Emails for a casualty of war

Yahoo won't hand over to a deceased Marine's family the emails in his Yahoo account. And his family doesn't have his password. Yahoo is being adamant.

But if they recommend never telling anyone your password, and then they don't release the emails of a deceased subscriber...

This is not really fair, and certainly not compassionate. Don't Yahoo, if you currently do.

Mosul attack

How do you ask a soldier to be the next to die for this administration's hubris?

What a story to wake up to...

Manhattan Hawks Allowed to Rebuild Nest

OK, as you may have read here a few weeks back, there was a controvery over some long-residing hawks being booted from an East Side building. Well, it looks like all the pressure finally got to the building's co-op board, and they're planning onletting the hawks return, at some point.

Hawks 1. East Side 0.

I'll give you outrage, you wasteful morons.

So the Times reports there's no outrage over the MTA fare and toll increase.

I imagine this is because people realize they're screwed, and are tired of fighting against the government that never seems to listen to them. So much for democracy!

Most people are faced with the responsibility of balancing their checkbooks. Why can't the people who actually GET PAID TO DO IT manage it for our public agencies?

NEJM -- Caring for the Wounded in Iraq - (warning: graphic)

New England Hournal of Medicine present a photo essay of doctors caring for the wounded from Iraq.

This is really hard to look at, but these pictures need to be seen.

Grist - Make a tax-deductible donation

Looking for a good tax deduction for a worthy cause? Then donate to the Grist, a great daily newsletter on environmental issues around the globe, delivered with humor and wit a la the Onion.

Remember last April, when you were kicking yourself about how you should have donated more to worthy causes? Here's your chance.

The Army you don't have

Deserters Are Heroes / VIEW FROM THE LEFT (SFGate.com)

Will there or won't there be a draft...? The burning question...

Will we have a new version of March Madness?

I got yourr morality right here.

So it's been discovered that most complaints to the FCC on television content come from one group, the Parents Television Council.

Nice work, Michael Powell. Good to know that you understand the difference between a "vast" number of people writing in to oppose the media consolidation nonsense you let through last year, and the "vast" number of emails from a select few that drive the so-called-indecency war that you perpetuate.

Clearly, math was not your strongest subject, was it?

Is there a way out?

The other night a really interesting person stopped by my show and caught my last set of songs. After I finished, I went over and started up a conversation, as I usually do with people in the audience, to find out more about where they're from, what they're doing in New York, etc. Turns out this person was in town for a security conference. After some discussion, I discovered this person had done some government work in the past, related to security, intelligence, and the Cold War.

The discussion turned to Iraq, when I asked what could possibly be done to sort us out there.

The one possible answer that might spare us more bloodshed: put together an all-Arab military force to replace all US and non-Arab forces currently in Iraq.

I haven't seen that talked about anywhere as a serious alternative, so it sounds rather intruiging. The biggest hurdles I can see are getting the people in DC to agree to let go of their crusade, which is no easy task, and getting the Arab nations to front the manpower. Would Kuwait and Iran be OK with putting troops in Iraq? Would the Iraqi populace be OK with them there? What would happen to those military bases we're supposedly building there? How would Israel feel with a large Arab force massed in Iraq? Could Turkey be involved? Could Egypt?

Is it worth even thinking about such things in a world that will never allow them to happen?

Motorcycles

Last night we saw The Motorcycle Diaries, a truly fantastic film. It covers an amazing road trip taken by Che Guevara and Alberto Granado in the early 1950's, across most of South America. Along the way they have a series of adventures, cross paths with all manner of characters, and treat patients with leprosy.

Go see it, it's well worth it, unlike most films out there these days.

Not the world's breadbasket for much longer?

Interesting Times piece on growing agriculture in Brazil, and the corresponding drop in US dominance in that field: "In June, the United States imported more in farm products than it sold abroad, further evidence of its eroding position."

What? Excuse me?

Right...all those farmers being forced out of business, selling their plots of land to developers to put up McMansions for people buying them although they can barely afford them on two salaries while their kids are raised by the internet, and all the while the one thing that we actually thought we'd always have, the ability to grow our own food, is slipping away.

I fear at some point in the next few years, it will get to a point of no return from endless overdevelopment and unconscious behavior. There will come a time when a cheque from Uncle Sam will not be accepted, his credit cards will be maxed out, and all his friends will pretend they don't know him.

What then will happen? The people may think, "well, at least we won't starve". But what if all the land is covered by overpriced housing, and runoff ponds, and golf courses.

That would make a funny battle, wouldn't it? If some time in the future there's a movement to convert golf courses to agricultural land? Kind of like the Amazon deforestation (which has greatly contributed to Brazil's agri-boom, I'm sure) but instead the destruction of fairways to grow crops. What a sight!

Ed Rendell: Foe of free wireless

How else do you refer to the person responsible for such a pathetic cave - in?

I met Rendell in '95 while he was Mayor of Philly. He's a feel-good guy, but here, I don't think he's making any of his non-donating constituents feel good.

Of course, Ed gave his old city a get out of jail free card on this one - great concession to his base.

In short, a dick move.

Kerik Pulls Out

Looks like they're going to have to find someone else for this job.

I think it would have been a rather interesting situation if Kerik had actually gotten the position at DHS. For one thing, it might have actually ben good in terms of securing more funding for NYC, since he was once the commish. On the other hand, the civil rights violations on his watch, not to mention his collosal failure to build a respectable police force in Iraq, make it clear that he wasn't going to work out.

Still, it brings out the fact that the closed circle of people being given access to power in this government is getting even smaller, and with all these cabinet members who have quit, at some point, it's really going to hit the fan.

NEXT!?!

This is for the birds

Know anyone who lives at 927 5th Ave, at 74th?

Tell them to put pressure on their building to put back the hawk's nest. Or to never again speak or write a word professing support for the natural world.

Whitewashing torture? (Salon.com News)

Have you heard about this article on a very troubling development within the military? It's over at Salon.com, so you have to watch a short ad for the free pass, but it's well worth it.

So on one hand you have the fascist pigs, who, following ReichsMarshall Goering's advice, stoked the fires of war and denounced the opponents as unpatriotic.

Now, the other shoe drops - calling anyone who exposes problems within the apparatus "crazy", locking them up for months, and trying to ruin their life.

Question of the decade: How low can we go?

You have to see this to believe it

The world's best Hassidic Jewish Hip-Hop Reggae around!

Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters

"Hello, caller, are you there? Go ahead..."

Well, we've got homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters. (Thanks to Jillian over at Kos)

Now that didn't take long, did it? What are we doing?

20 things to know...

From the great blog of William Rivers Pitt.

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

Did you know....

80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26 http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

Diebold is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

Jeff Dean, Diebold's Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on Diebold's central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it. (See the movie here.)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

All - not some - but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950 http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

Serious voting anomalies in Florida - again always favoring Bush - have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htm http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html http://uscountvotes.org/

All's Quiet...

I get the feeling that a lot of people are curled up in a little emotional fetal position right now. They're trying to shut their eyes and ears, and rocking back and forth, they murmur "Bush didn't win, Bush didn't win". They need to have their eyes opened, as deliberately as possible, and shown that beyond that fact is greater truth.

The tension in the air is palpable, to anyone paying the least bit of attention and not too clouded by drugs or fear. I felt it on the subway yesterday, at work, in a cab, at the restaurant we ate dinner at.

Do you remember the feelings you had right after 9/11? I remember there was this feeling of distrust towards everyone around me, while at the same time it was mixed with a deep feeling of unity with my countrymen, as much as that made me identified with them.

Now, I feel that feeling has completely reversed itself. I feel completely trusting of the people immediately around me, here in NYC. And I completely distrust my countrymen. Why? Because half of them wouldn't know the Vietnam War if it drafted them to fight.

I always wondered why the history books in our K-12 schools didn't cover the Vietnam War, and I think now I know why: Because if they actually taught kids how fucked up the US gov't was at that time, in the run up to the war, and the policies that were implemented, and the tragedy of the war itself, people might recognize modern war for what it is.

Yes, I completely distrust my countrymen. Why? Because half of them wouldn't know the Vietnam War if it drafted them to fight. What do I mean? Well, half of them voted to keep the current power. Half of them don't understand that much of the conflict around the world comes from our dependence on oil, keeping things the way they are. Half of them care more about so-called tax reform than the fact that they ain't gonna have no jobs in 6 months, the way things are going.

Yes, all is quiet, and if you search the web for things like the coming economic collapse, and the falling dollar, the results get pretty interesting. My advice is to read Studs Terkel's Hard Times. They is a'comin.

Passport ID chips? (CNN.com)

And the hits hits keep coming!

Now they want to put chips in our passports that can be hacked. Why not? hat would you expect from the people that benefit from hackable voting machines.

Sick.