Progressive Manifesto

To steal someone else's great words, I hold these truths to be self-evident.

A great country is measured:

Not by the size of her army, but how infrequently she uses it.

Not by the riches of her wealthy, but the poverty of her poor.

Not by the greatness of her health care system, but by how many people have access to it.

Not by the masses of children that have everything, but by those who have nothing.

Not by the number of her adults who can read, but the number who can't.

Not by her power of influence on the world, but what she does with it.

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.
"

Oceans -12

So I did a little of the movie watching the other day. Went down to the rental joint and saw Oceans 12 sitting there for sale: 5 bucks. Now a rental costs about 4 bucks, so I think to myself "Hey, even if it's not as good as the first one (which is what everyone tells me) it has still got to be worth an extra buck to own it." Well, I was wrong. My general impression of the flick was that it was startlingly worse than if I had gotten shitfaced, written the script myself, puked on it repeatedly, sobered up, then crossed out everything funny. And then filmed it. How it was that the plot made less sense than the point of curling I can almost forgive. The 5 minute man-ballet scene I can not. I may have laughed once, mostly to break up the awkward silence inside my head where interest and intrigue should have been. I did drink several beers; I thought it might dull my sense of humor to the point of actually being amused by the rat-shite dialog. I even tried (with all my might) to find humor in Julia Roberts playing someone who looks like Julia Roberts. It didn't work. None of it worked. And I have lost two hours of my life and 5 dollars on a plastic box and a mini Frisbee.

2500 Miles to Utah

So it's been quite a week or so, and I'm finally getting back onto a computer to check email and bone up on world news, things of that nature. Which reminds me: I have heard complaints that my email addr has been bouncing incoming email. I of course wouldn't notice, it would just seem like I don't have any friends that write me. But, back on task now, I'd like to go over a few of the momentous happening of my drive out west. There are arranged in roughly chronologic order.
1. Left Maine heavily to amazingly hung-over.






















2. Arrived in Utah banged out and heavily sedated.

Since then I have had several beers, not skied, and eaten some turkey. It has snowed 20 inches since yesterday though.

I'll Be Back

Well well, I've been a slacker. Almost as bad as goody. What can I say to defend myself? The dog puked on my computer. I did make the vain attempt to hook my mobile up to my computer and use dial-up that way. (Before the dog barf incident.) Problem is that Cingular (in their infinite wisdom) seem to block that ability. Pain in my ass. It seems that I would have to sign up for the data package for 20$ a month. Which I guess isn't all that bad. But it's not free.

Found a place to stay in Utah for the winter. It's up in Big Cottonwood Canyon, about .5 miles below Solitude. Technically I think you can't ski down to the lift, but pretty close. The gf has a ski in/out place, and she's suggested that she may allow me to hang out there once in a while. We'll just have to see.

I suggest that anyone who might like to ski in Utah should consider visiting this winter. Unless I get sponsored this will be the last hooraahh of a soon-to-be middle aged, receding hair-lined, can't drink like he used to, busted kneed, sore-backed guy trying to hang onto what little is left of his youth.

Oh, and why didn't any of you assholes tell me the template for my blog was the devil's own ugly?

Over and out.

Copy Cat

So, I got blog envy again. Because Steve did his research it seems and picked the best (or a better) blog site on the wild web.

Yahoo. I know you're 360 is a beta, and as such we can't expect much. You've got a lot going for you, notably the synthesis of many different Yahoo areas in one page. I mean, you even let me post my NetFlix queue for gods sake. On the other hand, spell checking technology has been around since before I could read. Perhaps a little addition is in order? I also have the word 'privacy' for you kids to ponder. Maybe some people want to comment on my blog without logging in? Apparently you're not aware that not everyone likes Yahoo. Work on that, we'll all be happier.

That's all I have because I'm pretty lame today/this weekend/this week/this month. (Pick One.)

Drugs and Money

768 million spent on the eradication of Afghanistan's poppy crop last year. 600 million to buy it. All.

Capitalism turned Greed. Republicans and Democrats both: jump on the bandwagon, wave the flag, and dance the two-step of capitalism. Free market this, competitive advantage that. Free trade will end hunger and fabricate a pax imperia. NAFTA didn't screw the blue collar middle class. Out sourcing strengthens the economy. The illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans don't want. Greenhouse gasses are a hoax.

Suck it, you lying sacks of shit. Name for me one American that will sit with idle hands while their family starves? Can Indians in New Deli really help me program my VCR? Moving manufacturing jobs south of the border frees up the skilled American workforce to ... sit on their idle hands. The new "service economy" is what, centered on low paying, no benefit jobs at Wally World? Tell the "city of Louisiana" there's no global warming.

So i got to thinking. And what i thought was this: the halls of power in DC and wallstreet ring with the chants of capitalism when it fills the pockets of the neo elite and bourgeoisceo. But when some simple capitalist math would put a virtual end to the ginormeous drug farm that was once called Afghanistan, somehow the argument is over-ruled by the hawks screaming for no-bid contracts and military suppression of drug manufacturing. I'm sick of it, and i hope i'm not the only one.
Other things for me to wax pissed about:

Two weeks ago there was this company called Delphi. They were the leading US manufacturer or auto parts. The executives were very pleased with
their performance at the helm, so they rewarded themselves by increasing their compensation package. The next day Delphi filed for chapter 11. When the fuck is this shit going to stop.

We sent 8 helicopters to help Pakistan with the rescue effort after the earthquake. The US military, which all of time has seen nothing to compare, came up with 8 choppers. What a gesture.

Got My Middle Finger Up 'Round Here

From George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People
...
Hurricane came thru and fucked us up round here,
Government actin' like it's bad luck down here,
All i know is that you better bring some trucks round here,
Wonder why i got my middle finger up round here?
...
I ain't saying he a gold digger, but he ain't messin with no broke niggas.
...
"

I knew that hip hop would finally find its voice. Just too bad that Clearchannel won't play it.

Where are my Brain Pills?

"Beth and I at the wedding this weekend."

If i could have found/invented brain pills, or was just quite a bit smarter, I would have written this:
Understanding The Media's 'Patriotic' Narcolepsy

PS Starts a little dry, but i laughed my ass off once i got a little into it. Oh, and i'm scared.

Who Knew?

From Harpers:A study found that men tend to overcompensate when their masculinity is threatened; such behavior can manifest itself as homophobia, support for the war in Iraq, or the purchase of an SUV.