wind circadian rhythm

My friends band is simply amazing...and you should revel in their pressence!

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:04:15 GMT

go there to preview their songs in i-tunes in the i-store, and buy a couple!

hell, I'll SEND you money to buy it through pay pal!

check it out!

it's a nice mix between Brian Eno/the Cure/the Pixies & the Smashing Pumpkins...the way they cresendo into their tracks, you'll see.

Check it Out :):)

Mumia's Trial is on the 17th!

Wed, 16 May 2007 17:39:13 GMT

from www.freemumia.org

Who Is Mumia?

Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning Pennsylvania journalist who exposed police violence against minority communities. On death row since 1982, he was wrongfully sentenced for the shooting of a police officer. New evidence, including the recantation of a key eyewitness, new ballistic and forensic evidence and a confession from Arnold Beverly (one of the two killers of Officer Faulkner) points to his innocence! Mumia had no criminal record.

For the last 25 years, Abu-Jamal has been locked up 23 hours a day, denied contact visits with his family, had his confidential legal mail illegally opened by prison authorities, and put into punitive detention for writing his first of three books while in prison, Live From Death Row.

His case is currently on appeal before the Federal District Court in Philadelphia. Mumia's fight for a new trial has won the support of tens of thousands around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, The European Parliament, Alice Walker, Paul Newman, Maya Angelou, Sister Helen Prejean, Danny Glover, Rage Against The Machine, the Detroit and San Francisco City Councils, Amnesty International, and many others. Mumia Abu-Jamal's fate rests with all those people who believe in every person's right to justice and a fair trial.

"I remain innocent. A court cannot make an innocent man guilty. Any ruling founded on injustice is not justice. The righteous fight for life, liberty, and for justice can only continue." Mumia Abu-Jamal , Oct. 31, 1998

Facts about Mumia's 1982 trial:

* The policeman was killed with a 44 caliber gun. Abu-Jamal's gun which he was licensed to carry as a night-time taxi driver, was a 38 caliber.

* The police never tested Abu-Jamal's gun to see if it had been recently fired. They never tested his hands to see if he had fired a gun. They have never shown Abu-Jamal 's gun to be the fatal weapon.

* No police officers present at Abu-Jamal's arrest claimed to have heard Jamal's "confession" until two months after it allegedly occurred. This was right after Abu-Jamal had filed police brutality charges.

* Abu-Jamal's doctor said that Abu-Jamal, who was unconscious, said nothing. He reported that a nurse found police with loaded guns pointed at Mumia as he lay unconscious in his hospital bed.

* William Singletary, a Vietnam veteran and local businessman, saw the whole incident and has testified that Abu-Jamal was not the shooter. However, the police forced him to change his story and intimidated him into leaving Philadelphia.

* Other key witnesses, such as Veronica Jones -- who now testifies in support of Abu-Jamal, were harassed into giving false testimony. Two prosecution witnesses were given special favors, including exemption from criminal prosecution, for their testimony.

Elements in an unfair trial:

* The Judge, Albert Sabo, sentenced more people to death than any other sitting judge in the US.

* The public defender didn't interview a single witness in preparation for the trial, and didn't have funds for defending a capital case.

* The prosecutor removed 11 qualified African Americans from the jury. He also argued for the death penalty because of Mumia's membership in the Black Panther Party, a practice later condemned as unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.

* The racial bias of Philadelphia's courts has resulted in 120 people on death row, all but 13 non-white.

Download Flyer:

CALLING ON ALL SUPPORTERS OF JUSTICE FOR MUMIA!!

SAVE THE DATE - STAND WITH MUMIA ON MAY 17, 2007, FROM 4pm to 6pm at the U.S. Court of Appeals Building, on 7th St. and Mission St., SF, CA. Join with the organizations and individuals that comprise the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and many others to demand that the Federal Appeals Court grants Mumia a New Trial at which all of the evidence proving his INNOCENCE can be presented for the first time! The court will either grant a new trial, re-affirm Mumia's life sentence or re-institute the Death Penalty.

As described more completely in the article below, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will be hearing oral arguments by Mumia's legal team, whose goal is to free Mumia, and the State of Pennsylvania, who hopes to murder Mumia, on Thursday, May 17 in Philadelphia. Actions are being planned around the world and if you can't make it to Philly, come to San Francisco and Stand With Mumia at the Federal Building!

Mumia's supporters who cannot make it to either San Francisco or Philadelphia are encouraged to organize local events, including street corner rallies, house meetings, campus activities and any other action that can help spread the truth about Mumia and the serious juncture that his 26-year fight for justice has reached.

More details of the planned actions will be posted soon.

*Call the Mobilization office at 415-255-1085 to find out what you can do to help Free Mumia and to build the biggest turn-out possible on May 17th!

*Reminder: 4/15, 4/21, 5/12 NYC; 4/24, 5/17 Philadelphia & SF events.

FREE MUMIA!!

In Solidarity,

Jeff Mackler and Laura Herrera Co-Coordinators The Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal San Francisco, CA 415-255-1085

hilarious...

Tue, 15 May 2007 22:13:50 GMT

Another Unintended 9/11 Prediction From An Awesome Sci-Fi Writer

Sat, 12 May 2007 01:04:29 GMT

thanks to soulismissingclick

----------------------------------------------------------------

The previous Sci-Fi prediction I was talking about is the pilot episode of 'The Lone Gunmen,' a spinoff of the X-Files made by the same people, which aired March 11, 2001. You can find it in 6 parts on YouTube, or try and torrent it.

Some Facts to Ponder

Fri, 11 May 2007 20:13:08 GMT

The main reason we are so dependent on the resources of the third world is our artificially crafted addiction to meat (and petroleum.) 20 lbs of grain go into making 1 lb of beef = not enough soil resources here to sustain the meat habit. (and the same inefficiency goes into poultry as well - KFC is known for rainforest destruction for the cultivation of chicken feedstock.) And so we go to the third world - Central and South America - the CIA keeping cartels in power so we can get grain feedstock for our livestock, while keeping said feedstock cheap enough that it is profitable. And the third world suffers.

Fuckin' PETA with their 'animal rights,' what about HUMAN RIGHTS? Yeah, that's it PETA, keep the debate away from what really matters...

So here's some facts, try and give your brain a workout by pondering their real world impact...

(original article)

* in the past 20 years approximately 1 million species have disappeared from the world's tropical forests.

* from 1960-1985 over 40% of the Central American rainforests were destroyed to create grazing land for cattle. *(I have heard a recent figure of 70%)*

* the United States imports over 100,000 tons of beef from Central America each year.

* it takes 23 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef.

* one acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes. one acre of land can produce 165 pounds of beef.

* the U.S. cattle industry produces 158 million tons of waste per year.

* livestock production is the #1 cause of water pollution in the U.S.

* 22 million acres of land have become unusable due to desertification.

* 85% of the topsoil loss in the U.S. is the result of livestock production.

* in the U.S. 33% of ALL raw material consumption is used solely in the production of meat, egg, and dairy products.

* it takes 1 pound of grain to make 1 pound of bread.

* it takes 20 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef.

* 75% of the grain sent to 3rd world nations goes to livestock production.

* the countries with the highest in animal products are also the countries with the highest rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc. 50 percent of men who eat meat regularly die of heart disease.

* 4 percent of men who eat no animal products die of heart disease.

* 80% of USDA chicken inspectors no longer eat chicken.

* if the average commuter passenger load in the U.S. were increased by just 1 person per day we would save 33 million gallons of gas each day. Americans spend over 1 billion hours stuck in traffic each year.

* 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from cars.

* air is sold in Mexico city for $1.15 a minute by sidewalk vendors.

* what Greenpeace spends in a year general motors spends in 4 hours.

* 3.5 million children under the age of 6 suffer from lead poisoning.

* in Europe 50% of the cars still use leaded gas.

* 2 million gallons of motor oil are dumped in American waterways each year.

* over 8 million tons of oil are spilled into the world's oceans every year.

* 5 billion gallons of water are flushed each day in the united states

* sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. discharge 5.9 trillion gallons of sewage wastewater into coastal waters every year.

* U.S. tuna fishermen are permitted to kill over 20,000 dolphins every year.

* 2 million sharks die in driftnets in the north pacific every year.

* only 1 in 10 baby chimpanzees survive the trip from the jungle to the zoo.

* 1 billion animals are killed each year in experiments.

* 17 million animals are trapped in the U.S. each year for fur.

* many traps are so painful that animals chew through their own limbs to escape.

* for every fur animal trapped two other animals (dogs, cats, deer, etc.) are trapped and killed.

* in 1987 450,000 minks died on fur farms from heat exhaustion. 1 ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, & enough energy to heat the average home for 6 months.

* six times more jobs are created by recycling as opposed to landfill operations.

* the amount of money spent on trash disposal in American schools is equal to that spent on new textbooks.

* out of every $10 that Americans spend on food, $1 pays for packaging.

* 65% of garbage in the U.S. is packaging.

* 50% of all trash thrown away could be recycled into new products.

* 500 new dumps are built each year in the united states.

* over 1 billion trees are used to make disposable diapers every year.

* Americans throw away 20 billion disposable diapers each year.

* Americans dump the equivalent of 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year.

* 2.5 billion batteries are thrown away each year by Americans.

* over 700,000 tons of hazardous waste is produced in the U.S. every day.

* Americans throw away 10 million cigarette lighters every week.

* 500,000 people die of cigarette related diseases in the U.S. each year.

* pesticides that are banned in the U.S. (such as ddt) are regularly sold to third world countries.

* 90% of all food borne pesticides are found in meat and dairy products.

* 10% of nursing mothers who were vegetarians had ddt in their breast milk.

* 90% of nursing mothers who were meat eaters had ddt in their breast milk.

* in 1945, before widespread pesticides were use, U.S. corn growers lost 3% of their crops to insects, last year they lost over 12%.

* 74 different kinds of pesticides have been found in drinking water.

* over 100 chemical contaminants have been found in the breast milk of nursing mothers in the U.S.

* of the 34 chemicals most widely used on lawns, 25% are widely believed to cause birth defects, genetic mutation, and cancer.

* Americans spend 6 billion dollars on their lawns each year.

* 25% of U.S. nuclear reactors would not be able to contain a core breach meltdown.

* a 1985 study predicted a 45% chance of core breach meltdown in the U.S. before 2005. in 1992, 430,000 people in the world died from cancers resulting from nuclear testing radiation.

* more money is spent in the U.S. on nuclear weaponry in one year than was spent on housing from 1980-1992.

* to date, cleaning up storage facilities for nuclear debris has cost taxpayers 200 billion dollars.

* in 1989 the U.S. military used 200 billion barrels of oil, enough to keep all American public transit systems running for 22 years.

* 1 ton of toxic waste is produced by the U.S. military every minute

me, in a past life..

Tue, 08 May 2007 17:13:03 GMT

yeah, I used to wrangle cobra's...
what, son!!!!

http://emuse.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/20864

The Very Rich are Different from You and Me F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thu, 03 May 2007 01:51:22 GMT

The rich might get that way from entrepreneurship, or just fuckin' people over, which is their karma anyway. The problem, however, is that in our system, money really is power, and power is more money. Therefore, the very rich are making money off of the system, and therefore society, resulting in a money-suck. The American Culture has this concept I'll call 'barter equality' whereas one only owes back what has been directly recieved. This concept is flawed as it does not take into consideration many aspects such as bias and frame of reference. To create the progress we enjoy, someone/thing is always being taken advantage of. One example: Rather than: 'What goods did I recieve from the company, and what did I give in return,' think - 'What have I taken from the EARTH as a whole, and what will I give in return? Not an easy one to anwer, considering that it took over 700 gallons of water just to create the patty in that quarter pounder you just ate, just 'cause you "like the way it tastes." (and why do you like the way it tastes anyway? *our inconsiderate and dumbed-down culture*)

Gary Olson, Znet
May 01, 2007

Ernest Hemingway's wry reply to Fitzgerald was: "Yes, they have more money."

A less clever but potentially more instructive response might be: "Why?"

The top 1 percent of Americans are now receiving the largest share of national income since the pre-Great Depression year 1928. The top 10 percent get 48.5 percent of total income, an obscene rate of inequality.

According to Princeton University professor Peter Singer, the top 0.01 of taxpayers or 14,000 Americans earn an average of $12,775,000 with total earnings of $184 billion. The rest of the 0.1 percent, or 129,600 individuals, now have an average income of just over $2 million. And the top 0.5 or 575,900 have an average income of $623,000.

Prof. Singer calculates that if the folks in the top 10 percent donated between 10-30 percent of their income, it would raise $404 billion, an amount that would eliminate half of global poverty. And they wouldn't be left to scrimp on their sumptuous lifestyles.

What should we make of these iniquitous numbers? I can't quarrel with Adam Smith, the oft misquoted and misunderstood moral philosopher and economist, who wrote in his monumental book The Wealth of Nations.

"Whenever there is great property, there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred of the poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many...

Further, as participants in, and arbiters of a fair and just, democratic society, how do we analyze the idea of private philanthropy? Upon engaging in this practice, some plutocrats offer the sanctimonious phrase, "I just wanted to give something back." My immediate reaction is: why not give it all back? Or, in order to be totally fair and just, give back everything over and above any personal effort expended.

I'm hardly alone in this view. Even Robber Barons like Andrew Carnegie (eventually) acknowledged that all wealth originates in the community and "not in the Herculean work efforts of lone individuals and hence should be returned to whence it came..."

And Warren Buffet, the second richest man in America, concedes that "If you stuck me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru you'll find out how much talent is going to produce in the wrong soil." Adding that he personally believes "society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned."

Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize winner in Economics, acknowledges that this societal contribution accounts for at least ninety percent of what people earn in Northwest Europe and the United States. Based on this clear societal contribution to wealth, Simon believes that moral grounds exist to warrant a flat income tax of 90 percent. In other words, as Carnegie biographer Steve Fraser urges, if wealth originated as social capital -- as Carnegie maintained -- shouldn't that argument dictate a public democratic role to ensure general consensus on its best use?But don't the super-rich deserve their fortunes because of their work, pluck, and genius? I think not. For an example, behind all the modern technology fortunes, including computers, one discovers primarily (public) taxpayer-funded research and development. Bill Gates, for one, wasn't responsible for any of the crucial technical advances that produced the computer. His work, albeit a "genius mind" was to take advantage of work done at public initiative and expense.In the case of the Internet, the Pentagon wanted a communications system that could survive a nuclear attack. Private business refused to undertake the investment risks until public funding guaranteed a ready profit. Yet another example of "socialism for the rich." Even the mouse came from Pentagon funded research. (A revealing study exploring the matter is Kenneth Flamm's Creating the Computer).

Chuck Collins, economic expert and an heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune concludes, "Yet where would the many wealthy entrepreneurs be today without taxpayer investment in the Internet, transportation, public education, the legal system, the human genome and so on?"

To this, we must add several additional sources for the great fortunes. A partial list includes: piracy, colonial pillage, black African slaves, extermination of first nation peoples, child labor, Chinese and Irish immigrant labor (railroads) indentured servitude, eminent domain, massive (often concealed) taxpayer subsidies, worker massacres, inheritance laws, public land grabs, unfair trade practices, supporting foreign dictatorships to gain cheap labor and resources, tax policy, corporate welfare, and always, underpaid, overworked employees.

Where does this leave us? Personally, I've always been partial to the moral injunction, "To whom much is given, much is required." Adapting this admonition to modern wealth, the "much" is rarely given voluntarily while the "required" remains an unrequited, vaguely subversive sounding afterthought. I wouldn't presume to improve on scripture but I would suggest a corollary: From whom much is taken, much is owed.

Self-made wealth is a largely a myth. In the words of economic analyst Mike Laphan, "It takes a village to raise a billionaire. Every taxpayer deserves some credit for the Forbes 400 wealth." So if all production is social -- from public investments to our combined labor power -- where is society's dividend?

Gary Olson is chair of the Political Science Department at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. Contact: olson@moravian.edu

JFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National RadioCategory

Tue, 01 May 2007 19:15:10 GMT

thanks to soulismissing

JFK Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National RadioFormer CIA agent, Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt names the men who killed Kennedy

Paul Joseph Watson

Prison Planet

Monday, April 30, 2007

The "deathbed confession" audio tape in which former CIA agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt admits he was approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK was aired this weekend - an astounding development that has gone completely ignored by the establishment media.

Saint John Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, appeared on the nationally syndicated Coast to Coast AM radio show on Saturday night to discuss the revelations contained in the tape.

Hunt said that his father had mailed cassette the tape to him alone in January 2004 and asked that it be released after his death. The tape was originally 20 minutes long but was edited down to four and a half minutes for the Coast to Coast broadcast. Hunt promises that the whole tape will be uploaded soon at his website.

Click here to listen to a clip of the tape.

E. Howard Hunt names numerous individuals with both direct and indirect CIA connections as having played a role in the assassination of Kennedy, while describing himself as a "bench warmer" in the plot. Saint John Hunt agreed that the use of this term indicates that Hunt was willing to play a larger role in the murder conspiracy had he been required.

Hunt alleges on the tape that then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in the planning of the assassination and in the cover-up, stating that LBJ, "Had an almost maniacal urge to become president, he regarded JFK as an obstacle to achieving that."

Asked if his father followed the conspiracy theories into the Kennedy assassination, Saint John said the elder Hunt did follow the work of AJ Weberman, a New York freelance writer, who in the early 70's first accused Hunt of being one of three bums who were arrested in Dealy Plaza. The so-called bums (pictured above) were interrogated and later released by authorities shortly after the assassination. Weberman, one of the founders of the Youth International Party, the Vippies, published photographs of the tramps and found that two of them bore striking similarities to Hunt and Frank Sturgis, also named by Hunt in the tape as having been played a role in the assassination conspiracy.

Asked for his opinion as to whether his father was indeed one of the Dealy Plaza tramps, Saint John, in a stunning revelation, said one of the tramps indeed looked much like his father did in 1963 (see comparison above).

CIA operative Frank Stugis' striking resemblance to one of the "tramps".

Other researchers believe the "Hunt tramp" to really be Chauncey Holt, who apparently later confessed to the fact. Charles Harrelson was allegedly identified as the third tramp.

Saint John Hunt said that shortly before his death, his father had felt "deeply conflicted and deeply remorseful" that he didn't blow the whistle on the plot at the time and prevent the assassination, but that everyone in the government hated Kennedy and wanted him gone in one way or another. Kennedy's promise to "shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter the remnants to the wind" was being carried out and this infuriated almost everyone at the agency.

The Internet leader in activist media - Prison Planet.tv. Thousands of special reports, videos, MP3's, interviews, conferences, speeches, events, documentary films, books and more - all for just 15 cents a day! Click here to subscribe! Find out the true story behind government sponsored terror, 7/7, Gladio and 9/11, get Terror Storm!

Hunt also said that his mother's death in a December 8, 1972 plane crash in Chicago was suspicious and that there was evidence of a White House cover-up surrounding the circumstances of the alleged accident.

Investigators discovered $10,000 dollars in her luggage and Hunt alleged that his mother traveled around the country using Nixon campaign money to payoff the families of the Watergate burglars to keep them quiet about the involvement of the Nixon White House in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

Hunt cited numerous coincidences surrounding the aftermath of the crash, including Nixon's appointment of his henchman, Egil Krough, to the National Transportation Safety Board which investigates plane crashes, the very day after the incident.

Eyewitnesses reported that the plane exploded above treetop level before it had even hit the runway.

Hunt said that "at least 20-25 FBI members," as well as numerous DIA agents were at the scene of the crash within minutes before rescue personnel had even arrived, and that this fact was attested to in a letter sent by the head of the Chicago FBI to investigator Sherman Skolnick.

Hunt said that his safety was guaranteed by the dissemination of the tape and that he had several copies and had mailed others to addresses both abroad and in the U.S.

"Once this information is out there's really no point in anyone trying to do me in or do me wrong - someone may try to discredit me but I have no skeletons in my closet," said Hunt.

As we have previously reported, the night before the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson met with Dallas tycoons, FBI moguls and organized crime kingpins - emerging from the conference to tell his mistress Madeleine Duncan Brown that "those SOB's" would never embarrass him again.

Though Brown first went public on her 21-year relationship with Johnson in the early 80's, to this day her shocking revelations about how he had told her the Kennedy's "would never embarrass me again" the night before the assassination are often ignored by the media who prefer to keep the debate focused on issues which can't definitively be proven either way (or at least can be spun and whitewashed).

George Herbert Walker Bush was also pictured at the scene of the crime in Dealy Plaza.

In addition, Barr McClellan, father of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan and a partner in the Austin law firm that represented Johnson, wrote in his 2003 book that LBJ was a key player in the organization of the assassination and its cover-up. McClellan's revelations were the subject of a subsequent History Channel documentary called The Guilty Men.

(With thanks to additional reporting by David Collins)

Corruption

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:40:10 GMT

The way we are taught, government makes it seem like government hasalways been there, and causes us to assume that the world is covered bydifferent governments, some being more humane than others. This is abrainwashing. Most of the world is actually run by cartels, the realityof which is masked by the word 'government.' In the third world,political cartel power can be gained the the bottom up through gangsand force, actual gangs competing to keep and gain control overresources. There are many capitalists from the western worldcompeting to do the same thing from the top down, attacking worldgovernments/cartels by pushing for privatization. This destroys anygovernment there may have been and replaces it with corporatocracy. Theproblem? When it comes to effectiveness, service, integrity, andcompassion, privatization has a horrible track record.

Sacrificial Wolfie
Naomi Klein, The Nation
April 26, 2007

It's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy. That's the line on Paul Wolfowitz, coming from editorial pages around the world. It's neither: not the act (disregarding the rules to get his girlfriend a pay raise) nor the hypocrisy (the fact that Wolfowitz's mission as World Bank president is fighting for "good governance").

First, let's dispense with the supposed hypocrisy problem. "Who wants to be lectured on corruption by someone telling them to 'do as I say, not as I do'?" asked one journalist. No one, of course. But that's a pretty good description of the game of one-way strip poker that is our global trade system, in which the United States and Europe--via the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization--tell the developing world, "You take down your trade barriers and we'll keep ours up." From farm subsidies to the Dubai Ports World scandal, hypocrisy is our economic order's guiding principle.

Wolfowitz's only crime was taking his institution's international posture to heart. The fact that he has responded to the scandal by hiring a celebrity lawyer and shopping for a leadership "coach" is just more evidence that he has fully absorbed the World Bank way: When in doubt, blow the budget on overpriced consultants and call it aid.

The more serious lie at the center of the controversy is the implication that the World Bank was an institution with impeccable ethical credentials--until, according to forty-two former Bank executives, its credibility was "fatally compromised" by Wolfowitz. (Many American liberals have seized on this fairy tale, addicted to the fleeting rush that comes from forcing neocons to resign.) The truth is that the bank's credibility was fatally compromised when it forced school fees on students in Ghana in exchange for a loan; when it demanded that Tanzania privatize its water system; when it made telecom privatization a condition of aid for Hurricane Mitch; when it demanded labor "flexibility" in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in Sri Lanka; when it pushed for eliminating food subsidies in post-invasion Iraq. Ecuadoreans care little about Wolfowitz's girlfriend; more pressing is that in 2005, the Bank withheld a promised $100 million after the country dared to spend a portion of its oil revenues on health and education. Some antipoverty organization.

But the area where the World Bank has the most tenuous claim to moral authority is in the fight against corruption. Almost everywhere that mass state pillage has taken place over the past four decades, the Bank and the IMF have been first on the scene of the crime. And no, they have not been looking the other way as the locals lined their pockets; they have been writing the ground rules for the theft and yelling, "Faster, please!"--a process known as rapid-fire shock therapy.

Russia under the leadership of the recently departed Boris Yeltsin was a case in point. Beginning in 1990, the Bank led the charge for the former Soviet Union to impose immediately what it called "radical reform." When Mikhail Gorbachev refused to go along, Yeltsin stepped up. This bulldozer of a man would not let anything or anyone stand in the way of the Washington-authored program, including Russia's elected politicians. After he ordered army tanks to open fire on demonstrators in October 1993, killing hundreds and leaving the Parliament blackened by flames, the stage was set for the fire-sale privatizations of Russia's most precious state assets to the so-called oligarchs. Of course, the Bank was there. Of the democracy-free lawmaking frenzy that followed Yeltsin's coup, Charles Blitzer, the World Bank's chief economist on Russia, told the Wall Street Journal, "I've never had so much fun in my life."

When Yeltsin left office, his family had become inexplicably wealthy, while several of his deputies were enmeshed in bribery scandals. These incidents were reported on in the West, as they always are, as unfortunate local embellishments on an otherwise ethical economic modernization project. In fact, corruption was embedded in the very idea of shock therapy. The whirlwind speed of change was crucial to overcoming the widespread rejection of the reforms, but it also meant that by definition there could be no oversight. Moreover, the payoffs for local officials were an indispensable incentive for Russia's apparatchiks to create the wide-open market Washington was demanding. The bottom line is that there is good reason that corruption has never been a high priority for the Bank and the IMF: Its officials understand that when enlisting politicians to advance an economic agenda guaranteed to win them furious enemies at home, there generally has to be a little in it for those politicians in bank accounts abroad.

Russia is far from unique: From Chile's dictator Augusto Pinochet, who accumulated more than 125 bank accounts while building the first neoliberal state, to Argentine President Carlos Menem, who drove a bright red Ferrari Testarossa while he liquidated his country, to Iraq's "missing billions" today, there is, in every country, a class of ambitious, bloody-minded politicians who are willing to act as Western subcontractors. They will take a fee, and that fee is called corruption--the silent but ever-present partner in the crusade to privatize the developing world.

The three main institutions at the heart of that crusade are in crisis--not because of the small hypocrisies but because of the big ones. The WTO cannot get back on track, the IMF is going broke, displaced by Venezuela and China. And now the Bank is going down.

The Financial Times reports that when World Bank managers dispensed advice, "they were now laughed at." Perhaps we should all laugh at the Bank. What we should absolutely not do, however, is participate in the effort to cleanse the Bank's ruinous history by repeating the absurd narrative that the reputation of an otherwise laudable antipoverty organization has been sullied by one man. The Bank understandably wants to throw Wolfowitz overboard. I say, Let the ship go down with the captain.

Headbanging is necessary to shake off the demons

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:05:26 GMT

free elliot smith :)

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 23:25:56 GMT

http://www.elliottsmithbootlegs.net/videobootlegs.htm

remember, new Book and Album MAY 8th

My 2 new Favorite Heros <3

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:35:30 GMT

I can't wait :)

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 04:19:07 GMT

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/paprika/trailer/

sins of the father

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 04:25:33 GMT

Coachella 2007

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:28:23 GMT

This year presents quite a problem, what with me trying to budget better for the new year and all...

Goddamnit!
If there wasn't so many good bands, I would be fine!!!!!

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE????
EXPlOSIONS IN THE "FUCKING" SKY ?
BJORK?
WILLIE NELSON?
THE ROOTS?
PLACEBO?
PETER BJORN?
Ghostface Killah!???
regina spektor???
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM?!!!
BLONDE REDHEAD!!?
THE RAPTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!
ARCADE FIRE?
DECEMBERISTS?!!!!
the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS???
INTERPOL?!!!!
Brazilian Girls!!!!!!!!!??
Tilly & the Wall !!!!?
Felix the House CAT!!!???
PEACHES!!?
DJ SHADOW!???
SONIC YOUTH!!!!??
Jarvis Cocker!!!?
the Jesus & Mary Chain!!!??

and finally to top it all off fucking PEEPING TOM!!!!!!!!

I'm seriously, SERIOUSLY in trouble, this is going to be amazing, I may shit myself retarder....

:)

for all the photographers out there

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:58:49 GMT

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

here's a legal document explaining the laws of taking photographs in public w/o a permit.

it's in our favor folks...read up

:)

I must have this....I must...

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:23:47 GMT

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

this will definitely make my train rides a lot more entertaining....
as if taking pictures of strangers isn't already....
:)

Room For Rent: LARGE bedroom $300 a month

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 21:57:10 GMT

5 room house:
1 office
4 bedrooms
large living room/dining room
full kitchen
wash-room
2 full bathrooms.
Parking spot available.
$300 a month
Tentative move in Feb. 1st.
call Mr. Davis@310-696-1519
or message me through here.
keep a look out for your friends too if they're interested

peace, love & death metal,
K

the holidays

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:44:59 GMT

every year gets colder, ever summer gets hotter.
I gave a legless man my lunch today...among all the bums out there on the Santa Monica Promenade...he was one leg down, one stride slower, one heartbeat slower, one smile farther from achieving his goal that day of survival.

the same graffiti greets me on the streets, on the bus, on the train, through the smog, through the haze.
I stole a wheelchair from the sidewalk the other day, NO ONE WAS AROUND FOR 15 minutes!!!
I waited long enough for someone to claim it.
I suppose it's karma I gave the bum my lunch...feeding the lost isn't a chore when you need to reconcile yourself.

I take pictures because in their own perfect presence, they last, in silence, the way I wanted them too.

Christmas brought new family, new friends, new faces, newness...loud...aloud.
new shows, new models, new people.

I can't seem to fill the gap in my chest, even though all the newness glows in it's ever present essence like a fish hook waiting for me to take a bite.

small christmas trees, budget cuts the deciduous flesh of the 1st viewer...

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:34:07 GMT

Flatulence Forces Plane to Land

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It is considered polite to light a match after passing gas. Not while on a plane.

An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.

The Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Nashville after several passengers reported smelling burning sulfur from the matches, said Lynne Lowrance, spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority. All 99 passengers and five crew members were taken off and screened while the plane was searched and luggage was screened.

The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal a "body odor," Lowrance said. She had an unspecified medical condition, authorities said.

"It's humorous in a way but you feel sorry for the individual, as well," she said. "It's unusual that someone would go to those measures to cover it up."

The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane. The woman, who was not identified, was not charged in the incident.

___

December 5, 2006 - 6:07 p.m. PST

Copyright 2006, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am a sweaty palm,

Upturned and open.

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:19:15 GMT

out of all the truly horrific madness, the drug induced, self-destructive, moral depravity and stings to the mind & soul, she still remains an unforgettable artifact in my heart. What kind of person is that, that is capable of producing such chaotic and destructive situations, but at the same time, makes you completely comfortable when you're around them.

even after not seeing her for 10 months, it sort of felt right, since then, it's been harder to let go. It'll happen. I'll make it happen. Fill up that part of me that I unfortunately chain-sawed off a long time ago. Love is a Dog from hell, he said, he's right, damn right.

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:10:25 GMT

some people never go crazy. what truly horrible lives they must lead.

New-ish

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:41:01 GMT

Becks new Song "Nausea"
Check it out.
tell me what you think.

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=26C7C03A4C0429E3

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:01:42 GMT

PARTY AT THE HILTON TONIGHT!!!!!!

We have an executive suite. We'll have Twister [hopfully]. We've got booze. We MIGHT even have a DJ. It's all in honor of Anime Expo, July 4th, and just for the goddamn hell of it!!!

Call me up, text me, or leave a message here or AIM. The more people, the better the party!!!!

[310] 696-1519

trusted

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 22:36:05 GMT

it appears that if you can't trust, you can't be trusted.