The Vidiot's weekly blog:

What pissed me off this week? 1/30/2006

(updated every Monday at some point during the day)

...'cause I'm angry and my friends are sick of listening to me...

Mirror (in case geocities is wacky or, in case of trouble in New York, check it for messages): http://129.79.148.33/vidiotcontact/

I just have to mention the weather today. It's over 60 and sunny here in NYC. Which would be fine... IF IT WERE APRIL. Now, it's not like a like being cold or anything. Really. The winter, while fine in theory -- a theory formulated in the middle of July I might add --it's actually a pain in the butt. Cold, coats, socks, stockings, hats, none of it good.

Though, honestly I'm not convinced that humans have much to do with global warming. My gut tells me global warming is happening, but we don't have much more to do with it than maybe making it worse or dirtier. I think it has more to do with solar activity and natural cycles. I mean, it was hot for the dinosaurs and there were no cars back then, right? However there are plenty of reasons for the government to address global warming. First off, just doing simple observations will predict what a rise in temperatures will cause -- rising sea-levels, altered or more violent weather patterns (Hence, the spring-like weather here in January, Katrina and Moscow's recent deep freeze.) With these alterations in climate comes changes in living needs for populations. More oil here, less food can be grown there, etc. These basic changes in infrastructure need to be addressed and fast. Our farms need to be reorganized to be able to grow more varied crops and new trade patterns need to be established to adjust for what we can't grow any more. Alternate energy sources have to be found, not necessarily to curb greenhouse gases, but to offer alternatives to areas that need more energy than can be delivered to them along traditional lines.

In fact, I'd go so far to say that the Kyoto treaty is a complete waste of time. It should be scrapped. More emphasis on global infrastructure is needed to ensure that all nations are provided for and alternatives are thought about. If it gets colder in the northern hemisphere, the southern hemisphere will have to pick up the agricultural slack. Right now, they don't have the technology to do farming on the scale that the planet needs to stay fed. As draught dries up one area, solutions need to be in place so that the situation doesn't get dire. As oil becomes more and more expensive, alternatives needs to be developed and put into place so that the standard of living doesn't drop too drastically. Kyoto, as it stands now, is mostly masturbatory. (Most large, environmental regimes are actually.) But they could REALLY make Kyoto matter if they changed their agenda from window dressing to actual, nuts and bolts, pragmatic planning for the future.

So, when I read stories that Bush is stifling scientists from speaking out about global warming (or cooling as the case may be) and he's not providing any incentive for farms to change their ways of production, my head nearly explodes. Whether or not you believe in global warming is moot at this point. It's clear that the climate changes over time and all will not be the same forever. Flexibility needs to be designed into the system to address that.

Am I the only one who gets it?

Idea of the Week: Google Search the text of the 4th Amendment

Gizmo of the Week: Solar Charger

Blog Entry of the Week: Basic Learning: Forgotten Wars

Some blogs of the Week: Newshog, New York Hack, NY Transit Worker, and Bad Landlords

Art of the Week: Robots

Satire of the Week: Q & A: Our Omnipotent President

Treat of the Week: Chocolate and Coffee

Film Recommendation of the Week: Why We Fight

Funny of the Week: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

Video of the Week: Bill Gates Runs Like a Girl.

Creampuffs of the Century: Beard Papa's

Programming note 1: The State of the Union address is this Tuesday, the 31st. Arm yourself -- here's bingo game and a drinking game. Protest if you can. Here's a look at just how credible the speech is to begin with and just remind yourself of just how much of a dimwit he is, watch Letterman's Top-Ten list of Dumb Bush things. Also, here's a preview of the speech.

Programming Note 2: I'm loath to mention anything about Alito, only because anything I say will be useless after today.

Programming Note 3: This website will be moving over to blogspot by end of month. I'm morphing this blog into more of a standard blog. More frequent postings and few more POVs will be added to the mix. Stay tuned!

This doesn't sound good.

Excerpt: "A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'" empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence" ... "or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

So, we'll have a bunch of jack booted thugs running around, working for the federal government, doing citizen policing. Sounds like a great idea!

It seems that we're headed towards a police state (if we're not there already.) I mean, look at what Halliburton got in its Christmas stocking.

Excerpt:The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said.

Detention camps for "new programs"? Exactly what "new programs" are they referring to? What kind of "new program" would need ample detention space?

Now, hold on here, I'm going to stretch the imagination a little bit: What if this recent change in Army execution rules is being done for other reasons?

Excerpt: The new rules are acknowledged by senior ranks as a major revision of the existing situation. The revision also makes it possible for executions to take place at any military prison, not just Fort Leavenworth. This, according to anti-death penalty protesters, means it would be technically legal for executions to take place at Guantanamo Bay.

What if the rules are being changed so that executions can occur at any military prison so that they can INCLUDE detention camps? I mean, if it can be expanded to include Gitmo, then why not a detention camp, set up by the US government, which is all Gitmo is anyway? Just puttin' it out there.

There's a reason they bypassed the FISA court, said no to a law that would've made the FISA court even EASIER to deal with (so they'd continue to have an excuse to avoid the FISA court altogether) and are asking for permission to do what they've already been doing, even though why, if they're so confident they're not doing anything wrong, are they asking for Congress to approve it? Eh, they think they can do whatever they want anyway.

They're spying on US. We, the people! There are no terrorists. They're not thwarting anything. They're spying on people who don't agree with them, looking for any cohesive opposition movements. Think I'm paranoid? Call me in 20 years, when history starts to come out and tell me I was wrong. I dare you.

You may have been hearing about some of the controversy regarding MSM of late. The ombudsman over at the WaPo touting the GOP's Abramoff debunked talking points and then shutting down the blog comments when the blogosphere pointed out the fallacies of the talking points, Katie Couric shoving the GOP's Abramoff talking points in Howard Dean's face, the Arianna thing, Chris Matthews comparing bin Laden to Michael Moore and then going on the Today Show to back up Katie Couric after her Dean scene (not to mention his stupid assumptions about Hispanic immigrants and their political leanings.) And Russert's annoying questioning of Obama about Harry Belafonte. It just doesn't get any worse.

That's why we out here need to challenge these idiots. We need to make as much as noise as the right does, (the noise that pushed these idiots over the edge to begin with). We must call them on their crap. (Like what he said) Every. Single. Time. Blog for political change.

Excerpt; However, if there is anything progressives should have learned a long time ago, it is that true political power comes from group action and from solidarity, not from a thousand different actors moving in a hundred different directions at once. If we truly want to affect political change, will it be necessary to, at least partially, leave the "golden era" of generally solitary, independent, diary-esque political blogging in the past? To what degree will we have to professional-ize political blogging in order to make political blogging more effective as a political force? And how would we even go about doing that if we decided it was valuable?

If the media cannot be saved, than neither can our democracy.

For instance, when the WaPo shut down their blog comments, some enterprising individual started a blog so people could continue to comment. A Chris Matthews blog and a Tim Russert blog were also started. (Go here for the links to all three of those.) Clever. Publicize these sites. Forward them to your friends. We need to make these the "go to" sites for commentary, only because they're NOT moderated by the people who shouldn't be moderating.

But be careful, they WILL come after the internet.

Excerpt: After destroying TV and radio by hording the public's airwaves for profit, mega-media corporations have now turned to the Internet. They're scheming to control what content you view, which services you use online, and whether others can see the content you create.

Trust me on that one.

Excerpt: When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the document takes on an extraordinary tone. It seems to see the internet as being equivalent to an enemy weapons system.

I like this guy already.

Excerpt:The Bolivian new left-wing President, Evo Morales, has cut his salary by more than a half to a little over $1,800 (£1,012) per month.

What a novel idea!

OK, this has to be the dumbest, most idiotic thing that man has created using his knowledge and brain power.

Excerpt:Groups fighting for the rights of peasant communities are stepping up pressure on governments to ban the use of genetically modified ''suicide seeds'' at UN-sponsored talks on biodiversity in Spain this week.

Just look at it this way: controlling random pollination is the same as controlling a 15-year-old boy's sex drive. It's all sex. Think you can keep a 15-year-old boy from sex or masturbation? Think that's even possible?

I can see it now: Huge die-offs in human population because these suicide genes have gotten into the general seed supply. All over the planet, farmers are unable to get crops to grow because more and more of their seeds are contaminated with the suicide gene. People starve. Farms go bankrupt. Mother Earth is sick and dying. All because some genius thought it would be a clever idea to create seeds that people have to buy every year so they could generate a profit.

Someone must've told him he'd sound well-read if he mentioned DeTocqueville

Excerpt: “I’m beginning to think it through a little bit. I’d like to leave behind a legacy — or a think tank, a place for people to talk about freedom and liberty and the DeTocqueville model of what DeTocqueville saw in America.”

Funny thing, though, according to my sociologist boyfriend, "DeTocqueville spoke about how democracy within the US was threatened. He believed that democracy in the US would quickly lead to despotic democracy."

Indeed.

Seems the Bushies have been busy little bees with regards to any pictures that might exist of Bush and Abramoff together.

Excerpt: But this mystery would not be difficult to solve by a press outlet with sufficient juice to get a question answered by Scott McClellan. Has the White House or anyone working at the White House's behest instructed Reflections Photography to destroy or remove from its archives photographs of President Bush and Jack Abramoff?

(Here's a VillageVoice article about it.)

And why might a business order comply with Bush's desires? Why, because she's a donor, that's why!

Excerpt: According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Amos gave $2,000 to Bush in 2003 and $2,000 to the RNC in 2004.
She's a Republican donor helping sweep this under the rug.

Bush is lying about his connections to Abramoff,

Excerpt: "You know, I frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don't know him."

yet the media seems to be ignoring this basic fact.

Excerpt: Eight years ago, the Clinton White House released photos and videos of President Clinton's coffee meetings with campaign donors and potential donors, following angry demands from politicians and the press. How fortunate for Mr. Bush that his scandals and prevarications provoke no such outrage.

(Wouldn't be the first story they missed.)

There must be something they're worried about.

Excerpt; Two Senate Democrats called Thursday for the appointment of a special counsel to take over the investigation of the corruption scandal spawned by lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The dems can do whatever they want. But Bush has a history of thwarting any Abramoff investigation that is going on. (You'd think the media would be interested in that angle as well, wouldn't you?)

I can't put my finger on what Bush's plan for Iran is. It's obvious, by the rhetoric, that they want to attack Iran. They're even doing their typical strong-arming to get UN members to comply.

Excerpt: Just a week ahead of the International Atomic Energy Association meeting on Iran issue, the United States on Wednesday made it clear that if India did not vote against Tehran's nuclear programme, the fallout on the Indo-US nuclear deal in the Congress would be "devastating" and the initiative will "die".

However, Bush has come out in support of a plan that includes Russia as a middleman in Iran's nuclear program.

Excerpt:US President George W Bush has given public support to a Russian proposal to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.

What gives? The paranoid in me is saying that he's playing the moderate so that when the staged terror event comes and he has to attack Iran, he can say "We were making progress with them. Now look at what they've done."

Call me cynical. Everyone else does.

Here's a new one. One of my readers in Hawaii turned me on to the 13th amendment. No, not THAT thirteenth amendment. This one.

Excerpt: The "missing" 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: "If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive, or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office, or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince, or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them."

Also from that article:

The most common title was "Esquire" (used, even today, by some lawyers).

Interesting, no?

Here are a few more articles on the subject (one, two). You decide.

Bear in mind though, as I told him, it would've not have saved us from the likes of Tom (the bug killer) Delay.

That Phase II investigation into the lies leading up to the Iraq war? Funny you should mention that.

Excerpt: At the heart of the Senate Intelligence Committee's delay is the fact that Feith and the Defense Department refuse to provide documents and witnesses to the Committee. Senate sources say that Feith and the Pentagon have made the case that they will not share any information until the Senate provides them with full documentation of what the investigation is looking into, documentary evidence that Senate staff have acquired, and any other key findings that Feith's lawyers believe should be made available to them.

I love librarians, and so should you.

Excerpt; Law enforcement and Newton Free Library officials were embroiled in a tense standoff for nearly 10 hours last week when the city refused to let police and the FBI examine library computers without a warrant.

What have they got to hide?

Excerpt: The state Division of Elections has refused to turn over its electronic voting files to the Democrats, arguing that the data format belongs to a private company and can't be made public.

Could it be because the damn things can be hacked with only 5 lines of code?!

Excerpt; On Tuesday, Dec. 13, we conducted a hack of the Diebold AccuVote optical scan device. I wrote a five-line script in Visual Basic that would allow you to go into the central tabulator and change any vote total you wanted, leaving no logs. It requires physical access to a machine, which in many counties isn’t very difficult to get -- you have elections offices full of volunteers. In Leon County, they have good policies and procedures in place. But in many counties, where such awareness doesn’t exist, that brings up some serious concerns about someone being able to tamper with the results.

Which is why we should switch to something more transparent and NOT privately owned.

Excerpt: Made of paper, plastic and NO SOFTWARE AT ALL, the device works with a paper ballot and costs about one-tenth of flawed, hackable electronic voting machines...Could this be the HAVA voting solution America has been waiting for?

Only a geek like me would find this funny.

In it's entirety:

Strangers Converse in a Berkeley Elevator:
Person #1: I'm getting into an elevator. I'm about to lose the connection...
Person #2: An elevator is an admirably effective Faraday cage.
Person #3: Somebody should make a cell phone that works inside a Faraday cage.
Person #1: But surely the laws of physics...
Person #4: It could work via gravitational radiation
Person #2: Two charged, mutually orbiting micro black holes within the cell phone casing...
Person #5: Surely the Hawking radiation would be too fierce?
Person #2: I dunno. How long is the lifespan of a 10 kg black hole, anyway?
Person #1: You'd carry around a 50 lb cell phone just so you could talk in elevators?

Think about this for a minute.

Excerpt: Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Imagine if Al Franken had said that!

Why do these idiots work in a public school if they're so damned religious?

Excerpt: Five teachers at San Leandro High School have refused to comply with a school district order to display a rainbow-flag poster in their classrooms that reads, "This is a safe place to be who you are," because they say homosexuality violates their religious beliefs, Principal Amy Furtado said.

I often wondered about this.

Excerpt: Klein and other experts attribute such sophistication to television crime dramas like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which give criminals helpful tips on how to cover up evidence.

This is not news to me.

Excerpt; That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.

In simpler terms: Republicans are Racist.

Previous rants

At the very least, point your CNN-loving friends to my links page. Just getting started in reading alternate news sites gets people thinking. I have one friend who was very happy-go-lucky, thinking ol' Greta was telling the whole truth until I opened up his eyes a bit. Now, he's all depressed. He'll get over it. You gotta' get depressed before you get angry and you gotta' get angry before you can accomplish anything. We're all in mourning. We have to move through the steps. But we gotta' hurry it up.

Read. Inform. Spread the word. Even if it means your friends avoid you for awhile. If they really love you, they'll start to listen.

"POSSE COMITATUS ACT" (18 USC 1385): A Reconstruction Era criminal law proscribing use of Army (later, Air Force) to "execute the laws" except where expressly authorized by Constitution or Congress. Limit on use of military for civilian law enforcement also applies to Navy by regulation. Dec '81 additional laws were enacted (codified 10 USC 371-78) clarifying permissible military assistance to civilian law enforcement agencies--including the Coast Guard--especially in combating drug smuggling into the United States. Posse Comitatus clarifications emphasize supportive and technical assistance (e.g., use of facilities, vessels, aircraft, intelligence, tech aid, surveillance, etc.) while generally prohibiting direct participation of DoD personnel in law enforcement (e.g., search, seizure, and arrests). For example, Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETS) serve aboard Navy vessels and perform the actual boardings of interdicted suspect drug smuggling vessels and, if needed, arrest their crews). Positive results have been realized especially from Navy ship/aircraft involvement.

{back}

Who am I?:

I am a biker chick who lives in NYC. This blog is about current events and my left-leaning, acerbic spin on those events. Nobody pays me anything to do this. Nobody tells me what to write. I will NEVER tout anything for anybody's money! EVER!

Use this instead of Google:

Clusty.com

These sites are good at culling stories from a multitude of media sites:

buzzflash.com
unknownnews.net
rawstory.com

Here are some excellent blogs:

Bartcop
Daily Kos
Atrios
Tacitus
Josh Marshall
Two Glasses
Brad DeLong
The Wonkette
Urban Survival
Greg Palast
Mark Crispin Miller
A String Theory Blog

Link exchange:

Ilia Dreams Blog
Iraq War Blog
BushVote.com
Dommecile.com
Funny Farm

media-bias exposed:

dailyhowler.com

these are good 'left-wing' journalism sites:

onlinejournal.com
counterpunch.com
thenation.com
inthesetimes.com
tompaine.com
commondreams.org
truthout.com
guerrillanews.com

a little more to the left:

wsws.org
indymedia.org

different:

whatreallyhappened.com
almartinraw.com

more different :

surfingtheapocalypse.com

really different:

goroadachi.com/etemenanki/

and for godsakes, stay away
from FOX,  MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
watch the BBC news
or ITN news instead.

if you must succumb to reading a newspaper: 

www.guardian.co.uk 

or any other paper in another fucking country. All of our newspapers are owned by the same idiots that own the TV stations (and whose companies are diversified in industries that support the war machine) so all of the news is all the same CRAP.