you got it

Let us not be disconsolate over the increasing control of the court system by the right wing.

The courts have never been on the side of justice, only moving a few degrees one way or the other, unless pushed by the people. Those words engraved in the marble of the Supreme Court, "Equal Justice Before the Law," have always been a sham.

No Supreme Court, liberal or conservative, will stop the war in Iraq, or redistribute the wealth of this country, or establish free medical care for every human being. Such fundamental change will depend, the experience of the past suggests, on the actions of an aroused citizenry, demanding that the promise of the Declaration of Independence-an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-be fulfilled.

...the case that I saw for 4 plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberration, bastardizations, [inaudible], changes to the national security [inaudible] process. What I saw was a cabal between the Vice President of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense and [inaudible] on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

And then when the bureaucracy was presented with those decisions and carried them out, it was presented in such a disjointed incredible way that the bureaucracy often didn’t know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out.

...Under Secretary of Defense Douglas [inaudible], whom most of you probably know Tommy Frank said was stupidest blankety blank man in the world. He was. Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.

And yet, and yet, after the Secretary of State agrees to a $400 billion department, rather than a $30 billion department, having control, at least in the immediate post-war period in Iraq, this man is put in charge. Not only is he put in charge, he is given carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw themselves in a closet somewhere. That’s not making excuses for the State Department.

That’s telling you how decisions were made and telling you how things got accomplished....

(via nettime)

http://suicidegirls.com/members/RealSuicideGirl/

A bit about me written by Mika Minio-Paluello:

Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, blew herself up in the Haifa
Maxim restaurant in early October, killing 21, including four children. Her
younger brother Fedi was executed by an Israeli undercover unit in front of her,
despite her trying to protect him. On June 12th, three days before Fadi's wedding,
the family was in the courtyard of the house. Salah Jaradat, Fadi's cousin and a
member of Islamic Jihad, came to visit his pregnant wife, Ismath, and their
two-year-old son, who were living with the family.

(more...)

MEMBER SINCE: October 2005

AGE: 30 (Sep 22, 1975)

LOCATION: Palestine

HOMETOWN: Jenin

SIGN: I've seen it.

OCCUPATION: Law, until that proved insufficient.

STATS: Don't commodify people.

BODY MODS: A few.

FAVORITE BANDS: Chrissy Hynde.

FAVORITE FILMS: Battle of Algiers.

FAVORITE BOOKS: The Qur'an, The Bible, Give Me Liberty: The
Uncompromising Statesmanship of Patrick Henry

FAVORITE TV SHOWS: Xena the Warrior Princess.

VICES: Deadly revenge.

CURRENT CRUSH: Mordechai Vanunu.

INTO: Fighting oppression.

MOST HUMBLING MOMENT: You have to ask?

5 ITEMS I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: I only wanted two: My brother and justice.

MAKES ME HAPPY: Family. The Act of Sacrifice.

MAKES ME SAD: Israeli colonial aggression. Your imperialist government.
Your lying media. Your passivity. The need for sacrifice.

GETS ME HOT: You have a very crude culture, the way you talk of such things.

I LOST MY VIRGINITY: Not.

FAVORITE SEXUAL POSITION: My mother – who I actually talk about these
things with – tells me she really enjoys something I can hardly wait to
try – oh, no, I guess I'll have to…

FANTASY: For you to understand.

CURRENT THOUGHTS ON SG: I hate it

WEBSITE: http://www.aztlan.net/women_martyrs.htm

(rather beautiful, i think. anyone else getting this kind of spam? a collection from the past few weeks)

automat see ammonia try petrifaction in capistrano be mosaic ! algorithmic or gregory try attack the stool on checkerberry it cedric not bullhead or duke and bankruptcy not mint some reinstate may vice some conflagrate on cell , alsop on cycad be haphazard a locomotive may moss it moose , corrugate be discussion it's chunky be equatorial on layup be lawbreaking it intelligible on hemorrhoid a despond some conley , coronado try. Not, go here

martini it metabolite it andrei a angeles but roustabout in betony in resignation in anxiety , dreamboat and progress may conspire on offsetting a khan the reptile see petrify in forsake it grizzly not monkeyflower ! choral it algonquin some selves it elmsford see lew not anastasia be coequal some bankrupt in ethnic a purgative not bridal on chimera and ammonia be cliffhang ! began or kickback be amalgam or tycoon !. Not, go here

(and then the monkeys made a breakthrough in concision, they have never gone back...)

! maine be consonant it folly a hostelry try bluefish try hulk see isochronal and redemption may delouse may romantic ! curran or putt it eat may futile Or maybe not

in athlete it's rococo but bourbon or exigent a suction ! crutch see psychophysiology be cocky the equipoise it ditto try committing ! standpoint not coma in betsy Or maybe not

, diffract but chelate a decant it's demagnify some cdc it gallstone not diaper not name see mcnulty some systematic and candlestick and deluge the transmitting a samba Or maybe not

in provocation a gain may flourish the thrift but riboflavin it's conduct a cradle in facilitate be needn't it's zen may orphan , celandine be clink be sober Or maybe not

on polaroid it's embedder on cit the colander not io some shaven may pitman ! kenyon it's gunky in dingy try madhouse be assimilate be argentina not nanette Or maybe not

(from greg, old - but timeless - news from cnnnn.) 'we'll make a big glass crater out of the fucking middle east, for all i care.' brilliant.

A clock with no hands - that's my kind of thing.
-agnes varda
(next entry in directory of all things wonderful. varda's les glaneurs et la glaneuse.)

DC Festival Opens with 10,000 despite Rains
Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005 Posted: 11:30:05AM EST

WASHINGTON – Some 10,000 people pulled out their raincoats and umbrellas Saturday to attend the opening day of the much-anticipated DC Festival on the wet grounds of Washington, D.C.’s National Mall....

Saying he did not know why God brought down rain on the festival day, Palau told the crowd that God "makes no mistakes" and that "Jesus is alive today and ... here at the mall." (oh no, wait, that's just some hippie - the war protests were last weekend, dude)...

In between the musical acts, Palau preached the good news and invited the thousands to make their life more than a mist that only exists for a moment....

"You and I will have a party that will never end," said Palau.

Thresholds, switches, amplifiers, chaos -- contemporary geophysics assumes that earth history is inherently revolutionary....

An ice-free Arctic Ocean has not existed for at least one million years and the authors warn that the Earth is inexorably headed toward a "super-interglacial" state "outside the envelope of glacial-interglacial fluctuations that prevailed during recent Earth history."...

for the time being, at least, research on global change is pointing toward worst-case scenarios.

All of this, of course, is a perverse tribute to industrial capitalism and extractive imperialism as geological forces so formidable that they have succeeded in scarcely more than two centuries -- indeed, mainly in the last fifty years -- in knocking the earth off its climatic pedestal and propelling it toward the nonlinear unknown.

The demon in me wants to say: Party and make merry. No need now to worry about Kyoto, recycling your aluminum cans, or using too much toilet paper, when, soon enough, we'll be debating how many hunter-gathers can survive in the scorching deserts of New England or the tropical forests of the Yukon.

The good parent in me, however, screams: How is it possible that we can now contemplate with scientific seriousness whether our children's children will themselves have children? Let Exxon answer that in one of their sanctimonious ads.

Never touch, remove, or disturb any munition or suspected munition items!

3 “Rs” of Munitions Safety : Recognize, Retreat, Report

1. Recognize it: Munitions come in many shapes and sizes:
Some will look new while others will look old and rusty.
Some will look like bullets or bombs and can be small or large in size.
Some will look like pointed metal pipes, soda cans, small balls, or even an old car muffler.

2. Retreat from it: If you found something that could be a munition, leave it alone and leave the area. It does not matter how old, rusty, new, or shiny the item may look, munitions are dangerous and could injure or kill you. Don’t take any chances – leave it alone.

3. Report it: If you found something that could be a munition, report what you saw and where you saw it to Shaw (303-690-3816) or Arapahoe Sheriff’s Department (303-785-4711). Reporting it can save another person from injury or death. Report anything you think could be a munition.

Leave the handling of munitions to the trained experts who can assess the item and make the area safe.

(exhibit 'a' in a new directory of all things wonderful. ok, exhibit 'b' right after that wendell berry poem. a recurring cycle for me, making lists of wrongs and then one day realizing it is time for the other...)

Directions--
Janet Cardiff
Words drawn in water

As part of the Hirshhorn’s ongoing "Directions" series, the museum has commissioned a new artwork by Janet Cardiff (b. 1957), a Canadian-born artist known for her inventive use of binaural sound technology. Cardiff has developed a 33-minute multisensory audio walk artwork, "Words drawn in water," in which the artist’s layered sound effects merge to evoke a blending of history and memory. The audio walk debuts Aug. 3 and will continue through Oct. 30. The audio walk is free and available Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 2:30 pm

Interview with the artist and project curator Kelly Gordon, July 2005:

KG: Can you describe what led you to develop your audio walks?

JC: The development of the audio walks came about through a totally serendipitous experience. I happened to press rewind while walking and taping in the field, and when I replayed it, listening with my headphones, I was fascinated by the layering of the past onto the present. It had a strange quality of creating a new world, blending together the physical and the virtual. I was also very excited by how my recorded body walking and talking created such an intense physical presence for me, as if there were another woman that was part of me but separate.

KG: How do you create such intense three-dimensional soundscapes?

JC: The technique that I use is called binaural audio. I record right on the site, following the exact route that the participant will eventually take. The recording system is made from two microphones mounted in the ears of a dummy head. Because of the head's shape, it captures the way we hear. I get many looks and comments from people as I wander around with this blue (hairdresser's dummy) head held out in front of me.

KG: How does location influence the development of each project? How has working on the National Mall compared to working on projects in other cities?

JC: Location is really very important to the content of a walk. The Mall was one of the most difficult and the most fascinating sites I've used. It was fascinating because of the abundance of important, historic actions that have occurred there. It was difficult because in the end I had way too much information and too many recordings and not enough space to include them, so the editing process was pretty extreme. Also, I have to say that doing a walk in the capital of America in this current political situation was antithetical to my creative process. I had to turn off my negative feelings about the Bush administration in order to produce the piece. It made me realize how difficult it is not to become political in Washington.

KG: How did work on this project begin? What was the most difficult aspect to develop?

JC: The first part of the process was finding a route that interested me…a beginning, a middle, and an intimate location for the end. After establishing the route, the next part in the process was to do a lot of walking, listening, and looking. This is how I find themes that echo the location. In this piece, I concentrate on a couple of themes. One is the use of water as a metaphor for the fluidity of time and for connecting political ideas and people. Another interest for me in Washington became the prevalence of political illusion and working with that metaphorically. Just as a piece of mirror found on the sidewalk becomes a chunk of sky, the varying soundscapes, such as an audience clapping around you, a car passing, or a band playing, make you question the truth of anything you hear.

JC: Sound has an innate ability to transport you out of your body, so if you give an audience various soundscapes, you can transport them through their imagination into many different places. For example, the sound of ghostly people talking around you...a sense of the past...intimate relationship between the artist and listener...a very private space for the audience in the midst of a very public area...the unexpected taking you into a different world for a few moments...a bit of magic...

The Future

For God's sake, be done
with this jabber of "a better world."
What blasphemy! No "futuristic"
twit or child thereof ever
in embodied light will see
a better world than this, though they
foretell inevitably a worse.
Do something! Go cut the weeds
beside the oblivious road. Pick up
the cans and bottles, old tires,
and dead predictions. No future
can be stuffed into this presence
except by being dead. The day is
clear and bright, and overhead
the sun not yet half finished
with his daily praise.

-Wendell Berry

(thanks ellie)

(greg points out the real story over at boeing. zero-casualty warfare, hurrah.)


Two sleek, stealthy aircraft are majestically poised on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., ready to take to the skies. Nicknamed “Stingray 1” and “Stingray 2,” what distinguishes these Boeing Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems X-45A vehicles from other aircraft at the base isn’t just their futuristic, Hollywood-esque look.

They will revolutionize the future of flight and warfare.

Boeing is making history with the unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAV) that operate on a complex computer system. These aircraft can engage in high-threat combat missions, while the pilot safely carries out the mission from a remote ground location anywhere in the world.

The Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program is changing air combat missions as we know them. The UCAV concept of “fly-by-mouse” means the pilot sits at a ground station instead of a cockpit and manages multiple vehicles in high-threat combat missions with a computer mouse instead of a stick and rudder. The pilot’s view is a computer console instead of the combat-zone skies.

When we criticize Bush because he has failed to keep us safe, we score valuable political points. But we pay a price for those points, because we reinforce the basic premises of the national insecurity state -- that danger is everywhere and can never be eliminated; that all systemic change is dangerous; and that our best hope lies in a government strong enough and pugnacious enough to prevent significant change and so protect us from fear's worst effects.

The urge to be safe, to keep fear at bay, is certainly natural and understandable. But after more than half a century in a state of heightened national insecurity, Americans have largely forgotten the other side of the human coin: the urge to be daring, to take chances that can lead to positive change.

(ironically? since when does team osprey traffic in ironies?

i don't know what all of the controversy is about, as far as truth-in-advertising this ranks right up there with lockheed-martin's "we never forget who we're working for" motto.)

If you set aside, for a moment, what is believed in, it obviously helps to believe in something if you plan to "stand up" and fight.

The Independent
October 2, 2005

Melting Planet: Species are Dying Out Faster Than We Have Dared Recognize, Scientists Will Warn This Week

The erosion of polar ice is the first break in a fragile chain of life extending across theplanet, from bears in the north to penguins in the far south.

By Andrew Buncombe in Anchorage and Severin Carrell in London

...under unprecedented threat...disappearing with alarming speed...driven by starvation into human settlements - to be shot...drowning in large numbers...their corpses floating on seas once coated in a thick skin of ice.

"The ice is moving further and further north," said Charlie Johnson, 64, an Alaskan Nupiak from Nome, in the state's far west. "In the Bering Sea the ice leaves earlier and earlier. On the north slope, the ice is retreating as far as 300 or 400 miles offshore."

Last year, hunters found half a dozen bears that had drowned about 200 miles north of Barrow, on Alaska's northern coast. "It seems they had tried to swim for shore ... A polar bear might be able to swim 100 miles but not 400."

...alarming testimony... a threat unparalleled since the last ice age...the intricate web of habitats, food supplies and weather conditions which, for some species, can stretch for 6,500 miles. Every link of that chain is slowly but perceptibly altering....

also given little chance of survival... threatened by "multiple climate change impacts"... nowhere left to go ... "We can see, very clearly, that most migratory species are drifting towards the poles."...

...up to 37 per cent of terrestrial species could become extinct by 2050....

And the clash between nature and human need - a critical issue across Africa - is likely to worsen....

"Are we fighting a losing battle? Yes, we probably are."

"A long-term decline is under way."

"There is an earlier break-up of ice, a later freeze-up. Now it's more rapid. Something is happening."

(indeed.)