More slimy tactics from the RIAA

Reported by NPR, the RIAA is listing indie labels as RIAA members when, in fact, they are not members, they are simply indie labels. This makes me wonder because the list time I saw an RIAA member list, they had some of my favorite indie labels on there. Lookout, Fat Wreck Chords, etc. I thought to myself, "These guys are part of the RIAA machine?" Well, it turns out that's false, at least according to the co-founder of Fat Wreck Chords that NPR interviewed. Fat and Relapse records have come out and said they are not RIAA members, and there's no telling how many other indie labels the RIAA is lying about.

A quick look at the RIAA member list, labels like Fat, Relapse, and Lookout are gone. but who knows how many labels they already lied about?

Aren't there laws against this? If the KKK publicly claims that I'm a member of their organization when I'm not, shouldn't they be punished? Same thing here.

I'm wondering how the economy is doing

Working at my seasonal retail job yesterday, I was surprised that it wasn't THAT busy. I mean, it was busy, high volume of sales and everything, but it wasn't insanely busy for the whole day.

I talked with a friend today. She told me that she went to Wal-Mart at seven this morning, the second morning of the busy shopping season, and it was dead.

I guess we'll have to wait until monday to see the weekend sales numbers. I'm suspecting that they won't be that great.

"America is under attack, and Bush is enemy number one."

You required reading for today is Ted Rall's latest column, "Howard Dean For President." It's less about Dean and more of an attack on Bush, telling and repeating the truth of his actions.

Even if his only crime had been the despicable way he seized power, using a rogue Supreme Court to have himself appointed to office, Bush would be the most poisonous leader in U.S. history. He treasonously undermined the constitutional separation of powers, savaged the right of the states to conduct elections, and brutalized faith in the principle that, rich or poor, black or white, every vote counts.

Only after 9/11, however, did Bush begin acting like a dictator: jailing innocent people solely because they were Muslim, authorizing the FBI and CIA to spy on political opponents, converting Guantánamo Bay into a concentration camp for 12-year-old prisoners seized in Afghanistan. Thanks to tax cuts diabolically devised to minimize the possibility of economic stimulus, a ten-year $4 trillion surplus has become a $6 trillion deficit. Now he has us stuck in a unilateral, losing war in Iraq, a vicious quagmire that has given us neither preemption from WMDs nor cheap oil--just $500 billion wasted along with 350 dead soldiers and more than a thousand who will never walk again. Bush is nothing like his dad, except in his casual disregard for the problems of the unemployed.

Go read the whole thing, it'll take you five minutes. Well worth your time.

Add this to my Xmas wish list

The Far Side Anthology, two volumes. [giddy]

Not in a "nice" mood today..

I just saw this headline on Google News: "Norway's role in European defence weakened." You can just see the look of concern on my face right now, right? Now, maybe I'm just an ignorant American, but when the fuck has anybody ever worried about the defence provided by Norway? When World War III breaks out, I'll bet you a million dollars that the first thing on my mind willnot by, "Fuck, what's Norway doing?!"

Quality.

Seven new Internet Explorer security holes revealed. In other news, Internet Explorer is a Microsoft product, so.. You see where I'm going with this.

Remind me do another backup of my data sometime soon.

Source: Ted Rall

I'll try to post a few updates later today, although I have to work tonight. Then tomorrow. So things could be a little slow...

People are fucking insane

I woke up at 5am today because my shift at my seasonal retail job started at 5:45. When I got to my store, there stood 300 people in a line going around the building. At quarter to six. I'm sorry, but that's just fucking insane. Every person in that line is a certified nutjob. I'm serious. Anyone who wants to get up that early to shop needs to get their head checked NOW.

6000+ miles and still not one funeral attended

Over at uggabugga, they pondered Dubya's holiday in Baghdad:

President Bush flew to Baghdad for a surprise visit. In case you are wondering, the distance (one-way) is 6211 miles.

How is it Bush can find time for a flashy performance, yet not be able to attend even one funeral of the war dead?

What's next? Getting aboard a submarine for a trip to the Persian Gulf? A balloon ride over Tora Bora?

Let's face it: Bush's stop in Iraq was a campaign stunt, plain and simple. It's PR facetime to bring his poll numbers up. And we, the taxpayers, foot the bill.

Getting thirsty?

Global warming could cause water shortages that would effect your grandchildren. Better start saving up water for them now.

Interesting legal tidbit that makes you wonder why Bush isn't in handcuffs

I'm using Lexis/Nexis to research news articles from around the country to see if there are high numbers of men and women discharging themselves from the military. I haven't found something to write home about yet, but I also haven't had much time to research it yet.

In fact, my research time so far clocks in at 5 minutes. However, that was enough time to find this little tidbit from AP article placed on the wire yesterday:

Quitting the military comes at a price, says Army Lt. Col. Susan Danielsen.

Danielsen, provost marshal at Fort Bragg, wants possible deserters to imagine being on the run for the rest of their lives.

"They should turn themselves in, because eventually they'll be caught," Danielsen said. "That federal warrant remains valid for 40 years."

Oh really? Do these warrants apply to sitting Presidents? Who can I goto to find out if there has been a warrant issued for Bush? If one has been issued, how come he hasn't been arrested? If one has not been issued, then why not? Can one be issued so Bush can be arrested for his crimes? Is this an impeachable offense?

If you ask me, that quote is pretty conclusive. An army official is telling the AP that going AWOL is illegal and the crime's statute of limitations is 40 years. Bush, who went AWOL, is still in violation of the law. Why hasn't the law been enforced on him?

And to beat the dead horse of rhetorcial questions, can you imagine the reaction fromt he rabid right if Clinton committed these crimes?

Update: I found a link for this article.

Our Dumb President

From the "You-Just-Can't-Make-This-Shit-Up" Dept.: In his first presidential visit to Nevada, Bush is unable to properly pronounce the state name.

I have to watch more Countdown on MSNBC

I'm so out of the times that the last time I saw Keith Olbermann on TV was ESPN's Sportscenter. He was funny then, too. But last night's show was just great.

...here are COUNTDOWN's "Top 3 Newsmakers" of this day:

...And No. 2, Neil Bush, the president's brother, bad divorce ongoing. "New York Post" quoting depositions in the case, in them, Mr. Bush says that while on business trips to Thailand and Hong Kong, women would knock on the door of his hotel room, enter the room, and then have sex with him, but they never asked for money.

And No.1, Dr. Stuart Maloy who says that he has accidentally invented the device called the "Orgasmatron," just like in the Woody Allen picture "Sleeper," except he tells "New Scientist" magazine he can't find women to volunteer to test it. Possibly because it involves inserting two electrodes into the spine. Perhaps Dr. Maloy needs to meet those women from Neil Bush's hotel room.

Heh! The transcript (found via Lexis/Nexis) doesn't note that after he said this, they played part of the Buzzcocks' "Orgasm Addict" before cutting to a commerical.

I'm speechless

It's 1:08AM on Thanksgiving Day, 2003. I just went to BBC News and saw this paragraph to describe their lead article, "US to send extra marines to Iraq ":

The Pentagon says about 3,000 additional marines will be sent to Iraq, but denies this is linked to worsening security.

WTF? Why are they being sent to Iraq for then, the world's largest fucking campout? Jesus Christ. It's like the media isn't even trying with their propaganda anymore.

Pissing off Amnesty International is usually a bad thing to do

But Miami cops like playing with fire:

Rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday called for a full investigation into allegations police in Miami used excessive force during protests against a regional free trade meeting last week.

Amnesty urged a fully independent investigation to look, among other things, into reports that some of the 250 or so people detained were abused and ill-treated in jail.

[snip]

They [FTAA protesters] say at least 10 detainees were beaten in jail and they had received four reports of sexual assault while in custody.

[snip]

"It is clear that the protesters' basic right to have their voices heard was severely restricted, and that all Americans' civil liberties took a one-two punch in Miami," he said. [John Sweeney, ALF-CIO President]

Brutal treatment against legal protesters by law enforcement? Well, that's nothing new, but it's still disturbing every time you hear of a new incident.

As always for protesters and illegal police brutality that come with the package, Indymedia has the uncensored stories.

Dennis Kucinich: Certified Mack Daddy

He'll be shizzling the nizzle soon.

Fark headline of the day

"Christopher Reeve makes speech without ventilator. Text of speech; "Heeeeeeezzzzeeeee, gasp, wheezee, gasp, woooooo"

Yeah, I know, it's so wrong..

They just couldn't wait

Before the Senate session concluded for the holiday, some Republicans introduced a bill to ban gay marriage via a Constitutional amendment. What unmitigated gall! How dare these Senators seek to usurp the very document that lists our freedoms by introducing such an amendment to destroy the right of two adults who love each other to wed. This goes against every tenet of freedom that's supposed to make America great.

First there was the PATRIOT Act, they will still try to get PATRIOT Act II passed, and now this. Do we need any more proof to atest to the fact that Republicans don't give a damn about our freedoms?

This isn't about gay rights, this is about preserving our freedom. This is about fighting tooth and nail against the Republican party, who seek to turn America into a Christian Fundamentalist nation. What's next, a Constitutional amendment banning adultery? This is getting ridiculous.

No stinkin' Canadian prescription drugs in Rhode Island!

The RI Health Department is forcing a business that provides cheap Canadian prescription drugs to close their doors. Since the Canadian pharmacy providing the prescription drugs is not license by the state, that makes it illegal. I find it funny that the Health Dept. is enforcing this law. I mean, I haven't heard of anybody getting bad Canadian drugs. I know the government and big pharmaceutical companies have tried telling us that drugs from Canada could be unsafe, but have you heard of anybody getting bad prescriptions from Canada? Or even Mexico, for the matter? I haven't.

Holiday hours

I won't do too much blogging tomorrow, but I imagine that most people won't do too much reading tomorrow, either. So it's all good.

Friday, however, sucks. I'm working an 5:45am - 5:00pm shift. So after 10-11 hours of running around and lifting boxes, I may just take a nap and call it a night. My goal is to get a few things posted thursday night so there's at least something on here.

More news from the Police State

Massachusetts is now spending more money on prison than public colleges and universities. As a testament to what happens when universities are underfunded, many people aren't recognizing just how wrong this situation is.

No new details about the Plame Leak

I did a Lexis/Nexis search on articles including the word "plame" in the last month. I pulled up only 24 results, some of which had nothing to do with situation. But none really included no information. My search was no able to pull up any details about the investigation that the Justice Department is supposedly conducting on this affair.

Remember when this was a scandal? Well, it still is a scandal. The media just refuses to report it. Why are they dropping the ball on crimes committed by Bush and Co.?

Billions in handouts to already rich corporations

That's the jist of what Joe Conason says the Medicare bill, passed in the Senate today, will do:

As the Washington Post reports today, however, the Medicare bill that is about to become law "would steer at least $125 billion over the next decade in extra assistance to the health care industry and U.S. businesses."

[snip]

Lobbyists for the "efficient" private insurers demanded and won a new rule that will give them the same rates paid by traditional, fee-for-service Medicare -- plus an additional $12 billion slush fund for the private programs, designed to "persuade" them to do business in places where they have already begun to abandon their clients. (The success of the healthcare lobby no doubt is connected to its political generosity. Nearly two dozen of the Bush Pioneers, fat cats who have bundled more than $100,000 for the president's campaign, are connected with the industry.) Health economist Marilyn Moon finds these fat payoffs "very ironic," since, as she explains, "To increase participation in private plans, we are going to overpay them for the foreseeable future."

Well isn't that just dandy?

Bwwwahahahaha

Maybe there is a God:

A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said.

I hope y'all like the new mascot

Calvin is gh0d.

This is why Canadians are just plain weird

The NHL held it's first outdoor hockey game last saturday in Edmonton. 57,167 hockey fans packed Commonwealth Stadium in 0 degree temperatures, -15 with the wind chill.

Is there any other nation on Earth where this would happen? I think not! If there's a -15 wind chill outside, you won't see nearly 60,000 people packed into an outdoor stadium to watch HOCKEY!

Stunts like this earn Canada another 50 years of verbal punishment from us superior Americans. ;>

Rape in the Military

Are you an aspiring rapist? Join the Army and you won't face any stiff penalties! Jesus' General points out a series of articles in the Denver Post that try to shed light on the high numbers of rape and attempted rape in the military, and how the rapists are hardly punished. Many get away with "administrative" punishment. (What's that, peeling potatoes?) Maybe the lack of punishment can explain why the percentage of rape and attempted rape is higher for the military then civilian population.

Loaded Mouth in the classroom

Matt, the other Loaded Mouth, has not had time to post to the blog. He's been busy with school, but I got a chance to talk with him tonight. He told me about a discussion about gay marriage he had in one of his classes. Read, you'll laugh (and not just at my typos and poor grammar):

Matt: there was a heated debate in my legal environment of business class today
Matt: on mondays.. we do "news" discussions, on news topics that have massive legal implications
Matt: we discussed the gay marriage in mass today
Matt: i was the only one on the "panel of presenters" who was not a bigoted hate-monger
adupont13: Jesus.
adupont13: You should have presented my view on these to all the freedom-loving patriots.
adupont13: "If you don't have the freedom to marry who you want, then welcome to tyranny."
Matt: the arguement i used was:
Matt: well, 40 years ago.. if i were to try to marry my fiancee, who is asian, then we would've been lynched.. is that right?
Matt: they all said no
adupont13: Bwwwhaha..
Matt: and then i basically went out to point out how shit changes.. in this day and age, homosexual couples are more commonplace and more accepted
adupont13: Maybe that wasn't the case 40 years ago, but if you wanted to marry a black woman.
adupont13: Yeah.
Matt: no.. the law was that whites had to marry whites, and minorities needed to marry minorities
Matt: no inter-mixing of the racial pool
adupont13: Hello, a hundred yeas ago, try marrying a catholic and protestin. (sp)
Matt: try marrying a jew and a catholic today. heh
Matt: then one person was trying to say that homosexuality was a new phenomenon
Matt: and then i asked him if he was religious.. he said yes..
Matt: so, i brought up Sodom
Matt: he didnt like that too much
adupont13: Homosexuality is new? Jesus.
Matt: i went on to mention that it was a city that people "screwed whatever and whoever was around"
adupont13: They only mentioned it int eh Bible. When was that written?
Matt: and then he said "yea, then god destroyed the city"
Matt: and i interjected "isn't this the same god who said that slavery was ok? that it is ok to beat women?"
adupont13: Heh.
Matt: i then proceeded to ask if i could beat his mother and sell her into slavery
Matt: after i said that.. "but God said it was not wrong"
adupont13: lol
adupont13: I think I might post this conversation to the blog. ;>
Matt: i had my teacher laughing so hard, she was in tears. heh
Matt: another quality point made by the hate mongers:
Matt: "Gays should not be allowed to adopt children, because it will warp the children into being flamers"
Matt: me, being the passionate one, asked:
adupont13: Wow. What kind of knuckle-scraping mouth breathers does Byrant admit?
Matt: "Then how is it we have homosexuals now? I mean, straight couples, by your logic, cannot create homosexuals, just like gat couples cannot raise straight children"
Matt: he said "bad parenting"
adupont13: See,you're tryin to introduce logic. That will crush their fragile eggshell minds. :)
Matt: then i asked him about how some parents, who have twins: one is staight and the other is a flaming homosexual
Matt: logic was not going over well
Matt: and then, one girl was trying to say that it was a trendy thing, that all the cool kids are doing it now
adupont13: Appearently. And just think, these are the future business leaders of America.
Matt: (luckily, this kid is a communications and cis major.. heh)
adupont13: Whew.
adupont13: So we won't be seein any skidmarks from chins ont he floor of Wall Street?
Matt: heh
Matt: i kind of wished the class was longer
Matt: i wanted to put them down more
adupont13: I think I need to come to class with oyu.
Matt: heheeh

True Crime

Hey kids, it's Loaded Mouth Quiz Time!! Today's riddle of riddles: Which White House administration, who lied about the previous administration vandalizing the White House before they left, has "caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace" after the President's state visit there?

The first two guesses don't count.

Oink Oink Oink

The curly-tailed Republicans want to pork you:

Way back before Republicans took over the House in 1995, GOP lawmakers pilloried Democrats for stuffing legislation with local projects that get little or no oversight but boost the popularity of the lawmakers who take credit for them.

[snip]

But a rising tide of GOP spending on home-district projects is making those Democrats of yesteryear look like mere pikers of pork, according to a 15-page study just released by the minority staff of the House Appropriations Committee.

[snip]

Moreover, even some fiscally conservative Republicans have not been shy about taking credit for bringing home the bacon.

Oink!

More lies from that darned 'Liberal Media'

Ahhh, the propaganda machine squeezes out another link of shit that it expects the public to swallow: Economy Boosts Bush's Public Standing"

Here's my favorite paragraph in the article:

"We've seen a reversal," said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "Right now, to many people's surprise, it looks like the economy is going his way and Iraq may be a trouble spot for him."

I'm sure that I don't need to tell you what the highly Republican American Enterprise Institute is. But there's a problem when I'm pointing this out, since that is the media's job. The author of this article doesn't leave a side note saying that the AEI isn't exactly a non-partisan organization, but they have an agenda and that agenda to serve the needs of the Republican party. Since their quote is supportive of Bush, don't you think important information that's being withheld from the public?

Why Free Trade agreements suck

My seemingly week long writers block continues, but that never stopped me from running my mouth. I simply quote other people at length to compensate. In that spirit, I read an article on Salon by Marisa Handler. She is protested against the FTAA in Miami this week and wrote artilces from an activists point of view. What she wrote should remind us why we have to protest against the "free trade" that corporations want to shove down our throats:

The Free Trade Area of the Americas, should these agreements go through, will prove a disaster to communities and the environment. The FTAA essentially expands NAFTA to the entire Western hemisphere (with the predictable exception of Cuba, which is not represented among the 34 countries here). NAFTA, contrary to optimistic predictions, has only benefited the wealthiest in the three countries it includes. According to a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, since NAFTA was passed in 1994, an estimated 765,000 jobs have been lost in the U.S. These jobs have largely moved to maquiladoras, cheap border factories based in Mexico. Meanwhile, the number of Mexicans working for less than Mexican minimum wage has increased by over a million. NAFTA is a race to the bottom, and those who are paying for increased multinational profits are the most destitute.

Like NAFTA's Chapter 11, the FTAA's rules of investment would additionally allow corporations to sue governments for future profits lost (a recent example of this was when Canada's Methanex Corp. sued the state of California for almost a billion dollars for banning the use of MTBE in its gasoline, due to its high toxicity. Should Methanex win, California either has to pay out or significantly lower its environmental standards). A poor nation like Bolivia would have virtually no protection against the might of U.S.-based multinationals in a case like this. And the FTAA would also include services, which means that everything ranging from water to education to hospitals would be up for privatization.

The FTAA is a nightmare for the environment, labor, and human rights. And there is no process for public input: the space for nongovernmental organizations amounts to little more than a suggestion box, while corporate advisors are given privileged advisory roles in these talks. Most of the communities represented in these talks cannot come to voice their dissent. For those who can, for the conscientious and the outraged, nonviolent protest is the last tool left us. That is why I came to Miami.

I was gonna write something about free trade, fair trade, and globalization, but sometimes it's best to let the pros do it. It doesn't mean that I won't subject you to it later this week, though.

OK, back to my regularly scheduled writers block.. Or, actually, off to bed. 9:00am meeting at work tomorrow, which means that I actually have to wake up on a sunday. I think the last time I got up at 7:30am on a sunday morning was 5 years ago. I'm not happy about this whole going to bed on a saturday night shit.