oh well now. here's some good reading. pdf files about internet usage and how to rake in the bucks, supervise us invisibly, and control what we can do with our computers. brought to you by the industry itself.
and hey, if that doesn't give you the warm fuzzies and make you want to go out and buy ice cream for the whole family, how about this? Got a problem child? Send him (or her) to Jamaica! In the land of ganja and great music, it's got to be THE way to help them sort themselves out. i and i give it two thumbs up, mon.
aren't you glad you don't live in Florida? if not, here's a reason. it's run by one of the worst crooks ever to be elected to a seat of power. and he's bringing in the Texans for some proper frontier...uh...well, they're probably breaking the law, too. hard to say with Texans.
but aren't you glad you live in America where the most powerful "private" attorney in the whole wide world would nevernevernever lie to Congress or the People? Alberto, you got some 'splaining to do! (cue canned laughter)
and, finally. on the heels of my announcing to you that Exxon had reported record profits for last year while continuing to argue in court that it should not be held financially responsible for its massive spill up in Alaska, SHELL!!! is reporting record earnings based in LARGE part on soaring gas prices. Of course, it will say (as did Exxon) that record profits are misleading. Records don't necessarily mean they made any profit at all! you know, there's the costs of paying off corrupt leaders, soaring gas prices for shipment, millionaire shareholders unhappy with staying millionaire shareholders...um...that's all i can think of.
better yet, just go to my Thursday Night Crush.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Thursday Night Crush
It's been a long day and longer week, which won't end until next week officially starts. Classes all day today (5 a.m. until 7 p.m.) and more tomorrow. plus work on both weekend days (not to fear, i will be safely ensconced on my couch for the Super Bowl commercials).
so, i got nothing. no juice tonight. only a triple shot of beauties (because in the northwest no one has just one shot) who make my cinematic experiences something akin to spiritual transcendence:
so, i got nothing. no juice tonight. only a triple shot of beauties (because in the northwest no one has just one shot) who make my cinematic experiences something akin to spiritual transcendence:
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
WARNING: RANT AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION
breaking news: cindy sheehan was arrested inside Capitol chambers and "escorted" to jail after she had been invited by a chamber member to attend. reports are muddled. some have her wearing a tee shirt sporting the number of troops killed in Iraq. others have her unfurling a banner. that's all i've got right now.
but it leads me to this new twist on the Patriot Act renewal. Mind you, Bob Barr is no longer a darling of the right wing. But it sends a very troubling message. So far as I know there have been no threatening instances of citizens attempting to express their views at events of this type. Those who wish to be arrested tend to let that be known beforehand. Suddenly, security for "VIPS" is an issue? I think not. I think that the issue is more about "VIPS" not wanting opposing viewpoints to be heard during their photo ops. What I think we have here is an attempt by the Roman Senate to distance themselves from the reality of the people's unrest. I mean, we have a president putting out photographs of himself at functions where the press is not allowed. Many of these functions had been open to the press up until this administration came into power. We have an administration "scrubbing" photos so we can't see Jack Abramoff standing next to the president. The Congress shakes its finger at the president for wiretapping without jumping through the normal legal hoops (as morally minimal as they are), but doing nothing to ensure he toes the line in the future. Republicans call for "investigative committees" that may or not convene during this century. Democrats get on their high horse and talk about how everyone would have free access to the internet if they are voted back into power.
None of them care about you and me. None of them remember the thin times, the years without, months where bills had to be juggled and the phone wasn't paid in order to keep the hot water on. Most of them have known this life. Most of them like giving themselves pay raises and justifying it by telling us that being a politician is hard work (i.e. away from home all the time and the junkets and the bad food and the lousy golf and the slimy lobbyists who try and bribe them successfully and the press that won't let them alone and the late nights drinking martinis while they try to coerce multinationals and gimungous corporations into flopping a throwaway to the masses in return for gimungous tax breaks and the speeches they can't charge $100,000 for yet because they're still a public servant and the book deal they signed and haven't ghostwritten a lick of yet). Do you think that one of these politicians truly gives a damn about you or me? The new guys are always the wave of the future, the ones who get elected because they're pissed off at the way things are run. We listen and we vote with our hearts. But time and again we are let down by the very "reformers" who hold us for the moment in their sway. Until we find out that they compromised the very values they insisted were the ones they would never let go of. The values elected them for. Politics is not a clean affair. Don't let anyone tell you different. There is almost no way in which a politician can stay truly clean. Compromises ARE made. Deals ARE cut by enemies if only to ensure that one amendment is included in a bill. BUT.
But it seems to me that more and more our "elected officials" are cutting and running from the basic paltforms which got them into their hallowed positions. More and more they are "listening" to their consituents and disregarding all. When the public says that Bush is not doing a good job, why are they not en masse arriving at his doorstep and demanding accountability? When the public says that Alito is untrustworthy why are they not stopping the proceedings and calling for more questions? When the public thinks that Iraq is a big, fucking mess why are they not addressing this in the Senate or the House in any meaningful manner? The president once said that he didn't run his business according to polls or something like that. But the polls are based on talking to the very people who vote. The very people who care enough to speak up. The very people who stood up to the British and said "enough is enough" (no offense to living Brits unless, of course, you think another invasion is warranted).
And that brings up another point of contention. Why are we being forced to go all the way back to original signers of the Decalration of Independence and the Constitution in order to argue the merits of Democracy? Democracy is the reason we are here. Democracy is the foundation. But it seems that (after almost 250 years) we still don't get it. Every one of us wants power. Still. Every one of us wants our person in a place of influence in order to promote our narrow frame of thinking. We have no tolerance for those who think differently. We have no ability to accept that we are all free thinkers and we continue to exist precisely because of that. We are because we can. But every other word out of our political mouths is "can't". If we continue to be so obsessed with "can't", then we probably deserve to be looked at as an empire and deserve to reap the consequences of an empire.
but it leads me to this new twist on the Patriot Act renewal. Mind you, Bob Barr is no longer a darling of the right wing. But it sends a very troubling message. So far as I know there have been no threatening instances of citizens attempting to express their views at events of this type. Those who wish to be arrested tend to let that be known beforehand. Suddenly, security for "VIPS" is an issue? I think not. I think that the issue is more about "VIPS" not wanting opposing viewpoints to be heard during their photo ops. What I think we have here is an attempt by the Roman Senate to distance themselves from the reality of the people's unrest. I mean, we have a president putting out photographs of himself at functions where the press is not allowed. Many of these functions had been open to the press up until this administration came into power. We have an administration "scrubbing" photos so we can't see Jack Abramoff standing next to the president. The Congress shakes its finger at the president for wiretapping without jumping through the normal legal hoops (as morally minimal as they are), but doing nothing to ensure he toes the line in the future. Republicans call for "investigative committees" that may or not convene during this century. Democrats get on their high horse and talk about how everyone would have free access to the internet if they are voted back into power.
None of them care about you and me. None of them remember the thin times, the years without, months where bills had to be juggled and the phone wasn't paid in order to keep the hot water on. Most of them have known this life. Most of them like giving themselves pay raises and justifying it by telling us that being a politician is hard work (i.e. away from home all the time and the junkets and the bad food and the lousy golf and the slimy lobbyists who try and bribe them successfully and the press that won't let them alone and the late nights drinking martinis while they try to coerce multinationals and gimungous corporations into flopping a throwaway to the masses in return for gimungous tax breaks and the speeches they can't charge $100,000 for yet because they're still a public servant and the book deal they signed and haven't ghostwritten a lick of yet). Do you think that one of these politicians truly gives a damn about you or me? The new guys are always the wave of the future, the ones who get elected because they're pissed off at the way things are run. We listen and we vote with our hearts. But time and again we are let down by the very "reformers" who hold us for the moment in their sway. Until we find out that they compromised the very values they insisted were the ones they would never let go of. The values elected them for. Politics is not a clean affair. Don't let anyone tell you different. There is almost no way in which a politician can stay truly clean. Compromises ARE made. Deals ARE cut by enemies if only to ensure that one amendment is included in a bill. BUT.
But it seems to me that more and more our "elected officials" are cutting and running from the basic paltforms which got them into their hallowed positions. More and more they are "listening" to their consituents and disregarding all. When the public says that Bush is not doing a good job, why are they not en masse arriving at his doorstep and demanding accountability? When the public says that Alito is untrustworthy why are they not stopping the proceedings and calling for more questions? When the public thinks that Iraq is a big, fucking mess why are they not addressing this in the Senate or the House in any meaningful manner? The president once said that he didn't run his business according to polls or something like that. But the polls are based on talking to the very people who vote. The very people who care enough to speak up. The very people who stood up to the British and said "enough is enough" (no offense to living Brits unless, of course, you think another invasion is warranted).
And that brings up another point of contention. Why are we being forced to go all the way back to original signers of the Decalration of Independence and the Constitution in order to argue the merits of Democracy? Democracy is the reason we are here. Democracy is the foundation. But it seems that (after almost 250 years) we still don't get it. Every one of us wants power. Still. Every one of us wants our person in a place of influence in order to promote our narrow frame of thinking. We have no tolerance for those who think differently. We have no ability to accept that we are all free thinkers and we continue to exist precisely because of that. We are because we can. But every other word out of our political mouths is "can't". If we continue to be so obsessed with "can't", then we probably deserve to be looked at as an empire and deserve to reap the consequences of an empire.
Monday, January 30, 2006
We Now Return You To Your Regularly Broadcast Porn
in case you weren't aware, Exxon has posted record corporate earnings. Not "record" as in their largest ever, but as in the largest ever by any entity. ever. it's worth more than Indonesia (this last year's profits alone). and it is still in appelate court trying to get out of punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez spill, claiming that all of its cleanup resulted in almost no harm to the environment or livelihoods of the fishermen up there in Alaska. the punitive damages sit in the mid-single digit billion dollars. their profits from last year alone are in the high double digit billions. now is as good a time as any to stop filling up at Exxon's pumps.
as loath as i am to criticize our administration in its attempts to quell that little hiccup known colloquially as "global terrorism" and "growing global hatred" i must point out this article. and note that it is a war crime (see the Geneva Convention rules) to hold a non-combatant hostage in order to force a suspected enemy to surrender. in this case, wives of suspected terrorists have been arrested and held as ransom (in a sense. i doubt that the wives would have been let go if the husband turned himself in). what has happened to the women in these instances i don't know. one memo states a wife was released after an American military person complained officially. is that we are willing to do ? shout out: "give yourself up or the bitch gets it and your little dog, too"?
makes me want to post more porn:
as loath as i am to criticize our administration in its attempts to quell that little hiccup known colloquially as "global terrorism" and "growing global hatred" i must point out this article. and note that it is a war crime (see the Geneva Convention rules) to hold a non-combatant hostage in order to force a suspected enemy to surrender. in this case, wives of suspected terrorists have been arrested and held as ransom (in a sense. i doubt that the wives would have been let go if the husband turned himself in). what has happened to the women in these instances i don't know. one memo states a wife was released after an American military person complained officially. is that we are willing to do ? shout out: "give yourself up or the bitch gets it and your little dog, too"?
makes me want to post more porn:
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