I watched the news today, oh boy...

[BO]

Interesting news day today. Here's a summary:

1. The US plans to shoot down a [supposedly] dying satellite before it spins out of orbit and kills millions. The real news: The US wants to test a new anti-ballistic missile. I'm sure the Russians and Chinese are thrilled.

2. Another college shooting. Hardly news-worthy anymore now that they've become so common. Question is: Has it become too risky to send your kid off to college?

3. The housing market is still fucked. And getting fucked-ter. People walking away from their homes in droves. Prices expected to come down another 25%.

4. The fed was all over the teevee today telling people the economy wasn't doing so well and bond insurers might start to default soon. The real news: Depression on the way. Fasten your seat belts, folks. Oh wait, I forgot about the rebate. Yeah right, that'll save us.

5. And my favorite: All misplaced Katrina folk have to move out of their FEMA trailers due to formaldehyde poisoning--all 35,000 of 'em. How ironic. Gee, I wonder what effect this might have on the mobil home/RV industry? And of course, the lawyers are all over it.

Did I miss anything?

[waldopaper]

Remember the usual cadre of morons hasn't gone away...

[Kate]

Waldo,

Thank you ! I feel safer already. It is a wee comfort that our government have these signs to protect us - no gun zone :)

Isn't similar to JUST SAY NO

Yes, we are slaves

[Mark]

We seem to have gotten a mention on AlterNet:

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/142895/mass_gop_sues_to_block_ap...

Mass. GOP Sues to Block Appt of Kennedy Replacement but Forgets to Actually Make an Argument

Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com at 12:02 PM on September 25, 2009.

They may not live in the reality-based community, but a judge apparently does.

Their bid to stop Paul Kirk from being sworn in as Senator was thrown out. Why?

Judge Thomas Connolly ruled that the Republicans’ claim was legally inadequate, noting in his four-page decision that, ‘the Party does not cite any case law in support of its argument.’ The GOP had maintained that Democratic Governor Deval Patrick overstepped his authority by declaring an emergency so Kirk’s appointment could be made immediately. Connolly ruled, however, that the state Constitution clearly gave the governor the power to call for the immediate implementation of a law by sending the secretary of state a letter.

I’m not a lawyer, the closest I’ve ever gotten to law school is regular watching of Law & Order, but even after one episode of that show everyone knows that to make a legal argument you usually cite some case law. Otherwise you’re just wasting time.

[Mark]

From the G20 protest (may take a moment to load):

G-20 Pittsburgh : LRAD Sonic Crowd Control Device

By order of the President I have just deemed you an enemy combatant. You no longer have any Constitutional rights. No matter what your purpose or what you do, I have been authorized to kill you. Good-bye hippie scum!

[BO]

How long before we see IED's in use on US soil? Surprised we haven't already.

C'mon hippies, get to work on those sticky bombs.

[Mark]

Actually, I think they'd already gotten rid of the hippies, BO. The crowd started out at about 3,000 and was down to about 300, almost all of whom were respectably dressed and did not appear to be protesters, so they apparently hadn't been attacked by the police or the National Guard. The problem was that the police hadn't yet rolled out their expensive high-tech crowd control. It was use it or lose it--they weren't going to see another protest for a while, so they had to justify their budget. It had been scheduled to be the first use of this device on American citizens, and Homeland Security had expected a much larger and very unruly mob with black masks and rocks, etc. Instead, all they had was a small group of quiet, average people.

Imagine what would have happened if there hadn't been anyone all all to try it out on! The cops would have had to dress up half the police force as protesters so that they could demonstrate their equipment. And then they couldn't have arrested anyone because of the ID problem.

The U.S. has spent billions on crowd control gear and training. They're counting on American citizens to supply them with crowds. A much better alternative is flash mobs. Somebody learns when there is going to be a TV interview outdoors (sometimes those things take hours), texts it to a few hundred people, they show up, chant for a moment or two, then quickly scatter and go home. By the time the trucks and helicopters get there, there's nothing but a reporter, a videographer, a TV truck, and some footage of a crowd that has disappeared. Hanging large banners from freeway overpasses and buildings is good too. If it is down in the wee hours of the morning, commuters see them before they can be taken down.

The guy in the video had it half right--that was taxpayer money. But he should also have yelled, "You voted for that! You voted for that! Stop voting for a police state!"

I can't really feel sorry for people who vote to delegate their authority to a police state, and then act outraged when that authority is used against them.

I understand that most voters felt that the war criminal they voted for was a slightly lesser evil than the other war criminal, but I don't like people who vote for war criminals and then protest the wars. Do they really expect somebody who condones crimes against humanity, to be merciful towards them just because they voted for him? I think anyone who votes deserves a Darwin award.

[BO]

I feel your pain, el Marko.

Protesting--at this point--is as big a waste of time as voting is.

Now blowing some shit up. That may still garner some attention. All good parents should be teaching their kids how to make bombs and fire weapons. We are at war, after all.

[Mark]

Problem with blowing shit up is that it garners the wrong kind of attention. I'll betcha that hollar where the fed was hanged has a cop behind every tree, helicopters buzzing them constantly, and a satellite stationed directly over them 24/7.

Before you can win an armed struggle against a military superpower, you have to:

1. Educate people so that there is enough revolutionary consciousness that most people will stop supporting the government.

2. Delegitimize the government so that it cannot claim the consent of the governed. Once you do that (by not voting), the government cannot claim to be using legitimate state-sanctioned violence and any violence it uses becomes human rights abuses by an illegitimate government to suppress freedom fighters.

3. Get the military and law enforcement on the side of the people.

At that point it usually takes very little violence and the elites will go someplace where they can feel safer.

[Cal]

"At that point it usually takes very little violence and the elites will go someplace where they can feel safer."

That about sums up what happened here Mark. Almost all my contemporaries have left the country and now live in Canada or New Zealand or Australia. I am wishing I hadn't been such a rosy spectacled optimist staying here to 'build a rainbow nation'. I am a product of western culture and western ideals are deeply ingrained in me ... and it has been breaking my heart to see the country deteriorate to third world standards with a new elite that has a culture I cannot admire or aspire to and who frankly do not want my contribution.

[Mark]

Separated at birth?

This is Roberto Michiletti, the newest right-wing dictator the U.S. has installed in Latin America:

And this is Dick Cheney:

My eyesight isn't all that good, but they sure look like the same guy to me.

[Mark]

Radio Globo in Honduras was shut down by the coup but is apparently up and broadcasting again, and has established telephone communications with people inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa. It is heartening to listen to the resistance. It you understand Spanish, you can listen here:

http://www.radioglobohonduras.com/chat3.html

People from all parts of Honduras are calling in with reports of the resistance in their areas.

There is occasional interference with the phones and with the broadcast, but right now Radio Globo is broadcasting from a secure location where the coup can't shut them down. I think they are broadcasting on the internet.

[Mark]

Government Arrests Activist for Twitter, Army Warns that Vegetarian...

Excerpt:

As [Elliot] Madison told Democracy Now:

“We’re not—we’re not the first. We’re the first in this country. During the Twitter revolution going on in Iran, in Moldova, in Guatemala, in the earlier newscast about Honduras, in all those cases, repressive governments have arrested folks for using Twitter. The only difference is, in all those cases the State Department, the US State Department, has condemned the arrest of these Twitter activists and had gone so far in the Iranian situation, the State Department, according to an article, asked Twitter to postpone its regular maintenance so as not to interfere with Iranian protesters to be able to send out their tweets. So the only difference is we’re the first arrested here.”
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Mark sez Solzhenitsyn said there was a saying in the Gulag: "Me today, you tomorrow."

Just keep tip-toeing....softly....quietly.....don't want to antagonize the authorities....the government is your friend.....

By edict of the rulers, principals, and heirs, in accordance with the power vested in them by the Constitution and with the consent of the governed, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to agree with anything they say, and you have the right to say anything that doesn't offend them. Dissent disturbs the peace and will not be tolerated.

Just be nice, peaceful, obedient little sheeple, and nobody gets hurt.

Excerpting from the article again:

Madison’s home was raided, and police took, among other things, Curious George stuffed animals and a needlepoint made by his wife’s grandmother of Lenin.

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Mark sez, nah, can't be. The cold war's over. Musta been a needlepoint of Osama bin Laden. Besides, how the heck do you tweet a needlepoint? ;)