Hmm, how to summarize this twisted, yet brilliant story...

Some subversive activist types bought the domain name dow-chemical.com. On December 3, dow-chemical.com sent out an email press release masquerading as the real Dow Chemical company. The press release was about the Bhopal disaster of 1984, an industrial accident at a Union Carbide factory which killed tens of thousands of Indians. Dow now owns Union Carbide, and December 3 was the anniversary of the accident (I think you can see where this is going...).

The press release more or less said "We, the Dow Chemical company, probably did cause the massive death of the Bhopal disaster, but we can't acknowledge that we did because it would cost us money, and our shareholders wouldn't like that" (go read the full version, it's great). And if anyone wanted to double check the dow-chemical.com report by going to the corresponding web address, they would find a remarkably sly parody Dow site which looks almost exactly like the Dow site. Apparently, hundreds were taken in by the hoax, and wrote back with outrage.

The real Dow was obviously, um, "displeased" with these events, and was able to shut down the site with relatively little fuss (it's actually pretty funny. In order to maximize realism [and irony], the pranksters registered dow-chemical.com under the name of the son of Dow's CEO, complete with his real home address. So when Dow went to shut down the site, they found that they already legally owned it, and just changed all the content). But people are mirroring the site all around the world, including most appropriately DowEthics.com.

In related news, a different fellow set up a parody website of Burson-Marsteller, the PR company that helped Union Carbide/Dow try to spin its way out of responsibility for Bhopal (site has since been changed). B-M promptly sued the college freshman, who wrote up a lengthy, satirical legal brief in response. I'm reading through it now, and it's pretty funny.

To read all about it, check some of these reports:

YesMen.org

®(TM)ark.com

Excellent work amigos, excellent work.

Quality columnist Eric Margolis is interviewed on CNN's "American Morning with Paula Zahn" about the new "Iraq sells nerve gas to Al Qaeda" rumors. I was happy to see that he is also highly skeptical of the report, both for its sketchy presentation, and due to his extensive knowledge of Middle Eastern regional politics. Or, in his words:

"Well, it seems to me to be a planted story that has come from someone in the administration, and when they don't have a hard story with facts and figures to it, they simply say, Well, we can't really deny or confirm it, we don't know it's true.

"Now, this story is interesting because it alleges that Iraq sold some amount of VX to an obscure Lebanese group, that is almost unheard of in the north of Lebanon, which then smuggled it out across Turkey, and somehow it has gotten into the hands of al Qaeda, it just -- the pieces don't add up..."

And here's a story about the conflict in Venezuela. An article in Spanish by reporter Hans Dieterich, translated to English and posted by Narco News, called "Why Are the Coup Plotters So Impatient?". It is a very well thought-out piece that asks a very vital question. The rich folks of Venezuela have now tried four times to oust Hugo Chavez this year. Yet the Venezuelan Constitution says that a sitting president can be ousted in an election after serving half of the term. Which means that Chavez could be legally removed, with little muss or fuss, by August of 2003. What is so pressing that the coup plotters risk violence and defeat now? (If you think that the answer has something to do with money, you're correct)

Kissinger Quits As Chairman of 9/11 Panel

So Trent Lott, one of the most powerful leaders of the Republican party, has publicly stated that Jim Crow segregation is neat. I can't imagine that's going to help them win over minority voters in the coming elections.

When I first read the quote, I was willing to believe that Lott wasn't making a statement about policy, but was merely intending to compliment Strom Thurmond, the Senate's most lovable Cro-Magnon, on his 486th birthday. I could easily imagine a situation where Lott meant, "Gee Stromy, you're a great fella! You shoulda been president."

But in 1980, Lott again said that Thurmond should've been elected president-- but it couldn't have been a light-hearted compliment then, because Strom wasn't present... And if you believe it, some anonymous guy has contacted cartoonist Tom Tomorrow, claiming that he has a tape of Lott again wishing that Strom was president at a bill-signing in 2000. And if Lott made these comments not intending them as compliments, then you have to look at their actual content, and it ain't pretty.

Back when Strom ran for president in 1948, he had a one issue platform: segregtion now, segregation forever. Or, in Strom's own words, "I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches". And Trent Lott said last week that if America had elected this redneck piece of shit president in 1948, that "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." (One wonders which "problems" Lott is referring to)

So now the media is reporting the whole event like a chess game, which political actor makes which move when, and what repercussions it might have for party politics and personal careers. But there's a lot more serious shit going on here that is not getting touched.

1) Whether or not Lott is a racist, he has been pursuing racist policies in Congress for decades.
2) "Segregation" was not just a policy of separate but equal, but a regularly violent and oppressive system to keep whites on the top of the social order. It wasn't just separate drinking fountains, but KKK attacks, lynchings, intimidation, illegal police repression, and, well, terrorism against African-Americans that lasted for about a century after the Civil War.
3) If Lott is not a racist, he is serving a racist constituency in his home state. Frankly, my opinion is that "Strom should have been president" is one of those non-racist-sounding code phrases that mainstream politicians use as a tip of the hat to bigots. It's called the "Southern strategy", and was big during the Nixon years.

But my biggest concern of all is how shallow and limited this discussion of racism is, when it could be doing so much more. I don't care if Trent Lott is a racist, I hated him before the idea had ever been broached. I'd like him, and every member of Congress to resign, and then jump into a live volcano. But plenty of white politicians and pundits seem to be trying to earn anti-racist credentials by denouncing Lott as a racist. "There, see, I am saying that the guy who said racist stuff is wrong! I still don't give a shit about minorities, and once this controversy blows over, I can go back to pretending that racism doesn't exist!"

I'm going to quote my pal Geov Parrish here, because he says it better than I will (hell, feel free to quit reading my article and read his instead):

"In Washington yesterday, on the very day Senator Lott was issuing his half- hearted 'I'm sorry if I was misunderstood' apologies, it took the famously assimilationist Clarence Thomas to remind his fellow Supreme Court justices, in arguments regarding the free speech rights of cross burners, that burning a cross is not just a source of warmth. It had been used by the KKK for a solid century as a threat of violence. It is a threat every bit as real and pointed as a mobster putting a gun to your head, and as such should be every bit as illegal. But why should Thomas' fellow justices, among the most powerful people in the country, know such a thing? We don't talk about it in polite company.

"We also don't talk about the epidemic of fatal shootings of black and other non-white citizens by police forces across the country; or of law enforcement, and laws themselves, whose very structure impacts non-white communities most heavily. (The War on Drugs is the most obvious but hardly the only example.) The 1860 United States census counted 3,950,546 slaves in the country; in 2002, we're up to over half that number of inmates in our prisons, and growing rapidly despite declining crime rates. It's a population that is heavily non-white. Outside the prison walls, from the reservation to the farmworker encampment to the ghetto, the worst poverty and the most toxic environments in America are suffered by nonwhites. People of color have lower birthweights, do worse in school, get lousier jobs, get paid less at those jobs, get worse health care, and die younger than their white counterparts. Trent Lott is a symptom. Trent Lott is not the problem here."

White America has chosen a very convenient definition for racism: "hating someone of another race." Therefore, as long as you don't go around stringing up people from other races, then you're not a racist. Hell, let's take it one step further. I know a lot of white folks that act like they're candidates for sainthood for not being bigots. Great, you've got one friend who's Chinese and another who's black. What do you want, a fucking medal?

Bottom line: it's easy for us white folks to point at Trent Lott, or Strom the fossil, or neo-nazi skinheads and denounce them for their overt, crazy racism. What's hard is actually looking at the regular racist attitudes and practices in our society, and the way that WE BENEFIT from racist institutions. And perhaps hardest of all is to decide to voluntarily give up these privileges, and to begin the work to examine our culture, minds and behaviors, and begin making changes.

Writer bell hooks has written a lot about the feminist movement, and one thing that has alwasy intrigued me was the idea of the consciousness-rasing groups that were formed at the movement's birth. Sexism is a series of beliefs, attitudes and practices, and these groups existed so that both men and women (women first), could talk and explore what they thought and felt, to get to the root of it all. Women finding out that deep down, they actually had come to believe that women were inferior to men, men finding out that they also held sexist beliefs which hurt both themselves and the women in their lives. This sort of thing was important, because without seeing the problem, you can't fix the problem. Once the people realized the sexism within them, they could start to combat those beliefs, replace harmful behaviors with helpful ones, etc.

Frankly, I think we need some consciousness-raising groups about race and race relations, but I doubt that that will ever happen. White people are very afraid of talking about race. They "know" that they aren't racist (i.e. they don't fervently hate other races), but are afraid that they'll "misspeak" and be permanently branded as racists. In the groups that hooks talked about, the thoughts, not the people who held them, were the problem. You weren't judged to be a bad person for having sexist thoughts, you identified them so you could try to conquer them. But these days, judgements would probably come. And therefore I'm pretty sure that few white people would get involved with this sort of thing. I'm an activist, but not an optimist.

This has to be one of the longer rants that I've ever written on here, but it's important. After Trent Lott is expelled or punished or what-have-you, White America will go back to pretending that racism is just a minor matter. And thanks to our popular theology of social evolution (i.e. "American society just naturally moves towards more freedom, more equality and more justice"), white folks will feel like they don't have to take any action to fix those minor problems. They'll just fix themselves, eventually.

So go ahead and flame away now. I'll take the heat, and I'll stay in the kitchen.

I don't trust polls, this is strictly for humor value.

Saw a recent news article with the headline Fundamentalists Losing Favor with Public. The article appeared on a gay news website, so the authors have to really contain their glee at the bad news for their natural predator, the Preachy Fundamentalist Christian.

You can see the detailed results of the survey here.

The question asked 1002 American adults was "Is your impression of people in this group generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or somewhere in-between?" and then they were given 11 "types" of people to rate. Military officers beat out everybody. "Evangelicals" came in second to last, just below "lesbians" and just above "prostitutes."

Which is hi-larious on many, many different levels.

Newspaper reporters are taught that news stories should follow an "inverted pyramid" structure: the most important aspect of the article should appear first, and then facts should be reported in order of declining importance. This is done because many people will read the headlines, fewer will read the beginning of the article, and even fewer will read the story all the way to the end. Therefore a sloppily written headline and opening can mislead many, even if the rest of the article is technically correct.

The latest article of this type: Report Cites Al Qaeda Deal For Iraqi Gas: U.S. Suspects Nerve Agent VX Was Smuggled Through Turkey

To the casual reader, this headline and subheading will probably leave three impressions: Iraq and Al Qaeda are working together; Al Qaeda now has chemical weapons; somehow, Turkey is working together with Al Qaeda and Iraq.

But, if we deconstruct the story, we find that it's really a flimsy tale. Perhaps the allegations of Al Qaeda and Iraqi chemical gas are true, but the evidence sure isn't in this story.

When you take a closer look, nearly every piece of "evidence" for this story is based on the statements of two unnamed "officials with firsthand knowledge of the report and its source." These two anonymous sources claim that they received information from another source. They don't disclose this other guy's identity either, but they say that they are confident that the other anonymous guy's information is accurate.

And that guy's "information" is that "Islamic extremists affiliated with al Qaeda took possession of a chemical weapon in Iraq" in October or November. There is not much hard evidence to support this claim. But running with the allegation, some military analysts have speculated that the chemical weapon could be VX nerve gas, and that the weapon could have been smuggled through Turkey, but there is no evidence to support those claims either.

It's not really "news" when two guys tell a reporter something that somebody told them. It's called "rumor."

The headline should have read something like "Anonymous Sources Believe Al Qaeda Affiliate Has Obtained Chemical Weapons". Or more accurately, "Anonymous Sources, Possibly with Their Own Goals and Agendas, Tell Washington Post Reporter That Some Guy That They Say Is Trustworthy Told Them That An Al Qaeda Affiliate Has Obtained Chemical Weapons: Analysts Admit They Have Few Facts, but Make Speculations Anway".

[update]

CNN.com has printed what is almost the counter-article to the one above, "Officials: No hard evidence in nerve agent report". But again, the article is based solely upon the alleged statements of anonymous government officials, so there's not really much more reason to believe this article over the first one. Since I am a skeptic (a person who needs substantial evidence to believe anything), and the second article quotes "officials" who counsel against premature conclusions and speculation, I find it more credible. But, it could just as easily be a government cover-up of an alarming story. We have no way of knowing.

Note to news reporters: until you actually have a news story based on facts and evidence, shut the hell up.

[/update]

Media Juggernaut Coalition- cable conglomerate Liberty Media is looking to create a satelite TV system, possibly with the help of the News Corp. media giant. Also, Viacom is expecting the FCC to relax regulations that will allow it to buy even more television stations in 2003.

Postal Service May Be Urged to Privatize- "President Bush plans to name a commission today to look into privatizing part of the United States Postal Service, warning that the government cannot continue to provide universal mail service at current rates, administration officials said." Yes, Bush wants to privatize the post office. FedEx board of directors become erect at the news.

Aliens Pledge Their Support in War with Iraq- look out peace activists, Weekly World News reports that a group of America-lovin' extraterrestials are backing Bush's war plans.

A People Defends its Democracy Against Media Power- another coup attempt is underway in Venezuela, the rich trying to convince the world that the nation's masses are fed up with President Hugo Chavez, when in fact the rich are simply tired of not being the ones in control. The country's media are in on this anti-Chavez conspiracy, and the people of Venezuela have had enough:

"An amazing sight: Thousands of people have surrounded the headquarters of five commercial television stations (RCTV, Globovision, TVS, Meridiano TV, Venevision) and are treating them to one hell of a cazerolazo (pot-banging). They are shouting 'medios golpistas!' (putschist media) and 'terroristas!'. The channels have stopped (probably only briefly) broadcasting anti governmental propaganda and are at last giving some pro governmental demonstrations some coverage.

"The television commentators keep reminding their audience of the grave threat to their lives and their profession ... But these declarations somehow fall flat when you see the images of the demonstrators: many women, old men (banging away impressively for their age), very ordinary looking citizens, many still in their work clothes. No sticks, no guns, no people trying to climb over the fences and walls of the establishments. Just peaceful groups of citizens saying: we've had enough, how about showing a little bit of us now instead of always showing rich folks demonstrating in the east of Caracas and instead of trying by any means possible to make your audiences think that this government is undemocratic, dictatorial, and 'castro-communist.'"

Right ON!

Protesters storm Defender's offices- " A crowd of people angry about the Chicago Defender's coverage of a fatal police shooting over the weekend stormed the paper's South Side offices Tuesday and roughed up at least two newsroom employees ... The paper's publisher, Eugene Scott, said the protesters were angry that a story in Monday's Defender about the police shooting of Donnell Strickland, 24, did not mention that many people at the Hilliard Homes public housing complex contended Strickland was attempting to surrender when he was shot.

"Scott said the Defender, historically the most influential black paper in America, often takes an advocacy position on African-American issues. He said that he was disappointed that the paper's coverage Monday did not include community criticism of the police reported by other media outlets."

While I don't like that these protesters smacked around some random news personnel, I can't argue with much of the rest of it.

I CANNOT believe this shit. I'm so angry I can barely type.

U.S. set to use mines in Iraq

"The Pentagon is preparing to use anti-personnel land mines in a war with Iraq, despite U.S. policy that calls for the military to stop using the mines everywhere in the world except Korea by 2003."

Jesus Christ!

The people of Iraq got bombed back to the Middle Ages during the Gulf War, irradiated by the US' depleted uranium tank shells, have suffered through a decade of economic sanctions that's killed more than a million civilians, get bombed fairly regularly by US & UK planes in the illegal "no-fly zone," and now we're going to fill their country with landmines so that a generation of "liberated" Iraqi youth can know the wonders of shrapnel scars and prosthetic limbs?

I'm actually beginning to hope that there is a Hell, because there ain't no Earth suffering that can punish these Washington warmongers enough to balance the scales.

[An enraged thanks to Dack.]

Probably the biggest media news story of the day:

Ruling in Australia May Have Big Impact on Web News Sites

Australian plutocrat Joseph Gutnick sued Barron's magazine for defamation this year. Even though the magazine is based out of the U.S., Gutnick insisted on suing the magazine in Australia, since you could read the internet version of the story in Australia via the internet. In addition, freedom of the press laws in Australia are much weaker in Australia than they are in New Jersey, making the lawsuit that much easier to win.

Today, Australia's highest court agreed that Gutnick had the right to sue the Americans in Australia.

This isn't entirely new, we saw a similar case earlier this year regarding journalist Greg Palast and the Barrick Gold mining company (hmm, Gutnick is in the minining industry as well, wonder if there's a connection).

Basically, this court ruling gives further credence to the idea that you can publish an article on your personal webserver in your own hometown, and be subject to the free speech regulations of a different society, thousands of miles away.

US Won't Say Which Pharmaceutical GM Crop Escaped from Prodigene Corporation- Christ!

There's this corporation called ProdiGene. In their words, "ProdiGene is a private biotechnology company pioneering the use of transgenic plants to produce recombinant proteins for the pharmaceutical, animal health and industrial protein markets."

Apparently, some of ProdiGene's genetically-engineered corn contaminated a crop of non-genetically-engineered soybeans. The company was forced to buy around 500,000 tons of the contaminated soybeans and destroy them at a cost of $2.8 million, and then pay a fine for $250,000.

What makes this story so scary is that ProdiGene doesn't just engineer tomatoes that stay fresh longer or corn that is resistant to weed-killer. ProdiGene creates crops that internally produce medicinal chemicals. And as the headline above says, neither the government not the corporation will tell the public what bio-pharmaceutical was present in the tainting corn. Vegan Blog has investigated the company and speculates that the soybeans could've been tainted with an AIDS medication, a blood-clotting agent, an insulin-production stimulant, an industrial adhesive, or a vaccine for hepatitis B.

Mmm. Tastes like... The Future!

[Thanks to Politics in the Zeros]

Secret blasts rattle Cheney's neighbors

"Neighbors of Vice President Dick Cheney are being shaken and rattled at least once a day by mysterious blasts on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory where Cheney lives.

The Navy says the explosions are part of a construction project that has been going on for several months now, but won't say more because the project is classified."

Go ahead and read that article. It's kind of spooky. Mysterious explosions as part of a classified construction project at Dick Cheney's house. Hmmm... Maybe it's just an attempt to make his home sturdier, and offer the VP more protection from possible attacks. Or maybe it's something more sinister:

Artist rendering of Dick Cheney Memorial Superweapon

And I can't help reading that above article without thinking of this.

I was very happy to see this music news headline:

Audioslave Deliver Like Santa Claus, Creed Booed At Radio Show

I was happy to see the positive review given to Audioslave, my friends and quasi-employers, but I was even happier to see the second half of the title.

I was pleased to see that folks seem to finally be fed up with the weak-ass Christ-rock stylings of Creed. The article says that the audience booed the band, and that half of them left before the band had finished their set.

Which leads me to wonder: the fact that audiences are turning on this Christian band--is it proof that there is indeed a God, or is it proof that no such God exists?

A lot of folks seem to have linked to the blog because of my entry about Viggo Mortensen's anti-war dialogue on the Charlie Rose show. I traced one of these referrers back (lies.com. Good site name), and found a good link for those of you who are sad that you missed it.

You can download a large video clip of the interview at this link. It's the file crtt120302a.zip. It's a zipped .asf file, and if that doesn't make sense to you, maybe the download won't do much for you. The part with Viggo about the war kicks in around the 10 minute mark, and lasts till pretty near the end of the 18 minute file.

(If the owner of that site doesn't want that link there, just let me know and I'll take it down with an apology)

The Evolution Control Committee- Rocked by Rape
A Tribe Called Quest- Excursions
The White Stripes- Fell in Love with a Girl
Rancid- Lady Liberty
Cursive- The Martyr
System of a Down- Boom!
Blackalicious- Alphabet Aerobics
The Feederz- Love in the Ruins
Tom Waits- Step Right Up
Pissing Razors- Mass Corruption
The People Who Do That- Bush Press Conference
Lightning Bolt- Thirteen Monsters
The Coup- Funk
Necromantix- Alice in Psycholand
Bill Hicks- The War
Dead Kennedys- Jock-O-Rama
Refused- Tannhauser/Derive
System of a Down- A.D.D.
Mindless Self Indulgence- Royally Fucked
Eminem- Snookered
Cee-lo- Closet Freak
System of a Down- Roulette
Eric B & Rakim- Juice Know the Ledge

Loooong weekend. Work-related entertainment mainly, organizing political tabling at rock shows. "Saw" four concerts in two days. For two of those concerts, I was in the lobby attending to activist volunteers, not watching (of the remaining two shows, at one I saw only one band, and then had to leave to see one band at the second concert. Did I really attend 4 concerts of more than two dozen bands and only catch two performances?). Which was actually a good thing, since so many of the bands sucked. Trust Co.? Taproot? Who listens to this shite?

At tonight's tabling, I had one of my fellow Kill Radio DJs spread the word (this wasn't me being an opportunist, it was time constraint. Folks dropped out, and I had to turn to my colleagues to help me out). Which was frequently satisfying, as we were promoting our "destroy corporate radio" movement inside one of corporate radio's largest yearly concert events. I'm not trying to pretend that our little stunt dealt corporate media a stunning blow, but I do enjoy any and all things subversive, even the little ones.

Over the course of the two days, we also managed to get a lot of publicity for Sweatshop Watch, RAINN, and the Anarchist Black Cross Federation. Thanks to all them for helping me out.

Sorry, no insightful political commentary today, I'm barely conscious. Well, okay, one tidbit: Al Qaeda now seems intent on creating its holy war between Islam and Judeo-Christianity by attacking Israel and trying to draw it into the "war on terrorism." I can't think of anything that could draw more Muslims to Osama bin Laden's cause than that. They're some clever evil bastards, those Al Qaedans.

Should've posted this last week. Thanks to everyone who tuned, and stayed tuned and re-tuned in, due to that day's massive technical difficulties. Tomorrow's (12-9) show should run much more smoothly.

Ministry- TV II
Atari Teenage Riot- Revolution Action
The X-ecutioners- Turntablists Anthem
Ozomatli- La Misma Cancion
Quarashi- Stick em Up
The People Who Do That- Architect of Peace
The Donnas- Gimme My Radio
Unkle- Bloodstain
Refused- Hook Line and Sinker
The Coup- Dig It
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Art Star
The Vendettas- Hidden Evil
Rev. Horton Heat- Big Little Baby
Tricky- Christiansands
Mr. Bungle- Desert Search for the Techno Allah
Nine Inch Nails- We're In This Together Now (As Deep As Can Be Mix)
Against Me- Those Anacho Punx Are Mysterious
Henry Rollins & Bad Brains- Kick Out the Jams
Radiohead- Let Down
Teresa Stratas- Youkali Tango
TPWDT- Bush Press Conference
Talib Kweli & dead prez- Politics as Usual
The White Stripes- Hello Operator
Anti-Flag- This Machine Kills Fascists (live)
Buju Banton- Circumstances
Bauhaus- Ziggy Stardust

I hate the PR industry more than just about anything.

Which is why recent turmoil in the field of corporate lying has got me a'chucklin'.

First of all, I find that O'Dwyer's PR Daily--the most prominent site for "breaking public relations news"-- has switched from a free website to a subscription service. That would imply that they are having trouble financially. Hee hee. Actually, I think I am going to end up paying the $20 for a yearly subscription, because I want to keep an eye on these bastards.

Second, we have a crisis over at the PR firm of Qorvis. One of Qorvis' biggest clients was the government of Saudi Arabia. Now, as more and more evidence comes to light suggesting that members of the Saudi elite have been funding Al Qaeda, the former heads of Qorvis are fleeing. That's some good PR, knowing when your clients' reputation is starting to damage your own.

And finally, PR Watch reports that the Qorvis heads are now dodging Congressional subpoenas, presumably about their relationships with the Saudis.

Sorry folks, not much time to post things lately.

Two articles that have struck my attention though:

HBO Recycling Gulf War Hoax?- The HBO movie channel is showing an original TV movie called Live from Baghdad, a "true story" movie about CNN reporters during the first Gulf War. Unfortunately, the movie is standing one tale on its head. I've written here numberous times about the baby incubator lie spun by a PR company that helped sell the Iraq war to the American public. But according to FAIR, the HBO movie implies that just the opposite was true:

CNN correspondent: You are aware of the allegations, doctor?
[Kuwaiti] Doctor: I have heard these stories.
CNN producer Ingrid Formanek (whisper): This sucks. He's scared.
CNN producer Robert Wiener (whisper): Yeah, this is bad.
Doctor: I can tell you, nothing has happened at this hospital... that I know.
Correspondent: But at other hospitals?
Doctor: I cannot tell about other hospitals.
Iraqi handler: Finish! Finish! We go now!
Formanek: To the other hospitals?
Handler: No, back to Baghdad!
Wiener: Hey, hey, that was part of the deal!
Handler: That is story.

Sadly, as a decade has passed since the original story, a new generation of people might come to believe the lie again. I have to wonder if corporate synergy is at work here. A movie about CNN reporters on HBO, when both networks are owned by AOL-Time Warner. Perhaps the movie is meant as a puff piece about the news network.

UN: Water Deemed As Public Good, Human Right- with the increasing efforts by mega-corporations to privatize water in Third World countries (and don't think that we're not next), this story comes as a bit of good news. "The United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights issued a statement Wednesday declaring access to water a human right and stating that water is a social and cultural good, not merely an economic commodity." Granted, UN declarations are ignored at the drop of a hat, but still...

There's this little move trilogy called the Lord of the Rings. Maybe you've heard of it.

Two of the movies' stars and its director were on America's dullest talk show, Charlie Rose this evening for a half-hour to talk about it.

The guy on the far right is actor Viggo Mortensen. In the Lord of the Rings movies, he plays Aragorn, a noble warrior who is reluctantly assuming his country's throne.

Check his t-shirt in the photo. It says "No More Blood for Oil".

Charlie Rose asked Viggo about his shirt, which then turned into about 5-6 minutes of debate about the war on Iraq on national television, a sad rarity.

Viggo said that he has heard many people compare the good vs. evil plot of LOTR to the U.S. vs. terrorism events running through real life. Viggo wanted to oppose this point of view, and proposed a counter-analogy in which the terror and loss of innocent life caused by the U.S. war on terrorism would make the country more like the movies' villains than like their heroes. Host Charlie Rose seemed to want to shut Mortensen up, and took some cheap shots in an apparent effort to beat him into submission, something like "well what action would you have taken after 9-11 that would have prevented the recent terrorist attacks in Kenya?"

Mortensen managed to weather Rose's inquisition, and the host seemed to realize that it was best just to let the man say his piece and then move on to talking about the movies. Mortensen's main point seemed to be that the U.S. response to the 9-11 attacks is dangerous, deadly, and nearly unquestioned. He came across as extremely intelligent and reasonable, and managed to hijack 5 minutes of movie promo time to express a politically unpopular point of view.

For all that, he's got my respect.

This shit is GENIUS.

As I've mentioned here before, the recent Homeland Security Act authorizes the government to create an amazingly huge database to be used to spy and collect data on American citizens. [Insert your own horrified "1984" allusion here] It's called "Total Information Awareness," a program of the Information Awareness Office. And this office will be run by all-around scumbag John Poindexter, the dude who brought us the Iran-Contra affair. Violations of privacy will become legion.

But blogger John Gilmore has an idea (which he says was inspired by SF Weekly columnist Matt Smith): the Total Information Awareness Demonstration for Poindexter.

"The SF Weekly's column by Matt Smith in the Dec 3 issue points out that there may be some information that John M. and Linda Poindexter of 10 Barrington Fare, Rockville, MD, 20850, may be missing in their pursuit of total information awareness. He suggests that people with information to offer should phone +1 301 424 6613 to speak with that corrupt official and his wife...

"Matt Smith at matt.smith@sfweekly.com has offered to 'publish anything that readers can convincingly claim to have obtained legally.'"

In other words, these fellas have made the brilliant call to action to gather all possible personal information about John Poindexter and his wife Linda. If Poindexter wants to take away all our privacy rights, let's make sure he gets the first taste. Find everything you can on the motherfucker, and get it to Smith.

[Thanks to Politics in the Zeros]

You're gonna love this one.

The Bush administration and the Pentagon want a war with Iraq, and know that the best way to justify such a war would be to publicly display damning evidence that Iraq is a threat to the United States.

Unfortunately for them, the CIA--the primary source for this kind of evidence--can't find any.

To rectify this situation, the Defense Department has begin a campaign to create its own damning Iraqi evidence, and to discredit the CIA. Talk about playing hardball.

Now get this.

The Defense Department is relying heavily on the Iraqi National Conference (INC) for their damning evidence. The INC presents itself as a dissident force ready to step in and take the reins of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's cluster-bombed corpse after the US invasion. Frankly, most of the information I've read about them paints them as Westernized intellectuals, out of touch with the Iraqi people, who like to embezzle money when they can (perhaps including $2 million from the US State Dept. that they've somehow "lost").

Now, according to PR Watch, the INC was created with the help of a nefarious PR firm called The Rendon Group. And The Rendon Group is currently on the payroll of the Defense Department.

In other words, the Defense Department is paying money for fake intelligence data to justify a war with Iraq, because the real intelligence data does not.

Which hopefully leads you back to the question, "why are we attacking Iraq again?"

Britain accused of providing Saddam torture instruments- One of the biggest PR backfires this year. The UK government's Foreign Office released a report today accusing the Iraqi government of torturing political prisoners, presumably as just one more brick in the "Saddam is so evil that we must bomb his country" wall. But the man the Foreign Office chose to present the report to the press, former Iraqi prisoner Hussain al-Shahristani, hijacked the event. Most embarrassingly for the British government, al-Shahristani claimed that during his own detention, he was held with British-made handcuffs, and that when the torturers used drills to put agonizing holes in their victims' bones, that the drills were also made in Britain. Then, when it was Q&A time, the press corps asked if the British government was so concerned about human rights violations in Iraq, then why had it been silent during Saddam's chemical warfare attacks during the 80s.

Bush: Iraq Inspections 'Not Encouraging'- "The lack of a confrontation thus far between Iraq and inspectors has the White House worried that the Iraqi president might be winning the early public relations battle by creating an impression that he is complying. Aides said those fears prompted the president and Vice President Dick Cheney to deliver separate speeches Monday casting doubt on Saddam's intentions."

Cable Charges Ahead with Higher Rates- the Comcast corporation is raising the rates it charges its customers for cable television. Significantly. And other cable companies are following suit. Since the wondrous Telecom Act of 1996, cable prices have risen 45%.

Critics fear Comcast's new muscle could hurt competitive Internet offerings- the Comcast corporation has just purchased AT&T Broadband, a cable and high-speed internet company. The merged company is now the nation's largest cable service, twice as big as its nearest competitor, the also enormous AOL-Time Warner. As broadband internet becomes more and more popular, Comcast may have a lot of leverage in shaping the future of the medium.

FDA Finds Day-After Contraceptive Ads Inaccurate- "Plan B" is the name of a pill that a woman can take after sex that can prevent them from becoming pregnant. The pill can be taken up to 3 days after the sex and still be effective. Plan B is marketed as such, saying in their ads that a woman can "has 72 hours after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy with Plan B emergency contraception." But after review, the FDA finds those sorts of claims are misleading. The pill can be effective 72 hours after, but its effectiveness decreases the longer you wait. In other words, the ad should probably say something like "if you take this after unprotected sex, Plan B can prevent pregnancy. Best if you take it right after, but if you take it as late as 72 hours later, it still might work."

The DiIulio Letter- John DiIulio was an assistant to President George W. Bush, and was appointed to run the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He quit the job in August of 2001. In October of 2002, DiIulio wrote a scathing letter about the Bush administration to Esquire magazine, focusing on the regime's politics-over-policy style (especially Karl Rove). This letter, which was explicitly on-the-record, became the basis of an article being published in the January 2003 edition of Esquire. News of the story hit the NY Times on Sunday morning. By Monday morning, Ari Fleischer was denying the story wholesale, and that same day DiIulio issued an official "apology," whatever that means. Sounds like someone pressured the man hard.

[edit]

More on the DiIulio apology. He actually issued two statements yesterday. The first argues that the finished Esquire article contains two specific quotes that he did not say, and that the article was unfair to Rove. He apologized for "any and all misimpressions." But later that day, he issued a second statement through a spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania, where he works. Shortly after Ari Fleischer called DiIulio's criticisms of the White House "baseless and groundless," the UPenn spokesperson stated that "John DiIulio agrees that his criticisms were groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and examples. He sincerely apologizes and is deeply remorseful."

Bush anything but moronic, according to author- Mark Crispin Miller has made himself a small cottage industry out of documenting the language-manglings of George W. Bush. But now he's taking a new stance, claiming that patterns in Bush's proper and tortured syntax: "Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a puppet. I think that Bush is a sociopathic personality. I think he's incapable of empathy. He has an inordinate sense of his own entitlement, and he's a very skilled manipulator. And in all the snickering about his alleged idiocy, this is what a lot of people miss." Miller makes these claims by arguing that Bush makes his verbal gaffes whenever he talks about "compassion, or idealism, or altruism." But Miller finds no such mistakes whenever Bush talks about violence or revenge. I think it's a stretch, but you can read it for yourself.

1) Patriot Act earns council's `no' vote- The city council of Eugene, Oregon has unanimously called for a repeal of the USA Patriot Act. Turns out that they are the 15th American city to do so. Want your hometown to join the list? Go harass your local councilman.

2) The Perpetual War Portfolio- Our pal Dack has created a small theoretical stock portfolio of companies that will flourish and prosper during America's Unending War. Y'know, companies that make fighter jets and cluster bombs and tank shells. Dack is fast becoming the Jimi Hendrix of dark, bitter political satire.

I saw my fair share of anti-Thanksgiving articles this year, the standard "you are celebrating the genocide of the Indians" pieces. On one hand, they are correct, and it is probably a good idea to get up in the faces of white Americans on a regular basis to remind them (or teach them for the first time) about the aspects of their history that they tend to forget.

But on the other hand, the anti-Thanksgiving pieces tend to knowingly pretend that anyone who celebrates Thanksgiving actually does so because of their great affection for or gratitude towards the pilgrim colonists of the 1600s. Thanksgiving is more or less a forced annual family reunion, filled with poultry-centric gluttony and football games, officially marking the start of the dark consumer frenzy known as "the holiday season." I think that the anti-Thanksgiving writers know full well that to most Americans, the holiday has nothing to do with pilgrims and Indians. So when they lean on the "official" meaning of the holiday to make their point, I feel they are being slightly deceptive.

Anyhow, I found one good critical Thanksgiving piece that doesn't fall into that trap. It focuses on the history of Thanksgiving-- not the 1621 New England feast, but looks at how the holiday was or wasn't celebrated from that day till the present.

1621- "The First Thanksgiving"
November 1777- The Continental Congress declares a day of Thanksgiving to thank God for an American military victory over a powerful British general.
July 1861- Confederate Congress declares a day of Thanksgiving to thank God for their victory over the Union in the First Battle of Bull Run
April 1862- President Lincoln declares day of Thanksgiving to thank God for the Union victory over the Confederacy at Shiloh
September 1862- Confederate Congress declares a day of Thanksgiving to thank God for their victory over the Union in the Second Battle of Bull Run
August 1863- President Lincoln declares day of Thanksgiving to thank God for the Union victory over the Confederacy at Gettysburg
(see a pattern developing here?)
December 1865- President Andrew Johnson establishes a national Thanksgiving holiday to celebrate the Union victory in the Civil War
October 1931- President Hoover becomes the first president to actual make a rhetorical connection between the national holiday of Thanksgiving and the pilgrims

Maybe I'm just a history geek, but I find that fascinating. What we have come to think of as a centuries-old tradition honoring the roots of American society, was more often a series of quasi-religious celebrations to say with joy "our enemies are dead, but we are not! Thanks, God!" The "roots" aspects were inserted centuries later, and by now have largely been replaced by a more New Age "what should I be thankful for in my life" philosophy coupled with shopping and nostalgia poisoning.

I think the important lesson in there is about the evolution of meaning. Stories change, ideas mutate, "ancient" tradition dies and is reborn in unrecognizable new forms.

New "Get Your War On" strips available.

Also, for you L.A. folks, GYWO author David Rees will be in town promoting his book from Dec 3 & 4. I think I'm going to his odd appearance Dec 4 at the Knitting Factory at noon with jazz musician Les McCann to raise money for Afghan landmine removal.

"The People Who Do That" is a sketch comedy troop (troup? troupe?) here in Los Angeles that has a weekly show on Kill Radio. They are now releasing a CD based on their excellent stage show "National Corporate Radio", a beyond-scathing take on the pompous NPR network, the White House's war on terrorism, and on modern journalism in general.

You can listen to some choice samples here:

Dick Cheney receives the "Architect of Peace" award

George W. Bush speaks plainly at press conference

NCR report about the formation of the mega-conglomerate Scamron Inc.

You can buy a copy of the album at the bottom of this page. Support subversive comedy!