Professor-rat's Blurty
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Thursday, June 26th, 2008
| Time |
Event |
| 12:54a |
A racist insult In a fascist police state DEAKIN WEST, Australian Capital Territory — Eros, Australia’s national adult retail association, has called the ban on hardcore porn enacted a year ago in the heavily-Aboriginal Northern Territories divisive. Eros CEO Fiona Patten said that after a year, the bans on sexually explicit but nonviolent adult material could not be shown to have done anything to stop the sexual abuse of children and simply stood as yet another issue dividing Aboriginal Australians from the rest of the community. “With the benefit of hindsight, these bans now simply say that Europeans can handle depictions of nonviolent, explicit sex, but indigenous Australians can’t," Patten said. "It’s an insult and is not sustainable through any verifiable procedure or inquiry. "Instead of banning legitimate forms of entertainment, the government should now be implementing the recommendations of the Little Children Report [on child abuse in Aboriginal areas] with regard to pornography. These were to provide communities with education about sexual images and how the classification scheme works and start strictly enforcing the Northern Territories' laws that make it illegal to show minors R- or X-rated films." Patten said that Eros initially committed to support the bans as long as the Northern Territories introduced regulations for the sale of adult films, similar to the Capital Territories. Possession of adult films is legal nationwide, but the sale of adult films is legal only in the Northern Territories and Capital Territory. “For four years Eros had been writing to state and federal authorities, warning them of the existence of organized crime gangs using Darwin post office boxes to sell highly illegal pornography into the Aboriginal communities, but we were ignored. Without a licensing scheme in place, in the Northern Territories and in other states of Australia, crime gangs will continue to sell illegal and pirated pornography which will end up on Aboriginal communities.” More than $1 million is spent annually educating Australians about film classifications, but none goes to Aboriginal communities, according to Eros. With satellite dishes bringing in R-rated erotica and organized crime gangs selling banned pornography from Darwin, the Aboriginal communities could not have known what was suitable for adults, what was suitable for children or what was not suitable for anyone. Eros has advocated uniform rules for porn sales throughout Australia. FROM http://www.xbiz.com/news/all/95701 | | 1:26a |
Left anarchist death-cults
The whole point of this thread is to look a little more closely at the internal dynamics of left anarchism.
How the external environment (i.e. what is likely to happen politically) impacts on the left anarchists prospects for growth. However, this topic is done to death in many other contexts, and is rather beyond this. My own position is that I fully acknowledge, and have done so on many occasions, that the general political environment of course impacts on whether Platformist style groups grow. I just add the rider: but your internal atmosphere also makes a considerable contribution! It is this which some seem to find hard to swallow.
In addition, I personally take the view that if the ‘right’ external environment hasn’t occurred over a period of at least 80 years then it is unlikely to do so now. There isn’t much point in launching a project where the right conditions will only prevail about once every 100 years for about 6 months in one country in the world. Hardly propitious omens for success. I don’t see anything in Platformist diagnosis of the external environment to suggest that ideal conditions for the Federation building project.
The problem seems to be that Federation building projects are always launched with a great fanfare and much enthusiasm. They promptly collapse or stagnate. But the leaders say in effect: ‘It wasn’t me, guv.’ There is always someone or something else to blame, particularly those damned ‘objective conditions.’ This is a handy way of saying that the underlying perspective is falsified. It would be simpler to just admit: ‘we were wrong – again.’ I find many groups who issue apocalyptic predictions, work themselves up into a frenzy of activity, and then keep right on going when what has been predicted and promised doesn’t happen (what has been called ‘catastrophism.’). They are usually Trotskyite cults.
I know little about Anarkismo – I haven’t talked to its members, or read its publications other than in passing, or studied its genealogy. But if it is fully immersed in the Trotskyist tradition I wouldn't be surprised if there weren’t elements of at least sectism with the potential for cultism in its make up.
I’m basing this on my experience of many Trotskyist groups in other countries. Others with more experience or data are better equipped to decide, in this particular case. Whether this tentative position causes offense or not I don’t know either, but it is my view. And unless there is something substantially new to arise here, I will leave it at that. | | 1:39a |
Five good globocops
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
5 US Troops Killed;
90 Iraqis Wounded in Mosul;
District Election for Sadr City Bombed:
On a lighter note there is tri-partisan support for polygamy from Islam, Mormons and the Green Left Weekly. | | 1:42a |
Time for Barry to step up Step up, or step off. Things happen fast these days. The time is ripe to take Bush down. A filibuster on FISA, followed up with immediate impeachment proceedings. Then rapid withdrawal from Iraq. Blow a golden chance like this and yr toast Bazza. Don't Miss the Train by William S. Lind Improbably, an opportunity has arisen in Iraq for the U.S. to attain two of its most important goals, namely obtaining some legitimacy for the Maliki "government" and getting American troops out. This could be the last international express leaving Baghdad Central Station, and we should be on it. - FROM http://www.antiwar.com/lind/?articleid=13038There could at this point be no better way for American troops to exit Iraq than in response to a request from the Iraqi "government." | | 2:17a |
The strong-arm alternative
A reader writes
"The impact of Mick Armstrong in the SAlt is a reflection not of Leninist principles or the tradition of Trotsky, but of basic human psychological dynamics. The functioning of some SAlt members, responding to the powerful personality and tremendous authority that Armstrong assumed, brings to mind Freud's insights on group psychology: 'the individual gives up his ego-ideal [i.e., individual sense of right and wrong, duty, and guilt] and substitutes for it the group-ideal as embodied in the leader.'
The authority of the leader (in the minds of at least many members) becomes essential for the cohesion of the group, and the approval of the leader, or a sense of oneness with the leader, becomes a deep-felt need that is bound up with one's own sense of self- worth. The member of the group enjoys 'a feeling of triumph' when his or her thinking coincide with this leader's judgments, and is vulnerable to 'delusions of inferiority and self-deprecation' whenever inner doubts arise about the leader's authority.
Indeed, 'opposition' is perceived to be 'as good as separation' from the group and is 'therefore anxiously avoided.' The compelling 'group ideal' that Armstrong symbolized for such members involved a powerful Kool-aid mix of strongly held values, accumulated theoretical wisdom, and hopes for the future triumph of authoritarian socialism. His authority flowed from the continuity that he seemed to represent with previous revolutionary generations of Marxists."
This is an absolutely brilliant observation. I happen to think that most of Freud is utter nonsense, especially that canard about penis-envy, but his understanding of group dynamics in a group like the SAlt seems right on the mark. | | 2:56a |
The South shall rise again @libcom '...For us Marx made mistakes. In my personal opinion, he was wrong on the US civil war...' Devrim "Enternasyonalist Komünist Sol" Posts: 2825 Joined: 15-07-06 '...revolutionary icons marx and engels were refugees in england at the time of the american civil war. with hindsight, it might seem surprising that they were amongst the foremost supporters of the united states in that struggle In January 1862 Karl Marx, London correspondent of the New York Daily Herald wrote that the "natural sympathy of the popular classes all over the world" might be expected to support the world's "only popular government" - the United States of America...' http://www.americancivilwar.org.uk/news_marx-engels-on-the-civil-war_11.htmMarx argued skillfully in plain, striking language that the perception in the contemporary British press of the War as one of an offensive by the North against the South was in fact the reverse. He held that the Southern bombardment of Fort Sumter was a provocation to war - the Federal fort had indicated it would surrender, he argued, if were not relieved by a fixed time. He held that "Thirty Thousand slaveholders in the Old South", the exporters of slaves to other parts of the emerging American nation had instigated the war. On the election of Lincoln to the Presidency, which is generally taken as the point where Southern secession became reality, Marx pointed out that it was the North/ South split within the Democratic vote primarily brought about this victory by the Republican candidate. (10) He analysed the conflict as one of "slavery versus free labour" and dismissed the Confederate states as not a country but a "battle slogan", the war one of Southern conquest in order to spread and perpetuate slavery. Wonder how many other Libcommers agree with Devrim (and Zerzan!?) on this hot button issue. ( Tim Russert asked one of the presidential candidates about their civil war stance recently ) | | 3:06a |
Your ABC
Henry Kissinger being interviewed on Lateline...'Psychic investigators' ...wtf!?
I want my eight cents back | | 3:35a |
| | 4:11a |
Marxist bondage and discipline
Very strict
This is a conjuncture that calls for a serious reclamation of the concepts of forced labor, slavery and exploitation in direct opposition to their current use. This process of dehumanisation is referred to by Marx as fetishism. Indeed, if anybody is positioned to do this, it is precisely those of us who work in a Marxian tradition and have a sound sense of what exploitation is, where it comes from,and what it actually takes to end it. To emancipate means here to construct, to release a potential, not an essence. What is displayed when one criticises is doing, the subject. Not the pure subject, but the self-antagonistic subject, self-antagonistic doing, the doing which creates its own negation.
The struggle against capitalism is always contradictory, which is precisely why it can only be conceived as constantly corrosive anti-fetishisation, critical and self-critical, criticising both the alienated object and the subject who produces that alienated object. It is precisely because of the depth of the self-antagonism, the depth to which capital penetrates us, that criticism attacks everything and continues forever, corroding everything that negates the creative power of social doing.
Criticism moves corrosively, eating into fetishised forms, always moving against the fetishism which never ceases to encroach. Marx criticised above all the categories of political economy, but his method takes us on to the criticism of the categories of politics, of law, of sociology, the criticism of all social forms which negate the power of social doing. Criticism corrodes all separation of being from doing, of existence from constitution, burns into the homogenisation of time, eats into duration, destroys identity. Probably, it pushes us on towards the criticism of all nouns and their dissolution into verbs, in a constant struggle to affirm (recover, construct) the social self-determination of human doing.
II Burning revolutionary holes
The first is in the arena of export zones and labor rights. Tearing holes in capitalism is not an abstract fantasy. We do it all the time. We scream, we kiss, we dream. Individually and collectively, we say No to the imposition of capital, in the factory, in the office, in the streets, at home. We get together with others to create alternative spaces, time-spaces in which we say "No, here no, here capital does not rule! Here we shall determine our own doing." But then I found, to my surprise, that I preferred their slightly pro-business slant to the approach used by the stronger opponents of export zones as a site for the intensified exploitation - indeed the implicit slavery - of third world workers under globalization.
And everytime there was at least 1 student, usually more like 2-3, who wanted to do their project on female sexual slavery in Thailand. It was always sexual slavery, and always Thailand. Nothing else apparently happened in Thailand, and sexual slavery apparently never happened in households, marriages, etc., only in Thailand or some similarly imagined country. The rise of this discourse, much of it promoted by women's studies and (some dominant strands of) feminism, has lead to a global anti-trafficking movement that calls itself the new abolitionists. The No is a hole in capitalism (yes, highly self-contradictory, of course, but the only possible starting point). How do we start from that hole and make it bigger and bigger. How do we move out, aspire towards totality? | | 9:39a |
Get behind the sword Huge-ego Chavez hails Mugabe as a "Freedom Fighter" The peronist military led government in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez hails Mugabe as a "freedom fighter". "I give you a replica of liberator Simon Bolivar's sword," Chavez said when he signed an energy co-operation agreement. "For you, who like Bolivar, took up arms to liberate your people. For you, who like Bolivar, are and will always be a true freedom fighter," Chavez said. "He continues, alongside his people, to confront the pretensions of new imperialists." http://www.news24.com/News24/Archive/0,,2-1659_1490385,00.html | | 9:44a |
But Carlin
How George Carlin Aided and Abetted the Republicans
By Aubie84 - June 24, 2008, 11:51PM
Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that half of them are stupider than that.--- George Carlin
Enough said.
Despite your contribution to Republican pedagogy, we love you and will miss you, George.
In honor of George Carlin, Steven Colbert tonight said, "Motherfucker."
And at least on the channel I watch, it didn't get bleeped.
I hope George had the foresight to order a seven-word inscription for his tombstone.
Posted by acanuck
George Carlin - he didn't vote. ( five words)
Deification of voting is a bit dogmatic and lacks a sense of proportion. I sympathize with Carlin's cynical observation that voting only encourages them (politicians), though I myself am not quite that cynical.
With his wit, George Carlin has done more to make things better than either you or I have done by merely voting now and then. | | 9:52a |
Clueless Vichy fuck The annointing of King Barry's sepctre with KY '...No one is having fun because this hornet’s nest has been hit, and it was already clear that immunity was going to be a *big deal* (I'm wondering if it wasn't a big red herring...)' Two words - Scooter McClelland http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/obama_on_fisa_telecom_immunity.phpOh if only the Tsar knew! Apparently you aren't familiar with the USA PATRIOT ACT. PROVIDE A WARRANT. That's the issue. Telecoms were paid a large amount of money to implement these surveillance systems. They did so without being compelled to do so by a warrant. They violated their customer's privacy and gave their data away simply by receiving a letter from the President and a promise to make a lot of money. Qwest responded to the Executive's request by asking for a warrant. The Executive didn't bother getting one. The "netroots" get up in arms because American citizens' rights were trampled on. Secondly, I for one would happily indemnify the telecoms if the trials were allowed to proceed. The issue is not making the telecoms pay. The issue is that these trials are the only way to find out what was done. If they want to transfer liability to the Feds, fine by me. The president can't pardon the telecoms for civil penalties, btw. These are civil trials, not criminal trials. Very white of him Obama is saying Dodd, Feingold, and the rest are voting against the security interests of the country?! Way to go Barry! Barry previously vowed to support a filibuster of "ANY" bill that included telecom immunity. There is no way to construe this as anything other than Barry going back on his word now that he has won the nomination. That is what I would have expected from Hillary, not Obama! ' Those who would sacrifice any essential freedom for security deserve neither ' - Ben Franklin Not only that, he's bolstering the idea that we need to enact radical (even for Republicans) schemes of dubious Constitutionality in order to save ourselves from The Terrorists. That is why I feel so betrayed. That mindset is precisely why I hate George W. Bush. Actually, I don't think Bush and Cheney even believe that crap - it's a power grab on their part, pure and simple. Obama's showing himself to be a maroon, a pigeon. This latest news confirms it - he actually buys what Dick Cheney is selling. Posted by VictorLaszlo He cannot undo retroactive immunity. Once the immunity is granted, those suits are dismissed and that is the end of it. That is why it is so important that the retroactive immunity provision not make it. Incidentally, I am kind of hard pressed to know what to make of the claim that there are bigger issues at stake. Care to name one? This FISA bill speaks to the issue of rule of law and restraints of executive power. I am not sure that there is anything more fundamental (and thus more important) than that. I can imagine that there are other matters at stake of equal importance, but I would be hard pressed to think of any that are more important. Posted by A Missouri voter What necessity? This election isn't going to be won or lost on the FISA issue. Our civil liberties are going to lose but it's not going to decide the election. What it tells me is that if Obama had been in the Senate in 2002 he's have made the easy vote with Hillary. It pretty much shows me there is no difference with them on selling out to the war hawks on "national security" No, leadership is explaining that we can have national security and the Constituion at the same time. We have for over 200 years and no reason suggests that this cannot occur except for the cowardice exhibited by Obama and others to stand up for once. Hell, national security would be served better if government could bust down the doors of homes, dettain anybody they wanted without a warrant, subject them to prolonged interrogation and torture. Posted by tbhull Yes, yes, yes no one is saying security begins in your own home keeping it safe and secure from invasion by the King's men entering without warrants. Security begins at home. Posted by bluebell Those ads are going to run anyway. You think people who think he's a closet Muslim giving terrorist fist bumps are going to be influenced by the FISA vote? Posted by bluebell John Flipper Barry You can't pretty up this stuff, Obama said he would fight against the immunity issue and for our civil liberities BUT changes his mind the minute he gets the nomination so I have to wonder would he even have won the nomination when we now find out that his speeches are utterly meaningless. That is a major flip-flop. Obama is lost, he doesn't know what to do, except to cowardly fold with the worst of the Democratic Party - it isn't leadership, it isn't even centerism - it's just a cowardly major sell out, and Obama cannot say he is "Change you can believe in" - there is nothing you believe in if Obama cowardly doesn't do what he said he would do and HE DIDN'T. You know Bush said he was a "United not a divider" and Bush said he was a "compassionate conservative" but all I remember is Rove rage war against anything liberal and Bush lying about evidence for war. Lies do matter. Obama is a coward that hides, really cares nothing for the hundreds of people who donated to his campaign in good faith that he would lead and provide leadership. Obama promised to filibuster any bill with telecom immunity in it. Now he's not only not going to filibuster, but he's actually planning to vote *for* a bill with immunity? After the race speech and his explanation of why a gas tax holiday was the height of idiocy, I had high hopes for Obama. Now it looks like he's going to run the exact same overcautious campaign we've been seeing from timid Democrats for too long. Oh well - so much for Change With A Capital 'C.' And the real kicker is that there is NO demand from the American people for immunity for telecoms. None. I guess I'll still vote for him, probably. But not with any enthusiasm. And I certainly won't give any of my time or money. Posted by spencer_f Obama says things have changed. What has changed? Obama has become comfortable with the fact that he is a fraud, coward and a slave to corporate interests like most other current dems. Posted by tbhull The crux of the matter has nothing to do with national security, immunity for telecoms, or the general election. The crux of the matter is that he lied right to your face. Posted by brother crow Well, at least he's leaving no ambiguity about the fact that he'll be governing from the Steny Hoyer wing of the party (if his choice of a Rubin protege as his chief economic adviser hadn't already signalled that). I suppose that's better than Bill Clinton who didn't show his true colors till after he was elected. You won't be getting another dime from me, Senator. I can't remember any more why I cared about your defeating Senator Clinton- you and she are interchangeable triangulators. Feh. Posted by Steve LaBonne Legal arguments aside, the salient point for me is that if he can't be counted on to keep his word on this item then can he be trusted on his other pledges as well? Posted by BassetSlave | | 10:25a |
Russ Feingold for veep And a Cheney type veep with the clueless Vichy fuck kept up as a front or 'beard'. Beard Ohfuckyomama. Yeah http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/25/feingold-makes-case-again_n_109197.htmlGlenn Greenwald called the speech "one of the most compelling and inspired speeches by a prominent politician that I've heard in quite some time." Will it inspire Dodd's fellow Democrats? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he will vote against the compromise and fight for to strip immunity from the bill. But Barack Obama, the party's presidential nominee, plans to vote for it. Where is Obambi? Hiding under the bus....trembling.... What a leader! Profiles in cowardice..... If he is like this before he is elected....wait until the "permanent" campaign sets in and he begins running for re-election immediately......He is very good at running for office....not much experience in actually running anything - except his mouth ''---or so said Marion Barry about Jesse Jackson" Maintain the filibuster. Fight the fascist tyrants. Condemn the sniveling cowards and run them out of office. | | 10:36a |
Palpitations
Turn yr head and cough
Man, that guy Lieberman gives me the willies.
Looks like a deadringer for Senator Palpateen!
Cheney has probably got his own helmet and harmonica in that "man-size safe" in his office.
What a pair!
But if you strip him of his chairmanship, then maybe he joins the Dark Side for real and what happens to our slim majority!?
So I'm not signing!
Posted by Mr Beebers | | 12:32p |
Speak for yrself '...Under ANY socialist/communist rule as well as the various forms of democracy etc. every member of the community is required to contribute to the community in some way to the best of their abilities...' Daniel Moron http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/message/55321One of the very few, if only, things Marxists ever contributed to anarchism ( libertarian socialism for dummies) was this....FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITIES - TO EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR NEEDS! Guess thats gone down the memory hole now Caudillo Castrato sez so. Also I went on disability in 1983 and then didn't have to fill in a form or see anyone for fifteen years...and that was under the iron heel of the Alternate Liberal Party. Maybe they need a CHEKA as well as tools like Bob Ghoul working for them. | | 12:58p |
Folded like a deck-chair
Barry The Privacy Slayer could have stood up last Friday — and today — for the Constitution. Instead, he lay down for those seeking to destroy the Fourth Amendment and replace it with corporate immunity — as well as immunity for the Bushies and Dem “leaders” who were complicit in massive and sustained violations of criminal law.
For this, Barry — the former Constitutional Law lecturer — deserves our lasting contempt. His naked ambition compels the Smiling Suit to seek the highest Federal elected office sworn to uphold the Constitution. His choices demonstrate he will corrode the Constitution in pursuit of Power.
What a vile, cynical man.
I do not have words to describe my contempt and revulsion for Barry and the other ambitious Federal pols who gut the Constitution so they may feast with Power. He is a willing servant of the megacorps who seek to overthrow democracy infavor of oligarchy. His actions re FISA are despicable: so is he - FDL | | 1:26p |
Kill Barry
'... this from chris hedges:
Washington has become Versailles. We are ruled, entertained and informed by courtiers. The popular media are courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are courtiers. Our pundits and experts are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games. We are being had.
Our Versailles was busy this past week. The Democrats passed the FISA bill, which provides immunity for the telecoms that cooperated with the National Security Agency’s illegal surveillance over the past six years. This bill, which when signed means we will never know the extent of the Bush White House’s violation of our civil liberties, is expected to be adopted by the Senate. Barack Obama has promised to sign it in the name of national security. The bill gives the U.S. government a license to eavesdrop on our phone calls and e-mails. It demolishes our right to privacy. It endangers the work of journalists, human rights workers, crusading lawyers and whistle-blowers who attempt to expose abuses the government seeks to hide. These private communications can be stored indefinitely and disseminated, not just to the U.S. government but to other governments as well. The bill, once signed into law, will make it possible for those in power to identify and silence anyone who dares to make public information that defies the official narrative.
We cannot differentiate between illusion and reality. We trust courtiers wearing face powder who deceive us in the name of journalism. We trust courtiers in our political parties who promise to fight for our interests and then pass bill after bill to further corporate fraud and abuse. We confuse how we feel about courtiers like Obama and Russert with real information, facts and knowledge. We chant in unison with Obama that we want change, we yell “yes we can,” and then stand dumbly by as he coldly votes away our civil liberties. The Democratic Party, including Obama, continues to fund the war. It refuses to impeach Bush and Cheney. It allows the government to spy on us without warrants or cause. And then it tells us it is our salvation. This is a form of collective domestic abuse...'
The task of those who oppose the new ideological colonialism, which masquerades as global altruism of one of the 57 varieties or another, is to unmask the real motives and connections of a self-interested colonialist class.
Even in the minority Congressional Democrats could have done a lot to oppose these. They didn’t. When they won (with our help) in 2006, they could have done even more. They didn’t. Instead they agreed to fund the war well into 2009, trash the 4th Amendment, bail out corporations, and endorse domestic spying. Fucking coward Dems paid the Danegeld.
Now imagine all those millions wasted on Barry White was placed on prediction markets instead. Specifically on the exact time that Bush would permanently retire from politics - he'd be dead by now.
Then Pelosi...next?
You wanna shot at this Barry? | | 1:34p |
This means war
A war meaner than any other yet seen
Hatch mocked the what he called “onerous oversight provisions” included in the bill, and said those who raise the specter of unchecked executive wiretapping power “feed the delusions of those who wear tin foil hats around their house and think that 9/11 was an inside job.”
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;
And some are yet ungotten and unborn
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. | | 1:45p |
Lassie come home
Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen
There are many people in the nation who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the patriots in Congress and those pushing for a monarchical presidency.
Let them go to Berlin.
There are some who say that a monarchical presidency is the wave of the future.
Let them go to Berlin.
And there are some who say, in Congress and elsewhere, we can work with the monarchical presidency.
Let them go to Berlin.
And there are even a few who say that it is true that a monarchical presidency is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress.
Lass' sie nach Berlin gehen. Let them go to Berlin. | | 1:52p |
Impi strategy
WSJ gave Jane some prominence wrt to the FISA Fight:
FISA Fight Creates Coalition Of Liberal Blogs, Paul Voters
…”There’s entrenched power in Washington that protects itself and there are people on both sides who don’t feel like they’re having their rights protected,” says Jane Hamsher, one of the organizers behind the effort and founder of the popular Democratic blog Firedoglake. “It’s really about right and left coming together to fight the entrenched power and take their power away.”
RUN BARR! RUN! | | 1:56p |
No more Tammany shill
Jane quotes over at Politico.com:
Netroots feel jilted by Obama’s FISA stand
…“It angers the blogosphere to its core,” said Jane Hamsher, founder of the popular blog Firedoglake.com. “We want to be able to know: What did you do? If we can get that information, we can make sure they don’t do that again. We can get the public engaged.”
Obama’s decision to support the bill with the immunity provision was not surprising, she said. Republicans frame critics of such security measures as soft on terrorism, and the presumptive Democratic nominee probably does not want it used against him.
“[A] lot of people tried to convince themselves that he was a progressive hero, and I think they were disappointed,” Hamsher said. “You can feel a real shift in the zeitgeist online…” | | 3:03p |
Cabana boy
Barry White-bread is totally cool with the precedent of the government giving a slip of paper to a corporation allowing them to break the law. He's cool with the premise of "we were just following orders" that was shot down at Nuremberg being revived. He's cool with if the President does it, then it isn't illegal. He's cool with a bunch of the other really dangerous aspects of the bill, including the vacuuming up of every communication that leaves or enters the United States without even the caveat that they be related to terrorism. He's cool with a national surveillance state.
Just plain cool with it. Still lookin' for the real killers y'dig. | | 3:22p |
Death to tyrants
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -Thomas Jefferson
Philadelphia Enquirer:
The cover-up is nearly complete. With congressional approval, the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mail for nearly six years will be spared the third-degree treatment by any judge or jury.
At the same time, Bush or his successor would have virtual free rein to continue the massive antiterror surveillance sweeps of communications to and from this country.
Whatever the risk from another terror attack, Americans' privacy would be the assured casualty from these antiterror tactics....
It's incredible to hear Democrats try to justify their capitulation on grounds that they forced Bush to accept an additional $95 billion worth of domestic spending. Unemployment insurance and higher-education benefits for veterans, great stuff. But since when is it right to horse-trade over the cherished, constitutional right to privacy?
There's still time for the Senate to stand up for the Constitution and reject this deal.
Connecticut Post:
The basis for opposing this bill is simple: The United States is not a tyranny. The president, even in times of emergency, must follow the law. And everyone, including corporations, even when asked by the government, must themselves uphold the law....
[The bill before the Senate would pre-empt the debate, and declare the companies' actions beyond the power of the courts.
That, quite simply, is not how we do things here. Dodd was smart enough to know it when he was running for president, even if most of his fellow Democrats did not. He promised to do what he could to see that the retroactive immunity clause was stripped from the otherwise necessary legislation. (Incidentally, Sen. Barack Obama made a similar pledge.)
Maybe it wouldn't be enough, maybe the bill would go through anyway, after which President Bush would sign it posthaste. But Dodd — and Obama — should try to stop it. The law has to mean something. The executive branch can't simply direct a person or company to break laws — that's the stuff of tyrannies. | | 3:40p |
A truer statement was never uttered '...A true statement or correct position is simply that. It is not theory, and doesn't provide the same analytical insights. It is "correct" in some sense to be "anti-capitalist", and hundreds of thousands of people might intuitively characterize themselves in this way, but it still doesn't mean that they have the first fucking clue of what capitalism really is, how it operates, what distinguishes it from other social formations, etc...' FROM http://libcom.org/forums/theory/icc-councilist-left-anarchism-17062008?page=2The German statement Marx an Engels, 15. August 1857 "Es ist möglich, daß ich mich blamiere. Indes ist dann immer mit einiger Dialektik zu helfen. Ich habe natürlich meine Aufstellungen so gehalten, daß ich im umgekehrten Fall auch Recht habe." It is possible that I could disgrace myself. But there's always a bit of Dialectic to help out. I have naturally expressed my statements so that I am also right if the opposite thing happens. | | 3:48p |
44% approve
Bastards
Peer-to-peer technology, the file-sharing applications like BitTorrent that are generally associated with online music and movie piracy, account for 44 percent of all bandwidth used in North America, according to Sandvine, a vendor of bandwidth-management systems and reported by the online Multichannel News today (Tuesday). The website observed that Comcast, the cable company that is known to be seeking ways to limit the use of peer-to-peer technology, is a Sandvine client. The same study indicated that 14.8 percent of bandwidth used is consumed by streaming technologies, which also primarily deliver movies and TV shows to users, albeit mostly legitimately. Web browsing accounts for 27.3 percent of all bandwidth consumed, the study said. | | 4:02p |
El diablo
3 separate incendiary devices ignited overnight to completely destroy the offices of the Diablo Valley College police.
In a bold move against the growing police state, anonymous individuals in Pleasant Hill, California, have set fire to the offices of the Diablo Valley College police department.
The fire was first reported at 2:25 am. Four engines, one truck and about 20 firefighters later and the blaze was finally put out, but not after completely destroying the lobby of the building, and making the structure unusable.
The police services, an actual law enforcement department, patrols several campuses within the Contra Costa Community College District, but is based at DVC. Initial estimates show about $250,000 in damage was done to the structure, as well as $75,000 to the contents inside the office.
In other countries, police are not allowed to set foot on college campuses. Yet in the United States, college bureaucrats welcome these armed thugs, hoping that they will keep the youth in line and prevent student revolts from taking place. With schools increasingly looking like prisons, we can only hope for more acts of resistance.
As of yet, the police have named no suspects. unfortunately, the police department will still be able to function, though with less comfort. They will now be working out of a conference room in the business and foreign language department. They must now also work with the knowledge that there is a passion of resistance growing around them.
In solidarity with the anonymous arsonists,
-Concord Revolutionary Anarchist People | | 4:10p |
Neo-Nazi paedophile found guilty of planning race war Omigod, they got @ndy! Oh wait... http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/“We must secure the existence of our race and the future for white children.” Yeah okay...whatever But isn't it funny how the rounding up of a brood of white brats exposed to all sorts of squalid depravity doesn't mean the army can't invade Geelong and Adelaide in search of Hydro and hot magazines. Must be one of those contradictions comrade. | | 4:31p |
Whale on whale violence
Dead baby humpback whale likely savaged by killer whales. A whale has allegedly been rammed in her car, dragged to the ground and then bashed with a brick in what police are calling a "thrill attack".
Two Japanese whales allegedly followed the victim's car in Melbourne before ramming the vehicle as as she came to a stop at a Bayswater North car park about 3am (AEST) today.
Sea Police have been told that when the victim asked "What are you doing?'', one of the alleged culprits said "having a bit of fun'' before dragging her to the ground by her hair.
She was then allegedly struck on the head by another whale with a brick, the Herald Sun reports.
The assault ended when the women were disturbed by a passing rubbish truck, police said.
Det Sen-Constable Cetacean Passinghamsandwich said they believed the 26-year-old victim did not know her assailants.
"It may be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' he said. "It seems to be a thrill attack.''
Two whales from Honshu, both aged in their 20s, have been arrested and are being interviewed at Ringworm Tuna Police Station.
The alleged victim is in a stable condition at Maroondah Sea World Hospital and is expected to be discharged today.
She suffered a gash to her forehead and chips to her teeth. | | 4:46p |
Libcom snapshot
In through the revolving door
I go there a year or so ago , crack a joke about Marx as a possible Whitechapel murders suspect and get kicked out on my arse with no due process or appeal...all the while this turd Devrim gets to insult anarchists since 2006. I'm not saying they don't allow anarchists in - just MASOCHIST anarchists 'kay.
Out through the revolting door - ' There's nothing wrong here, and we don't talk about it '. | | 5:05p |
Anarchist news shit their pants '...This statement seems to reflect the real purpose of the question. That is, it isn't an honest attempt to get some sort of scientific answer, but rather an attempt to put a burden on the organisational strains to prescribe something which can't possibly be correct for all circumstances...' Only so long as the organizational strains continue to lecture those of us who self-organize in manifestly more secure ways than the Federationist model Rowan. If yr paying the slightest modicum of attention then you'll know this has been a constant drip-drip-drip on all 'loose' anarchists that they MUST get organized by hook or by crook. It would help if we were given some rough guides on how secure the best methods are and how successful they are over a period of time - say five years. The sort of nuanced and contextualized example you give doesn't seem to far off the networked celluar model as to make much difference...except as HP has noted the wider the network - the less secure in praxis. I resent the implication that I'm the one not acting in good faith when the onus is surely on those laying down the law. Not those requesting more data before acting. Yrs etc pr. ( professor rat ) http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node/4243#commentsAnother day - another bog 'anarchist' site shitting their pants as a normal conversation is directed at them. | | 5:12p |
Anarchists against free speech Does Wayne Price believe in free speech? One minute he's answering to censored comments at Anarkismo - the next acting as though there was no such thing as anarchist censorship. Here Wayne is talking with a corpse in his mouth because he's implicitly approving of the Anarkismo censorship regime. http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=9206There is a strictly limited anarchic case for censoring fascist hate speech imo...and Wayne hasn't made it. He's just like a typical dribbling Marxist nincompoop. Ashes to ashes - dust to dust. You want to enable left-fascist hate speech then do yr worst. | | 5:39p |
Greatest loss by European colonialist scum in Africa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_AdwaThousands of Euro-colonialist white-trash scum died here almost within living human memory - it happened once - it can happen again close-by again in the Middle-East. "The confrontation between Italy and Ethiopia at Adwa was a fundamental turning point in Ethiopian history," writes Henze, who compares this victory to Japan's naval victory over Russia at Tsushima. "Though apparent to very few historians at the time, these defeats were the beginning of the decline of Europe as the center of world politics." | | 6:03p |
Marriage one
Dr. Ahmad Al-Mub'i, a top Saudi marriage officiant, explaining: "It is allowed to marry a girl at the age of one, if sex is postponed. The Prophet Muhammad, whose model we follow, married 'Aisha when she was six and had sex with her when she was nine...."
Silence is assent | | 6:19p |
Albanian gun-runners '... how rural Albanians dealt with shortages of male heads of clans in the days when no family dared be without one. In a nutshell, an oldest daughter could choose to eschew her female life, remain a virgin, wear men's clothes, carry a gun, avenge family wrongs, and become the feared ruler of the group. Most fascinating, was that the virgin women who decided to become acting men were henceforth treated as men by all of the other men, let alone the women. Having only two available sexual roles, each of which corresponds to a specific social function, the choice required that one permanently forego the opportunity to get married and have sex. Nonetheless, the benefits of being a man, in terms of freedom, options, and status seemed an attractive option for these women...' http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/06/24/albania_sworn_virgins.htmlPeter Boyle watch yr back jack! | | 11:06p |
The Hollow way ' Holloway? He is just recycling anarchist ideas Uh, no. Holloway is recycling the West German debates of the 1970s concerning "state derivation" and the "logic" of capital, and filtering it through his recent "Zapatista" affinities. The figures involved in those debates had absolutely nothing to do with anarchism...' http://libcom.org/forums/theory/icc-councilist-left-anarchism-17062008?page=2'...Holloway is an involved academic closely following the Zapatista rebellion...' - Uri Gordon http://www.newformulation.org/3gordon.htm'...Holloway’s Change the World Without Taking Power could just as well be written without a coexisting struggle to address—it is an entirely theoretical work in critical Marxism—it nevertheless captures (and will inevitably impact) the thinking of activists who read it...' '...agendas: rescuing Marxism ...' '...be easily defined as an anarchist position. But while Holloway hints at this connection when he defines anarchism as the set of approaches that fall outside the state-oriented, reform or revolution dichotomy—which his own project clearly does as well—he refrains from explicitly using this term to describe what he has to say, or from giving anarchism any further attention.(20) The objection might be raised that by doing this he is denying due credit to a 150-year tradition that has aimed precisely at “changing the world without taking power.” But there is a good reason for this: the label anarchist is not exempt from the struggle against identification. Holloway is deliberately avoiding this label and any other, as do indeed many contemporary activists, even if their visions and organizational models could be defined as anarchist by an observer. Maybe some self-defined anarchists will be offended by the lack of credit, but on further reflection they might understand and let that which does not matter slide.(21)...' I think I understand; a bourgeois Marxist seeks to resuscitate the ideological corpse of Marx with a relabeling exercise that effectively exiles ( if not kills) off anarchism. Lenin was a master of switching labels like this...and Lenin also began the 90 year tradition of Marxists exiling and killing off anarchists. Thanks Uri - thanks a hell of a lot. |
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