Empire of dirt

Last night, half of us (Phil and Chris), along with two former Write Back Soon vocalists, Brain and Enron, attended the Nine Inch Nails/Jane's Addiction performance at the PNC Bank Arts Center. Really.

We were pretty psyched, cause we all like Nine Inch Nails (except Enron, who was just in it for Jane's Addiction) a lot. They are one of my favorite bands, since early high school. Fuck, those first three records are incredible - Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and The Downward Spiral. All amazing, and quite different from one another. The Downward Spiral is one of the most sonically and lyrically brutal records I have ever heard.

But none of us has ever gotten to see them, cause they always play huge places and tickets are a million dollars. The fact that Trent announced this as their last tour motivated us to go see them while we still could, knowing full well we would be kicking ourselves, and one another, were we to never see them.

So, armed with our $25 lawn seat tickets, we trekked to the Arts Center, in Holmdel, New Jersey. Getting there was easy enough. Once we got there, things got weird.

These types of performances are not the variety that any of us frequents. I haven't been to anything like this in years, since someone gave me tickets to see the Pyschedelic Furs, the B-52s and the Go Gos at the same venue in the year 2000. While my memories of it are not sharp, they are fairly fond. It was entertaining and not a stressful event.

I think we all went into this expecting something along the same lines, where we would stand on the grass and watch Nine Inch Nails and it would be cool.

Trying to park gave us our first indications that we had gotten ourselves involved with something unexpected. As we drove through/past lot after parked up lot of cars, we saw an unsettlingly large number of people pregaming, including one group of people congregated around a Hummer and blasting Soundgarden. Many of these people were already visibly/audibly trashed by 7:30. The tribal tattoos and sleeveless/rolled up shirts were plentiful, as well as a good number of men who judged shirts to be unnecessary. Just in the parking area, we saw a horrific collection of manly men and their bellicose, drunken attitudes. I suppose we should chalk this up to our naivety regarding "concerts" and the standard behavior that accompanies them, but none of us expected a crowd so heavily populated with these types.

The lengthy walk through the parking lots up to the entrance gates of the venue was further eye-opening in a likewise manner. We exchanged a good number of exclamatory "wow"s and wide-eyed, open-mouthed glances. Disbelief, I tell you.

As we arrived at the lines to pick up our tickets (We got will call, cause to be honest, I don't trust printing my tickets at home. It seems like it could cause avoidable problems.) and pass through the gates, it became dishearteningly apparent that we were indeed in an open-air bar, packed front to back, side to side with a good deal of the filthiest specimens of humanity. The whole night, we never became desensitized to the endless displays of depravity, baseness and indulgence. Similarly, we never became desensitized to the literal constant streams of smoke from tobacco, clove cigarettes and weed.

So many adults, a good number of them considerably older than any of us, acting as three year olds, their abilities to control themselves or to make any real decisions regarding doing so long thrown out the window. They were playing the part crafted for them by corporations and media so well, imbibing at the big concert. Getting wasted and seeing live music, even distantly on a screen, go hand in hand, they reveal in ads. I've never understood why, and no one has ever been able to explain why, outside of "fun." I'd rather remember what I did and paid for. Nearly everyone we encountered was smoking or drinking something. And just like the disgusting "punks" in the basement, they weren't just drinking, they were getting wasted.

Intoxicant consumption aside, holy fuck were these people trashy. Where do they keep them during the day? I wish I had a camera to document these sights. We felt like anthropologists, on an excursion into a strange culture.

There was this guy behind us wherever we went who was raging HARD the whole time. He did a good job of being a metal stereotype, with long, black frizzy hair, a Cattle Decapitation shirt, cutoff shorts and boots. He was also remarkably drunk. He was behind us in line, he showed up behind us while watching Nine Inch Nails, and then when I moved because I did not fancy him hitting me from behind while standing on a hill, he came and stood in front of me. My, was he a waste. He was going off all by his lonesome during the "hard" songs or whatever (Mr Self Destruct, Reptile, March of the Pigs), and doing so in an irresponsible manner. I had very little tolerance for this behavior and the two times he fell down, Phil and I not only refused to help him up, we held him down for a little bit. Thankfully, his girlfriend had the clarity to see that he was causing problems for himself and kept chilling him out whenever he would get too rowdy. I really did not want to get in a fight or whatever, but god was this guy a shitbag. I decided that I was done after the second time he crashed into us and contemplated the potential outcomes of either grabbing hold of his hair while he tried to thrash about in an otherwise placid crowd or kneeing him in the back while he fell down. I suppose that it's much better that it didn't come to that, as I really just wanted to see Nine Inch Nails and be left alone.

Adding a vile layer of shit into the spectacle we were temporarily living, this woman, also in front of us, and directly next to Metal Manic, insisted upon relentlessly grinding on her visibly uncomfortable and unenthused friend. They were both drunk, but Grinder seemed to handle her alcohol quite poorly. For at least the first half of Nine Inch Nails' one hour and forty-five minute set, she did not look in the direction of the stage once, instead grinding on her friend, yes, to Nine Inch Nails, mouthing random lyrics and pointing to her friend whenver a pronoun like "you" or "she" would come up, all the while holding her beer as far skyward as her arm would allow, like a hard-earned trophy. For some reason, Grinder moved on to a guy next to them, who, on the other hand, was VERY enthusiastic. He wouldn't keep his hands off of her once that started and very clearly was trying to get her to hang around for a bit longer than the end of the performance. He got real bummed when she got bored with him and started up with another guy, staring at her the whole time. I thought that Grinder and her first friend were about thirty-five, but Brain informed me that he went to high school with her, making her no older than twenty-three. Wow. He said he knew that he was doing something right in life, by virture of her failure to recognize him. Not only that, but they didn't even offer us any of the joint they were passing around. Man, how selfish.

Perhaps by now you have forgotten that I am writing about seeing Nine Inch Nails, or that I didn't really pay attention. I did, I swear. It's just that the above situations were in my direct line of sight, and were impossible to ignore.

Nine Inch Nails though, they were fantastic. So tight. They are a very "professional" band who clearly rehearse relentlessly and have everything down well beforehand. Long gone are the days of chaos where Trent would trash a keyboard mid-song or throw a mic stand at the drummer. Not a lick of that. They played, played well, and played hard. They were pretty relentless, going song after song. Not a whole lot of breaks in there. Also, they are a smaller band than I have seen on film over the years - Trent, a guitar player, a drummer, and a bassist. A four piece.

Also, as you can see up top, Trent is fucking ripped now, if you didn't know. From what I understand, he was basically at death's door a few years back, living on drugs. It seems that, at some point, he said "I'm forty, time to knock this shit off and get jacked." And damn, did he. Barely has a neck anymore. Good for him. Strange turn of events, though.

So anyway, they finished with Hurt (which was accompanied by a sea of cell phones recording it) and on went the lights. We left RIGHT fucking quickly. I love Jane's Addiction, but I wasn't too into seeing them anyway, as they broke up eighteen years ago. It's kind of after the fact now. I'm not one for reunions, generally. However, I was open to the prospect of sticking around if they were good, but we couldn't take being there any longer. ANY longer. We left immediately, and boy did it feel good. Ron though, he stayed and watched, getting a ride back with another friend. That was the whole reason he went, you know? He said that they played well, Perry Farrell talked about being wasted (quite an accomplishment for a fifty year old man) and the crowd was only a hair less shitty.

All said, we were quite glad that we went. It was totally worth it. We finally got to see Nine Inch Nails. Sure, it wasn't under the best circumstances, but there haven't really been great circumstances under which to see that band in a long fucking time.

Misery Hangs Over Gaza Despite Pledges of Help

Gaza is fucked. Thanks to the New York Times for this profound insight:

Dozens of families still live in tents amid collapsed buildings and rusting pipes. With construction materials barred, a few are building mud-brick homes. Everything but food and medicine has to be smuggled through desert tunnels from Egypt...

Four months after Israel waged a war here to stop Hamas rocket fire and two years after Hamas took full control of this coastal strip, Gaza is like an island adrift. Squeezed from without by an Israeli and Egyptian boycott and from within by their
Islamist rulers, the 1.5 million people here are cut off from any productivity or hope...
There are tens of thousands of educated and ambitious people here, teachers, engineers, translators, business managers, who have nothing to do but grow frustrated. They cannot practice their professions and they cannot leave. They collect welfare and smoke in cafes. A United Nations survey shows a spike in domestic violence...

Many here are especially worried about the young. At a program aimed at helping those traumatized by the January war, teenagers are offered colored markers to draw anything they like, says Farah Abu Qasem, 20, a student of English translation who volunteers at the program.

“They seem only to choose black and to draw things like tanks,” she said. “And when we ask them to draw something that represents the future, they leave the paper blank.”

No surprises there, and I'm not really sure why this story has been deemed headline worthy. I don't think it would have occurred to me to mention it, were it not for the deep irony in the juxtapostion of headlines.

Consider the New York Times headline, above, with this one from the same day - "Despite No Links to Violence, Founders of Muslim Charity Sentenced to Lengthy Terms for Donations to Needy Palestinians in Occupied Territories." That one is from Democracy Now!, a long-running and well-regarded independent media outlet from New York. Here's a synopsis of what happened:

Five founders of the Holy Land Foundation, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity, have received prison terms of up to sixty-five years on charges of supporting the Palestinian group Hamas. The five were never accused of supporting violence and were convicted for funding charities that aided needy Palestinians. The government’s case relied on Israeli intelligence as well as disputed documents and electronic surveillance gathered by the FBI over a span of fifteen years.

I think that might be part of the reason that, as a Palestinian man stuck living in Gaza said, “Right after the war, everybody came — journalists, foreign governments and charities promising to help,” said Hashem Dardona, 47, who is unemployed. “Now, nobody comes.” It's hard when they're shut down and locked up. That type of persecution sets a heavy example for others who would wish to do the same things.

Of course, we can never neglect to remember the fact that Israel is a piece of shit terror state run by fanatics with hardons for war: "in an effort to squeeze Hamas, Israel rations aid daily, allowing in about 100 trucks of food and medicine. Military officers in Tel Aviv count the calories to avoid a disaster." Brilliant. The pig fucks count calories of food rations going into Gaza so that not too many Palestinians starve or suffer malnutrition. I'm sure they thank their Israeli masters for that every day. I know I would.

Let's make that very plain: Israeli military commanders decide how much food people in Gaza are allowed to have. They decide when they can have it, and what kinds. Were they in such a mood, they could decide that Gazans get no food. What would happen? People would starve. Israel would face "international diplomatic pressure." The Israeli government would show no remorse or compunction and would surely blame those who died. In short, nothing would change. I wonder where "terrorism" comes from.

In Gaza, you have no control. You are controlled by shitbags of all stripes above you. And they pull those strings tight.

Fantasy pig world

Holy shit. I realize that most other people don't view the police like I do, but at the same time, it's shocking to see how highly people regard pigs and what they will tell you does not go on behind closed doors, or when video cameras aren't around, for that matter. Check this Supreme Court decision handed down today, about how the police can start asking questions without your lawyer:

Writing for the court majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said there was little if any chance a defendant will be badgered into waiving the right to have counsel present during police-initiated questioning.

Who actually believes that? Insane. Completely insane. The police will not hassle you? They will not try to do things that are inconsistent with the law? Then why the fuck did they make this part of the law today?

Now it's on you to invoke your right to an attorney, officially. The pig fucks can start in on you right away, legally. WHAT THE FUCK.

Arms Sent by U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands

As opposed to a few years back, when they were sent by the U.S. and put into Taliban hands. The article completely ignores that point, that Americans are fighting a force that the CIA funded, armed and trained. Fucking brilliant. Forget the past, they tell us every day. But remember the parts that serve them well, like 9/11. That one, you're supposed to never forget. You know? As though they'd let you forget anyway.

From the New York Times today:

KABUL — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.

Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces, according to an examination of ammunition markings by The New York Times and interviews with American officers and arms dealers.

Haha, pretty good contribution to the spectacle.

Paying sweatshop wages at American embassies

I guess government jobs are regarded pretty well here. Good benefits, job security, lots of days off compared to most other jobs, decent pay. Not so in the rest of the world.

Foreign nationals working for the American government in foreign lands get paid shit, says the State Department. Three to four dollars a day doesn't go far anywhere:

...some lower-grade foreign nationals who work for the State Department earn so little that they must cut back to one meal a day and send their children out to peddle on the streets.

This is comparable to what you hear about Nike factories or whatever. Except those Nike factories are maybe just in Honduras or Malaysia. American embassies are in approximately 170 countries. I bet the government could loosen up some money to pay its shitworkers a bit better if it ended a war or two.

Don't tase me bro!!

I'm just a stuffed animal.

Watch as ten police come together and collectively decide to unload on a plush cougar.

Thanks for the swine flu, you sadistic fucks

What do you know, swine flu has been hanging around for over thirty years in factory pig farms.

Over decades, H1N1 evolved in pigs into a mild, purely swine flu, and became genetically fairly stable. In 1976, there was an outbreak of swine H1N1 in people at a military camp in New Jersey, with one death. The virus did not spread efficiently, though, and soon fizzled out...

We could have seen this coming, though. This type of virus emerged in the US in 1998 and has since become endemic on hog farms across North America. Equipped with a suite of pig, bird and human genes, it was also evolving rapidly...

But in 1998, says Richard Webby of St Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, swine H1N1 hybridised with human and bird viruses, resulting in "triple reassortants" that surfaced in Minnesota, Iowa and Texas. The viruses initially had human surface proteins and swine internal proteins, with the exception of three genes that make RNA polymerase, the crucial enzyme the virus uses to replicate in its host. Two were from bird flu and one from human flu. Researchers believe that the bird polymerase allows the virus to replicate faster than those with the human or swine versions, making it more virulent...

Thankfully, swine flu has been dutifully ignored over the years, so you can worry about American Idol instead.

The swine flu virus has been a serious pandemic threat for years, New Scientist can reveal - but research into its potential has been neglected compared with other kinds of flu.

I guess the fact that it's tied directly to multibillion dollar death house operations has gotten in the way of "scientists" (if they were really scientists and gave a fuck about their progress and helping people, they wouldn't be so dominated and pushed around by business) researching it. Can't harm industry. That's cardinal rule number one of capitalism, our political system.

And yes, industry seems like the place to put all of this blame. The Independent reports on what's going on in a small town in Mexico desecrated by a monstrous pig death factory in its midst:

Downwind of Xaltepec – where 15,000 squealing hogs are squeezed into 18 warehouses – residents of La Gloria blame Smithfield, Luter's firm, for an outbreak of respiratory problems that swept the town last month, killing two children. Now with Mexican authorities identifying a four-year-old from the town, Edgar Hernandes, as one of the first-known cases of swine flu, furious residents believe that they are ground zero of a pandemic threatening the world. The very suggestion has sent a shudder through the ranks of campaigners who have long argued that the sort of industrialised pig farming that has turned Smithfield into one of the most powerful corporations in the US, with a market value of $1.4bn, was a disaster waiting to happen...

Starting in February, one in six of the 3,000 residents reported health problems. The government initially dismissed the spike as a late-season rise in ordinary flu, but by April, health officials sealed off the town and sprayed chemicals to kill the flies that residents said were swarming about their homes...

The reports of swarming flies, terrible smells and pictures of rotting pigs left scattered around the perimeter of its industrialised pig farms in Mexico are echoes of the concerns that have long been troubling environmental activisits, campaigning against Smithfield in all the countries in which it operates, not least in the US. Critics say that – even on top of any questions about the humane treatment of the pigs – the sheer quantities of manure that have to be disposed of when thousands, or tens of thousands, of animals are housed together make it impossible to run this business in a safe way.

The manure is collected in a lake underneath the pig pens and then washed into giant pools or lagoons. It is eventually sprayed on nearby fields, but the lagoons have a habit of leaking or flooding.

This company has a history of destroying the areas in which it conducts its reprehensible operations, and doing so with a profound disregard for any outcomes. Money rules. Always.

In 1997 Smithfield was fined $12.6m for violation of the federal Clean Water Act. Its most recent financial reports show it is being sued in Missouri by residents near a facility there who accuse it of being a public nuisance, while a farm in Pennsylvania is under federal investigation over releases into the local water in 2007.

The other risk, scientists say, of concentrating so many pigs together is the risk of diseases spreading fast, a problem that farmers overcome by pumping the livestock full of vaccines and other drugs. In 2007 an outbreak of swine flu at its farms in Romania cost the company $13m.

Twelve million dollar fine. That's nothing. That's like taking twelve dollars from someone who has a thousand. Twelve thousand from someone who has a million. It's nothing.

Trashing the planet to trash the planet

Thankfully, and with a great deal of foresight, Russia is constructing five floating and submersible nuclear power plants in the Arctic, so that they may drill for petroleum. There are no problems that could arise from this decision. Russia has an excellent history of nuclear safety and consideration for the natural world. The world needs the gas and oil deposits they may find, so that we may continue hemorraghing safe, non-toxic fumes and chemicals into the air, water and land. These deposits must be extracted at any cost, and Russia is the country for the job.

Here are some asinine things environmentalists have to say about this glorious achievement:

"It is highly risky. The risk of a nuclear accident on a floating power plant is increased. The plants' potential impact on the fragile Arctic environment through emissions of radioactivity and heat remains a major concern. If there is an accident, it would be impossible to handle," said Igor Kudrik, a spokesman.

Environmentalists also fear that if additional radioactive waste is produced, it will be dumped into the sea. Russia has a long record of polluting the Arctic with radioactive waste. Countries including Britain have had to offer Russia billions of dollars to decommission more than 160 nuclear submarines, but at least 12 nuclear reactors are known to have been dumped, along with more than 5,000 containers of solid and liquid nuclear waste, on the northern coast and on the island of Novaya Zemlya.

They are crazy people who hate progress and worship at the altar of Howard Dean.

Eating meat still kills you

And makes you sick and unhealthy for a long time before you die. And trashes the planet. From the New York Times last week:

The increase in mortality risk tied to the higher levels of meat consumption was described as “modest,” ranging from about 20 percent to nearly 40 percent. But the number of excess deaths that could be attributed to high meat consumption is quite large given the size of the American population.

Extrapolated to all Americans in the age group studied, the new findings suggest that over the course of a decade, the deaths of one million men and perhaps half a million women could be prevented just by eating less red and processed meats, according to estimates prepared by Dr. Barry Popkin, who wrote an editorial accompanying the report.

To prevent premature deaths related to red and processed meats, Dr. Popkin suggested in an interview that people should eat a hamburger only once or twice a week instead of every day, a small steak once a week instead of every other day, and a hot dog every month and a half instead of once a week.

Hahaha, hot dog every month and a half. That's great.

Anyway, the kinds of meat you eat don't change much:

In place of red meat, nonvegetarians might consider poultry and fish. In the study, the largest consumers of “white” meat from poultry and fish had a slight survival advantage.

Big surprise:

Likewise, those who ate the most fruits and vegetables also tended to live longer.

I wonder when people will get it. I mean, you tell people, you show them so clearly that they are destroying themselves with what they eat, but most won't change. How profoundly stupid - to intractably eat things that ruin us. We will not be moved. What are we proving to anyone? "I don't take advice from anyone. I won't consider anything you say." Great mindset. Nothing positive, that's for sure.

You can also show people, as has been done quite often, especially in the last few years, that their diets absolutely decimate the entire planet on which they and their children live:

Anyone who worries about global well-being has yet another reason to consume less red meat. Dr. Popkin, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, said that a reduced dependence on livestock for food could help to save the planet from the ravaging effects of environmental pollution, global warming and the depletion of potable water.

“In the United States,” Dr. Popkin wrote, “livestock production accounts for 55 percent of the erosion process, 37 percent of pesticides applied, 50 percent of antibiotics consumed, and a third of total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus to surface water.”

But that won't do much either. At least it doesn't seem to. It's nearly unfathomable how much we waste in the pursuit of self-destruction. You can't free range egg your way out of this one. What will it take?

Meat's not neat

Farm Sanctuary just put out a report blowing up common ideas of animals whose confinement is labeled as as free range and organic. This is a big deal these days. Everyone wants grass-fed this and hormone-free that. Below are some hilights from it. What it comes down to is that no one has the right to dictate how other creatures live and die. All of the animals that people use for food are thinking, feeling creatures. That's fact. The only people who outright deny that are those in the businesses of animal exploitation. There is no way to justify our dominance and their misery, outside of might and because we can. Not great reasoning to stand upon. They have the same right to a decent life as you and I.

The Truth Behind The Labels:
Farm Animal Welfare Standards and Labeling Practices

Report Summary:

The USDA's Role in Product Labeling & Marketing Claims

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allows various product labels to be used on meat, dairy and eggs, including “cage free,” “free range,” “free roaming,” “pasture raised,” “grass fed,” “organic,” “natural,” and “naturally raised.” Many of these terms have vague, informal working definitions, and in most cases compliance is not verified through on-site audits. The agency approves labeling claims on meat and poultry products based on testimonials and documentation supplied by producers, with a couple of exceptions: the USDA does verify “cage free” conditions for egg-laying hens and “certified organic” conditions for all farm animal species.

Farmers are not required to provide “cage free” laying hens with access to the outdoors. Often, hens are crowded by the thousands into large barns where each bird is allotted approximately one square foot of space.

“Free range” birds raised for meat often lead lives very similar to their factory farmed counterparts. They may be crowded by the thousands into factory-like warehouses with no flock size limits, and the outdoor area may be little more than a barren dirt lot that is difficult for them to access.

“Natural” and “naturally raised” labels have little or no impact on animal welfare, and can be applied to products from animals raised in unnatural factory farm conditions. The “natural” label on animal products applies only to how meat, dairy and eggs are processed, and it has nothing to do with how the animals are treated when alive. The “naturally raised” claim is a misnomer, merely requiring that the animals be raised without antibiotics, animal by-products or synthetic growth promoters.

The “organic” label requires that all animals be given “access” to the outdoors, and that ruminants (i.e. grazing animals) have “access” to pasture. “Access” is not defined however, and as with free range requirements, the outdoor area may be unappealing and difficult for individual animals to reach. Organic mega-dairies have utilized loopholes in government standards to confine cows in factory farm conditions. Challenged by organic food advocates, the USDA has moved to clarify standards for pasture access.

...Agribusiness has produced standards that basically codify existing cruel practices and fail to improve farm animal welfare. A handful of third-party programs initiated by food retailers and animal welfare advocates have created programs to disallow some of the worst affronts to animal well-being. But programs affecting the most animals have the lowest standards and even the highest welfare standards can not eliminate suffering that is inherent to all forms of animal agriculture.

When animals are seen primarily as production units or commodities for sale – whether by factory farms or so-called “humane” operations – the animals’ welfare tends to be secondary to economic concerns.

Farm Sanctuary has learned from more than two decades caring for rescued farm animals, that when given the opportunity, family units stay together. However, when animals are raised for food under any conditions, most are denied familial relationships. Chicks are ordered from hatcheries and shipped via the postal service. (Male chicks born at egg hatcheries are killed after sexing as they are considered of no use to the industry.) Dairy calves are removed from their mothers so that the milk their mothers biologically produce for them can be marketed to humans. Lambs and piglets are weaned and removed from their mothers to be fattened for slaughter...

NO BONES NO BLOOD IN OUR KITCHEN

Anyone who knows us, man, they KNOW we got no bones no blood in our kitchen. Fuck no.

Kind of makes me want to go to Jamaica.

They won't leave Assata alone

I don't really get it. I suppose it's a combination of patriotism, the blind worship of police, racism, the hatred of all things radical, sexism, and some other things. Whatever the case, there are some (maybe more?) people who are so fucking fervent about Assata Shakur being recaptured. She's been in Cuba for twenty-five years. A few years back, in 2005, the state of New Jersey upped the reward for her capture to $1 million. The same day, the FBI put her on a "domestic terrorist watch list." Domestic terrorist. Living in Cuba since 1984/85. Convicted of shooting a cop. Lots of people shoot cops, but I don't think any of them has ever been deemed a terrorist before.

So now some people, the types who subscribe to/create/maintain the attitudes I mentioned at the top of this post, like politicians and police, are saying that if Barack Obama wants to cool things out with Cuba, then he has to arrange to have Assata sent back here. As usual, these people have media outlets doing their work for them.

This particularly troubling article, written by a man who is evidently quite conservative and at a minimum, fairly racist, does so much vile propagandizing for the masters. It's filled with so many problems. It's hard to determine where to start. Here are a few:

• "Then, four years ago, the State Police increased the American bounty on her once-Afro'd head to $1 million..."


• "Chesimard has reared her head now and then -- at times, it seems, to thumb her nose at the United States -- offering interviews to Newsday, among others, and writing books." - Reared her head? Why is she thumbing her nose by talking? I'm sure Newsday had a real black liberation agenda in mind when they put that piece together.


• "Authorites eluded convictions in several crimes in the early 1970s, including shootings, a bank holdup and a hand-grenade attempt that blew up a police car." - I'm pretty sure "eluded" is not really the right word choice for what he's trying to say, but his point is fucked nonetheless: this guy writes like he knows better than anyone, like he was there. They are not accusations, but "crimes" that she got away with. And what the hell is "a hand-grenade attempt that blew up a police car."? This guy cannot get his head around the idea that she didn't do these things.


• "She's been living under political asylum in Cuba the past 35 years. " She wasn't convicted until 1977. That's 32 years ago. Didn't make it to Cuba until 1984 at the earliest.


• "At trial, Harper (cop) said that Foerster (dead cop) reached into the vehicle, pulled out and held up an automatic pistol and ammunition clip, and said 'Jim, look what I found,' while facing Harper at the rear of the vehicle." - Why would someone do that? "Hey, I found some bullets in the car, I'm not gonna pay attention to the people in it for a little bit." That would never happen, unless you were the literal dumbest pig.


• "Harper testified that Acoli shot Foerster with a .38 caliber automatic pistol and then used Foerster's own gun to 'execute him.'" Harper also later testified that he lied.


• "Chesimard was caught five miles down the road across from the Joyce Kilmer Service area." - He doesn't tell you the part that she was near death in the back seat of the car, having been shot in the back.


• "Under cross-examination, Shakur was unable to explain how three clips of ammunition and 16 live shells had gotten into her shoulder bag." - That's a tough case to crack, huh?

Then the fool blows his case at the end by having to admit a fact - "Jurors convicted Chesimard as an accomplice in the murders of both Foerster and Shakur -- more than enough for the state of New Jersey, which penalizes such convictions with life prison terms." Yup. She got life for being at the scene. Not for doing anything.
Here are some points to consider, as related by one of her lawyers, Evelyn Williams:

The forensic evidence examined by both the New Jersey crime laboratory in Trenton, New Jersey and FBI crime laboratories in Washington, D.C. established the following:

1. The finger print analyses of every gun and every piece of ammunition found at the scene showed there were no fingerprints of Assata found on any of them. (The official analyses admitted into evidence) 

2. Neutron Activation Analysis taken immediately after Assata was taken to the hospital that night showed there was no gun power residue on her hands. Effectively refuting the possibility that she had fired a gun. (The official analyses were admitted into evidence) 

3. As a result of the bullet Harper shot under her armpit, while her arms were raised in, her median nerve was severed, immediately paralyzing her entire right arm, shattering her clavicle, and lodging in her chest so close to her heart that an operation to remove it was not feasible. A neurologist testified to that fact at the trial.

4. A pathologist testified that “There is no conceivable way that the bullet could have traveled over to the clavicle if her arm was down. That trajectory is impossible.”

5. A surgeon testified that “it was anatomically necessary that both arms be in the air for Ms. Chesimard to have received the wounds she did.”The state offered no expert witnesses to refute this medical testimony.

6. Photographs depicting the gunshot entry wound under her armpit and the entry would of the bullet Harper shot into her back were admitted into evidence during the trial.

The entire document is too long to post here, at three or four pages, but is totally worth a read. If nothing else, it can give you counterpoints, SOME kind of balance against this sensational trash making her out to be some kind of warlord or whatever.
She's in Cuba. She's been there for a long time. The Cuban government welcomes her and provides her with protection. If she did it, why would she still be saying that she didn't?

if anyone who worked there was going to kill themselves successfully, it was going to be him. not because i ever thought he would, but if he tried, he would do it right. he did everything right. all the time. i am thinking back to times i cut myself on cardboard or glass or a razor - he'd break a cigarette open and cover the wound with tobacco. i didn't know why he did this, i didn't care, i trusted him. if you had a headache, he could massage it out of your body. and you wouldn't have to ask him to. fuck. he left a note. it was vague. no one understands. but i think i do.

Sonar blasts, deaf dolphins

Shocking. So, it turns out, that directing really loud bursts of sonar at dolphins makes them deaf. Keeping in mind that sonar is how dolphins hear, this is astonishing. That would be the equivalent of loud noises, like explosions or amplified music damaging human hearing. Unthinkable.

Very loud, repeated blasts of sonar can cause a dolphin to temporarily lose its hearing, according to an investigation into a suspected link between naval operations and cetacean strandings.

Numerous beachings of whales, dolphins and porpoises have occurred over the past decade, prompting a finger of blame to be pointed at warship exercises.

A theory is that the mammals' hearing becomes damaged by the powerful mid-frequency sonar used by submarines and surface vessels, prompting the creatures, which themselves use sound for navigation, to become disoriented.

What a theory it is! Kudos to these scientists for conceptualizing an experiment in which captive dolphins are subjected to sonar until they become deaf. Don't worry though, it didn't hurt them at all, it just made them freak out and temporarily lose their hearing. I know I would not be concerned if I became deaf for a period.

Marine biologists led by Aran Mooney at the University of Hawaii exposed a captive-born, trained Atlantic bottlenose dolphin to progressively louder pings of mid-frequency sonar.

The experiment took place in open water pens at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and in the presence of the dolphin's trainer.

The scientists fitted a harmless suction cup to the dolphin's head, with a sensor attached that monitored the animal's brainwaves.

When the pings reached 203 decibels and were repeated, the neurological data showed the mammal had become deaf, for its brain no longer responded to sound.

The deafness, though, was only temporary and the dolphin was not hurt in the experiment, said Mooney.

The hearing was typically restored after 20 minutes, and its loss only occurred after the dolphin was exposed to five rounds of noise. Each round comprised a block of three pings, with 24 seconds between each block.

Other sensors showed that the dolphin's breathing rose significantly when the sonar was turned on.

Fascinating. Again, as I am having a hard time grasping this, directing loud sonar frequency waves at dolphins is detrimental to them. Wow.

On the other hand, a cetacean that sought to escape a persistent loud sonar may not easily find an escape route, said Mooney.

"In the ocean, sound doesn't attenuate in a normal fashion. Sound can sometimes get trapped at the surface, in layers called thermoclines, at the top 325 feet or so.

"Maybe in those conditions it's more difficult to get away from the sound to a quieter area."

Yeah, maybe. 

Bye bye Arctic

Who cares. It's just a bunch of ice anyway. Ice sucks. You can't drive on it. And I get all the ice I need from my freezer. Plus the beach will get a lot closer to my house.

Some 80 percent of Arctic ice may disappear in 30 years, not 90 as scientists had previously estimated, according to a new study on the impact of global warming.

"The amount of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice at the end of summer by then could be only about 1 million square kilometers, or about 620,000 square miles," said researchers who authored the study published Thursday.

"That's compared to today's ice extent of 4.6 million square kilometers, or 2.8 million square miles," they added, warning the development "raises the question of ecosystem upheaval."

The scientists made their projections based on models that took accounted for changes in Arctic ice, which saw "dramatic declines" at the end of summer in 2007 and 2008, when the ice surface dropped to 4.3 and 4.6 million square kilometers (1.7 and 1.8 million square miles), respectively.

The models pointed to a "nearly ice-free" Arctic in just 32 years, with some of the models making the same prediction for 11 years from now.

Your meal is smart

Some of it can add. I bet much of the rest of it can too, as well as many other things we will never understand because we are too busy butchering, devaluing, commodifying and consuming.

Scientists from the universities of Padova and Trento demonstrated chicks' ability to add and subtract objects as they were moved behind two screens.

Lucia Regolin, an author of the study said the animals "performed basic arithmetic" to work out which screen concealed the larger group of objects...

In each of the mini maths tests, a chick watched from a clear-fronted holding box while one of the researchers slowly moved the balls behind the screens - three behind one screen and two behind the other.

The front door of the box was then opened, releasing the chick into the tiny arena, so it could walk around and select a screen to look behind.

"The chicks still approached the larger of the two groups first, even though they had to rely on memory to work out which screen to choose," said Professor Regolin.

Swapping the objects from one screen to another didn't fool the maths-performing chicks.

"In a further experiment, once we had hidden the balls behind each screen, we transferred some of them from one to the other," Professor Regolin explained.

The birds, she said, were able to "count" the balls that were moved to work out which screen hid the larger set at the end of the transfer.

"They still chose correctly - adding up the numbers based on groups of objects they couldn't see at that moment."

It is already known that many non-human primates and monkeys can count, and even domestic dogs have been found to be capable of simple additions.

But this is the first time the ability has been seen in such young animals, and with no prior training.

They're also really cute.

Bill Clinton - piece of shit

Lots of liberals and Democrats and whomever else love to remember Bill Clinton as a great guy, a really well-meaning president, and characterize his administration as a progressive one that will always be worthy of praise. Fuck that.

The Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman, and provides that states need not recognize the marriage of a same sex couple from another state.

These people are all the same.

Property destruction aimed at the state is not violence

I wanted to point that out because so often, in corporate news accounts of events like yesterday's G20 protests in London, the trashing of banks, government offices, multinational corporate locations or other capitalist redoubts is referred to as "violence." It is not. Breaking a window at a bank, spraypainting a police station or smashing up a McDonald's is not violence. Rather, violence emanates from these places.

Banks are the current hotspots of violence. How many people are unemployed, how many people have lost their houses or are on the verge of doing so because of investment bankers gone wild? You know about some of the debacles here, but the economy is global. Nothing that happens in America stays in America. Example:

RBS [The Royal Bank of Scotland] has been the focus of particular anger because it was bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. Still, its former chief executive Fred Goodwin — age 50 — managed to walk off with an annual pension of 703,000 pounds ($1.2 million) even as unemployment in Britain rises from some 2 million.

It has been often reported that the arm of AIG [American International Group] most responsible for their unpleasant financial state is based out of London. Those people are thumbing their noses and waving their pounds at America, refusing to return their bonuses.

When you cannot pay your rent, when your house has been foreclosed upon, when you try to find a job but there are none to be had, that is a direct result of violence.

"Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied," said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. "I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over."

Someone, or rather, a group of people, have done violence to you. How can I say that? Think about it. One of the definitions of violence is "an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws." Being unwillingly thrown into this economy, the least they can do is guarantee us a right to a job. And we certainly have a right to housing. It's enough that we work for you. The least you can do is give us a place to go at night. But these things are being taken away through deliberate means. They are being taken away because these capitalists are using their power to do so. The people running these institutions don't give a FUCK about those below them or how their actions affect the world. Money money money.

And the police, come on. They are violence incarnate. The only way they have any power is due to their monopoly on legal violence. When a cop tells you to move, you do it. Why? If not, you'll get shoved, hit, pepper sprayed or tasered. Violence. I do not believe that most people obey police out of respect. It's fear. Fear of violence.

Their physical violence, that's only the first step. Then they haul you off to jail, coerce you into paying bail money, extort court fees and fines and forcibly retain you in a prison. That's violence. If someone who were not a representative of the government ran you through a similar process, it would be felony kidnapping.

Property destruction can be violent though, but really only the other way around. When the police come in and trash your house, when they bust up your means to earn a living, that is violence. Most people don't have a way to easily replace those things. When banks that make billions a year and throw their executives seven figure bonuses take your house from you and leave you with nothing, that is violent. They send the police in to make sure you leave.

A window in Starbucks though, fuck. I do not have a way to quantify the financial insignificance of that. That company pulled in $10.4 billion last year. A broken window is far, far less than the equivalent of a penny to me. For fuck's sake, their insurance covers it anyway. And McDonald's? It drips with violence - against the planet, animals, and workers forced to take their shitty fucking jobs for no money out of desperation.

I'm sorry that I was racist at you, you are famous

Hello. My name is Robert Powell. My friend calls me Bob. Until today, I was a police officer in Dallas, Texas. Two weeks ago, I saw a vehicle, with hazard lights on, roll through a red light and several stop signs. When the driver got to the hospital, which is where he was going, I saw everyone in the car was black. GREAT. Can't I catch a break?

So as soon as they pulled up and parked, two women get out of the car and run into the hospital! You better believe I drew my gun, told them to get back in the car and show me their hands. They didn't listen and one of them told me her mother was dying inside. Glad none of my family voted for Obama.

Then the guy driving gets out, and HE tries to go inside too! I told him, while waving my gun around, not to move, and that if he didn't produce his insurance card, I was gonna have to lock him up. Boy, his attitude really sucked. He kept saying something about his mother-in-law dying inside, that she only had minutes to live.

Next thing you know, a nurse comes out and starts giving me the same guff. I ignored her as best I could, but then a fellow officer came and said the SAME thing! I knew better though. This perp needed to be handled. I did the best I could, kept him outside for thirteen minutes, wrote him a ticket and let him inside. Yeah, let him. I could have kept him longer if I wanted. He got lucky.

So here it is, a couple of weeks later, and everyone's goin wild about me doing my job. Even if they were going to the hospital to see her mother, his mother-in-law, before she passed, they broke the law. If they didn't violate our legal code, he wouldn't have been standing in the parking lot while she died. Not my fault. I didn't make him run that light. Once he did that, all bets are off. He's at MY mercy then. I could have hauled him in, and I should have, with his attitude.

Turns out this guy who was driving is a pro football player. Now everyone thinks he deserves special attention. They all say I should have let him go inside, I should have listened to him, there was no reason at all to pull my gun on his wife, I shouldn't have treated him like an animal, and so on. Ya hear me? HE WAS BLACK. And it was late.

Here's a video of me taking care of business with this perp. It's got a lot of my good lines in there. Even though it's dark out, you can still tell he's black.

So I've been suspended with pay for the last few weeks, and it's been great. I watch the TV all day and don't have to deal with all them scum. Reporters call all day, but I like talkin to em so they can find out what really happened. The chief though, he don't like it much. He says he understands, but that it makes the department look bad, so he made me quit today. Damn chief, I even apologized after people found out!

It's ok though, cause shit, I liked bein a cop, but I'm gonna downright LOVE bein a prison guard!

This past weekend

We played a show in Philadelphia on Friday at the Adobe Cafe. In our previous encounter, it was the scene of a strange convergence of a large number of drunk, angry and militantly apathetic people mostly wearing the same thing. This time around was quite different. No one was belligerently wasted, people watched bands, and not everyone was decked out in the same costume. Playing a show in a siege situation, such as our first appearance at the Adobe Cafe, is fun, but it's stressful. This was a welcomed change.

We got to see lots of friends, like Remainder and their tour entourage, as well as people like Jerry, with whom Todd and I used to play in a band, and Sarah, with whom I went to Rutgers the first time. Now Todd works with her and I know her again. It was really good to see these people, even though we didn't really spend much time together, with it being a show and all.

I really liked playing that show. I had a good time playing and felt confident about it. Our equipment sounded really good. Aside from the fact that we have good equipment, we recently repaired a bunch of it, so that helped us sound even better. It was nice having a p.a. that did something. We brought friends with us as well. The atmosphere was totally enjoyable and satisfying.

It's good to see Mikey, Jack and Welch playing music together again. They're quite good at it. I love Attrition, I loved seeing them, and it's been a long time since they played. Remainder is definitely not Attrition, but they definitely are good. I'm really glad I finally got to see them, as I was not able to make it down to their first couple of shows. They will be back soon, and I will go. Also, I predict us playing shows together.

Last night, half of us (Chris and Phil) plus our friend Aaron (Raza, Enron, Ron) went to see Converge at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. The initial plan was to get vegan cheesesteaks from Gourmet to Go and then hit the show, as we didn't care about the first two bands playing. We got there a bit late (6:30, the show started at 5), so we went to the show first to see what was going on. One band had played already and the second was about done. We immediately ran into friends Carni and Andy from DC. It was so rad and unexpected to see them there. We proceeded to hang out for the rest of the show.

Ceremony played third. Phil and I were pretty excited for this. They were bad. Real bad. I've seen them three times. The first time, they were sick. The second time, they were pretty good. This time, what the fuck. I don't even know. I own the band's entire recorded output and I did not recognize most of the songs they played last night. They still didn't replace the other guitar player and this is the third bass player I have seen in the band. He looks like Kim Thayil from Soundgarden. Ceremony were legit jamming on songs on stage. The singer said yesterday was his first day sober on tour. The guitarist was playing the star spangled banner at one point, for at least twenty seconds. Judging by what I could identify, they seemed to have played almost entirely newer songs.

After that, we dejectedly went to get our cheesesteaks. They were really good.

We came back in time for Converge to play. They played really well. They are pros. What can you say? They have basically the sickest drummer. Their set was comprised almost entirely of post-2000 songs, save for the requisite performance of "The Saddest Day." At least the songs they chose were mostly good, relying heavily on their last LP. And they didn't play that awful Ozzy song.

The show was over by 9:30, which was pretty rad, so we ran to catch Todd finishing up his shift at the Wooden Shoe. We hung out there for a bit, till they started closing up. Then we took off and were home by about 11:30.

I'd love to slap these people around

Another Discover article, this one about dogs dying in the Iditarod race. 45 degrees below zero. Over a thousand miles.

Rookie musher Timothy Hunt received the coveted Red Lantern Award for winning the 2009 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race yesterday, but the mood wasn't entirely festive at the finish line. Officials continue to investigate why six dogs died during or shortly after the grueling 1,049-mile journey from Willow to Nome, Alaska.

An average of around three dogs die each year during the race, though five were lost in 1997.

Chas St. George, director of public relations for the Iditarod, told Discovery News, "we must go through a process to investigate the deaths, and that is still taking place."

"Our goal is no deaths," he added. "There is nothing worse than to lose a dog, and we are all very sad about the losses."...

It's suspected that two other dogs, Grasshopper and Dizzy, died from hypothermia in -45 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. Musher Lou Packer, who owned the dogs, told the Anchorage Daily News that he felt ice forming under the skin of at least one dog before it died, but he said there was nothing he could do to help the animal.

Fuck every one of these people.

I have an idea on what he could have done to "help the animal." LEAVE IT ALONE. Don't force it to pull your stupid ass through the snow. Assholes.

Kill us while there is still time

What the FUCK. From Discovery.com:

It does a good job of killing termites and keeping bugs away from corn. But the pesticide sulfuryl fluoride is even better at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

A new study revealed that the pesticide lingers in the atmosphere for 36 years -- about eight times longer than scientists previously suspected. What's more, the gas is 4,800 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at holding in heat.

Make now, don't worry ever. That's the human policy. And it's ingrained in us.

Here's my impression of the human thought process:

"Oh wow, this stuff kills bugs real good. Let's use it to kill some bugs. On food. Yeah, let's spray it on things we're gonna eat. Then there won't be bugs on our food. Then we can eat food without bugs."

NOTICE THAT THERE IS NO CONCERN FOR WHAT IT WILL DO TO ANYTHING ELSE. AT ALL.

No concern, because we are profoundly shortsighted and in effect, fucking stupid. How could it possibly be so that putting insecticide all over the planet, on our food, on so many plants, into the soil, into the water, into the air, would be ok? How could that not come back at us? Would you spray Raid on your dinner every night? No, that's insane!

WHY

THE FUCK

DID

WE

DO

THIS

The twentieth anniversary of the Exxon Valdez crash/spill

March 24th, 1989 - the drunk captain of the oil tanker Valdez "left the bridge" of the ship under his command. The ship hit a reef and spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. Eleven million. 11,000,000. From Environment News Service, today:

The Exxon Valdez spill was one of the most worst environmental disasters in history. The spill covered over 10,000 square miles of Alaska’s coastline. Oil spread along 1,300 miles of shoreline, fouling a national forest, two national parks, two national wildlife refuges, five state parks, four state critical habitat areas, one state game sanctuary, and many ancestral lands for Alaska natives.

It killed hundreds of thousands of birds, marine mammals, fish, invertebrates; and disrupted the economy, culture, and livelihoods of coastal residents.

The cleanup took four summers and cost approximately $2 billion, according to a report by the state and federal governments...

In its newly issued 20th anniversary Status Report, the state and federal Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council lists only 10 of the 31 injured resources and services they monitor as “Recovered.” Ten more, including killer whales and sea otters are listed as "Recovering." Populations of Pacific herring and pigeon guillemots are listed as “Not Recovering.”

The most important species that is still experiencing significant problems is Pacific herring, an ecologically and commercially important species in Prince William Sound. They are central to the marine food web, providing food to marine mammals, birds, invertebrates, and other fish. Herring are also commercially fished for food, bait, sac-roe, and spawn on kelp.

Due to the decreased population, the Status Report states, the herring fishery in Prince William Sound has been closed for 13 of the 19 years since the spill and remains closed today.

So that's a bit of what the crash/spill did to the environment, as well as what it's still doing today.

What did it do to people? Ruined a lot of lives. What has Exxon done about that? Fought tirelessly to ensure that they do nothing to help anyone. About four months ago, they started paying out money to some of the 33,000 people who had sued them for remorselessly fucking up their lives. From the Anchorage Daily News, December 8th, 2008:

The millions of dollars Exxon Mobil Corp. has surrendered as punishment for the Prince William Sound oil spill have started hitting the streets, nearly 20 years after the disaster.

Several commercial fishermen who joined in the lawsuit against Exxon reported receiving direct deposits in their bank accounts Monday. Paper checks are expected to go out in the mail in the next week.

The payments mark the beginning of a process to distribute $383 million among nearly 33,000 commercial fishermen and other plaintiffs.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and Exxon continue to battle in court over whether the oil company owes interest on the punitive damages award. If so, the interest could roughly double the total payout.

$383 million to 33,000 people. Well, that sounds like a lot, yeah? No. An average of $11,600. A piss in the fucking ocean, that is. From the New York Times, June 26, 2008:

“This decision is a giant cold slap in the face,” said Garland Blanchard, 59, a third-generation fisherman who said he lost his marriage along with his two fishing boats, house, cat and dog to financial pressures caused by the spill. Mr. Blanchard expects to receive less than $100,000 from the settlement, down from the $1.2 million he had previously expected.

“Our lives and businesses have been destroyed, and we get basically nothing,” he said. “It’s pathetic.”

Local radio stations were just breaking news of the decision as Alicia Jensen opened the Killer Whale Café in Cordova, Alaska, at 6:30 Wednesday morning. Just as it has nearly every day for two decades, the spill and the legal case dominated customers’ conversations.

“This has been the primary focus of this town for most of my life,” said Ms. Jensen, 33, who owns the cafe. “I’m glad that it’s over, and everybody can get on with our lives.”

The City of Homer was prepared to place the $4 million to $5 million it was to receive in an endowment to help pay for social services, said Walt Wrede, the city manager. Now the city will receive a fraction of that amount.

Originally, Exxon was ordered to pay $5 billion, back in 1994. But their army of heartless lawyers worked very hard with corporate sympathizing judges to put off actually doing anything and have succeeded in continually reducing the payment to $383 million. I'm sure they feel like they lost, since they have to pay any amount at all. From the Anchorage Daily News, August 27th, 2008:

The Exxon case has been the source of soaring hopes and dashed dreams ever since an Anchorage jury in 1994 determined Exxon should pay $5 billion in punitive damages for the nearly 11 million-gallon oil spill.

Ever since the jury verdict, lawyers for the plaintiffs and Exxon have engaged in an marathon, ping-pong legal battle that went to the highest court in the land. Along the way, thousands of original plaintiffs have died waiting for payment.

Exxon argued all along that it paid billions of dollars to clean up the spill and compensate fishermen for their actual damages, and that billions in punitive damages weren't warranted.

Hey, Exxon already PAID money, man! Why are you trying to make them pay more, huh Karl Marx?? From the Anchorage Daily News, December 8th, 2008:

Exxon long held that it didn't owe punitive damages, arguing it already had spent $3.4 billion as a result of the spill including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines.

First, you cannot put a price on the destruction of the planet. You cannot put a price on ruined lives. You cannot put a price on direct responsibility for death. Those fucks should have been taken for all they had. Fuck this sham legal system. Who has been served here? Corporate capitalist interests, big fucking surprise.

Second, Exxon made $45.2 billion last year, destroying its own record for highest ever corporate profit, which it set way back in 2007, pulling in $40.6 billion.

The only reason this has happened is because we let them sleep safely.

No Animals were hurt in the making of this movie

Beating down free speech in Philadelphia

Brutal silencing of protestors at a Philadelphia city council meeting this past Wednesday. It may seem boring at first, but the length shows the escalation from relative calm to official violence. It really turned quickly. Some pig tries to push the guy's "Throw Nutter in the Gutter" sign away, the guy holding it resists, gets choked and pushes the pig off of him. One of the cops or whatever they are really loses it around 3:19. So violent. Now these two guys are in jail with felony charges against them for assaulting the police.

The Uhuru site says:

PHILADELPHIA, PA — On Wednesday, March 19, 2009, police attacked members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) in the gallery of the City Council during the City Council session where Mayor Nutter was announcing his 2010 budget. International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement members were holding signs protesting Mayor Nutter’s budget, which cuts essential services for the African population while spending more than one billion dollars a year for police and prisons attacking the black community. Subsequent to the police attack, InPDUM international organizer Diop Olugbala, (aka Wali Rahman), and member Shabaka Mnombatha, (aka Franklin Moses), were brutally arrested and are being charged with aggravated assault on police!

As the meeting started, some of the many InPDUM supporters present were holding up signs saying "Unite Philadelphia through Economic and Social Justice", "Jail Killer Police", "Stop the War on the Black Community", and other demands upholding the rights of the impoverished black community.

The meeting began with a resolution to recognize the unbeaten Frankford Chargers youth football team. The Chargers were wearing black armbands in memory of their teammate, 14-year-old Sharif Lee Jones, who was murdered by Philadelphia police on August 24, 2008.

As the team left the chambers, civil affairs police gathered behind the InPDUM organizers and demanded they immediately sit down and stop protesting. A Civil Affairs officer put Diop Olugbala into a chokehold. When Diop and the entire audience protested this attack, the police threw Diop and Shabaka down and arrested them.

During the violent attack, the police threw at least two elderly people to the ground, and another member of InPDUM, an elderly African woman, was taken to the hospital with a broken hip.

These cops, they aren't out of control. They're doing their job. That's why they're here.

Yesterday's deaths involving police

Did you hear about the four police who were shot in Oakland yesterday? Probably. If not, you will. As we've been told, this is an extraordinary, unthinkable tragedy:

The gunman was also killed Saturday, capping a day of violence that the Oakland Police Department said was the worst in its history. Never before had three police officers died in the line of duty on the same day.

"It's in these moments that words are extraordinarily inadequate," said Mayor Ron Dellums at a somber news conference Saturday night...

Grieving officers at the police station hugged and consoled each other. People left four bouquets of white roses under a granite memorial wall inside the building lobby that lists 47 officers killed in the line of duty. The wall shows the last officer killed in Oakland was in January of 1999...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to fly to Oakland on Sunday from Washington, D.C., to meet with police and Mayor Dellums, the governor's office said.

Also, yesterday, a drunk cop in Missouri, driving on the wrong side of the road, plowed into a car carrying five people, killing four of them instantly. Maybe you won't hear about this one. Don't worry though, the driver is in fair condition. Only the passengers died.

That is a profound tragedy - four people dying for nothing, dying because someone had to drink and drive. No provocation, no involvement, just traveling somewhere when they met the fullest force of irresponsibility.

The police who were shot in Oakland will surely be lionized, as you can already see. They are heros, they are servants, they are protectors, they will be names on an eternal wall of honor.

Will the police officer who took four lives and ruined a fifth, not by any accident, be derided as a massive piece of shit? Not by anyone who has a public voice, that's for sure. Just as the police in Oakland console themselves, will the police in Sunset Hills viciously lambast Chrissy Miller for her utter lack of concern for the public she swore to protect? She committed one of the ultimate betrayals of her stated duties, but here we see the police chief defending her.

The people who died in that car, they will be ashes in a wall, caskets in a cemetery. We'll forget them tomorrow.

ONE FUCKING BANK

Speaking of banks and finances, this will never get old.

Do you have a problem with welfare?

I do. Those lazy welfare cheats get too much of your paycheck, huh? Yeah. Sitting around all day, doing nothing, getting paid for it. They live better than you and me man, I tell ya. They are so irresponsible. They just expect people to hand them money. Even worse, they're right! They make bad decision after bad decision and get rewarded for it. It's so insulting. Count the numbers.

Citi - $45 billion

AIG - $170 billion (some older articles reference $85 billion, but that was just round one)

Wells Fargo - $25 billion

Bank of America - $45 billion

JP Morgan Chase - $25 billion

 

$310 billion, the bulk of it since October. Billions more to come, out of that $787 billion bailout fund. What do people get a year? Real people, people on government aid because they don't have money, because they can't afford food, because they can't find jobs, because there simply are no jobs for them to find? In 2006, the federal government paid out about $20 billion dollars in cash and non-cash benefits through its Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program to around two million families. Families, not individuals. Wow, an average of ten thousand dollars a year. Per family. That's some get rich quick shit right there.

Here is where your money really went this year:

Vikram Pandi - Ceo of Citi. He looks happy.

Recent AIG CEO Robert Willumstad, before he was removed by the fed. Looks happy for 114.

John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, with his wife Ruth. They look so happy.

Here's Ken Lewis, head of Bank of America. Nice smile there, yeah?

James "Jamie" Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase. He smiles like Bill Clinton.

For fucking nothing. And no, they don't create jobs. They ship them overseas or mechanize them so they can rake in even more.

This is just what the financial sector got recently. Loads of other corporations, like oil, agribusiness, the auto industry, etc., get constant supplies of money but I don't have time to tend to that now. Later.

Still hoping for that change?

That's cool. Let me know when it comes, k?

A Harvard law professor wrote an opinion piece in today's New York Times on what separates the current and former presidential administrations' handling of their detainees, "enemy combatants," "terrorists," others confined in Guantanamo Bay and those who will find themselves in similar situations. Here are some highlights:

HAS the Obama administration changed the legal rules for detaining suspects in the war on terrorism, or is it continuing in the footsteps of the Bush administration?

We got a clue last week when the Justice Department filed an important document “refining” the government’s position in lawsuits over those held at Guantánamo Bay...Cautious and modest where George W. Bush was ambitious and brash, Mr. Obama still claims the authority necessary to sustain almost everything his predecessor did.

Perhaps what’s most important here is what Mr. Obama’s lawyers do not say. The Bush White House long insisted that the president had inherent power as commander in chief to do whatever it took to defend the country — including overriding American and international law. The Obama filing, however, is silent on the topic of inherent executive power. Indeed, the magic words “commander in chief” never even appear.

Technically, the Obama lawyers have not abandoned the argument for broad presidential power, just implied that such authority is unnecessary to get them what they want...

The upshot is that the Obama approach is potentially broad enough to continue detaining everyone whom the Bush administration put in Guantánamo in the first place. The legal theories are subtler, and the reliance on international law may prove more attractive to our allies...

The true test of whether Mr. Obama has improved on the Bush era lies in how his administration justifies its decisions on the 241 remaining Guantánamo detainees, whose cases will now be evaluated internally and reviewed by the courts. If the new legal arguments actually affect who goes free and who stays in custody, then they will amount to meaningful change. Without real-world effects, though, even the most elegant new legal arguments are nothing but words.

It seems as though president Obama will be taking the route of doing shitty things and not speaking of them. That way, he feels better about himself, more liberals/progressives/civil libertarians will support him and the American image abroad improves, at least for a while. I think that a lot of people really want to believe that this guy is a real departure from the past and have so far convinced themselves that since he speaks differently and chooses to verbally address and engage different agendas than the former president, than he must be. I haven't seen it.

Scott Weiland - Reel around the Fountain

This is Scott Weiland performing a Smiths cover live. It is legit one of the most depraved, soulless fucking things I have ever seen. Scott Weiland embodies every filthy shred of rock excess and pompous posturing - his relentless drug habit, involvement with a horrid "supergroup" (Velvet Revolver), bloated solo career (his new record is apparently a double album), money grubbing reunion tours, performing with cigarette in hand for aesthetic reasons and dreadful fashion sense. Cowboy hat. That's it. That's all you need to know about him. He wears a cowboy hat full-time.

Look at his band. Look at the people responsible for helping him to deliver this atrocity to the world. Stage left - Rick Rubin on guitar. And he can't stop soloing. Why? Then there's Scott. Yeah, wow, you shake your leg just like the Elvis impersonator on drums behind you. On bass, wasn't that guy in the Cult? I like how he remembers once in a while that he's supposed to look "into it" and tries to "groove," but most of the time he just stands there, bored as fuck that he's playing such a decidedly non-rocking tune. Finally, we get the guitar player who was probably recently fired from Jet and needed a new "gig." Sick bell bottoms, bro. He mostly looks lost and is trying to play keep-up with the rest of the band.

Touring Israel and Palestine

Not us. No, no, no. I am talking about a band called Hello Bastards. They are a band in England, but none of them is from England. The members are originally from three continents, but all live in London now. They recently toured Israel and Palestine, playing shows and participating in demonstrations against Israeli occupation.

One of the people who accompanied them wrote about it in a couple of myspace blogs. The first one is an account of arriving Israel, initial impressions, playing some shows, and going into Palestinian areas. The second entry is an intense telling of their experiences in Palestinian villages, including a rather extensive recollection of supporting Palestinians in protesting an Israeli wall about to be built through their land.

I don't know of any band who has done this before. I know bands have gone to Israel, but not like this. A lot of this shit is fucking crazy and I get worked up just reading it. That reality seems so far removed from what we live. So scary. But it's millions of people's lives. Every fucking day.