The Hackenblog

Due to massive comment spam, comments are only open on posts that are less than a week old. Sorry, but 1K+ comment spams a night was making me more paranoid than usual. Thank God for whichever plug-in allowed me to mass close comments.

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Geeze, it’s not rocket science.

“Employed, but underpaid and uninsured: Consider a waiter making $27,000 who is uninsured, either by choice or because his employer doesn’t provide insurance. If the governor has his way, that person could find himself having to buy insurance - everyone would have to carry insurance under Schwarzenegger’s plan - without a government subsidy. (Only people making less than $25,525 would qualify for government help under his plan, a threshold Democrats say is too low.)

“‘The Democratic health plan would put that person in a better spot: Either his employer would have to start offering insurance, or he could buy benefits through a state pool, paying no more than $1,350 a year out of pocket.’”
What the Health Care Plans Mean for Working Californians, Working Californians, September 27, 2007

No more than $1,350/year is still too much. It should be $0.00 or maybe, I dunno, $240/year, which is still a lot for waiters and other minimum wage type earners. Tips or no; Reagan’s 8% Waitress Tax laid waste to that.

You know, why don’t Republicans just admit they’d love it if they could just get half of everyone’s hard-earned pay to support their evil money-grubbing schemes and the slave society they’re trying so hard to create for some reason that’s a total mystery to me. Slaves! Indentured servants! Concubinage! Chaos! Endless war! No new taxes! There, I said it, and I feel so much better now.

MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE WHO WANTS IT NOW! MEDICARE NOW! MEDICARE NOW! MEDICARE NOW! MEDICARE NOW! MEDICARE NOW! MEDICARE NOW!

I guess I’m done.

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“Know how many people live in Anbar province, where all this vaunted progress allegedly has taken place? Five percent of Iraq’s population. It’s like pacifying Utah while New York and LA are in flames.”
Symbols trump substance in controversy, by Gene Lyons, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, September 26, 2007

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“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
The Feast of St. Groucho, Philosopher’s Playground, September 29, 2007

And many others.

Did you know that Groucho had a long correspondence with T.S. Eliot and even went to London to meet him? Well, he did, and what I wouldn’t have given to be at that dinner party. That and more is all in The Groucho Letters, which are wonderful. The letters he got were almost as good as the letters he wrote.

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The 2007 Dodgers: As Seen Through the Kübler-Ross Model.

It’s not just baseball. It’s never just baseball in LA.

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“A recently released study shows that residents of Los Angeles experience the worst traffic in the nation. The only surprising fact from this study is that the average resident spends only 72 extra hours stuck in rush-hour traffic. For most, the delays seem much longer.” Email from the fabulous Barbara Boxer, September 25, 2007 The rest of it is behind the jump below.

When I looked at a summary of this study, it looked to me like people where spending four or more hours a day commuting because they couldn’t afford a McMansion in LA, so they bought one 80 or so miles outside of LA. So I’m not sure how more metros through and out of the urban core is going to help, except help people who don’t have cars, which is a very noble idea and not very popular in the autopolis, where most people don’t like spending money on anyone but themselves.

But maybe Senator Boxer is seeing something I’m not. Or maybe this is a clever way to help carless workers, students, etc. by disguising it as helping commuter-trons.

So probably, yes! More metros are the the solution! At the moment I’m not affected by any of this because I live less than a mile from my job and, although I still drive too much (meaning any driving [I hate to drive]), I liike it that way.

(more…)

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Hi gang,

I’m getting lots of comment spams lately for some reason, close to a thousand yesterday, so if you posted a comment and it didn’t show up, sorry, I’m sorry, but it was mowed down with the spam. If you’re game to let me know and repost it, I’ll be on the lookout.

I’m not sure why I’m getting all this spam or when it will end. I also wish I knew how to mass close comments on existing entries, but I don’t. Any help on this is welcome.

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“My mom called Nancy Pelosi’s SF office first and related what her experience was with the Nuñes aide. When my mom got to the “pull her head out of her ass” comment, the Pelosi aide said “ma’am this conversation is over, we won’t engage with that sort of language.” My mom quickly tried to tell the Pelosi staffer that my mom’s a Democrat and was calling to support Pelosi and that she thought Pelosi should know what Nuñes’ aide had said. At that point the Pelosi aide hung up on my mom.”
When Calling Your Representative(s) Goes Awry, Loganotron, September 27, 2007

It should not be this hard to be a good citizen.

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Ah, the Blues Brothers: car chases and musical numbers. It just doesn’t get any better for me.

This chase is one giant product placement but I love it anyway.

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“What this reflects, in turn, is the odd fact that income levels seem to matter much more for voting in the South. Contrary to what you may have read, the old-fashioned notion that rich people vote Republican, while poorer people vote Democratic, is as true as ever – in fact, more true than it was a generation ago. But in rich states like New Jersey or Connecticut, the relationship is weak; even the very well off tend to be only slightly more Republican than working-class voters. In the poorer South, however, the relationship is very strong indeed.”
Bubba isn’t who you think, Dr. Krugman, NYT blogs (yay!), September 24, 2007

Who’d'a thunk it?

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There’s a vicious rumor that American stunt drivers couldn’t do this picture. Shocking, if true.

There’s some seriously bad acting, very annoying music, and deeply weird driving in this movie.

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“Mainstream porn has come up with more ways than ever to humiliate and degrade women. Why then, is porn more popular? Includes an excerpt from Robert Jensen’s new book, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity.

“In his new book, Robert Jensen forces the reader to face the music about the effects of a porn industry gone gonzo and the need to reassess the trappings of masculinity as the source of increased violence against and degradation of women.”

~snip~

“The Gonzo films, which have come to dominate the industry, also emphasize the newer trend of sexual acts, which include: double penetration — anal and vaginal — and ass to mouth, or ATM, where anal sex is followed by sticking the penis in the women’s mouth. In addition, many of these films include men, often in multiple numbers, ejaculating into the faces and mouths of the women performers. The women usually swallow the semen, but also can share it mouth-to-mouth with a female partner. For Jensen, the most plausible explanation of the popularity of these acts is that women in the world, outside of pornography, don’t engage in these acts unless forced. ‘Men know that — and they find it sexually arousing to watch them in part because of that knowledge.’”
Pornography and the End of Masculinity, by Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted September 22, 2007.

This is part of male rage in the Post-Literate society.

There is a bad joke in Hollywood that a would-be starlet with a bad agent ends up doing anal. It’s not really a joke, lots of girls come to LA to be a star and end up doing anal. Sometimes they get lucky and just end up getting a dayjob and out of the star mill. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.

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“Ronin” was pretty good. I certainly watched the DVD over and over. And now I’m a big Jean Reno fan. There’s also ice skating in “Ronin,” so something for everyone!

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“A 2000 study co-sponsored by the Justice Department codifies the obvious: People of color receive starkly unequal treatment in the ‘justice’ system.

“Where blacks are concerned, it seems, that system often still exists not to enforce the law and protect order, but to intimidate and compel. But at least they care enough about appearances these days to lie.”
Leonard Pitts Jr.: White justice, black justice, In Jena, and in America, they still are not the same, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Friday, September 21, 2007

I have been thinking about Naomi Wolf’s book: the injustice she’s writing about has always been true for people of color, except now it might happen to (more) white people. Much of the South was built with convict/slave labor. The song “Crossroads” is about a Black man after dark who is in an area where Blacks could be kidnapped to prison indefinitely without trial just for being Black after dark in that area.

I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees
Asked the Lord above, have mercy now, save poor Bob if you please

Standin’ at the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
Whee-hee, I tried to flag a ride
Didn’t nobody seem to know me, everybody pass me by

Standin’ at the crossroads, risin’ sun goin’ down
Standin’ at the crossroads baby, the risin’ sun goin’ down
I believe to my soul now, po’ Bob is sinkin’ down

You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown
You can run, you can run, tell my friend Willie Brown
That I got the crossroad blues this mornin’, Lord, baby I’m sinkin’ down

I went to the crossroad, mama, I looked east and west
I went to the crossroad, babe, I looked east and west
Lord, I didn’t have no sweet woman, ooh well, babe, in my distress
Crossroads Blues, Robert Johnson, from the November 27, 1936 recording session in San Antonio, Texas. Blues Lyrics Online

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“Recording of interrogations from start to finish as directed by California’s SB 511 is the right thing to do. Failure to use cheap and available technology to build strong cases against the guilty and to protect the innocent is wrong. Recording interrogations needs to be mandatory, with rules and sanctions. If sanctions are not in place then public confidence is undermined by the few unscrupulous among us. When videotaping was first forced upon us by the D.C. City Council, we fought it tooth and nail. Now, in the words of a top commander, we would not do it any other way.”
I Took A False Confession – So Don’t Tell Me It Doesn’t Happen!, Seeing the Forest, September 20, 2007

I hope our so-called governor signs this one into law.

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”Hamadi, a 31-year-old born in Louisiana, wasn’t physically tortured, but he was imprisoned in a navy brig without a trial for three years. He was unable to tell his family where he was; forbidden to speak to a lawyer; and could not see the evidence against him or receive a visit from the Red Cross. The Bush administration argued that they had to make this U.S. citizen believe he was utterly in the power of his interrogators, that his situation was hopeless and that he would never get out, in order to question him usefully. When the Supreme Court insisted that this American citizen had to receive some kin of hearing, the administration simply let him go. It is hard not to wonder if a hearing might have revealed that the evidence against him would not hold up.

“Jose Padilla, a 36-year-old American citizen, was called an ‘enemy combatant.’ You probably heard of him as the ‘dirty bomber’ because that’s how his arrest saturated the airwaves: The administration asserted when they took him in that he had al-Qaeda connections, he planned to set off a dirty bomb, and he was also planning a series of natural gas explosions in apartment buildings. Very scary.

“(You probably didn’t hear that none of those accusations appear in the indictment against him. In fact, no violent plot against the United States appears in this indictment.)” (pg 55)

Chapter 3: Establish Secret Prisons, The End of America, by Naomi Wolf, Chelsea Green, 2007, ISBN 978-1-933392-79-0

Spiel redux: Everyone should buy 2 copies and give one away. Give one to someone you love or just think needs a wake up call. It’s been adding up over the years, I hadn’t realized, but Naomi Wolf lays it all out for us.

This book is a deal at Overstock.com. Or you can be a really big hero and buy it from Chelsea Green, they could probably use the dough. GM

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I think I saw “Performance” when I was too young. I had this soundtrack (on vinyl, yet) and the whole thing is stunning.

I didn’t know this studio version existed.

I like the film version better, it’s grimmer.

God, I love YouTube, Post-Literacy or no.

Update 092507: a better studio version, but still no slide guitar, compliments of W. Kiernan in the comments, thanks!

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“In UMG v. Del Cid, in Tampa, Florida, the defendant had interposed counterclaims, including claims for extortion and conspiracy. On August 16, 2007, she amended her counterclaims*.

“The RIAA moved to dismiss all six counterclaims.

“The Court has returned its decision, granting the motion as to one counterclaim, and denying it as to the other five, including the counterclaims for extortion and conspiracy.

“At the outset the Court rejected entirely the RIAA’s assertion of the Noerr-Pennington defense as a basis for dismissal, since the doctrine does not protect ’sham litigation’, and Ms. Del Cid had alleged that the infringement suits were ’sham litigation’.”
5 Out of 6 Counterclaims Against RIAA in UMG v. Del Cid are Upheld by Court, Including Counterclaim for Conspiracy to Commit Extortion, Recording Industry vs The People, September 21, 2007

I’m not good at legal stuff so can someone tell me that if by accepting a counterclaim that include trying the RIAA for extortion, this Judge is willing to consider the RIAA to be gangsters? That seems so…right.

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”Peace is bad for business. When the former Soviet Union fell apart, the U.S. defense industry was staring into the face of a falling market share: To grow, it would have to find a new enemy. It would also help it it expanded its product line from building fighter jets to the newfangled demand for application involving surveillance.

“Dr. Haseltine points out that the Department of Homeland Security has, like the Defense Department, an external corollary in the private industry; so the relationships between the two departments are no institutionalized. The Department of Homeland Security will be almost impossible to dismantle whether or not it is successful in protecting Americans: An $115-billion-a-year industry can exert major pressure on policy-making, and the Department of Homeland Security is not going to go away, even if tomorrow all the Muslim terrorists in the world were to lay down their arms.

“But what if Islamic terrorism does subside? A foreign enemy’s actions will always be unpredictable. But you can also identify a more reliable domestic enemy in need of surveillance: us. A powerful lobby is now served by policies in which government increasingly designates U.S. citizens as potential security threats, which in turn creates a demand for more and more costly high-tech watching.” (pg 43 and 44)

Chapter 2: Invoke an External and Internal Threat, The End of America, by Naomi Wolf, Chelsea Green, 2007, ISBN 978-1-933392-79-0

Spiel redux: Everyone should buy 2 copies and give one away. Give one to someone you love or just think needs a wake up call. It’s been adding up over the years, I hadn’t realized, but Naomi Wolf lays it all out for us.

This book is a deal at Overstock.com. Or you can be a really big hero and buy it from Chelsea Green, they could probably use the dough. GM

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“After September 11, 2001, we Americans learned in dramatic new ways that we were facing a terrifying external threat. We saw it in the carnage in lower Manhattan, but the administration also used a new set of phrases that defined for us a new reality: ‘Evildoers’ who envied us and hated our freedoms were determined to annihilate us. By October 2001, the USA PATRIOT Act—that in the end, when it became law, topped 400 pages—rushed through Congress. Lawmakers passed it overwhelmingly—though many said that they had scarcely read it. Some remarked that it would have seemed unpatriotic to resist passing the law.” (pg 35)

Chapter 2: Invoke an External and Internal Threat, The End of America, by Naomi Wolf, Chelsea Green, 2007, ISBN 978-1-933392-79-0

… the USA PATRIOT Act—that in the end, when it became law, topped 400 pages—rushed through Congress. Lawmakers passed it overwhelmingly—…

Oh dear oh dear oh dear…this is not true: one lawmaker stood against the tide. Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California’s 9th District voted NO on the PATRIOT Act.

Ms. Wolf, you were batting a thousand until page 35, but you haven’t lost me. However, you should flog your fact-checker and the publisher should publicly apologize to Congresswoman Lee.

As for me, I’m over it. This will be a two part post on Chapter 2, because it has a strong finish.

Spiel redux, but I really mean it: Everyone should buy 2 copies and give one away. Give one to someone you love or just think needs a wake up call. It’s been adding up over the years, I hadn’t realized, but Naomi Wolf lays it all out for us.

This book is a deal at Overstock.com. Or you can be a really big hero and buy it from Chelsea Green, they could probably use the dough (to hire more fact checkers). GM

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“One of my pet peeves about political reporting is the fact that some of my journalistic colleagues seem to want to be in another business – namely, theater criticism.”
What I hate about political coverage, Paul Krugman, September19, 2007

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Starts in a laundromat.

And ends in Paris with Mrs. Jean-Paul Sartre.

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“Over 40 street parking spaces - from Van Nuys to Long Beach, Westwood to Pasadena - will be converted into temporary parkspaces on Friday as part of Park(ing) Day L.A., an event described as a “grassroots effort reclaiming public space in our streets.” Numerous operatives of the Militant informed him that the purpose of the event, which started a couple years ago in Frisco, was to create a dialogue on the use of urban public space, being that more space in our cities have been devoted to automobiles than to people. The Militant was so sold on this when he first heard about it from community-minded operatives that he attended some meetings held in very secret Militant-style quarters to gain more information and insight on this event. The Militant has been quite active in the creation of an unspecified number of these 42+ parks and has been devoting some of his time recently to some Militant-style strategic confabs regarding this very Militant operation.”
Doin’ it in the Park, LA Militant, September 21, 2007

Isn’t that cool! The LA Militant sure gets around.

Here’s the Park(ing) Day LA website. And here’s a map of the events in LA. Hm, nothing in my neighborhood, too bad, we could use a few more parks in Lincoln Heights, even temporary ones.

Update: Apparently this is International Park(ing) Day. Yay! Who knew?

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“But authoritarianism has many guises, and some are relatively livable for most people. For instance, you can have a military leadership in an authoritarian system, but you can have a fairly independent courts and a fairly independent press. Indeed, people can see authoritarianism as rather attractive in what they understand to be a time of national emergency. Authoritarianism can be downright cozy compared to some alternatives. The grave danger in America is that events are not stopping there.” (pg 22)

~snip~

“We still have time to turn back the tide. What we do not have is leisure. A movement of citizens on the left and right have both begun to build what is essentially a democracy movement in America: the American Freedom Agenda and the American Freedom Campaign are trying to awaken the nation to these dangers and turn citizens into those leading the charge to defend the nation. The AFA created a legislative package to repeal or modify restrictive laws and restore liberty. We must roll back the laws that are associated with the opening of the door into darkness.

“If we fail to act, we could face an America in which we still have Friday night football games and Fourth of July fireworks, Wal-Mart and The Food Network and the Statue of Liberty—but an America in which people who publish classified documents might go to jail and people who go to jail might not come out the same; an America with the same TV shows and video games, and even the same schedule of elections—but one in which you can lose your job if you say to a colleague that you voted against the grain; an America that looks much the same on the surface—but in which we no longer have real freedom.

“It could easily become an America that is quieter and more frightened. And a quiet, frightened American citizenry does mean the end of the America the Founders created.

“For a little while, we still have the power to stop that from happening.” (page 33-34)

Chapter 1: The Founders and the Fragility of Democracy, The End of America, by Naomi Wolf, Chelsea Green, 2007, ISBN 978-1-933392-79-0

…but in which we no longer have real freedom. Or even the freedom we were accustomed to expect.

It’s not all jackboots and gulags, but it can get there from paternalism/authoritarianism pretty quickly. Especially if you can terrorize your women into silence or exile first.

Indeed, people can see authoritarianism as rather attractive in what they understand to be a time of national emergency.

Such as bushco ruling through fear because they cannot govern though consent.

Spiel redux: Everyone should buy 2 copies and give one away. Give one to someone you love or just think needs a wake up call. It’s been adding up over the years, I hadn’t realized, but Naomi Wolf lays it all out for us.

This book is a deal at Overstock.com. Or you can be a really big hero and buy it from Chelsea Green, they could probably use the dough. GM

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!!! Whoa….That’s San Diego, California, the very Red, very Republican stronghold San Diego, California.

As Alison Betchel says this guy is Dad of the Day. I would also give him Boss, Neighbor and Citizen of the Day, too.

He’s also a thinking person who’s willing to change his mind when he considers the issues and boring stuff like, y’know, facts, reality, and what really is the right thing to do.

What a guy! He wins the seldom awarded Mayerson “You’re a stand up kind of guy, aren’t you?” award.

Seriously, watch the video. This is a very brave and worthy thing this man did today. I’m impressed.

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“YouTube has banned a group called the Rational Response Squad after it complained its videos were being taken down due to spurious DMCA requests from creationists.

“The takedown followed copyright requests sent by Creation Science Evangelism Ministries, an organization founded by currently-imprisoned tax evader Kent Hovind. The Squad says the clips comprise material that is either public domain, covered by fair use, or entirely self-produced.

“This again highlights a central problem with the DMCA, namely that it forces takedowns without any kind of review, and puts the burden on proof on the ‘defendant’ to show that its material is non-infringing. But to ban people for protesting when the process has been used illegitimately is something entirely different. The creationist ministry’s own website said that ‘none of the materials … are copyrighted, so feel free to copy these and distribute them freely.’”
YouTube Bans Anti-Creationist Group Following DMCA Claim, by Rob Beschizza, Wired, September 16, 2007

In a reality mediated by corporations, communication can be shut down with a memo.

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