Corrales/Cuidando Los Ninos Lavender Festival

I was weak and bad and I wimped out last year, and I apologize, and promise not to do it again, but FYI: I am again going to mc the annual Lavender Festival this year in Corrales (for the benefit of Cuidando Los Ninos, a local non-profit which provides daycare for homeless kids).

It is TWO days, this year: Sat & Sun, 10-5 at the Corrales Community Center

For my friends in far places, I am prepared to purchase some amount of the stuff.

As yet i don't know the prices, but I'll know Saturday, after the first day

So I will post the prices first thing Sunday AM here, and ship desired quantities to any interested folks for my cost, plus shipping...

Sorry 'bout last year...no excuses...I'm an unreliable slug, it's true...but if you're intersted, lemme know...

I Have Born Serious Animus Against Rush For AT LEAST 20 Years

So it is NOT without a feeling of nearly delerious schadenfreude that i want to comment on the Blimpots on-going difficulties with the officers of the Court over his chemical dependencies.

Having gone through somewhat the same circumstance as Slimebot (not the drug part, but the crime part, and the arrest part, and the plea part); and all the obfuscatory. delusionary, self-exculpatory rhetoric to the contrary notwighstanding: I fucking PROMISE you that Rush was both "arrested" (detained by officers of the law) for, and convicted (adjudicated 'guilty') of breaking such laws as were violated by his behavior.

In a word: The fat fascist fucktard was BUSTED!

Pace, the laws he violated are intrusive and coersive, and the morality of the 'drug war' is dubious at best.

Still, Rush experienced pretty much the same formal treatments and structures that the lowest 'skel' collects at the booking desk. Fingerprinting, mug-shot, the whole drill (though he likely was NOT face-slammed into a convenient wall for demanding an attorney).

In the fullness of time, Rush was arraigned, before the Bench.

And he pled "nolo contendere" to at least one of the charges against him. That was an admission of guilt, a confession of culpability. He was convicted of SOMETHING, of that I am utterly certain. Had it not been so, he would not have been rendered under the scrutiny of the Court for 18 months.

Attendant upon his plea of nolo contendere, he incurred a sentence commensurate--in the view of the Court--with the severity of the violation.

As part of the sentence imposed by the Court in view of his conviction (his plea of nolo contendere nevertheless resulted in his uncontested conviction), he was placed on probation. Court-mandated probation imposed terms on his behavior, and assigned him to the supervision of the Court for a definite period of time.

If he does not violate--or, as of now, has not violated-- the terms of his probation, at the end of it, his plea, and his sentence are erased from his record.

But not the arrest record.

And if he has violated his probation agreement (little blue pills in his luggage at Miami Int'l), all bets are off, and Rush will--at least fuukin should--learn the truth about no one being above the law, and feel the lash for his privileged scoffing at the restrictions under which the rest of us labor.

Confession: I really want to see his conspicuous ass in jail.

The Dream of the "Viable Third Party"

The hope that any viable third-party can arise to challenge the dominant arrangement is a pipe-dream.

The two ostensible 'parties' are, as Gore Vidal once wrote, the two right wings of the same military/finance/energy/world domination 'bidness.' This is the party that Chomsky calls "the Party of Property.

For a third-party of any viability to arise, the hold of the oligarchic, stratified, vertically-integrated power cabal upon all the media would have to be broken, and the overwhelmingly thorough media concentration rolled back.

There are (allegedly) two ways of doing this. The first, and preferred, way is through legislative means. But, inasmuch as the legislatures are effectively owned and directed by the same interests that manage the media already, this effort will be fruitless and ultimately futile. This means there is, effectively, only way to achieve the liberation of the press is for the People to arise and sieze the broadcasting facilities, as they do elsewhere in the world when popular will clashes with corruption in the guise of official policy.

Such an event, however, probably will never occur in a nation of such ovine indolence as that demonstrated by the vast bulk--in BOTH senses--of people identifying themselves as "Americans." A Lazy-Boy, a 63-inch-plasma-screen, a 30 of Bud in the Fridge, and the promise of Domino's at the half, and any self-respecting "American male" is inocculated against rebellion.

The key is in the terms of self-identification which they were first sold, but now thoughtlessly and habitually purchase: they refer to themselves not as citizens but as consumers. This terminology --what George Lakoff calls a metaphorical 'frame' for discourse-- testifies to the hopelessness of any effort to induce them to civic or community action, much less to sacrifice. Sacrifice is not part of the language of "consumer credit," which thrives on instant gratification.

I do not know when the citizens of the USofA were first referred to, on the floor of the Senate, or the well of the House, as 'the American consumer', as if that better described the national interest than the older civic term: the American citizen. But it was a black, bleak day.

Add to this the very physical distortion of the 'average American' through the normalization of obesity. First we were alienated from the productsof our labor; then were alienated from each other through mass media; and now we're being alienated from our very bodies by the accretion of layers of fat alid on by the relentless consumption of fat and corn syrup.

On this account, the national BMI (Body Mass Index) may be taken to be a telling gauge of the spells of entropy and inertia which the regime/cabal--through its total domination of the public space, through all the media--has spun across the sleeping Gulliver of the people. Each thread is ephemeral and seemingly meaningless, but together they keep the sleeping giant bound as securely as they need.

Graduation Party, with Cat

A discussion on Eschaton about being owed a party to celebrate the formal awarding of the Ph.D. diploma--arguably the zenith of 'studentry' as a profession--prompted this reflection:

Re: PhD party (phoneticaly equivalent: pity party?)

A young cat followed me home from a walk around the neighborhood, when I went out to smoke a joint and get away from the nattering family, which was the extent of my PhD degree party: Mother and Daddy sparring as they did for--finally--57 years.

We named the cat Annie (coincident with my phd party was the anniversary of the wedding of the last ex-mrs/dr/prof* wgg and your obed' srv't; hence "Annie"--it seemed to fit better than 'Doc' or something). She was black, luxuriantly long-haired. We were soulmates. She followed me around the house like a puppy, though she was easily a year old when we met.

She'd wait for me on the countertop while i was in the shower; when I'd open the door, she'd wait til I wrapped a towel around my shoulders, then she'd climb carefully to my shoulder and begin (patiently, it seeme to me) to lick the water from my beard. Every morning, we enacted this ritual.

I always suspected we had known one another in previous lives, somewhere, neither as human nor cat...

She died (this time) in the fall of 2005.

The last time I saw her was the year before that, in California. The lemdp*-wgg moved there in 2001, with three or four (still) of our Baton Rouge cats. One, named 'miggle', still survives, and quite well, than you. The lemdp*-wgg will inform me directly upon Miggle's inevitable passing. She's 17, too.

How Many Busheviks Does It Take...

...to change a light bulb?

None.

There’s nothing wrong with that light bulb.
There is no need to change anything.
We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds.
People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn’t work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.

I cribbed this from the comments at Eschaton

DOG BLOG: The Family

Hanna-Stella, Queen of the Night, at the ready...

Buddy: What else needs to be said?

Mischief at leisure

Dix wants to go for a walk

Support the Troops? WTF does THAT mean?

There seems to be some kind of a requirement that, in order NOT to be consigned to the class of 'hate-America-firster' one must 'support the troops.'

Last week, I heard some vile chickenshit chickenhawk flying monkey fucktard fascist asswipe on the floor of the House proclaiming that if one claimed to support the troops, one was (logically?) committed to supporting the mission.

What i mean by 'supporting' the troops is that I am physically and spiritually pained by the reports of their deaths and injuries, and I wish them speedy, safe exodus from that cauldron/quagmire of death and destruction into which they were led by lies and omissions from their leaders.

It does not mean I endorse or in any way countenance the mission: the invasion, conquest, occupation, and pacification of Iraq.

Nor does it mean i condone or accept the many brutalities they inflict, the outrages they commit, the abuses they encourage, even though those things may be rationalized in the framework of their self-preservation. No invading army is ever able to avoid or prohibit atrocities, because the pressures on the invaders--who cannot easlily tell the difference between a civilian and an insurgent--drive them into extermination mode.

What i support is ending the mission, now. It is an evident, bloody, ruinous failure. I support getting the troops OUT of the situations which require them to become monsters in order to survive; and i support providing them life-long care and medications if they need them to assuage the personal consequences of their actions.

I defy anyone to tell me I--a veteran--do NOT support the troops. I support them as human beings and countrymen in dire and insupportable conditions. But I cannot, and do not, support the crimes of imperialism, colonialism, and wholesale slaughter in which they are complicit, nor the crimes they are compelled to commit in the name of 'self preservation.'

Fuck Jim Lehrer and Fuck Ted Koppel

Yesterday, pseudo-Senator "Icky" Rickie("ManOnDog") Santorum, with reprehensible representative Peter Hoekstra along side him, stood up before members of the national and international press and told monstrous and egregious lies about the 'discovery of Weapons of Mass Destruction' in Iraq, as much as declaring that the altogether fictional, and spurious excuse for the invasion/conquest/occupation of that benighted nation had at last been found and the justification for the illegal, immoral, imperialistic charade had been established.

Not a single member of the press in attendance rebuked the Senator and his House colleague for their dishonesty. The allegations were simply forewarded to the relevant newsrooms, where they were promulgated by the reliable SoCalledUnbiasedMedia (SCUM) for the world to see.

Recently, both PBS NewsHour's Jim Lehrer, and the newly minted NPR "senior analyst" TRed Koppel have told interlocutors that it is not their province to doubt what they are told, nor is it their business to rule on the factuality or veracity of what (especially) Regime sourcews tell them; but instead it is their 'duty' to simply function as a conduit for the information, no matter its veracity or reliability.

It is this pretense of 'objectivity' upon which the Bushevik liars rely. They do not care whether the information they present is truthful, or verifiable. They launch these specious claims into the News-o-sphere for one purpose and one purpose only: to taint the discourse.

Their fucking lies are fucking uttered in the fucking first fucking place for the very fucking purpose of being spread the fuck around, in the full fucking certainty that the fucking likes of Jim fucking Lehrer and Ted fucking Koppel will merely fucking parrrot the fucking lie, and never fucking subject it to the fucking scrutiny it deserves and fucking requires.

The First Amendment was written to protect the press in the event that, operating as the so-called 'Fourth Estate," the purveyors of 'the news' might offend the powerful and risk official sanction for such temerity as actually subjecting the utterances of the Regime to close scrutiny.

With such dim lights as Koppel and Lehrer, who occupy significant posts in the hierarchy of the Press, pandering the the fascists, the First Amendment is now consigned--along with all the rest of the Constitution designed to assist the People in holding their leaders accountable and preventing the 'leaders' from becoming 'masters'--to complete irrelevance.

And so i re-iterate: FUCK Jim Lehrer, and FUCK Ted Koppel, and wholesale FUCK the rest of the chickenshit press for their cowardice, mendacity and corruption.

Hey, Everybody! Let's Play "P*nk The F*ckin' C*nts"

Who is the most despicable chickenshit chickenhawk/war-booster/Bushevik apologist you can think of? What fate should befall them, which will submit them to the obloquy they deserve?

mAnnCoulter? Fishhead Malagalagadingdong? Fallafel O'Reilly? Fawn Hannity? Double-Down Bennett? Drowner Norquist? 6-Month Friedman? Use your imagination!!!

I am offering a $100 Gift Certificate for the store or chain of choice to the correspondent here who suggests the best (and most practicable) expedient for heaping scorn and humiliation on the certifiable shitheels of the Flying Monkey Right.

Judging will be by accomplished by the readers of the blog, family and friends of the blogger, and anyone else who wishes to compete for the honor and the prizes.

C'mon, folks. Let's fuck 'em up!!!!

The World Cup Brings Back Many Memories

I was blogging about this on Atrios, earlier. I was in Germany in '66 when Germany and England met in the final. I was stationed in Zweibrucken, not far from Kaiserslautern, scene of today's pivotal match between Italy and USA. The game is still on, as I am writing this, but on in another room. C'est la vie...

The might of Annheuser-Busch prevailed in forcing Budweiser to be sold in German stadia hosting the World Cup Games. This is worse than "coals to Newcastle" (or "foals to Newmarket" either); this is more akin to accepting small-pox laden blankets.

Annheuser-Busch Budweiser is swill. It is brewed with as much corn and rice as hops and barley. I was and am surprised that the Germans did not invoke the reinheitsgebot to quarantine the shit, and then pour it into the harbor at Rotterdam.

Just about every town of ANY size had its own beer, subtly (or enthusiastically) different from its neighbors. When i was stationed in Germany (Apr, 65-Nov, 67), I sampled as wide a variety of them as I at the time considered humanly possible. In Zweibrucken, where i was stationed, we drank Parkbrau. Wherever I traveled in Germany, when I saw an unfamiliar brew, I always ordered it.

Most GIs never ventured far off-base, but I was incorrigible. Any time i was off-duty, I was gone!

I'd hadda hang around the base or get off either by bus, or foot or with guys with more rank or seniority for about 4 months before I made enough rank to be permitted to own a car. After that, i was seldom scene...

This was 1965. I bought a '56 Opel Rekord 4-door convertible. It had begun its career as a yellow car, but by the time i bought it (for $300, from a guy returning stateside), the paint was faded nearly to parchment. It had red leather seats and a 4 speed on the column; displaced maybe 1300 cc, iirc; was heavy: it topped out at about 110 kph. The 'convertible' was really a sunroof that ran between tracks the length of the passenger compartment and collapsed against the trunk.It was a for-real panty-dropper around the schwimm-bad in the summertime.

Because of the status of forces agreements put into place during the occupation (which, in 1965, was still the dominant motif), my New Mexico driver's license was also valid in Germany. In Germany at that time (and still), getting a license is not so easy as in Espanola, NM. They were required to attend a long, expensive driver's training course and it cost about DM 1,000...That was a lot of money still in germany in those days.

And my pay, even as early as when Iarrived there, an e-2, was equivalent to what a lot of German workers earned who had far better educations and more skills than I then had. So i had a driver's license and a cool car, and the German guys, with whom I was competing for the attention of these lovely girls, were, at best, riding small motor bikes. And most were afoot or dependent on civic transportation, which was excellent (and for good reason considering the barriers there were to their obtaining licenses and cars) but not very condusive of more carnal intimacies.

I also was ardently trying to learn German, and the girls JUS' LUVVED that.

So there I was: young, American (PX/Commissary privileges), with money, a car, and an ear for the language...

Life's so damn unfair, sometimes...

The Glass Test

i care not whether the glass be
either half-full or half-empty.

only that i not cut my lip
when, thirsty, i go to sip.

it matters that
it not be shattered....

WoodyGuthrie'sGuitar(aka...
2006

BOOM: Wanna See How A 500-lb Bomb Goes Off???

Go here and tab the first video on the page, "500lb-bomb-hits-iraq..>"

They allegedly hit Zarqawi with two of these...

I leave it to you to decide if that placid face in that framed photograph shown on the SCUM came through that so composedly...

Personally, I am dubious.

Aw, FUCK! We Gotta Save NPR/PBS Again???

I received this e-mail the other day. I present it here for information value only.

Everyone expected House Republicans to give up efforts to kill NPR and PBS after a massive public outcry stopped them last year. But they've just voted to eliminate funding for NPR and PBS—unbelievably, starting with programs like "Sesame Street."
Public broadcasting would lose nearly a quarter of its federal funding this year. Even worse, all funding would be eliminated in two years—threatening one of the last remaining sources of watchdog journalism.
Sign the petition telling Congress to save NPR and PBS again this year: Last year, over 1 million of us signed the petition, and Congress listened. We can do it again if you pass this message along to any friends, neighbors, or co-workers who count on NPR and PBS for news or children's programming.
This would be the most severe cut in the history of public broadcasting. The Boston Globe reports the cuts "could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs." NPR's president expects rural public radio stations may be forced to shut down.The lawmakers who proposed the cuts aren't just trying to save money in the budget—they're trying to decimate any news outlets willing to ask tough questions of those in power. Americans trust public broadcasting more than any corporate news media.
This is an ideological attack on our free press. President Bush's budget proposed cuts to NPR and PBS, but Congress is going even further: slashing 23% of this year's public broadcasting budget—$115 million—and denying NPR and PBS any funding in two years.
The cuts immediately terminate support for commercial-free children's shows like "Sesame Street," "Clifford," and "Maya and Miguel."
The House and Senate are deciding if public broadcasting will survive, and they need to hear from viewers like you.
So Just Sign the fucking petition .

Thank you for all you do.–
Noah, Eli, Adam G., Tom, Marika and the MoveOn.org Civic Action Team Thursday, June 8th, 2006

Oh! Ooh! OOoh! Oooooh! OOoooh! WARGASM

NPR is simply beside itself this morning with the news the alZarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist (or freedom fighter, depending), has been killed in Iraq.

There has been hour upon hour of endless repetition of the same stories, the same triumphalism, the same orgasmic pleasure in the voices of the NPR reporters 'covering' the story from Washington, Tel Aviv, Baghdad, London, and apparently everywhere else in the civilized world. It will pervade the news all day, and probably for a few days more.

(Is there an Index of Sycophancy? If so, then Don Gonyea--was it Gagne, once?--must be off the fuuking scale. I have never heard so much babble and blither in my whole life as spews from his gob so dependably every day, in his blind, puppy-like adoration of and adulation for the Gibbering fucking Chimp.)

Juan Cole (he who was so abominably mistreated by the effete fux at Yale recently) naturally has a reasoned, informed analysis (which probably highights the implicit reason for his insuitability for GWB's and GHWB's alma mater:

There is no evidence of operational links between his Salafi Jihadis in Iraq and the real al-Qaeda; it was just a sort of branding that suited everyone, including the US. Official US spokesmen have all along over-estimated his importance. Leaders are significant and not always easily replaced. But Zarqawi has in my view has been less important than local Iraqi leaders and groups. I don't expect the guerrilla war to subside any time soon.

The guerilla/civil war in Iraq will persist until the "balkanization' of Iraq is finished, and USer troops are either withdrawn behind walls and ditches at the 14 major, permanent bases built or under construction (mostly in Kurdish territory in the North of the country; or are wholly withdrawn (really, really unlikely, given the normal synonymy and homology of Dumbocrat and GOPuke foreign policy tendencies).

The USer invasion/conquest/occupation/destruction of Iraq had three purposes: Secure Israel's northern flank, set up land bases from which all of Central Asia would be under threat from USer military aircraft (much ceaper than maintaining flotillas in the Persian Gulf, and safer, too), and Iraq, like omnia Gallia, previously, 'in tres partes divisa est.'

The US will not withdraw untill all three are permanently fixed as the norm in the region.

You MIGHT Make A Difference...6/6/06

MAKE A COUPLE CALLS FROM HOME TO HELP THE GOOD CANDIDATES WIN AND IT NEEDN'T COST YOU A DIME!!!

Would you like to have an amazing, FUN time this weekend? We just fired up a brand new virtual phone bank application. You can make calls from your own phone and we can even set you up with a phone card to pay for it, courtesy of Bob McCloskey, one of the Impeach Team heros.

You are going to LOVE this interface. It has a live chat function where you can talk to other participants doing the same thing as you, mobilizing people to
speak out in the ultimate way, by voting, and you can even get live instant help
the same way. All you have to do is sign up to get a password and you can start
making calls and making a difference immediately...
VIRTUAL PHONE BANK: http://www.usalone.com/virtualphones.htm

Nothing To See Here, Folks. Just Move Along...

With the events last November at the Iraqi hamlet of Haditha --the apparent and alleged wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians by enraged, vindictive soldiers-- prominent in the attention of the punditry and the corporate minions of the SCUM (SoCalledUnbiasedMedia), and the Regime quivvering like a barrel of rotten tallow rolling about in the hold of a storm-tossed vessel, it was good news when today the Pentagon released a report that another apparent incident of military ferocity unleashed, in the village of Ishaqi was nothing at all like the events alleged at Haditha which have darkened the Marines' image for honorable behavior even in the face of adversity.

However, as Chris Floyd/Imperial Burlesque has remarked today, things are not always (or even very often) as the Pentagon portrays them:

It seems that the Pentagon, that veritable fount of veracity, has probed itself for the alleged execution-style slaying of civilians in Ishaqi, and found that the operation -- which left 11 civilians dead, including five children under the age of five -- was in fact an exemplary feat of arms, strictly by the book.

(According to military investigators) (e)verything happened pretty much the way they originally said it happened: soldiers seeking a dastardly al-Qaeda operative (now more circumspectly described as a man suspected of being an al-Qaeda operative) took fire during the pursuit and responded with heavy force: air power and ground assault on the suspect's redoubt, which just happened to be someone's house. In the course of the textbook op, which we're told killed the al-Qaednik and a local bombmaker, there were also three "noncombatant" deaths, and an estimated nine "collateral deaths." (The difference between these two categories is not explained. And of course it doesn't matter to the innocent people killed; whether they are "non-combatants" or "collaterals," they're still just as dead. No doubt there are strict bureaucratic guidelines behind these distinctions.) These deaths are regrettable, of course, but such things happen as unintended consequences of noble causes, and no doubt there will be a bit of loose change doled out to the innocent victims' families.

As Floyd notes, if true, that should come as a relief to everyone who wishes the best for our troops--if not in their feats of arms, at least in the efforts to preserve their sanity:

So that's that then. Nothing to see here, time to move on... And you know, I really wish we could. No one here takes any pleasure or satisfaction from reports of yet another egregious failure of the human spirit, yet another eruption of the bestiality that lies buried in the mud of our brains. This is true in any case, anywhere, but it is doubly true if the crimes are done in the name of your own country. And any time that such a report turns out to be mistaken is a cause for joy.

Unfortunately, however, facts gathered at the scene and some horrific photos from the event seem to offer a version of events which is not quite as laudatory as the one the Pentagon itself had manufactured:

...So yes, it would be nice to be able to accept at face value the Pentagon's exonerating version of the incident at Ishaqi. (Relatively speaking, of course; that is to say, in the murderous context of the vast atrocity that is the Iraq war itself, it would be better to accept the Pentagon's assertion that the deaths of up these innocent people were simply the inevitable and unintended by-product of urban warfare, rather than the more grisly alternative. It would be good to have this slight mitigation of the general horror.) But a commitment to the truth -- and a refusal to succumb to historical amnesia -- prevents such an automatic acceptance.

For this is the same Pentagon that whitewashed the Haditha killings not once, but twice (with two different stories) after the massacre there last year. This is the same Pentagon whose innumerable investigations into itself during these crimeful Bush years have only managed to peel a few "bad apples" plucked from the bottom of the barrel, despite the extraordinarily vast and systematic nature of the regimens of torture and atrocity established by the Bush Administration, as Amnesty International has pointed out in an important new study.

Such elaborate systems cannot have been constructed and operated without orders -- direct and implied -- from the very highest reaches of government and the military command. Yet the Pentagon has employed oceans of whitewash to protect the brass, while grudgingly throwing a few bits of cannon fodder and trailer trash -- as the Bushist elite would see them -- on the fire to serve, in the words of Breaker Morant, as "scapegoats of the empire."

The Bushevik regime desparately needed some event to confound truth of the Haditha massacre, and it has now flogged this new Pentagon report in such a way that the drones of the lumpenproletariat may be forgiven if they now think all those pesky allegations of military murder by our sterling troops can be discounted. Confusion is the friend of the fascists, and clarity is its worst enemy. The SCUM--WaPo, in this case, quite unsurprisingly--are doing all they can to obfuscate in favor of the Pentagon's claims...

They really are bastards...every last stinking one of 'em...

The Best Defense Is A Good Offense...

Familiarity with and sympathy for these will make you fittingly offensive to the fascist fux...

Some Favorites:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/
http://www.tompaine.com
http://www.motherjones.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.truthout.com
http://www.antiwar.com
http://www.thinkprogress.org
http://www.tomdispatch.com
http://www.juancole.com
http://www.dailykos.com
http://www.thenation.com
http://www.workingforchange.org
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.interventionmag.com
http://www.buzzflash.com
http://www.counterpunch.com

Consequences of the War in Iraq and in the Oil Industry/Neocon War for Empire:
http://www.thememoryhole.org
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/iraqspecial.htm
http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/list.php
http://www.fair.org/international/iraq.html http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Liteky_Baghdad_031203.htm http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/

Issues pertaining relevant to political thought:
http://www.activismispatriotism.org
http://www.artistsnetwork.org
http://www.commoncause.org
http://www.centerforamericanprogress.org
http://www.americacomingtogether.com
http://www.adaction.org
http://www.cdt.org
http://www.cbpp.org
http://www.epinet.org
http://www.rprogress.org
http://www.democracyforamerica.com
http://www.airamericaradio.com/
http://www.strike-the-root.com
http://www.Patriotwatch.org
http://www.silentnolonger.com
http://www.realisticforeignpolicy.org
http://www.oldamericancentury.org
http://freenet.sourceforge.net
http://www.freewayblogger.com http://www.freewayblogger.com/images/quagmire_accomplished_tn.jpg

To bring the troops home see:
http://www.bringthemhomenow.org
http://www.mfso.org
http://www.ivaw.net
http://www.optruth.org
http://www.militaryproject.org/
http://www.sorgen.net/id19.htm
http://www.nlg.org/mltf/
http://www.MilitaryCorruption.com
http://www.costofwar.com
http://www.iraqometer.com
http://www.whereisthemoney.org
http://www.sftt.org
http://www.hackworth.com

Good Organizations to Join or Follow:
Civil Liberties
http://www.aclu.org
http://www.eff.org http://www.au.org
http://www.tjcenter.org
http://www.civilrights.org
http://www.bordc.org
http://www.caedefensefund.org
http://www.acsblog.org/
Human Rights Groups
http://www.hrw.org
http://www.tolerance.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org
http://www.globalpolicy.org
Women’s Rights
http://www.naral.org
http://www.plannedparenthood.com
http://www.34millionfriends.org
http://www.now.org
http://www.feminist.org
http://www.ncjw.org
http://www.legalmomentum.org
http://www.nationalpartnership.org
http://www.aauw.org
http://www.arhp.org
http://www.rcrc.org
http://www.blackwomenshealth.org/site/PageServer
http://www.latinainstitute.org
http://www.breastcancerfund.org
Federal Watchdogs:
http://www.pogo.org/
Corporate Watchdogs:
http://www.poclad.org
http://www.corpwatch.org
http://www.corporatepolicy.org
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org
Environmental Groups
http://www.sierraclub.org
http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage
http://www.earthjustice.org
http://www.saveourenvironment.org
http://www.2020vision.org
http://www.nrdc.org
http://www.econjustice.net
http://www.greenercars.com
http://www.betterworldclub.com
http://www.terrapass.com http://www.self.org
World Bank/IMF/Globalization issues:
http://www.sndden.org/rwg/index.htm
http://www.50years.org
http://www.jubileeusa.org
Labor Groups:
http://www.aflcio.org
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org
http://www.seiu.org
http://www.cwa-union.org
http://www.afscme.org
Gay Rights Groups / News Services:
http://www.hrc.org
http://www.gay.com
http://www.365gay.com
http://www.planetout.com
http://www.ngltf.org
http://www.pflag.org
http://www.glaad.org
http://www.freedomtomarry.org
http://www.MillionForMarriage.org
http://www.proudparenting.com
http://www.sldn.org/templates/index.html
http://www.advocate.com
http://www.out.com
Stopping AIDS:
http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp
http://www.aids.org http://www.aidsonline.com
http://www.apathyislethal.org/affected.html
http://www.aegis.com
http://www.aidsquilt.org
http://www.worldaidsday.org
http://www.stopaids.org
Minority Groups:
http://www.hispaniconline.com
http://www.naacp.org
http://www.cair-net.org
http://www.aaldef.org/home.html
http://www.rainbowpush.org
Housing: http://www.nationalfairhousing.org
Mental Health:http://www.nmha.org http://www.bazelon.org
Universal Health Care: http://www.uhcan.org http://www.citizenshealthcare.gov
People with Disabilities: http://www.adawatch.org http://www.aapd-dc.org
Progressive Investment Groups:
http://www.responsiblewealth.org
http://www.livingeconomies.org
http://www.trilliuminvest.com
http://www.progressive-asset.com
http://www.nypn.org/htm/Members/blsp
http://www.sensiblepriorities.org
http://www.timedollar.org

More 'Notable' Political Websites
http://www.opendebates.org
http://www.newprogressivecoalition.com
http://www.couragecampaign.org
http://www.worldcantwait.net
http://www.moveon.org
http://www.democrats.com
http://www.democrats.org
http://4.38.70.28/home.php
http://www.americanrhetoric.com
http://www.fairvote.org
http://www.democraticunderground.com
http://blackboxvoting.org
http://www.truemajority.com
http://www.progressivemajority.org
Good website for analyzing geo-political global intelligence: (If you have the money to pay for it) http://www.stratfor.com

Online open-source encyclopedia and reference related:
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.encyclopedia.com
http://www.britannica.com
http://www.bartleby.com/65
http://www.iep.utm.edu/a
http://thesaurus.reference.com
http://www.dictionary.com
http://maps.google.com
http://earth.google.com
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcindex.htm http://www.nccs.net http://www.technorati.com

Humor Websites
http://www.theonion.com (ridiculous stories on the Onion are rivaled only by Fox, CNN AND MSNBC)
http://www.awolbush.com
http://www.whitehouse.org
http://www.dubyaspeak.com
http://www.gwbush.com
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/

To find Weapons of Mass Destruction Click on this Website: http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Radio and Television Programs in your Area:
http://www.airamericaradio.com/
http://www.radioleft.com
http://www.newsworldinternational.com
http://www.democracynow.org
http://www.outrageradio.com
http://www.openairwaves.org
http://www.pacifica.org
http://www.pbs.org/now
http://www.jimhightower.com
http://www.buzzflash.com/
http://www.radiopower.org
http://www.freespeech.org

A host of Liberal Radio Links:
http://www.radiopower.org/liberal_links.html#Anchor

Media Issues
http://www.mediaaccess.org
http://www.mediamatters.org
http://www.democraticmedia.org
http://www.prwatch.org
http://www.publicintegrity.org./default.aspx
http://www.ccmc.org/
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/index.shtml
http://www.mediachannel.org
http://www.freedominfo.org
http://www.coldtype.net
http://www.accuracy.org
http://www.fair.org
http://www.prwatch.org/spin
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

NEWS sites - Non-Partisan (but mainly SCUM)
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.haaretzdaily.com
http://jpost.com
http://www.islamonline.net/english/index.shtml
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
http://www.hindustantimes.com
http://www.dailymirror.co.uk
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.independent.co.uk/
http://www.latimes.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.nytimes.com http://www.timesonline.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.reuters.com
http://www.sfgate.com

NEWS-sites - Liberal Perspective
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.dailykos.com
http://www.tomdispatch.com
http://www.juancole.com
http://www.thebreakthrough.org
http://www.mydd.com
http://www.billmon.org
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com
http://americablog.blogspot.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
http://atrios.blogspot.com
http://www.thinkprogress.org
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com
http://www.boomantribune.com
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com
http://www.liberalstreetfighter.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.oriononline.org
http://www.prospect.org
http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/news.php
http://www.ReclaimDemocracy.org
http://www.uspirg.org
http://www.publiccitizen.org
http://saveourcourts.civilrights.org/index_flash2.html
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general
http://www.nlg.org
http://www.ourfuture.org
http://www.aaldef.org/home.html
http://www.cair-net.org
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.freepress.org
http://www.villagevoice.com
http://buffaloreport.com
http://www.interventionmag.com
http://www.truthout.com
http://www.dissentmagazine.org
http://www.lchr.org
http://www.progressive.org
http://www.utne.com
http://www.zmag.org
http://www.inthesetimes.com
http://www.fpif.org
http://www.presentdanger.org
http://www.counterpunch.com
http://www.movingideas.org
http://www.freespeech.org
http://www.indymedia.org
http://www.transnational.org

Veterans / Peace Issues
http://www.veteransforpeace.org
http://www.ivaw.net
http://www.ustourofduty.org
http://www.bendermantimeline.com
http://www.freecamilo.org
http://www.optruth.org
http://www.peacecoup.us
http://www.soaw.org/new
http://www.bvfp.org
http://www.metaphoria.org
http://www.unitedforpeace.org
http://www.codepinkalert.org
http://www.guerreroazteca.org
http://www.thepeacealliance.org
http://www.nomoredeaths.org
http://www.vaiw.org
http://www.iraqbodycount.net
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org
http://www.vvaw.org
http://www.mfso.org
http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english
http://www.peacefultomorrows.org
http://www.actagainstwar.org
http://www.debka.com
http://www.iwpr.net
http://www.ruralpeacemakers.org
http://www.addictedtowar.com
http://winwithoutwarus.org
http://www.peace-action.org
http://www.californiapeaceaction.org
http://www.warresisters.org
http://www.globalexchange.org
http://www.war-times.org
http://www.objector.org
http://www.nonviolence.org
http://www.activism.net
http://www.volunteermatch.org

Political Art:
http://www.antiwarposters.com
http://www.postgen.com
http://www.alahue.com
http://www.track16.com
http://www.know-our-enemy.net/make-no-mistake/
http://www.critical-art.net

Religion-Based Organizations to Join or Follow:
http://www.shalomctr.org
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
http://www.btvshalom.org
http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/index_en.asp
http://www.paxchristiusa.org
http://www.ncccusa.org
http://www.afsc.org
http://www.csmonitor.com
http://www.faithfulamerica.org
http://www.crossleft.org
http://www.adl.org
http://www.tikkun.org
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp
http://www.refusersolidarity.net
http://www.rhr.israel.net
http://www.seekpeace.org
http://www.rebuildinghomes.org/start.php
http://www.socialaction.com/index.phtml
http://traubman.igc.org/dg-prog.htm
http://www.geocities.com/jewishpeacemakers
http://www.peacenow.org
http://www.btselem.org
http://www.ipcri.org/index1.html
http://www.pij.org
http://www.icahd.org/eng/faq.asp?menu=9&submenu=1
http://www.phr.org.il

Medical Marijuana Issues http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051014.wxcanna1014/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/ http://www.granitestaters.com/home
http://www.mpp.org
http://www.dpf.org/homepage.cfm
http://www.drugsense.org
http://www.jackherer.com
http://www.mapinc.org
http://www.norml.org
(Excerpt from the Cato Institute) http://www.cato.org/current/drug-war/index.html

For your liberty to choose Responsible, Casual Drug Use, check out these resources: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-legalize16oct16,0,4914395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
http://www.drcnet.org/cops/
http://www.ssdp.org/
http://www.november.org/
http://www.mpp.org/
http://www.dancesafe.org/
http://www.csdp.org/
http://www.drugpolicy.org/
http://www.harmreduction.org/
http://www.cjpf.org/
http://www.maps.org/
http://www.mapinc.org/
http://www.norml.org/
http://www.uudpr.org/
http://www.changetheclimate.org/
http://www.efficacy-online.org/
http://www.reconsider.org/
http://www.dpft.org/
http://www.dpfhi.org/
http://www.dpfts.org/
http://www.vcl.org/general/Utility/index.htm
http://www.mamas.org/
http://www.alchemind.org/
http://www.dogwoodcenter.org/
http://www.prdi.org/
http://www.hr95.org/
http://www.fear.org/
http://www.aclu.org/
http://www.methadone.org/
http://www.wola.org/

NEWS-sites - Conservative Perspective (How the 30 Percenters Think)
http://www.anti-war.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.theadvocates.org
http://www.libertarian.org
http://www.progress.org/dfc
http://www.sepschool.org
http://www.theihs.org
http://www.libertarianstudies.org
http://www.lfs.org
http://www.lp.org
http://www.fff.org
http://www.libertarianism.com
http://www.americanlibertyfoundation.org
http://www.libertysoft.com/liberty
http://www.instituteforjustice.org/index.shtml
http://www.heartland.org
http://www.independent.org
http://www.hacer.org
http://www.cei.org/pages/about.cfm
http://www.free-market.net
http://www.lewrockwell.com
http://www.mises.org
http://www.drugpolicy.org
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org
http://www.theamericancause.org
http://www.amconmag.com
http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?sec=iolmisc

My thanks to an anonymous poster on craigslist.albuquerque for doing all the hard work

The Steady Demise of Meaning

Today, on MSN's money page there appeared a story about the persistent damages inflicted on Prince William Sound by the toxic residues of the Exxon Valdez' encounter with a submerged reef.

Exxon resists claim for more oil spill cash

ExxonMobil on Thursday refuted the US government's claim that it should pay $92m more to clean up Alaska 17 years after he Exxon Valdez tanker accident resulted in the US's largest oil spill.
The US Justice department and the Alaska Department of Law said studies showed residual oil from the 1989 spill in the inter-tidal zone of beaches, which they had not anticipated "would remain toxic and continue to impact natural resources". Exxon already paid $900m in a civil settlement, yet that settlement had a "re-opener clause'' stating Exxon could be required to pay up to an additional $100m for unforeseen natural resource damages.
The company said it would study the request before responding, but added, "Nothing we have seen so far, however, indicates that this request for further funding from Exxon is justified." Exxon argues that the request appears focused
primarily, if not exclusively, on the hypothesis that remaining oil could be
capable of causing biological harm.
"That is no more than a hypothesis," Exxon said.

Do the Editors at MSN actually lack that much lexical acumen? How does one edit a nationally distributed news service without realizing that to "refute" a claim requires more than simply denying it, or derogating it?
There is no evidence presented in the story, as far as I can tell, which supports the use of the word "refuted" in the first graf. To "refute" an allegation is to present evidence which rebuts the allegation. A claim is "refuted" when it is shown to be untrue.
When words lose their meanings, they become nothing more than empty signifiers, and understanding becomes impossible. If that happens, then cooperative action becomes impossible. When that occurs, politics become impossible. Then anything can happen.

Is Austin Burning?

Short Answer: Yup...

Longer Answer: The way they get film sets to burn is not done with CGI. It's real fire, although they do attempt to regulate it. Mainly it's done with propane jets, and it is visual, not really destructive.

But that doesn't always work. So we came within about 10 seconds of setting fire to the whole fookin set today, cuz the visual was so great that the director didn't wanna 'cut' it.

There were volunteer firefolk all over the set, and fire hoses, and pumpers, and still they almost lost the whole building...(and I don't have any freking fotos cuz I couldn't tote my backpack, in which was stached my camera which was 100 yards on the other side of the stampede.)

(The photo above is of an Assinoboine rider from Montana (on the left) and a friend of mine, Romy Sanchez, a former rodeo cowboy and quarter-horse jockey and one of the best horsemen I've ever seen in the saddle.)

The shots I was in today were reaction shots, following the Buffalo Hump raid on Austin. "Dead" bodies in the street, buildings flaming, citizens running around in shock, and a couple of hundred head of horses dashing headlong down Commerce toward the open plains; the stunned citizens who survived pouring into the street to comprehend and then to remedate the terrible violence...

Around 6 pm, a hail-storm, bearing hailstone over an inch in diameter, rolled over the set, followed by a rainstorm which left the first two inches of dust the relative consistancy of a chocolate shake. We wrapped in the rain.

There hasn't been measurable rainfall in Albuquerque since last September...


This is why I do this stuff.