Blame it on Scooter

I don't need to tell you this is a BIG THING. Libby getting indicted shows someone somewhere in the federal government thinks Bush and company is responsible for following the law. Of course I don't need to tell you if Rove or Cheney turns out to be officially responsible for revealing Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent, this is going to be thicker kettle of fish.

Things on my mind right now:

1. Clinton. The whole rightwing/psycho-based shitstorm over the impeachment they drummed up: So who in the Clinton team revealed the identity of CIA agents as the result of getting pissed off about op ed pieces regarding phony reasons for invading a petty dictator's country? C'mon man, the Clinton administration bombed Iraq every time they even farted outside the no-fly zone. I (and the rest of us who don't suck up whatever Fox News feeds them) think that was about enough.

2. What I should be doing is focusing on the coverage of the Libby indictment by comparing the local TV news coverage vs. NPR, vs. PBS, vs. Reuters, vs. Fox, vs. LA Times, vs. the Guardian vs. polarized & equatorial blogosphere statements. There is a lot of emotional edging and dramatic cues as the bullshit factor increases in any given version of statement of facts. Example: local TV broadcast statement RIGHT AFTER the basic statement of facts regarding the Libby case, "Libby has stated he is completely innocent and is confident he will be fully exonerated of all charges after due legal process." Not much more to the story than that on good ol' channel 13. Poof, take the wind out of the sails of that nastly 'ol argument. Now for some commercials about diapers and constipation.

Of course the national TV news via the networks was not so kind, nor were most newspapers.

My point here is that I think there is a lot more to this story that indicates its seriousness to the Bush admistration that is not getting expressed, and backed up with evidence, in the major media.

Example? Well 2 of the cockiest rightwing neocon sonofabitches ( DeLay & Libby ) are now in deep doodoo. For, naturally, doing the dirtywork of the rats at the top of the tree. In other words, Scooter was a good man to them cuz he agreed to take the fall for rat-bastard Cheney & Rove.

Who's running our goddamn government, eh? You ever wonder what your tax dollars are doing besides building roads? I've said it before & I'll restate it here: These fucks are the kind of person who should be running a McDonald's in Peoria or Chatanooga, that's the kind of management we're looking at- petty tyrants at best. Good at yelling at 14 year olds or disrespecting someone who's had tough a time and who's just trying to get a job. This type of person ought to be in charge of a charity think-tank, a food shelter or a private disater aid foundation. And stick to the respective principles.

McCain opposes allowing torture.

I can see people snickering about torture. In a giant SUV pulling up to the drive-in window of a McDonald's. Folks who buy into the whole BushCo rhetorical stlye. "Oh, the tree-huggers and the bleeding hearts want to prevent us from torturing the [insert whatever popular, misguided racial or or Limbaugh-generated object-word]'s..."

Who could have predicted, however, that a powerful Republican senator, who'd been locked up as a POW, and tortured, in Viet Nam, would put his foot down on the issue? Who could have predicted that once again, Democrats and Republicans are opposing BushCo policies together?

The news story is here in the Reuters news roundup of a couple days ago. The gist of the story is that the White House (via that rat Dick Cheney) is opposing regulations that forbid the use of torture by the CIA and similar agencies.

The regulations are supported by a crowd of higher-ups from both parties.

Senator McCain is a braver individual than most fat-asses in SUV's pulling up to McDonald's. A braver individual than most folks who hurriedly reach for the radio dial when it's time for Limbaugh's program. One of a large number of Republicans are unafraid to speak out against BushCo.

A couple of things I've said before and will say again:

Opposition to BushCo and BushCo ways is widespread in both parties and always has been. Opposition over conservationism, environmental issues, economic foolhardiness, civil liberties, the supression of scientific evidence, separation of church and state, is widespread and deep in both parties. It seems to get shellacked (sp?) over in the news media somehow, too.

You can't predict how this whole saga will come out- i.e. the truth will out. Even w/ all the thinktanks (i.e. professional bullshit-machines) in the world, you cannot predict exactly how light will be shed on secretive, destructive BushCo policy, and the lies used to legitimize and hide such policy.

DeLay and the downfall of BushCo

Arrest warrant issued for DeLay. DeLay is being arrested on corruption and money laundering charges. In Texas. See this AP story.

My cousin Jennifer down there in Texas told me that they are all not a bunch of buttheads down there, and I guess this backs up her statement.

Naturally, AP plays down the facts, "oh, of course this is just routine, happens all the time, the warrent is ALWAYS issued, just proceedural, mind you," Blah blah blah.

Momentum. Remember a couple weeks ago when I posted about "Big Mo?" OK, well momentum is happening. I said long ago they are all going to jail. BushCo, et al are not immune to the law. Apparently their strategy was to act like they are immune to laws, "we're takin over, n' yer laws're goin' the way of Old Europe." But that doesn't cut it, like the playground bully and his friends who all the other kids finally get sick of.

Imponderable: What will the Christian Right do when they no longer have a man at the top? And finding themselves increasingly recongnized as a bunch of half-assed Neandethals. A loud-mouthed minority at best, ruling through guilt and fear- "God sez this, god sez that...we know cuz we're in touch with god, yessirree. An' you better buy the party line or you're gonna find out what it's like to be rejected by a bunch of guilt-dispensing moron half-wits." With BushCo losing credibility, they don't really have much to stand on.

It's made-up words from the Simpsons!!

made up words from the Simpsons. Ya I got it from boingboing. For example,

Scientician

>A scientist with questionable credentials who publicly supports spurious hypotheses. From "Lisa the Vegetarian":

"Jimmy: Uhh, Mr. McClure? I have a crazy friend who says it's wrong to eat meat. Is he crazy?
Troy: No, just ignorant. You see, your crazy friend never heard of "The Food Chain." Just ask this scientician.
'Scientician': [Looks up from microscope] Uh…
Troy: He'll tell you that, in nature, one creature invariably eats another creature to survive."

[this is timely, what w/ the "intellegent design" bullshit. ...Ever hear of "flying spaghetti monster?"]


How 'bout this? Not from boingboing:

It's THE SOCK GUY!!



This guy's badass. I worship the ground he walks (in his stocking feet) on. Got some fairwheel bike socks at Fairwheel the other day. Really cool. Best socks I ever put on.

Ahh, so what the hell's going on. Glad you called.. Socially dull around here. Did you make it back in time for your show? Say hi to dubya for me? What the hell's going in Philly? Say hi to Simoºª•¶§∞¢£™¡åß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬…æ÷≥≤µ˜∫√ç≈Ωºª•¶§∞¢£™¡n~'? (looking for a nasal o and accent there). There's something on the a-file I'd like to request. Will dig it up later.

Wierd sounds from the highschool coming tonight. The whole marching band is up there. They are not playing music per se. Just their military-sounding chanting (which I hate, and which I never heard up there prior to the Dubya-regime), and you can hear the director/teacher over his megaphone/microphone, "blah blah, blah, blah blahblahblah." Then this metallic metronome sound, "tink-tink, tink-tink, tink-tink," (played by one of the drummers, I'm sure) interspersed w/ like a wood, "tock tock" sound, then the wailings of the band as they tease, comment on, agree with, disagree with, cheer for the band director. Blah-Blah-blahblahblah, in their hoarse voices. The whole thing is pretty cool, given the stops and starts. I don't think they quite intend or know it to be so, but there ya go. And when they do pick up their instruments, they really do rock. Loud, with loud drums and loud horns, holy smokes, reminds me of Violet Blue writing about Extra Action Marching Band, up there in your territory. (see http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2005/10/my_life_with_th.html ) Those fuckers (the Rincon High School marching band) are out there till like 10 o'clock sometimes. They've been practicing "You never give me your money" from the Beatles' Abbey Road, and McCartney's Live & let Die a lot this season.

I'm going up to get more beer, take a passing look at the band.

Blaaaaaaphggh,
C7

Brazil's government dumps Windows OS

Wow this is amazing. See this post at boingboing- Brazil is switching all their computers to open-source software cuz Brazil is sick of Microsoft's huge licensing fees.

Nice move. Not only is Windows' UI infuriating and obtuse, not only do wierd things happen when you copy files, not only is Windows designed to NOT work with the rest of the computer world, you have to pay huge amounts of money to do things like access Windows servers, individual databases, etc. etc.

My old boss was such a Windows goodie-goodie, jumpin' on the bandwagon at every new release. He'd attend a conference, read a book or two, and spout off how great the new MS dot.net platform was. When it came time to pay the fees and licenses? "We're not even going to mention that," he'd say. Wow.

What a goof. I used to tell him we should not be using Microsoft products at all. He'd look at me like I was a nutcase. Meanwhile, the other programmer (I was NOT a programmer at this job- I was the net admin) on the staff, a versatile, open-minded engineeer on whom my fat-ass boss relied for a lot of good code and solutions, was busy loading Debian Linux on old Macs and PC's, and participating in the development of Debian in his spare time. "So that way, we're not beholden to either Bill or Steve, right?" he'd say, grinning ear to ear. What a guy, I sure do miss him. He was also very encouraging of my ability w/ the tables and intricacies of databases, of which we had a lot at that place. The other guy, the fat-ass, really strove to keep me out of that area and tried to set me up to fail on more than one occasion. I kept outsmarting him and he eventually fired me! Asshole.

Anyway. Gilberto Gil, Brazil's Minister of Culture, from the boingboing snippet:

"'This isn't just my idea, or Brazil's idea,' Gil says. 'It's the idea of our time.'"

Makes me want to get back into the business. Maybe I could invent a database (based on an open-source platform) that was full of tips and tricks for outsmarting fat, lying Machiavellian assholes...

[12/17/05]-->This Linux blogger in MO had a relevant post regarding the ongoing un-Windowsifying process in MA.

Ariticles by Christian Parenti in The Nation

This is the kind of journalist they call a traitor these days. His articles in The Nation are listed here.

Parenti in Bagdhad July 2004

In this article in The Nation, Christian Parenti hits the streets outside the Green Zone. He describes the Bagdhad of July 2004.

Christian Parenti interview in Mother Jones

Mother Jones interview from 01/05

Here is a journalist who does not consider himself particulary left wing ( even though he is the son of a pretty serious "marxist" scholar [hey, it's a free country, ok?]), quoting from an interview in Mother Jones:

"The military is, generally, a bunch of regular working-class Americans from all over the country. They work extremely hard and remain serious with whatever their task is: changing tires, getting computers to work, making sure communications are operational, making sure there is enough water and food, etc. You just get this serious, all-business, approach to the operations as a whole."

Right. And we need a strong military. To defend ourselves. We don't need to send 150,000 people and spend billions of dollars to invade a tinhorn Mideast dictator who's been getting bombed every time he farts since the early 90's.

This reporter Parenti happens to be the kind of guy who would have Rush Limbaugh and lots of other right wing types shitting bricks, because Parenti went over there and did his damnedest to interview the Iraqi insurgence as well spending a lot of time embedded w/ the U.S. Military.

Parenti also managed to piss of The News Hour on PBS as well by relaying facts he observed regarding how lots of people still had no power or water.

"just because you don't want to be in Iraq doesn't make you a traitor to your country"

Quoting from this 0304 interview on the radio program Democracy Now!, "Cody," from the U.S. Army, who was and still may be over there. More:

"...the thing about speaking out is a lot of questions about how you will be looked at after that. Anyone that's anti-Bush or anti-war will be looked at as a traitor and I’m just trying to put out to everybody that you can be -- you can love the Army and you can love America and just because you don't want to be in Iraq doesn't make you a traitor to your country. That doesn't make you any less patriotic. But you're being labeled that way because, you know, they're trying to suppress what the real morale is over there."

...From an interview w/ journalist and writer Christian Parenti, the soldier "Cody," and Michael Hoffman, a former Marine speaking out.

Paul "Earthquake" Pena obit

Paul Pena passes away at 55. Subject of a wonderful movie, Genghis Blues, about Tuva and the singers there, Paul Pena wrote a couple big songs Steve Miller had hits with, and was, more importantly an important bluesman and a conduit of this oddball Tuvan music, aka Tuvan Throat Singing.

Summing up our great country in a song

Oh my goodness, something about this song just sums up what our country (USA) is all about. Song is, I think, Roadside Flowers, by Winter Hours. I couldn't find a good pic of the band so I'm putting up this pic of a library in Rhode Island instead.

The lyrics go, as heard by me:

Follwing the footsteps that you gave me
I walked out alone,
highway streching out in front of me.
Then I saw the billboards
and the smoke from the refinery,
where the open sky it used to be.
Passin thru the small towns
and the clapboard houses beaten down,
I could hear a distant churchbell ring.
There beneath the maple trees
it all comes rushin back to me,
a simple thing forgotten long ago.

long ago, long ago, I heard those bells toll...
[chorus:]
I don't walk alone
I don't don't own the lonely roar
I don't walk alone,
Just see the the road side flowers
look how they have grown.

I have been in cities where
multitudes enveloped me,
the stations and depots felt so cold.
Looked up at the city spires
they couldn't build them any higher,
A giant's teeth were clenched around my soul.
I walked along the river side
to watch the changin of the tide
and the black cloud hanging over me.

over me, over me, hangin over me,

[chorus] [mandolin solo]

And thru the roar of factories
reminded me of battlefields
where our brightest promises were lost.
overcome by fire and steel
groaning for humanity,
a thousand voices drowning in that roar.
And this is
Mister Harriman
rolling in his comforts and his spoils.
With the we wind we headed west
taking little time to rest
felt the prairies burning under me.

under me, under me, burning under me,

[chorus] [pedal steel & guitar solos] [end]

More evidence of momentum!!

I'd like to keep with the theme of momentum- momentum being my feeling that soone or later, we will ALL get sick of BushCo and quit putting up with so much shit.

In Phoenix, people are sick of personal information about high school students being automatically given to military recruiters. This story from the Arizona Daily Star has details, but the point is students and parents are standing up for privacy, going, "hey wait a minute here, who the hell says that the U.S. Military should have my contact info if I didn't ok it in the first place?"