AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: 'A buncha gold-toothed hot dogs':
"The interesting thing is, I don't think you'll find a black intellectual who disagrees entirely with the fact that embedded in American race-relations is a profoundly immoral and potentially explosive problem. Namely, that our legal and penal systems are skewed against people of color and, more accurately, people without money."
Reminds me of the old politcal cartoon, "...Capital punishment means that them without the capital, gets the punishment."
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Chavez Provides Cheap Oil To 181,000 US Families
Chavez Provides Cheap Oil To 181,000 US Families:
"Beginning November 2005, the agreement supplies subsidized fuel at a 40% discount, as well as 150 gallons to 20 homeless shelters, principally for heating.The agreement is for more than 40 million gallons of oil, of which 14 million have been delivered to date, and which will benefit some 181,000 families."
Goddam Communiss are trying to make bushieboy and exxon look bad...
and doing a fine job of it too!
"Beginning November 2005, the agreement supplies subsidized fuel at a 40% discount, as well as 150 gallons to 20 homeless shelters, principally for heating.The agreement is for more than 40 million gallons of oil, of which 14 million have been delivered to date, and which will benefit some 181,000 families."
Goddam Communiss are trying to make bushieboy and exxon look bad...
and doing a fine job of it too!
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Dennis The Peasant: The Dennis the Peasant Blogging System: Part Two
And now for something completely different
"Myth Number 2:
Blog readers are thoughtful.
No, they aren't that's why they are at your blog in the first place.
If fact, neither are bloggers. That's why you are blogging in the first place.
You are not now, nor have you been, nor will you ever be, a thinker of great thoughts. People don't stop you at the water cooler and ask you to explain Iraq, the environment or the economy. You do not Chair the Philosophy Department at the University of Wallamaloo. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Nor would you be mistaken for the Chair of the Philosophy Department of the University of Wallamaloo. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
And it's important to understand that if you were the Chairman of a Philosophy Department, every one of your readers would be somewhere else, reading someone else's blog.
Always remember these facts:
1. People who are truly thoughtful take the time and expend the energy to read books.
2. Serious books.
3. Serious books on serious subjects by learned authors.
4. People who aren't, take in a couple of posts at their favorite blog while the boss is at lunch.
Your audience, in all probability, got through college (if at all) on Cliff's Notes. They are busy people. They have wives to avoid, children to ignore and bars to visit. They don't have time to read 500 pages about the History of the Middle East. They want it in 500 words. 500 small words."
"Myth Number 2:
Blog readers are thoughtful.
No, they aren't that's why they are at your blog in the first place.
If fact, neither are bloggers. That's why you are blogging in the first place.
You are not now, nor have you been, nor will you ever be, a thinker of great thoughts. People don't stop you at the water cooler and ask you to explain Iraq, the environment or the economy. You do not Chair the Philosophy Department at the University of Wallamaloo. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Nor would you be mistaken for the Chair of the Philosophy Department of the University of Wallamaloo. Or anywhere else, for that matter.
And it's important to understand that if you were the Chairman of a Philosophy Department, every one of your readers would be somewhere else, reading someone else's blog.
Always remember these facts:
1. People who are truly thoughtful take the time and expend the energy to read books.
2. Serious books.
3. Serious books on serious subjects by learned authors.
4. People who aren't, take in a couple of posts at their favorite blog while the boss is at lunch.
Your audience, in all probability, got through college (if at all) on Cliff's Notes. They are busy people. They have wives to avoid, children to ignore and bars to visit. They don't have time to read 500 pages about the History of the Middle East. They want it in 500 words. 500 small words."
IRC Americas Program | An Uprising Against the Inevitable
IRC Americas Program | An Uprising Against the Inevitable :
" 'The inevitable' has a name today: fragmented globalization,the end of history, the omnipresence and omnipotence of money, the substitution of politics for police, the present as the only possible future, rationalization of social inequality, justification of super-exploitation of human beings and natural resources, racism, intolerance, war."
- Subcomandante Marcos"
The need to spread power, the Foucault vision, and the chameleon-like nature of power in modern life are basic themes of most currents of feminism. Early feminist critiques of hierarchical power also focused on empowerment rather than taking control of centralized power. To rule by obeying and empowerment imply a profound reconstruction of power, both its content and its distribution. In this sense, women and Indian peoples share the experience of being the “other” usually located outside the realm of power. From there, or rather from a multitude of ‘theres,' they construct a vision out of resistance; a rejection of the formal structures of domination but also of a hegemonic way of thinking and formulating the world that subordinates or represses all other ways. It follows that to build a deep democracy, the power of the state must fundamentally change and not just change hands.
The Zapatista concept of democracy, like the indigenous concept seen in other countries of Latin America, challenges the liberal formulation by positing the central role of difference in society. It does not view citizens as indistinguishable cogs in a democratic machine, each with an identical function that corresponds to the exercise of individual rights—mainly voting to delegate representation. Rather it sees the “others”, marginalized for diverse reasons by the economic system, as the building blocks of a new world. These new social actors are not defined exclusively by their relationship to the means of production nor by an immutable identity politics; “the other” posits a new way of affirming identity without congealing it. Ideally all this comes together at some point much as the magazine RebeldÃa describes the Zapatista Other Campaign: “…many collective actors begin to recognize each other as ‘others' and begin to imagine what it would mean to be part of a political project that didn't try to homogenize or hegemonize.” Imagining, according to the Zapatista philosophy, is half the battle.
This critique of power then goes beyond the nation-state and runs as deep as the human psyche and as broad as the entire architecture of global society. As such, it becomes clear that neither a revolutionary vanguard nor an elected government can confront a challenge of this magnitude. Both inevitably wind up reproducing the structures of domination, albeit with different names or appearances. For the Zapatistas, the only solution is to build from the ground up something that will be defined along the way.
" 'The inevitable' has a name today: fragmented globalization,the end of history, the omnipresence and omnipotence of money, the substitution of politics for police, the present as the only possible future, rationalization of social inequality, justification of super-exploitation of human beings and natural resources, racism, intolerance, war."
- Subcomandante Marcos"
The need to spread power, the Foucault vision, and the chameleon-like nature of power in modern life are basic themes of most currents of feminism. Early feminist critiques of hierarchical power also focused on empowerment rather than taking control of centralized power. To rule by obeying and empowerment imply a profound reconstruction of power, both its content and its distribution. In this sense, women and Indian peoples share the experience of being the “other” usually located outside the realm of power. From there, or rather from a multitude of ‘theres,' they construct a vision out of resistance; a rejection of the formal structures of domination but also of a hegemonic way of thinking and formulating the world that subordinates or represses all other ways. It follows that to build a deep democracy, the power of the state must fundamentally change and not just change hands.
The Zapatista concept of democracy, like the indigenous concept seen in other countries of Latin America, challenges the liberal formulation by positing the central role of difference in society. It does not view citizens as indistinguishable cogs in a democratic machine, each with an identical function that corresponds to the exercise of individual rights—mainly voting to delegate representation. Rather it sees the “others”, marginalized for diverse reasons by the economic system, as the building blocks of a new world. These new social actors are not defined exclusively by their relationship to the means of production nor by an immutable identity politics; “the other” posits a new way of affirming identity without congealing it. Ideally all this comes together at some point much as the magazine RebeldÃa describes the Zapatista Other Campaign: “…many collective actors begin to recognize each other as ‘others' and begin to imagine what it would mean to be part of a political project that didn't try to homogenize or hegemonize.” Imagining, according to the Zapatista philosophy, is half the battle.
This critique of power then goes beyond the nation-state and runs as deep as the human psyche and as broad as the entire architecture of global society. As such, it becomes clear that neither a revolutionary vanguard nor an elected government can confront a challenge of this magnitude. Both inevitably wind up reproducing the structures of domination, albeit with different names or appearances. For the Zapatistas, the only solution is to build from the ground up something that will be defined along the way.
Monday, April 17, 2006
The Blog | Tony Hendra: The Christian Right? Their Christ Is No Christian | The Huffington Post
The Blog | Tony Hendra: The Christian Right? Their Christ Is No Christian | The Huffington Post:
"The Christian right are no more Christian than Osama bin Laden. It's time for all those they hate and menace, Christian and non-Christian, young, old, secular or spiritual, gay, straight, native or immigrant, of color or not, to bury their differences and, by any means necessary, bring them low."
"The Christian right are no more Christian than Osama bin Laden. It's time for all those they hate and menace, Christian and non-Christian, young, old, secular or spiritual, gay, straight, native or immigrant, of color or not, to bury their differences and, by any means necessary, bring them low."
$13,700 an Hour
$13,700 an Hour:
"Robert Kuttner recently argued in the Boston Globe that while people are blaming undocumented workers for driving down wages, the real villains are 'the people running the government, who have made sure that the lion's share of the productivity gains go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. With different tax, labor, health and housing policies, native-born workers and immigrants alike could get a fairer share of our productive economy...
' Kuttner points to Census data showing that 'median household income fell 3.8 percent, or $1,700, from 1999 to 2004... during a period when average productivity rose 3 percent per year.' And as income is falling, working people are increasingly squeezed. Costs for housing, healthcare, education and childcare rose 46 percent between 1991 and 2002, according to economist Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute."
"Robert Kuttner recently argued in the Boston Globe that while people are blaming undocumented workers for driving down wages, the real villains are 'the people running the government, who have made sure that the lion's share of the productivity gains go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. With different tax, labor, health and housing policies, native-born workers and immigrants alike could get a fairer share of our productive economy...
' Kuttner points to Census data showing that 'median household income fell 3.8 percent, or $1,700, from 1999 to 2004... during a period when average productivity rose 3 percent per year.' And as income is falling, working people are increasingly squeezed. Costs for housing, healthcare, education and childcare rose 46 percent between 1991 and 2002, according to economist Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute."
Friday, April 14, 2006
Narco News: Marcos in Zapata’s Morelos: “Democracy, Liberty and Justice, but This Time for Those from Below”
Narco News: Marcos in Zapata’s Morelos: “Democracy, Liberty and Justice, but This Time for Those from Below”:
"For more than four hours, Delegate Zero listened to the people in Tlalnepantla, “people of beautiful words” who are descended from the Aztecs, speak about their experiences as cooperativists, organizers of neighborhoods that live in extreme poverty, and defenders of the land, such as those that presented the struggle of the farmers of Comalco, a community affected by the new “21st Century Highway” being built.
The Comalco farmers accuse local agrarian authorities of “negotiating the sale, for 23 pesos ($2) per meter, of these lands without taking the farmers into account… We are firm in our opposition to selling our land to these thieves. The price they offer is an insult to the blood our mothers and fathers shed. Our land is not for sale and has no price.”"
"For more than four hours, Delegate Zero listened to the people in Tlalnepantla, “people of beautiful words” who are descended from the Aztecs, speak about their experiences as cooperativists, organizers of neighborhoods that live in extreme poverty, and defenders of the land, such as those that presented the struggle of the farmers of Comalco, a community affected by the new “21st Century Highway” being built.
The Comalco farmers accuse local agrarian authorities of “negotiating the sale, for 23 pesos ($2) per meter, of these lands without taking the farmers into account… We are firm in our opposition to selling our land to these thieves. The price they offer is an insult to the blood our mothers and fathers shed. Our land is not for sale and has no price.”"
AlterNet: Blogs: The Mix: Whistleblower reveals extent of AT&T spying role
AlterNet: Blogs: The Mix: Whistleblower reveals extent of AT&T spying role:
"That means that, on behalf of your US government, AT&T has been reading your email, watching what sites you visit and listening in on your chats. In their eyes, we're all terrorists, and we're all subject to warrantless wiretapping and monitoring. Outraged yet?"
Of course you aren't my pretties, we've got you sucking on the glass dick of consumption! Ah haa haa haa haa!!!
AWAKE YE BRAINLESS RIGHT WING IDIOTS!!! YOUR GOVERNMENT IS WRAPPING YOU IN ITS WEB OF DEATH!
"That means that, on behalf of your US government, AT&T has been reading your email, watching what sites you visit and listening in on your chats. In their eyes, we're all terrorists, and we're all subject to warrantless wiretapping and monitoring. Outraged yet?"
Of course you aren't my pretties, we've got you sucking on the glass dick of consumption! Ah haa haa haa haa!!!
AWAKE YE BRAINLESS RIGHT WING IDIOTS!!! YOUR GOVERNMENT IS WRAPPING YOU IN ITS WEB OF DEATH!
AxisofLogic/ United States
AxisofLogic/ United States:
"So long as our protests are in the venues our ruling class approves, and we pay for our permits, and we adhere to their time and space constraints -- so long as we only protest in order that they might point to us and say, 'Yes, we have free speech,' we are spinning our wheels.
So long as we patiently wait for elections, in which we can chose between dueling oligarchs, and in which our votes can be manipulated by machines provided by the largest contributor to the party in power, we are not taking action. So long as we're willing to choose the lesser of evils, rather than fighting for the greater good, we are not governing ourselves. So long as we hope, and cooperate, and work within a rotten and failed system, our lives and liberties will rot and fail along with it."
"So long as our protests are in the venues our ruling class approves, and we pay for our permits, and we adhere to their time and space constraints -- so long as we only protest in order that they might point to us and say, 'Yes, we have free speech,' we are spinning our wheels.
So long as we patiently wait for elections, in which we can chose between dueling oligarchs, and in which our votes can be manipulated by machines provided by the largest contributor to the party in power, we are not taking action. So long as we're willing to choose the lesser of evils, rather than fighting for the greater good, we are not governing ourselves. So long as we hope, and cooperate, and work within a rotten and failed system, our lives and liberties will rot and fail along with it."
Thursday, April 13, 2006
The Blog | Rep. Ed Markey: Net Neutrality and the Coming Fight For Internet Freedom | The Huffington Post
The Blog | Rep. Ed Markey: Net Neutrality and the Coming Fight For Internet Freedom | The Huffington Post:
"If you think open nondiscriminatory access to the Internet is what makes the Web special, you had better get ready to fight for it, because Congress is toying with a new paradigm that could close the Web down to many of tomorrow's innovators."
"If you think open nondiscriminatory access to the Internet is what makes the Web special, you had better get ready to fight for it, because Congress is toying with a new paradigm that could close the Web down to many of tomorrow's innovators."
TvNewsLIES.org � Blog Archive � So They Want To Read Your E-Mail? Give Them Something Good To Read!
TvNewsLIES.org Blog Archive So They Want To Read Your E-Mail? Give Them Something Good To Read!:
"So the U.S. government wants to scan our e-mail, blogs & websites for “our own protection?” I say let’s give them something good to read! Let’s overload their systems.
I think every e-mail that is sent, every website and every blog should include a sentence or two that will trigger an alert. We should never say (or do) anything threatening but we should say things that can be misinterpreted by a computer. Add a trick line to every e-mail. Make it your signature. Here are some examples:
* My garden is so overcrowded that I think we will have to kill a bush or two this weekend to make room for our veggies.
* We are way behind in our paperwork but my staff is planning to attack this problem immediately.
* We were going to get married in a civil ceremony but my spouse is planning to have a mass. She wants the altar boys to wear black capes. They will look like a murder of crows!
At the end of your trick sentence you can include the phrase: “How are you doing Big Brother? Nice to see you.”"
"So the U.S. government wants to scan our e-mail, blogs & websites for “our own protection?” I say let’s give them something good to read! Let’s overload their systems.
I think every e-mail that is sent, every website and every blog should include a sentence or two that will trigger an alert. We should never say (or do) anything threatening but we should say things that can be misinterpreted by a computer. Add a trick line to every e-mail. Make it your signature. Here are some examples:
* My garden is so overcrowded that I think we will have to kill a bush or two this weekend to make room for our veggies.
* We are way behind in our paperwork but my staff is planning to attack this problem immediately.
* We were going to get married in a civil ceremony but my spouse is planning to have a mass. She wants the altar boys to wear black capes. They will look like a murder of crows!
At the end of your trick sentence you can include the phrase: “How are you doing Big Brother? Nice to see you.”"
Friday, April 07, 2006
(DV) Haeder: This Land is Their Land, and We Are the Illegal Aliens
(DV) Haeder: This Land is Their Land, and We Are the Illegal Aliens :
"I wonder what these modern-day Nazis would say about those children's cartoons -- images of bodies floating in rivers. Blood-soaked church walls. Military men with their M-16s trained on men while others were in their rape hunch. Beautiful jungle birds flying in the sky next to US-paid-for helicopter gun ships spraying the corn fields below. Dead mommies cradling dead babies.
Yeah, I'm an illegal alien. We all are illegal aliens, under the laws of these creeps in high office. Humanity and caring and simple benedictions for suffering so much, those are alien traits only held by a minority in this country of exclusion. Yeah, those creeps on hate-radio and in the newspaper columns and on Capitol Hill, sure, they recognize all of us who see the lies and fight the injustice as aliens."
"I wonder what these modern-day Nazis would say about those children's cartoons -- images of bodies floating in rivers. Blood-soaked church walls. Military men with their M-16s trained on men while others were in their rape hunch. Beautiful jungle birds flying in the sky next to US-paid-for helicopter gun ships spraying the corn fields below. Dead mommies cradling dead babies.
Yeah, I'm an illegal alien. We all are illegal aliens, under the laws of these creeps in high office. Humanity and caring and simple benedictions for suffering so much, those are alien traits only held by a minority in this country of exclusion. Yeah, those creeps on hate-radio and in the newspaper columns and on Capitol Hill, sure, they recognize all of us who see the lies and fight the injustice as aliens."
Monday, April 03, 2006
AxisofLogic/ Antiwar Movement
AxisofLogic/ Antiwar Movement:
"...the nature of the political system that has long ruled this country must be examined. At a time when decentralizing forces are bringing about the collapse of vertically-structured institutional systems; and when horizontal networks of spontaneous and autonomous order are emerging, the corpse of constitutional government needs to be laid to rest.'"
I'm going to repeat the author's statement again for emphasis.
"...the corpse of constitutional government needs to be laid to rest."
It's time we quit hiding our heads in the sand while thinking that the constitution will protect us. The A*#holes on both sides of the aisle have shown us their utter contempt for the constitution, and our persidunce even refers to it as a "...goddamn piece of paper." We have to change the system by turning it on its head. The power of the government lies in its people. We are the government not them.
"...the nature of the political system that has long ruled this country must be examined. At a time when decentralizing forces are bringing about the collapse of vertically-structured institutional systems; and when horizontal networks of spontaneous and autonomous order are emerging, the corpse of constitutional government needs to be laid to rest.'"
I'm going to repeat the author's statement again for emphasis.
"...the corpse of constitutional government needs to be laid to rest."
It's time we quit hiding our heads in the sand while thinking that the constitution will protect us. The A*#holes on both sides of the aisle have shown us their utter contempt for the constitution, and our persidunce even refers to it as a "...goddamn piece of paper." We have to change the system by turning it on its head. The power of the government lies in its people. We are the government not them.
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