So, the Olympics have started (I guess). When I was a kid, these things seemed huge to me; I can remember everybody watching every event intently, and keeping a close eye on the medal count. It was very important to beat that nasty old CCCP bunch.
Now, eh. Whatever. Of course, back in my day, the Olympics were on 33% of all the TV stations we got. OK, well, 25% if you counted PBS, and maybe 20% if it was a clear day and we were getting the Kingston Ontario station (where we’d watch Curling, which is kind of a Zen sport that most of us in the US don’t quite get). These days, I almost never watch live television; between my two ReplayTV’s (and now the ReplayRadio), I have more hours of mindless entertainment than I know what to do with. But at least I don’t have to watch commercials.
So, will we have the Marc Maron Show to listen to on Monday? I’m kind of thinking we won’t. If anybody out there in SF caught or will be catching him this weekend, don’t forget to give us a full report!
ha ha 1 so uh what is this nasty cccp you speak of pj? i guess i am too young oh well
Good morning Evening all Seditionists Wanderers and boat people
im listening to jon stewart on crossfire this is so friggin great ha i love jon stewart in a uh non-gay way because im straight um yeah ok then
Thanks to the thinkers (here) who keep me thinking and aware. :yinyang:
Sean- w/o tv, how can I find crossfire?
:tongue:well i would say your welcome but uh i do the least actual thinking of anybody on here i think?
:cool:heres a link to the jon stewart crossfire appearance i think it will work? anyway
at leat you are aware … and that is a lot better than most.
:banana:yep works enjoy:bow:jon stewart
The last crossfire I saw was when Jon stewart riped them a new one in 2004. iFilm has that one for anyone who wants to revisit it.
oh thats what the link is to i had heard audio never heard the whole thing though
Its a beauty. You (well at least I) :bow: to jon pnce I saw it.
ive been working on a paragraph by paragraph kind of uh deconstruction of the state of the union speech i posted part of it on here before but uh i have more now so here is the more i have done
In a time of testing, we cannot find security by abandoning our commitments and retreating within our borders. If we were to leave these vicious attackers alone, they would not leave us alone. They would simply move the battlefield to our own shores. There is no peace in retreat. And there is no honor in retreat. By allowing radical Islam to work its will – by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself – we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals, or even in our own courage. But our enemies and our friends can be certain: The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.
President Bush says there is no peace in retreat, there is also no peace in war. The more time we spend at war in the middle east the more incentive we provide for further attacks here in the united states.
America rejects the false comfort of isolationism. We are the Nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire. Once again, we accept the call of history to deliver the oppressed, and move this world toward peace.
We are a nation that has propped up dictators and overthrown democracies as well. We have liberated death camps and created death squads. In our haste to “deliver” the oppressed we have begun to oppress ourselves. Fight for justice and peace!!!!!
We remain on the offensive against terror networks. We have killed or captured many of their leaders – and for the others, their day will come.
When will Osama’s day come? And I have to ask how many number three guys does Al Qaida have?
We remain on the offensive in Afghanistan – where a fine president and national assembly are fighting terror while building the institutions of a new democracy.
And we are on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. First, we are helping Iraqis build an inclusive government, so that old resentments will be eased, and the insurgency marginalized. Second, we are continuing reconstruction efforts, and helping the Iraqi government to fight corruption and build a modern economy, so all Iraqis can experience the benefits of freedom. Third, we are striking terrorist targets while we train Iraqi forces that are increasingly capable of defeating the enemy. Iraqis are showing their courage every day, and we are proud to be their allies in the cause of freedom.
First, we are building a religious government where one did not exist before. Also the insurgency would not exist had we not invaded a sovereign nation that had never attacked us and did not have the capability to. Second we have discontinued our reconstruction efforts and are building a culture of corruption that has seen 8.9billion dollars disappear, an amount of money that would be visible from space. Third our president still has not laid out a timeline for “victory” which is when I would expect us to pull our troops out. I would not expect the timeline to be set in stone but shouldn’t we at least be able to set goals for ourselves?
Our work in Iraq is difficult, because our enemy is brutal. But that brutality has not stopped the dramatic progress of a new democracy. In less than three years, that nation has gone from dictatorship, to liberation, to sovereignty, to a constitution, to national elections. At the same time, our coalition has been relentless in shutting off terrorist infiltration, clearing out insurgent strongholds, and turning over territory to Iraqi security forces. I am confident in our plan for victory … I am confident in the will of the Iraqi people … I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military. Fellow citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning.
A sovereign nation is not a nation that is occupied by another. Iraq will not be a sovereign nation until we have completed the removal of every American soldier from Iraqi soil.
The road of victory is the road that will take our troops home. As we make progress on the ground, and Iraqi forces increasingly take the lead, we should be able to further decrease our troop levels – but those decisions will be made by our military commanders, not by politicians in Washington, D.C.
First bush ignored the call for more troops in Iraq made by our military commanders. When we finally remove our soldiers will we remove them all or will leave some behind in the bases we have been building during our occupation? My friend that is soon to be going to Afghanistan says that it is her belief and her fellow soldiers belief that we will be leaving bases behind.
Our coalition has learned from experience in Iraq. We have adjusted our military tactics and changed our approach to reconstruction. Along the way, we have benefited from responsible criticism and counsel offered by Members of Congress of both parties. In the coming year, I will continue to reach out and seek your good advice.
Yet there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy.
Hindsight is full of wisdom the striking similarities to past conflicts in the world should not be ignored. Second guessing is a good thing after a certain amount of time. We are well past the point where second guessing becomes an option. It is foolish to continue without second guessing when things are going badly for yourself.
With so much in the balance, those of us in public office have a duty to speak with candor. A sudden withdrawal of our forces from Iraq would abandon our Iraqi allies to death and prison … put men like bin Laden and Zarqawi in charge of a strategic country … and show that a pledge from America means little. Members of Congress: however we feel about the decisions and debates of the past, our Nation has only one option: We must keep our word, defeat our enemies, and stand behind the American military in its vital mission.
As it stands we have condemned many innocent Iraqis to death that would still be alive today. We have also imprisoned countless Iraqis in prisons where human rights abuses are common such as abu ghraib. (I am not sure if I spelled it right but our president can not pronounce it properly so I’m not going to concern myself with the proper spelling.) In our zeal to keep men like bin Laden and Zarqawi in charge of a “strategic” country, we have created anti-American sentiment that has led to hamas becoming itself a state sponsored government through a free and fair election process.
Our men and women in uniform are making sacrifices – and showing a sense of duty stronger than all fear. They know what it is like to fight house to house in a maze of streets … to wear heavy gear in the desert heat … to see a comrade killed by a roadside bomb. And those who know the costs also know the stakes. Marine Staff Sergeant Dan Clay was killed last month fighting the enemy in Fallujah. He left behind a letter to his family, but his words could just as well be addressed to every American. Here is what Dan wrote: “I know what honor is. It has been an honor to protect and serve all of you. I faced death with the secure knowledge that you would not have to…. Never falter! Don’t hesitate to honor and support those of us who have the honor of protecting that which is worth protecting.”
They know what it is like to fight house to house in a maze of streets… (something that you Mr. President will never know.) to wear heavy gear in the desert heat… (another thing that Bush will never understand.) to see a comrade killed by a roadside bomb. (thanks to your willful negligence concerning Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.)
Staff Sergeant Dan Clay’s wife, Lisa, and his mom and dad, Sara Jo and Bud, are with us this evening. Our Nation is grateful to the fallen, who live in the memory of our country. We are grateful to all who volunteer to wear our Nation’s uniform – and as we honor our brave troops, let us never forget the sacrifices of America’s military families.
You know what truly makes me sick? I am not sure if I even believe that staff sergeant Dan Clay truly, wrote that letter. There is a part of me that so distrusts your government that I have gotten to the point where it seems reasonable to me that you would make something like that up. I will never forget the sacrifice of our American soldiers. Their blood is on your hands Mr. President.
:fustrate:that is taking me way too long i so should of been done by now
… and it’s going to pass. 😥
VOTE ‘EM OUT this Fall.
My votes only count in WI.
ok well im off to alabama all you blogger people have fun i get to drive through the pouring rain yay
:paranoid:watch your back:paranoid:
well i suppose if your not in america theres not much to worry about though huh:?:
:bow:monday please i beg of you
hi riley how goes it? talk to us! say hi every so often!
:priest:mmmmtassa mutatta ombassa baracka obama grammy
tomorrow brings the lantern fest, here – my favorite holiday.
With the year of the dog they are focusing on the prblem of strays
This weekend talk show host on KGO is talking about the Muslims, the riots over the cartoon( is that what the riots are really about ??) and the threat of the Muslims in general to the existence of Israel.
As I remember this Israeli wasn’t there for about 2000 years or so then was recreated by the UN in 1947 mostly in response to the Jews wanting a place of their own following their bad experiences in Germany and Europe during WWII. I keep coming back to the analogy of the American Indians wanting Arizona, Nevada and Idaho back. The reaction of the normal Americans that live there would probably be much like that of the Palestinians. The Nut jobs would probably look a lot like Hamas. This talk show guy says that the Muslims are aggressive and will not stop until they exterminate all of us… I think that maybe if Israel quite trying to make the Palestinians into the new American Indians and trying to force them off their land and make them second class citizens that they would get along better. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world.. There are only 20 million in Israel and 300 million in the west. These arguments must be a lot like those heard in Rome in about 470 AD.
It says there are two of us on line. Hello to you. 😀
Comment by NickiRose — February 11, 2006 @ 2:57 am
Nicki, as I remember Marc and Mark were having a famous historian on, maybe stephen ambrose, and everyone was excited. But first they played something like Ted from Nebraska while the guest was waiting on the phone. And, when they started the interview the guest ripped into them royally and was serious about it. Very uncomfortable moment.:shock:
Hello King Kong, just reading through everyone’s comments and drinking coffee.
ok im really hitting the road now had to fuel up the truck and what not well you sheeple have a good day and ill see ya later
:paranoid:if the alabamans dont get me first!!!!!
:fustrate::growl:grrrrr sure so now i find grammar problems in my state of the union response thing a ma bob
ok im gonna go pretend to be ok with thom hartman now later
so annoying xm used to play 4 hours of morning sedition in this time slot!!!!!:rabbi:
morning! yep, got the coffee and catching up on yesterday’s posts.
wish we didn’t have to rely on ONE network for the XX Olympics – it sucks. :billcat:
careful sean, (it’s scary here, i live about 45 miles from the Alabama border) -:eek:
Comment by SeanMS — February 11, 2006 @ 2:48 am
The link on this post was laugh out loud funny
:rofl2:
KK, what’s the lantern fest?
don’t like it when folks talk like this. these people fuel hate. i like to remind them of all the christian atrocities (and wasn’t tim mcvay a “christian”? btw)
WONDER what would have happened if the Jews were instead given Uruguay instead of Palestine, as it was considered. The world would be quite different.
Comment by SeanMS — February 11, 2006 @ 7:04 am
…sure so now i find grammar problems
“Edit This” is a very good thing 😀
The full moon after Chinese New Year is my favorite holiday – Lantern Festival
Corperations and temples make lanters, but they are not the ones I watch.
Children make lanterns in the image of what inerests hem – be it Ultraman, a power pudd girl, or Donald Duck – whatever inereststs them.
It’s time to meet Vivian to see the lanterns. Bye!
KK, i imagine there’s a kind of “hush” quiet with all the lanterns…is it like that or boistrous?
from wikipedia:
aaaaahh….A Lantern Festival 😀
Good morning everyone!
KK I hope you can take some pics of the lantern festival. Im gonna have to search that out when I get back!
You know, it seems like one can take pics remotely and send them to one’s blog from the phone…
This is all new to me and Im just learning the blog/phone/iPod thing….too much information too early…
And I have to leave for temple!!!
I hope the Jewish god isnt like the Catholic one who I always think is going to smote me when I walk into a church;-)
At least this one is reform…last time I had to sit in the women’s section….
The Next War – Crossing the Rubicon
By John Pilger
…..
:omg:
Nicki Rose – it looks as though Riley is responding to emails. Did you send him one via feedback or did you just post a blog?
I mean where is says ‘Contact Mark’ on the left of the blog page
Traitor shows his true colors
Hannity is offering Lieberman his support for the ’06 race, and that he would be having him on his show. Lieberman apparently accepted his endorsement – although he kinda joked around about having Hannity
:barf::crap::mad::omg:
C-span has these two college students on .. One is a young retug the other is a liberal. The Rethugs says liberals are lazy because they don’t want to dig ditches..His example was the decline in the number of engineering students that remain in America that are in the college/university system. Someone should suggest that that might be different if the rethugs had not outsourced 450,000 technical jobs last year.
Lieberman is a skunk! We have a challenger who looks good so far…hes an actual democrat anyway. I am going to work for this guy and also for Diane Farrell who is challenging Shays. She is great!I think that lieberman should change parties.
If Shays is the most liberal congressman in washington and Shays and lieberman agree on everything…and Shays is sure that Bush has never lied, that Iraq is going great, etc….well, what the F is Lieberman doing in the democratic party?
It was the ???? ????????? ???????????????? ?????????, which we called the USSR or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (mostly we called it the Soviet Union, or – being dumb Americans – just plain Russia).
?? ????????? ???? ??????, ????????
There, that ought to set off some NSA detectors.
Not to start a stink about this very sensitive subject, but the idea that Israel was formed primarily as a response to the events of WWII is pretty much a myth. It’s important to remember that the Zionist movement and the formation of Israel was underway well before the Nazi movement, much less WWII or the Shoah (Holocaust). That helped from a PR standpoint to get international opinion in favor of partition and establishment of the Jewish State, but again that process had been underway since the 1920’s. See Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, Henry Holt and Co. 2000, for a good summary (but understand his work is controversial – right wing Israelis say he is pro-Palestinian, while Palestinian supporters accuse him of being a Zionist apologist).
Ben Gurion said some pretty harsh things about European Jews, on one occasion in essense saying they got what they deserved. The immgrants from Europe after the Shoah were not well treated at first.
In any event, both sides of the Arab/Jewish conflict have suffered much, and both have behaved like total buttheads at various times in history. Understanding that (but not dwelling on it) is a key to moving forward.
Also, Fred, there would be at least one more engineer here, IF I WAS ABLE TO FIND MONEY TO FINISH THE DAMN PROGRAM! :fustrate::mad: Cutting financial aid might have something to do with it. It’s difficult to make ends meet as a ditch digger in this country. CRIPES! What the hell is WRONG with theses people!:holla:
They’re using’ that money to thwart the shoe bomber teams, and for fightin’ the terrists over there so we don’t have to fight ‘um here!
Kristapea – there are at least four programs that the US Government offers that will not only pay your tuition, but you have a guaranteed job when you finish. Engineering students are especially valued. They are the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines! I did the Air Force route in the ’80s. Aside from tours in Beriut, Chad, Iraq, and Central America, I hardly got shot at and nearly got killed only a couple dozen times.
Thanks, Sean, for your analysis. It’s gonna take at least another cup of coffee before I can read it with clear eyes. But I look forward to it!
Nicki–
I responded to you on yesterday’s blog. (I thought it was Tom Oliphant, because that’s what someone else said, but Isi remembers it as a different guest. So now I may have gone and smeared another fine journalist.):doh:
PJ–
I think the Olympics were a big deal when we were kids (I think we’re about the same age from something you posted a while ago) because both the summer and winter Olympics took place in the same year, EVERY FOUR YEARS. With this every-other-year crap, who gives a shit anymore? Also, back then, the Olympics themselves were the event, not the coverage.
But for me, it was hard to have the same feeling about the Olympics after Munich. Here we had the nice Jewish boy Mark Spitz (this was a big deal for us) winning 7 gold medals eclipsed by the hateful actions of Palestinian extremists. (An event that, by the way, drives Shibumi.)
😯 Gulp. I don’t think I would make it in the military Methaz. I have a difficult time with authority figures. As soon as someone oders me to do something I just can’t help but question. Can’t help it. It’s a knee jerk thing.:doh:
Except, I did learn not to ask “why?” in all the math classes I took. Don’t ask why, just do it and it comes out. Don’t ask why!
Yeah, Munich was really stunning, even for a kid (I was not quite 12 that summer). Mark Spitz and Olga Korbut should have been the big stories. That and those nasty old Russkies cheating in the men’s Basketball gold medal game. I think I liked it better when the US Olympic team was a bunch of college kids, and all the Eastern European teams were grown men and women (and, as I recall, some of those East German women were questionable).
Things were so much easier when they were the bad guys and we were the good guys. Even if maybe we weren’t as good as we thought we were.
Well, I got the gubberment to pay for grad school, and give me a not-too-shabby stipend to live on while I’m doing it. I got a National Science Foundation “Scholarship for Service.” I don’t have to work right now, but I have to do a summer internship (which I’ll be doing at the Smithsonian – which is pretty cool, I think, other than I can’t really afford to live in DC; anybody got an apartment they want to sublet?), and then I’ll have to work in the info security field for the feds for two years.
Then I’ll be able to keep track of all you commie pinko, sushi-eating, latte-drinking, volvo-driving Liberals!
I had just turned 12 myself. It was a bad year for my family, too–3 devastating car accidents involving relatives and friends both near and far. Death toll: 4; irreparable physical injury: 1 (it’s a miracle she survived); emotional toll: unimaginable. Munich coincided with the second accident. About a year later, after an aunt died of cancer, I started to write a book (I was precocious) called “The Age of Understanding.” I knew even then that my childhood had effectively ended in ’72.
And, yes, it was a whole lot easier when they were the “bad guys.” At least until Watergate . . .
You already are keeping track of us PJ!:rofl2: Maybe you’re our NSA agent!:rofl2:
Hey, PJ. You should start checking craigslist now for summer sublets . . .
Summer of ’72 was a family death year for us, too (no car accidents). First, my mom’s mother died. Then, three weeks to the day later, my mom’s aunt died. When they went to plant her, the cemetery had opened up my mother’s brother’s plot by accident, so they couldn’t bury her. Then three weeks to the day after that, he (my mother’s brother) went ahead and died, so they had to re-open his plot again anyway.
I’ve heard that death comes in three’s.
Yeah, Craig’s List. Good idea, I’ll have to check that. Problem is, I know nothing about DC, and from what I hear, there are areas that look great by day, but are downright dangerous when the sun goes down. In fact, this one guy from Miss. State was tellign me that there’s one are – Anacostia, I think he said, but I could be wrong – that’s so bad, they won’t fly Marine 1 (the president’s helicopter) over it; people take shots at it.
I tell you, I looked high and low for scholarships grants and the like. I figured being a female seeking a science degree, it would be a cake walk but I fell through the cracks. I spent hours online(aside from the hours spent in school and on homework) looking at qualifications and because i already had a degree, I did not qulaify for many scholarships/grants. You can only get the Pell Grant for your first degree. That thing made it possible for me to go to school the first time around. I tried school loans from banks but they all wanted some kind of collateral or credit I didn’t have. Basically, I have found if you don’t already have the money you won’t get the loan. Banks also wanted you to have a job to get the loan and I could not work because the homework took me so long to do. I got a couple of small scholarships but it was not enough. I had also gotten an internship with the Forest Service for the summer but I did not have the money to get to Alaska and take my dog to someone that would take care of her for the time I was away. I had to quit and find a job. I would not have been a great engineer, but I would have been competent, I think. Oh well, I’m on to other things. Maybe it was better I didn’t finish.
I’m betting there are plenty of areas in this country like that–I mean, can you blame them?
BTW, PJ–
That sounds like an awful year for you as well. Sorry to hear it.
Oh, well, it was a long time ago. It was a lot tougher on my mother and her sister than it was on me. We had a 18-foot diameter, 4-foot deep above ground pool in the backyard at the time, I finally had a room of my own, and I had access to my brother’s Playboy collection (which I think I still have, someplace; he became a Playboy reader during his two-year stint protecting Asia from the communists, or us from the Vietnamese, or whatever it was they were telling us at the time; you know, if you take all the rhetoric of that era, and substitute “terrorists” for “communists” and “desert” for “jungle,” you’d get the same bullshit they’re trying to feed us now – you’d think we’d have learned something, wouldn’t you?), so, anyway, life was good.
I woke up to the Satellite Sisters talking about romantic love and brain chemicals. Shit! So in debt, I’ll never get out/Makes me want to screamm and and shout!
:omg:
My letters to Riley are encouraging and positive, so he probably doesn’t feel the need to respond.
I woke up, and my bed was filled with Satellite sisters….
Does anybody here want to start a discussion group over the current situation between Israel and the Palestinians? I am always trying to find people who wish to ways to resolve the problem. I have some ideas on doing so. The secret is that knowledgeable Americans will need to pressure our government to change its policies, otherwise the Palestinians will be relegated to bantustans.
Edward Said interviewed by Ari Shavit for Ha’aretz:
. . . Prof. Said, this summer Israelis and Palestinians are trying to put an end to
the 100-year conflict between you and us. Can it be done? Can the conflict be
resolved?
“Yes, I think it can. But I don’t think Yasser Arafat can sign off on the
termination of the conflict. Nor does he have the right to do so on an occasion
provided by Bill Clinton at Camp David. Until the time comes when Israel assumes
moral responsibility for what it has done to the Palestinian people, there can
be no end to the conflict.
“What is needed is a ‘bill of particulars’ of all our claims against Israel for
the original dispossession and for the occupation that began in 1967. What is
needed, at the very least, is an acknowledgment of the destruction of
Palestinian society, of the dispossession of the Palestinian people and the
confiscation of their land. And also of the deprivation and the suffering over
the last 52 years, including such actions as the killing at Sabra and Chatila
refugee camps.
“I believe that the conflict can only end when Israel assumes the burden of all
that. I think an attempt should be made to say ‘this is what happened.’ This is
the narrative.”
What is the narrative? What is the conflict all about?
“It is an almost sublime conflict. I was telling [Daniel)] Barenboim the other
night, think of this chain of events: anti-Semitism, the need to find a Jewish
homeland, Herzl’s original idea, which was definitely colonialist, and then the
transformation of that to the socialist ideas of the moshav and the kibbutz,
then the urgency during Hitler’s reign, and people like Yitzhak Shamir who were
really interested in cooperating with Hitler, then the genocide of the Jews in
Europe and the actions against the Palestinians in Palestine of 1948.
“When you think about it, when you think about Jew and Palestinian not
separately, but as part of a symphony, there is something magnificently imposing about it. A very rich, also very tragic, also in many ways desperate history of extremes – opposites in the Hegelian sense – that is yet to receive its due. So what you are faced with is a kind of sublime grandeur of a series of tragedies, of losses, of sacrifices, of pain that would take the brain of a Bach to figure out. It would require the imagination of someone like Edmund Burke to fathom. But the people dealing with this gigantic painting are ‘quick-fix’ Clinton,
Arafat and Barak, who are like a group of single-minded janitors who can only
sweep around it, who can only say let’s move it a bit – let’s put it in the corner. That’s how I see the peace process.”
Is this a symmetrical conflict between two peoples who have equal rights over
the land they share?
“There is no symmetry in this conflict. One would have to say that. I deeply
believe that. There is a guilty side and there are victims. The Palestinians are
the victims. I don’t want to say that everything that happened to the Palestinians is the direct result of Israel. But the original distortion in the lives of the Palestinians was introduced by Zionist intervention, which to us – in our narrative – begins with the Balfour Declaration and events thereafter that led to the replacement of one people by another. And it is continuing to this day. This is why Israel is not a state like any other. It is not like France, because there is continuing injustice. The laws of the State of Israel perpetuate injustice.
“This is a dialectical conflict. But there is no possible synthesis. In this case, I don’t think it’s possible to ride out the dialectical contradictions. There is no way I know to reconcile the messianic-driven and Holocaust-driven impulse of the Zionists with the Palestinian impulse to stay on the land. These are fundamentally different impulses. This is why I think the essence of the conflict is its irreconcilability.
Are you saying we should not have come?
“Your question is too much in the realm of ‘what if.’ The actualities are too
strong. To say that you shouldn’t have come, is to say you should leave. And I’m
against that. I’ve said it many times. I’m totally against you leaving. The furthest I would go is to say that, given the logic of the Zionist idea, when you came, you should have understood you were coming to an inhabited land. . .
Hey, NikiRose and isi:
It was David Halberstam who slammed Marc after Mark the Shark. He called it “odious.” Of course, then the next Mark the Shark featured Halberstam getting Sharked.
If I had to bet, I’d say Marc’s new show won’t be on Monday. Have you noticed there were NO ads for it on Friday anywhere? If you were launching a new show, you’d promote it, right?
Yesterday Zeb mentioned that we are like silent movie stars: sqeaky, nasally voices, but other than that, gangbusters! Well, we are in good company. Anyone ever hear the beautiful, extremely talented filmmaker of the 1940s ans 1950s Maya Deren speak? No Joan Crawford [etal…] she.
:rofl2:
:omg::rofl2::omg:
I listened to the April 15th Morning Sedition–on AAR Place!:omg::bow: I was looking for Halberstam’s rant. Well, it must have been the week before, because Halberstam was fairly trashed by Marc in the Marc the Shark routine that morning. Damn, Kent Jones was hilarious as the emcee for the Shark.
Marc told a small coterie (how do you like that word? I love that word) of us maronistas after his 8pm show at the Punchline here in SF last night that the AAR people hadn’t notified the L.A. affiliate that he even is supposed to have a show! He said they didn’t even have a studio set up yet. He seemed both exasperated and hopeful. They’re still paying him and some staff, he said. So they’ve got to come up with something. He promised to let us know by email as soon as he knows, but definitely keep an eye on the blog. So AAR people, if you’re trolling or lurking here: will you frickin’ get it together?? Oh, and would you pleeeez make it so we in SF can hear it somehow?? Is that too !@!#!$!% much to ask?? Is it??? 😡
Make me happy, make us all happy – give him the show NOW, dammit! You already did enough damage by yanking him from MS, you putzes. :fu:
Whew, sorry all, I had to get it out of my system. I feel better now.
:yinyang:
Problem in SF market, though: an evening show might interfere with either Sam Seder’s or Mike Malloy’s show, my other favorite ranter. I’ll figure it out somehow. I can pass on Seder if need be. Harder to pass on Mike.
I don’t remember the Mark the Shark follow-up, but I do remember the guest ripping into M&M for being as bad as those on the other side. I repeat, WHAT A DOLT!
(Tom Oliphant, I apologize for everything I said yesterday. It was all true, just not about you!)
oh this is worrisome, plus no ads on aar. didn’t aar string whoopster along and then never close the deal?
I FEEL A LETTER WRITING AND CALLING CAMPAIGN STARTING. DO WE STILL HAVE THE INFORMATION FOR THE BORE MEMBERS SOME PLACE:?: :rant1:
Thanks for the report, ex-ny’er. Did he mention what blog we should be keeping an eye on?
I posted a comment on the April 8th Halberstam remarks on yesterday’s blog by mistake.:doh:
David Halberstam was on after the Shark on April 8th. Halberstam gave a critique of the routine. Called it “odious,” there was “no charm in it,” and that it only added to the problem, made it worse. Then he went on to do a good segment on American ideals. Marc kept him over during the break. The two calls afterward (Jana[?] from California, and another caller, told them to keep Mark the Shark. Marc created comedy over odious comments. I don’t know what the big deal is. Halberstam mentioned that perhaps he was deficient in humour. Anyway, he just remarked that the neocon satire routine was potentially damaging.
Someone should put together on CD all of the Marc the Shark routines.:rofl2:
I’m sure AAR’s crack management team is on it, as we speak.
Alexander Cockburn on Danish colonialism
[…] Shameful Danish Record
Danes are being treated as inoffensive folk unwittingly caught up in row over cartoons. History tells a different tale.
In the ancient town of Canterbury, England, the medieval glass windows of the Cathedral relate shocking behavior of Danes in the early 11th century. The Danes are shown besieging Canterbury in 1011 despite having been paid Danegeld, the ransom extorted by the marauding Danes, payment of which was meant to spare towns unfortunate to find themselves targeted by these predators.
Canterbury fell and massacre ensued. Alphege, the Archbishop of Canterbury, sought to dissuade Danes from killing everybody. He was taken hostage and ransom was demanded. Alphege refused to allow the poor of Canterbury to pay it. He was taken to Greenwich and then murdered by drunken Danes who hurled bones at him at a feast and then killed him with an axe.
Alphege was buried first in St Paul’s but but his body was moved back to Canterbury under King Canute, presumably seeking closure. Alphege was later sanctified and was Canterbury’s big selling point to attract pilgrims until Thomas a Becket.
Danes didn’t behave too well in Ireland either. When I was growing in East Cork, we didn’t have to travel far to see the sad relicts of their predations. Many was the picnic we enjoyed amid the ruins of Molanna Abbey, on the west bank of the Blackwater, where the waters would sluice out through the fish-traps designed by the monks who kept the lamps of learning alight in those dark times, till the arrival of the brutish Danes.
So there are those who simply think – high matters of “blasphemy” aside – that when it comes to rough treatment of embassies and the rights of diplomatic sanctuary, not to mention physical maltreatment ofGod’s terrestial representatives, the Danes had it coming to them.
Though the colonial era does not show many pages devoted to Danish excesses, there hints that of what might have been. Denmark’s only overseas possessions, for a limited period, was the island of St Croix, birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. When the Danish flag was briefly hoisted over the island, the Danes lost no time in imposing the Gavilon Code, setting forth the work and taxes too be extorted from the locals by the Danish oppressor. Historians mark it as one of the cruelest in the entire annals of empire.
http://www.counterpunch.com
Was Rice Right for Once?
Cartoons and Bombs
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
I wonder, are waves of angry protest, flag burning, and embassy burning in the name of religion any less rational than waves of B-52s, cluster bombs, and torture in the name of democracy?
So when I hear any American official speak about the worldwide protests against unflattering cartoons of Islam’s Prophet, it is difficult to credit the words, but surprisingly there is one statement by an American — someone who ranks third only after George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld for total number of career lies — that I do credit.
Days ago, Condoleezza Rice – Secretary of State, fundamentalist Christian, and apologist for torture and bombing – told the world that Iran and Syria were stoking the fires of these protests. At first pass, this sounds like the days when Moscow was held responsible for every change of weather in Peoria.
But for once, I think Condoleezza may be right, but her words mean something different than she intends. . .
http://www.counterpunch.com
I assumed he meant this blog but frankly it’s taken me awhile to find my way to this blog, wading through all the different lists (I posted yesterday on the forum site, thinking that was the blog). Marc did seem emphatic that he would email – I’m assuming we’re all signed up on his email list. If you’re not, do it at
http://www.marcmaron.com/maron.php
If anyone wants to organize an email/letter/phone/fax/whatnot campaign, please do, just give us the appropriate contact info.
It was David Halberstam who slammed Marc after Mark the Shark.
Comment by ingrid nyc — February 11, 2006 @ 12:42 pm
Thanks, ingrid. My apologies to Stephen Ambrose! 😳
I was just curious if he meant this place or not. It would be cool to know he’s aware of our existence (I saw a visit from Astoria by somebody on a Mac, back before the end of the show), and always kind of wondered if it was him. Besides, if he reads this blog, I could ask him why he sent me the wrong CD! Oh well, it makes a lovely present.
Once there’s a Marc e-mail, it doesn’t take long for it to get posted here.
I just find it really, really hard to understand that they would forget a little detail like a goddamn radio program needs a goddamn radio station and studio. Are they truly that incompetent? Maybe they figured he’d just do a podcast from his basement like the Croncast.
I’m afraid AAR has been jerking us (and Marc) around. Give him (and us) some hope by tossing a few $ for setting up a show then once the new lineup is running, let it die. :growl:
On the Middle East: If there is ever going to be peace (or even a reasonable approximation thereof), people need to let history be history. There’s blood enough on everyone, and I do mean everyones, ancestor’s hands. I remember the first encounter an ambassador I worked for had with one of the factions fighting in Beruit. The Ambassador was trying to get the various groups to at least talk. One of the Islamic group leaders stood up and in a fury detailed every outrage the Marionites had committed against his family since the Crusades. You can’t talk in that kind of environment.
At some point you’ve got to let go of the past – even the recent past. “Never Forget” the lesson, but forget the pain. Germans doesn’t owe me anything (and I don’t owe them revenge) for the Shoah and my mom’s family, and the Turks don’t owe my wife’s family anything for what they did to her people, other than not to do it again, and step up and stop it when it happens elsewhere (Darfur, anybody?).
Do you all remember when MS was going to introduce a new character? I think it was “the anarchist” and they cut spots for it building up to the big day. Brendan was the producer. And, it was the day before or the day of the introduction Brendan got a call and said you can’t do it?? Deja vu 😕
irresponsible bastards. they get around the whaling ban by this meaningless “scientific research” bull….. any relation to danny g?
It’s hard to speculate, let’s not assume the worst until we hear more from Marc or someone who has spoken with him. Not that I would put anything past them. But let’s see what happens (or doesn’t happen).
Hi everyone!
Gosh…PJ have you got the list for writing to the board or should I look around for it. Im sure I mustve saved it somewhere because it wasnt that long ago.
I dont understand this craziness…and I hope that Marc knows, if hes reading this or anyone from his staff is, that if AAR screws him, he can probably start a podcast and make it subscription based. I would gladly support something like that. But I cant imagine that they would keep paying salaries and stuff all this time, even if its a shoestring, and then cut it off. This may just be a horrible case of bad management. But it is mind boggling…
This AAR management really sucks…I hope that if they screw Marc that we hear something about it from the other hosts…This code of silence and lurking here and whatever just smacks of something…just not too good…really bothers me…
There’s contact info at saveairamericaradio.com and savemorningsedition.com.
Yeah, I don’t know what to think about this. I’m hoping it’s just incompetence and nothing sinister. I would pay for Marc’s podcast, too. I was considering signing up for the single show premium, and only doing the Marc Maron Show, just to support it.
It would be tough for him to pay everyone whose hard work is required to put a show together, though. I guess I’d rather hear him on Sirius or XM (probably Sirius, ‘cuz I like having NPR and PRI, but I suppose it doesn’t matter, now that I have the Replay AV).
I just hate the thought that maybe DG has decided to pull the plug before it started. I hope that’s not the case – they pimped their premium service using him, and had him on Rachel saying it was “soon,” so let’s hope they’re just incompetent.
But, damn, maybe they ought to get a CEO that knows something about radio?
PJ, thanks for the link to Will and Willie on Friday’s thread. Nice to hear Maron discussing a topic that he is actually engaged in.
Also glad to hear that we seem to have the Marc the Shark controversy straightened out in favor of Halberstam. Oliphant has a better sense of humor than that.
Didn’t venture out in search of the elusive iPod today because it’s been rainy and that kind of weather puts me to sleep every time. Especially since I was burning the candle at both ends all week. We’ll try again tomorrow. Becky, I’m leaning toward getting something similar to your new one.
How ironic would it be if on Monday I have an iPod but no Maron show to record? Damn.
Marc, if you’re reading this, which I know you are not, put the show on your website and I’ll send the check to the PO box from the return address on the envelope you sent the CD in. (Is that horrible grammar or what?) :doh:
I woke up, and my bed was filled with empty iPods. 🙁
But, damn, maybe they ought to get a CEO that knows something about radio?
Comment by pjsauter — February 11, 2006 @ 6:14 pm
Yeah, right. And next you’ll want a president who knows something about governing.
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
Hello, Saturday bloggers. Gore Vidal is going to be on Ring of Fire in a few…he is always interesting.
I’m really pissed about Marc’s show or non-show or whatever the hell is happening. I even bought an iPod last week so I can start listening to podcasts.
This ambiguous, jerk-around shit is enough to make a person :bong: ….
Yeah, right. And next you’ll want a president who knows something about governing.
Comment by Kevin M — February 11, 2006 @ 6:18 pm
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
but, my god, it’s saturday before the promised launch date. we know that DG doesn’t like marc but this is REALLY getting ridiculous.:mad::mad::mad::mad:
…and my apologies to Tom Oliphant, ‘cuz I started that mess by not verifying my facts. (Bu bu bu but I used a question mark…)
Along that line on Penn Jillette’s radio show on Thursday the topic was the FCC and network Standards ‘n’ Practices. Penn asked his attorney, “Since I can not come out on the air and say that ‘actor X is gay’ can I say ‘My attorney says that I can’t say that X is gay’ and be protected?”
(The above sentence needed more nested quotation marks that a line of code written in Lisp needs parentheses!)
But would DG not like Marc enough to totally screw up a show that comes with built in listeners? He may be incompetent, but he does have to answer to a board and this is a business. I cant imagine what the hell they are doing at all because there doesnt seem to be any promo of anything, and they miss so many opportunities…and they flush so much great talent …it just doesnt grow on trees.
They are saving money by limiting toilet paper, and not realizing that the impact of having people be so unhappy costs so much more!…what sort of management is this?
Since Im the big AAR listener and I turned so many people on to it, everyone is coming to me now and asking what is going on…and what do I say?
Danny, if youre out there! You have to spend money to make money!! Unhappy talent dont make great shows….unhappy workers waste time and supplies….If you dont advertise, no one will know you’re on!!…isnt that simple stuff?
Is it just me?
Hey Zeb, when and where is Penn Jillette’s show? I dont know if I can really stand him but I like alot of what he does on TV…some more than others.
Tom Oliphant is Franken’s favorite guest and someone who is batted around as a good replacement for Franken. I like Conasin, who is Franken’s second favorite, or sometimes equal with Oliphant. he got himself in trouble this past week because Oliphant is Thurs and Conasin is Friday and he told them bothe they were his favorite or some such thing. I was getting in and out of the car so I have to listen to the last hour of each day again to know what was going on. I would love to see Marc in the spot, but with how things are going I think we may see Jerry Springer expanded to 6 hours and then the satellite sisters all the rest of the time…with some Randi reruns thrown in….
They don’t just need to promote the show, they need to get it syndicated, too. If they haven’t even bothered to book studio time and get things straightened out with the affiliate that the show is supposed to be on, how much time do you suppose they’ve spent shopping it around to other radio stations – AAR “affiliates” or not?
They don’t seem to show any commitment to their shows. Randi has been bitching about lack of promotion all along. We know they killed the “anarchist prankster” promotion/contest before it could happen, and they even sold out Mike Malloy on their flagship station in favor of the freakin’ Satellite Sisters.
And after the demise of the best show on the network (IMHO) Rob Glaser has the balls to send a mass e-mail telling us we have to support AAR ‘cuz it’s so important to the cause.
Well, how ’bout this, Rob? Why don’t you fucking people support your own goddamn shows?
Info on Penn Jillette’s show is here.
Gee, I guess I’d better not work for the VA.
…and how dare they talk about “the cause” when they just as easily say ‘well, its a business and it has to make money and ratings’ when the shoe is on the other foot.If they had any care for any “cause” besides their own pocketbooks and bottom line they would have realized that the ideas coming out of these shows were really important in how they spread the word and changed the way people thought. I understand that it may be a sinking ship, but then why not let more people invest? Why not get a manager who knows what hes doing? My Mom said she thought that Danny had come on board with a cash infusion, and may own part of this thing…I dont know if thats true…but the way he did things and alienated people…asked for moeny to become an associate and then would give you 3 bumper stickers!…There should be a van driving around NYC and the whole tri state area giving bumper stickers out!
This is like me having to buy a ton of Kerry signs and go out and put them up along the busy routes…and then rebuy when the Repugs took them down!….If you want to boost NYC ratings, go out on the street and hand stuff out.
When Bloomberg started his news station here, he sent out a million tiny little plastic radios that only tuned to that one station. They probably cost pennies each. I thought that was brilliant.
I understand that they have no money and that Bloomberg is loaded…but it just seems like there should be a better way of doing things. The grassroots thing can really work if you work it…but they havent much.
Ugh…now Im posting long again. I realized today that if I broke my posts up rather than leaving them long I mightmake the mosts posts list one of these days;-)
…too much time to think in the synogogue!
Im glad that Jeaneane is back and I think that Sam and Jeaneane really encourage people to run for office and try to get a foothold and take back the country…but the rest sort of rant on in a way that I dont believe recognizes the audience much…is not as interactive….
That is the thing that is special and the thing that will change the world…each person being important.
So Al slides to the middle, Jerry spends his mornings softballing people from the middle of the country and boring us all to death, only to repair to the TV studio in the afternoon to pit some poor toothless people from down south against eachother with DNA tests, nudity, fighting, and a little chair throwing for good luck….
Oh God, who knows…but if I was an established name like Randi or even Al, I would be raising bloody hell about the promotion of all the shows. Could it be every man for himself now that everyone is leaving the flagship…
Well, if we’re going to do a writing campaign, just let me know and I will start. I dont knwo if we should wait till MOnday comes and see if they pull it out, or if we should write now to ask when the show will be on and why we have no information.
This is depressing because the way things have been this past week and today, I really need the funny.
So, that Penn show is just something that hes marketed himself? It seems like an internet show with a few stations…?
Is that it?
Hear, hear!!!
Good morning…er…afternoon, blog sibs. I dunno what happened but I slept almost all afternoon after a most productive morning spent cleaning and sewing.
Tomorrow I’m seeing a friend off on an unfortunate adventure. One of my best friends is married to a Guardsman and he’s being deployed to Afghanistan. We’re gathering for a farewell party before they leave for a few days of snuggling in an undisclosed location, after which she’s taking him to the armory and going out drinking after. (She’ll be drinking. He won’t.)
So I’m going to be busy for the rest of the weekend (we’re getting a private room at a really nice restaurant and decorating it with toy Army men and stuff like that…plus I’m knitting him slippers in camo yarn…) and there won’t be a recipe. I’ll make up for my recipe-laziness….I promise.
I remember reading a DG interview, where he said he was a shareholder in AAR.
He probably brought a bunch of money in from others, too. I reckon he runs with a pretty wealthy crowd.
That’s all well and good, and they should give him a nice office where he can sit and play solitaire on his computer while he listens to Imus, but they really need to keep him the hell away from day-to-day operations.
Ah, and I’d forgotten this line from the same story:
:holla: 😡 :growl: :fu:
I just read the entire friday blog so that I could find the marc interview. :bow::bow::bow: I was so pumped–clapping, laughing, nodding. lawton smalls is coming back!!!:bow::bow::bow:
but all good news has to be sullied by the bad: DG, what the $%^& is your problem? :growl: if you haven’t got the details figured out, is it so difficult to understand that you should, um, just explain to your ready-made audience (ie, us) what the hold-up is or at least what our time line is? :doh::doh::doh:
marc’s ready–you could hear it in that interview. :bow::bow: as for AAR and its “management? (and I use that word VERY loosely) :barf::barf::barf:
This is not good.
Congress is considering revising a 10-year-old telecommunications bill and abolishing Internet neutrality. Basically, all “bits” on the Internet are required to be treated equally. The big Internet service providers (Comcast, SBC, etc.) want to do away with that, which would allow them to charge websites for “guaranteed delivery.”
In other words, Yahoo! (or Wal-Mart, or Fox News) ponies up a few hundred grand, and their site loads fast. You, though, can’t afford a few hundred grand, so your blog takes forever to load – if people can get to it at all. And so do all your favorite progressive and non-commercial websites. Think AAR will pony up the bucks to keep their site – and live stream accessible?
So all you can ever get to on the Internet is non-stop infomercials (and well-funded wingnut sites, no doubt).
Well, I won’t pay for the Internet, then, you say? Me either, but that still winds up killing our new-found method of bypassing the right-wing, corporate media and communicating with – activating, empowering – each other. This is how they kill dissent. Not with tanks, but with bucks.
This needs to be stopped.
Israel is occupying Palestinian land illegally. Methaz, why are you spouting propaganda? You sound like you are smart–except on this issue.
PJ- what do you think the next thing is? I doubt they will be able to charge for this but maybe they will…?
I thnk that if this is stopped that something new will be developed…some sort of wi-fi communications or an outernet that operates on a totally different frequency…?
Something must be coming…
If anyone got a chance to read the great article on Craig from Craigslist in NY Magazine (which is one of my absolute favorite reads lately) you can see how much HE alone has changed big business and culture from people’s views on sexual freedom to lowering newspaper revenues so significantly that they have to rework their business plans….
I look forward to the next thing. I dont see how it can be stopped…and I think that its such an information gateway that to charge would definitely hurt the poor….
How will they do that?
Only if a Bush crony gets in office next term….
Current online users: 1:omg::omg::40:
wow, PJ, I haven’t read the link yet, but what you’re describing is horrifying. and it’s particularly scary because the issue hasn’t even surfaced in the MSM or alot of alternative sources. I remember very well how little press attention the original telecommunications act got; it was a hugely important bill but got no attention until it was voted on. so it’s not hard to imagine that this could happen under the radar screen. :shock::shock::shock:
it does need to be stopped, you’re right. but the ability to stop things has been in excruciatingly short supply. first, we have to find ways to bring the issue out from the shadows. :paranoid::paranoid::paranoid:
Nicki- Ive actually been blogging on this a little bit the past couple of hours but I didnt post it yet. After spending the day with Jews in a synagogue and having my friend’s husband try to engage me in political talk…which we agreed on and he seemed a little perplexed that I knew so much and that we actually agreed…and the whole Israel thing, which I know not enough about and so I dont really talk about it, especially in that sort of company…I think its best for me to let it lay in general. The only thing I said today, and in guessing and adding to what Ive been told by people who support both sides, that there was real law passed (or illegal law slid by,) and alot of political stuff that went into this whole Israel thing (and my friend’s father was a big part of it apparently…these people here feel like its their homeland or that they need a safe place in case there is another holocaust? It is life or death to them)…I dont buy much of it because I feel like the focus is then off of making your country here better and always focusing on another country and the conflict there, and planning when youre gonna move there. but I can see the feelings on both sides run so high that that talk of illegal occupation or settlement falls on deaf ears. I said to my friend that I wondered what we would do if a bunch of American Indians knocked on our door and we were told that the government had decided to give half of our state back to the Indians. It would be legal and maybe we’d get a buy-out or something, but we definitely had to go. My friend said…hmmmm…well I guess I hadnt thought of it that way….
But then so many things happen and its impossible for anyone to negotiate anything…at some point the people on both sides have to look at now and the future and learn to co- exist. People have moved around on this planet since there were people and the moves often have caused clashes…The American Indians couldnt fathom owning the land. I cant fathom a god who would make a place so holy that people should kill over it. I have always been agnostic but Im really feeling latelylike there couldnt possibly be a god…no real god would cause so much trouble in his/her own name. This is like a chip missing in the human psyche, and it comes from fear of death or something. What is this creation that is so important that people kill eachother and ruin lands for it?
That was just my free flowing thought throughout the day in the middle of this very religious and very joyful celebration of another generation in the orthodox group…and my blog today is not so much exactly about the Israel conflict as it is about insular groups and violence in my neck of the woods (gangs fighting…)
But isnt it all the same really?
Disclaimer: I do not mean anything bad towards anyone’s god, and I take my own chances as far as hell or purgatory or the rapture goes. If you believe in God I dont think that you are missing a chip or anything. I respect it totally! If anything at this point, I am missing a chip because I am incapable of joining anything and feeling any security…even in a place that would probably embrace my half jewishness and give me a real home where bombs only fall every other day and all the suicide bombers have a smile…. and then there is the dead sea where you sink…no, you float? I cant remember but my friends bring me facial products from there!
Israel/Palestine. The way people like Noam Chomsky explain it, there are two peoples who both claim the rights of national self-determination in historical Palestine. There is also a framwork for peace between the two peoples. But so far one side refuses to negotiate within the framework. Damn! This will take a long time. Anyway, Israel has been steadily pushiing the Palestinians off of the land since 1947. They are able to get away with it because they have the backing of the US. All this talk about “forgetting about it” is just a propaganda ploy to cover the land grab.
Read some of the following people: Israel Shahak; Norman Finkelstein (Holocaust Industry, and more); Edward Said; Chomsky; more…
Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle” is good.
Shall we discuss further. Please avoid the US/Israel apologetics, which only confuse things.
PJ- Thanks for that link…could that really happen?
I guess we need to find out who is on this committee and start sending letters…but also forwarding some of this around the internet.
Maybe that site where nocronys was set up would be good…isn that an open political action website to get things to gain steam?
Tomorrow Ill see about finding more information on this and anyone else who has time also check into it…PJ, you are more in the industry so keep posting whatever you have.
Maybe we can make some noise.
I dont think they can ultimately do it because its like cutting off access to the library. Maybe they can tax everybody and give a tax break to the corportations who lay the line but it has to be egalitarian…if this is made into a privatized business venture…well….we will have to move on to the next thing. It will change everything.
Im not good at change. I think that getting used to the computer 11 years ago and becomming a tech geek of sorts was the last big change I can forsee making anytime soon…
Well, hopefully this won’t get through, but lobbyists buy politicians, and politicians do what they’re told. Plus, most of these politicians are lucky if they can figure out how to turn a computer on, let alone get their brains wrapped around how bits zip around the Internet.
It’s kind of like having an idiot who doesn’t know the first thing about radio being in charge of running a radio network.
How can we have so many stupids running things? Dont they have experts there to tell them whats happening?…wait…dont answer…
Things have really spiralled down to sh*t…
And they made fun of Gore for being into the internet…they said that he said that he invented it…and he didnt say that at all. I think they just said that because they are threatened by someone so damned smart.What can we do? It all looks so bad…I guess things go on even if the next hundred years are screwed…maybe the bird flu will knock off a few hundred million of us and whoever is left can start over…
plus telecommuncations companies are some of the most powerful companies, when it comes to influencing congress. the telecommuncations bill was not reported on, and–surprise, surprise–made alot of very big changes that were favorable to the industry. it’s not hard to imagine a similar result could happen again. unfortunately. all they have to do is change the rules of the game. there are no federal constitutional rights to ensure the internet in its current form. sadly. 🙁
The problem is that the Internet backbone is privately owned. If they aren’t regulated, they can do what they want. They could conceivably configure their routers to handle traffic differently based on the IP source/destination addresses. “Good” packets go down the fast pipes, those that don’t pay to play, eh, they don’t. It’s a great revenue opportunity. If you have an e-business, you pretty much would have to pay for guaranteed delivery, or you’d be out of business. And with IPv6, there will be built-in QOS (Quality of Service). Great for handling realtime communication (say, VoIP). You give those packets priority, because a half-second delay is no big deal when you’re getting your e-mail, but it makes a phone conversation unbearable.
But if I say to Amazon, hey, if you pay me x amount per GB of data transfer, I’ll guarantee a certain level of service, but the free traffic is just as fast as the “guaranteed” stuff, Amazon’s not going to pay me much extra. So I’d probably segment my network and maximize the part that carries the fast stuff. When my router sees a packet to/from Amazon, it goes over my nice new fiber network. When I see one to/from Barnes and Noble, well, that goes out my 56k modem.
Fox News? Hey, they’ll pay. Democracy Now!? Not so much.
It just aint right.
well, I may have to really take a sleeping pill and try to forget this day and how scary things are.
Deregulation is one of the worst things that has happened to this country. Capitalism with no regulation does not work and maybe this is what we are going to find out. There is no trickle down or self regulating…all the $ moves upwards and the control along with it. One of these days they are gonna look around and there wont be anyone to mow the lawn or cook their food because theyve taken just everything and even the gardeners and maids cant travel that far to get to the big estates where they live walled off from everyone….and then they will bring in some Chinese children from a walmart factory and put them to work!
God I hate this….how can this evil party put these things into action and work on these things for so many years without losing focus, and ultimately break down everything that was good and hopeful in favor of corporatism and the rich getting richer….
a Little cabin in Canada is seeming better and better…Of course, if my internet is slow I’d never make it because I need constant influx of information.
Time to check the snow and see how deep it is. I hear the plow going by but it was just sprinkling last time I checked…
From PJ’s link:
“Ed Whitacre, CEO of the newly merged AT&T and SBC, laid out his opposition to codifying net neutrality in BusinessWeek magazine in November: “I ain’t going to let them do that because we have spent this capital [on fiber lines] and we have to have a return on it.””
I don’t which bothers me more–that the internet could be sacrificed on behalf of ATT’s shareholders or that this story has been around since nov. and we’ve heard nothing about it. :paranoid::paranoid::paranoid:
It would also be a way to keep poor people of the world ignorant and poor.
Modern capitalism doesn’t want regulation when it comes to business dealing with workers, because the owners dominate the relationship. A near totalitarian power relationship. But it is regulated elsewhere. (SEC, and so forth.) Otherwise the system would collapse.
Ed Whitecracker is a flat out liar, anyway. Who ultimately paid for the R&D for computers? It was not any damn corporation.
Symbolic Offspring
From Munich to Hamas
By SAUL LANDAU
How does Steven Spielberg’s Munich relate to Hamas’ recent electoral victory? Israel presents this organization as the epitome of Palestinian terrorism. This caricature could lead Washington to deny aid to the Palestinian people
Munich starts with the recreation of the 1972 kidnapping and slaughter of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The Palestinian Black September group, frustrated by not getting support or even attention for their cause, seized Israeli athletes at the Olympic dormitories. The Israelis, stunned by the Munich events, began to support a Palestinian religious movement — that later turned into Hamas. Israeli leaders also secretly devised a strategy of assassination, which Spielberg portrays in a vivid scene.
In grainy footage the audience sees armed Palestinians grabbing Israeli athletes, negotiating to fly them out of Germany and then the foolish German attempt to trick the kidnappers at the airport, resulting in the death of kidnappers and athletes.
In another Spielberg film “inspired by real events,” a non-Jew bribes cynical concentration camp officers during World War II to let Jews live and even gives them their rationale for corruption: the Jews will produce for the Nazi war effort. Like Schindler’s List, Munich also uses money as the means to its end…
http://www.counterpunch.com
After Greenspan
Bringing Democracy to the Federal Reserve
By RALPH NADER
Federal Reserve Chairmen have long had a habit of dropping pithy little phrases into their speeches—most couched in hazy Fed speak and subject to a multitude of interpretations. But there are times when the money czars are actually delivering a message.
In 1974, Fed Chairman Arthur Burns traveled to Hawaii to warn the American Bankers Association about what he dubbed “competition in laxity”, a poorly disguised complaint about banks switching charters in search of easy regulation. For financial insiders, Burns’ message was clear—“the Federal Reserve should be the dominant regulator.”
Now there is a new man on the Federal Reserve block—Ben Bernanke—and he has been using a word—transparency—freely as he moved into Alan Greenspan’s chair. That’s a word that has been on the “subversive” list at the Federal Reserve since 1913. Members of the Federal Reserve who rushed to their dictionaries for a definition of “transparency” must have felt an artic chill when the words “readily understandable, obvious, without guile” popped up.
So far Chairman Bernanke has limited specifics about his push for “greater transparency” to the idea of the Fed stating explicitly the numerical inflation rate it considers to be consistent with the goal of long-term price stability. Surely the new chairman doesn’t plan to rest his transparency campaign on this limited point. After all, European central banks have long released such data. . .
http://www.counterpunch.com
Hi Melina; I streamPenn from the WCKG Chicago site — they have the least annoying commercials and the stream is stable for my 48k dial-up connection. I leap on at:
Chicago – 105.9 Free FM via https://www.radiomat.com/index.php
11AM pacific. It’s not MS, but is fun and intelligent.
Hey pj….I went to college at GW in Washington DC. The best places to find apts to sublet are in the NW area or places very near the NE/NW divide. If you start venturing up towards Maryland in NE it gets a little sktechy. I was mugged in Takoma Park so I’d steer clear of there! Also, avoid SE period. Not a good place. I have a couple friends that live near the Folger Shakespeare Theatre(near the Capitol) it’s right on the line between NE and SE so, but its okay. Dupont Circle is the college student/gay/art gallery crowd and there are good apts and townshouses to sublet from. I’d check out the classifieds in on-campus newspapers from the unversity’s to get word on apt. complexes….the Hatchet is GW’s paper-pretty decent rental section when it gets going.
Kevin M-sorry about not replying to you on Friday! I have a nasty habit of posting and leaving….it never occurred to me that people might TALK to me! :doh:
back to the extraordinarily boring Japanese Olympic coverage….oh that’s right, THERE ISN’T ANY! Unless there’s a Japanese athlete its not on! 🙁
they’ve subtitled Bob Novak interviewing an admin. official. WHY??????:holla:
hmmmm my soon to be local aar affiliate in buffalo ny is supposed to have “local” programming on the weekends and i guess they are skipping the morning newsmagazine of mark and rachel and carrying springer franken and so forth until at least malloy goes off air maybe marc after malloy? i wonder anyway ive been thinking maybe when i quit my job in a couple of months i can just go stand outside the house of the owner of the station until i get my own weekend show anyway i have to get driving again morning load in afternoon show here in scary alabama
:paranoid:scary alabamans
:bow:scared and hating in las vegas is a friggin great book. i must see the movie. if it is even close to what i have in my head it will be so brilliantly spectacular that i will never have need to see another movie again. alas it could never match the scenes the good doctors writing have placed inside my mind. i am positive of that. even johnny depp can not match the insanity that goes on with raoul and his lawyer in this book. i will buy the movie today and see for myself
:paranoid:friggin rednecks:paranoid: