The Fall's Mark E. Smith Is A Lovable Curmudgeon

Which is another way of saying he's an asshole. But is that any reason to throw a banana peel at him?

I still like The Fall, even like it a bit more knowing that the band is basically a mumbling nasty asshole who's burned through around 30 musicians since the late '70s.

Memorial Day Thoughts

Basically saying that a slow-motion coup d'etat has been underway. The "War on Terror" is a mob protection racket run by greedy cowards who don't give a fuck about freedom and the Constitution.

Today is Memorial Day. Today we remember countless patriots who died and fought for those freedoms our president tells us we must abandon. . . in the name of "freedom."

If there were really a "War on Terror," an emotion, Wes Craven would be hiring a lawyer: he scares people. The "War on Terror" is a sham. You know what changed after September 11th? We, the people of the United States, forgot how strong we are. We gave in to fear, when the only thing we should have feared was fear itself. Osama bin Laden wants you to be afraid. So does George Bush.

I know I’m not alone when I say, I’m an American and I’m not afraid. I know I’m going to die. I accept that I’m going to die, no problem. What I do not accept and will not accept is the notion that I must live as a slave to fear for the purposes of craven, cowardly men who, in their time, pissed the bed rather than fight an actual war, later to become powerful and use that power to line their pockets with my tax dollars. Give me liberty or give me death. Take your "terror" and shove it.

Sign Me Up As A Nomad

I'm just getting pissed off at everything I'm seeing on the current events sites today. So this sounds like a great idea. If it weren't for my fear of giant tropical spiders...

Remember

On this Memorial Day Eve, remember all those who've fought not for our freedoms, but for the right of our government to get our country stuck in a pointless bloody war. The chicken-hawks, those brave Americans, from our fearless President to the most lowly of radio pill-poppers, who don't know shit about serving their country.

Bo Diddley Bo Diddley 1970

Bo Diddley Bo Diddley

Mother Fuckers

Republican's are looking to keep their base, which is the 20 percent of Americans who are white, uptight, and usually kept out of sight when the votes of more moderate folks are needed.

Hate on gays, Mexicans, baby-killin' feminists, and they'll try to appease you. Another cause is ridding the media world of "obscenity" and making sure that nothing is available to adults that might be harmful to a three year old or those who bathe in their underwear for fear of catching a glimps of their sinfull regions.

Well, the Senate's on it. The details are here.

Late yesterday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a new version of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (BDEA), which will increase the maximum FCC fine for an indecent broadcast from $32,500 to $325,000. Thank you, Senators Brownback (R-KS) and Frist (R-TN) for "hotlining" the legislation, allowing it to bypass the skeptical Senate Commerce Committee (who mysteriously didn't bother to voice concerns over it during the full Senate vote), where the legislation had flip-flopped for months.

Coming this Summer...

Springtime for...

ABC News is saying that the government is tracking its reporters' phone calls.

From here:

If that's true, then I think we can set aside any pretense that administration policy on all manner of electronic surveillance isn't being brought to bear on political opponents, media critics, the press, everybody.

I think part of the issue for many people on the administration's various forms of surveillance is not just that some of activities seem to be illegal or unconstitutional on their face. I think many people are probably willing to be open-minded, for better or worse, on pushing the constitutional envelope. But given the people in charge of the executive branch today, you just can't have any confidence that these tools will be restricted to targeting terrorists. Start grabbing up phone records to data-mine for terrorists and then the tools are just too tempting for your leak investigations. Once you do that, why not just keep an eye on your critics too? After all, they're the ones most likely to get the leaks, right? So, same difference. The folks around the president don't recognize any real distinctions among those they consider enemies. So we'd be foolish to think they wouldn't bring these tools to bear on all of them. Once you set aside the law as your guide for action and view the president's will as a source of legitimacy in itself, then everything becomes possible and justifiable.

Hear SwaG! On Thing!

Some new web thing, testing the sucker. I suspect this is not really needed, but, well, you play with it...

SwaG! hour 1, Uncle Pockets episode.

Hail to the Chief

Our President, George W. Bush, has dipped into the 20s with a 29% approval rating.

Dictatorship Ahoy!

Rummy

And as long as we're here, here's one of the best Daily Show bits I've seein in a while, the kind where a Comedy Central show kicks more news ass than "real" network news.

Bush = Constitution-Free President

Just a rant from a constitutional law expert:

Well, first of all this President's theory of his power I think is now so extreme that it's unprecedented. He believes that he has the inherent authority to violate federal law. He has said that. Not just the signing statements and the infamous torture memo-that Alberto Gonzales signed. It was stated that he could in some circumstances order federal officials to violate federal law and this is consistent across the board with this President. Frankly, I'm not too sure what he thought he was swearing to when he took the oath of office to uphold the Constitution and our laws. I've never seen a President who is so uncomfortable in his constitutional skin.

Fight the Empire, Switch to Qwest

Dang it, Qwest services in my Midwestern state are skimpy. But maybe not in your state. Read why you should switch from the Empire's Death Star. Both ATT and Verizon could have refused the NSA's demands to tap into their networks. But they didn't.

Big Brother, Bitches

I know, you're sick of hearing leftys being all big brother this, big brother that. But in George Orwell's "Big Brother," the totalitarian state had its eye, and ear, on citizens constantly. Any dissent, any sign of negative thought, and you get taken away.

As you may have suspected, we're headed that way.

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

So, recently the Death Star of ATT appeared in my skies, taking over SBC ...

AT&T recently merged with SBC and kept the AT&T name. Verizon, BellSouth and AT&T are the nation's three biggest telecommunications companies; they provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers.

The three carriers control vast networks with the latest communications technologies. They provide an array of services: local and long-distance calling, wireless and high-speed broadband, including video. Their direct access to millions of homes and businesses has them uniquely positioned to help the government keep tabs on the calling habits of Americans.

Among the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA, the sources said. According to multiple sources, Qwest declined to participate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.

Qwest's refusal to participate has left the NSA with a hole in its database. Based in Denver, Qwest provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 states in the West and Northwest. But AT&T and Verizon also provide some services — primarily long-distance and wireless — to people who live in Qwest's region. Therefore, they can provide the NSA with at least some access in that area.

Time to switch to Qwest.

Rocking In The Free World

Neil Young's new album now at #3 in Amazon music. I wonder if your local classic rock station is playing it? Its sound would fit, the artist would fit. Maybe you should look up their studio line and call them over and over, ask for "Let's Impeach the President."

Ramayana Monkey Chant!

I stold it blatantly from here.

Colbert's Balls

In case you haven't seen it, and tried looking where it was, but is not there anymore, here's the Colbert speech, but you'll have to jump ahead all the other dinner hoo-ha.

Now '70s-ish Bollywood

I would guess around 1970. raymondo1960 has the goods.

As Long As We're On the Subject

From "Gumnaam." When I first saw this I had just started a perscription for the steroid Prednisone. This captures the mood caused by that drug perfectly.

Bollywood Beatles

Got it through Visual Guideance Ltd.

Hey, it's Mohammad Rafi! A bit like his classic:

Sedition

In March 1918, a third-degree committee in Forsyth grilled Starr about Liberty Bonds and forced him to kiss the flag. "What is this thing anyway?" he asked. "Nothing but a piece of cotton with a little paint on it, and some other marks in the corner there. I will not kiss that thing. It might be covered with microbes."

Sentence: 10-20 years.

Montana Sedition Project

Really. Important.

Net Neutrality

Learn it, love it, fight for it:

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) threw down the gauntlet just moments ago, introducing the Network Neutrality Act of 2006, which "[offers a] choice between favoring the broadband designs of a small handful of very large companies, and safeguarding the dreams of thousands of inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. This legislation is designed to save the Internet and thwart those who seek to fundamentally and detrimentally alter the Internet as we know it."

Rightwingers, leftwingers, small businessmen, pornographers, churches, web geeks etc. will have their sites crippled if corporations have their way.

A Public Service Announcement

There are powers, commercial and political, that want to control what gets to you, and what you can get to others. So watch.