Despotism

Although made in 1946, this film by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films is as timely today as ever. As in, this picture is a chilling prophesy of the mockery the Conservative Republican Corporate Oligarchy has made of America's democratic ideals.

Measures how a society ranks on a spectrum stretching from democracy to despotism. Explains how societies and nations can be measured by the degree that power is concentrated and respect for the individual is restricted. Where does your community, state and nation stand on these scales?

We're in a tight spot!

5:16:44 PM     leave/read comments []

I don't think it's quite fair, tho'.

Cicadas are smarter than that.

4:13:08 PM     leave/read comments []

Morrisey's New Video!

Yep, Moz is back and better than ever! He's lookin' and soundin' fabulous!

NME sez:

As unexpected and as welcome as an old friend arriving on your doorstep with his own inflatable may be, this single is the first opportunity, for those of us whose pop-buying lifespan has been totally post-Smiths, to experience the thrill of new material from a Morrissey at the very top of his creative game. 'Irish Blood, English Heart' went straight into the UK charts at Number Three this week...

7:12:21 PM    

The Jesus Landing Pad. Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move. [The Village voice]

That's right folks- U.S. Middle East policy is being driven by a cult of fanatic lunatics hell-bent on the eventual apocalyptic destruction of Israel and the Jews.

It was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level"[~]this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.

Of course, mainstream Christians are as appalled as anyone (how could they not?):

Don Wagner, an evangelical, worries that in the Republican Party, people who believe this "are dominating the discourse now, in an election year." He calls the attempt to yoke Scripture to current events "a modern heresy, with cultish proportions.

"I mean, it's appalling," he rails on. "And it also shows how marginalized mainstream Christian thinking, and the majority of evangelical thought, have become."

It demonstrates, he says, "the absolute convergence of the neoconservatives with the Christian Zionists and the pro-Israel lobby, driving U.S. Mideast policy."

1:49:38 PM    

I'm SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I tell you! Shocked!

A quarter of those in their 20s spend an average of £59 a month on cigarettes, the equivalent of smoking 10 cigarettes a day.

"A live-for-today mentality is preventing many young people from building up a savings nest egg," said Matt Grayson, spokesman for Birmingham Midshires.

Who needs to save when you've got all those cigs and socialized medicine?

11:56:49 AM     leave/read comments []

"Which Random Irish Gaelic Phrase Are You? "

Bloody right.

7:43:29 PM     leave/read comments []

Let's look at today's headlines, shall we?

Bomb kills head of Iraq governing council

U.S. may move troops from S. Korea to Iraq

Moore's 9/11 movie riles Cannes audiences

Bomb containing sarin nerve agent explodes in Iraq

Bush renews call to ban gay marriage

Because Gay Marriage was the biggest threat to America today, right?

7:29:58 PM     leave/read comments []

Really, I don't think folks could be more galvanized at this point. But hey, we need all the help we can get to remove those evildoers from the White House.

Be sure to stop by Michael Moore's website.

2:48:54 PM     leave/read comments []

BoingBoing weighs in on the Berg Video:

Decapitation video discrepancies. I don't know what to make of this. It's a very well-researched, non-hysterical collection of 50 seeming contradictions in the Berg decapitation video. The author states that a number of these will likely be explained away, but taken as a whole, this very convincingly implies that Berg was not killed by the terrorists that the CIA fingered, and may, in fact, have been killed by westerners.

34) "Terrorists" were fat
Several of the men in the film were fat by Iraqi standards. If they were Feyadeen or Mujahadeen, they probably have been living underground since the first days of the occupation. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been shown on news stories as they have marched and demonstrated. One would be hard pressed to point out a single fat man among these thousands.

35) White hands of "terrorists"
Some of the "Arab terrorists" have pasty-white hands and (other exposed) skin. One would be hard pressed to find Arab men with pasty-white hands. (See: Nick Berg Conspiracy Theories Abound.)

36) Wrong accent
Al-Zarqawi is/was Jordinian. Arab linguists have said the man posing as Al-Zarqawi did not speak with a Jordanian dialect. Others have suggested the man reading the written statement may not have been a native speaker of Arabic....

39) Al-Zarqawi's missing leg
Al-Zarqawi was missing one leg. Al-Zarqawi allegedly wears a prosthetic device, according to previous CIA reports. (See: IHT Protrait of Al-Zarqawi.) There is no evidence that the killer wore a prosthetic device. Further, Al-Zarqawi had been outfitted with an artificial leg that did not fit or function properly. He was unable to walk or stand normally. No man in the group showed evidence of such infirmity.

40) Missing tattoos?
Large green tattooed "dots" are known to be on the back of Abu Musab Zarqawi's left hand. These tattoos cannot be seen in the close up video of the execution, though the back of his hand is fairly visible. (See: IHT Protrait of Al-Zarqawi.)

Link

(via Nelson) [Boing Boing]

Also, Al-Jazeera reported that bloggers believe that Berg was already dead at the time of the video.

And if you've seen the actual video, as I have, it makes sense for a number of reasons- one, the sound of the scream is not synched with the picture; two, when they hack into his neck there should have been a steady stream of bright red arterial blood, instead, we get a small amount of dark, de-oxygenated blood, that slowly drips from the severed head and neck wounds; third, unlike the popular image of a guillotine beheading, this is more an act of inept butchery- Berg's head is hacked off with a long knife from both sides of his neck- during this unspeakable act of violence, Berg's body is utterly still- the are no involuntary spasms of the body and if he was still alive, there most surely would have been, even if he'd been heavily sedated.

Something is fishy, and I suspect that we're seeing the desecration of a corpse, but the final, sad and irreducible fact is that the poor man was murdered. By whom, that apparently remains to be seen.

You may view the video at Salon (not a direct link to video)

English translation of the Al-Jazeera story (thanks to Julie Beth)

1:31:25 PM     leave/read comments []

With Trembling Fingers Despite the worst foreign policy blunder in American history, George W. Bush and his millionaire supporters don't know the meaning of the word shame.

Perhaps the most powerful indictment of the criminals currently in power that I've yet read. Forceful, reasoned and righteous.

I don't think it's accurate to describe America as polarized between Democrats and Republicans, or between liberals and conservatives. It's polarized between the people who believe George Bush and the people who do not. Thanks to some contested ballots in a state governed by the president's brother, a once-proud country has been delivered into the hands of liars, thugs, bullies, fanatics and thieves. The world pities or despises us, even as it fears us. What this election will test is the power of money and media to fool us, to obscure the truth and alter the obvious, to hide a great crime against the public trust under a blood-soaked flag. The most lavishly funded, most cynical, most sophisticated political campaign in human history will be out trolling for fools. I pray to God it doesn't catch you.

1:02:41 PM    

The Bush mAdministration: most evil in US history?

Early this year, when Padilla's case was pending before the Supreme Court, the Department of Defense finally allowed Newman and her co-counsel, Andrew Patel, to meet with Padilla -- largely as window dressing for the Supreme Court, and even then only with a Department of Defense lawyer in the room and a video camera running.

Among the conditions the Department of Defense imposed on the meeting: "We were prohibited from asking him about the conditions of his confinement," Patel says.

By barring Padilla's lawyers from asking about the conditions of his confinement, the Department of Defense prevented them from gathering information they might need to protect him. By failing to inform the Supreme Court about the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the interrogation policies the administration has adopted, the Justice Department -- inadvertently or intentionally -- prevented the justices from possessing information highly relevant to the question of just how much they should trust the administration.

In the words of the Bush administration, none of that really matters. As Clement told the Supreme Court on April 28, "The fact that executive discretion in a war situation can be abused is not a good and sufficient reason for judicial micromanagement and overseeing of that authority."

12:23:43 PM    

I'm sure y'all know how I'm hoping things will turn out.

Already, the 2004 race has a number of factors that separate it from 2000. Not only is it likely to play out first and foremost as a referendum on the incumbent, with voters weighing how President Bush has performed on a set of key issues from the economy to Iraq. But the pull of national events also represents a far more potent force than usual - one that is largely out of either campaign's control, but seems likely to push public opinion sharply in one direction or the other, depending on how things unfold. "I happen to believe it's 1980," offers Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D) of Illinois. "[Kerry] is going to hang with this guy, the president, all the way through," he predicts. But in the end, "it's going to break open.

11:08:15 AM    

Massachusetts as gay wedding capital: the national effect. Recognition of same-sex marriages will create complications, as out-of-staters take licenses home. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

Is that the crest of a wave I see?

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples are expected to apply at Massachusetts's town and city halls for marriage licenses Monday, the first day any state has recognized same-sex marriage in US history.

Despite Republican Gov. Mitt Romney's insistence that a 1913 law prohibits gay residents of other states from marrying in Massachusetts, couples from California to New York will be among those exchanging vows - turning the state, overnight, into the de facto gay wedding chapel of a nation.

10:51:35 AM