People's History

If you can, listen to today's Democracy Now! it's a reading of Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States. I don't think you can download it from democracynow.org (you usually can) but listen to it on the radio or PodCast it from iTunes. Powerful stuff.

If you miss it, i have a copy in mp3 which i can post.

The Cable Man

Well, I think Visco and Goody covered it pretty well. What else can I add, save for the little-known fact that I hate TV. I hate TV because it's mindless entertainment and sometimes I crave it. And then I think I'm less of a human.

Oh, and the gf has DirecTV. Something happened to all the channels recently. Except Fox News still comes in. That and the Angel Network. Tell me that's not fucked. I'm seeing some Orwellian theme here, does Rupert Murdock control DirecTV to indoctrinate the hapless sons-of-bitches that have a satellite receiver and no subscription? (I did hear Bill O'Reilly say that the ACLU is the most dangerous institution in the US last night, confirming the previous statement.)

The man has all 20 dirty little fingers and toes in all the telecom business these days. It started a long time ago, in a country far far away. Remember when AT&T got busted up into a million different little pieces? Didn't do much for your phone bills did it? How about TV on demand? Sure, you can buy pay-per-view on a per use basis, but not sportscenter? Come on. We're all being anally probed without the reach around.

I'm a little worried about iPods taking over the world, but I will say this: podcasting has a place in my heart when I can subscribe to NESN and watch some sox games in Utah. We're already seeing MLB-TV and such actually make a little profit. I think that pressure from these 'net based alternatives will force cable's hand soon enough.

Enough is enough. I won't even get into the FCC auctioning off our public airwaves to rich corporations without even the requirement of public access. CSPAN, as dry as it is, may soon see its day come and that will be a loss.

I'll bitch about something else soon.

Evil Cheney

Don't have much of my own to say today; I'll just post this link in lieu of having to think.

Cheney Gets His Schwerve On

[also]

CensureBush.org

That is all. Oh, and Visco/Goody. I sold my TV for $25 bucks two years ago, and still consider it an excellent way to finance a drinking binge.

Impeach is Not a New Kind of Fruit

I wish I were too busy nursing my injuries and hangovers to stop paying attention to the world. If I were, then I might have missed the fact that Shrub got up and told the world that he ordered the NSA to spy on Americans. I might have missed him spewing about his constitutional powers. I might have missed him, on live TV no less, telling the US people that he committed a felony.

So now I have to do a little reading, maybe listen to Democracy Now!, you know educate myself. My limited understanding of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) comes mostly from various untrustworthy sources like my memory and the internet. Basically, the govt. (including NSA and other) used to listen in on all sorts of domestic traffic. Richard "I'm not a crook" Nixon claimed he didn't need the courts to surveil people, but that was struck down. FISA basically established itself (in '78) as the only law governing domestic espionage. FISA requires the govt. go to the court for a warrant to tap phones etc. It can take as little as 5 minutes to get a warrant. FISA also allows you to get a warrant after you tap just in case you don't have 5 minutes to spare. How hard is that? Finally, FISA makes it a felony to violate those (very relaxed) provisions. It doesn't mention anything about the President not having to follow the law.

Hence, when Shrub says he didn't go to the court he is admitting to felony actions. I guess I'm of the opinion that the Constitution, where it mentions "high crimes and misdemeanors" in Article II, section 4, is basically providing a way for us to get rid of monkey boy.

Go for a Million?

I haven't skied in a week due to the "trauma." Here's my log so-far, think i can crack a million vertical feet?

............675 ft - 12/01/05 10:17:00 am - Moonbeam
............1,500 ft - 12/01/05 11:29:00 am - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/01/05 11:40:00 am - Eagle Express I
............810 ft - 12/03/05 11:34:00 am - Sunrise
............1,235 ft - 12/03/05 8:47:00 pm - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/03/05 9:04:00 pm - Summit
............1,600 ft - 12/04/05 11:31:00 am - Powderhorn
............1,600 ft - 12/07/05 9:32:00 am - Powderhorn
............1,600 ft - 12/07/05 9:51:00 am - Powderhorn
............1,600 ft - 12/07/05 10:12:00 am - Powderhorn
............1,600 ft - 12/07/05 10:33:00 am - Powderhorn
............880 ft - 12/08/05 1:35:00 pm - Apex
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 1:44:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 1:54:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 2:05:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 2:16:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 2:28:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 2:40:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............1,500 ft - 12/08/05 2:55:00 pm - Eagle Express I
............810 ft - 12/09/05 10:25:00 am - Sunrise
............1,235 ft - 12/09/05 10:38:00 am - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/09/05 10:54:00 am - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/09/05 11:08:00 am - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/09/05 11:22:00 am - Summit
............810 ft - 12/11/05 11:17:00 am - Sunrise
............1,235 ft - 12/11/05 11:31:00 am - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/11/05 11:45:00 am - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/11/05 12:02:00 pm - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/11/05 12:15:00 pm - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/11/05 12:33:00 pm - Summit
............810 ft - 12/12/05 11:16:00 am - Sunrise
............1,235 ft - 12/12/05 11:28:00 am - Summit
............1,235 ft - 12/12/05 11:43:00 am - Summit
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Vertical Feet 42,350

"They" Might be Reading

The Pentagon keeps records on peace activists in a database. They monitor anti-war and anti-nuclear protests, describing them as 'threats.' Now that NBC has broken the story, the Pentagon says it will look into the database and whether it violates personal liberties. Wow, good for them.

The NSA has been listening in on 1000's of American's international phone calls since just after 9/11. The Times delayed publishing this information for over a year because the Shrub administration asked them to do so. Liberal media my ass.

I wonder if they're watching us.

Grey Matter

My brain hurts. And it's not because of the nasty close-to-death fuckshow that was my skiing the other day. Visco's post about the global warming and the reading has me thinking about quitting my job and locking myself in a library for a while, I've only read one Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five. I do have his new one, A Man Without a Country, on my list. I'll let you guys know.

I have basically two things to say today. Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand. I think that's from Van Wilder, originally from some guy I've never heard of before (again, the library thing) named Bodie Thoene. If you can name a more apathetic civilization than ours, please let us all know.

Also, great world powers, whether or not considered hegemonic in nature, are always brought down from within, by an explosion of, and a complete intoxication by, decadence and moral turpitude. I'm I'm not just talking about inside the beltway.

Kudos to NASA for being one of the few govt institutions that can (occasionally) voice something akin to truth. As far as environmental funding goes, let's have a quick look at who does the research. Non-profits, universities, and Left-Wing Envirofreaks. Not the sorts of outfits that pour millions into the campaign coffers of either party. Who does fill the treasure chests of Washington? We all know. Exxon-Mobil, Enron, Halliburton, etc. Not typically fond of environmental discourse. Or any discourse. Machiavelli in the 21st century; money makes right.

Ooops, I did it Again

Second day in a row with a brain-rattling crash. This time with broken helmet and slight concussion. I'm not skiing again till it snows. Alot. And the trail gets softer. And, from now on, i'm going to be drunk when on the hill. This shit is fucked up.

That crack is all the way through. There's also one (smaller, only 1 inch) on the back.

Oh, and by the way, if you don't wear one you should start. I actually might start using one to walk around town.

Peace love dope.

10 is Good, Right?

“I give it a 10. A 10. A fucking 10.”

That’s what a group of skiers were saying after they realized I wasn’t dead. As it turns out, Megan was one of the on-lookers. I work with Megan. I won’t hear the end of it. Ever.

Today re-crystalized, set in stone, and wrote in the stars that I blow up the hardest, for the least reason, of anyone.

Oh boy, not again...

Visco my poor friend. I just read you blog of the 29th and i feel obliged to submit my post. Since i actually have some time right now and there is internet available. Here's the deal about gov't and elections as i see it.

Generally speaking, be it good or bad, the US is pretty alone in the world when it comes to government. The parlimentary system, as you say has many advantages. One is that there are more than two parties, so you might actually be able to find one that suites you. What a concept. On the flip side, sometimes the biggest party isn't a majority so they have to form a coalition government with another party that can agree on some issues. On the one hand this can temper the big parties by forcing them to make concession to smaller ones to get a majority. Nice. On the other hand, if there is a rift between members of a coalition the governemnt collapses and nothing happens. At all. Like worse than in Washington.

On the issue of two party system I actually have to throw something out there. The morons in the coporate media (and even the alternative media to some degree) claimed up and down that the last election ('04) showed a deeply divided country. Any vote not 100 to 0 shows division. Duh. What they meant was that the country was polarized (but most people don't know what that means so they used Roget's to find a substitute.) Au contraire, mon frere. I hold that it's actually the opposite. When a vote goes close to 50/50 it actually signals that there is little real difference/argument amongst the voters. To re-word what most people have been saying: "The country is split right down the middle." How deeply divided does that sound? Not very. A polarized election would be one where the candidates where not functionally similar; one where there were actual debates about war, the use of force, torture, environment, corporate welfare, social reform, education, etc. A divided election would be where more than two people get votes.

Oh, and the two-party system in the US is self-reinforcing. (Read "it's bullshit") Neither party wants more than one adversary. That would mean actually having to get something done; actually having to fight the status quoe. With only two even the minority party is still very powerful. (Still getting corporate money, still taking advantage of tax payers and constituents, still getting their friends rich.)

I'm with Visco; maybe parliementary systems aren't so bad. But when you have even the chosen one of the Dems (Barak Obama) trumpeting around about our duty in Iraq you've got to be pretty sure nothing's gonna change.

Try as I Might

So I go back to Oceans -12 the other day just to make sure I'm not completely retarded. Out of morbid curiosity (you know, the kind that takes over when Steve says his ass really stinks and you go ahead and take a deep whiff.) I popped in the DVD and voila, there it is.

"
This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen, and to suck.
"