hmmm, makes me think of a happy song

www.cfa-inc.org...
"One step closer to making the unification with China easier...here, take this pill and it will all be painless. Trust us."


it makes me think of a happy canadian punk rock song, by propagandhi, no less...

perception and time

Apparently, this country is on its way to hell in a handbasket...but hey, when hasn't it been? Cable companies consolidating, a corporate friendly congressman (as if there are any other kind) to be voted on for the SEC chairmanship, the on-going race to the bottom between MTV and most of the other crap on TV, an entire administration that is still in office as we are still in a war of false pretense and the deathcount and number of war crimes keep rising...

But thinking on all of this I can't help but think of the sequoia forests of northern california. How many civilizations have crumbled as they've reached for the sun? Planets take billions of years to form. Solar systems take eons to condense from swirling clouds. These are the respective scales of their lifespan. How do they percieve? Do they percieve on these time-scales?

Given that perception is simply interaction with the rest of the universe, I'd say yes.

It's impossible to watch a tree for five minutes and watch its life in motion. Is it possible to sit in a forest for weeks and watch life in motion? I think so, with the right patterns of thought.

from comcastwatch.com

Why Your Community Should Oppose the Sale and Transfer of Adelphia Franchises to Comcast and Time Warner Cable

Comcast is the largest cable operator in America, serving 21.5 million cable homes, or nearly 30 percent of American homes subscribing to cable. If the Adelphia purchase is approved, Comcast will grow by two million homes to 23.5 million.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) is the second largest cable operator in America. While TWC serves fewer cable homes than Comcast, it is controlled by Time Warner, one of the world's largest media content creators, an owner of a broadcast network (WB) and multiple cable channels (CNN, TBS, TNT, HBO, etc).

By virtue of their joint control over the nation's cable television homes, Comcast and TWC each possess unacceptable "gatekeeper" power to dictate which television channels Americans receive, as well as the content on those channels, whether they are Comcast and Time Warner Cable subscribers or not. Says cable tycoon John Malone: "I don't believe that an independent programmer has any chance whatsoever… There's no way on earth that you can be successful in the U.S. distributing a channel that Brian Roberts (CEO of Comcast) doesn't carry, particularly if he has one that competes with it."

Comcast and TWC's monthly fees increase annually far in excess of the increase in inflation. A 2004 study by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) found that Comcast's rates have increased by 50 percent – almost three times the pace of inflation – since the Telecommunications Act of 1996. To increase its profits, Comcast forces customers to pay for channels they don't want. Despite the fact that the CFA found that nearly 80 percent of Comcast's customers wouldn't pay for ESPN if they didn't have to, the company refuses to allow customers the option to choose the channels they wish to have in their home and keep out the channels they don't want.

Comcast is the nation's largest broadband Internet service provider. It refuses to allow competing national and local Internet service providers, such as Earthlink, to use its broadband cable to provide Internet access, a practice ruled illegal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the Brand X case, presently on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Comcast's refusal to allow competitors to access its broadband cable gives it power to dictate which sites its consumers can access and to divert customers to sites that Comcast has an economic interest in. Regardless of the outcome of its appeal, the sheer number of Americans who have little or no alternative to Comcast for broadband Internet service gives it an unacceptable power over the American public's Internet and media choices.

TWC, through its AOL and Road Runner units, is the nation's largest Internet service provider. While it presently allows other broadband Internet service providers to access its broadband cable, it does so only because the Federal Trade Commission requires it to – a public interest condition of the approval of the 2001 AOL/Time Warner merger. Time Warner Cable is now appealing that condition of open access – a telling commentary on that company's commitment to the public interest.

Comcast has the worst customer satisfaction rating of any company or government agency in the country, including the Internal Revenue Service, according to a 2004 American Customer Satisfaction Index survey. According to a recent article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, searching Google using the keywords "Comcast" and "hate" generated 339,000 hits.

The city of Philadelphia, Comcast's corporate headquarters, is building its own wireless broadband network to provide better broadband Internet access to its citizens at a reasonable cost. This speaks volumes.Comcast is the "Wal-Mart of the telecommunications industry" in terms of its labor relations. A recent study by American Rights at Work, titled "No Bargain: Comcast and the Future of Workers' Rights in Telecommunications," is highly critical of the company's labor relations, citing poor pay and union-busting tactics. According to the report, pay is "approximately one-third lower than the unionized telephone companies" while employee "turnover and the use of temporary workers ... are twice as high as the telephone industry average.... Only one in four locations where a union exists have been able to obtain a collective bargaining agreement."

Comcast has taken an extremely confrontational and difficult stance with local communities in franchise-renewal negotiations. In 2003, Comcast sued the city of San Jose during negotiations over its local franchise agreement, arguing the process violated the company's First Amendment rights. Comcast lost this dubious argument in the lower courts, but is now appealing the decision. Meanwhile, San Jose has been without a franchise agreement with Comcast for seven years.

Given these facts, are Comcast and Time Warner Cable truly the best companies to take control of your local Adelphia cable franchise?

ponderings for the night...or morning as the case is

What strange times we live in. For as trite as that phrase is, I don't think there's any other way to put it. For as comfortable as we've become with living next door to our annihilation as a species, the medical field doesn't seem to have figured out the concept of mortality...well, you could argue that they have, but a different abstraction motivates them to perpetuate absurdity. And for as tangled and twisted as the web is, as deep as the rabbit hole drops, it seems to all boil down to one point, one flaw in Western "logic..."

When it comes down to it, they can never really answer "why?"

Today, two people fell in love, some people stubbed their big toe, a person's smile made a stranger's day, a little girl lost her first tooth, a husband became a father, some one cried for the loss of a loved one, a man killed total strangers, a whore turned a trick, a country carried on "business as usual." And also today, climate shifts were continuing, petroleum deposits were drained more, a child starved, violence was inflected on strangers by strangers, the media gave a voice to a jackass who should have been kept quiet and silenced a story that should be known. And in this country, criminals remained at-large, in office...and the country carried on "business as usual."

"Ev'ry day da bucket a-go-a well; one day, da bottom a-go drop out." Jamaican proverb

What happens then? Are things really as bad as they can seem? Is there any way out? To fix? To throw-out and start-over? To not fuck things up once something new was established?

Tomorrow, the sun will rise, perhaps...

an email

And though it contains a shameless plug or two, do watch the film "Bush's Brain." It's terrifying.

In a message dated 7/11/05 9:12:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
imcurl@email.unc.edu writes:

Hello Mr Shoob,
I'm a subscriber to the
Institute for Public Accuracy's email briefs and have some questions for you regarding the current "episode" of the Bush drama. Before I begin, I must say, "Bush's Brain" does in fact give me nightmares.

First, what do you expect to result from this "revelation," in terms of public approval for the Bush administration?
I think it's still hard to tell. If this investigation turns out to be as thorough as it appears that it's going to be, I think the Bush administration will feel the pressure, and their approval rating will suffer.
Will Rove be released from his position and prosecuted, as Mr McClellan stated in 2003?
It's not clear that Karl Rove has broken the law, so it's unclear to me whether he will be prosecuted. My guess, however, is that this will lead the press and the voters to look at our film, read the books and newspapers that are out there and learn about Rove's thirty years of "hardball politics". I think his reputation will suffer.
What will be the Congress' response? Do you think that Republicans and Democrats can come together to pursue justice?
This all depends on the findings of the Special Prosecutor. I think this investigation might turn up other pre-Iraq activities by this administration which will be taken seriously by both Democrats and Republicans.
Considering Rove's past shenanigans, how strong will a defense based on "knowingly" be?
"Knowingly" will be the key.
How long can the Administration get away with such blatant disregard for the very ideals they are supposedly bringing to the rest of the world?
Good question. This next sixty or ninety days will tell us a lot.
Do you think that there will be any real public displays in reaction to this scandal, since this story has been largely confined to the "blogosphere?"
I think that this story has reached beyond the "blogosphere" into the mainstream press. And, for the first time in his administration, Bush is having to contend with a hostile and aggressive press corps.
Thank you for your time.
Ian Curl
pfblack.blogspot.com
My pleasure. I would encourage your readers to look at our film to better understand the Bush-Rove relationship and to realize that this latest revelation about Rove is just the tip of the iceberg in his thirty year history of vengeance and dirty tricks.

Best,

Michael Paradies Shoob
Co-Director, BUSH'S BRAIN

upcoming events

United for Peace and Justice is holding a major event in September...find information here.

Right now, I've got a strange feeling about it...a "my knee aches, I think it's gonna rain" sort of a thing. BUT, it's not for two months, and who knows, the Administration could all be in jail and the country plunged into chaos before then...

A Quote

With the possible exception of Nixon, Hubert Humphery is the purest and most disgusting example of a Political Animal in American politics today. He has been going at it hammer and tong twenty-five hours a day since the end of World War II--just like Richard Nixon, who launched his own career as a Red-baiting California congressman about the same time Hubert began making headlines as the Red-baiting Mayor of Minneapolis. They are both career anti-Comunists: Nixon's gig was financed from the start by Big Business, and Humphery's by Big Labor...and what both of them stand for today is the de facto triumph of a One Party System in American politics.

Hunter S Thompson, '72

As true today as it was then. The trend has been a consolidation of power under the manufactured polarization produced by the media. Simply put, we need the Democrats who are serious about fixing things to break off and start a new party...but not like Lincoln, where the new party wound-up replacing the old, we need a multi-party system. Democracy is not supposed to be easy, it's not supposed to be stable, it's never supposed to be business as usual.

and while I'm on the point of continued trends, Harvey Wasserman has published another brilliant article.

Against the Death Penalty and For Reform

This example, along with sad others that will never see the light of day, is a strong reason for why we should do away with the barbaric practice of capital punishment...even for treason...

Further, as it has been stated time and time and time and time and time, again, our entire justice system needs reform. Most especially, drug policy needs to be thrown out and incarceration should be replaced with treatment. None of this is new thought. Alternatives to criminal trial for nonviolent drug offenses must be found and utilized nationally.

Shifting in thought, only slightly...

I was suddenly struck last night by the question, "what happens when the crash doesn't come?" Where will all the doom-sayers be left, then? What happens when I wake-up on that "prophecized" day, only to find that I lost my job because I pissed off my boss and didn't care because, "shit, there isn't even going to be a world tomorrow?"

Will there be rough times, globally, in the not so distant future? I believe that there is more than enough evidence to suggest so, even if it is just the shift away from petroleum dependence. But this doesn't exactly spell the end of the world. Throughout human history, thousands of people have forecasted the apocalypse, only to sit on a hill and look like idiots.

Barring widespread nuclear war as a result of possible chaos, the world has survived the fall of empires and will survive the fall of the US. There are ways, however, to advert the systematic failure of our country. Nothing is guaranteed.

Thoughts on Rove

this one goes out to deb

correspondance from the belly of the beast

830, this morning...
"Ian, phone."
Hello?
Curl, what's up man?
What's up, John?
Did I wake you up?
Yeah, but it's all good; I was supposed to be up an hour ago to run. What's up?
Nothing much, I pissed some people off today.
Already?
Yeah, I made a shirt that said 'Impeach Bush' on it and got yelled at by this sixty-year-old guy. He called me a 'faggot' and shit and threaten to kick my ass 'rabble rabble' and call the corporate office 'rabble rabble'. I think I really pissed him off when I told him to have a great day, and not in a smart-ass tone, either.
Wow, really? That's great.
And this other guy asked me why we should impeach the president, so I told him about the Downing Street Memo and everything. He kept saying, 'oh, so you want them to come over and put bombs in our planes and blow-up our buildings?' I told him no, but he didn't really listen...
Well, just be careful, man. Remember that you're not just fending for yourself...
What do you mean? I'm sure if someone were to kill me over a fucking shirt they'd start some kind of fund in my name.
Nah, but what about company policy? Could you be fired? You know Sam's is just an extension of Wal-Mart...
Nah, politics are fair game, just as long as I don't wear anything offensive, like 'fuck bush' or 'dead fetuses taste good,' I'm ok.
Haha, right on.
But, my manager asked me to take it off, since that old fuck threatened to call corporate.
Bummer, dude...

John's down in Florida...need I say more?

goddamn...why is it that bush always has a smug fucking grin on his face, like he knows something that we don't know, whenever he's shoveling shit out of his mouth? does he not know that we're on to him (well, them, since bush is too big of a fucking idiot to plot out some of the shit they're pulling, while I'm at it...)? why the fuck am I not in washington throwing molotovs?

begin hair pulling and teeth gnashing...

focusing on something else...

Though I support PBU and all others who are trying to keep the light shining on the Evil Fuck, it's too much for me right now. So, I'm going to post about something that I just learned about today...which is somewhat of a disappointment, at my own ignorance and the lack of press, not about this project.

Acrosanti is an experiment in "acrology," a school of ecologically balanced architecture. This project was founded by Paolo Soleri, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright (a fact easily recognizable when viewing the buildings in this Arizona desert town).

I need to do way more reading into this...but, it's good to see that people are actively seeking alternatives to the "conqueror and sprawl" system...which, by the way, is still heading for The Crash. So, set your watches, pack a cooler with beer, kiss your dog, wash in between your toes, check your armpits, and floss, 'cause it's gonna be a big ol' time, darlin'.

My heart goes out to all the Londoners affected by today's attacks, and to the entire country.

hmmm...

hmmm...

Where as I completely agree with the spirit of the olympic games, the gathering of all peoples for friendly competition. It's an ideal that I hope one day we as humans can truly live...

What the fuck? Who fucking cares about the 2012 olympics? I hope that the world is still spinning in 2012... Of all the things to be worrying about, at this time... Anything for a nice distraction, I guess.

a thought on live8...

I wonder what Mr Robert Nesta Marley would have though about live8... Would he have been invited? Would he have been invited back in '85?

And by the way, on a unrelated, related note...Karl Rove is a mean-spirited ass. I hope he is put in prison...along the rest of the Bu$h administration soon after (sorry, even Mr Powell.) He's the corner-stone, if he falls, the whole temple goes... Kill the snake by cutting off the head.