More Police Terrorism - Milwaukee Edition

Turned on the tv - a rare occasion - and caught some CourtTV. It seems some off-duty white cops beat the fuck out of some black dude because the black dude was a stripper and had some white girls with him. It's pretty much what you'd expect:

Emergency room physician Kathleen Shallow testified that Jude's body was covered in bruises, lacerations and abrasions from head to toe. He also sustained two bone fractures to his face, a necessary element for a conviction of 'substantial battery':

Shallow further testified that damage to Jude's ear canal from a pen that was shoved into his ear were the worst injuries she had seen in her 15-year career.

It's pretty much a scene out of the 1950's South, only it's the 2000's North.

Cops, man. Fuckin terrorists.

Verdict is not in yet.

Milwaukee paper's article talks about how the cops were using racial epithets while beating Jude. Just like the Duke case.

Horrific injuries to both ears - a police officer stabbed the dude in one ear and then the other with a red pen. The hospital doctor said it was the worst ear injuries she'd seen in 15 years.

Lot of testimony about "Give me my fucking badge back, you fuckin nigger!"

Not sure when, exactly, Frank Jude was cuffed - before, during, or after the beating. One cop came out and had a gun and put it to Jude's head and said the usual cop terorrist stuff: "I could fuckin kill you and frame you and you'd be fuckin dead and nobody would care!" - the usual stuff.

One cop is going to testify against other cops. She's in for it - wonder if they'll try kill her, or just intimidate her into resigning.

Jude and his friend - who is black, also (Jude is actually only half-black) - were arrested and none of the cops were arrested - even some of the cops who admitted to holding Jude down while the other cops beat him and at least one who sat on top of Jude while they beat him, helped to beat Jude, and slashed him in the face with a knife. The terrorist district attorney refused to press charges.

Two black jurors removed. That means the jury is all-white - just like in the good 'ol deep south of the 1950's.

UPDATE: DHS Edition.

UPDATE: The whole fucking DHS is trying to fuck little children. I knew that many Republicans were sick fucks. I knew that Bushies were sick fucks. I knew that most Bushies were gangster fucks, but this shit is unbelievable. I mean, exactly how many child rapists are there in the Bush Administration? Picture of the child sex criminal, Frank Figueroa, who used to head the DHS division that oversaw child sex crime for President Bush, is on the right. The dude wacked off in front of a little girl for 10 minutes! I mean, is someone going to do something about the culture of the sexual exploitation of children in the Bush Administration? If this is not terrorism, then I just don't know what is.

Brian J. Doyle (left) is the other DHS guy - Bush Adminiatration official - that we know of, so far, that has been trying to fuck little children.

I've read a lot of arguments over the past few years that make the case that war corrupts everyone and everything anywhere near it. Maybe that's the case, here? It's obvious that the entire country is off its rocker - and I'm not going to make excuses for these would-be rapists - Bush Administration officials - appointees, most likely - some of President Bush's favorite people, no doubt - but maybe the whole country is just totally corrupt? Maybe this is the final death spiral into total sadism, brought about by Bush Administration's evil nature - their ability to infect the American culture with truly demonic values.

UPDATE: Police terrorism - Maryland edition.

UPDATE: Bad Cop, No Donut - I discovered this radio show (and website) while perusing Indymedia.org - specifically, enemycombatantradio.net. The main part of the show starts off with this sentence:

I'm Ron Anicich with your weekly wrapup of North American police brutality, misconduct, and corruption. Here is a look at what the police did to us this week.

Great show! It's unbelievably terrifying to know that there are so many cops out there beating/raping/murdering innocents - especially children. It's a weekly show, so go back often!

UPDATE: If you listen to the RealMedia stream on the Bad Cop, No Donut website all the way till the end, and then wait a few seconds, another stream will start up with a great show that gets a bunch of clips of the host, Ron, talking to a bunch of other radio jockeys about his show.

UPDATE: Terrorists are set free. Yes, Milwaukee is as racist as the deep south. Congratulations, y'all.

New, Improved CitySearch: the '-ist' sites

OK - so you were going to check out some new city, or you were living in some city, and you wanted to know what was going on, so you headed over to CitySearch.com, even though you knew the info you found there would totally suck. So, you thought of the local fishwrap and checked it out and it sucked, too, of course. Well, now we have a new, improved CitySearch - the so-called '-ist' sites. That is, the websites/blogs produced by Gothamist LLC - one 'ist' for each city - and they're pretty good.

These '-ist' sites, so far, are:

Austin
Boston
Chicago
Houston
London
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Paris
Philadelphia
San Francisco
Shanghai
Seattle
Toronto
Washington DC

Yes, these sites are bit too trendy and self-important and all that, but they do have a lot of good, useful info, from what we can tell - mostly having checked out DCist and SFist.

Why Gothamist, LLC (the mama '-ist' site/locale, wethinks) chose to produce their most-recent edition, Houston, before San Diego is beyond us. Sure, Houston is the 4th biggest city compared to the 7th biggest city (give or take), but that's no excuse - Houston is just one big ass. That city needs to be scrapped and re-built from the ground-up, or maybe just left as a shameful reminder of how not to build a city.

Violent Youths Threaten to Hijack Demonstrations in Paris

That's the headline from the New York Times - decide for yourself if you think it's accurate or not. One thing is for sure, I'm not heading to Paris anytime soon - FUCK THAT. That place is basically in flames, and has been in flames for months now. I guess, if given the choice, I'd rather go to Paris than Baghdad, but it's not much of a choice. The answer, of course, is to withdraw that fucked-up ass law. All of this violence and bloodshed and unrest and property damage and terrorism is totally and completely on one man - Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. He can stop it all with the stroke of a pen. He was, after all, the one who started it all with the stroke of a pen.

UPDATE: The IHT says that the protestors might not yet know it, but they are probably leading a prophetic fight against American-style 'savage capitalism' - or, as the IHT says simply, 'Capitalism under fire'.

UPDATE: As this NYT's piece makes clear, the French government is just watching the country burn. I guess that's how the government does things in France - or, does not do things, as it were.

One part of me says, 'WTF?!', but another part of me says, 'Good! I hope the whole entire French government falls completely - I hope the entire French State collapses, and a new, better government arises out of it'. Of course, the latter case is scary. The former case - of the government just allowing for the entire country to come to a standstill, for tens/hundreds/thousands of citizens to be terrorized by roaming gangs of thugs - it just doesn't seem right to me - call me crazy. Pretty much the same thing that happened during the riots a few months ago - the government just chilled and smoked their cigars and drank their expensive whiskeys while the country burned. There's gotta be a better way. But I think it's awesome that the people aren't giving in so easily.

UPDATE: This OhmyNews article relates the unrest in France to the lack of true democracy there - as in the UK, the US, and other countries whose leaders like to praise their long and storied traditions of democracy. This article refers to the Power Inquiry report, out of the UK, which we referred to here.

UPDATE: One option I didn't think of for France was Anarchism. What if no new government arose from the ashes of Chirac/Villepin's government? I suppose neighboring countries would try to conquer people in various sections of the former France, but that doesn't mean that they'd succeed.

UPDATE: Pictured at right is a snapshot of protestors blocking railroad tracks somewhere in France, presumably. Sorry, my French is 'non'-existent. Looks like Chirac is going to sign the jobs bill into law. Shit might get crazy tomorrow (Friday). Pic is from the Paris IndyMedia.

UPDATE: Paris motorist drives through a crowd of protesters, injuring 7. The protesters overturn his car and smash some of its windows out. Apparently, the man escaped uninjured. He's lucky I wasn't there to greet him.

...car bomb kills one in northern Paris.

...protestor beaten unconscious - then beaten some more. This is one of the most horrible pictures we've ever seen. The photographer has a few shots of the events. The dude who is knocked out, unconscious was apparently drunk. The white dude kicked the drunk dude to knock him down. He managed to get up, but the black dude cold clocked him and knocked him out. This picture shows the black dude about to pull his best David Beckham impression - on a dude who he's already helped to beat unconscious. Did this kick kill him?

The photographer has more shots.

I hope, though don't expect, that they'll be able to find these guys and arrest them and lock them up for a long, long time. And those cowards standing around while this dude gets murdered in broad daylight - they should be locked up too. I've seen this kind of stuff happen in protests - not as bad, but I've seen the harassment, the intimidation of large gangs of kids moving through the crowd, robbing people, grabbing girls, punching guys, etc. It's tough to stop, no doubt, but when they're about to execute someone in front of you, it's time to step up - everyone.

This is all on Villepin and Chirac - all of it.

Winter Soldier - The Movie

Hopefully it'll be a well-done film (IMDb). It's a re-release from 1972, apparently, and here's what it's about:

Winter Soldier documents the "Winter Soldier Investigation" conducted by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Detroit, Michigan in the winter of 1971. A call went out from VVAW to veterans all over the country saying, in effect, 'everyone is talking about the war that you know from the inside. If you want to have anything to say about it, come to Detroit and tell it like you saw it.' At the investigation, over 125 veterans representing every major combat unit to see action in Vietnam, gave eye-witness testimony to war crimes and atrocities they either participated in or witnessed. The purpose of the investigation was to bring to light the nature of American military policy in Vietnam.

Good Wiki page here, which includes the explanation for the phrase 'Winter Soldier':

The name "Winter Soldier Investigation" was derived from Thomas Paine's first Crisis paper written in December 1776, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in which he wrote:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

Paine's words were written to inspire American patriots that remained after several defeats - the "sunshine patriots" and "summer soldiers" having deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough. In contrast with the "sunshine patriots," those patriots who chose to continue to fight even in rough times were thus by implication "winter soldiers."

John Kerry, of course, was very anti-Viet Nam war back in the day, and he - as best we can tell - was somehow associated with the Winter Soldier Investigation. Which reminds us that we never saw Kerry's Going Upriver movie - maybe we'll get around to it someday.

We wonder, is there someone organizing a Winter Soldier Investigation for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? Maybe VVAW? (we actually meant IVAW)

Torture Evidence Admissible

Torture. Extract confession. Convict based on that confession obtained through torture. Pretty unbelievable. Welcome to America, circa 2006.

UK says 'no' to torture evidence.

Amnest International says 'no'.

US says 'yes'. Surprise, surprise.

It's one thing to torture people. It's another thing altogether to torture people and then use the words you forced them to say to convict them. If torture is pure evil, then using torture-extracted information to convict someone could only be the work of the devil herself.

Of course, in this case, it was one of the US client states that did the torturing for the US, but it's the same thing.

Two FBI Agents Helped to Beat Robert Davis

Holy shit:

The video also shows two FBI agents joining the police in subduing Davis. Their role is being investigated by federal officials.

What the fuck was going on here? Why the fuck was the FBI hanging out in downtown New Orleans, presumably undercover? Not undercover? Who were the FBI terrorists? Inquiring minds want to know.

Previous coverage of the terrorists doing their work here.

On related police crimes, a bunch of terrorists plead not guilty today in LA to invading homes, robbing people, etc. Typical.

UPDATE: Even judges getting in on the act of terrorizing innocent people. You don't think you'll ever be able to make amends, judge? Yes - I believe you can, and will. Go directly to jail, mf! And stay there! Talk to me in two weeks and let me know if you'll ever abuse your power again, okay mf?

UPDATE: It's like we need a separate blog just to keep track of LA police terrorism alone.

UPDATE: FBI agent finally arrested for helping murder four. Maybe we need a separate 'FBI Terrorist' blog, too?

UPDATE: NYC terrorists. Kinda makes one wonder why these guys are not down in Gitmo...

Free Speech and 'Immiment Criminal Action'

Chomsky's chat at WaPo.com had a great thought of Chomksy's on the limits of free speech:

Lancaster, U.K: What do you feel are the limits to 'free speech' given the arguments recently over racial hatred and religious intolerance?

Noam Chomsky: My feeling is that the Supreme Court reached a reasonable standard of protection of speech in the 1960s, a standard higher than any other country in the world, to my knowledge. In brief, speech should be protected up to participation in imminent criminal action. So if you and I go into a store to rob it, and I say 'shoot,' that's not protected. Like all judicial decisions and legislation, this leaves plenty of gray areas, including many of great significance that are rarely discussed: advocacy of imminent war crimes, such as aggression, for example. I think we would all agree that such speech should be protected, despite the often horrific consequences, but it's worth noting that that stretches the doctrine to its limits.

The obvious rip was Chomsky referencing Bush's talking about how we were going to, and did, invade Iraq (and possibly Afghanistan, too). Invading another country is known in international law as 'aggression' - or, 'the supreme international crime' - a war crime, to be sure.

Should we have arrested Bush on the spot when he started talking about invading Iraq? Chomsky says, 'no' - but just barely on the 'no' side of that free speech situation. So, if Bush should not be jailed for calling for the committing of 'the supreme international crime', then the bar for free speech must be set pretty high.

Duke sits lacrosse team after rape allegation

This case is America today. Who knows what's true or not, yet, but I'll go on the record right now as 'not being surprised' if it was true - all of it - and worse.

UPDATE: We felt we weren't getting the whole Duke scoop from the mass media, so we hit Indymedia - North Carolina (Chapel Hill) edition, and found a bunch of good information, with pics. Houston IndyMedia posted some video about a protest that seems to have taken place outside the house of where the rape happened.

Hopefully, we're about to see a breakthrough in citizen media. Maybe it'll come from a place like OhMyNews, or maybe IndyMedia will rise to the occasion, maybe it'll be Craig of Craigslist who has mentioned he has been thinking of starting a news-type service, or maybe it'll be community or constituency-organized newspapers, like The Black Panther. Wherever it comes from, we need it bad.

UPDATE: USA Today points out that Tom Wolfe's book, I Am Charlotte Simmons, was really written about Duke. Mr. Wolfe's daughter graduated from Duke in 2002:

Wolfe focuses on the 'pond scum' of Duke's campus," wrote book reviewer and Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer in The (Durham) Herald-Sun. "Dumb racist jocks, misogynistic frat boys, submissive/catty sorority girls and arrogant and insecure academic achievers inhabit Wolfe's Duke.

Interesting.

Wolfe is a huge fan of George W. Bush. No, I'm not shitting you. The dude seems smart, so I'm not sure what would make him a Bush fan. I'm very curious about it, though. Maybe he's just an out-and-out racist? I kind of doubt it because he's so perceptive on issues of race and class and all that - as evidence by his book Bonfire of the Vanities, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. So, no - I don't get it at all.

UPDATE: The defendants can't spell. The article also mentions cross burnings about a year ago. (link to Durham cross-burning story)

What I want to know is, who will be the first student athletes to come forward and support the victims? Will it be JJ Redick? Will it be some kids from the basketball team? The football team? The soccer team? How about the girls teams? Are they all silent, too?

UPDATE: We were just talking here about the possibility that war and the Bush Administration have sent the U.S. people on a death spiral towards complete sadism. Well, here's a Dukie's email a few hours after the alleged rape/beating/etc. - he's talking about inviting more strippers over:

"I plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off," the author of the e-mail says, adding in vulgar terms that he would find the act sexually satisfying.

And once those strippers come over, kill them and skin them. Got that? Kill them. Skin them. Terrorism - straight up. Sadism - straight up. Bushworld - straight up. This is the kind of shit that the KKK used to do back in the day to terrorize black people, and anyone who 'sympathised with the enemy'.

I'm tellin ya - President Wilson's incredible racism/bigotry helped spur all sorts of anti-black terrorism throughout the U.S. I'd suggest that President Bush's tolerance for bigotry and racism and his complete lawlessness and the Congress's complicity in that lawlessness is sending us towards sadism.

More 'They Let It Happen'...

Did you know that Gary Hart warned Condi Rice on September 6, 2001 that there was an imminent terrorist attack coming?

And Hart gets to talking about the Church Committee. Scary shit. Hart says today is deja vue all over again - the Administration is just breaking laws all over the place to keep dissent about the Iraq War suppressed. There were 'all sorts of suspicions' about CIA activities with the mafia in efforts to kill JFK, too. But the Bushies spying stuff right now is what's important right now.

The paradox of choice

Some of it seems bogus, but a lot of it does not. Check it (video). (book link)

One of my big complaints in the social world is that it seems many men and women - from my point of view, it seems to be mainly women, but I'm open to debate - are too picky when it comes to finding a life partner. That is, for people who would actually like to find a life partner, they're too picky. And again, I have to say, I feel this is more on the female gender, but that's probably just because I've dated women and have been dumped by at least one, and have talked to countless male friends who tell me about their significant other lady-friends who often seem to be searching for their perfect 'knight in shining armor'. What happens, of course, is that these women never do find their knight in shining armor, and either hook up with a well-off older dude - informally or formally - or these women get cats and grow old alone. It seems like such a waste to me.

In short, it seems to me, that women have been particularly affected by this 'paradox of choice'. Maybe this research will start appearing in women's magazines, if it hasn't yet already.

I'm also curious how it plays out in arranged marriages, semi-arranged marriages, etc.

And, of course, politics is huge. How does this paradox play out in politics?

UPDATE: Women more picky. We already knew it, but it's nice to have scientific backing.

They Tried To Kill My Son!

Scalia.

Flashback: Bush.

Black Panther Rank and File

This is a great fuckin exhibit at the Yerba Buena Center or the Arts in downtown San Francisco. The website for it does not do it justice at all.

I'm a bit partial to the exhibit because I really love the idea and the activism and a whole bunch of other stuff surrounding the Black Panther Party, and I'm also into politics. It's hard to say how much I would have liked the exhibit without those personal traits.

That said, this show had so many cool things I didn't know about the Black Panther Party. Did you know they ran their own newspaper? Did you know two college students in Oakland started it after hearing about Stokely Carmichael's work? (we actually don't remember which video clip we saw this in, only that we've seen it, and we like it, a lot)

What's good for America? What's good for America? LATER for America! What's good for black people?!

We can learn a lot from these cats (get it? niiiiice.). They started by community organizing - personally helping kids cross the street at an intersection where the city kept refusing to install a traffic light - even though kids kept getting run down. Eventually, they got the city to install a traffic light. That's organizing. That's action.

Most Americans simply have no clue how much the U.S. government terrorized black party leaders during the civil rights movement. I mean, they still work hard to terrorize them in everyday life today, but back in the day, if you had any visibility, the U.S. government was working overtime to terrorize you. And when they couldn't shut you down quietly, they just used brute force and murdered you. Straight up.

UPDATE: We didn't realize, from the way the exhibition website is put together, that there are actually links to other reference material. The best link is to "It's About Time" - the Black Panther Party Legacy and Alumni group (the link on the YBCA exhibition website is still broken at this time, but ours works).

SFist pointed out some things about the exhibit that we didn't catch. And we admit that we got out of there pretty quickly - it's just too overwhelming.

Chicago is trying to get a street named after the activist who the Chicago PD/FBI murdered - but the terrorists who killed him don't like the idea so much.

The Murder of Fred Hampton - the movie. We don't know much about Mr. Hampton, ourselves, but what little we have heard has been pretty unbelievable. I mean, this dude sounded like he was pretty much the second coming - of activism, of justice, of something. No shit. So, check him out.

UPDATE: We've been looking all over for some posters we saw at the exhibit, but nobody seems to know if they exist, who might have them, etc. But we at least managed to find a pseudo-replica of them - it's one poster/handout, with the slogans of all three posters that we wanted included in this one hand-out. It's a bit brutal, but that's part of what makes it so powerful. We got the image from this website. The text on the poster includes the following:

Uncle Sam wants YOU nigger

Become a member of the world's highest paid black mercenary army!

Support White Power – travel to Viet Nam, you might get a medal!

Fight for Freedom... (in Viet Nam)

Receive valuable training in the skills of killing off other oppressed people!

(Die Nigger Die – you can't die fast enough in the ghettos.)

So run to your nearest recruiting chamber!

And the organizer listed on the bottom of the poster is this:

Issued by: HARLEM PROGRESSIVE LABOR CLUB, 336 Lenox Avenue, New York 10027
For additional copies send to: Progressive Labor Party: Chicago: 2049 North Dayton St.,
Los Angeles: 218 East 82nd Place, San Francisco: 3382 18th Street, California

Imagine these slogans in big, colorful, antagonistic posters, and you'll start to get a sense for the power to provoke feelings of fury and rage in the person looking at them. At least, that was what I felt. Those posters made me want to get up off my ass and organize.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

They were awesome. Saw them on their first SF show - Friday night - at the Great American Music Hall. The venue was awesome, and the band were better. Fuckin worth my two months wait. Awesome awesome awesome.

The lead singer, Alec Ounsworth - that dude could...sheesh. Great singing, and he wailed on guitar. I mean, he really made that thing look like a tool - an 'instrument' if you will. And he was using it to craft energy, man. Vibing through the air like wonderful sickness.

Just, unreal. So frickin happy I got to see those dudes. I was upstairs on the balcony - 'dinner tickets' - where, if you show up early enough, you get dinner. Who knew? But the view was awesome. I'm not sure how much it mattered, but I was excited, and would have been excited to be anywhere in that joint. Shit.

Really not possible to overpraise the work that Ounsworth was doing up there. Place was just pure energy, and it had a lot to do with him and his guitar.

To their credit, I've finally seen a decent San Francisco music crowd. Finally.

p.s. every new song I've heard from them sounds legit. I still can't believe that BSS got a 9.2 to Clap Your Hands 9.0 - Pitchfork. That mess is wack. With this new album, Pitchfolk won't be able to use the 'we never heard of them' excuse.

500,000 Protest Anti-Immigrant Law

Big protest in LA.

I've pretty much been in the 'anti-immigrant' camp, as far as I've believed, and still do for the most part, that Americans deserve the jobs they have - that is, they should not face competition from illegal immigrants - maybe they/we shouldn't face competition for jobs from legal immigrants, either? This demonstration doesn't change my mind, but it makes me want to continue giving the other side serious consideration.

I'm pro-poor people and pro-powerless people, but I'm anti-rich and anti-powerful people, too - so where to come down on immigration? Do my own selfish reasons have a say?

Illegal immigrants amount to, as far as I can see, a super-exploited workforce - akin to modern-day slavery (not to take away from the extreme nature of modern-day-beating-raping-from-childbirth-type slavery that still exists in many parts of the world). Big business loves to have access to this super-exploited workforce, and so does small business. One could even argue that the middle class, in general, benefits from the hard labour of this invisible class of people.

If you want poor, blue collar Americans to grow poorer and more racist, then allow the increasing influx of illegal immigrants. White males anger will continue to be exploited by Republicans - there's no doubt.

Complicated topic.

UPDATE: If you've never listened to Drudge's radio program - you should do it now - tonight - right now, now (links at his site). He's scary, and hilarious, but through his terror - real or feigned we're not sure - you'll understand the fury of the white male - especially blue-collar - worker in America today. He is freaked about this protest. I mean, it's like he just saw Martians walk in front of his car in downtown Miami. Hilarious. But scary, too. He's basically getting the troops riled up for war - literal war - like, violence, guns, you name it. Demagogue.

UPDATE: Some folks diss protest marches as being meaningless - most famously that I've known of, was kos over at Daily Kos - but listening to Drudge and his listeners, and the politicians reacting to the LA protest, you learn real quick that protesting can be extremely useful for a number of things - including intimidation. This bill is crazy fucked up. If you are a family of six, and you have one immigrant staying with you, you have to report them or you are breaking a felony law. You and your entire family would go to jail for years. Your kids would be taken from you and sent to juvenile hall for years. I have to think this was only done to drudge up racism for the upcoming mid-term elections. Republicans are desperate.

UPDATE: Students banned from their prom for protesting. School administrators are total fuckin gangsters. Unbelievably petty gangsters. These kids are learning a lesson alright - just how petty the school administrators are, and what lengths they will go to to make sure that these students remain submissive and obedient. Asshole administrators, man.

And Glenn Hyde gets letters:

Your entire school district should be ashamed of itself for barring those kids from the prom. It's just unbelievable that you all would be so incredibly petty. Pathetic, small, weak, little men and women - all of y'all.

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and y'all showed them how to obey - how to not step out of line, or else. Don't ever tell the government they're wrong, because they're never wrong. Yes - you've taught them a lesson alright - just how unfair, petty, and corrupt power is.

Belarus Protest Dispersed as Police Arrest Hundreds

Story here:

Belarussian riot police officers arrested hundreds of antigovernment demonstrators early this morning in the central square of Minsk, ending five days of protests and prompting swift denunciations from Europe and the United States.

FLASBACK: U.S. Protest Dispersed as Police Arrest Hundreds.

Police Murder Again

Yes, they did it again. I think it's pretty safe to assume she was black. But it's safer to assume that if you lead San Francisco or California cops on a chase, you're as good as dead, so you might as well go for broke:

She said the driver 'threw the door open and tried to get out of the car. That's when I heard gunshots.'

Villalta said she did not believe the driver rammed the police vehicles.

'They didn't give her a chance,' Villalta said. 'They just shot her.'

Villalta said that when she tried to talk to police, she wasn't allowed near the shooting scene.

She described what she saw and heard to reporters who gathered at the shooting site Thursday evening for a protest by relatives of three men who have been killed by San Francisco police in recent years.

V for Vendetta; A for Anarchy

Apparently, V for Vendetta (imdb), the movie, is based on the comic-series/book, which is really about an anarchist's and his female accomplice's attempt to overthrow their totalitarian government. The author of the comic book series wrote them in 1982 and 1983 - very near to the title of the book '1984'. The book, 1984, was written by George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Blair - and it, too, is about a totalitarian government and peoples' struggles to gain freedom from it.

David Lloyd is the guy who compiled Alan Moore's 10-part comic book series into the book. Lloyd backs the movie and Moore does not.

Apparently, the movie-makers, or at least one of the primary people involved in the making of the movie, lied their asses off repeatedly when they were unable to get Moore's endorsement. That's some wack shit.

Notice that the symbol for 'V' in the movie is really just an upside down anarchist symbol, minus the horizontal slash:

   

Of course, our boy Chomsky is a self-declared anarchist (we think), so we've been working overtime to figure out what it's all about. So far, in layman's terms, we think anarchism is:

A highly organized society in which there is no oppressive government to exploit the poor and working classes for the benefit of the rich.

That's pretty much the gist of it, we gather. The key words there are 'highly organized' - so it's not all crazy in the streets like critics will suggest - it's still roles and responsibilities and all that, but without the government stealing your money, forcing you to pay for the lifestyles of the wealthy elite, etc.

Chomsky's got a book on anarchism called, who would have guessed it, Chomsky on Anarchism. We haven't read it, yet.

The Anarchist Book Fair just happened out here in Cali. I missed it, but heard it was pretty cool.

We just found out there's an Anarchist Library at the City College of San Francisco that occasionally teaches free classes on anarchy - including introduction to, economics of, etc.

Check out the infoshop in your town if you haven't yet. It's at least worth a look-see, usually. It should really be a part of every tourist company's highlights, I think, but what do I know. What's an infoshop you say?

An infoshop is a cross between a radical bookstore and a movement archive. Activists go there to read or buy movement literature; buy paraphenalia such as stickers, masks and spray paint; attend meetings, lectures or films; or just plain hang out.

And, forgot, a great website has been set up to talk about anarchy and the movie called 'A for Anarchy'. The site was set up, in part, because the movie stripped most of the anarchy references out of it, and anarchists wanted the message of the original movie to be known.

Many people are concerned that the movie promotes terrorism, and that seems fair. I'm not so comfortable with violence myself, so I don't want to promote terrorism - whether its from an individual conducting violent acts directed at the government or the much more common case of the government conducting violent acts against individuals. Either case is unjustified, in general. Like Chomsky says, non-violence does not need to be justified, but violence must always be justified. Gore Vidal wrote a controversial essay about Timothy McVeigh's alleged role in the Oklahoma City bombing. Gore does not believe that McVeigh acted alone and that the FBI and the U.S. government, in general, was too oppressive. Lots of other people, including us, think that Oklahoma was a big federal coverup. (For any of you Bush-lovers out there - are there any of you left? - note that Oklahoma was under Preznit Clinton, so the answer is 'yes' - we think Clinton covered up Oklahoma just like Bush covered up 9/11. Both of these conspiracy theories were unspeakable immediately after the events themselves, but now both are commonly accepted amongst the U.S. population.)

UPDATE: Wanted to let all you would-be anarchists in on something I've heard/read Chomsky say/wrote on multiple occasions (not verbatim):

During the Red Scare of the 20's and 30's the American government jailed the Communists, but they murdered the anarchists.

Just thought I should let y'all know what you might be getting yourself into if you start messin around with this anarchy stuff.

UPDATE: Great flick.

UPDATE: Justin Raimondo, who I've bitterly denounced on several occasions, but is still a much better writer than I, signals his strong approval for V for Vendetta.

Holy Shit - Clandestine Searches

Democracy Now!: radio and TV news.

Scary, scary, scary shit. Is it OK to be afraid now?

Seriously...

UPDATE: Link to Gestapo searches. Link to My Lai Iraq Edition.

B.C. Ferry Sinks; All 101 Aboard Rescued

I mean - listen - you see the response. Imagine this happened in Louisiana?

Prohibition in Texass

Here. Look, this is just an excuse for the police state to clamp down on the sinners.

At least they didn't arrest Santa Claus, like Virginia did. Yes, they don't call it virginia for nothing.

UPDATE: Drudge with more police state from Kansas. How could Drudge support these gangsters knowing that, as a gay man, he'll be in the first set of roundups?

Doug Bruce: Liar

I heard about this movie and thought, "what? wasn't that a thriller already? the dude forgets everything and just keeps killing and all that?" The answer was 'yes'. And it looks like I had the good sense not to get jazzed about this fake-ass cat.

Gothamist: Elephant Walk 2006 is Tonight

Well, the walk happened a day or so ago. The original notice is here. Follow-up post here. We stole the pic from here.



Decide for yourself whether you think this is a practice we should continue or not. But before you make up your mind, check out the video over here. If you are afraid to watch the video (you should be), then you're probably on our side on this one.

This is not vegetarianism, folks - this is basic human decency - or lack thereof. Go over to PETA to find out how to stop this shit.

Also, check out the Elephant Sanctuary.

UPDATE: SFist pointed us to a recent court case that convicted HP Pavilion in San Jose of conspiring to violate the rights of some PETA protesters who were leafletting against the Ringling Circus. Ken Sweezey and Steve Kirsner, we're watching you, now. Welcome to the wonderful world of serveillance.

Ringling Bros. is owned by Feld Entertainment, which also owns/runs Disney on Ice. I wonder if little kids would like to see horses and elephants being wipped the next time they go to a Disney on Ice show?

Protester in coma after French riots

Lots of confusing reports, but this will definitely up pressure on the French government. Anytime things turn violent, the sitting government is under increased pressure.

Think about France, man - that place has been on fire for like an entire year. What the fuck is the government doing to those people?

UPDATE: They caught him and almost killed him - that's the word on the street, from a Belgian photographer - there is supposedly an incriminating picture. The article makes clear that the prime minister's days in office may be numbered if the guy dies - not just the number of days left for that labor law.

Gil Mantera's Party Dream

I went to see Art Brut tonight, and to their great credit, they delivered - bigtime. I mean, they followed an act which was pretty much unfollowable, but they did it anyways, and quite possibly came out on top (is that sexist?). Listen, Art Brut is the shit. Period. Their shit is tight, hilarious, entertaining, rockin, and whatever else rock n roll is supposed to be and not be. Front man was every bit absurd as we hoped for and expected. Dude seems young, too, which is bizarre, but whatever. If someone younger than 35 managed to produce that kind of satire, then mad props to him.

With that said, however - the band just before Art Brut, Gil Mantera's Party Dream (we think), kicked the shit out of it. I mean, pretty much fucked it up beyond recognition. I don't want to overhype, because I believe there can be other bands who do better - they probably have existed and probably will continue to exist - but these mf's were on fire. Shit. They're playing again tomorrow night in SF, but our card is booked with Sereena Maneesh, who forced us to see Art Brut tonight instead of tomorrow night. There's not a whole lot one can say, or should say, about this fucked-up ass band (Gil whatevers), except to say 'check those stupid, crazy mf's out.' They were awesome.

Outside of that - a few notes about the "Potrero Hill/San Francisco/Bottom of the Hill" music crowd (at least on this particular night):
1) Y'all suck our asses, respectively,
2) We swear, you are not near as cool as you suppose you are,
3) Don't be afraid of gays,
4) It's OK to enjoy the music (fuckers),
5) Please don't take the place of a real music fan next time,
6) We and other people are not impressed, and we never will be, so stop trying,
7) 'Entertaining' does not have to equal 'the music sucks ass' - some bands, over the course of history, have managed to be both entertaining and producers of great music, but don't let history get in the way of your alternate reality,
8) You're still a loser,
9) Don't show your face around here any more.
10) Maybe you could at least pretend not to be as uptight as you actually are, for at least a few minutes. Drop the serious expression. Drop the respectably-SF/Potrero pants with fake-ass blazer. Drop the girl or guy who is leading you to believe that you're something other than a fake-ass wannabe music aficionado and/or that you have/do/will look cool at any time past/present/future.
11) You. Make. Me. Sick.
12) Don't. Come. Back.
13) And the same goes for you fake-ass hooded-jacket, mission-style, chuck-taylor, miserable-expression-wearing hipsters. (See #11 and #12).

I think that pretty much covers it.

p.s. last time we checked, there were 3 tickets left, so it was at least pretty close to a sellout. that's no joke for a Monday night.

UPDATE: Had my virgin iTunes experience. I'd been using it to organize, etc., but this is the first time I dropped some coin. Gil Mantera's Party Fuckin Dream, man. I only want justice, I only want equality... (Buffalo Tears), in case we left the impression that the music was only pop fun.

UPDATE: Serena Maneesh were good. Another lame-ass Bottom of the Hill crowd, but we knew what to expect.

UPDATE: Added photo of Gil Mantera's Party Dream from here.

Potrero Hill - ground zero for PlaceSite

Potrero Hill SF (my hood, and apparently, tech-weenie-ville) blog points us to a new device/service/app called PlaceSite, which basically helps people who are physically close to one another - say, in a cafe - but don't know each other, to communicate with each other. We love this idea - mostly for its possible activist/organizing potential.

We did go to Axis Cafe - which is really nice - and we did try PlaceSite. Its heart was in the right place, but the connectivity sucked. We don't know if that had to do with the use of this PlaceSite stuff or not. Still, we hope PlaceSite succeeds.

UPDATE: Did some more reading. PlaceSite is built upon - or is a customized version of - WiFiDog. WiFiDog itself is an improvement upon - though, a total rewrite it seems - of the 'NoCat' series of projects/products. The NoCat name is interesting:

Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied:

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

Very interesting stuff, this 'captive portal' stuff. Many folks will be familiar with this concept if you've ever stayed at a hotel with paid wifi - or even free wifi - when you open your browser, the very first page you see, regardless of what your home page URL is (say, 'http://www.yahoo.com/'), is the home page for the hotel. That's basically a captive portal.

More 'They Let It Happen'...

Not surprised:

An FBI agent who questioned Zacarias Moussaoui in Minnesota before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks testified today he warned officials in Washington that he believed Moussaoui was intent on hijacking an airplane capable of reaching the nation's capital but that his requests for help were rejected.

FBI agent Harry Samit said he told his superiors at FBI headquarters that he believed Moussaoui had been planning to hijack a plane traveling from London to New York and that 'if he seizes the aircraft, it will have enough fuel to reach D.C.' Samit said he urged the FBI to warn the Secret Service, but that FBI officials refused and ordered him not to contact the Secret Service or Federal Aviation Administration.

UPDATE: Criminal negligence? Wow - strong words. Wonder why those words didn't show up in that faked 9/11 Comission Whitewash Report?

Kollaboration 2001 - Liquid Dude

Been meaning to find this clip again. Check out the seemingly-dorky white dude who comes on and starts a little slow...

Tom Cruise Comes Out of the Closet

Salon has the South Park Scientology episode. Freakin hilarious. R. Kelly is hilarious.

Google and Job Hunting

Being in the job market and knowing something about the internets, I'm keenly aware of the digital footprints we leave online for potential hiring personnel to find. This story breaks it down a bit. The story focuses on this girl, who was shocked to see what she found when she googled herself:

hi, i'm colleen kluttz and i just smoked the. best. weed. everrrrrrr...

That post on her myspace account blog comes complete with completely-stoned-off-your-ass picture. Hilarious.

Allez, Frenchies!

Gotta root for the underdogs, man. Here's to hoping the law gets withdrawn.

FBI Watching Kabbash

Drudge told us about the 'Patriot Act' board game, and its creator is being watched by the FBI:

Kabbash says his next project will probably have something to do with the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program. He is reasonably certain 'there's a file on me somewhere.'

Asked if the FBI keeps a file on Kabbash, a bureau spokesman refused to comment.

I think it's safe to say that any activist worth her salt is being watched by the FBI. If you're not being watched by the FBI, then obviously - you ain't trying hard enough.

Kangaroo Court

Judge in 9-11/Moussaoui says 'fuck it - we ain't foolin anybody anways'. Nobody thought this dude could get a fair trial anyways, but rarely does the Judge in the case so openly display utter contempt for the rule of law in such a public trial. Well, at least this one is a public trial - not something the Bushies are known for.

Democracy Now! | Crackdown: Venezuelan Prof. Visited by Feds in Pomona, Bolivian Prof. Denied U.S. Entry Visa

Democracy Now! continues to outdo itself with brilliant coverage of just about everything that's important.

The clip linked-to above also includes a phone interview with Waskar Ari, who I saw in DC a couple of years ago - at the Inter-American Development Bank. What's weird is that I remember taking notes on his lecture, and I thought I'd blogged about it, but I can't find it in my archives. Blogger search doesn't work, period, so that's no way to tell. I manually searched through my archives and found nothing. That sucks, because his presentation was pretty interesting overall. We got a lot of info on the Aymaran people - who seem to have some very cool things in their culture, political activism in particular.

I remember getting a bunch of good info on Bolivia - like finding out that it has two capital cities.

I also remember that Waskar Ari's English was not that good. It hasn't improved much, unfortunately. He got his PhD. from Georgetown, and I remember him saying at the time that he was going to be the first Aymara ever to receive a PhD., which is pretty darn cool.

I think the U.S. government must hate this dude because he's all into activism and helping the South (South America and really, all places in the southern hemisphere) resist U.S. agression and neoliberal economic policies which only serve to enslave the people down there.

p.s. This strike stuff at the University of Miami is pretty compelling, too. The prez down there is livin it up, and the workers struggle to make ends meet, of course. That corrupt prez is gettin a call from me, today.

adaptive path » we are white

So, I'm checking out Laughing Squid, and I see some white dude. OK. For whatever reason, I start thinking, darn - ya know - there has always seemed to be a lot of white people in all the glamorous digerati events that Laughing Squid attends - a lot - almost exclusively white, it would seem, if memory serves.

So I decide to check out one of the companies that's been getting a lot of pub at Laughing Squid - adaptive path. Checking out their 'about page', my initial thoughts seem to be confirmed - welcome to whiteville. White, white, white. I'm talking bleached-laundry white.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being an all-white company (no, your cleaning crew doesn't count, and I don't care how many non-white 'friends' you have). But I got to thinking about race, as I often do, and how black people in particular, but really, all sorts of non-white people, are excluded from many types of companies, but in particular how I imagine this effect to be particularly striking in high tech-type, cool-ish, neuvo-webbish-we're-back-in-the-early-to-mid-90's-cool-type tech companies.

I'm white - cracker-jack white - myself, but I'm from a blue collar background. I have the feeling that I'm one of the very, very few, percentage-wise, to have 'mingled with the stars' of the preppy digital illuminati. And I never felt comfortable. If an ordinary-looking white boy, white as the pure-driven snow, can't feel comfortable around an all-white cast, then how could it be possible for a non-white person?

Much of it, I believe, has to do with class as much as race, but it's something to think about. I've been involved in hiring before and it's very difficult to pick a black person over a white person when all other things are equal - that's true for me, and while I'm far from perfect, I've very aware of race issues and try my best - consciously - to keep my own racism in check. So, if someone like me, who actively tries to beat down racism, naturally leans towards the white person (or away from the non-white person) during an interview, how is high-tech, 'cool company' hiring being affected overall?

Maybe there are some perfect white people out there in 'cool company'-land who really, actually don't pay attention to race when hiring, but I've never met any of those people.

So, what's the bottom line? The bottom line is 'check yourself'. Make sure, in everything that you do, that you check your racism at the door - as much as possible. And that includes every step of the hiring process - all the way back to separating the 'Shaniqua' resumes from the 'Jennifer' resumes. And that directive/lesson holds for non-white hiring managers who think they know non-white people because they share the same skin color. Don't even front.

Yummy!

Indian food, delivered.

POWER - An independent inquiry into Britain's democracy

Sounds like a legit doc. I don't know much about it yet, but seems like something we should check out.

UPDATE: This doc is finally getting some more attention with all the unrest in France. It's high time it started getting more pub here in the U.S.

Gubment Admits Weak Case Against Moussaoui

They don't often admit it so plainly:

Brinkema warned that 'we really don't want to lose the jury' by delaying the trial beyond Monday. 'We want this to be the jury that decides this case,' she said, 'and so any kind of extensive delay would, I think, jeopardize that situation.'

8 days of Anarchy!

Will I end up in Gitmo for linking to this website? It's happened before (well, to someone else - not me). No - I'm not linking there (the website that had a U.S. citizen jailed for linking to it) - I really don't want to go to Gitmo.

UPDATE: What is detournement? Can Dialectics Break Bricks? Pretty much the worst movie I've ever seen. Extremely slow. Boring. Repetitive. Dull. Did we mention extremely slow? The humor was occasionally funny - like, 5 times - and that required having some appreciation for proles and bureaucrats and Leninism and Capitalism and all sorts of other -isms. If someone threatens to show me that awful flick again, I'll throw myself out a window.

Government Lies; Google Lawyers Flail

Checked out the Google vs. Abu Gonzalez privacy trial down in San Jose yesterday. Was semi-interesting. Took a few notes:

Judge Ware seemed like a pretty OK dude. Met one of his students. Apparently Judge Ware teaches a civil procedure course at Santa Clara University Law School. (So, what's up with this story? No idea if true, but kinda/very/extremely wack, if true.) The Judge invited his students back into his chamber after the trial. I thought that was cool. The student I talked to said he's a really good teacher.

First, it's possible to get to downtown San Jose via the Caltrain - for all you San Franciscans who don't drive - takes about an hour.

The courtroom was filled - about 60 or so in attendance. This case is a bit freaky because it's a 'separate action' case - it has to do with the government trying to obtain evidence to use in support of another trial the government is dealing with in Pennsylvania, vs. the Pennsylvania ACLU. Google has two lead attorneys there, and the Penn ACLU guy was there - on the same side. The gubment had one dude there.

The court reporter/typer kept interrupting the government's lawyer who gave his oral argument first. He must've been mumbling some stuff, and a couple of times used some techie-type terms.

Government's case seemed very weak from the outset - Judge jumped on it. Judge asked why the government didn't just do a biz deal with Google - for money, instead of using the courts. The gub lawyer lied and spit some nonsense in what amounted to telling the judge 'Fuck You' while at the same time saying 'because we can' (use the courts). Judge says he's concerned about Google getting tied up in future legal proceedings regarding this data he's going to force them to hand over (they will). Gubment says, effectively, "don't worry".

Judge expresses concern about 4th Amendment issues. What about Googles' users' privacy? Gubment says, effectively, "dont' worry". Judge says this case has a different 'tint' because the government is a private party, but it's the government, so 4th Amendment issues apply (whereas maybe otherwise they wouldn't??).

Judge says something like, so if I type in "john smith is a terrorist and cavorts with osama bin laden on wednesdays at club x in downtown san francisco", then the gubment is just going to ignore that completely? It won't follow-up on that data at all? Gubment says, "yes". Judge accepts the lie.

AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft have already handed-over data. Gubment originally demanded billions of URLs from Google's index and millions of data points for keyword searches - they've scaled it back twice, this time drastically, to 50,000 URLs and 1,000 keyword searches.

Google basically had it tee-ed up, but the Google lawyer just fucked it up completely. I mean, it was horrible. I mean, we need minimal competence here, folks. Get David Boies or someone, at least.

So, the Giggle lawyer - from Seattle for some unGodly reason - comes out and basically says, "we know we have the gubment on the ropes, but we're really not interested in contesting this case, so fuck it, Judge - just rule in the gubment's favor so we can go to an early lunch - it's lookin up out there". (It was 'lookin up' out there - turned into a beautiful day.)

Google starts by saying "50K URLs is all you need? No sweat." Ok - I was thinking, "WHAT THE FUCK, ASSHOLE?!" But, I was thinking he's got a show-stopper up his sleave, even though he just totally sucked the momentum out of Giggle's favor. Not. No show-stopper ever appeared. He did have a mind-maddening description of the 'relevancy' issue - jesus christmas. Unfuckingbelievable. He kept explaining to the Judge that the information that the gubment wanted wasn't relevant, but it was so fucking obviously relevant to everyone in the court that we were like "WTF are you talking about, JERKY?". He kept on saying, effectively, "Judge - the gubment wants to know if our automobile had snow chains at the time of the accident, but we contend that it was MONDAY AFTERNOON, so obviously, it's not relevant." So fucking frustrating.

To all future lawyers out there - make a note to self: Don't try to act all cool in front of the Judge because he will just end up ignoring what you say, and your client will lose. In this case, it was Google's users who lost (me!), and the American people, in general. This shit is precedent-setting.

Penn ACLU lawyer was not quite as bad as the Giggle lawyer. He sounded real nervous. He also tried to confuse the Judge about a bunch of things, and the Judge just ignored him, too.

Gub did a quick rebuttal and essentially said, "the reason we didn't tell Giggle about only wanting 50k URL's instead of BILLIONS was " - check this out - " a failure to communicate". Hilarious. Judge was thinking, "Bull. Shit."

Lot of talk about some mysterious 'Professor Stark'.

Judge's daughter is some kind of intern/fellow with the NYC ACLU.

Here's the kicker with this whole fucked-up government invasion of privacy trial - the government wants all this info - they want to spy on the people of the United States and they're getting the search engines - private companies - to do it for them - all for the purposes of the government testing web filtering software. That's what they claim, and I SHIT. YOU. NOT.

UPDATE: Though we can't remember where we read the information, we did read one account from Judge Ware that seemed to be a plausible explanation for his lie, but we're not sure what to think, honestly. He said something about misinformation about someone's half-brother thinking they thought someone else's half-brother was there or not there or something else. Might just depend on whether or not you want to make it a big deal or not. But, it does seem that Judge Ware was reprimanded, so that's a pretty big deal.

Bush Must Go!

Let's do this:

Tens of thousands of protesters have blockaded Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's office to demand he step down, as the premier threatened a state of emergency if the demonstration turned violent.

On second thought, he'd probably just kill us all.

More Corrupt Government Lawyers

Gangsters.

UPDATE: This story is just funny because this lawyer chick ought to be charged and convicted and put away - and, of course, disbarred, but the obvious truth - that she committed a crime - is unstatable. She's not a criminal, the media wants us to believe - she's just a bumbling idiot - she didn't follow 'Law 101' - as a mid-career practicing attorney, she just had no idea that she wasn't supposed to tamper with the witnesses. Listen, this was a criminal act perpetrated by a criminal who just happens to be an attorney for the U.S. government. Prosecute her and the people who put her up to it - because she most certainly didn't do this of her own accord. No. Fucking. Way. There are higher-ups who need to go down for this.

UPDATE: Hate to say I told you so, but...

Ex-Surgeon General David Satcher & Nearly 8,000 Docs Call For Universal Health Care

Democracy Now! Best. News. Program. Ever.

Doctors want universal health care.

The Slave Side of Sunday

I don't know how good the book is, but I'm glad that people are talking about it - that is, talking about the way that athletes are made to bow down to their owners.

Anarchy - Quakers Who Swear a Lot

Cool article in the NY Times on an anarchist collective house in Greensboro, NC. I suspect Uncle Sam is not happy about this phenomenon:

In spite of the stigma attached to the word 'anarchist' and the scrutiny openly anarchist households receive, the number of such houses is growing. Anarchists are no longer just in college towns and big cities; there are now thriving anarchist communities and houses like ours in places like Lake Worth, Fla.; Machias, Me.; and Springfield, Mo. The online directory maintained by the Fellowship for Intentional Community lists more than 1,000 collective houses, ecovillages and co-ops in the United States, compared with about 400 in the 1990 directory. Although not all of them identify themselves as anarchist, more than half make their decisions by consensus. Even that number is clearly low: none of the five collective houses I know of in Greensboro, for example, are listed in the directory.

I'm glad I've gotten so into Chomsky these past few months. As a sort of leading light of the Anarchist community, he'd never wavered - that I've seen or read - from his anarchist beliefs. That's pretty hard core, as he mentions that during the 1920's and 30's when the U.S. government used to jail Communists, they used to murder anarchists. It makes complete sense why the U.S. government would feel so threatened to resort to just murdering anarchists. Communists, after all, still have elites - but not anarchists. That's why the elites were so threatened by the anarchists.

Anarchist FAQ. To me, that page is just too ugly and long-winded. We really need an Anarchy for Dummies book or something. It's interesting how the Dummies series doesn't have Anarchism, nor Communism, nor even Democracy books. I think if people found out about what any of those things were, the U.S. government would be in upheaval.

Just started to realize, once I read the Anarchism Wiki page, how closely related anarchism is with the women's rights movement. It seems the very first (though, undeclared) anarchist was William Godwin - husband of one Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary, of course, wrote one of the earliest feminists texts, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Before she wrote this book, though, she wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Men - a defense of the French Revolution (a response to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France), which Thomas Paine then followed with his Rights of Men, and then Wollstonecraft followed with her most popular work, already mentioned, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Why did she have to go all singular on us?

Valley of the Wolves - Iraq

Just watching the trailer, there seems to be a lot of truth to this movie. I mean, they show some Abu Ghraib stuff, they show some stuff about the Afghan Massacre - transposed into the Iraq conflict I suppose, but it's all true. I mean, the Jewish doctor harvesting organs? Yeah - that sounds pretty blatantly anti-semitic, but all the other stuff is true. The anti-Semitic stuff, to me, would be automatic grounds for dismissal from any film festival. It kind of bumps up against freedom of speech, so I could be moved to reconsider, but at this point I definitely would not approve of the message of anti-Semitic rhetoric in a film, even if I would defend someone's right to freedom of speech and expression.

Oh yeah - the movie has Billy Zane in it.

Will the movie show here in the U.S.? Even in art house cinemas, maybe? I want to see it.

Gary Busey, too? Maybe it's their way of protesting the war?

More U.S. Killers Get Off

Murderers.

French Students Protest

Good for them. But Villepin sent in the riot police. Let's hope his ratings tumble even lower.

Bush To Protect U.S. Ports

Whatever your take on the Dubai port stuff, I think some of the spin coming out of the press is pretty funny. Where I come from, this is called too much time on your hands.

Here's the actual press pic says:



And here, perhaps, is what the press pic should have said:



Of course, I do remember a lot of talk from the Bush camp around the time of the last election about the UN and letting foreign nations decide whether or not the U.S. could defend itself. This stuff is just so bizarre. It's like Bush is not even invovled. He has nothing whatsoever to do with this port stuff. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So much for the media pretending to care about appearing interested in reality.

God Is Dead

I've always wondered what it would take to get God-believers to disbelieve. I doubt finding life on another planet would shake the beliefs of many of them, only because the current myths that they have to believe to believe in God are already so zany and outlandish - if the existing amount of zaniness and outlandishness doesn't do it, I highly doubt that utter scientific and relatively un-zany and un-outlandish credibility new scientific findings will do it.

It seems to me that believing in any god is just fantasy - it's just a dream land that only exists in your head. That's fine if it doesn't interfere with the well-being of the community, but it is interfering with the well-being of the community. So, stop it. Stop believing. It's all a myth surrounded by a fairy tale wrapped up in an enigma. Let it go. Come back to the real world.

UPDATE: More evidence. Churches continue to scramble.

Tartufi

The SF Chronicle is talking about SXSW and a band named Tartufi. I saw them a few weeks ago at Bottom of the Hill - they were good - worth a look-see. I don't know if it's fair to imply that they or Scissors for Lefty sold out the show, but both were probably reasons it sold out.

George Washington University - Gangsters

That's about all I have to say about those folks.

Potrero Hill, San Francisco: Former Mayor Art Agnos

A funny story, from my neck of the hoods.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie

Postponed.

More, here.

Stop the SF General Hospital Helipad

New organization in my hood. I'm not into helicopters harassing me at demonstrations, and I certainly don't want them hovering outside my living room window. Fuck. That.

Create your own police department!

No shit. This is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

This basically means anyone can start a police department with full police department protections - kill black kids with impunity, whenever you feel like it - stuff like that. Well, maybe not stuff like that - we're not sure the 'blue shield' would extend all the way to newly-created police agencies, but it does make me wonder - have there been police agencies created in the ghettos? Or anywhere else for that matter? It seems to me that it might be worth a look-see. Who knows?

UPDATE: The idea behind this post is not to allow more racists to start up their own police departments so they can kill black kids - the idea is to start up our own police departments so we don't need the racist, murdering cops that currently routinely gun down black kids. And beat them to death.

Gore Vidal: Arrest Them

The second person I've ever heard (not including myself) say the obvious - "arrest them":

So you would be comfortable using the word fascism to describe the direction we are heading in now?

No, most uncomfortable. After all, the original fascist Mussolini could never explain just what fascism was in his native Italy. Let’s say arbitrary, dictatorial government that says any law may be ignored if the leadership dislikes it in the interest of fighting terrorism which is… whatever the controlled media tells us that morning. Although the 9/11 bombings released all sorts of fascistic measures, as I listed in my “President Jonah' piece, the detonating trigger was not 9/11 but Oklahoma City. When the federal building was struck, the Clinton administration came up with an anti-terrorist Bill of Wrongs which is still at the heart of the USA Patriot Act and other curtailments of our liberties. And it is also clear that there is no terrorist army supported by an evil empire out there. Angry Muslims who have nothing to lose will always do some suicide bombing, to blow up our buildings and so forth, but with decent intelligence and a moderately competent government we can anticipate them and thwart them.

If I had been in charge of things at the time of 9/11, I would have called the police. You don’t declare war on an innocent – two innocent countries – Afghanistan and Iraq that had nothing to do with September 11th. A bunch of crazy religious zealots from Saudi Arabia did it all, and I would go to Interpol. I’d say, “Arrest these guys,” out of religious frenzy, they’ve just blown up a part of New York, a part of Washington. Arrest them, try them, do whatever you like with them, but get them.

Unfortunately we were waiting for an excuse to attack Iraq and Afghanistan, and establish American bases up and down the Middle East, for all sorts of nefarious purposes, starting, dare I say?, with oil.

Shit - this guy really is like Chomsky - a lot. I have to read more of his stuff.

U.S. Soldier Handcuffs, Rapes Woman Vaginally, Orally - Leaves Her Naked in Streets

That's nice:

ROME (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier who raped a Nigerian woman in Italy was given a lighter sentence because the court deemed his tour of duty in Iraq had made him less sensitive to the suffering of others.

According to an Italian court document obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, James Michael Brown, a 27-year-old paratrooper from Oregon stationed in northern Italy, was sentenced to five years and eight months for rape in February 2004.

Brown beat and handcuffed the woman, a Nigerian resident in the town of Vicenza. He raped her vaginally and anally and left her to wander the streets naked in search of help.

Got a U.S. military base in your town?

Nothing in this Reuters article to give us the point of view of the women who was handcuffed, raped vaginally and anally, and then dumped into the streets to wander looking for help. Wonder why that is?

p.s. thanks to Drudge for the link.

UPDATE: Holy cow - now they're not even waiting until they officially get in the service to rape them.

And looks like the Rape Academies are still going strong, too.

UPDATE: Since we're deep into sicko territory already, how about 3 kids going to town on an unconscious girl with a pool stick, cigarettes, etc. - oh, and they got it all on tape - all 21 minutes of it. But that's not the best part - the best part is that at least one of the kids had a cop daddy or mommy, so you knew they'd skate - and on the first try they did. This second time, it looks like they're going to get some prison time - we hope - but they only got convicted of 'penetration' - not 'rape'. Can somebody please explain that to me? Or, perhaps the best part of it is the doctor who testified for the defense of the sadist rapers - he said the passed-out girl was 'faking it' to make it more realistic - she was training for her porn career. No shit. Every one of those gangsters needs to go to jail - from the kids to their parents who smeared this girl so bad she turned into a druggie, to the corrupt doctor who took the stand and claimed the girl was 'faking it' - every single person who participated in destroying that girl's life needs to do hard time - 30 years, no parole.

UPDATE: Flashback: U.S. soldiers not punished for raping two Iraqi women.

UPDATE: U.S. soldiers continue beating, and raping, and murdering their way through Japan.

UPDATE: Sex assault in the military up 40% in 2005. Must be the culture of 'do whatever the fuck you want to a woman because you will not be punished in this military'.