of the top contenders. Fukuda, according to the Japan Times, is Pro-China and Pro-Nuclear! two steps forward, four steps back. On Friday, Chen Shuibian criticized the United States for not adequately supporting Taiwan. On Saturday, the people of Taiwan took to the streets to support the effort. Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think critiquing the one country that keeps your island from becoming a giant parking lot is the wisest foreign policy to adopt. This stands in stark reflection to the situation on the other side of the strait. Westerners are still falling all over themselves to become a part of the Chinese market, while China is taking steps to become more of a member of the international community than the United States is. For those who might have been doubting the veracity and validity of next year's Russian Presidential elections, allow Vladimir Putin to put your mind at ease, with this declaration that there are actually five candidates for the office, and not just the one he wants to win. Although, at this point, Putin is keeping his cards close to his chest in true KGB fashion and not disclosing the identity of his preferred choice. We'll probably find out at the same time as everyone else, when the results of the election are announced. Anecdotal evidence of the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe shows a turn for the worst, as dogs and cats are now the stopgap food supply in the face of shortages of more common food staples for a starving population. In response, the Herald, a government mouthpiece, pulls out education figures as proof of the beneficence of the Mugabe government. As with most propaganda, this article is shown for what it really is in the way the author straw mans the economic plight of Zimbabweans. Meanwhile, the Archbishop of York pleads for movement on the issue from Britain's new Prime Minister and his Foreign Ministry. Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! In Greece! It's the New Democracy party versus the socialist Pasok party! To the finish! Democrat corruption , Republican corruption, these days they almost have the same flavor.In California, a fight among the University of California's Board of Regents reveals how red a blue state can be.The Wisconsin crazy for the day features a live chicken, potential police misconduct, and, of course, cocaine!In keeping with a little emphasis on Zimbabwe this week, the news pic is of a blackmarket foreign currency dealer in Harare. He's holding Z$350,000 in one hand and US$10 in the other, to give you an idea of the currency and international trade situation there.
Hello everybody!Got a quick link for you, with a challenge to notice spin...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296919,00.html#then click on the "top Video" in the blue box on the upper right. It should be anti-war protests video Spin example: They say the people "Wanted to be arrested" there-by easing any general populas reaction saying those people got what they wanted. Did you hear any others? maybe in tonal qualities used by the corespondents? any others? News-Spinning Bastards at Fox (shit! i just got added to a list for writing that in an email. In fact, you also got add to the same list for reading this right now! You're to late! You can't unread!)

I dont think we have to worry too much about the Japanese picking that particular candidate. Shinzo Abe was forced out of office because he was that way. Not necessairly Pro Chinese but pro war and too far from the mainstream of Japanese politics. They are still reeling from WWII in their culture and have more of an irrational fear of Nuclear than hippies do. And the Japanese have always been trying to prove to the west that they are better than the Chinese.

The more I think about it the more our current situation seems like WW1 Germany. The conversations I hear on the news and in bars about the situation in Iraq reminds me of the kind of know-it-all talk from completely ignorant jackasses that was novelized in All Quiet on the Western Front. It adds an extra dimension of disaster to the Josh style apocalypse we were discussing last month. Housing market collapse drags the rest of the economy down with it, the Chinese flex their mussel and crush our currency causing rampant inflation, which combines with our vast deficit spending, there then comes another great depression and years of resentment build up. Whichever president replaces Bush gets all the blame for the troubles, and instead of blaming the Jews like the Nazis did, we blame the Mexicans and the Chinese and start WWIII. Or are we on WW4 or 5 now? After all the shameful cheer leading last summer from the old media about the war in Lebanon I lost count.

Oh ya, "Page cannot be found" ITS A CONSPIRAQCY! that was a typo but I will leave it, adds an extra dimension.

Also I never understood why the visit to Yasikuni Shrine causes such a freak out. Its like the emperors one job. It would be like our president refusing to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just because we as a country have participated in unpopular wars or our soldiers had done terrible things in war.

DAMN! forgot to include the link. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/16/greenspan.book/


The reason that the visits cause such an uproar is because it is the practical manifestation of Japanese nationalism, which directly conflicts with the idea of Chinese nationalism. So, the Chinese and the Koreans object every time that a political leader decides to appeal to the old-style, hardcore, rural, conservative version of Japanese nationalism, the Chinese Communist Party has to throw a fit to continue to fit within the myth that they've created for themselves.

Blackwater is being expelled from Iraq by the Iraqi government. They are also trying to prosecute them for murder. My prediction is neither of these things will come true.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/middleeast/17cnd-iraq.html?hpAlso I want to point out the add on the right side for me was of a miniture whale in a fishbowl. Prooving that I am not the only one to think its a great idea.

Strike 2 for Obama in my opinion. not like theres a better Democrat. I hate being forced to choose the lesser of several evils. ******************************
***********************************Monday, September 17, 2007Obama's Anti-Gun StanceYou've gotta love the gun bloggers. A few days ago, when Gun Law News reported that Senator Barack Obama served on the board of directors for the anti-gun Joyce Foundation, I had to smile. Not because of Obama's ties to one of the deep pockets that fund anti-gun groups across this country, but because it was a blog that broke this story, not the mainstream media.Well, here's some other news about Obama and the Second Amendment: Since he's only in his first term as senator, he hasn't cast a lot of gun-related votes. But he did vote for the federal version of the Katrina bill that was authored by Senator David Vitter last year. That at least puts him in better company than his fellow candidate, Hillary Clinton-who was one of just 16 senators to vote against the bill, which prohibits federal law enforcement officials (and other law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding) from confiscating legally owned firearms during a state of emergency. But that's just one vote, and it doesn't tell us much. During his days as a state legislator in Illinois, Obama was a big fan of gun bans. He supported a ban on all semi-automatic firearms, and wanted to increase the already-draconian laws regarding firearms purchases in Illinois. He was also in favor of renewing the Clinton gun ban back in 2004, and opposed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. So learning that Obama once served on the board of the Joyce Foundation is kind of like the icing on the cake. We already know he's anti-gun; this is just one more piece of evidence that Barack Obama stands on the wrong side of your Second Amendment rights.************************************************************
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*****To get more comments on current issues and up to date information visit http://www.nranews.com/.© 2007 National Rifle Association of America

I agree that I doubt either will happen. but out of curiosity, If Blackwater is found guilty of murder, and our government employs blackwater, does that mean that our government is guilty of murder through association? Do we know how it will work if we are paying blackwater to protect people in iraq if they arn't allowed to operate inside of iraq? In addition, how will we be able to siphion millions of dollars to blackwater if they can't work in our war zone? will we have to start another war so we can employ those hard-up individuals at blackwater? I am interested in how this pans out

hey, im on the inter-tub's