Your
Radio Friend,
Bat Guano.


You can now listen! To Bat Guano's SwaG! every Wednesday, 9 p.m. Eastern, or the rest of WIDR's programing at any time, on the WORLD WIDE WEBS once again! Go to WIDR and follow the instructions.



12/30/2005

Live Guano

...and live Bowser, Hayden, Metal Teeth, Fortune and Maltese. Be there, New Years Eve, Kraftbrau, Kalamazoo.

Memos

You might have heard something about some memos on US and UK approved torture by the Soviet state of Uzbeckistan, but the details just weren't clear because the UK has come down on the former ambassador who was behind the memos, blocking their publication and disabling his web site. Well, here they are.
US plays down human rights situation in Uzbekistan. A dangerous policy: increasing repression combined with poverty will promote Islamic terrorism. Support to Karimov regime a bankrupt and cynical policy...

12/25/2005

Hey

I'm in an undisclosed location in one of the Eastern states, toxic with salt and sugar and bourbon. Me, not the state -- thought the state is as well. They like their saurkraut here, and "whoopie pies" made by the Amish.

The question was asked today, "would you like pork chops for dinner?" I answered that I had converted to Islam, and so would not like any pork. Later it was demanded that I go to church this Xmas morn.

I'm sleeping in. Happy Whatever You Celebrate, Heathen.

12/21/2005

Conservatives, Some, Understand

Okay, what if, say, you were an enthusiastic gun collector. And you were talking to some importer on an overseas line, discussing if you can get a nice unique firearm, and the question of what you can and cannot own comes up, and you say some threatening things about the government along with "... when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers." You also talked about al Qaida, and a number of phrases triggered an NSA snooping computer. Next day, you're hauled away for questioning and the ATF swarm over your gun collection.

And they take away your guns, even though your fingers aren't cold and dead.

I'd hear scenarios like that all the time when Clinton was president. But now, how comfortable are those right wingers with libertarian tendencies with what King George has been doing? If they trust him, would they trust the same powers in the next president Clinton?

I think we can all agree: We can't have a government that breaks its own laws, that goes over its own system of checks and balances.

Found here, conservative Bruce Fein, a Justice Dept. official under Ronald Reagan, writes in conservative paper the Washington Times:

President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law. He cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses.

Eastern European Cooking?

Or, If I Were The White House Chef? The fun things one finds on Google Video.

12/20/2005

At the NSA, "You do a lot of weird shit. But at least you don't fuck with your own people.

From here:

The more rational voices in spy discussion (hint hint media, this is your job) might ask a simple question. If this spying is really all about terrorism then isn't it the President's constitutional responsibility to go to Congress and ask that laws - like FISA - be changed to protect America? (Wasn't that where the Patriot Act came from?)

From my perspective, the reason he didn't ask for laws to be changed is quite simple. It's because what they are doing isn't illegal (i.e. it breaks a law), it's unconstitutional. To bring this program into compliance with U.S. law, he would have to change the Constitution.

Also, the question comes up that since FISA is so easy to get a warrant from -- they never fully rejected a request (something like four in 2003 had to be changed and resubmitted), and the spying could happen 72 hours before getting a warrant -- then why did Bush have to go around them? Could it be that it just wasn't practical to go through the FISA? There are many mentions of "technology" in this deal -- what if the NSA were ordered to use data mining, mass screening of email and phone conversations? Could they get warrants to listen for certain key phrases in thousands of calls per hour between the US and certain countries?

More on that here.

And more on the subject: Spooks React:

A few current and former signals intelligence guys have been checking in since this NSA domestic spying story broke. Their reactions range between midly creeped out and completely pissed off.

All of the sigint specialists emphasized repeatedly that keeping tabs on Americans is way beyond the bounds of what they ordinarily do -- no matter what the conspiracy crowd may think.

"It's drilled into you from minute one that you should not ever, ever, ever, under any fucking circumstances turn this massive apparatus on an American citizen," one source says. "You do a lot of weird shit. But at least you don't fuck with your own people."

WWTJD?

Here, there's an interesting post on Thomas Jefferson and his notion of "executive self-sacrifice." A crisis may come up, he thought, in which a president might have to break some laws in which to save the nation.

BUT...

... and it's a big but, the president is then obligated to take his case to the people, and to be judged for what he did.

Having taken such a step (breaking laws for the good of the country), it would then be the obligation of the president to throw himself on the mercy of the public, letting them know the full scope of the facts and circumstances he had faced and leave it to them -- or rather their representatives or the courts -- to impeach him or indict those who had taken it upon themselves to act outside the law.

Bush is arguing that he can do whatever the fuck he wants, fuck you, otherwise the ter'sits'll git you.

So Impeachable!

Mainstream media now writing things like this:
Finally we have a Washington scandal that goes beyond sex, corruption and political intrigue to big issues like security versus liberty and the reasonable bounds of presidential power. President Bush came out swinging on Snoopgate—he made it seem as if those who didn’t agree with him wanted to leave us vulnerable to Al Qaeda—but it will not work. We’re seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator, or in his own mind, no doubt, like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

12/18/2005

Condi Fails Quiz

RUSSERT: What Democrats and Republicans in Congress are asking, what is the authority that you keep citing? What law? What statute? Where in the Constitution does it say that the President can eavesdrop, wiretap American citizens without a court order?

RICE: Tim, the President has authorities under FISA which we are using and using actively. He also has authorities that derive from his role as Commander in Chief and his need to protect the country. He has acted within his constitutional authority and within statutory authority. Now, I am not a lawyer and I am quite certain that the Attorney General will address a lot of these questions.

WRONG ANSWER!

Quiz

What liberal document is this from?
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

12/17/2005

King George

Bush, today, admitted to spying on US citizens. We don't need no stinkin' warrants!

This is major. From here:

This appears to me to be a true "line in the sand" moment for America, with a president openly and defiantly declaring himself ready to continue a program that legal scholars, members of Congress and - according to the Friday New York Times article that started this all - several NSA analysts themselves believe to be unconstitutional.

There appears to be no acknowledgement whatsoever of concerns voiced by critics of the program. There is the feeling in the air about all this - and perhaps it's just me - that we are being forced to a constitutional crisis by a president who no longer believes he needs to wear a mask to court public opinion. This reeks of raw will and power.

Lest we forget:

George Bush: "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator." December 18, 2000

12/14/2005

Get Booglerized

Captain Beefheart captured on film.

(dude... I'm bloggin' while on the air!)

12/13/2005

Morgus The Magnificent

Will Morgus save NOLA? It's just a good sign that he survived. Especially since I assumed he was dead before Katrina.

During a 2003 Halloween excursion to New Orleans we accompanied a NOLA native friend who was dressed as Morgus. He showed us the movie, taught us the meaning of Morgus.

12/08/2005

Generosity, Peace, and Love

That's all that Bill O'Reilly wants, for us all to celebrate "generosity, peace, and love together" at least once a year, Dec. 25. And that's why, "I am not going to let oppressive, totalitarian, anti-Christian forces in this country diminish and denigrate the holiday and the celebration. I am not going to let it happen. I'm gonna use all the power that I have on radio and television to bring horror into the world of people who are trying to do that. And we have succeeded. You know we've succeeded. They are on the run in corporations, in the media, everywhere. They are on the run, because I will put their face and their name on television, and I will talk about them on the radio if they do it. There is no reason on this earth that all of us cannot celebrate a public holiday devoted to generosity, peace, and love together. There is no reason on the earth that we can't do that. So we are going to do it. And anyone who tries to stop us from doing it is gonna face me."

Bill O'Reilly's fucking nuts.

12/07/2005

It's Jerry Time!

It's Jerry Time!

That landlord is an asshole.

12/05/2005

I'm Your Momma, I'm Your Daddy...

Curtis Mafield, "Pusherman," on "Soul Train." Watch it.

12/03/2005

Max Comes To America

I hope he arrived in a big Zeppelin. NYT on Max Raabe. Find some sample tunes here.

12/02/2005

Each One Is A Piece of Class

Oh, this is beautiful. It used to be that an R rated movie was a special event...

12/01/2005

Party Like It's 1966!

Leppotone New Year's Eve Dance Party, Kalamazoo, Kraftbrau, on the cusp of the downslide of the '00s.
Appearing live for your dancing pleasure will be the following bad apples:

Fortune & Maltese The Metal Teeth (Gore Gore Girls - tentative)

Spinning Records:

Bat Guano Richard Bowser Tim Hayden

Hey, that's me!

NYT Slams Bush

"A president who seems less in touch with reality than Richard Nixon needs to get out more."

DAY-yam!