So-Called "Christian" Blogger Mocks Dying Senator

Item: Here's a photo reenactment of Ales Rarus on Arlen Specter's silly attempt to live longer by embracing stem cell research. In fact, even though there aren't any captions, we're pretty sure that Ales Rarus, pictured below, is not only telling Arlen that he can't have the juicy stem cell research because Jesus talks to him this we know, but can't end his suffering or even mitigate it with the slightest hint of a marijuana spliff self-righteous bastard that our PH D candidate is:

And of course, below, we have Arlen Specter here. who would benefit from the Talosians virtual reality menageries that would make him whole in an imaginary sense stem cell research:

And one note to Ales Rarus: I've met Arlen Specter several times and he would debate you into the Next World--full of talking action figures of Jesus and infinite ice cream and cosmic bellhops galore. Specter's a Philadelphia trial lawyer and it shows.

New Nude Girlz Over at the Red Light District

August 10

Item: I've finally recovered my lagging aging sex drive and updated the Red Light District, with brand new federally mandated warning page. Also: Milo Manara and stunning photog pics. And related: Spanish porn posters of the 70s. And: A Simon Bisley nude.

Modest and Understated Around the Internets

August 2

Item: The League of Pissed off Voters is meeting this week at the University of Pittsburgh from August 4th to August 7th. You can check out the agenda here.

Item: Chuck PENNacchio will also be at Drinking Liberally this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Item: And here's sort of the short version of what happened in Ohio. I wish we had an opposition party that would challenge and question all of the shenanigans.

Item: Over at the Mirror Universe comments section our corporate theocratic pal and defender of Wal (We Love Chinese Slave Labor) Mart Ales Rarus doesn't like being named as a proud member of the League of Evil Bloggers (forthcoming). I suppose you can synopsize his statements as "waaahhh"...., "waaaa" and, of course, "wah". Tho lately with his pro Walmart posts (Written by a corporate shill apparently and not somebody who actually works those crappy, deadend jobs on the floor. I kinda wonder if he wasn't paid for that. That's the kind of propaganda Walmart's been pushing lately.) and his insistence that the Catholic Church get more involved in telling adult couples how they can't use artificial contraception, advice which sensible adults should ignore...well, sounds kind of evil to me. I have a different point of view about Walmart as you can imagine. I think they hire people who don't have the courage or the intellectual chops to unionize. I do have to admit though, there is a friendly paternalism at Walmart, sort of what occasionally well-treated slaves must have gone through. I might also note that someone who doesn't question the Catholic Hierarchy and their many idiotic policies would probably not question the friendly people who own Walmart. (Ales Rarus is a former Walmart employee.) It's just like Machiavelli said: He always liked religion because it kept the sheep in line. I agree. What's the difference between a good catholic and a good Wal Mart employee? Probably not much. It will be so much better in the Next Life...on The Island. (A film I recommend by the way...)

How are Walmart's slave labor practices consistent with Christian principles? He must have missed that liberation theology class...

And he wonders why I don't like debating him...I mean, what's the point? I'm sorry, but if you must believe in Santa Claus afterlives where you can have all the Ice Cream you want--to quote Chris Walken in "The Prophecy"--there's something not rigorous about your thinking process.

I did suggest that he read up on more enlightened dogmas, such as the good 'ol humanist manifesto and a really cool religion: The Universal Unitarians. I like what they're about and I might need a wedding and/or funeral (more likely) some day. They take atheists...now that's a cool church.

State of the Paper

STATE OF THE PAPER

The paper has grown fairly well over the last seven months. When I started it we got around 10 hits a day and now--during weekdays--we get about 100 to 150 hits a day, The goal is a thousand hits a day by the New Year.(Gotta have goals.)

I've also added law to the technology site because I think liberal progressive attorneys--especially trial attorneys who go after big companies who are quickly becoming an endangered species--would support a press that supports what they do. I have not forgotten the Red Light District but I think that if you do sex you should do it right so that's what I'm going to attempt. There's an interesting continuing story about the Politics of Sex. (Should be an update soon...there would be updates every other hour if I was still in my 20s...of course, I wouldn't have known what I was doing...and yes there's a sad joke in there somewhere.) I'm also going to work on developing the sections again. I really haven't done that for awhile unless it's for storage or pieces that are too long for the front page. One of the things I also need to do is more multiple postings, which I don't like doing but that's why people come back multiple times to your page. I'm hoping I can add more content than Atrios like open threads--I don't have the readers anyway--at least everyday posting.

I'm honestly not sure if I should keep on trying to do local stories--I've done a few--or just become an editing service like Grassroots (which is very thorough...hey, I need to know the dirt about the Democratic Party even though I'm a member of the party). I guess it depends on the time I have available.

I also haven't been able to put full time into the paper because I've had to make a living, such as it is. It looks like my schedule is open for the next several weeks so I'm going to put a lot of time into the paper. Each section, in theory, requires a 40 to 50 hour week. I'm just one guy but at least I can try online. I don't have several million to start my own alt weekly but if I work here I might be able to build something. Who knows.

V for Vendetta Trailer

Yet another Alan Moore property. You really have to take a look at the V for Vendetta trailer. It features this future Orwellian society where Fear seems to rule the day and where governments kill 100000 people and well...it just seems to remind me of a country that I know. I mean, I don't know what movies terrorists watch (Love Story? The Kate Hudson cannon? Indian musicals?) but I would think they would like "V for Vendetta". Odd things about this movie: Hot highly intelligent Natalie Portman kinda pro-zionist(She is an Israeli citizen who has defended Israeli policies who now stars in a film that might define the terrorist mindset) and the movie was shot in Britain.

Hey Kidz! Its the Chuck Penn House Party!

July 26

Item: Is Karl Rove a philanderer? O god I do not believe in let it be true....And O Zeus let Mark Cuban buy the Pirates...Make it so Mighty Odin...

Item: I attended Sunday's house party with Chuck Penn and came away very impressed. His stump speech has improved immeasurably since we last saw him in April. (One word of caution: the pauses when you mention your children are very theatric and right out of the professional politician's handbook but I couldn't quite tell if they were authentic...just an observation.) There were also two reporters there, from the suspect dailies I suppose, but I don't remember seeing a story or anything. I can't imagine that their corporate press masters would promote Chuck Penn. They're probably thrilled at the prospect of having two corporatist candidates like Santorum and Bob Casey Jr. vying for the US Senate.

I don't think Chuck Penn (I think that would look better on his campaign lit and suggests a kind of iconic state patriotism...just a suggestion. I have a troublesome last name myself.) is out of it yet but he has to either improve his fundraising or find a very cheap way to make voter contacts that don't require advertising. I'm going to throw a few suggestions his way later tonight...gotta step out....

A Pro-Enlightenment Around the Internets

July 22

A Pro-Enlightenment Around the Internets

".....All religions are prone to it, given the right circumstances. How could those who preach the absolute revealed truth of every word of a primitive book not be prone to insanity? There have been sects of killer Christians and indeed the whole of Christendom has been at times bent on wiping out heathens. Jewish zealots in their settlements crazily claim legal rights to land from the Old Testament. Some African Pentecostal churches harbour sects of torturing exorcism and child abuse. Muslims have a very long tradition of jihadist slaughter. Sikhs rose up to stop a play that exposed deformities of abuse within their temples. Buddhism too has its sinister wing. See how far-right evangelicals have kidnapped US politics and warped its secular, liberal founding traditions. Intense belief, incantations, secrecy and all-male rituals breed perversions and danger, abusing women and children and infecting young men with frenzy, no matter what the name of the faith.

Enlightenment values are in peril not because these mad beliefs are really growing but because too many rational people seek to appease and understand unreason. Extreme superstition breeds extreme action. Those who believe they alone know the only way, truth and life will always feel justified in doing anything in its name. You would, wouldn't you, if you alone had the magic answer to everything? If religions teach that life after death is better then it is hardly surprising that some crazed followers will actually believe it."

--some of Polly Toynbee's Essay "In the Name of God"

Item: That's a great essay by Toynbee. There is a war now between reason and mindless, superstitious faith. I'm going with reason. However, I've read that not all the suicide bombers are all that religious. Out of curiosity, if you were witness to an imperial power slaughtering over 100000 of Your Kind and trying to steal their most valuable asset wouldn't you be angry? And how would you fight back if you didn't have a war machine at your beck and call? I'm not necessarily endorsing their actions because I take the bus a lot, but I understand them. There's also the disturbing notion that the terrorists are using the disenfranchised and underemployed to build their ranks. If that's so, they'll find the US a virtual Mecca of opportunity. (This just in on the why they legitimately hate us department: The Children of Abu Ghirab and angry comment from Hunter)

Item: I think the panopticon in Britain works. It doesn't prevent terrorist acts of course. Nothing could do that without addressing root causes. And those cameras won't be of much use if a suitcase nuke goes off but for everything up to that cameras are pretty helpful. I wouldn't mind those cameras in the United States as long as everyone had access to them. That's kind of what's been discussed at Worldchanging. Science fiction writer David Brin has been thinking about this for awhile now.

Item: One day I will own my own air force. My quest starts here and here.

Item: I've been watching Guy Negre's air compression car for about five years now. It looks like American production is about to begin. Fifty cents for a fill up?

Item: Free Inquiry on the new Pope or Everything You Wanted to Know About the Pope But Was Afraid to Ask.

"....In any case, why the corporate media in the United States and worldwide should present without dissent the Vatican's propagandistic views-particularly its claim to be the primary legal and moral representative of Jesus on Earth-is, I submit, unfair and untruthful.

There are surely positive aspects of the ministry of John Paul II. He sought to reach out to other faiths in dialogue-for example, to Jews and Muslims. He also apologized for the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the trial of Galileo, which is all to the good! But he was an adamant opponent of women's rights, at least within the church, refusing their ordination; and he opposed divorce, reproductive freedom, contraception, abortion, and artificial insemination. He was an implacable foe of the "death-with-dignity" movement and its advocacy for euthanasia and assisted-suicide, which struggled to offer the incurably ill merciful release from their suffering and pain. He insisted upon a celibate priesthood, though the church did not practice celibacy during its first thousand years. He was also a strong foe of stem-cell research, on the arcane theological premise that the "soul" is implanted at the moment of conception or of the first division of cells in a petri dish-in spite of the consequent positive benefits that may accrue to humankind from stem-cell research.

On his many trips to Asia and Africa, he insisted that condoms not be used; and he argued for abstinence. These polices no doubt caused millions of deaths from AIDS and contributed to population growth in the Third World. Although a critic of poverty-in his favor-and the excesses of capitalism, he also opposed liberation theology in Latin America, which meant that the Roman Catholic Church continued to support the power structure of these countries. Last but not least, he opposed dialogues between Roman Catholics and humanists after 1988, in spite of the fact that three earlier dialogues had been highly successful in finding common ground.

Unfortunately, this was in the wake of his overturning of Vatican II, which had attempted to bring the Roman Catholic church into the modern world. During his reign, superstitious miraculous sightings of Mary and Jesus were encouraged; even exorcisms returned to a church that for many decades had been skeptical about claims of demonic possession.

Is A Pro Life Dem Sen. from PA Good Enough Now...?

Is A Pro Life Senator from PA Good Enough Now...?

by Steelydan [Subscribe]

Tue Jul 19th, 2005 at 18:59:35 PDT

One thing we know about the wingers: they never ever stop. They don't want to turn every state into a battleground. In fact, they will do their best to make this a federal issue.

Here's the article that describes the coming federal war:

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9934

• Steelydan's diary :: ::

I argued in another diary why Bob Casey Jr.--anti-science, pro life, wishy washy on arctic drilling--that he was the wrong man for a minority party. When you're in the minority you don't need a moderate. You need firebrands. You need Paul Wellstones. You need Chuck Pennacchio.

Keep in mind that Roberts--an awful pick and guess what a big fat fuck you to the Dems--is the kind of guy that Bob Casey wouldn't filibuster, because we have to save the imaginary lil babies. And when they push to make the ban national and to jail women he'll probably vote for that as well. Remember, he's for pharmacists who vote their consciences. He's the wrong guy at the wrong time Now more than ever.

If you care about the women in your lives and truly love them as opposed to desire some theocratic rule over their very orifices, then you need to take a second look at Chuck Pennacchio. He needs money and help and he's a real opposition candidates. You don't send squishy pro life moderates to fight federalist society fascists.

Philip Shropshire
http://www.threeriversonline.com

PS: What good would Casey's pro labor credentials be against a judge like this?

Coming Soon: The League of Evil Bloggers

July 18

Coming Soon: The League of Evil Bloggers. Ales Rarus is a member. His evil powers include AI and his impenetrable Doublethink heat ray (especially in regards to the many failings of the Catholic Church contrasted with the infallibility of the Catholic Church.) Also: It is rumored that he resembles this fellow:

Even though no one really expects the Spanish Inquisition.

Mild Thursday Edition of Around the Internets

Mild Thursday Edition of Around the Internets

Internal sabotage offers a tempting explanation for the fact that so much has gone wrong for the United States since 2001. After 9/11 Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan--which had financed the Taliban and trained the hijackers at its camps--but Bush shocked analysts by attacking Afghanistan and Iraq instead. Was Bush's refusal to search for bin Laden in his nation of residence the result of spectacular incompetence--or a continuing alliance with the same Islamists his father's presidency had armed and funded? Are we losing the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq because of Rumsfeld's stubborn insistence on understaffing the military? Or are our leaders intentionally dragging out combat to accomplish their masters' aims: increasing the popularity of radical Islam and the recruitment of terrorists? Even Bush's domestic policies, from tax cuts paid to the rich people least likely to stimulate the economy to his attack on Social Security, seem designed to undermine U.S. stability and prosperity. Was Bush crossing his fingers when he swore to preserve and defend the constitution?

--From Recent Ted Rall editorial

Item: As I marvel at all of the violently evil things that the Bush administration does, I too have thought that they're not really big fans of the United States. I've always thought that a clever Democratic Party and/or opposition party ad to the GOP would simply show Bin Laden or the latest villain de jure poisoning the water, wrecking the social security system, weakening the military and whatnot and then saying "Oh, wait. That's what the Republicans are doing..." Our bad.

Item: I had never read anything by Chris Bunch but I had heard he had written the best novel about Vietnam ever. He died recently. Here's his obit and a remembrance from Norman Spinrad. This makes me want to check out his work, especially that massive science fiction series that was a bestseller in the Soviet Union.

Item: Robert Cringely is doing a series called NERDTv. He's going to release the series online and you'll be able to download. Related: Frontline and the British documentary "Power of Nightmares" online for free.

Item: Two impressive webcomics efforts over at 2 Political Junkies here and here.

Item: Interesting Fake Sites That Promote New Cloning (looks like cloning for spare parts) movie The Island here and here. I guess Ales Rarus lost. Thank God. Actually, if we let stem cell research go forward (in S. Korea and Russia at least), you could get your spare parts without growing full bodied versions of Evan or Scarlet. Hey, it's just a movie.

Massive Can't Be Stopped Around the Internets

Massive Can't Be Stopped Around the Internets

Item: Wired is simply a must read this month. First check out technoexploitation's Annalee Newitz on the rush by Big Pharma to create pills to enhance the female orgasm. Then there's a great piece on Idealab's Bill Gross working to create a portable solar dish for the home. Whenever they tell you that alternative fuels can't work, what they really mean is that we can't get it to work in a way that benefits the current Big Utility providers. The real solution is probably portability. One reason why there was a computer revolution is that we get to own a fully functioning computer. We don't dial up to the mainframe that General Electric owns and hope for a few minutes a day, probably at 20 dollars a minute. (Related: profile on three up and coming nanosolar companies and this RU Sirius interview with the Worldchanging editor who talks about how micro turbines are big in Britain.)

BUNCH O LINKS

In 1953, in a toast before the New York Press Club, John Swinton, former Chief of Staff of the New York Times and the "Dean of his Profession" stated: (part extracted)

"If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of journalists is to destroy the truth; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell this country and this race for their daily bread. We are the tools and vessels for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

Old Fletcher Prouty Interview ("The question is why...who benefits?")(And Prouty debunking...still think JFK is a good film.)
Live Esthero concert and Res (both produced by Doc and I can hear it.) vid downloads.
If you're not planning to draft anybody, why prepare for one?
Walmart vs. Costco (Why isn't Democratic Allegheny County full of Costcos? They pay decent wages and they support Democratic Party candidates...)
Unbossed Story About Corporations Leaving the Country Because of Expensive Health Care
Earlier I linked to a publisher who was sentenced to one year in jail for carrying a small amount of marijuana. Here's the link to the online journal that he publishes.
Bush Stem Cell Policy Is Killing Specter, literally. (Who did Arlen vote for in 2004? Would have liked to have been in that booth...)
Abortion Might Not Revert To States. Could Become a Fed matter. In that case your pro life senator might make a difference..

More News About the Minor Theft of the Presidential Election

Item: I'm the only Pittsburgh blogger reporter (for my online magazine journalmalism) who covers the apparently minor story of how the Ohio election was stolen. Here are some highlights from the direct testimony of Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips. Keep in mind that your official "opposition" party is not one to complain much about this. Look, if you're thinking about a change to the Greens, now is the time to do it. As I have stated before in the comments section, the Greens should target 5 senate seats and 25 house seats. They don't have to win everything. They just have to take the majorities away from the Republicans. One of those 5 seats should be Pennsylvania if Pennacchio or like-minded Democrat isn't nominated for the US Senate seat. (In theory, you wouldn't go after pick up opportunities for Dems but run a populist campaign in GOP strongholds. Afterall, the DLC democrats have never tried this. Would cost $30 million tops. More later on the 5/25 idea.)

Take it away Doc Phillips:

In the City of Columbus, discriminatory allocation of voting machines led directly to lower turnout in Democratic precincts. Urban Democratic precincts had too few voting machines and long lines; suburban Republican precincts had enough voting machines and short lines; 122 voting machines were not provided to any polling station anywhere. As a result, voter turnout was 60% in Bush precincts, and 50% in Kerry precincts. This wrongly reduced Kerry’s margin of victory in Franklin County by about 17,000 votes.

In Lucas County, other means of voter suppression led directly to lower voter turnout in Democratic precincts. The 88 precincts with the lowest turnout were all in Toledo; all were won by John Kerry; and complaints were filed in 31 of these precincts. Among the complaints were: long-time residents removed from the voting rolls, broken voting machines, polling stations running out of ballots and turning people away, voters sent back and forth between polling places, and long lines not designated by precinct so that voters waited in the wrong line. One-third of provisional ballots were not counted, often because people voted at the wrong table in the right polling place.

Statewide, there were 35,000 provisional ballots and over 92,000 regular ballots that were not counted as votes for president. These uncounted ballots, most of them punch cards, are highly concentrated in precincts that voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry, by margins of 12 to 1 in Cleveland, 7 to 1 in Dayton, 5 to 1 in Cincinnati, 4.5 to 1 in Akron, 3 to 1 in Lorain County, 2.7 to 1 in Stark County, and 2.3 to 1 in Trumbull County. This cries out for an examination of the uncounted ballots and the machines that failed to count them.

...In Miami County, after 100% of the precincts had reported, more than 18,000 votes were added to the totals. The vote percentages for Bush and Kerry remained the same, and the final margin for Bush was 16,000 votes exactly, almost as if the tabulators were programmed to turn out that way. This resulted in voter turnout as high as 98.55% in one precinct, where a door-to-door canvass of voters identified more than enough non-voters to prove that the certified results are fraudulent.

Three counties in southwestern Ohio – Butler, Clermont and Warren – provided Bush with a combined plurality greater than his statewide margin of victory. These results, when examined at the precinct level, are almost impossible to explain. In Butler County, there were 12 precincts where, compared to 2000, voter registration increased by 34% to 178%, and entire townships where Kerry received fewer votes than Gore, despite large increases in voter turnout. In Clermont County there were 24 such precincts where Kerry received fewer votes than Gore. In Warren County there were six entire townships where voter registration increased by 28% to 79%. In all three counties, Kerry received fewer votes than Ellen Connally, a little-known, underfunded African-American municipal judge from Cleveland, running for Chief Justice. There must have been at least 13,500 voters who supported both Connally and Bush, or else the certified results are fraudulent. In these three counties, and in Delaware County as well, Bush received more votes than Issue One, the constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. There must have been at least 10,500 supporters of gay marriage who voted for Bush, or else the certified results are fraudulent. A comparison of these counties with the voting patterns statewide indicates that as many as 50,000 votes may have been shifted from Kerry to Bush, thus affecting the margin by 100,000 votes.

These accounts of voter suppression, ballots cast but not counted, and alteration of the vote count, were sufficient to reverse the outcome of the presidential election. It is my professional opinion, having exhaustively examined the available evidence, that the 2004 presidential election was stolen.

Stunning stunning stuff.

Intense V for Vendetta movie poster (shot in London ironically enough)

Respect MP George Galloway says: "We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings."

First, I agree with George Galloway. (His full statement is even better.) And I do not think they have forgotten about the United States. I think they have something special planned for us. And who could blame them? We have murdered up to 100000 Iraqis for their oil...what did we expect? Roses? Love songs?

Here are the most extensive updates about the London bombings here, here and here.

Some Kewl Frank Zappa Music Links

Speaking of Frank Zappa:

Item: I found two Frank Zappa links while I was exploring the Internets the other day. I highly recommend Sleep Dirt and all of those fusiony George Duke tunes here. I think this album is out of print so this is your best shot.

Journal of small time nonviolent offender's 1 year jail sentence

Item: Here are two very depressing stories from GNN. One is a very skeptical take on the G8 and the other is from a guy who's been sentenced to one year in prison--with a very small amount of both marijuana and ecstasy (less than a quarter of an ounce and about 12 pills...what a threat to society)--where he will write what I suspect will be a dark tale. He's the editor and publisher of Newtopia, which is billed as a journal of the new counterculture. I can't believe that 1 year is a sentence for a first time offender. I wonder if he has a record or if he purposely accepted the sentence for what could be a great story.

Here's a depressing bit...:

And most people end up thinking, “Isn’t it wonderful of our government to try and protect us.”

But within this simple world is another more complex world. It is a world where everyone is addicted in one way or another and the profits from their addictions fuel the economy. A world where lethal drugs like alcohol, tobacco, Vioxx, and Oxycontin are legal and readily available, while relatively harmless drugs like marijuana, psilocybin, and MDMA are designated dangerous and highly addictive, without any tangible health benefits, and marginalized into a dangerous illicit market. It is a world where, in some neighborhoods, the police protect and serve while in others they are the threat and the enemy. It is a world where the rich go unpunished, and the poor go to prison.

And what may be even more shocking is that it has become progressively more serious to have been caught with drugs than to kill someone. In his 1999 Progressive Populist essay, “The Prison-Industrial Complex,” UNLV Criminal Justice professor Richard Shelden cites that between 1980 and 1992 the average maximum sentence in federal courts declined for violent crimes (from 125 months to 88 months) and almost doubled for drug offenses (from 47 months to 82 months).

This is the hidden world that no one has to see or think about except those on the inside.

Happy 4th and Resist!

Lyrics from Frank Zappa's "Hungry Freaks"

Mr. America, walk on by your schools that do not teach
Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won’t be reached
Mr. America try to hide the emptiness that’s you inside
But once you find that the way you lied
And all the corny tricks you tried
Will not forestall the rising tide of hungry freaks daddy!

They won’t go on four no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren’t afraid to say what’s on their minds
The left behinds of the great society

Hungry freaks, daddy!

Mr. America, walk on by your supermarket dream
Mr. America, walk on by the liquor store supreme
Mr. America try to hide the product of your savage pride
The useful minds that it denied
The day you shrugged and stepped aside
You saw their clothes, and then you cried,
Those hungry freaks, daddy!

They won’t go on four no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren’t afraid to say what’s on their minds
The left behinds of the great society

Speaking of Iraq...

Just a reminder that we're responsible for all this terrible terrible blood. Go USA.

Finally Saw Batman Movie...

Finally saw the Batman movie. I give it a B-. I didn't even think it was as good as the first Tim Burton film. You just can't beat the Jack Nicholson Joker. Much better than the other Batman films no doubt. It does take a serious approach to the hero myth. It takes much of its feel from Batman: Year One. I also like the science behind the film. The science behind superheroes, from the Incredible Hulk to the biotech savvy vampires in Blade to the fusion experiments of Spiderman, has gotten way beyond the cosmic rays and radiation of the Stan Lee 60s. There isn't much that Batman does that isn't plausible. In fact, in the imaginary novel in my head, you could do a lot of that with remote droids. I just wish that they had taken a Sin City approach and brought the creators on board. Bring Alan Moore and Frank Miller to the sets why don't you. And of course, we have never had anything as good as, say, Kingdom Come or the Miller Dark Knights make it to the screens. Ah well. Bring on the Fantastic Four, which looks slightly weak...how could it be better than the Incredibles? I'm also looking forward to the movie treatments of Astro City and Invincible--which has a shocking premise which involves a Krypton-like world doing to us what we're doing to Iraq.

Mornin' Edition of Around the Internets

Still haven't seen Batman yet. Sigh.

AROUND THE INTERNETS

• Philip Carter, apparently a reservist, has been called to active duty. This is one of the few pro-war vets that I respect because he sincerely cares about the plight of the American soldier no matter the many giddy and optimistic pronouncements declared by the Bush Administration. Of course, I'm sure that his criticism of the war has nothing to do with his being called up and probably being sent to the Russian Front front lines. Who would imply that the Bush administration is mean-spirited and vengeful? Nothing to do at all I'm sure.

• Update: I added this low key comment to his site. There's a bit of contrast with the boosters. I don't think it would be banned. Afterall, we kinda know Philip Carter isn't a pussy.

First, watch your back.

Second, I do not congratulate you because I do not think you'll be murdering Iraqis for a good cause. For the record, I wouldn't wish a German soldier good luck in Poland or France, either.

Third, I have the greatest respect for your courage. Here's somebody who walks the walk and talks the talk. You're smart enough to be a conscientious objector, or even to make some other nuanced claim, but you didn't. In a fair world, the Patrick Ruffinis and Instapundits and Pejmanpundits would go in your place...

Four: I have to say this out loud: Do you think your critiques against the war led to you being called up?

Philip Shropshire
www.threeriversonline.com

6.27.2005 4:18am

• There's an exciting new media project called Independent World Television. It's an attempt to create a publicly funded new media movement. Check out the very good 15 minute video about their origins. Features the wide array of alt journalism heroes: My fantasy girlfriend and love Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Robert McChesney and others. Watch the whole thing.

• I wish Ralph Nader would get out of reactionary and harmful politics and join this media project. Check out his thoughtful piece (always maintained that Nader is world's greatest journalist) on the common sense proposal to legalize hemp. Go to www.votehemp.com for more info. We could replace tobacco with a crop that's potentially both profitable and beneficial.

• New Environmental Link: www.treehugger.com

• ACLU takes up the pro science agenda.

• Science as Art. Beautiful stuff.

• Debate about mundane science-fiction.

• Like the new "Bleed Like Me" Tune from Garbage

• For those of us who watched Tech TV and then watched it get raped by that dopey brain dead gaming channel that bought it, the old guys who had a clue have their own online podcast called TWIT. or This Week in Tech.
  They read books. They know history. They even bring back John Dvorak, who used to have a radical show, even featured a cute female socialist. It felt more like ABC's old Bill Maher show. Of course they changed it around and cancelled it even before those game show morons got into the act. (Needs editing and insider tech jargon demanding but go for it Leo...)

• Did you know there was a peak oil blog?

• Incredible Live Music Site (Wax Poetic, Zero 7, all kinds of interesting stuff, 40 minute live concerts...)

• Older but interesting story about Russian stem cell research. It's the new frontier. Thanks Ales Rarus.

Here's more on the same topic. I was always under the impression that if you knew more about embryonic stem cells then you would better understand adult stem cells. It's not either/or, it's complimentary. Fight Aging has my back:

You folks may find this of interest: a long MSNBC interview with biologist James Thompson on topics relating to stem cell research. Some of the more interesting items:

Q: How do you respond to the claim that we have these other sources of stem cells — adult stem cells or cord blood — and there's no need to turn to embryonic cells?

A: We don't. The most studied cell in the whole body, in terms of stem cells, is the hematopoietic stem cell. It can't be grown. So what you do when you do a bone marrow transplant is you take some bone marrow out of you - actually, we do peripheral blood - and we put in another patient without expanding it. There's a clinical need for that expansion step, but it can't be done right now. And hundreds of labs for 30 years have studied that adult stem cell, and that’s the one we know the most about.

...

And again, getting back to the basic science thing: If we study the embryonic stem cells, we learn the basic science. That knowledge is just as likely to be applied to adult stem cells as to the embryonic stem cells. The knowledge goes back and forth. And in the case of the blood, people have failed at growing that cell for three decades. Well, studying that lineage with embryonic stem cells, we might learn the clues to make it growable, and it might be that we still want to use adult stem cells to do that because there are a lot of advantages to that, but the knowledge might come from embryonic stem cells.

Stem cell research really all boils down to a matter of trying to fully understanding and controlling our cells. If researchers can learn to do that, then opportunities to develop cures for aspects of degenerative aging simply fall out of the process.

You Are On The Global Frequency

YOU ARE ON THE GLOBAL FREQUENCY

Warner Brothers never released this pilot for the "Global Frequency", written by Warren Ellis, one of the annoyingly gifted writers who makes up the Brit Invasion. Over the last several days the pilot appeared on the Internets, as a bittorrent link. Warren says he has nothing to do with it and hasn't even seen the pilot. Right, coming from a guy who is Aleph. Of course, I'm not sure of the legality of downloading the pilot, so I walked over to a drug dealer's house--where I believe he was consorting with terrorists, spam kings, nigerian fraudsters and diebold technicians--and I watched it there. What can I say: he has no regard for the law. That would certainly explain why its on my computer, if it were (Jaco gave me free cocaine and a cd)... It's way better than Alias, on par with La Femme Nikita, feels a lot like X-Files but not near the best episodes, although that could change if the series had time to grow. Or if Warner Brothers would air it. Starts off with Radiohead's "There There" which I like a lot. Steals moves and scenes from Bladerunner, the Matrix and the aforementioned X-Files. Michele Forbes is great as Mirando Zero as she's a complete badass here (as opposed to a bureaucrat with a gun in the comics) and could hang out with Neo and the gang. She certainly dresses like them. Her fight scenes were really good. It should have been picked up, although I get the strong vibe that its topic matter (a rogue NSA agent who does stuff and creates hidden detention centers) might have been what scared the Warner Brothers suits. Remember when Max Headroom ran that political episode where everything kind of got done on television and the machines were never checked and then that show got cancelled...?

There is also a nice Future Shock science fictional vibe about a show that centers around a seemingly unstoppable global network who sticks it to the man while saving lives being distributed by seemingly unstoppable global protocol that sticks it to the man and tells me about a really good show. Karmic. If they can figure out how not to spend 1 million an episode we could see the Global Frequency online no matter what the suits say. Can you imagine an uncensored Warren Ellis television script? Good lord. This could be the future of televised distribution. You combine that with Open Media...They need some televised version of google ads and it could probably fund itself.

We are all on the global frequency and its very cool.

Impressed with Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days"

I really was impressed with Morgan "Supersize Me" Spurlock's new "30 Days" show, where the first episode featured him and his wife attempting to live on minimum wage for a whole month. Of course, people like Morgan and Barbara and that woman from Australia get to go back to their upper middle class lives after their stunt slumming. Couple of observations:

• These conditions, which I have lived under for more than 30 days I assure you, makes you much more sympathetic to the criminal element. The United States makes you feel like a sucker for playing by the rules. You just don’t get ahead. When I went over to the website I checked out the message boards where we find our usual right wing assholes, one of whom said that it made the United States look like a Third World country…and of course, for a lot of people, it is a third world country. We have playstations and cable but apart from that a lot of us are a bad accident or two away from the streets. I wish Morgan and his wife would do the same thing in France. They would live better on unemployment than most working Americans. American elites gnash their teeth at the working classes getting a decent standard of living. It’s the real reason they hate France.

• The emergency room scenes hit home for me. I don’t have health insurance. I made two emergency room visits over the last 13 years. I saw a doctor, both visits combined, for about 30 minutes. I came away with bills totaling $900. On the show, they’re treated for a sprained wrist and a urinary tract infection (had to embarrassing for the wife) and it costs them two emergency room visits at a price of $1200, which totally blew them out of their monthly budget.

• It answers the question as to why poor folks shop at Wal Mart. You can’t afford not to. I shop at union shop Giant Eagle a lot, but I can spend $40 at Wal Mart and live off of that for two weeks. Actually, I could do all of my shopping at Giant Eagle if they offered two things: 5 pounds of chicken breasts for $4.00 and $4.00 whole chickens. Must eat meat.

• I'm looking forward to upcoming episodes, especially the off the grid show.

Chuck P's Campaign Responds

Update: Chuck P's campaign responds. He gives us the scoop on why Tim left the campaign and answers some other question. I'm too poor to knock on 10000 doors on a volunteer basis! But I did offer to hand out 1000 flyers if he sends me the flyers. Here's Chuck's campaign spokesperson John Morgan:

Phil,

Thanks for the vote. The MoveOn PAC poll is getting us some great
coverage. Just a few things. Howard Dean didn't raise money for Casey, to
my knowledge. My recollection is that fundraiser was for the Party. Jim
Dean has been spoken with Chuck several times and DFA has not endorsed or
supported any candidate thus far. They are awaiting feedback from the
individual DFA groups in Pennsylvania. This is appropriate since DFA is a
grassroots organization.

Tim went to Ohio because of a fantastic offer. I told him he'd be
crazy not to accept it. His passion is organizing and this opportunity is
one he'll love. He continues to provide advice and assistance to our
campaign. We miss him but we have two new volunteer staffers doing IT and
media relations. No one on our staff is drawing a salary. We're all
working as volunteers so we can prioritize our funds on the most important
needs. Right now canvassing isn't one of them. We're putting together
voter reg databases first.

We appreciate your support and interest. We are busy attending
events, organizing, and getting more media coverage. Last Wednesday the
Harrisburg Patriot News did a feature on Chuck. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette
responded to the press challenge favorably and is now mentioning Chuck in
their articles. KDKA radio also contacted us. The Philadelphia Inquirer is
giving us regular coverage.

We'd like to make another trip to the Pittsburgh area soon. Chuck and
I were discussing dates for it this week. We'll let you know as soon as
things are finalized.

John Morgan

Concerns With the Pennacchio Campaign

This is a must read for Chuck Pennacchio and serious Democrats who want to take back both chambers of the Senate and the House.

I must also say that I'm worried about Chuck Pennacchio's campaign. I think, and this is just a gut feeling that I truly hope is wrong, he just hasn't raised enough money to wage a credible campaign. Back when he came here to Pittsburgh in April I asked him, persistently, how much money has latest money raising effort had yielded and I believe he said $25000. Based on my same hunches--a facility that fails me miserably with women by the way, almost all the time actually--I don't think he had more than $25000 previously. So I don't believe he's been able to raise more than $50000. To put this in perspective, I believe Peduto was able to raise about several hundred thousand dollars and that was just for a city race.

Now, it is early and a lot of those indy Kos/Atrios givers (I may write a plea for the Kossacks to get involved in this race) might not be focused yet. But consider what Chuck P. is up against. He is opposed by the Rendell machine*. Labor backs Casey (wonder how Casey will vote when we need opposition to the inevitable pro life anti-labor judges that Bush will nominate. I think I already know...does labor?) Dean has already said nice things about a Casey run and I believe has even raised money for him. Of course, now that Dean is against you what hope do you have that his previously independent fundraising arm (run now by Jim Dean) would throw money his way. Even Teresa Heinz Kerry, our last best hope, is backing the Pro Lifer Casey Jr., while she makes arguments against Santorum's refusal to recognize church/state divisions.

I also don't think his idea of getting the corporate press to play along is a good one. That's why they're the corporate press. They don't give poor candidates free pub. I already told him the Courier is run by a Republican. I think he has to go directly to voters. For Chuck P to win he has to roll up big majorities in Pittsburgh, Philly and probably Erie. I've offered to knock on 10000 doors a month and deliver flyers and volunteers. If it worked and his polling improved, he should repeat the plan in Philly and Erie. My whopping price range would be $1200 to $2000 a month. I was told by the campaign manager (Tim Tagaris has left, and I'm guessing, probably because of money.) that they didn't have the money for that. If they don't have the money for that then they don't have the money to win. Its the cheapest why I can think of to directly contact voters. ACT's methods worked. They could work for Chuck P. It would take $10000 to find out.

By the way, as an idea for Chuck P. on the money front, if he has a donor list of 10000 names, he should take the list to Direct Advantage Marketing, which has one of the best political phonebanks in the country. He might also, and this is just a wild idea, consider going back to pro choice groups (understandably angry about Casey Jr. and who can blame them?) and ask them for their phone lists--if they're available. I'm thinking NOW and/or NARAL.

And if Chuck P. can't pull it off we need to start looking for other candidates to step up. I hope I'm wrong about Casey Jr. but he is the wrong candidate at the wrong time. The stakes are too high to vote in some guy who will probably vote the wrong way on anti-choice judges and a possible draft. Let's put it this way: if the Democratic Party candidate nominates Casey Jr. I will take a look at the Green Party's senatorial candidate. What would I have to lose? Update: MoveOn is asking members to make a primary choice in the Pennsylvania primary. I voted for Chuck P.

Around the Internets: Voter Verification Lobbying Last Weekend

AROUND THE INTERNETS

Last week Kathy Dopp informed us that the voter verification bill (HR 550) that she supports is sponsored by US Rep. Rush Holt. There was a two day lobbying session last weekend where a number of concerned citizens lobbied congressional members on behalf of auditable elections. Holt had this to say:

"These people came to Washington on their own -- on their own time, at their own expense -- not to lobby for a special interest but for democracy itself. This is a strong movement across the country, representing a deeply felt commitment to America's democratic promise.

"Anything of value should be auditable. We have been presented by the founders of this country with a self-correcting governmental system. And it works as a self- correcting system because citizens like these make the effort, make the commitment -- in some cases the sacrifice -- to see that it works, to see that we correct the errors as we find them and improve on our record over the years.

"There are many things we can do together as a country-there are opportunities to be extended, injustices to be corrected, efficiencies to be gained...but none of those can be accomplished well if Americans don't believe they are in the drivers seat by being able to control their government by casting votes that count and are counted. That's what this movement for auditable elections is all about."

You can learn more about the lobbying effort, here, here and here. I'm not sure what the Pennsylvania congressional delegation thinks. I know that there's very little going on at the state level in Pennsylvania.
Related: EFF's Guide to Legal Blogging
New Naomi Klein or How We Kill Democracy and Self Determination Abroad
"When I kill one I create three." Could you try not killing any Iraqis...I know, sounds crazy...

New Edition of Phil's Online MUsic Vid Bazaar

That's jazz rock hero John McLaughlin.

PHIL'S ONLINE MUSIC EMPORIUM

Today's Interspersed Theme: Girl with the Beautiful Tone

Esthero "That Girl" (only vid I could find)

Mahavishnu Orchestra Covers by Gregg Bendian's Mahavishnu Project
Try "You Know You Know" and "Meeting of the Spirits" (Real Actual Jazz Rock That's Downloadable!)
Massive Attack's "Protection", featuring Everything But the Girl vocalist
Only Goldfrapp tune I like "Pilots"
Try All The Superior Koop Vids but "Summer Sun" makes you want to live, even if they have stolen your vote.
Trail of Dead's "Caterwaul" (rips off Led Zep's "Black Dog" but in a good way...)
NERD's "Maybe"
Portishead's "Glory Box"
Terranova's "Chase the Blues Away"
Eighty Mile Beach's "Red Helicopters" (need more clarinet in acid jazz)
Zero 7 "Destiny Live"
And I Gotta Have More Cowbell! "Little Sister"
Broadcast's "Papercuts" (I am amazed by this band.)

Dopp sez Unaudited Elections Probably Fraudulent. Have Nice Day.

(Kathy Dopp of US Count Votes)

Imagine, if you will, a country that hadn't audited its elections in decades. Imagine that one party (the Republicans) owned 80 percent of the voting machines. Imagine, aside from outright theft in 2000 and probable theft in 2004, that there have been suspicious down ticket results since 1996 affecting a number of senate seats including Max Cleland's improbable loss. Imagine that there were voting irregularities in over a dozen states including Pennsylvania. Imagine an opposition party that doesn't make this issue its number one priority. And, try, if you can, to imagine how you can change a country--caught in a transparently evil imperialist war, with corrupt liars at the highest levels, and where the courts offer no sanctuary for justice and fair hearing--with a vote that you can no longer trust?

Imagine no more if you live in the United States. Welcome to your nightmarish Kafkaesque reality. Scary scary stuff as SCTV's Count Floyd used to say....

Or at least that's the primary message I got from Kathy Dopp's talk Monday night in Oakland at St. Andrews Lutheran Church. Ms. Dopp runs the site US Count Votes. Her speech came mostly from this Powerpoint slide presentation that you can take a look at here.

Here were the horrific scary scary highlights:

• Insider "vote embezzlers" (her catchy phrase) have had free reign to count our votes with proprietary software and no audits.

• Her group claims there has been evidence of vote tampering in up to 12 states, including Pennsylvania.

• Dopp said Hillary Clinton's vote verification bill sucked (not her exact words) and that she instead backs Rep. Rush Holt's bill, "Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005"...Barbara Boxer for President 2008.

• Local CMU Prof. Mike Shamos is a major player for the Dark Side as he argues that it's okay if unaccountable paperless systems produce false results. The fact that he works at an institution tied to military contracts makes you feel even safer.

• The Ukraine vote was overturned with a difference of 2 percent in the exit polling while ours was 5 percent, although as someone in the 20 plus crowd noted the overturned results in the Ukraine wouldn't have happened without 500 thousand angry folks taking to the streets...of course, I don't think that would have worked here knowing the players, but it would have been nice to have found out...

• Without the vote, nothing else matters.

There's more depressing stuff and keep in mind these folks aren't lightweights, either on the board or the ones doing their stats--unless folks that have PH Ds are lightweights....

I found her solutions to be the most interesting and the thing keeping me from throwing myself off a bridge (not that I would ever do that for you Richard Scaife black ops guys out there ha ha...just a figure of speech. Still not a partaker of the drugs or the drink, or suicidal in any way.).

Their plan is to raise money and create their own independent auditing database by 2006. I wish George Soros would give them the $1 million they need to do the work and also follow the Daily Kos suggestion to start selling auditable machines. (I need a grant too George since wishes are fishes...)Once that's in place--and it would be vast, over 30000 precincts covered--you could take the data to the courts. Her only request is that candidates (cough Kerry cough) not concede before the vote has been challenged and verified.

Of course, and you can probably see this, you would have to trust the courts to be fair and impartial, which they're not. You have to give it to the Republicans: they fought for the courts. Clinton and the Democrats didn't think it was a big deal, or worth fighting for. Had to appease those same business interests that vote Republican anyway. I still hope Dopp is successful and I hope my idea (I raised my hand. Remember: I'm not an objective corporate media journalist. It matters to me if my vote doesn't count. I can't move offworld when the fundies come to "save" me.) about creating open sourced exit polling also takes off. The guys who did the polling in 2004 won't make their results public. She said that would need a million too.

She also waffled a bit when I asked her why the Democrats don't make this their primary issue. She kind of danced around that issue all night long, thanking the Greens, noting that Edwards would have pursued the recount but...Anyway, I wish the Dems would not only campaign on Delay corruption but the corruption of the voting process. Its a winner as an issue. It forces the Republicans, who are offering us a very dark and suspicious silence (If you had won legitimately wouldn't you want to remove doubt?) on this issue, on the defensive. Gawd knows if the issues were reversed that would be the continuous GOP meme and rightfully so. I just can't shake that Washington Generals Party meme, the other less ruthless business party that also caters to the Republican Iron triangle + theocrats base that never fights for principle (The dems lose two national elections and they can't make ballot integrity an issue and I raised my hand for that one too...) and seems designed to lose...Scary scary stuff.

AROUND THE INTERNETS

AROUND THE INTERNETS

Ales Rarus gives us the slanted dogmatic view of the stem cell issue. Chris Mooney, open minded and subjected to bouts of rigorous reason, gives us his take here and here. Advantage: Mooney, even though when I was still arguing with Ales (I didn't realize that he simply ignores evidence he doesn't like) I did make a suggestion that chosen people like himself carry these potentials to term, if you wanted another brain damaged kid who thought Pat Robertson was a swell guy brought into Earth.. The Funky one passed on the offer.

On a related note, join this campaign. And also from Mooney: The US is losing ground. Thanks Funky. Where were you when the US was creating the computer software and hardware industry? Nowhere to be found? Thank God you weren't...Also related: Pennacchio speaks out in favor of stem cell research. Of course, according to this Post Gazette article, frontrunner Bob Casey Jr. shares Rick Santorum's position. Let's put that in caps: BOB CASEY SHARES RICK SANTORUM'S POSITION. Why should I vote Democratic again...okay, one two three arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh...!

More links:

• Nice Worldchanging Update on Solar Cells. Quick aside: if we had invested 10 billion in alt fuels, used CAFE standards and made a solid commitment to conservation, then you wouldn't have to kill any brown people for oil. Just throwin' it out there...

• Related: Counter Recruitment Net and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group again works to slow down local recruitment efforts. Indy Media related: very depressing story about public transit.

• Aeon Flux slideshow.