March 2011 archive

Mar 02 2011

Late Night Karaoke

Mar 02 2011

A Tourist Photo from Takhar Province

Photobucket
Kuchi caravan in Takhar Province, Afghanistan

I cropped and rebalanced this image out of yet another idiotic snapshot from yet another tourist in Afghanistan, white balance set to flourescent with a hideous yellow cast all over these Kuchi nomads, and you might think that out of hundreds of thousands of tourist photos from Afghanistan at least a few would escape the mind-mangling combination of idle curiosity and pitiful “artistic” ambition which defines “tourist photo,” just as you might think that after nine long years of slaughter and corruption, the US occupation of Afghanistan would eventually get something right, even by accident, by the law of averages or the law of large numbers or some other brute-force statistical anomaly, like winning five bets in a row at roulette, but the wheel of Afghanistan is infinite, all the tourist photos are junk, and everything about the US occupation is inevitably fucked up.

Mar 02 2011

FSZ 2.0 Beta Is Up

If ya want an account throw your desire up in the comments here.

Nong.

http://thefreespeechzone.us

Mar 02 2011

Snuggling

Gold Harbour is a small bay 5 miles (8 km) south-southwest of Cape Charlotte, with Bertrab Glacier at its head, along the east end of South Georgia – which is East of the Southern tip of South America.

During the early 1900s, the feature was variously called Anna’s Bay, Gold-Hafen or Sandwich Bay; the latter name has also been used for Iris Bay. The approved name appears to have taken root through common usage by sealers and whalers and is now well established. It is so called because the sun’s rays make the cliffs yellow with their light in the morning and evening.

This video is apparently of a tourist who sat on the beach to watch the seals and penguins on Gold Harbor.

Unexpectedly, one of the seals is apparently attracted to her and slowly works his way over to her.  He seems to ‘fall in love’ and snuggles and flirts with her.  It is quite an unusual and interesting scene.  The seals are huge (6,000 lbs), yet she never seemed afraid… more amused… while someone shot the video of this incident.

Gold Harbor, South Georgia is not a frequent destination for tourists.

Mar 02 2011

from firefly-dreaming 1.3.11

Regular Daily Features:

  • Zebra kick off the day in Late Night Karaoke, mishima DJs
  • Six Brilliant Articles! from Six Different Places!! on Six Different Topics!!!

                    Six Days a Week!!!    at Six in the Morning!!!!

Essays Featured Tuesday, March 1st:

join the conversation! come firefly-dreaming with me….

Mar 01 2011

2/27/2011 Diary

Steve Benson

Steve Benson, Comics.com (Arizona Republic)

Mar 01 2011

Bloggers Behaving Badly: FDL Moderating Team

In follow-up to a post I made regarding an entry by Rusty1776 at FDL, I want to let people know that the site moderators have falsely removed the entry in question as spam and banned Rusty from posting.

Rusty’s entry, which in no way violated site rules, argued that it is immoral for Democrats not to issue a primary challenge to Barry Obama in next year’s election for the office of the presidency.  He was subsequently flamed by Bill Egnor, Rayne, RBG, Kelly Canfield, and a suck-up named newtonusr, who apparently took it upon himself to stalk Rusty across at least two threads with the intention of goading him to angry outburst.  The plan worked, and the moderators got the pretense they required to ban Rusty from FDL.

That this happened should not be surprising.  FDL is, like Daily Kos, Open Left, and other so-called leftist blogs, in reality a right-wing gatekeeper blog designed to neuter any real organization by the Left that is independent of the right-wing Democrat Party.  Its moderators have proven over and over again that their sole purpose is to maintain an online environment wherein people may complain about how bad the Democrats have become, but are not allowed to do anything beyond that.  People like Jeff Roby are similarly intimidated with the same tactics used to rationalize the banishment of Rusty1776, with the same message sent loudly and clearly: “You are here as window dressing for the veal pen.  Dare try to be or do more than that, and you are gone.”

This is why it is so important for genuinely independent blogs and activism sites to be independent of the Democrats, or for that matter, any political party.  As long as the Left remains tied to political parties, it remains subservient to the ambitions and interests thereof.

If there is anything positive about this latest abuse of power by a self-proclaimed liberal blog’s moderators, it’s that its agenda is now official, and now publicly exposed.

UPDATE BELOW THE FOLD

Mar 01 2011

Obama Still Protecting US War Criminals

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

The Obama administration is still protecting US war criminals from prosecution in the International Criminal Court. A little noticed clause in the UN Security Council resolution that brought sanctions against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadafi and his regime forbids the prosecution of the mercenaries from nations which are not signatories to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which protects many of the mercenaries Gadaffi has hired to kill Libyan protesters.

“6. Decides that nationals, current or former officials or personnel from a State outside the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya which is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of that State for all alleged acts or omissions arising out of or related to operations in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya established or authorized by the Council, unless such exclusive jurisdiction has been expressly waived by the State;

That clause was inserted at the insistence of the US and was a deal breaker if it was not included. Why would the US do that? After all. hadn’t US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said that all those “who slaughter civilians” would “be held personally accountable”? Well, my dears, it is once again an attempt to prevent a precedent that would permit the prosecutions of Americans  by the ICC for alleged crimes in other conflicts.

So now while protecting US war criminals from justice. Obama is protecting the foreign mercenaries from countries who are not signatories to the ICC from accountability. Good going there, Mr. Rule of Law.

h/t Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com

Mar 01 2011

Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

Our regular featured content-

And these articles-

The Stars Hollow Gazette

Mar 01 2011

Obama: Get Out Your Comfortable Shoes

h/t to Sam Pratt:

I invited you to please go to Wisconsin. You apparently declined.  Or didn’t get the invitation.  Ok.  I guess you forgot about this.

———

from The Dream Antilles

Mar 01 2011

Xanthe calls Dick Durbin’s Office

This morning to forestall beating my head against the wall, I called Dick’s office:

A nice young lady answered –

X:  I can hardly believe it, but this am I heard on the Russian tv station that we may

   interfere and well – invade Libya.  I can’t believe it.  I cannot.  Now I know as do

   others that Sen. Durbin is a neoliberal who is working behind the scenes to

   cut SS and probably Medicare.  It is what it is. I’ve given up on him as an

   strong Democrat and I hope that the cuts in SS/Medicare will help – how can I put

   it – help out our corporate masters in the oil business.   Is there gas there?

   whatever.  Also to help out the masters of the universe mercenary firms.  I want

   to do my part.  

Silence  

  Perhaps I am unhinged.  Several wars instituted by your country in an old lady’s

  lifetime can do that.  Wars that were paid for by her retirement funds.  May I make

  a bet with you, young lady.  In  5, 6, 7 years,  this headline is a possibility:

  Russian, Iran and China finalize an oil deal with Libya.  The United States has

  signed another trade deal with Libya causing the loss of 3,450 jobs.  Food riots

  have broken out in Detroit, Chicago and Dallas.

Silence  Finally:

  Well, I will pass your concerns on to Senator Durbin.

X: Oh don’t bother, my dear.  He’s not interested in me, or reason for that matter.

Silence

X: Thank you for your time – I just had to make a phone call about it. I hope you

  understand.

                                        ********

I feel as though I am going mad.  Am I?

Mar 01 2011

Direct Non-Violent Action

Crossposted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

The facts are hardly in dispute.  On December 19th, 2008 W gave his Oil and Gas crony capitalist buddy’s a parting gift by auctioning off 130,000 acres of leases on Public Lands near environmentally sensitive National Parks and Monuments.

Tim DeChristopher, an economics major at the University of Utah, registered as a bidder and succeeded in obtaining leases to 22,500 acres for the bargain price of $1.7 Million and running up the bids on even more.

“We were hosed,” said Jason Blake of Park City, shortly after the consulting geologist was outbid on a 320-acre parcel. “It’s very frustrating.”

Upon coming to office Interior Secretary Salazar suspended processing of the sales, many of which were later blocked in Federal Court.  DeChristopher was arrested and his trial starts today on two counts- Making a False Statement and violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act.  If convicted he faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.

DeChristopher had offered to cover the bill with an Internet fundraising campaign, but the government refused to accept any of the money after the fact.

Federal prosecutors have acknowledged that DeChristopher is the only person ever charged with failing to make good on bids at a lease auction of public lands in Utah.

“There’s people who didn’t have the money, but they didn’t have the intent to disrupt” the auction, assistant U.S. attorney John Huber told The Associated Press in 2009.

Thank you Barack Hussein Obama, fierce advocate for the environment.

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