If you want a good sample of what the world's press is saying about America, try Watching America. It gathers together articles from around the world and translates them for you. Stuff you probably won't read anywhere else. Very convenient. They're not saying very nice things about America these days, and there are a lot of opinions Americans need to hear. Another good site for different viewpoints is Asia Times.
Truly frightening article on various aspects of Vista.
Came across this long and highly detailed article, A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection, on the extent of copy protection in Vista, Microsoft's new version of Windows. It's very technical and I'm not sure I understand it all, but the parts I do are just unbelievable. If you're planning on upgrade, and you use your computer for playing music or videos or anything like that, you must check it out. The title says it's just a cost analysis but it's much more than that. Very well written by someone who clearly knows what he's talking about. For one thing he says the copy protection is so extensive that it will not only affect Windows users, but virtually everyone who uses almost any kind of system at all.
Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.
This document looks purely at the cost of the technical portions of Vista's content protection [Note B]. The political issues (under the heading of DRM) have been examined in exhaustive detail elsewhere and won't be commented on further, unless it's relevant to the cost analysis. However, one important point that must be kept in mind when reading this document is that in order to work, Vista's content protection must be able to violate the laws of physics, something that's unlikely to happen no matter how much the content industry wishes that it were possible [Note C]. This conundrum is displayed over and over again in the Windows content-protection requirements, with manufacturers being given no hard-and-fast guidelines but instead being instructed that they need to display as much dedication as possible to the party line. The documentation is peppered with sentences like:
“It is recommended that a graphics manufacturer go beyond the strict letter of the specification and provide additional content-protection features, because this demonstrates their strong intent to protect premium content”.
This is an exceedingly strange way to write technical specifications, but is dictated by the fact that what the spec is trying to achieve is fundamentally impossible. Readers should keep this requirement to display appropriate levels of dedication in mind when reading the following analysis. ....
And dig this part:
Vista includes various requirements for “robustness” in which the content industry, through “hardware robustness rules”, dictates design requirements to hardware manufacturers. The level of control the content producers have over technical design details is nothing short of amazing. As security researcher Ed Felten quoted from Microsoft documents on his freedom-to-tinker web site about a year ago:
“The evidence [of security] must be presented to Hollywood and other content owners, and they must agree that it provides the required level of security. Written proof from at least three of the major Hollywood studios is required”.
So if you design a new security system, you can't get it supported in Windows Vista until well-known computer security experts like MGM, 20th Century-Fox, and Disney give you the go-ahead (this gives a whole new meaning to the term “Mickey-Mouse security”). It's absolutely astonishing to find paragraphs like this in what are supposed to be Windows technical documents, since it gives Hollywood studios veto rights over Windows security mechanisms.
There's much, much more. I really can't believe this. You need permission from Hollywood studios to design a new driver or graphics card. The article seems to state, although I'm not really clear on this, that Vista won't even allow you to make backups at all, even of your own private material. That's inconceivable to me, but I think that's what they're doing.
Hershey's and M&M/Mars continue to engage in child slavery.
This post in Undernews states that global corporations, in particular Hershey's and M&M/Mars are continuing to engage in extensive child slavery in Africa and other places where they get their chocolate. And they repeatedly refuse to abide by agreements they have made to terminate the practice. And of course, the federal government, controlled by the greedy and corrupt lawyers who have taken over the Democratic and Republican parties, is refusing to enforce its laws. This would implicate corporations such as Starbucks, which use extensive amounts of chocolate. Think about that the next time you get a mocha. If you still have any doubts that the American people are just as vile and evil as the Nazis or any other people who have ever lived, this should dispel those. But of course it won't, because evil people aren't capable of understanding the nature of evil. What kind of people would enslave children? Americans, that's who.
TEX DWORKIN, GLOBAL EXCHANGE FAIR TRADE ONLINE STORE, TREE HUGGER - This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Hershey's kiss, and yet a celebration is hardly in order. Why? Because with each bite, we are reminded that most chocolate sold in the U.S. comes from cocoa farms where farmers work in unsafe conditions, receive below poverty wages, many of them children under 14 years old who are forced to work and denied education. . . The Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, providing 43% of the world's cocoa. And yet, in 2001 the U.S. State Department reported child slavery on many cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. A 2002 report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture about cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and other African countries estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in hazardous conditions. U.S. chocolate manufacturers have claimed they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations since they don't own them. . .
Hershey's and M&M/Mars alone control two-thirds of the $13 billion U.S. chocolate candy market. The result? An industry marred with child slavery, unsafe working conditions and a cycle of poverty with no end in sight for cocoa farmers. Chocolate companies are not held accountable for sourcing practices, and despite their knowledge about the travesties that occur on cocoa farms, they lack the will to change.
The U.S. chocolate industry has faced multiple deadlines requiring new protocol, and yet little has changed. Under pressure from Congress, in the Harken-Engel Protocol, the U.S. chocolate industry agreed to voluntarily take steps to end child slavery on cocoa farms by July of 2005. This deadline has since passed, and the chocolate industry has failed to comply with the terms of this agreement. . .
The devastating effect of the war on Iraqi children.
This account by an 11 year old Iraqi student really catches the impact that this war is having on the children there, and by extension the entire society.
BAGHDAD, 29 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - "I’m 11 years old and an only son. I’m a pupil at Mansour Primary School in Baghdad. Lately, I have been feeling very lonely in my class. This week, I was the only student in class because all my classmates didn’t come to school for various reasons.
“Since last September, three of my classmates have been kidnapped and two have been killed. One was murdered with his family at home and the other was a victim of a bomb explosion a month ago.
“The others have either fled to Jordan and Syria with their families or their relatives have prohibited them from coming to school for fear that something might happen to them.
“I live very close to my school. I can walk there in two minutes. My mother takes me there and picks me up every day. She prays all the way to school and all the way back and tells me not to be scared. She says that at least I’m studying and one day I can be an important man and leave Iraq forever.
''Since last September, three of my classmates have been kidnapped and two have been killed.''
“Every time something happens to a child from my school, the next day all classes are empty and they stay empty for at least a week. Families and teachers get scared and desperate.
“I remember one day when I was leaving school, four men pulled up in a car and kidnapped Khadija, one of my friends. She was only 10. I cried for days on end fearing she was going to be killed. Her parents sold their house and car to pay the ransom money and then she was released. But she was so weak that she had to be hospitalised for two weeks.
“Now she and her family are in Jordan. I miss her, but I know it is better for all of them.
“The only thing that makes me afraid is that if they kidnap me, I know I’ll be killed. My family has no money to pay a ransom. We don’t have a house, a car or any other goods to sell. So for sure I could be another victim of the terror that we live with but I have faith that God will protect me.
“Most of our teachers have left the school. I heard that some of them have travelled abroad and others stopped working for security reasons on the insistence of their families. I miss them all. I miss the days when we used to run in our school and go home on our own, not worried by the violence.
“This week, I asked my mum to keep me at home too because I was the only child in class but she insisted that I go to school. I’m scared but I have to obey my mother.
“We were 21 students and today I’m the only one in class.
“When people ask me if I have hopes that everything will be fixed and we will have security again, I answer that I don’t because the violence is increasing every day and I continue to lose friends.
“I cannot study any more. I don’t have the concentration and the teachers don’t give us lessons as before. What I study these days is material that I learnt two years ago. I’m not sure that if I study like that I’ll turn out to be that important man who my mother believes I’m going to be.”
Check out "Today in Iraq" to find out what's really happening there.
For those interested in getting daily reports on what is really happening in Iraq, the site Today in Iraq is an indispensable resource. At this point the Euro-American media aren't even going through the motions of trying to report the dozens, if not hundreds, of violent incidents that are happening DAILY. If you're only getting your news from CNN and the like, you're missing virtually everything. Check it out, you won't believe what's going on there. Iraqslogger is another useful source, but not anywhere near as comprehensive.
On the other hand, I would avoid taking Juan Cole's Informed Comment without a few grains of salt. He reports daily and at length, and I greatly appreciate the amount of work he puts in. And I admire him just because, unlike so many of the academics out there, especially the so-called liberal ones, he's not hiding behind the ivory walls but has entered the fray,and is taking risks with his professional life (I'm not sure he realizes the extent of the risks he's taking). But having said all that, it has to be pointed out that he's a full-on American apologist, a genuine anti-Semite (he repeatedly out and out lies about Israel), hates Kurds for reasons that mystify me, and simply doesn't have the objectivity that is the essence of the professional academic's work. He spins many things to match his own biased opinions. And for a professional historian he sure does an abominable job of putting things into their historical context, most especially as regards Israel and Kurdistan. There's much useful information there, a very great deal in fact, but you have to be quite sceptical sometimes and able to read between the lines. I don't like to be critical of someone who I feel is genuinely concerned about what's going on, but the quality of his work simply doesn't match the popularity he's gained on the web. Not even close. Just my opinion of course. I do read him every day.
In my opinion, there's an awful lot of bias in virtually all of the reporting on Iraq and Afghanistan, in fact almost all of what Americans are doing in other countries. And from all political viewpoints. Even Today in Iraq seems trapped by the American liberal viewpoint, which I find pretty much useless at this point. For instance, look at their blogroll. You'd think that bloggers covering Iraq would be linking to Iraqi bloggers, but they don't. There's only one link to an Iraqi blogger there, Faiza Al-Arji's superb, A Family in Baghdad, which is essential reading. The rest are all Euro-American. I don't understand this since there are so many excellent Iraqi bloggers out there trying to inform the world of the truth. Juan Cole doesn't even have a single link to any Iraqi bloggers on his blogroll, I'm not sure he even realizes they exist. I can't recall him ever linking to one, which I find more than passing strange.
I'm also bothered by the ever-increasing amount of anti-Semitism I find in the so-called liberal and leftist blogospheres, including the sites I've mentionoed. There's much to criticize about the Israeli government, as there is about every other government in the world. But an awful lot of the criticism isn't anti-Israeli as they claim, it's clearly anti-Jew. It's very frightening and has gotten much, much worse in the past year. People have screwed up big-time and they're looking for a scapegoat. It's even worse in Britain, they're positively nasty.
Bush plans on requesting hundreds of billions more for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Reuters reports that Bush is planning to ask for $100 billion more to fund the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan for this year (on top of $70 billion already recently requested), and hundreds of billions more to take it through 2008.
President George W. Bush will request slightly more than $100 billion to cover war operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of this year and an even larger amount for fiscal 2008 that begins on October 1, congressional sources said on Thursday.
The administration, which will submit the war cost proposals along with its annual budget on Monday, will provide details of its war spending plans to try to placate critics who have accused it of using a shadow budget to fund the war.
For the current fiscal year, the White House will ask Congress to approve an additional $93 billion for the Defense Department to conduct the two wars and about $7 billion for State Department activities, a Senate aide said.
Including other items, the request will total "a little over $100 billion," according to the Senate aide. That would come on top of $70 billion Congress already approved for the wars this year.
For 2008, the administration will ask for an amount "larger than the $100 billion in the fiscal 2007 request," the Senate aide said.
House and Senate aides said the administration was trying to detail the 2008 costs in advance, responding to complaints from Congress about the long line of "emergency" spending bills that have mostly funded the Iraq war since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
These are just "emergency" additions, not included in the regular budget. They are not included in the "regular" military budget of $500 billion or so, plus lots of "special ops", "intelligence", and other "classified" operations they're not telling us about. While the focus is on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US is also involved in wars in Columbia, Somalia and god knows where else. Endless war, endless war, endless money, endless money ...
Naturally the Democrats will go along with it all. They're owned lock, stock and barrel by the military-industrial-financial-legal-corporate complex, and in their 200 year history have never met a war they didn't like. See these articles "Democrats Sidestep Defunding Demands" and Hillary Clinton calls Iran a threat to U.S., Israel" if you still have any doubts on that. All in all my estimate of America's total war budget is approaching a trillion dollars a year. And for wars that they are losing.
Remember Newton's laws of energy? "An object in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an OUTSIDE FORCE. An object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by an OUTSIDE FORCE."
And this doesn't include the costs of caring for the vets injured in these wars, of which there are at least 150,000 so far. At least 100,000 so far have been approved for disability claims. Those costs will continue for the life of the vets, decades at least. And it does not include the reparations that the US will be forced to pay sooner or later, since the entire thing is blatantly illegal. And if that isn't enough, it doesn't include the interest payments required to finance all of it, since all of this money is being borrowed, not paid through taxes. The total of these extra costs alone will be trillions over coming decades.
Here's a truly outstanding Bob Dylan song, Series of Dreams, a genuine Dylan masterpiece that hardly anybody's ever heard. Watch it closely, there are hundreds of images that come and go very quickly. I just love this song, one of Bob's best ever.
I was thinking of a series of dreams
Where nothing comes up to the top
Everything stays down where it's wounded
And comes to a permanent stop
Wasn't thinking of anything specific
Like in a dream, when someone wakes up and screams
Nothing too very scientific
Just thinking of a series of dreams
Thinking of a series of dreams
Where the time and the tempo fly
And there's no exit in any direction
'Cept the one that you can't see with your eyes
Wasn't making any great connection
Wasn't falling for any intricate scheme
Nothing that would pass inspection
Just thinking of a series of dreams
Dreams where the umbrella is folded
Into the path you are hurled
And the cards are no good that you're holding
Unless they're from another world
This one is from YouTube, which has tons of Dylan performances over the years. But Sony/Columbia also has a page with some more great Dylan videos. "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky" and "Sweetheart LIke You" are also quite excellent. The Sony page also links to lots of other Sony videos and music. I guess I'm really out of it these days. I don't recognize even the names of most of the bands.
The exquisite municipal market in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Stopped by this blog in Brazil I check out occasionally, Leaves of Grass, and found a wonderful post about this beautiful municipal market they have in Sao Paulo. It's just exquisite, beautifully and tastefully designed, with 55 large stained glass windows as the crowning touch. Check out the post, the photos are great, especially one in particular, this panoramic view.
The Municipal Market of São Paulo ( Mercado Municipal de São Paulo) also known as "Mercadão", in Downtown São Paulo, is an impressive building in the neoclassical style, measuring over 22 thousand square meters in area, tastefully outfitted and boasting a collection of beautiful stained glass windows. The construction was begin in 1928 and ended in 1932 and was conceived by the architect Francisco de Paula Ramos de Azevedo.
The Market is nationwide known for its diversity of aromas, colors and flavors, offering fruits, vegetables, legumes, wines, cheeses, chocolates, meats, fish, seafood, poultry, sausages, spices, condiments and a large number of products sold in emporiums.
Two good articles via Common Dreams regarding the recent so-called battle at Najaf, which may in fact have been just a massacre. This article, Official Lies Over Najaf Battle Exposed, by Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily, who have extensive experience in Iraq, and this one by Patrick Cockburn, US 'Victory' against Cult Leader Was 'Massacre', originally published in the Independent. Both well worth reading.
The upshot is that this was more of a massacre of civilians than any real "battle" against "terrorists," like most of this so-called war has been. The Iraqi government is basically just parroting the ridiculous American claim that any and all people it kills are so-called "terrorists," regardless of whether there are any facts to support the claim. No competent reporter (or blogger) would be using the term "terrorist" at this point. It is utterly meaningless and is nothing more than a propaganda term.
And yet another one. This one by Mike Whitney entitled the Media Cover-Up of the Najaf Massacre, focusing on the way the media is simply parroting whatever the government tells them, and no longer even bothering to go through the motions of any serious journalism or fact-checking. The propaganda about this story simply doesn't make any sense at all. Even a first year journalism student could easily spot all of the holes in it. I'll quote some of this one, since it makes some good points about the uselessness and blatant dishonesty of the corporate media.
So far, there are 2 things that we can say with certainty about the massacre of the 250 Iraqis outside Najaf on Monday. First, we know that there is no substantiating evidence to support the official version of events. And, second, we know that every media outlet in the United States slavishly provided the government’s version to their readers without fact-checking or providing eyewitness testimony.
This proves that those who argue that mainstream news is “filtered” are sadly mistaken. There is no filter between the military and media; it’s a direct channel. In fact, all of the traditional obstacles have been meticulously swept away so the fairy tales which originate in the Pentagon end up on America’s front pages with as little interference as possible.
In the present case, we were told that “hundreds of gunmen from a ‘messianic cult’ (Soldiers of Heaven) planned to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill clerics on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar”. We are expected to believe that they put their wives and children in the line of fire so they could conceal their real intention to lay siege to the city.
How many men would willingly drag their families into battle?
Many interesting details in these articles, but the upshot is that they basically massacred civilians, including dozens if not hundreds of women and children. Cold-blooded murderof religious pilgrims is all it was. (Or maybe not. See the next article.)
Another take on the Najaf massacre is in an article by Pepe Escobar in Asia Times entitled A massacre and a new civil war. He raises many questions and offers some new theories, which frankly I'm not sure I understand. The only thing that's really clear here is that no one knows what the hell is going on over there. There are all sorts of groups, each with their own agenda, and everyone taking advantage caused by the American failure to establish any sort of government. A huge mess, and getting messier.
Interesting facts about the history of Hillary's corruption.
The always useful Undernews has a nice post, Things to know about Hillary before 2008, containing many interesting facts about Bill and Hillary's important role in helping establish BCCI, one of the banks involved in major scandals in the 1980s.
HRC'S INDONESIAN FRIENDS
1976
Bill Clinton is elected attorney general of Arkansas.
Two Indonesian billionaires come to Arkansas. Mochtar Riady and Liem Sioe Liong are close to Indonesian dictator Suharto. Riady is looking for an American bank to buy. Finds Jackson Stephens with whom he forms Stephens Finance. Stephens will broker the arrival of BCCI to this country and steer BCCI's founder, Hassan Abedi, to Bert Lance.
Riady's teen-age son is taken on as an intern by Stephens Inc. He later says he was "sponsored" by Bill Clinton.
1977
Hillary Clinton joins the Rose Law Firm which will represent some of Riady's operations. Key to her hiring was managing partner Joe Giroir who will become deeply involved with Riady.
Apparently because of pressure from Indonesia, Riady withdraws his bid to buy Lance's 30% share of the National Bank of Georgia. Instead, a BCCI front man buys the shares and Abedi moves to secretly take over Financial General - later First American Bankshares -- and the subject of the only BCCI-connected scandal to be prosecuted in the US.
1983
Mochtar Riady forms Lippo Finance & Investment in Little Rock. A non-citizen, Riady hires Carter's former SBA director, Vernon Weaver, to chair the firm. The launch is accomplished with the aid of a $2 million loan guaranteed by the SBA. Weaver uses Governor Clinton as a character reference to help get the loan guarantee. First loan goes to Little Rock Chinese restaurant owner Charlie Trie, who will later please guilty to campaign contribution violations as part of the Clinton scandals.
Jackson Stephens forms United Pacific Trading with Mochtar Riady to do business in the U.S. and Asia.
1984
Stevens and Riady buy a banking firm and change its name to Worthern Bank with Riady's 28-year-old son James as president. Other Worthen co-owners will eventually include BCCI investor Abdullah Taha Bakhish.
1985
Arkansas state pension funds -- deposited in Worthen by Governor Bill Clinton -- suddenly lose 15% of their value because of the failure of high risk, short-term investments and the brokerage firm that bought them. The $52 million loss is covered by a Worthen check written by Jack Stephens in the middle of the night, an insurance policy and the subsequent purchase over the next few months of 40% of the bank by Mochtar Riady. Clinton and Worthen escape a major scandal.
Lippo executive and Chinese native John Huang becomes active in Lippo's operations in Arkansas.
China Resources pays for a Lippo-organized trip to Asia by Gov. Clinton, according to a later FBI interview with John Huang.
Mochtar and James Riady engineer the takeover of the First National Bank of Mena in a town of 5,000 with few major assets beyond a Contra supply base as well as major drug running and money-laundering operations.
1986
James Riady resigns as president of Worthen Bank.
1990
James Riady takes over operations of a new branch of the Lippo Bank, working with Hong Kong Lippo executive, John Huang. China Resources Company Ltd begins buying stock in the branch, Hong Kong Chinese Bank, at 15% below market value. Intelligence sources later report that the firm is really a front for Chinese military intelligence.
1991
Clinton buddy and Little Rock restaurant owner, Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie, starts Daihatsu International Trading Co., with offices in Arkansas, Washington, and Beijing.
The Federal Reserve begins an investigation of BCCI's alleged control of First American Bank. A few months later BCCI itself is shut down in what would be revealed as the world's biggest bank scandal ever. Bill Clinton announces for president. Among his targets: "S&L crooks and self-serving CEOs."
1992
The Worthen Bank gives Clinton a $3.5 million line of credit allowing the cash-strapped candidate to finish the primaries. Stephens Inc. employees give Clinton more than $100,000 for his presidential campiagn.
James Riady, his family, and employees give $700,000 to Clinton and the Democratic campaign.
1993
Webster Hubbell's name surfaces as a potential nominee for deputy attorney general but Hillary Clinton's former partner at Rose tells friends he does not want that job or, reports Time, "to take any other position that involves Senate confirmation -- perhaps to avoid fishing expeditions into the law firm's confidential business."
John Huang and James Riady give $100,000 to Clinton's inaugural fund . . . February: Huang arranges private meeting between Mochtar Riady and Clinton at which Riady presses for renewal of China's 'most favored nation" status and a relaxation of economic sanctions . . . June: China's 'most favored nation' status is renewed. Price being paid by China Resources Company Ltd. for Lippo's Hong Kong Chinese Bank jumps to 50% above market value. The Riadys make $163 million.
1994
John Huang quits the Lippo Group -- with a golden parachute of around $800,000 -- and goes to work for the Commerce Department. Some believe the move is instigated by Hillary Clinton. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown orders a top secret clearance for Huang. While at Commerce, Huang visits the White House about 70 times, is briefed 37 times by the CIA, views about 500 intelligence reports, and makes 281 calls to Lippo banks.
It goes on and on, with many details about their massive involvement in scandals and corruption during the later Clinton administration. This may seem lke old news, but that's the problem with Hillary running for president. It means that all of the juicy tales of her and Bill's massive corruption over the decades will once again be dug up and discussed. And they were, and are, almost unbelievably corrupt, easily as corrupt as any other American politicians have ever been, maybe even more so.
Don't forget that, while much attention has been focused on Bush's friendship with Ken Lay, that the Enron rip offs of California and their other crimes happened during the 1990s, and that Clinton and the equally corrupt Gore were responsible for enforcing the laws all through that period. They were also responsible for enforcing the laws when WorldCom and all of the other dot-com corruption happened. They stole trillions. We must not let these criminals back in power again.
One other interesting thing to contemplate about the Arkansas-based Clintons, is that it was during the Clinton-Gore administration that Arkansas-based Tyson became the world's biggest meat producer, and that Arkansas-based Wal-Mart became the world's biggest retailer. Coincidence?
I'm really trying to avoid getting involved in the 2008 election since I think it's way too early, and at this point it's meanaingless, but it's so important to make sure corporate gangsters such as Hillary or Gore do not get elected that I guess I'll have to point out crucial facts when I come across them.
Stumbled onto this great clip of Harrison, Dylan and others jamming in LA back in the 80s. Pretty rough and sloppy, and it just sort of collapses at the end, but great to see George clearly having such a good time just making music with his friends. I do believe that the big black man in the background is Taj Majal. Must have been one heck of a night. Curious that this particular configuration of the Wilburys is referred to as the Silver Wilburys. At one point the Beatles, for a very brief period, were called the Silver Beatles.
Speaking of which, if you've never seen this clip of "My Back Pages" from Dylan's 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Square Garden in 1992, it's got Harrison, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Roger McGuinn and more. A truly great performance. That's G.E. Smith, Al Kooper, Jim Keltner, along with Booker T and the MGs backing them up. Quite a lineup.
More and more I'm coming to the conclusion that the people in the stock markets must be living in an alternative universe from the rest of us. For instance, today there's a story in the NY times saying that Google has posted a "sharp rise" in profits. And yet the stock goes down. Last week, there was a report that Ford Motor Company lost more money than any time in its entire history, yet the stock went up. Very strange. I guess if I think about it there's some sense here. No matter how much money Google is making, if it's not as much as people expected, the stock will go down. And the fact that Ford is losing so much money must indicate that it's only a matter of time before it will be taken over by someone who's competent, which would make its stock a good bet in the long run. But it's still rather weird, and certainly indicates that stock prices are no longer at all directly related to how much money the companies are actually making or losing.
But investors were apparently hoping for even better results, and their initial reaction was negative. Google’s shares were off 2 to 3 percent in trading after regular hours.
Google said net income for the quarter nearly tripled to $1.03 billion, or $3.29 a share, up from $372.2 million, or $1.22 a share, in the fourth quarter of 2005. Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and other adjustments, the company earned $997 million, or $3.18 a share, in the latest quarter.
Google’s quarterly revenue rose 67 percent. to $3.21 billion, from a year earlier. Google sells ads that are displayed on other sites and passes most of the revenue from those ads to the owners of those site. Excluding those payments, Google’s revenue totaled $2.23 billion in the fourth quarter.
As far as Ford and General Motors' problems go, I'm willing to bet that within ten years the Chinese, or at least a consortium of companies with major Chinese financing, will own one or the others' brands. Just a guess. :)
Excellent article by Bernard Chazelle entitled Bush The Empire Slayer, which does a great job of summarizing all of the damage that these people have done to the world. This is from the ending.
The war has given the American mainstream media a brilliant opportunity to prove its essential worthlessness. It has shown itself to be little more than a circus of entertainers and cheerleaders for whom every season is the silly season. Tragically, the media has failed in its sacred duty to keep a vigilant, skeptical, critical eye on the centers of power. Who is the American Robert Fisk, Gideon Levy, or Amira Hass? Whoever they are (and Sy Hersh proves they exist), why are their writings not filling the op-ed pages of the great American newspapers? How can the nation that produces the bulk of Nobel prize winners be stuck with such a sullen bunch of journalistic mediocrities? The sycophantic enablers of the Fourth Estate have blood on their hands.
T he unfolding catastrophe in Iraq had a single cause: the reassertion of US hegemony after 9/11. Its trigger was a rare astral alignment. Big Oil, the neocons, the Christian fundamentalists, the liberal hawks, AIPAC, the MSM, and 9/11 all formed cosmic dots in the sky that only one power could—and did—successfully align: the president of the United States. No American leader has so much owned a war.
And none has so little owned up to it. Victors are never war criminals. That's because they get to write the history books. Bush won't have that chance. The die has been cast and the hour is too late for him or anyone to alter the unforgiving judgment of posterity. Therein, paradoxically, lies our quandary. For, if freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, then Bush is a free man—free to pursue the most malignant policies, heedless of the consequences to his unworsenable presidential standing. Beware the desperation of a cornered man.
The apostle of imperial dominance, Bush slew the “last empire.” The towering figure of our time, he is a piteously small man. The self-anointed emissary of a “higher father,” he is servant to no power but himself. The captain of the sinking ship has laid his command upon his fellow Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for me.” No sacrifice of life shall be too great, no damage to civil liberties too high, no expenses too vast for a vainglorious man deluded by fantastic dreams of redemption by force.
But who besides the bereaved will mourn? Who besides the orphan will whimper? Who besides the humiliated will stare back? Who besides the thugs and the craven will lead? Patriotism is a lovely thing. In its name, some go dying by the side of an Iraqi road in twitching agony; others go shopping in oversized automobiles festooned with yellow ribbons. We all play our part—and nobody else's.
Yeats bemoaned an era when the best lacked all conviction, while the worst were full of passionate intensity. Today, Kristol blusters and hectors, Cheney scolds and forebodes, Bush struts and smirks. Meanwhile, the giant, timid chorus listens politely to the deafening silence of the outraged—and the mad march of war goes on.
This is all very true and all, and people should understand what Bush and company have done. But I stil think it misses the main point. In the larger sense it is the American military-industrial-legal-financial-corporate complex that has done all of this. And, by extension, all those in the US and throughout the world who, for many decades now, have been gleefully trying to profit from it, directly or indirectly. The complex has been building up for decades, and everyone in the world has watched it grow and done nothing. Absolutely nothing. The root cause of it all is GREED. And until people change their ideas about money, and stop thinking so damn much about their own lifestyles and comforts, and until the ENTIRE military-industrial-legal-financial-corporate complex is dismantled, the wars and the bombings and the suffering will go on. Eliminate the Republicans, eliminate the neo-cons, eliminate Israel, it will make no difference. Sure it will slow it down for a while. But the root cause will remain, and sooner or later, it will come back, like a multi-headed hydra, meaner and nastier than ever. The Democrats too, in their entire 200 year long history, have never met a war they didn't like. It's time that people looked deeper, and, above all, deeper into themselves, and stopped blaming everyone else. And the one and only way to make sure that America does not nuke the world is to take their nukes away. Once and for all. Nothing short of that will do.
And this also has to be said and repeated over and over: It is not Bush and Blair who have waged this war. It is the American and British people. All of them. With the complicity of the entire so-called western world. Period.
See this video over at IraqSlogger for the confession of an American soldier of crimes committed by Americans at Abu Ghraib that were far worse than anything reported so far. These included systematic gang-raping of girls and women. In one case he says they raped this girl, pimped her out for $50 a shot, until "she hung herself." It's clear that these war crimes were not committed by just a few individuals, but by virtually all of the so-called soldiers there, dozens and dozens of them. And he says that it was the CIA who encouraged them and pushed them on. And it is impossible to believe that all of this could go on for so long without officers knowing about it. Simply impossible.
The clip, originally linked via a now defunct account on YouTube, purports to show a former guard from Abu Ghraib talking about torture techniques employed at the American-run prison. The man also recounts the gang rape of a female teenage detainee, in which one guard "pimped" the girl to others for $50 each. As he recalls, "I think at the end of the day he'd made like 500 bucks before she hung herself."
The article mentions that this may be a hoax, but I tend to doubt it. The attitudes of the soldier talking about certainly reflects those of the other people in the U.S. military, who are quite violent and racist and have repeatedly shown a total contempt for the Iraqis.
Of course, the worst crime is being committed by those who know just how bad Americans have become, and continue to do business with them, and continue to turn their heads. There will always be evil people like those in the U.S. military or the Nazis, but they wouldn't be able to get away with anything if decent people didn't allow them to.
Came across this forum for food related stuff, Chouhound. Lots of really great stuff, recipes and more, covering everything you can imagine about food or eating. I particularly like the discussions of great places to eat. I live in Culver City, part of LA, and was really surprised to see how many of the recommended restaurants were right in my neighborhood. Got a lot of good tips which I'll have to check out. I never would have imagined that one of the supposedly best Mexican restaurants is inside this bowling alley that I go by all the time. But live and learn.
That's one thing about the web that never stops amazing me. You go to a site, one that covers the entire world like this one does, and you find a tip about a restaurant two blocks from your home. Such a big world, such a little one. Very weird. Of course, I guess it helps if you live in one of the world's major cities, but still.
The voting is on the for the Seventh annual weblog awards: the 2007 Bloggies. I really don't care about the voting or who wins, but it's always interesting checking out the nominees for new and interesting blogs. Almost anyone who makes it to the finals is probably worth reading. I always find someone new.
Stumbled onto the blog of a woman up in Alaska, Up in Alaska. Her obssession (her word) is cycling, generally long-distance cycling, generally alone, at all times of the year, even in the coldest and wettest conditions. In this recent post, Liquid gray infinity, she tries to explain why. I guess only people who are truly obsessed by something will ever understand. I can relate though. I don't think I'd ever be able to explain why being an artist is so important to me, although of course, at least with art there's a lot of money to be made. But I'd probably do it even without the money.
But the main reason I don’t talk about cycling obsession with anyone but the best of friends is my fear of the best question of all, the question I don’t know how to answer — “Why?”
“You spend all of your free time biking?” For the most part. “As a hobby?” Yes. “Do you get paid at all to ride your bike?” Of course not. “Do you ever plan to make any money riding a bike?” Well, no. “Are you trying to lose weight?” Not really.
“Then ... Why?”
Sometimes I feel like rebutting by asking them why they spend their free time playing World of Warcraft or TiVo-ing whatever reality train wrecks they’re showing on TV these days, but I know it’s not really a fair comparison. Their hobbies don’t send them out into the slush and biting cold, splattered in grit and varying shades of bruises. Their hobbies don’t require wearing soggy clothing made of unnatural fabrics and coping with equipment that seems to be in a constant state of disrepair. My hobby defines me as quirky and a little bit crazy, and I find it impossible to explain my way out of that.
There are times, though, that I ask myself the same question. It usually crosses my mind in the midst of a rough ride or the conditions I dislike the most - the watered-down slush, the wind. The rain.
Today I stopped at the North Douglas boat launch to pour the water out of my shoes and wipe my Camelbak nozzle free of a solid layer of grit. Nobody was out in the monotone drizzle of a Monday afternoon, and the calm water reflected the silence. Luxurious, billowing clouds draped over tree tops and tumbled down the mountainside like stain fabric.
I sat down for a moment on the beach, littered with broken mussel shells that sparkled in the dull light. I thought about my routine and its strange motions, and I thought a little about “Why.”
I live in a liquid world where everything is fleeting and nothing stays the same. The only thing I’m really certain of is the passing of time, the waves of good and bad that carry me forward. And the details - the possessions I acquire, the way that I look, the places I go, the people I meet, the people I love - are too often little more than glimmers of the present in a sea of memories. It's all too easy for me to drift away with the tide, become lost in that ocean, and forget that life is something that happens, not something I have.
What I really want is to live at the crest of every moment - every frightening, joyful, exhausting, brilliant, mundane moment - as they pass me by. And bicycling, in a way, is my means of staying afloat.
Bush requires political commissars to oversee federal agencies.
NY Times link. In a move straight out of the Soviet Union, indeed straight out of Czarist Russia, so-called President Bush has ordered that every federal agency have a political commissar attached who will oversee the agency and make sure that the political needs of the administration take priority over its normal duties. The primary purpose is to prevent such agencies as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) from enforcing regulations against the corporations that have taken over the country. They can't stop Congress from passing laws, so they prevent the government from enforcing them. It's a giant leap towards strengthening the police state that has replaced the constitutional government, but it is unlikely that a supine, greedy, corrupt and selfish American public will do anything to fight it, since they prefer the profits they can gain from investing in these corporations to the rule of law, democracy and constitutional government.
President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.
This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.
The White House said the executive order was not meant to rein in any one agency. But business executives and consumer advocates said the administration was particularly concerned about rules and guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Besides burdening the American taxpayer will major and unnecessary expenses, it will cause more pollution, make workplaces more dangerous, increase the likelihood of consumers receiving dangerous food and drugs and generally lower the quality of life in the country.
As the article succintly notes, "Business groups hailed the initiative." But of course. After all, it's their country.
In a way though, this could be good. Excessive regulation of this type was a major cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union, so this could be interpreted as another step hastening the inevitable and coming collapse of the American Union. I'm not just joking here either. In the event of another 9/11 or some other attack on the US, it is quite conceivable that those in charge of responding will not do so because they haven't received permission from the corporates in charge to do so, or they are afraid of being sued.
This account by a woman in Baghdad illustrates what living hell life is becoming over there for the Iraqi people. And not because of what the mythical "terrorists" are doing either, but mostly because of the damage the American so-called soldiers are doing. It seems pretty clear that the Americans are not really fighting a war, just harassing civilians because they are losers with nothing better to do. (Exactly what is the point of smashing her dishes?) They killed her husband because he happened to be driving in the wrong spot, and tortured her son for no real reason at all. They certainly are doing a great job in alienating the Iraqis and making more enemies for real Americans. From the Irin News organization.
BAGHDAD, 22 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - “My name is Lina Massufi. I’m a 32-year-old laboratory assistant who works 10 hours a day just to make enough money to raise my children.
“My life has been like hell over the past three months. US and Iraqi soldiers have raided my house more than 12 times.
“My husband, Khalil, was killed during the US invasion in 2003 when he drove through a closed road and soldiers shot him dead.
“I live in Haifa Street, one of the most dangerous places to live in Baghdad today. The area is infamous for its huge number of insurgents. This is why Iraqi and US soldiers have increased their activity in the area, constantly raiding homes and arresting men for interrogation.
“Last month, they arrested my 23-year-old brother Fae’ek, who lives with me. He is a pharmacy student but nonetheless they took him and kept him in prison for more than a week - even after knowing he was innocent. He returned with signs of torture on his body and was crying like a baby because of the pain.
''It is common to see at least three corpses on Haifa Street each day and sometimes up to eight, as happened last week.''
“I cannot stand the constant military raids in my home. Every time they [the soldiers] raid my house, they break the door. They don’t know how to knock at a door. One day, when I asked them why they were entering like that instead of ringing the bell, they laughed at me and called me an idiot.
“My furniture is all broken into pieces because of the way they conduct their searches. I no longer have dishes or glasses to speak of because they destroyed most of them during the raids.
“I have two children and for most of the time, they are scared. Muhammad, a four-year-old, cannot sleep well at night. He has nightmares every day and when he wakes up he cries, asking me not to let the soldiers take him as they took his uncle.
“Fadia, my daughter, who is only eight years old, doesn’t want to go to school because she says that if they raid our home and I’m not around, they would do something bad to her brother. But with her at home, she can help him not be afraid.
“Our neighbourhood is in the middle of a constant war. It is not safe for us to leave or enter our houses. Most of the shops around here are closed. We have to walk about 5km to buy food like vegetables and rice.
“Sometimes, when I return by taxi from my job, which is about 45 minutes from my home, I find the street closed and bullets flying around everywhere.
''I have nowhere to run to. I have to withstand this desperate situation hoping that one day we will live in peace again.''
“I start to cry as I become afraid that something might have happened to my children even though I know that my brother is there. I know that when I get home, I will find Muhammad crying and Fadia scared but I cannot stay all day at home because if I leave my job, there will be no one to feed them.
“It is common to see at least three corpses on Haifa Street each day and sometimes up to eight, as happened last week. They are fighters, innocent civilians or soldiers. No one takes care of them [the bodies] because if you tried to get closer, you could become the next victim.
“I have nowhere to run to. I have to withstand this desperate situation hoping that one day we will live in peace again, even if it seems that it might take dozens of years for that to happen.”
Wood s Lot. Maybe the most consistently interesting weblog out there. Superb selections on all sorts of topics, especially art and literature. Tons of links too.
Fairvue Central hosts the Bloggies, awards for best weblogs in different categories from all over the world. See the nominees for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 (in progress).
