Return of the Junk Man

The blog has moved...

2010-12-20T05:50:00.002-06:00

Really, it's more accurate to say I've suspended posting here and went on to do two different photo blogs.

Join me at Up Your Asa (a general purpose photo blog)

or

Mondo Hafla (a belly dance photo blog).

See you there!

Milwaukee Rally Refuses to Rouse...

2009-03-22T16:13:00.007-05:00

[story by PatsPen/photos and video by Mikasi]

“What do we want?” came the cry.

“Peace!” came the answer.

“When do we want it?” came the cry.

“Now!” came the answer.

And therein lay the crux of the matter. At 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, a small crowd of roughly 300 protestors had gathered outside the courthouse at 10th and Wells in Milwaukee carrying placards and banners and stickers. Some wore buttons and pins. There was one dog with signs hang along its back. A few small children darted here and there among the adults. Some of the adults were on foot, some sitting on benches, and some in wheelchairs. There were toddlers, preteens, high school students, college students, middle aged adults and senior citizens. There were about an equal number of men and women. And there were sporadic, almost random burst of enthusiasm.

Other than that, it felt a bit like a not-very-well-attended bake sale.

[to read the rest of this story, click here]

[to see the entire photo set click either here or the picture above.]

Al Jazeera launches Creative Commons video repository

2009-01-14T07:13:00.001-06:00

I'm posting this for those of you doing news on the Gaza Strip who have been jonesing for footage to accompany your reports. And I am sure more than a few of you have been discouraged by the lockout of reporters and photographers from the Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera launches Creative Commons video repository
January 14, 2009 at 11:31 am · Filed under copyright, media and tagged: Creative Commons, Joi Ito, Al Jazeera, Gaza, Lawrence Lessig, Mohamed Nanabhay

Al Jazeera yesterday announced the world’s first repository of broadcast-quality video footage released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license. Select Al Jazeera video footage – at this time, footage of the War in Gaza - will be available for free to be downloaded, shared, remixed, subtitled and eventually rebroadcasted by users and TV stations across the world with acknowledgement to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera will release its exclus

While many will see this as a venue for a disinformation campaign it is also a valuable tool for getting to see a side of things viewing of which has been actively and tacitly discouraged in the US.

And in another bit of news that might be useful, this from the New York Times -

Thus far, however, Al Jazeera has largely stayed away from the blogging that is common on news sites, though that is being reconsidered, Mr. Nanabhay said.

“Especially during these crises, they present a lot of opportunity to use these tools, and the value becomes apparent very quickly,” Mr. Nanabhay said.

Mr. Minty has been focusing on the introduction of a platform at aljazeera.net to allow the public to contribute opinion or “citizen journalism,” ideas that he said were still new to the Arab world.9

While some might see this as another outlet for their current news writing, I am posting is because it could well become a source to help beef up the writing many here are already doing.

Also, please note that the story from the NYT does not focus on the citizen journalism angle - this is just an aside. The focus of the article is on Al Jazerra's unique advantage on reporting from Gaza and how the service can use this in its efforts to better penetrate the U.S. news consumer markets.

NowPublic

Tags: Gaza | World

I have no idea why this was done...

2008-12-26T10:40:00.005-06:00

From Big Three to Bogged Three - Senate Rejects Bailout Attempt

2008-12-12T08:21:00.001-06:00

If you are an optimist with full faith that the economy will soon bounce back, later today may be a great time to buy some stocks in the Big Three American Automakers - in all likelihood, they should be going cheap.

Um, make that even cheaper.

General Motors Corp. may be in bankruptcy within weeks, followed shortly by Chrysler LLC, after the U.S. Senate rejected a $14 billion rescue plan and the companies’ options for survival dwindled.

“I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor in Washington last night. “It’s not going to be a pleasant sight.”

Can't speak for you, but as I see it, between every election from 2000 on all the way to this big eco collapse we are all caught in the middle of a big, bad disaster film remake from the 70's. It's like Poseidon Adventure, meets Earthquake, meets Wall Street except that last one wasn't a disaster film the first time around. But this rewrite sure is taking a weird turn.

It's gone from "greed is good" to "greed is ghastly" all in one fell year.

President George W. Bush must now decide whether to let the companies collapse or find another way to channel government funds. Minutes after the vote, he was pressed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reid to tap funds from the Treasury’s $700 billion bank-rescue fund.

However, there is still debate concerning whether that $700 billion was enough to float the economic boat or if it was just optimistic window dressing. Spreading it even thinner couldn't make anything better. Could it?

Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd, who helped lead the negotiations, said the final unresolved issue in the Senate talks was a Republican demand that unionized autoworkers accept a reduction in wages next year, rather than later, to match wages of U.S. workers at foreign-owned companies, such as Toyota Motor Corp.

While I do not often share the sentiments of Republicans, be they elected or not, my guess is that these Republicans have a good point. As a basic lefty loony I've been cranked off by the amount CEO's, CFO's and the rest of them make. To pay the leaders 400 times what the linefolks make is ridiculous. However, it is probably safe to say at this point, that all Gods' children got to suffer - whether they be rank and file or management. I simply doubt the books will balance otherwise.

Let me close with what we can all appreciate as the season's best understatement, this from Senator Harry Ried -

“This is going to be a very bad Christmas” for many people, Reid said on the Senate floor last night.

NowPublic

Tags: Detroit | Washington | US Economy | Tech & Biz

Stng Meets Orwell? Scientists Now "See" Your Dreams

2008-12-11T19:21:00.001-06:00

The secret world of dreams has been unlocked with the invention of technology capable of illustrating images taken directly from human brains during sleep.

As if advances in home computing alone have not been boggling enough for old guys like me some crazy, brilliant SOB's in a Japanese lab have come up with a new invention straight off the pages of Star Trek's Next Generation...

Or a dystopian Sci-Fi novel.

A team of Japanese scientists have created a device that enables the processing and imaging of thoughts and dreams as experienced in the brain to appear on a computer screen.

While researchers have so far only created technology that can reproduce simple images from the brain, the discovery paves the way for the ability to unlock people's dreams and other brain processes.

Frankly, I can see how my government (among others) would see this as a great opportunity to re-allot money from water boards to circuit boards if they thought they could easily and literally see into another's head.

Right now the technology is not in an advanced state. According to a statement from a spokesman at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories this

was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity.

"By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams." The scientists, lead by chief researcher Yukiyaso Kamitani, focused on the image recognition procedures in the retina of the human eye.

This means that currently the technology promises no boon to humanity nor threat to civil rights. Still, when the 8086 PCs of 1985 who thought the powerful quad core units of today a scant 20 plus years way?

So we might well see that people taking an unwelcome peak into your head might be less than a generation away.

NowPublic

Tags: UFO | tokyo | Tech & Biz

I envy comic artists...

2008-11-14T05:42:00.002-06:00

They find new ways to tell you what you already know...

Prayer Needed for Global Economies

2008-10-30T15:00:00.001-05:00

If any of you have beaten me to the punch on this one I apologize for putting it up here again. But this was so good I couldn't avoid sharing it with youse guys.

For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, and its 12 principal branches around the US that day.

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said. “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”

Please visit the image at http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/bullprayer2.jpg to enjoy a fine visual with your story.

As this whole thing is sort of disgusting I won't make complete comments on it but will offer instead the following keywords so you can make your own comments -

False idols

Spiritual, not financial, rewards

False Gods

Fat Bastards fitting through needles

MammonServing one God...

Add your own keywords as you feel the need...

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U.S. - "We're 29th!!! We're 29th!!"... and dropping on infant mortality rates

2008-10-16T07:24:00.001-05:00

And what a sad thing to be 29th and dropping in.

The United States dropped to 29th in the world in infant mortality in 2004, the latest year that data are available from all countries, tying with Poland and Slovakia. The year before, it was 27th. In 1960, it was 12th.

The problem is twofold - other countries seem to be getting better, to their credit, while we have stagnated. According to this news brief our rates dropped from 6.89 deaths per 1,000 in 2000 to 6.86 in 2005. The good news is that we've started this century better than the last. In 1900 it was 100 deaths per 1,000 live births.

The bad news is that this story was only deemed worthy of a news brief by Mercury News.

I wait now with baited breath to see which comic siezes on this factoid to make the most offensive new "dead baby" joke.

NowPublic

Will the market take the U.S. Government down with it?

2008-10-10T07:29:00.001-05:00

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The global financial crisis is turning into a bigger drain on the U.S. federal budget than experts estimated two weeks ago, increasing the deficit and the national debt.

It would be well worth your time to read this exclusive story from Bloomberg. It talks about not just what we've spent so far, but what we're going to spend like it or not. The numbers this comes up with are truly frightening.

For example, take in this quote

The 2009 budget deficit could be close to $2 trillion, or 12.5 percent of gross domestic product, more than twice the record of 6 percent set in a wider lead, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday afternoon,1983, according to David Greenlaw, Morgan Stanley's chief economist. Two weeks ago, budget analysts said the measures might push deficit to as much as $1.5 trillion.

In case you missed it, that's "Trillion" with a big fat "T". Had enough? No? Well chew on this

The additional borrowing could push the national debt well past 70 percent of GDP, the highest since the immediate aftermath of World War II, when the U.S. was still paying off war debt.

This takes into account what we'll be spending on shoring up financial institutions and states who are also destined to suffer. What makes things even worse is that human opportunism is still in high gear during times that call for restraint and sacrifice.

budget watchdogs say the sheer size of the interventions is making Washington more profligate than usual. To attract votes in Congress, leaders added several costly items to the $700 billion rescue, including extensions of some tax credits and tax breaks for makers of wooden arrows and stock-car racetrack owners.
[snip]The rescue legislation ``creates a mask for all sorts of fiscal irresponsibility,'' said Bixby. ``It covers up a multitude of sins.''

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LA man shoots family and then himself

2008-10-07T20:35:00.001-05:00

A Los Angeles man who was beset with financial worries after having trouble finding work has shot dead his wife, three children and mother-in-law before turning the gun on himself.

I don't know anymore about this story than you do. That it is reminiscent of the suicidal stockbrokers crosses my mind, and perhaps it might cross yours too...

Michael Moore, the LA deputy police chief, described it as "a very tragic scene, total devastation inside this home.''
]skip]
"We believe that he had become despondent over financial dealings and the financial situation of his household and that this murder-suicide event is a direct result of that.''

I put this peace under "culture" rather than "world" because mass muder/suicide is not the natural response to financial despondancy but is more a culturally learned behavior.

During the Middle Ages the Western World had a distinctly Catholic flavor. Everything that was said, done written and thought out during the time was liberally flavored with Catholicism. Today, as we know, the flavor has changed. No longer Catholic we are now Capital in our concerns. To paraphrase the 70's Musical Philospher Grand Master Flash -

"It's all about money
Ain' a damned thing funny
You got to have a con
In this land of milk and honey."

Later, Moore described it as "this is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair, somehow working his way into believing this to be an acceptable exit,'' he told the Los Angeles Times. "It is critical to step up and realise we are in some pretty troubling times.''

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What the Wall Street titans "earned"?

2008-09-27T07:21:00.001-05:00

Over 20 years ago I "temped" on the third shift at Abbott Laboratories. My job was to use an experimental mold to stamp out pieces for a proposed product. This mold shot out just one piece at a time and cost $5,000 (in 1980 dollars).In short, by not paying full attention I set the mold into the press wrong and with a single press of a button crushed their proposed innovation into a paperweight. For my stupidity I was fired.

What I want to know is where is my compensation package? Heck, I only crushed a mold, not tanked a record sized bank. Doesn't frugality count for something?

If Wall Street executives want part of the $700 billion bailout proposal, they'll need to accept some curbs on their pay. The details have yet to be settled, but Congress and legions of irate constituents managed to push Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson into accepting some restrictions. Most likely they'll have to give up lucrative exit packages from filing firms.

And what were those pay packages exactly? Here's a partial list put together from Forbes -

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO Godlman Sachs, $74 million last year;

Richard Fuld, CEO Lehman Bros., $71.9 million, last year and $354 million over the last five years;

James E. Cayne, former CEO Bear Stearns, $49.31 million over the last two years;

Martin J Sullivan, former CEO of AIG $39.6 million in the last three years, with an exit bonus of $19 million after leading the company to two record loss quarters in a row;

Another fun fact from this article is that in 1989 CEO's were paid 71 times more than their average employee. In 2007 they made 275 times more.

This article goes on to discuss ways to make sure CEOs treat their companies with more long term care by not just go for the short term. The author suggests that bonuses not be paid quarterly but be spread out to respond to multiple year company performance.

All in all the author is quite gentile in his suggestions. My own suggestions are more radical and draconian though, as befits an opinion piece. Frankly, I believe we as a country should ask ourselves one basic question - W.W.C.D. - What Would Calligula Do?

With Calligula in mind, I have a few suggestons -

Confiscate all their lands and properties to pay for the war effort

draft their wives, sons and daughters into Nevada brothels to help offset bailout costs

appoint a couple of their polo ponies to the reconsituted board of directors

send the lot of them to work as farm laborers somewhere where it is hot, sunny and humid

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St. Paul... Where Politics and Street Theater were married...

2008-09-06T16:03:00.001-05:00

Most of the coverage of the events in Saint Paul focused on one of two things – the RNC and the people protesting it. Yes, those are important things, the most important things, but they aren't the only things.

There is a certain light-hearted entertainment at virtually all of at these events if you know where to look for it. In the case of the RNC in Saint Paul the place to gather for lighthearted entertainment was at Rice Park, just outside where the delegates entered the secured Xcel Energy Center.

In the center MSNBC had erected a huge stage and set from which to broadcast it's convention coverage. People crowded around the fence guarding the set, waving signs, cheering and vying for the hats and other goodies the network's assistants doled out.

But that was not the show. The show is found all around – people dressed in costumes, passing out literature, selling mementos and performing street theater.

From the Northeast corner of the park - where the Missle Dick Chicks enchant passerbys and police alike with their stunning song, flowing dance and phallic costumes – to the southwest – where Vermin Supreme, a Presidential candidate whose campaign slogan is “Screw World Peace I Want a Pony,” lobbies delegates as before they enter the convention this is a irony encouraged zone.

In the middle of a week of politics and police actions, Rice Park provided a welcome respite.

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Welcome to the St. Paul Asylum for the Politically Insane...

2008-09-06T15:42:00.001-05:00

note: This story is not timely. For that alone it should be neglected. However, as I started with phone reports from the Thursday march turned mayhem it is only fair that I finish up what I started.

"Hey Dude, Where's My Protest????"

Those weren't the words he used, but that was basically the question a protester asked at the beginning of the rally. What was estimated to be a 50,000 person gathering on Sunday, that turned out to be 10,000 person march on Monday now had a head count of about 1,000 - and that's if you included the media.

Due to the wonders of technology and the drive of people anxious to cover what they saw as important, I would not be surprised to discover that this was the best covered protest ever. From television crews, to newspaper people to erstwhile bloggers everyone had a mic, a camera and an angle. It was a credit to the First Amendment... and unfortunately for the marchers it turned out to be the high point of their day

Organizers started the rally at about 4pm. The plan was to roll through the list of speakers then get the crowd of about 700 (media not counted) to march crosstown to the RNC's arena. Before the speakers even started a phalanx of police, outfitted in riot gear equipped with big sticks and pepper spray, formed three rows behind the stage area.

Things started going afoul for protesters even before the rally ended. Far to the right and out from the stage, what looked like Gen. Norman Schwartskoff's personal golf cart rolled up to the fringes of the crowd. A man with a loudspeaker system told people they had to disperse by 5pm (roughly 10 minutes hence) or they would be guilty of violating their parade permit.

And that would end up resulting in arrest for illegal assembly.

Hurry up and wait... hurry up and wait

Despite any warnings, the organizers were determined to not be dispersed - they had meant to march to the Xcel Energy Center and police instructions were not going to stop them. So when the speakers wrapped up the crowd started the trek southwards towards downtown and the assembled Republicans.

Police intercepted them at the first attempt to cross a street, but the marchers diverted west to John Ireland Blvd and the bridge over I-94. At the very center of the bridge marchers encountered a human wall of police coming from the south. The front lines were made of cops in full riot gear, three tiers deep. Behind them were mounted police and behind those bicycle police. A command vehicle brought up the rear.

There followed roughly 30 most tense and surreal minutes. Police held the bridge, instructing marchers to leave. In response, a body of marchers front and center held a sit down strike. Police clad in riot gear and gas masks, manning fire-extinguisher-sized cannisters of pepper spray and M-203 tear gas grenade launchers faced off against several hundred protesters.

Who knows what it was that finally broke the stalemate? My best guess is that a few hundred protesters anxious to find a way around the blockade decided to loop around to the east. Since John Ireland was blocked, maybe Cedar Street was unattended was the logic.

At any rate, the marchers retreated north and blocked the intersection at Marion and St. A.nthony. Again, there was another stand off. At this point, the police formed a crescent blockade - not allowing foot traffic to go south or east. If you wanted to leave you had to do it by heading in the opposite direction of the RNC.

By this time protesters were feeling bolder. Not having seen any macing or manhandling on the bridge individuals felt they had discovered all the police were ready to do that day. With a false sense of security - or maybe it was naivety - some began walking the perimeter of the police line, talking, taunting, flashing a peace sign.

And still nothing happened.

There were stories during the Chicago riots in the 68 Democratic Convention that one in every 15 people were plants from the police department. These agent provocateurs were to whip the protesters into a frenzy, leading them into illegal activity for which they could be arrested. It was almost nostalgic and quaint that the Saint Paul police would plant one of their own in this crowd.

Now, no actual proof was given that this was a police plant sent to stir up the natives and prompt arrests. Sure, this could have been just your average hulking, WWF-looking, mohawked, Tourettes-addled maniac, screaming and spitting from within the ranks of the marchers. But no one at this corner was buying it.

At first feared by the marchers - this was a big and seemingly violent boy - he became an object of ridicule, universally regarded by the marchers as a police plant. Eventually his antics became tedious even to the police, who cuffed and took him away.

Over an hour had passed and the marchers began to be bored by the lack of progress. People were also getting hungry and thirsty. People were beginning to peel away from the crowd. Even the police presence was scaled back. The assault-style vehicles that officers with grenade launchers had been standing on had left. It seemed that things were simply destined to peter out before sunset.

Then the whooping and hollering from the North started up. The marchers who had looped back to Ceder and 12th were apparently returning. Perhaps the police had thinned out here in order to stop them there. After being blocked in the east – and suffering some arrests according to another marcher on a cell phone – they had returned to reinforce.

The meridian sprinklers along the road were set to go at sunset, and here came a couple hundred protesters, running and dancing through them, to join their mates. They seemed hopeful that increased numbers would result in them getting to the Xcel.

Their confidence it would turn out was sadly misplaced.

They only come out at night...

With the increased numbers came a change in direction. Protesters decided to try a more roundabout route – to get south they would first head north. So with the sun finally setting the band of brothers and sisters headed west to Marion Street then south to University Avenue. From there they headed east... but they didn't head very far.

Protesters on foot may have moved quickly, but police on bikes, horses and motor vehicles moved faster. Unfortunately or maybe most fortuitously, old citizen journalists don't move fast at all. I'd stayed behind to keep an eye on the rear guard of the protesters, thinking the police would pick them off from behind. But nothing like that happened.

Struggling to catch up to the front of the march I cut through through the broad alley just to the south of University Street. Unseen from this point, the marchers and police began their clash.

The pops sounded familiar, like the backfires from an old car – one with the point gap set too close. They kept firing arrhythmically. And in the deep twilight between the buildings lining the alley you could see the yellow-orange flashes and billowing clouds of smoke. The police had begun firing flash-bangs aka concussion grenades. The air smelled sharp with them. Later, a protester fleeing the scene would tell me the police also fired rubber bullets and tear gas, a claim I did not verify.

The flash-bangs hitting on University Street signaled the end of the march and the beginning of the melee. Protesters fled in every direction, often pursued and sometimes caught by police. If front of me a cop on a bike flashed across Marion Street and onto a path behind some apartments. There was a yell.

A couple moments later I heard a small knot of people complaining that the man police had pinned on the ground ought be let go. One of the men, a protester, told me that a group of four police – one, he said was undercover - had used excessive force to subdue the man. The fellow on the ground had been tackled, sucker punched, had his head yanked back and been maced at close range. Each officer, the man claimed, had performed one of these tasks.

With the area in chaos, protesters dispersing and police on an arrest feeding frenzy I decided it was time for me to exit. The MacDonalds at the corner was locked down, according to the security guard outside it. He directed me to the White Castle a block or two down.

Relaxing minutes later with my chicken sliders and a drink I was given time to rest. I watched as people went in and out. A table of three young white men – protesters, they told me before leaving - grabbed a box of White Castles and sodas and grubbed out. Being chased and maced is thirsty work after all and being the only fast food open in the area made White Castle the Official After Mob Action Caterer.

Assorted Things You Might Want to Know...

According to the Star Tribune, the daily paper in the Twin Cities, 716 people were arrested over the week's protests. While I don't have hard numbers on this I believe 200+ were arrested on Thursday in the action described above. Over the week there were 17 charged felonies and two more felony investigations.

While most people know that lefty journalist Amy Goodman was arrested with two of her producers you might want to know that another 27 journalists – from College Newspaper people to local “real” reporters – were also arrested. This again from the Star Tribune. Currently, there is a petition to get all charges against journalists dropped.

Assorted things you might want to see...

Here's a video you might want to see of a news cameraman being arrested

Here's the most damning blast against police handling of the week. In this linked video a FOX news reporter comments that this is the most like a police state he has ever seen in Saint Paul.

Finally, here is a link to a videotape by the Star Tribune that captures what went on that Thursday. This is a more complete collection of images than I was able to assemble.

NowPublic

Rally for the Repulic Channels the Ghost of Barry Goldwater...

2008-09-04T14:41:00.001-05:00

note: please know that the opinion box was checked when this was written. You need know that this is the author's opinion based on experiences at the rally.

There's a lot to be said concerning the Ron Paul phenomenon. I'm no pundit or even half good analyst, so I'll leave that to the pros and armchair strategists. But while I don't know the pros and cons I do know what's put in front of my nose and when it is weird it is weird. And this rally was weird.

To totally appreciate the incogruities between the Ron Paul movement and traditional American conservatism it helps if you are either a student of my country's politics or over 50 years old and an American. And the only two here at NP who might fit that bill are Dunkelberg and politisite.

In the old days the big debate in American conservativism is whether we should nuke North Vietnam till it glowed or simply nuke it back to the stone age. The right simply couldn't make up its mind. And perhaps the biggest voice in this debate was Senator Barry Goldwater.

Knowing this you can understand why it would seem so weird that Goldwater's son - Congressman Barry Junior - should take the stage arguing for peace and a Constitutionally justified isolationist policy. It even gets stranger when you consider that earlier in the day Jessie Ventura was on the stage taking deficit reduction, 911 conspriacy theory and quoting Jerry Garcia.

The stage played host to these views along with visits from representatives from the Conservative Caucus, a candidate for congress authors, pundits and entertainers... and of course there was Dr. Paul himself. And each of the speakers spoke about an American Conservativism which was likely unrecognizable to the everyone - everyone except for the 10,000 or so true believers in the audience and untold thousands more who caught the whole thing on Cspan2.

Though I speak lightly here I do not speak dismissively. Based on what I say was said,do not think this was a roomful of nutjobs who are beyond the fringes of the American political spectrum. All the people I spoke with here - in the speakers' area or on the floor shared some common traits - enthusiasm, a sickness with the way things are normally run, and an intelligence backed by reading on the issues they find important mixed liberally with common sense.

After the rally I'd have to admit though my vote may well not vote go to their political candidate - Libertarian Bob Barr - I left the event with a respect for who they are and what they believe.

to get better information on what went on at the rally please consult the attached videos and pictures. These were all taken by me either under the name Mikasi or as madmanmikey

videos include the event convocation, singing of the national antherm, singing of the national anthem, the first half of Jessie Ventura's speech, a backstage interview with Howard Phillips about the proposed North American Union, interview with Jesse Ventura on what Americans need to remember, a speech by Olymic gold medalist Erik Vendt, musical performances by Aimee Allen and Jimmy Vaugh, and a five part presentation of Ron Paul's speech (this is missing a couple of minutes during one transition).

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Two marches diverged in Saint Paul and I...

2008-09-02T02:30:00.001-05:00

Took the one less traveled by

and that reminded me

how much I hate pepper spray...

At first glance Monday's protest March on the RNC appeared to be a wash... With less than two hours before the event was to begin it was more than clear that organizers were not going to meet their target of 50,000 protesters. In deed, it looked like they'd be lucky to hit 2,000.

But first glance proved not to be a good indicator, and in hindsight Saint Paul may have lucked out that a mere fifth of the promised participants were all that showed.

While news programs talked about the march in St. Paul there were actually two marches - the official organized and routed one and an earlier one - an extemporaneous one begun by the anarchists in the crowd along with the group Funk the War.

When the anarchists took off towards the street en masse, many people - myself included - figured that the march had started and that we had merely lost track of time. So, seeing the group starting to leave, we hurriedly followed. I can only assume that we began by taking the actual parade route but were quickly diverted first by police who were trying to herd the marchers and later by the marchers themselves as they attempted to outwit and avoid police.

The group leaders near the head of the line would march to an intersection then randomly choose a direction. This led the parade down streets sometimes packed with moving cars suddenly halted by hundreds of chanting, mostly black clad young people.

At one or more points, marchers eluded police. A number of members in the march began upending newspaper machines and tossing trash cans into the street. Some took to destroying windows at businesses on their impromptu route. A parking garage lost a window - the downtown Macy's lost two display windows, and more than that were broken.

One marcher attacked a parked Volvo. He slammed it hard with an unknown object at least three times - but the window refused to break and the car's body deflected the blows. This brief incident was a veritable advertisement for the luxury car.

At points in the march, anarchists and police met. It's from those meetings that the television footage altercations came. A tone point police tried blocking protesters, attempting to route them west from their southbound trek. The officers used their bikes as a fence. When marchers tried breaching this wall the cops fought back and held, wielding canisters of pepper spray the size of home fire extinguishers.

Being hit by the spray - even being downwind of it - stung the eyes and brought a foul taste to the mouth. March organizers had trained and equipped "medic" teams to help marchers hit by spray.

After taking the hour and a half anarchists' tour of downtown Saint Paul I opted to stop in a local market and cool off. Grabbing a quick couple quarts of cold drinks I sat and enjoyed the A.C. After recouping for 15 minutes I hit the bricks again trying to figure out where the marchers had gone.

Turning a corner I caught the sounds of the rolling music system being drawn on a wagon by Funk the War. Following the sounds for two blocks brought me to the march, but at a strange juncture - it seemed that the anarchists joined up with the authorized march. This march, I believe was led by the Iraq Veterans Against the War.

And while there were still photo ops aplenty this was a calmer more disciplined group. And that meant that all the real excitement was now past.

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Pictures from Saint Paul's March on the RNC

2008-09-02T01:49:00.001-05:00

Story to follow...

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Ron Paul Addresses Supporters at a Minneapolis Gathering

2008-09-02T00:31:00.001-05:00

At Langford Park in Minneapolis on September 1st, 2008, the Minnesotans for Limited Government held a picnic in the park which featured appearances by Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr and a man who is perhaps America's favorite near-libertarian, Ron Paul.

This video is of Congressman Paul's remarks to the crowd. Apologies for the shakiness of the camera, but this opportunity snuck up on me so I did not have a tripod.

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Dial V for Vapid - McConaughey's Dad Died Having Sex, Says Mom

2008-08-27T23:01:00.001-05:00

Tonight at midnight it is conceivable that any one of us could sneak out to a neighbor's house and pee on their lawn gnomes... But just because we could doesn't mean we should. The same advise could be given concerning the writing of tell-all biographies -

In her new book, I Amaze Myself! (iamazemyself.com), Kay McConaughey dishes on everything from her son Matthew’s conception to how her husband died in a compromising position with her!

Honestly, I haven't read the book and nothing in the accompanying Us piece really recommends it. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't skeedaddle over to the magazine piece to read at least one of Ms. McConaughey's annecdotes - I recommend the one where she has her freshly-dead-from-having-sex husband taken away while still naked -

“I was just so proud to show off my big old Jim McConaughey — and his gift,” she says.

No... can't say I'll be tracking down any author's reading for this one.

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Kenosha Police Run down gunman with car...

2008-08-25T16:58:00.001-05:00

Kenosha, Wisconsin is not a "crime free zone," not by a longshot. But some of the things police have done there ought to make criminals think about driving up to Racine or down to Waukegan to conduct their wacky hijinks. As evidence, please examine the opening line of today's "on top of the fold" story -

Kenosha Police intentionally ran down a man with a squad car after seeing him shoot a handgun into a crowd of people and toward police.

Apparently Kenosha's finest are willing to go that extra mile - or at least in this case drive that extra 10 meters - to help diffuse an urgent situation.

The officers had been on their way to investigate a stabbing at 4:26 a.m. near the area of 62nd Street and 20th Avenue when they were told that a man "with a bloody shirt" was outside nearby firing a gun.

As officers headed to the area in their squad car northbound on 20th Avenue, they saw a man run toward the street firing a gun toward a van traveling in front of the squad car. He was firing the gun toward a group of about 20 people who were congregated nearby.

As the marked squad car approached, the man shot at the squad car, hitting the hood of the vehicle.

"They saw the subject actively shooting the gun, and they took it upon themselves to strike the subject with their squad car," said Kenosha Police Sgt. Hugh Rafferty.

Oddly but happily, no bystanders were hit by bullets - stray or aimed. The suspect even failed to hit the van - that's right, a van - he was shooting at. Only two people were injured in this incident - one of the officers in the car hurt a leg in the collision and the suspect, who had to be pulled from a pile of debris.

For the record, a stolen Glauck 9mm handgun was found nearby. Police suspect this incident was gang related.

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From Chicago to St. Paul - Witnesses Against War Head Towards the RNC

2008-07-22T20:05:00.001-05:00

Story by patspen/photos by mikasi

“War is an ugly thing,” said Mike Miles of Luck, Wisconsin, “and many people get displaced as a result. We've displaced ourselves to be part of this effort.”

Miles, a nonviolence activist, was speaking of Witness Against War, a protest that involves a march from Chicago, Illinois to St. Paul, Minnesota. Marchers left Chicago on July 12 and expect to reach St. Paul, Minnesota - the site of the Republican National Convention - on August 30. They will remain for the duration of the convention in hopes of raising awareness of sentiment against the Iraq War and an effort to keep the Wisconsin National Guard group, the Red Arrow, home rather than being deployed to Iraq again in 2009.

The marchers were an eclectic group involving teachers, writers, ministers, activists, musicians, students, an Iraq War veteran and a pediatric physical therapist. Ages range from the early 20's to mid 50's. The group is making the trek largely on foot wherever possible, staying overnight in volunteer's homes along the way and camping out where necessary. Some members, like Heléne Hedberg of Sweden, won't be able to complete the entire march (Hedberg must return to school in Sweden before the march ends). Others will be part of march from beginning to end.

According to marcher Kathy Kelly, “One of the ways to stop a 'next' war is to continue telling the truth about this war.” Kelly has spent years doing just that. Author, organizer and activist, she has spent time in Iraq, during the early days of the war and three times subsequent to that. She and her organization have provided medical and humanitarian relief in Iraq as well as in Amman, Jordan; Beirut; and southern Lebanon. Co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, Kelly is also co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the group in charge of Witness Against War.

When the march reached Racine, Wisconsin, it's members hosted a rally at the Siena Center on July 18, where Kelly was a featured speaker. Urging the audience as well as the marchers to “keep going, stay strong!”, Kelly related several stories, including one about an Iraqi mother who managed to get almost all of her family out of Amman, but who was unable to get her teenage son out as well. Teenagers are highly suspected of being terrorists and her son had to be left behind with relatives. Nearly a year later, Kelly reported, his mother had a call from him, begging her to get him out as well, insisting, “but I am your son! I am your son!”

She said that the boy's relatives had pointed out that he could make $300 a month, a good sum by local standards, by signing up with the US military, but the boy had refused. This, said Kelly, left him open to being rounded up at random as a terrorist. However, the news wouldn't be all bad. At least in jail, he could be assured of getting three square meals a day. “There have been 828 youngsters rounded up as security risks,” Kelly told the group of 80, assembled to hear her speak. “But conditions are better inside jail, with school and soccer.” She told them of a commander at the jail who said that his aim was to make everyone happier to pick up a book, rather than a gun. “That would be a nice goal,” she added with a smile, “for every ROTC in Wisconsin.”

Miles brought the group's efforts closer to home in his presentation. “We've thrown ourselves at this war in all sorts of ways,” he told the crowd. “You can go to Baghdad, but meeting your community over the water cooler, that's most likely what's going to turn this thing around.”

He also pointed out, in his talk, that “There was no Gulf War One and Gulf War Two. It was all one war. We haven't just had a five year anniversary, but a 17-year anniversary. The economic sanctions that went on after the first war were just a form of the oldest kind of warfare, siege warfare.”

Miles, whose family has its own recording studio, entertained the group by playing them a few songs. “Cryin's over, cryin's done,” he sang. “Cryin's over and we're all one.” His second song was equally well-received, “I Oughtta Know More Than I know”.

Miles also told the crowd about the bus that follows the group throughout the march, in case of emergency. “Angels hover around it all the time,” he said. “We parked in Chicago (at the beginning of the march) and the walkers took off, and then the transmission went out. We looked around and we found a heavy duty truck bone yard that hadn't existed six months beforehand. It was run by a guy who was out of work doing home construction, but we called him and he said 'bring it in'. And two days later, it was OK.!”

He also mentioned meeting the cousin of Hans and Sophie Schell, two members of the White Rose, an German anti-Hitler group from WWII. “I asked her how she would compare these two governments, Hitler's and ours, then and now. She said, it's the same.”

Paul Melling, an Iraq War veteran who joined Iraq Veterans Against the war while he was still serving in Iraq, also spoke, asking the crowd, “Who's telling you that if we leave it will all fall into chaos? It's the same people who told you we would be greeted with flowers!” He also posed another question: “What do you think would happen if some other country came into the US and had armed convoys running through our streets? We'd get our own arms and roadside bombs, wouldn't we?”

In an interview, Melling said he'd joined the army originally to “help the human situation, to help the community and protect the system that advertises on TV. But when I was deployed, I learned that the war has nothing to do with serving people.” He found and signed up with Iraq Veterans Against the War while still serving in Iraq. After leaving Iraq, Melling earned an associates degree in network administration.

“My family is fairly happy about what I do now,” he said. “They were not happy when I went into the army. They didn't encourage it, but they didn't object.” He is encouraged by “the people I've met here. So many good people, awesome, all kinds of the same kinds of common experiences, going together.”

Another student, Hedberg, comes from a far different background. A Human Rights major at her college in Sweden, Hedberg works at an internship in a southern ghetto of Stockholm called Vårberg. She was charged with started an after-school child care program. “I didn't know there were that many Iraq refugees in our area, but it was highly populated. My main group is Iraqi youth. We see up to 50 every week.”

Her group basically started as an after-school program, but expanded to include weekends as well. “We offer sports, games and just hanging out among friends.” She met Kelly at a Human Rights symposium. “We e-mailed afterward about what I did in Stockholm and I asked if I could come to Chicago and observe, so she invited me.” Once in the Chicago area, in addition to being the “animator of a blogging community”, she joined the march.

“I was most impressed with the grassroots organization,” she said, “seeing how local folks join us in the mission of creating awareness.” She mentioned being impressed with one woman she met, “Patty,”, who she calls “quite amazing.”

“She just pitched right in, asking, can I help tomorrow, and then showing up with the most awesome lunch the next day. She's a teacher who brings peace and justice learning to her class. But she stopped everything and did an evening meal for us, and then breakfast and she camped with us. I was very impressed by that.”

When she returns home, Hedberg said that one of the lessons she wants to take with her for her friends will be “the enthusiasms; the hope and fire in that hope, and connecting with other people in that way.”

“I feel that I'm doing this very much for the kids I'm working with (in Sweden),” she said. “Their feeling of displacement, the ongoing violence, this can't be resolved in Iraq. The war needs to end so children can stop carrying the stain of violence and hate.”

During her speech, Kelly made reference to an Irish trial which took place before 2003 involving a group of activists that had deliberately inflicted over $2,000 in damage to a warplane. Their defense centered on the fact that they believed that the greatest pacifist was Jesus. The defense, a Mr. Nix, read the jury the Sermon on the Mount and then talked about walking one day and seeing children chasing ducks and ducks chasing children and realizing that, while this was going on, children were being bombed at a canal in Lebanon. A group of local Lebanese children were swimming at a canal when it was bombed. Kelly told the group, “Parents were screaming, 'There are only children here!' He (Nix) asked the jury then, 'Would you not try, if you could, to stop a missile from hitting a child?' And in doing this, Mr. Nix put us all on trial.”

“I remember Nix asking, what will rise us?” she said, and then answered the question herself.

“I think it is love. And in our rising, we can say we believe in the law of love, and in those who taught us in our youngest days.”

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Wisconsin trio accused of necrophilia because corpse did not give permission

2008-07-15T19:10:00.001-05:00

Should anyone ask me why I want to move back to Wisconsin I now have a newsclip that captures it all...

MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin law bans sex with dead bodies, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in reinstating charges against three men accused of digging up a corpse so one of them could have sex with it.

The court waded into the grisly case after lower court judges ruled nothing in state law banned necrophilia. Those decisions prompted public outrage and a push by a state lawmaker to make sex with a corpse a crime.

After reading the story, it seems plain the justices had decided on their ruling prior to hearing the facts - the logic here is just too tortured to be actual logic (see below). That said, I have to admit to agreeing to the ruling if not to the reasoning.

If you don't have time to read this story here are all the additional facts you ought know -

the accused targeted this particular grave because the the deceased's obit picture in prior week's paper. apparently one of the brothers thought she was hot
the trio stopped as a nearby WalMart on the way to the grave, not to buy shovels but to purchase condoms
the lads were able to dig down to the girl's vault, but they couldn't get it open. This means they were not just perverts, but they were inept perverts
the Wisconsin judges ruled that the three could be prosecuted not under necrophilia laws (there are no such laws in the state) but rather under sexual assault laws. How? According to Justice Patience Roggensack, state law bans sex with anyone who does not give consent "whether a victim is dead or alive at the time."
while it is not mentioned in this story, I can't help but mention that the twins are the sons of a Methodist minister.

Those interested in the life of the deceased victim should go here.

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Anbar suicide bombing fatalities - 30 civilians, three Marines, and the truth one photographer showed

2008-07-03T12:49:00.002-05:00

[note: The word "fired" in this article is used very informally in service to the employment analogy later in the piece. It refers to the fact that the Marines chose to rescind Zoriah's access and unembed him due to a blog entry and some photographs he posted.

Please know that Zoriah was never actually hired by or paid for by the Marines. As with many other journalists he was simply given access to certain areas. My apologies to Zoriah, his staff and any confused readers. I will be more careful and less stupid in the future.]

The truth is always one of the casualties of war - whether you support a war or are against it this is true. In this case, showing more “truth” than was deemed prudent led Zoriah - a noted war and disaster photographer embedded with Marines in Anbar – to being effectively “fired.”

A few hours after posting my story on the suicide bombing in Anbar Province, I was woken up by a young marine who took me to receive a phone call. A high ranking Public Affairs Officer told me that they were requesting that I remove my blog post immediately. I asked on what grounds, as media rules state that wounded and killed soldiers may be portrayed in images as long as their name tags and identifiable features are not shown. I made very sure my images followed those guidelines, and questioned a large number of soldiers on base to see if they could find anything at all that would identify the dead. I did this primarily out of respect for the families.

After the post was online, I was told that the Marine Corps would not allow even the pants or shoes of a injured or killed Marine to be depicted in images. This was a rule I had never been told or even heard of. I refused to remove the blog post. It seemed insane to me that the Marines would embed a war photographer and then be upset when photographs were taken of war.

A few minutes later my embed was terminated...

One of my biggest complaints about war coverage in the U.S. the war is that we pedal it in a very PG, essentially kid-friendly fashion - the pictures we get, the stories we hear are sanitized and made sterile so as not to alarm the meek or the frighten the children. In short, war is to be regarded as a video game - everyone plays hard, nobody really gets hurt and if you do get whacked, hey just reload the last save point and get back to the killing.

I truly labored with the decision to post these images and I still do. But in my heart of hearts I know that people need to see and feel the reality of this horrible situation. How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on the quality and truth in what they report?

The danger with letting people see and hear what is really going is that we are put in danger of having popular support go soft or of turning people against turn against the war. Hearing there was a suicide bombing that killed three soldiers, two interpreters and 30 civilians is just plain sad, but having to drink in the sight of bloodied uniforms, the limp corpses of old men and little kids and blown off body parts is quite another thing all together.

Managing the truth - "spin" that is - then is a very important job for those managing the war. Managing the message, after all manages the opinion.

I have done everything I can to post images of Marines that are not in any way identifiable. I photographed to the best of my ability -- hoping to capture images that speak the truth yet capture the horror and senselessness of these kinds of attacks in a dignified, emotional, and artistic way. I have made sure there are ample warnings that the post is very graphic and very disturbing. I put it on a separate page that contains even more warnings and buffer text and images before the graphic content is displayed to avoid anyone stumbling on it by accident.

Good managers make sure "employees" tow the company line, maintain morale and keep a tight lip about what is actually going on. Questions are referred, are always referred, to the public information people, those who know what not to say, what to say and how to say it so that the proper picture is painted. It is a simple fact that those with loose lips must be fired.

Please know that my intent is to show the true nature of the abominations of war in hopes that this will deter others from committing or accepting senseless acts of violence.

Sanitizing images is a great disservice, not just to the victims of the violence but to the men and women who are sent into the thick of the violence. By censoring the imagery we insult the soldiers by making the war they are fighting seem clean and easy. The full impact of the burdens they bare - from lost limbs to PTSD to simple guilt is lost on us.

Similarly we miss the scope of the victories they achieve in battles raged, thousands of miles from we arm-chair generals and pundits who idly debate cost and benefit and collateral damage.

To the families of the Marines, the interpreters, the Iraqi police, and the civilians killed in the attack: you have my deepest condolences. These men were attending a city council meeting and working together to better their community. Something terrible happened to them when they were in the midst of doing a good thing.

[emphasis mine - Mikasi]

In short, keeping the truth from us keeps us from making fully informed decisions and opinions. But sanitizing the truth also short-changes our veterans by veiling their daily reality. We, the uninvolved, never get to see why we should laud them nor why we should help them once they return from tour.

Click here to see the blog post that got Zoriah “fired.”

Click here to hear a phone interview concerning this issue with Zoriah by Ernesto Arce for Pacifica Public Radio.

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Hundreds nabbed in U.S. child prostitution sting

2008-06-25T22:45:00.001-05:00

There are certain stories that lift the human spirit, that enoble us as a species. This is not one of them.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 300 people have been arrested for involvement in child prostitution rings and 21 children rescued in a nationwide sweep, the FBI said on Wednesday.

"Operation Cross Country," a five-day sting that ended on Sunday, spanned 16 cities in 10 states and the District of Columbia and caught 389 people who exploited children through prostitution, the agency said.

Investigations uncovered schemes ranging from prostituting children at truck stops to promoting their services on the Internet, the FBI said.

I rarely wish the Feds well on anything, but in this case here's to their successful casebuilding against over 300 rotten spots in the civic body. Go get'em guys.

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Opinion - Gore Vidal, 82 and Cantankerous as Hell

2008-06-19T19:57:00.001-05:00

Unlike many of you here, I am not a reader. Simply put, unless it's a news story on the web or in the occasional magazine, it doesn't appeal to me. I'm much too manic-y to sit still for much more.

But this Time Magazine interview with Gore Vidal [by Deborah Solomon] may change that -

How did you feel when you heard that Buckley died this year? I thought hell is bound to be a livelier place, as he joins forever those whom he served in life, applauding their prejudices and fanning their hatred.

Based on this quote, I will not abandon my image of Buckley as a wise and intelligent right winger. I will not now believe him to be morally bankrupt. However, I will likely want to read more out of the collections of Vidal essays being published. People who speak their minds so brashly are just too good to ignore.

Some of us Democrats joked during the 96 election cycle that Bob Dole's campaign slogan was likely "Hey you punks, get off my lawn." After reading this short interview I am now convinced this was not Dole's slogan but octogenarian Gore Vidal's partisan personal credo.

Are you a supporter of gay marriage? I know nothing about it. I don’t follow that.

Why doesn’t it interest you? The same reason heterosexual marriage doesn’t seem to interest me.

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Three Pictures of Life Near Sadir's New Wall

2008-06-17T07:38:00.001-05:00

We are on a mission in Sadr City to inspect some of the checkpoints along the newly completed wall. The first part of the mission brings us to the infamous Jamilla Market, an outdoor stretch of shops and home to some of the worst fighting in the entire war. The market suffered heavily. Shop owners are now facing repairs that they could never possibly afford, and it has made an impossible situation even worse for many.

Zoriah is a photographer I view with a little regularity and a lot of envy. He travels all over hells and back (hells, because human and natural disasters have spawned more than just one).

I don't want to violate his copyright so I can't drop his photos in here. But I can suggest you visit the link and travel with him to Iraq and China to monsoon and earthquake.

Perhaps this isn't news in the strickest sense - after all who among us doesn't know the name of Sadir-city? But the upclose and personal that this photographer gives us is new. And it is a view not usually dwelt upon on the evening news.

It's well worth getting acquainted with.

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Ketchup anyone?

2008-06-15T17:18:00.003-05:00

It strikes me funny that the French would have bad coming of age movies, but apparently they do. Hope you enjoy this a lot more than the young man in the film did.

Zion man Changes Name to "In God We Trust"

2008-06-14T20:51:00.001-05:00

This took place in the city just south of the one I live in. I'm not sure how exactly to comment on it.

Steve Kreuscher is no more.

A Lake County judge granted permission to the Zion man Friday to officially change his name to "In God We Trust." That's "In God" as a first name and "We Trust" as a last name.

The 57-year-old artist and bus driver was ecstatic about the name change as he exited court Friday.

"I feel great. It's just like, yes!" We Trust said.

Check the history of Zion and you'll see that it was founded by a man who was either pious, a zealot or a nut job, depending on your point of view. In the recent past, the City Seal of Zion was subject of a Supreme Court case when someone sued to have a religious symbol removed from it (the city lost that one).

Some of the original residents and their descendants take their Christianity rather seriously, as proven by this story about Mr. We Trust.

[q url="http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/1006179,ingodwetrust061408.article"]The process to change his name took roughly three months. Throughout the course We Trust said he was looking for a sign from God that would let him know it was a good idea. He got it one day while adding up the expenses for the name change, which came out to roughly $600.

"I didn't want to use my own money because things are tight," said the father of four. "Three weeks later, I got my (tax) rebate check for $600."

To his credit I have seen more twisted rationale for weirder acts. I mean another man from my home town might have seen the $600 check as proof that God wanted him to get three lap dances at Milwaukee's On The Border.

Best wishes to Mr. We Trust in his life, faith and artistic pursuits.

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Illegal Alien Faces Up to 20 years in Prison for Auto Death

2008-06-14T20:28:00.001-05:00

One of the side detriments to this sad case is that this idiot becomes a poster boy for the "build a fence between us and them" argument.

The 29-year-old Kenosha man charged in the West Allis crash that killed a 6-year-old girl Monday could face federal charges for re-entering the country illegally after being deported to Mexico in February, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office said Wednesday.
[skip]
The 29-year-old Kenosha man charged in the West Allis crash that killed a 6-year-old girl Monday could face federal charges for re-entering the country illegally after being deported to Mexico in February, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office said Wednesday.

Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for ICE’s Chicago region, said her agency expects to file federal re-entry charges against Jose A. Rodriguez, accused of striking Mackenzie J. Maddox and her 25-year-old mother, Andrea F. Maddox, both of West Allis as they crossed the street.

Apparently this homicidal doofus was thrown out of this country when he was caught doing something criminal as an illegal.alien. While the story does not tell what he got caught doing from the looks of his driving record it was likely vehicle related.

Rodriguez works for an Oak Creek waterproofing business. He has convictions for driving while intoxicated, speeding, failure to obey a traffic sign and property damage accidents, said West Allis Police Chief Michael Jungbluth.

Prayers to the family. Andrea Maddox is still in the hospital. her condition is satisfactory.

My advice to Jose A. Rodriguez - buy a frickin' bicycle.

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ChineseHackers No Slackers - Violate Congressional Computers

2008-06-12T21:45:00.001-05:00

Anyone surprised by story has likely been asleep since Mao died.

In a press conference held on June 11, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf has made public that his office computers were hacked in August 2006 and that the FBI and other officials informed him that the attack came from inside China. Rep. Christopher Smith, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is also active in human rights affairs, said his computer had been attacked from inside China.

Hackers are hackers, no matter the country, though from what I have heard the Chinese actually pay their young'uns to pry into sensitive areas and report back. As the U.S. Government (and taxpayers have found) where there is a sub contract there's a way.

So what would Chinese hackers want from Congressmen's offices that they can simply steal from the Pentagon mainframe?

The computers in his office were being used by staff members working on human rights issues, which includes the names of dissidents, access to e-mail correspondence between his office and human rights groups and records from over 24 congressional hearings on human rights abuses.

He reported that after one of the attacks, a car with Chinese officials plates went to the home of a Chinese dissident in the United States and photographed it.

And what with the Olympics coming up with its threats of embarrassing protests that's likely information the Chinese government would love to have.

Qualifying as the most amusing paragraph in the story is the Chinese Government's denial - it claims its such a backwater regime that it couldn't possibly have the technology to do it.

"... China is still a developing country. Does that mean we have already mastered such high-end technology? Personally I' don't believe that." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news conference in Beijing.

Hard to believe from a country that's essentially the Captain Jack Sparrow of the copyright world.

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The Five Pokemon of the (Olympic) Apocalypse

2008-06-12T20:55:00.001-05:00

OK, so they aren't really Pokemon, but damned if they don't look like them.

HONG KONG: Superstitious bloggers have linked China's earthquake disaster and other recent misfortunes to the five Olympic mascots, a Hong Kong newspaper reported yesterday.

Gossip sites are full of speculation that four of the five cartoon mascots have fulfilled prophesies of doom with one more, connected to the Yangtze River, still to come, the South China Morning Post said.

Apparently, the first four figures are linked to disruption along the Olympic torch route, the recent earthquake, Tibetan protests and last month's infamous train crash. As mentioned above the last mascot, Beibei the Sturgeon, will be the last harbinger of doom.

While the Chinese believe it will come from the Yangtze, my money is on tuna tainted by China's ever-present lead menace.

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Tiffany Hirst: the toddler left to die alone and unloved

2008-06-12T20:40:00.001-05:00

In a case of neglect that resulted in the death of Tiffany Hirst, 3, a court was told yesterday how passers-by used to see the gaunt face of the toddler staring through the window of her mother’s squalid flat.

Frankly, I am not sure exactly why I posted this. It is news - extremely sad and poignant - and it needs to be seen. But posting it verges on being as obscene as the senseless death of this child.

Despite the flow of customers to and from the Sheffield pub below, senior detectives said that the neglect continued to go unnoticed, leaving the toddler to die, unloved and alone.
Tiffany was found by paramedics in a filthy bed in a beetle-infested room at the Scarbrough Arms in Addy Street, Upperthorpe. The pub was run by her mother, Sabrina Hirst, 22, and stepfather, Robert Hirst, 54.

“It is heartbreaking. We think this neglect had been going on for months and that those last few months, weeks and days of her life, she was unloved, unwanted, starved of attention and left alone to die and she would have known that.”

Believe it or not this could have been worse. Apparently the couple was charged with neglecting a second child, this one 12 months of age, Thankfully, the younger child is still alive.

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Will Judge Who Posted Bestiality Video be Recused from Obsenity Trial

2008-06-11T18:07:00.001-05:00

Can't speak for you, but I live to run into these stories. Findingthem gives me a warm, squishy feeling - but not the type of warmsquishy feeling likely portrayed in the judge's video.

LOSANGELES - The chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appealsposted sexually explicit photos and videos on a Web site hemaintained that he has now blocked to the public, the Los AngelesTimes reported today on its Web site.

The revelation about Judge Alex Kozinski came as openingstatements were under way in an obscenity trial he is presiding overin U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Kozinski, 57, told the Times that he thought the material on hisWeb site, which included a video of a man cavorting with a sexuallyaroused farm animal, couldn't be seen by the public. He took the sitedown and said he didn't believe any of the images were obscene.

As for his thedecency of the video he posted, the judge said "Is it prurient?I don't know what to tell you...I think it's odd and interesting.It's part of life."

And how exactlydoes a man "cavort" with a sexually aroused farm animal?Will we end up arguing the definition of "cavort." [Note:the judge was appointed by Reagan, not Clinton, so this may not be anissue.]

[Judge Kozinski] is currently overseeing a trial in which Los Angelesbusinessman Ira Isaacs is accused of breaking U.S. obscenity laws byselling pornographic movies that depict extreme fetishes.

Trial jurors were scheduled to travel this afternoon to the 9thCircuit's Southern California building in suburban Pasadena to viewthe movies, which depict bestiality and fetishes involving feces andurine. The panel includes eight men and six women. Two will bedesignated alternates later in the trial.

Apparently, oneman's “odd and interesting” “part of life” is a quarter ofanother man's life. If convicted Isaacs faces a 20 year prisonsentence.

For his part, Judge Kozinski just ends up looking like a dumb asswho should not be trying this case... or hanging out at a pettingzoo.

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When an Auto Maker Leaves Town Community Needs Good Role Models

2008-06-11T17:34:00.001-05:00

Janesville got the news a week or two back - General Motors isleaving town. GM is a major employer out that way, giving jobs to 4.3percent of Rock County's work force. and many of these are more thanjust "living wage" jobs. They're the types of jobs than anyAmerican community covets because they pay wages (both directly andindirectly) that give workers a real chance to reach out and grab theAmerican Dream.

Janesville faces a worrisome and uncertain future, one it has towalk into alone. But it doesn't have to do it without a road map. Itcan rely on the experience of another Wisconsin community that facedthe same loss but whose economy didn't just role over and die becauseof it.

KENOSHA— When Chrysler closed its auto assembly plant in Kenosha andeliminated more than 5,000 jobs, many thought the community wouldnever recover.

Local residents predicted a skyrocketing unemployment rate, to befollowed by a wave of crime, foreclosures and even suicide.

And then there was Dick Keehn, insisting the plant’s closurewould prove to be a good thing.

“I said Kenosha would be better off in the long run, but I hadto admit it was going to be hard in the short term,” said Keehn,who retired in 2000 after 31 years teaching economics at UW-Parksidein Kenosha. “That’s not a very popular thing to do.”

Today, Keehn believes his predictions were dead-on.

The local economy did not collapse, but it did struggle for a fewyears. The area has welcomed new businesses and residents in the last20 years, and the city has revived its once-ailing downtown.

Most importantly, the local economy is much more stable than itwas during the boom-and-bust-years of American Motors Corp., Keehnsaid.

I moved into Kenosha about 3 years after the the Chryslerdrastically reduced it's work presence. (Contrary to what the storymakes it seem, to this day Chrysler maintains a plant and a workforcethere, though not at near the same level as "back in the day."

This story is important to many of us - even if we don't face thepossibility of losing such a big employer - because the economy ofAmerica is changing radically. We are leaving the age of America asproducer and exporter behind. We're moving from making things toserving and providing things – and this doesn't pay anywhere nearas well.

Simply put, our economic realities need to be rethought and an neweconomic paradigm needs to emerge.

The experiences of Kenosha are not some one size fix all,applicable to every community. But they are one example of how toretool a community as it faces unpleasant choices concerning toughtransitions.

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Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab

2008-06-10T20:02:00.001-05:00

This brings to mind lectures my mother gave me about not leavingdirty plates or pizza crusts laying about in my room lest they growsomething. We'll it's a fortuitous thing that at least one persondidn't do what they were told.

Amajor evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front ofresearchers' eyes. It's the first time evolution has been caught inthe act of making such a rare and complex new trait.

And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientistshave been able to replay history to show how this evolutionarynovelty grew from the accumulation of unpredictable, chanceevents.

20-some years ago this scientist started culturing E. coli. As ofnow he has 44,000 generations of them. Upon examining them hediscovered they had undergone a "profound change."

But sometime around the 31,500th generation, something dramatichappened in just one of the populations – the bacteria suddenlyacquired the ability to metabolise citrate, a second nutrient intheir culture medium that E. coli normally cannot use.

Indeed, the inability to use citrate is one of the traits by whichbacteriologists distinguish E. coli from other species. Thecitrate-using mutants increased in population size anddiversity.

Tis worth your while to read the rest of the article to see howthe attempts to duplicate the mutation in the other 11 culturesplayed out.

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Three ISPs Agree To Block Child Porn - Boon or Slippery Slope?

2008-06-10T19:47:00.001-05:00

Goobergunchand other readers sent in word that Sprint, Time Warner, and Verizonhave agreed to block websites and newsgroups containing childpornography. The deal, brokered by New York Attorney General AndrewCuomo, occurred after Cuomo's office threatened the ISPs with fraudcharges. It's of some concern that the blacklist of sites andnewsgroups is to be maintained by the Center for Missing andExploited Children, an NGO with no legal requirement fortransparency.

While authors don't question the motive they do dispute see threepossible problems here -

How long it will be before other groups want "their" topics blacklisted from the web?

Will this move simply be negated in the courts like just as a similar law was in Pennsylvania?

Will this move actually be effective for getting rid of child porn?

The general consensus on the answers are

not long

yes and

sure, and I'm Louis XIV.

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Girls found dead near small Oklahoma town

2008-06-10T19:17:00.001-05:00

There's not much you can say about a story like this...

WELEETKA, Okla. (AP) — The bodies of two girls were found shot to death in rural Oklahoma along a dirt road the best friends walked dozens of times to play and go to sleepovers.
By Tuesday, investigators had no suspects and were unsure of the motive for Sunday's killings of 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker.

Residents remained on edge knowing a murderer could be in this close community of 1,000.

"Believe it or not, I have never pulled any shades in my house and I keep my doors unlocked," said Dena Priddy, a teacher's aide at the school the victims attended. "You just don't expect these things to happen here."

Taylor's grandfather found their bodies after his wife got no answer when she called Taylor's cellular phone. The girls were sleeping over at Taylor's house and had decided to take a walk down the desolate road Sunday afternoon.

Peter Placker sobbed uncontrollably Monday as he tried to remember finding the girls' bodies about a quarter of a mile from his house near Weleetka, about 70 miles south of Tulsa.

We had the same thing happen in our area (Zion, Illinois) about 4 years back. As that one turned out it was someone the family knew - the stepfather.

Full autopsy results were not available yet, but sexual assaultappears unlikely, said Special Agent Ben Rosser of the Oklahoma StateBureau of Investigation. He noted the girls were clothed and had onlybeen missing for a half hour.
Investigators were examining evidence, including tire tracks, shell casings, ballistics and shoe prints for any possible leads.

"We will bring all the resources we need to try to help in our investigation," Rosser said in an afternoon news conference.

But as of Tuesday afternoon, authorities had identified no suspects or persons of interest in the crime.

"Nobody we could put a finger on and say this guy's good for it," Rosser said.

A $14,000 reward was being offered for information about the killings.

On Tuesday morning, Taylor's uncle, Joe Mosher, drove up to themakeshift memorial at the place the bodies were found. Yellow crimescene tape had been torn away and thick patches of grass were matteddown.

A rosary hung from a branch, and stuffed animals and abouquet of flowers just beginning to wilt formed the grim reminder ofinnocence lost.

"It's the most tragic thing that I've ever seen,"said Nell Mosher, Taylor's aunt. "They were just two precious littlebabies; they were good girls."

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US quits Human Rights Council?

2008-06-08T16:34:00.001-05:00

As human right is not my beat - I'm more a casual observer - there isno context for me to use in interpreting what the hell this means. Butwhatever it means it doesn't sound good.

Those of you who are smarter at this should feel free to comment yourbuns off on this one. I for one would welcome the insight.

To be frank, the current Administration in America has been really goodat no giving a crap at whatever anyone else thinks and this strikes meas one of its last acts of "up yours" defiance before it hands over thereigns of power to the next crew.

Carole Vann/Juan Gasparini/Human Rights Tribune - The news that the US has completely withdrawn from the Human Rights Council spread like wildfire Friday afternoon (June 6) through the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. There was general consternation amongst diplomats and NGOS. Reached by phone, the American mission in Geneva neither confirmed nor denied the report. Although unofficial, the news comes at a time of long opposition by the Bush administration to the reforms which created the Human Rights Council in June 2006. Washington announced from the beginning that the US would not be an active member but its observer status would mean that it could intervene during the sessions. To date even this has rarely happened.

“We don’t understand the reasons nor the timing of the decision”, said Sebastien Gillioz of Human Rights Watch. “There have even been some positive signs during this Council. For example Belarus was not re-elected as a member in 2007 nor Sri Lanka this year”.

And again...

But Eric Sottas, director of the International Organisation againstTorture sees it as a a political gesture. “The US has always clearlyshown its opposition to the Council. This is a slightly more public wayof putting pressure on it in order to raise the stakes. What is morethe Bush dynasty is coming to the end of its mandate,” he said. “Itreminds me of the time when the Nixon administration, which backedPinochet in Chile, chastized the UN for criticising the Chileandictator. But when Carter was elected in 1977, the American governmenttook the floor at the Human Rights Commission to ask forgiveness. Aftera presidency like that of Bush, you can expect some important changesin US policy on human right.”

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Stewart Saves Minnesota - Franken to Run For Senate

2008-06-08T16:17:00.001-05:00

We can only hope he is a better politician than he was a comedian.

Minnesota Democrats have thrown their support behind comedian Al Franken in a race for U.S. Senate that will pit him against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.

Franken, who wrote and performed for "Saturday Night Live," told Minnesotans on Saturday that he is "not a perfect person."

"I'm not going to pretend to have all the answers," he said. "But I'll tell the truth, I will keep my spine, and I will work for you."

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UPDATE 1-G8 energy ministers look inward on oil, spare OPEC

2008-06-08T07:30:00.001-05:00

I don't have time to write about this properly, having to go to work and all. Hell, I cannot even afford (time-wise) to post more than one clip from the story before my shower.
Suffice it to say this story is worth a look.
And only one side note here. Talked with one local financial counselor about why oil has risen so much. The story here says it's because of inflationary pressures and that oil is a lucrative place to put money now and that the OPEC and peak oil have nothing to do with the rise.
The adviser I talked to said the real reason for the rise is a legion of Chinese and Indian consumers coming on line to buy cars and use oil-products.
Damn those free market forces for using all "our" oil!

AOMORI, Japan, June 8 (Reuters) - Group of Eight energyministers looked inward for solutions to record oil prices onSunday, touting the need for domestic efficiency rather thanpiling pressure on a resistant OPEC to pump more crude.

Oil prices posted their biggest ever one-day surge onFriday, leaping more than $10 to a record high above $139 abarrel CLc1.

Soaring oil costs dampen global economic growth, worseninflationary pressure and raise the risk of more protests byfishermen, truck drivers and others whose livelihoods are underthreat.

Caught between mounting popular discontent at home and theneed to invest billions in greener energy to cut world carbonemissions, the G8 ministers offered few new ideas for heads ofstate to consider at their summit next month.

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Over 1,000,000 Strong and Growing - the U.S. Subprime Debacle Goes Prime

2008-06-06T12:21:00.001-05:00

Between the information on Realitytrac.com (referenced below) and that from Forbes.com (ditto)it appears that while the housing crisis has faded from the head lines it is still running strong in reality land.

Realtytrac is particularly useful because it gives a lot of hard numbers and those give a harder, firmer look at what is going on than any hyperbolic lip flap from candidates or pundits.

IRVINE,Calif. – Jan. 29, 2008 – RealtyTrac®(realtytrac.com),the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released year-end data from its 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report,which shows a total of 2,203,295 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,285,873 properties nationwide during the year, up 75percent from 2006. The report also shows that more than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure during the year, up from 0.58 percent in 2006.

Before going any further, it's important for us all to know that Realytrac is an industry group and this piece was listed among its press releases. I am assuming – and that may be too optimistic – their numbers and facts are correct. Mea culpa for any errors resulting on that assumption.

For itspart, what Forbes has to say is a bit scarier, at least to middle America.

Brinkman said that while subprime adjustable-rate mortgages represent 6.0% of the loans outstanding, they represented the lion's share, 39.0%, of the foreclosures started during the first quarter. Prime ARMs represent 15.0% of the loans outstanding and 23.0% of the foreclosures started.

In absolute numbers, there were 195,000 new subprime foreclosures,an increase of 20,000, while there were 117,000 new prime foreclosures, up 29,000 [emphasis mine - Mikasi].

The big trend was the jump in prime foreclosures from last quarter suggest that the subprimecrisis has spread to more reputable paper.

Forbes localizes the problem a bit differently than Realtytrac, noting that the lion's share of the foreclosures are affecting two different regions - Florida and the West.

Also, they make a prognosis about what is likely to result from this debacle in the securities scene.

Arizona,California, Florida and Nevada account for a quarter of outstanding homeloans and 42.0% of foreclosure starts, the industry group said. "The magnitude of the problem there is kind of dwarfing developments in the rest of the country," said Brinkmann.

The rise in default among prime and near-prime loans does not bode well for the asset-backed securities they compose. Write-downs related to worse-than-expected performing mortgage-backedsecurities have already cost Wall Street an estimated $250billion.

Realtytrac's CEO sums sums this entire mess up like this -

“The year ended with a monthly increase of 7 percent inDecember, making it the fifth straight month with more than 200,000foreclosure filings reported and giving the fourth quarter thehighest quarterly total we’ve seen since we began issuing ourreport in January 2005,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executiveofficer of RealtyTrac. “It also pushed the foreclosure filing totalfor 2007 well over 2 million. And while filings were up 75 percent,the number of properties in some stage of foreclosure was up 79percent, indicating that some properties may have just entered theinitial stage of foreclosure in 2007 and could be going throughthe rest of the foreclosure process in 2008 — unless lender andgovernment intervention efforts begin to gain more traction.”

The site gives two tables detailing the foreclosure ratesby state over the last year. For the record, the top three states forforeclosures in 2007 were Nevada (3.4% of households), Florida (2%+)and Michigan. California, Colorado, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, Illinoisand Indiana rounded out the top ten.

But that's just thisyear - from the look of things we'll be hearing about this well into2009 and maybe beyond.

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News Consumer ADD Aside, the American Economic Woes Keep'a Coming

2008-06-06T11:28:00.001-05:00

One of the problems with AmericanNews Consumers is that they are affected by some form of AttentionDeficit Disorder - though a story may remain important it is soonforced off the front page by readers/viewers hungry for the nextthing.

June 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost jobs in May for a fifth monthand the unemployment rate rose by the most in more than two decades,signaling that the world's largest economy is stalling.

Payrolls fell by 49,000 after a 28,000 drop in April, the LaborDepartment said today in Washington. The jobless rate increased byhalf a point to 5.5 percent, higher than every forecast in aBloomberg News survey, partly because an influx of teenagers into theworkforce exceeded jobs available.

But while the Obama/Clinton road show has kept us allfascinated and a cavalcade of reality shows featuring singing,dancing and infants put into staged (though actually dangerous) videosituations has kept us distracted that doesn't mean the actual newshas gone away.

``Thelabor market is still deteriorating,'' said NigelGault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight Inc. in Lexington,Massachusetts. ``The story is, we're still on the verge of arecession'' and ``at best, the economy is growing very, veryslowly.''

The Presidential candidates had their sayabout the matter.

``Today's jobs report is deeply troubling,'' Democratic SenatorBarack Obama of Illinois said in a statement today. He said thefigures underscored the need for his proposed reduction in taxes formiddle-income earners. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizonaurged lawmakers to pass legislation helping to stem homeforeclosures.

However, when listening to these fellows it is alwayswise to remember that the problems facing (and yet to approach) uswere started on their watch. Also, it is good to remember thatgovernment can only do so much - and much of that they usually refuseto do (or do right).

While I won't detail it here you shouldread the rest of the article It details where job losses and gainsare coming from.

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disregard - test posting only to get ubuntu machine to work with np

2008-06-03T07:10:00.001-05:00

[q http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/03/MNPU111UGU.DTL]

But Republicans warned that the

bill would put U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage, while

doing little to reduce worldwide emissions as China and India burn

increasing amounts of coal to sustain rapidly growing economies.[q]

this is a test posting only. attempting to make my computer work with np

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Tags: Environment

Chinese Kids Lighting 'Em if They Have 'Em - Teen Smoking Rising in China

2008-06-02T07:24:00.001-05:00

Nothing says welcome to economicprosperity like the acquisition of bad and self-destructiveenjoyments. For Americans flush with cash during the Reagan years itwas cocaine. And for the Chinese just before the Olympics itsapparently the Marlboro Man.

BEIJING, June 2 (UPI) -- A study on rising tobacco addiction amongChinese teenagers says 68 percent of the 130 million teens have hadtheir first whole cigarette before the age of 13.

The 2008China Tobacco Control study, reported by the China Daily, said about40 million of the country's 130 million children between the ages of13 and 18 have tried smoking, and 15 million are now addicted.

Source: upi.com

So it wouldseem that Chinese youth have discoverd the old "writing anote for a friend purportedly from his mother giving permission tobuy smokes" trick. Unfortunately for thedestined-to-be-on-oxygen-cannisters-eventually set this one too-oftenworks.

Thestudy found more than 90 percent of the young smokers were able tobuy cigarettes despite a ban on selling tobacco to children under18.

Source: upi.com

If the government in Beijing decides it wants tocombat smoking it will at least have a wealth of information on howto do so if it just mines the Internet about the Western battle withtobacco.

My personal faves as commercials go come from thefolks at thetruth.com, not because their particular effectiveness,but because they are particular absurdity.

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Tags: Culture | smoking | teen

Nvidia Joins "One Netbook per Geek" Race

2008-06-02T07:04:00.001-05:00

Some computer-centric companies concerned with pulling 3rd World areas into the 21st century computer culture have been active in producing miniature computers that are cheap yet functional in order to help connect the have nots to the haves, at least technically. We've all heard of "One Laptop Per Child," right?

Well, take a look at Nvidia. The company normally known for its graphics cards has decided to ramp things up a bit -

Nvidia has joined a growing band of hardware makers producing low-power, portable laptops.

Better known for graphics cards, Nvidia has shown off two Tegra processors [note - the Tegra 600 and 650] designed for tiny laptops or netbooks.

It said devices fitted with the chips would be able to browse the web, show high-definition video and be able to handle graphically-heavy games.

The move pits Nvidia against chip giant Intel which is releasing a similar line of chips for such small devices.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Though relatively small (about a 12"/30cm screen), this unit looks like it will be a lot more powerful than the OLPC models. That the chips are being designed to work with highspeed interenet connections and will come equiped with a game device part already shows they are being aimed at a more high-tech and economically developed audience than the OLPC models.

The chip maker said the processors were aimed at light, portablegadgets that are fitted with a screen up to 12in (30cm) across, akeyboard, high-speed wireless connection and a port for a gamecontroller.

Nvidia has dubbed such devices Mobile Internet Devices or"Mids". Others, such as Dell and Intel have started calling them"netbooks".

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Expect to see the Nvidia computers shown off at the Taiwanese Computex show that runs from 3-7 June.Expect your children to suddenly be tired of their "stupid old" Ninetendo DS's and clamoring for the netbook shortly after the company's ads run on Nickelodeon.

No ad campaign has yet been announced to my knowledge, but being a parent and a consumer I have a feel for these things.

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Political Propaganda - the New College Drinking Game

2008-06-01T06:59:00.001-05:00

It's hard to tell whether this movieis attractive because it is quaint or eerie because it shows howlittle things have changed in America (or the world) in the last 60years or so.

Educationalfilm to teach viewers about the dynamics of propaganda, made in thein the late 1940's or early 1950's.

A teacher dissects theprocesses in which propaganda works to an eager student.

Init are moments of classic hokum, but curiously many of the techniquesring true today.

Beware of Propaganda.

Source: weirdovideotoo.blogspot.com

Or beamused by it. Or both.

Personally, I suggest making a fabnew poli-sci drinking game, e.g. "For every sweepinggeneralization McCain makes, one shot! For every bandwagon commentObama makes, two shots!"

You can take it from there.

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Tags: Propaganda | techniques | World

A Woman's Perspective on All Male Brothels

2008-06-01T06:46:00.001-05:00

I am not much on feminist humor -period/white pants jokes have never done it for me. But when you canget beyond that there is a whole world of wonderful material tomine.

And for thatyou have to love it.

I read the other day that Heidi Fleiss has plans to open the firstall male brothel for women clients in Nevada. If it happens, Ipredict a multitude of complications.

If a male brothel is going to speak to the fantasy women have ofmen it would list their qualities as opposed to their measurements.“Kind, generous, considerate.” Or “The type of man who wouldnever break up with you in a text.”

Source: women.timesonline.co.uk

The best thing about this story - and about good humorin general - is that it takes a truth and presents it with a smile.This column takes a look at relationships and the expectations womenhave and helps men see what women are thinking in a way that can betruthful without necessarily being resentful.

I’m curious too what the line-up of men would be like. Therewould have to be a really old guy – for women who want a fatherfigure. There would need to be a man with a great sense of humour. Itwouldn’t matter what he looked like as long as he made you laugh.Then there’s the Ambivalent Man. Lots of women will pick this onebecause he’s familiar and reminds them of someone they’ve dated.As soon as you pick him, he seems really excited to spend time withyou. But a few minutes later he's not sure.

Source: women.timesonline.co.uk

Another friend of mine says she would want someone who would talk only aboutall the things they were going to do in the future. Why?
“Because most of the men I know get skittish when I bring up breakfast.”

In her fantasy the man she’s with whispers in her ear: I want to buy usnon-refundable tickets to Paris for New Years Eve 2012.

Source: women.timesonline.co.uk

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Displaced by Katrina and edged out of FEMA trailer parks

2008-06-01T06:30:00.001-05:00

It's the disaster story that will not go away...

BAKER, LA. -- Curtis Westbrook cut a lonely figure as he sat outside his trailer this week, chain-smoking as workmen hauled another empty trailer away.

He had already loaded all of his belongings -- a television and some dishes and clothes -- into his white Jeep Cherokee. But he was not sure how far the old Jeep would make it. With the motor mounts broken, he had rigged the engine on wooden sticks.

In any case, he was not sure where to go. He had barely a day to meetthe deadline to vacate the Renaissance Village trailer park, and hedidn't know whether he could pay $400 a month for an apartment innearby Baton Rouge. So he just sat there, waiting.

Source: latimes.com

Our goverment is both devoted to people bootstrapping their lives and to putting together solutions to big problems on the fly. Combine that with a society that has become a lot more individual oriented and the expense of family ties and it is no wonder that some many people have so few options.
One can only wonder how a situation like this might have been address some 55-80 years ago.

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From Gordon Brown to Gandhi and Back Again in One Loophole

2008-06-01T06:15:00.001-05:00

Gordon Brown has negotiated a loophole for Britain to continueusing cluster bombs, despite his declaration of a full ban.

The prime minister appeared to reinforce his humanitariancredentials when he dramatically overruled the Ministry of Defence(MoD) in talks at a 109-nation conference in Dublin on Wednesday.

While Brown announced support for “a ban on all cluster bombs,including those currently in service by the UK”, the governmentquietly excluded new anti-tank cluster shells that are not yet inservice.

Source: timesonline.co.uk

The short of this story is that Britain has signed on to getrid of its two current cluster bombs, the M85 artillery shell (49bomblets) and the M73 rocket (nine bomblets). However, it let leftlanguage in the treaty allowing it to develop a new generation of"self destroying" two bomblet units due to be developed ina couple years.

The first commenter to this story on the Times website argued thatit is unfair of the world to expect Britain to follow the rules ofthis treaty while other countries may well not sign on or otherwisemay cheat. I think he missed the message the reporter was trying toconvey - that careful posturing on the part of Gordon Brown wasdesigned to make the Prime Minister look more like Gandhi than thegarden variety politician he just acted like.

I won't arguewhether or not a two bomblet should be considered a cluster bomb.However, I do maintain that trying to sneak something like this pastthe voting public in so you can manipulate your image is disingenuousand wreaks of an all-too-common political cowardice.

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suspending this blog/refer you to new blog...

2008-02-18T06:28:00.003-06:00

H ead to my photo blog, Piczilla .

I've stopped writing this one now. Thanks.

Likely you've seen this before...

2008-02-08T09:47:00.000-06:00

but it just came to my email box today.

Note to the faint of heart - no, this is not one of those Jackass style home disaster videos, at least not as far as I can see. What they did worked and is simply beautiful.

Enjoy.

Mark Twain's...

2008-01-16T06:42:00.000-06:00

Mysterious Stranger, implanted here for your amusement...

This is a most "un-Twainian story, if you know what I mean...

What would you do...

2008-01-12T23:02:00.000-06:00

...if you lived in one of Henry Kravis' mansions for a day during the holidays?

This link came to me courtesy of the other of my most political friends, Jo savage lefty of the Northland.

In brief, the link is a bid from the folks at Brave New Films to get your ideas (posted to their blog) on what you would do if you came into sudden possession of one of Henry Kravis' five mansions.

File this one under The War on Greed, a coming film from Brave New Films.

Another useful tool in guaging who to vote for...

2008-01-12T22:57:00.000-06:00

This link is courtesy of Jim, one of the two most politically active people I know.

From opensecrets.org, this link allows you to select any of a dozen or so major industries and see how much money they have given to each of the current Presidential hopefuls. And it's all done in a friendly bar graph format.

Enjoy.

HMO's improve your quality of life...

2008-01-08T19:54:00.000-06:00

If you're a stockholder, CEO/CFO/COO, or at least insured. Otherwise, well just read on -

France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

Hats off to Reuters for passing on the info.

now there's something you don't see everyday...

2008-01-08T06:49:00.000-06:00

a book deal. For me.

No, I'm serious.

I have a friend - an established author - who just pitched a book idea to his agent the other day. And in the proposal I was the photographer. And I have to do is shoot pictures like crazy till I can fill the book. My guess is that I'd need about 200 shots of varying things for the author to work with. In part he would give me assignments about what he needs shots of. and i would come up with other pictures he would write around.

The actual signing on the book should come in or shortly after March. That's when I can begin working in earnest (and like a crazed banshee) on pictures. In the meantime I will just keep taking shots and processing them.

Recently I migrated all my old shots to a new external hard drive and that has caused some problems in fetching the old photos (some are in places I can't find and others simply can't be retrieved. However, it is early enough on that this won't cause a big problem as virtually everything can be re-shot.

Yippee!

David Lynch with a few words on the iPhone

2008-01-05T01:10:00.000-06:00

fucking fine art...

2008-01-01T08:45:00.000-06:00

and don't you forget it boy-o.

Over the last couple of months I have re-met my best friend from high school. He's over in Dubai. Well, in the last couple of days he's joined an online reading group called Shelfari. I suspect that through some automated effort on that site's part I have received three invites in the last day or two to join.

The only problem I have with it is that "the arts" community takes itself too fucking seriously. We of the Hoi Polli* don't call it "artsy-fartsy" for no reason you know.

Anyhow, I decided after the third email to just break down and join. In the profile area there was a box in which to write about yourself. I took this opportunity to be artsy-fartsy and write a poem about me. Please enjoy -

The I's Have It
by Mad Man Mikey

I believe I am too old for this crap

I believe that after our deaths we will find out that God is a lot more like
Groucho Marx than Charlton Heston

I believe the government is constantly and forever asking us the time so it will have a chance to slip an ace up its sleeve while we check our watches

I believe that the South will rise again

I believe that when it does we should
cheerfully help it load the trunk and then send it
off with a case of RC and a
half dozen Moon Pies in the back seat

I believe Robert Greene
has a great thing going

I believe that any 50+ year old man who does not board a crowded
bus or commuter train and fart loudly with a big grin on
his face should eat more asparagus

I believe the problem lies not with the amount of an American's
overbearing rudeness, but with the timing of this rudeness

I believe we all need to laugh at ourselves

I believe that everyone else is
already laughing at us

I believe it is time for a second cup of coffee

Thank you for your most kind audience there, gentle reader.

*Hoi Polloi translates from the Koiney (New Testament) Greek as "The People". I believe it is first person plural. A really good treatment of the eternalbattle between the mass of uncultured swine and the cultural elite can be found in the article "Good Marx for the Anthropologist: Structure and Anti-Structure in 'Duck Soup'" by Ivan Karp, 1981. The article covers the phenomena of Structure and Antistructure and liminality. I've been trying to find link on the web to a concise definition of what that means, but good luck discovering it. I swear, the web is a pile of socks the size of Montana and I'll not spend my January first trying to sort them.

Suffice it to say that structure and anti-structure are well portrayed in the Marx Brother's movie Duck Soup. Anthropology's structure and antistructure theory is paralleled in other areas of thought too, from Marxist thesis, antithesis synthesis to Capitalist's market concepts to Donovan's Zen-esque musical refrain "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is."

If you need to know more then either buy a book on the subject, take an anthropology professor who focuses on class structures to lunch or buy your own goddamned liberal arts education.

Happy New Year...

2008-01-01T08:23:00.000-06:00

The oddest thing happened last night just after midnight - the outside of my left foot (outside of part of my left hip and leg) went numb. It is still numb this morning. The epicenter of said numbness is in my left heel.

This caps a week during which I have had a very slight pins and needles feeling in parts of my left arm.

The left arm (and in some cases shoulder) numbness would worry me more than it does were it not for a visit to the emergency room at the VA in North Chicago I had about a year ago. After being hooked up to some monitors and such for about an hour the abrupt Korean doctor chided me that I was not suffering from some heart issues but rather had a pinched nerve. By the way, get out of her emergency room because there are some really sick folks who need help.

(OK she didn't say that, but the sentiment sort of hung in her voice and demeanor.)

So anyhow back to the current numbness...

I am guessing it is one of four things - a stroke of some sort, some idiotic clot blockage somewhere, an onset of type II diabetes or a pinched nerve. Frankly, I favor the pinched nerve theory. The numbness does not seem radical enough to be the product of a stroke and it does not seem widespread enough to be diabetes. It could be a clot, but somehow I doubt it. Again, the numbness doesn't seem widespread enough. As I have been having some definite pains in my hips and legs lately I am going with the pinched nerve theory.

The theory will be put to the test on either Thursday or Friday when I can finally get an appointment with my doctor. As it stands today is a holiday and I won't be able to even make an appointment till tomorrow. And from there it will be at least another day or two till I can actually find an opening in the staff's schedule.

A quick note on physical problems - I tend to not worry a lot on things like this and am also not inclined to react to them quickly. During my 30's I had some normal but frightening health problems None of them panned out to be anything, despite my worries. However, I did learn one thing from that decade and that is "don't panic." Thus I do not panic.

greetings from the void...

2007-12-29T07:52:00.000-06:00

Hello.

It snowed again yesterday. Nothing really significant - maybe four inches int he worst places. But the rate of snowfall was enough to make the roads tough to drive on for those of us with shitty little pickup trucks. I was sliding all over the place until I got back into my driveway and loaded that 200 or so lbs of chopped wood into the back of the truck. Strapped together, this load will serve as enough ballast to give me at least minimal traction until warmer weather rolls around.

When not running a quarter ton of crap to the landfill or doing dishes (to be honest, I love doing house-husband type work on my days off) I was lucky enough to get some lunch with my friend Cindy yesterday.

It was nice to see her after so many months - being an old married guy now I spend most the time in the house or at work. She lent me an ear which allowed me to get something off my chest that had been irking me for a bit. And that's why I have effectively stopped doing photography.

Screw it - time to get ready for work.

further demonstrations of my marketing panache...

2007-12-22T22:37:00.000-06:00

I am an unrecognized advertising genius. The deep well of my marketing ability will someday be tapped by one lucky agency or another. Here are my latest examples of reframing the marketing landscape*.

Wake and Bake Barbie, featuring 80% more dialation.

Hidden Camel-Toe Barbie. Comes with her own carefully placed floral camoflage.

Brazilian Bikini Wax Barbie, with no further explanation necessary.

The Kaplan Thaler Group need only click here to email me their opening offer. Manhattan's Gain will be Kenosha's loss.

*Please pardon the shitty pictures, but you can only expect so much out of a camera phone. It seems when you go to a chain store and start taking pictures of the shelves security is inevitably called. Then they commandeer your camera and send you home sans $300 in electronica and that gets a tad too expensive after a while - or at least that's been my experience.

the miracles of photoshop...

2007-12-15T09:14:00.000-06:00

Have been posting way too many movies recently, but that's because I haven't had a damned thing to say.

While this short is a plug for a corporate event, I think it is a nice corporate event. And besides, it's a message I can get behind. Enjoy!

one from the hard...

2007-12-14T16:46:00.000-06:00

err, make that "heart."

morning time waster...

2007-12-14T08:18:00.000-06:00

Well, have been having some YouTube fun (as the last post demonstrates) and have finally set up my new phone for video linkup with YT. Am busy uploading different small videos, seeing if/how they work and taking them down as fast. Might have to get my wifey a bigger memory card for her phone and one for mine so we can both do this.

Merry Fuckin' Christmas...

2007-12-14T07:05:00.000-06:00

and Happy Goddammed New Year from the corporation...

Hella Jesus

2007-12-10T20:01:00.003-06:00