for a chilling video of a UCLA student being tasered by campus cops for not leaving the library fast enough, go here. the video is handheld and probably some kind of camera phone, so there is more audio than there is video. plus, you get to hear other students being threatened with tasering for asking for badges and names. it runs about 5 minutes.
added: the student is now claiming through his lawyer that he felt he was being racially profiled (because he is of Iranian descent) and refused to show his student i.d. for that reason. at UCLA, the cops (who are LAPD, not campus) do random sweeps at night through the library to ensure that only students are using the library. non-students are told to leave. he evidently was told to leave when he wouldn't show i.d, but didn't immediately. when the cops came back by he was on his feet and walking towards the exit. the resulting confrontation began when one of the cops touched him in some manner and he yelled for the cop to not touch him.
two questions:
1) why didn't he just show his i.d. in the first place?
2) why did the cops feel the need to become violent so quickly?
looking through the comments and blogs written by people present it seems that the cops are claiming the student provoked them by resisting and was trying to get the other students to help him. the students present are writing that this was absolutely not the case. they feel he yelled in order to draw attention to what was happening, but not to incite anything.
some people are claiming that is an act of civil disobedience, but i am going to wait until all of the facts are in before assessing any kind of blame or noble act here.
one thing i do know for sure based on the audio is that, if the cops didn't tase him and only "stunned" him, the only difference between tasing and stunning is stunning allows you to scream like crazy (in the movies, people who are tased just freeze up and fall to the ground).
third question:
does anyone besides me feel that the police in general are becoming less like the "thin blue line" and more like the "thick steel curtain" in terms of living within a siege state?
i mean, what prompts a cop to tase a student 7 or more times in a campus library in front of numerous students for no more reason that the feeling that the student was passively resisting arrest?
p.s. on a sidenote, the UC Davis campus police have decided to place decoy backpacks around the campus and keep them under surveillence in order to arrest people who might take them. does this sound like entrapment? this info was in a memo sent out by the campus police (on their website, i believe). are they having a surge in backpack thefts? or are they looking for people to arrest? anyone with information on this, let me know.

i have to say that i've been less than thrilled with the tactics of the Fresno police for some years now. i think that, in general, they do a fine job under heavy scrutiny, but the couple of friends i have on the force do tell me that the cops here have an "us against them" attitude. and "them" includes all civilians. and when jerry dyer opens his fat gob and tells the press that he expects his cops to be ambushed and shot at by gang members they are trying to weed out, i feel he is trying to justify a shoot first mentality.

finally, email Sony and let them know what you think of it releasing a very limited number of new playstations, knowing full well that lines would be blocks long and violence would ensue. while you're at it, call up our local BestBuy and chew them out for knowing they only had 35 of the sets and let the lines grow too long to control. what fucking idiots all the way down the line on this.

wow. voter turnout nationally was 40%. and they're saying this is the highest since 1982. sheesh.
it's been reported that "high voter turnout" increases the odds of democrats winning vs. republicans. so, what's "low voter turnout"? 5%?
6 out of ten adult americans chose not to vote. or does this only count registered voters? in that case it gets worse.

sometimes i go out and shoot the camera.

sometimes i stay in, get ripped and shoot the cameraman.

From Nancy Pelosi came this statement either this morning or last night:
“Democrats intend to lead the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history.”
Those of us who voted Democrat need to make sure she and our Party live up to that or this election will have meant nothing. Actually, worse than nothing. A failure to live out those words will put Democrats and government at large into an even deeper hole than it already is. So, no more hiding perverts, money launderers, liars or thiefs.
Of course, that could mean that Dick Cheney has to step in to break a Senate vote tied at one to one.

while there are still some fallings out from the last post i did that i am not bothering to address (because i no longer give a shit) and i had flirted with the idea of not posting again for a while (because certain among us make it not nearly as much fun as it used to be before the warring was determined to be worth gerrymandering), i have just one thing to say:
does saddam hussein's surprise guilty verdict (i know i was on the edge of my seat) in any way influence the manner in which you will vote this week? i mean, what a whopper. who knew after a 12 month trial financially sponsored almost entirely by our government that saddam would be found guilty in a matter of nanoseconds? and who knew that it would happen right before an american election that decides the fate of a "war president" and his ideology that we are in the "end times"?
do you think that republicans involved in crimes (legal and ethical and moral) at a rate not ever seen before deserve punishment?
do you think that wimpy democrats with no unified message can be trusted to take over both Houses?
does ted haggard represent the entire conservative community when it comes to denying one's own urges in order to maintain political power?
will bill o'reilly lose his job on foxnews if the democrats win the house and senate? will he lose his job anyway if the democrats win either, because the conservatives see him as a divider in a time when they realize that division is a losing proposition even though they totally believe in division if they're in charge?
will the neocons maintain any semblance of credibility given that they were the primary architects of our current foreign and domestic policies?
if there is a swing in majority parties, will the gays and lesbians get any more arrogant (if possible)?
what will happen within the black community if kenneth blackwell loses in ohio and condoleeza rice watches as her administration becomes worse than a lame duck? and obama barack's star continues to rise as a possible 2008 presidential candidate?
just thoughts of mine before these next couple of days unfold.
by the way (and i'm breaking my above promise to not editorialize):
did you ever wonder what the definition of common courtesy was? so did i. it turns out to be whatever the person calling for it deems it to be. common courtesy has no real definition (other than the overarching societal one), because it must always be placed within the context of the situation. at a dinner party, a thrown and shattered glass on the head of another goer could be considered improper...unless the party givers were members of Capital Punishment. so, it seems to me that instructing people on internet hygeine is as useful and educational as the pope leading a seminar on proper penis/vagina insertion with or without a condom.
each of us has a manner in which we approach our use of the internet. and the rest of us have another.
all of which leads me back to my last post...and so i must say "fuck all of this" if no one can keep their egos and angst to themselves. not that i will either, because it's so damn fun to piss people off in any way that i can...and angst sometimes must be put out there for examination by others in order to get a committee's look at an internal problem.
ego, on the other hand, should get in line with porn and slap itself on the sidelines.

i'm tired of other people's problems. there, i said it.
i'm not talking about the life altering tragedies of a family member dying or a job lost at the hand of another or a disabling car crash or any of those things that make one recreate one's life from the ground up.
i'm tired of the pissant relationship problems. i'm sick of the manipulation i see happen every day between supposed friends. i recoil from the unhappiness in everyday life experienced by almost every goddam one of us that is then handed out like a laced halloween candy by those who can't seem to deal with the fact that life is not fair. never was, never will be. "fair" is not a word that exists side by side with "life".
"fair" is how one deals with others despite being unhappy. "fair" is choosing to keep your unhappiness with yourself to yourself.
"fair" is knowing when to reach out to another and ask for a shoulder to cry on and when to compose oneself and accept that life is not fair to anyone.
"fair" is knowing the difference between self-pity and actual pain.
"fair" is being able to tell the difference between real enmity for another's actions or words and self-projection based on a faulty interpretation.
too much lately i've found myself surrounded by petty injuries and swollen egos and i'm sick of it. get over yourselves, people. learn to live with your frailties.
learn to live with your insufficiencies.
learn to live with your imperfections.
or learn how to better yourselves without vilifying others for no better reason than you are unhappy.
take the time to hear what others are saying and stop living to hear yourselves speak.
take the time to think about the problem you face and ask yourself how much you had to do with creating it before blaming others.
stop looking for scapegoats. there seems to be this grand movement underway for the last oh-i-don't-know-how-long of everyone believing that they are perfect and no mistake is ever of their doing. entitlement is not a birthright.
so, stop looking for the bogeyman when life seems to suck. chances are you did most of the building on that structure.
bad things happen all of the time, just as good ones do. some are happenstance, but very few of them turn into full-fledged problems without handfeeding. the human experience is one of myriad opportunities that make no moral judgement. it is left up to us to decide how to proceed. and lately in my 'hood most of us seem to proceeding blindly with no pause to check the effect on others.
so, there it is. i'm tired of other people's problems. and you all seem to have a lot of them. you make me feel very normal and boring, which is a hell of a good thing. but it's bad as well when i can't get out a complete sentence without being overruled, overrun or cut off. it makes me want to turn you off. and that's no way to live.
think before you speak. we humans have an endless capacity for sympathy and compassion, but we have none when we realize it's pity that's being requested. or sides to be taken based on emotional opinion.
and i am done with it.

Fiscal Wake-Up Tour

our current GAO Comptroller is out and about telling the good folk what is on the financial horizon (just in case our politicaanites won't). check it out.

dear SBC fuckheads,
when i told you back at the end of May this year when i was signing up for local phone service that i didn't need your long distance service (because i already HAD long distance service through a calling card) maybe you should have mentioned that you were going to call my service to let them know they should open a new account at my new number for me.
finding out about this 5 months down the line when i receive a collection notice isn't exactly the netflix surprise i tend to want.
also, finding out from MY company that you interpret my denial of your service as a request for someone else's service ain't all that cool either. i never requested anything. you asked me if i wanted your long distance service and i said "no, i'm happy with who i already have". end of discussion. you did not state that you would contact them to instigate new service at my new number. i even told you fuckwads that it was a calling card plan and i didn't want long distance attached to my phone. what about that didn't you understand???
fortunately, MY company (working assets) isn't out to rape the average consumer. it works with me and was able to delete almost all of the collection bill i received (i obviously agreed to pay for the two long distance calls that inexplicably made their way onto that bill from july). and it was as pissed off as i was that they had created a second account in my name based on the info you gave them.
i can only hope that you will instruct your sales reps from HERE ON OUT to inform prospective clients about this process you engage in. i understand creating some form of long distance service for people, but when someone tells you they already have service, maybe you need to stop and consider the ramifications (legally) of going behind their backs without consent.
i hope to hear from you on this matter with the comment that you have stopped this action.

hey, just for kicks, check out Heywood Banks "singing" Yeah Toast over on YouTube.

oh, and i just transferred my blog over to the beta version, which is why all of the thousands of you might now be having difficulty leaving me praise in the comments section. don't worry. i feel the love anyway...and still don't really care. cuz i'm cool. beta cool.

Espresso, Anyone?

note to self:
upon completion of watching documentary about serial killers, an episode of Cold Case and 25 minutes of Evil Dead, do one of two things:
1) drink excessive amounts of coffee so as to ensure a complete lack of sleep before the next working day, or
2) drink copious amounts of alcohol so as to avoid dreaming.

it's not that the dreams were scary. in fact, they were not. but they were very bizarre and disturbing. being stuck in the house of a madman while he kills everyone but me was (while educational) just the wrong place to be. plus, it's not amusing to be bound with packing tape and sent out to give his list of demands (which were never enunciated to me anyway).
then, being visited by a troupe of magicians who used nothing more than a pack of tarot cards to create their tricks and a gun to kill off the "volunteers" was (again while educational) also the wrong place to be.
odd odd odd and it took about 4 hours for the dreams to fragment enough that i could focus on work.
it is, however, always fun to try and figure out what external forces were at work putting together the previous night's dream.

this is the text of the 6th anniversary statement by our president:

President's Statement on Anniversary of USS Cole Attack

Six years ago, on October 12, 2000, al Qaida attacked the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy warship refueling in Aden harbor in Yemen. This terrorist attack killed seventeen sailors and injured many others, leaving the victims' loved ones and our Nation to mourn our collective loss.
On the sixth anniversary of this attack, we pause to remember those brave servicemen and women whose lives were cut short by this act of terrorism and to give thanks to the brave crew whose heroic actions saved their ship and fellow shipmates.
With the men we believe to be the key architects of that attack now in custody, this anniversary should serve to renew America's dedication to bring terrorists to justice and our gratitude to those men and women of the U.S. Government serving abroad who take great risks in protecting America.
Six years ago, our Nation was tested by terrorism. Terrorists continue to be an active threat to our Nation, but we are responding resolutely and forcefully. On this solemn anniversary, we rededicate ourselves to the fight against the enemies of humanity, offer our prayers and condolences to the families of the Cole victims, and offer thanks to the men and women of our Navy who protect our country and promote peace and freedom around the world.

...while this is a nicely written (albeit brief) commemoration and the people who died do indeed deserve some form of public remembrance for the role they played in serving our nation and their untimely deaths, i am left with the questions:
why did president bush decide to give this to them on the 6th anniversary, but not on the 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd or, even, 1st? why is it suddenly so important that we remember them 6 years after the fact, but not before? the 6th year is an odd one in which to begin, don't you think? that this year is a year of mid-term elections and, at this time, most pundits and polling groups are predicting serious losses for the republicans in the House and Senate shouldn't play a role in bush's newly-found respect for those who died on the U.S.S. Cole, right?
perhaps, bush has been too busy saving our country from terrorist attacks during the previous years.
perhaps, bush wanted to do something for them in previous years, but the budget was too tight in light of the money being spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
perhaps, he was being compassionate and didn't want to bring it up so that bill clinton wouldn't look bad.
perhaps, he just forgot. it happens.
but perhaps, it's one more ruse of his and karl rove's and dick cheney's to keep us scared, to keep us thinking that without him, karl and dick we wouldn't be free right this very second, that if they weren't so hellbent on raising fences and barriers and dropping diplomacy and cooperation we would be living under the veil (as it were).
perhaps, he remembered, because he was told to. because he needs to be out front rallying the voting base. because it may be the only way in which he can be seen as helping his party to retain power even as his approval ratings plummet and more and more soldiers die for they know not what.
perhaps, it's time to vote.

Oh, screw the Fresno Fair. now, THIS is fun stuff. at today's White House press briefing, Tony Snow laid down some thick brown fog...if you get my drift:
“We're making progress,” he replied. “I don't know. How do you define ‘winning’? The fact is, in taking on the war on terror -- let me put it this way, the President has made it obvious, we're going to win. And that means, ultimately, providing an Iraq that is safe, secure, and an ally in the war on terror. And at any given time, as you've seen in previous wars, there are going to be spikes in violence. And it is natural for Americans who have -- really are probably the most empathetic people on the face of the earth, to feel deeply the loss of those who have given their lives in battle.”
(huh? i'm not so sure i'd define the American people as the most empathetic on Earth. maybe spoiled, lazy, entitled and naive, but not so much empathetic past the tip of our collective nose. and empathy is defined by one source as meaning:
"The imaginative projection into another's feelings, a state of total identification with another's situation, condition, and thoughts. The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without explicitly articulating these feelings".
well. thirdly, former president bill clinton was badly maligned by the republican party and all conservatives in general for uttering the words "i feel your pain". does this mean that in the 1990's we weren't empathetic? but now suddenly we are? somehow over the last ten years we have become able to understand what it's like to be bombed daily, to have our families dragged out and executed by those who used to be our neighbors and buy from our stalls? we now know what it's like to live under an occupying military and wonder if we're going to be called a terrorist by someone else in order for them to freed by their captors? somehow, i think not)

Q That's the proposition that the White House put out there, that as they [the Iraqi government] stood up, violence would come down, and we'd stand down.
MR. SNOW: As part of our constant adjustment, let me just add that apparently, the terrorists have also decided not to stand down. They've got to stand down.
(so, the terrorists have to stand down, the Iraqi government has to stand up and then WE can stand down? when did the terrorists get invited to this game of musical chairs? and what's with "constant adjustment"? kind of sounds like "we have no fucking clue what we're doing")
and while the standing up and standing down goes up and...well, up, the newest round of peace talks in Iraq have been cancelled as Sunnis and Shiites continue to massacre one another. heckuva job, georgie.
and now it seems that only 16% of Americans polled think that bush and company weren't lying about what they knew before 9/11 happened. 84% think that they lied or withheld info crucial to the terrorist hijackings. and that's only down 5% from 2002. so, we've been extremely cynical about bush and his for 4 years and still they are in power and every day increasing their hold on it and destroying our rights as citizens.
but, finally, good news from California (where only the fruits and nuts seem to grow in abundance according to most who don't live here): if this source is right, then you and i can request paper ballots when we vote on november 8. click on the link, then the pdf link within the story. hopefully, this plays out. i, for one, am mighty distrustful of electronic voting at the moment.

Fresno Fair

well, the Big Fresno Fair has come to its end yet once again. seems like every year they say it's over and, whatdayaknow, next october here it is again. just like a rolling stones' tour. or that fruitcake that's been sent between my familymates for the last century. hmmm, both are about as old.
and since it was the final day of ye olde faire i decided to accompany katie and do the do as it were.
we started off with a stroll through Kid's Town where the icky sticky reptiles were (gorgeous banded snakes, geckos, chameleons, tortoises and the like) and into which katie was a bit apprehensive about stepping. no worries, though, no one got bit...by a reptile, that is.
then, we marched over to the mammals enclosure where the hairy beasts were. unfortunately, mustang's pen was empty. but we did see the championship judging for pygmy goats, big-balled bulls, bunnies and guinea pigs. and we're talking serious ballage on the bulls. plus, they both had boners. we couldn't ascertain if it was merely an experimental college thing or they were truly sweet on each other

we completed the walkaround, (after visiting the mineral and gem building where i got these shots of mineral rocks under black light)

found beerocks and corn on the cob and prepared ourselves for the main event- horse racing and the losing of money thereon. we were very confident walking in. we'd done all of the homework we felt we needed to and had a good feel for the horses and jockeys (though i wasn't wearing any jockeys) and we immediately began laying down big dollars on the longshots.
as it turned out, sunday was not a day for longshots. until, of course, two races after we left at which time the longshot won and paid off huge. we did have one quick thrill, though, when the 38-1 came out of the last turn with a full length lead. at about that time the jockey (who just happened to be the ancient mariner in need of only a musket to look right at home at a Revolutionary War Old-Timers' Home) evidently decided he needed to make a can-and-string phone call and let all of the other horses pass him so he could hear better. and, yes lecram, once again i didn't wait to see which nag he was riding before placing my bet. personally, i believe he is the stable mucker and only rides the flesh that needs stat padding for a bigger stakes race. or the horse owners are so cheap they won't hire anyone under the age of dirt. or faster than glacial melt. i think the very rotund bugle blower could have beat him. on foot.
so, in my four years of pony betting i have now won a total of ONE time. and that was my very first bet ever. when i had no idea what i was doing. which doesn't seem to have changed. damn fun, though.

there a couple of other pictures, but blogger's not letting me upload them. i'll try again later so you can see the pint sized bronc buster and the deep-fried twinkie i was dared to eat.

hey, kids! wondering why the price of gas is suddenly falling in such a precipitous way? thinking that the new huge "find" of natural gas in the gulf is involved? or the supposed lessening of of the possibility of our attacking Iran or north Korea? think again.
as i believe was the case in 2004, this year it seems that the Saudis are helping out Bush et al in much the same way. remember, also, that when the price of oil was expected to surge all of the major oil companies bought hard in order to stockpile in the event that a much larger war was to begin, which would encompass all of the mid-east. that didn't happen and now they've got this glut of reserve and they're selling it off as fast as they can. so, while one of the leading experts is saying that $1.15 a gallon isn't out of the question, don't be surprised if the price of gas per gallon begins to stabilize after the november elections (depending on who wins...or not).
also, did anyone notice the most recent report on this year's national deficit, which is said to be much smaller than anticipated and the smallest in the last four years? did anyone, also, notice that social security loans are not included this time around? the administration decided that this year borrowed money shouldn't count as part of the deficit. it always had before, but not anymore. so, any monies borrowed from the social security funds is just that-borrowing with the intent to pay it back sometime in the future (no date specified).
and ain't a sex scandal grand? doesn't it help you focus that anger that seemed so spread out in oh so many directions and you couldn't begin to feel strongly one way or the other? and suddenly out steps this guy who was being nasty and bad and repugnant with teenagers and now you can get pissed again and it feels so goddam good, because it doesn't have the word "iraq" in it? or the word "torture"? or "lobbying"? or "terrorist" or "patriot act" or "eavesdropping" or "tax cuts for the rich" or "abramoff" or "Ohio" or "Florida" or "Minuteman" or "enemy combatant" or "collateral damage" or "pat tilman" or "jihad" or "bin laden" or "billoreillyrushlimbaughseanhannityanncoulter"?
no, sex and scandal are great! because it's easy and fun and we feel so morally superior to an actual living, breathing fuckhead. and he's ours. and he's gay. and he's an alcoholic. and he was buggered by a priest. not that i believe the last two. but he's someone we can look on and spit at, because he's in our backyard and he's done stuff we can look down upon.
it's so easy. and it's such a red herring. while he was being "outted" our congress made it legal for bush to continue torturing suspects and to arrest anyone he deems a threat to our country (be they terrorists or little white children) and to determine what exactly constitutes torture by our interrorgators. bush no loonger has to follow the geneva convention rules or any other international treaty we've signed. simple as that, we are a rogue nation which has announced itself as a true empire. we follow only those laws we deem acceptable and will create new laws to negate the older ones we no longer like.
i wonder if Rome saw it coming.

A Tipple or Two at VVV's

Tower Life

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. "President",
I believe that, based on your new Terror Detainee guidelines, I should be arrested for being a terrorist sympathizer. I know people of dusky descent who are not enamored of your pogrom to eliminate any and all who disagree with its provisions. I have stood up with those who protest our so-called "war on terror". I vote Democrat. I sometimes help to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. I support Planned Parenthood. I am active in the artistic scene and back gay and lesbian movements. I work to educate those who support you and your lies by reading and disseminating accurate reports and facts about said lies (which include: the war in Iraq and its insugency; your ignorance of Afghanistan and the resurgence of the Taliban; your disregard for the rest of the world's opinion of what you do at the expense of the rest of the world; your approval of military incursions to Iran; your protection for pedophiles, racists, mysogynists; your work to help big businesses (i.e. Halliburton) reap obscene profits at the expense of middle and lower class Americans).
So, in order to further your agenda for enriching those who need no further enriching and impoverishing those who can stand no more impoverishing, and to keep me and my kind from pursuing the truth about your empirical and hitlerian fantasies, i must ask you to arrest me and put me into an unknown and unseen prison without access to lawyers or information on which you based your decision. Otherwise, I will continue to debase your name and legacy and seek out those who will stand by me in denouncing your "messianic" zealotry.
You say that only history will judge your Presidency, but I say that you are being judged right now and you are being found wanting and in contempt of everything this country has ever stood for.
So, bring your Secret Service to my door. Bring the FBI or the CIA. Search my computer records and my mail and my credit card statements. Question my friends and associates. Make them think that I am a National Security risk. Bring it on, I say. Because, until you have arrested each and every one of us who denounce your "moral superiority" and your so-called "third religious awakening" and your call to another Crusade, you will never truly be a leader of a united country no matter what you say or your minions do. And remember that Hitler only unified his country by killing millions of the unwanted and disagreeing until he had only those who feared him so much that they would not speak out...until he was beaten and then they all wanted to spit on his corpse. You won't be so lucky. You will retire from politics and have to listen for the rest of your life about all of your lunacy and ludicrousness. And I can only hope that you will go to bed each night and remember the number of innocent people who were killed or maimed by your juvenile, kneejerk decisions.
There is a reason State and Religion were required by our Founding Fathers to remain separate. And it is because they knew the two were incompatible. They knew from experience what happens when the two mix. It's a big part of the reason they left Europe. For you to not remember (or disregard) that lesson is enough in and of itself to impeach you.
But I digress. As I said before, you should probably arrest me for being an American Insurgent. I think you are a disgrace to my country and have helped bring shameon it. And I will continue to tell people that and to offer them the facts refuting any and everything you say, because all you do is lie.

Pic Me

oh, just a random assortment of photos i've taken or been sent. all but the first one are of tower folk or taken in the tower.

sun and moon

promised myself i'd put these two photos up. the first is the space station and the space shuttle framed against the sun. notice how the shuttle is pointed up from our viewing aspect and the station may actually be upside down. the second is a color composite of the moon. yes, the moon does have these colors if you own access to a telescope powerful enough and patience beyond the longest shutter stop. i will see neither of these like this in my lifetime without the help of others.

it's nice to know that someone who can will share:

GetYourWarOn

my goodness i've been lazy. about 9 new pages of getyourwaron are available. so sorry. and if you don't know what getyourwaron is i advise starting from the beginning (as in page 1) so you can stop staring at my manly tee shirt in real wonder and start staring at my manly tee shirt, because i have great boobs.