Support Gay Rights? No Jesus Cookie For You...

Catholic churches around the US are responding to a gay-Catholic rights campaign by denying its supporters communion (that's when you eat the wafer, or um, the body of Christ...hot!).

Sure, God hates fags. But he hates shrimp too, just about the same. And well, the truth is, God doesn't hate fags, he just hates gay sex. And I mean, ew, so do I—it's gross. But, uh, God doesn't seem to mind lesbians, whereas the commandment says merely that a man should not lie with a man as he does a woman. It says nowhere that a woman can't lie with a woman... And in fact, considering that a prominent man was expected to keep a harem, you'd kind of hope they would hook up, cuz otherwise all them womens might get hard up and bitchy. N'ah I mean?

And actually, considering all that love and peace shit flowing out of his mouth endlessly, isn't it a little obvious that...

Can't queers get a fair shake? A reach-around maybe? Er, I mean, hey... What the fuck is up with this? Fucking eugenecists. Is this how Jesus loves?

No Warrant Needed To Read Your E-mail

An EFF press release notes,

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) yesterday filed a friend-of-the court brief supporting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a suit challenging the constitutionality of National Security Letters (NSLs). Authorized by the USA PATRIOT Act and issued directly by FBI agents without any court supervision and without a show of probable cause, the letters are used to demand detailed information about people's private Internet communications from ISPs, web mail providers, and other communications service providers. The people whose communications are searched are not notified, and every letter is accompanied by a gag order that prohibits the letter's recipient from ever revealing its existence.

"Before PATRIOT, the FBI could use National Security Letters only for securing the records of suspected terrorists or spies," said EFF Attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow Kevin Bankston. "Now the FBI can use them to get private records about anybody it thinks could be relevant to a terrorism or espionage investigation, without ever having to show probable cause to a judge."

Full release.

Open Sourcing Democracy

The NY Times Magazine had an op-ed on open sourcing e-voting software this weekend.

Electronic voting has much to offer, but will we ever be able to trust these buggy machines? Yes, we will -- but only if we adopt the techniques of the "open source" geeks.

One reason it's difficult to trust the voting software of companies like Diebold is that the source code remains a trade secret. A few federally approved software experts are allowed to examine the code and verify that it works as intended, and in some cases, states are allowed to keep a copy in escrow. But the public has no access, and this is troublesome. When the Diebold source code was accidentally posted online last year, a computer-science professor looked at it and found it was dangerously hackable. Diebold may have fixed its bugs, but since the firm won't share the code publicly, there's no way of knowing. Just trust us, the company says.

(c/o boingboing)

I concur, I think that's a great idea for make voting machines more secure and the physical voting process more transparent. But what about the political process itself? Has representative democracy failed us?

My contention would be yes, it has. As Rutherford B. Hayes once said, "This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations." For well over a century, our representatives have turned a blind eye to the public interest, and rather, placed their focus on "interests." With campaign financing and other forms of graft-as-lobbying (the political machinery of old) giving rise to plutocracy in this nation, we are hard-pressed to find politicians who, once elected, keep their promises to us, and keep engaging with us throughout their tenure to determine what decisions to make in our favor. Hell, they don't even want to hear what we have to say anymore. Thus, we can not honestly call these people our representatives.

Rushkoff wrote this great pamphlet for the British Labour party's think-tank Demos last year, called Open Source Democracy. The paper examines the way in which interactive technologies can play a role in increasing transparency and direct participation in our democracy. In contemplating Rushkoff's theories in both this document and Nothing Sacred (originally intended to be subtitled The Case for Open Source Judaism), I've begun to brainstorm such technologies and the way they might serve this purpose. Here's a concept I've come up with...

Create a website named YOURSTATE.ORG, or something to that effect. On the site, offer discussion forums with built in polling functions, as well as a Wiki for the creation/management of a platform, and "e-mail your representative" software like that offered on MoveOn, DRCNet, and other activist-oriented sites. The idea would be to float candidates willing to represent the majority (while including a nod to the concerns of the minority, or hell, it could just operate on consensus) participating in the discussion and voting taking place on the site within each particular district (or jurisdiction).

So for example, say I am willing to run for governor as a YOURSTATE.ORG candidate--#1. my campaign would be funded by contributions from participants using the site, as opposed to "other interests", similar to the way Howard Dean conducted his campaign; and #2. my policies and decisions would be based on either the consensus or majority decision of the website's participants within my district, again, as opposed to "other interests," such as corporate campaign contributors. Thus the idea is to eliminate parties and party platforms, eliminate political corruption in favor of corporate interests, and to engage the public directly in the decision making process, so that their representatives truly represent them.

It's not an entirely thoroughly worked out idea, but it's one that I feel has potential, so, in the true spirit of open source, I open it up to you for discussion. Maybe if we can hash it out and clarify it a bit more we can post it to RTMark and find some volunteers to code it...

DEA informant? Go into hiding...

The DEA has apparently misplaced (or has had stolen) a laptop computer containing information identifying their informants.

Federal investigators are frantically trying to determine what happened to a missing laptop computer that contains sensitive data on as many as 100 Drug Enforcement Administration investigations around the country, including a wealth of information about many of the agency's confidential informants.

Oops. Say, do you think people this incompetent can be trusted to fight terrorism?

Bush-Led Kerry Attacks Based On Lies

According to WaPo, Bush's advertising attacks on John Kerry base their statements not on fact, but rather on gross distortions of truth (bypass reg), or in other words, lies.

This serves to show how deep the GOP's in it this election. When they can't nail their opponents on anything, they have to lie and make things up about them, and then rely on the gullibility and the ignorance of the public to succeed, simply for the fact that they themselves haven't a leg to stand on. It's pathetic really.

As an American, how do you feel that your — ahem — "president" relies on your stupidity to keep himself in office?

By the way, if you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend you play Bush Game. Perhaps our Republican visitors might learn a thing or two about their Führer's policies from it.

This is art.

As things have gotten a little rough and heavy around here recently, i offer something a touch lighter and less um, political? Things are out of balance. For what it's worth, and our collective being, here goes nothing, but as per the originating idea of jakeneck, this is back to the original idea.

This is art
This is extreme public isolation
This is not who i am.
This is a man, so angry and denied
-----So annoyed, so lost, yet
This is a human,
This is seeing
This is thousands of years of experience
This is connection
This is emotion
-----But this is pain
This is confusion
This is idealism
This is a cry
This is blood
This is happiness
This is psychotic
This is truth
This is redemption
This is strength
This is for sale
This is private
This is everything you want to know
This is hope
This is god
This is jesus
This is allah
This is war
This is life
This is whatever
This is forever
This is something
This is nothing
The is the beginning
This is the end,
This is continuing
This is a clear moment
This is something without meaning
This is something without time
This is peace
This is forgiveness
This is acceptance
This is reason
This is sanity
This is ok
This is hell
and this, this is your experience, your head, your feet, your fingers, your life. This is
how it starts, how it ends, this is the middle and everything inbetween. This never stops.

Fascist Propaganda

This was sent to me by a co-worker who handles all of our government
contract sales accounts (although, not me):

I thought it appropriate to share this- a poignant story which I
received from a friend of mine whose father was the Navy flyer who
spotted the Japanese fleet at the historic Battle of Midway, the
turning point in WWII, in the Pacific.

Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Recently the
Sergeant Major of the Army, Jack Tilley, was with a group of people
visiting the wounded soldiers. He saw a Special Forces soldier who
had lost his right hand and suffered severe wounds of his face and
side of his body. The SMA wanted to honor him and show him respect
without offending, but what can you say or do in such a situation
that will encourage and uplift? How do you shake the right hand of a
soldier who has none? He decided to act as though the hand was not
missing and gripped the soldiers wrist while speaking words of
comfort and encouragement to him.

But there was another man in that group of visitors who had even
brought his wife with him to visit the wounded who knew exactly what
to do. This man reverently took the soldiers stump of a hand in both
of his hands, bowed at the bedside and prayed for him.

When he finished the prayer he stood up, bent over the soldier and
kissed him on the head and told him that he loved him.

What a powerful expression of love for one of our wounded heroes!

And what a beautiful Christ-like example!

What kind of a man would do such a thing ?

It was the wounded man's Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush;
President of the United States.

This story was told by the SMA at a Soldiers Breakfast held at Red
Stone Arsenal, AL, and recorded by Chaplain James Henderson,
stationed there.

(c/o Subgenius yahoo group)

disturbing essay from Zogby

So I finished another Zogby survey recently, and was given a nice 34 page essay, from John Zogby, entitled "The Armageddon Election: Bush vs. Kerry and the New Partisan Era". Nice scary title huh. Not sure how many of you out there are taking these things, or how available it is, so i post it here it is somewhat in the format of the latest issue of Adbusters. Interesting read.......

Starbucks Workers Unionize, Join Wobblies

You read that right. The very first union of Starbucks employees, founded in NYC, is a chapter of the IWW, the famed anarcho-syndicalist union. Cool beans, as it's said...

Tribulation 99

Strange events to ponder...

• Mexican Air Force videotapes 6 UFOs flying over Mexico
• Mysterious cattle deaths
• Satanic cult roams Zimbabwe sucking blood
• US involvement with ex-Nazis more intense than previously thought

Agh! It's true! :P

berg's execution a psyops job?

following up on jughead's post—ok, so, how suspicious is it that,

1. berg was in u.s. custody in iraq a week before his death and the u.s. denies it
2. the beheading is claimed to be in response to the torture but was filmed two weeks before the torture story broke (ever seen wag the dog?)
3. the fbi interrogated berg soon after 9/11 because one of the alleged terrorists had used berg's e-mail account to send communications
4. berg's father is a major player in international a.n.s.w.e.r., the worker's world party's anti-war goup

i know, i know, slippery slope, but if this stuff means anything when put together, berg's sort of the perfect target for a psyops job: if he was aiding terrorists, instead of painting him that way (like another john walker lindh), they can paint him as proud and concerned progressive jew who was ruthlessly slaughtered by (ahem, cia operatives posing as) vicious terrorists and, at the same time, off him to meet their own ends. then when the story about the torture breaks — "but look at what animals these people are!" and all the outrage shifts.

last night this fucking girl i know actually compared the tortures to college fraternity hazings and said it paled in comparison to the beheading.

ah this great gullible nation... nice chairs by the way. (here's a backup of that link, in case it goes down.) some have claimed the orange suit and wallpaper in the berg video are the same used in abu ghraib prison as well.

Generally confusing.

Judge rules to keep mom from reproducing.

Of course, thing is, there should be an idea of reproductive responsibility. The woman already has children in foster care, being raised in effect by my money and your money (ie, taxes). Now, in regard to the abortion debate, is this a situation where unbiased, good information on contraception, birth control, and abortion, be taught in schools, instead of the current 2-1 support in favor of abstinence education. (source: 2004 Budget, GPOaccess.gov)

Although, from another angle, how out of line is the Judge, and is this in anyway different than suspending a drunk's license? If she can't keep her legs crossed until her little brats get adopted, is threatening her with jail to keep her from having more children than she can handle and care for, or that the state can handle and properly care for for that matter, necessarily a bad thing?
I am not sure, but someone has to look at the Chinese model of reproductive, um rights, and wonder, maybe they do know what's going on?
Remember, there is no such thing as living in harmony, and if you've heard mogwai, harmonious sounds can be very noisy and loud.

Bill Would Cast Big Brother's Eye on Anti-Zionists

[Repost from Jewschool] California Congressman Tom Lantos has quietly introduced a new bill which would combat antisemitism on a federal level. HR 4230, The Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, would "authorize the establishment within the Department of State of an Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism."

Among the bill's findings, §2 ¶3 states, "Anti-Semitism has at times taken the form of vilification of Zionism, the Jewish national movement, and incitement against Israel."

While this may, in fact, "at times" be the case, the direct association between antisemitism and anti-Zionism within the context of the bill raises reasonable suspicion amongst activists, such as myself, already concerned with the illegal monitoring of anti-war and anti-globalization groups. Could such legislation not be used to extend the monitoring of anti-Zionist groups to other entities through the employment of roving wiretaps under the premise of interdepartmental information-sharing? Or is this simply part of the same witchhunt against critics of Zionism exemplified by HR 3077, The International Studies in Higher Education Act?

Either way, I find it exceptionally ironic that, under the implied definition of anti-Zionism as antisemitism, this bill would, within the context of combatting antisemitism, authorize the monitoring of groups such as Jews Against the Occupation, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, and even Neturei Karta, who base their positions on authenticly Jewish critiques of Zionism.

Don't think it'll happen? Perhaps you don't know your government well enough.

Disney Blocks Release of Michael Moore 9/11 Flick

Disney has shelved Michael Moore's new film, citing concerns that Florida governor Jeb Bush will cut them off corporate welfare if he doesn't like what the film has to say about his brother.

Well, ho-ly fuck... How much more blatantly obvious does it need to be? You know, we often "theorize" that a company censors itself because of political influences. It's rare that they actually come right out and announce it.

Mic The City

Bored at work? Like to make beats? This is the site for you.

Enjoy.

close the window, i feel a draft

The chief of the Selective Service wants to raise the draft age to 34 and also require women to register. Don't you love how you have to go to a Canadian newspaper to get this kind of story?

(c/o Atrios)

Bowie gets a makeover.

A Skinny Bowie Twin

Someone posted a link for a Bowie mashup contest and i thought oh what the hell. Posted here as its otherwise hidden from the world. And what is the point of spending time on something if you can't share it with others. Comments much apprieciated. In crappy 48kbps wma, to save everyone bandwidth and space.
And like Bowie hasn't been an incredible influence on everyone around today, and unlike some of the aging rockers (see the Stones, the remaining Beatles, Madonna) is still making large jumps and continuing to amaze everyone all the time. See this as a tribute to one of industrial's founders, or just a noisy slap in the face to a pioneer.
Or again, just for fun, let's stir the pot, start a fight, and have a laugh.