Great Video

A very cool video from Hexstatic. The song is “Distorted Minds”.

If you’re like me, you’ll have to watch it several times to catch all of the subtle things that fly by.

Land Mines

This 60 second clip about land-mines is one of the best PSAs I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, it’ll never be seen in the US.

Why does the Man media insist on trying to shelter Americans? Are we that self-absorbed jingoistic incapable of dealing with reality?

Via Boing Boing. (Video mirrored locally, because the original host was dying under the load).

Gannongate

Conason weighs in:

Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville. Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart–or by President Clinton himself. Imagine that this “journalist” had smeared a Republican Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to classified documents in a national-security scandal.

Then imagine the constant screaming on radio, on television, on Capitol Hill, in the Washington press corps–and listen to the placid mumbling of the “liberal” media now.

SLCM indeed.

Torture

I’m sure that there are some hard-hitting assholes out there who think that ‘torturing the towel-heads’ is okay. The vast majority of Americans, not to mention ALL Christians, should be vehemently against it. It’s illegal in this country, it’s illegal under international law, and it sure as hell isn’t a moral thing to do, regardless of the stakes.

Sadly, Republicans seem to be okay with it. Bush’s proposed new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, played an integral part in the authorization of torture at Guatanamo, Abu Gharib, and other places:

The request by Mr. Gonzales produced the much-debated Justice Department memorandum of Aug. 1, 2002, which defined torture narrowly and said that Mr. Bush could circumvent domestic and international prohibitions against torture in the name of national security.

This goes all the way to the top, folks. There’s plenty of evidence to show that Bush knew what was going on, as well. And despite a huge outcry, both domestically and internationally, Republicans continue to defend the practice:

In the afternoon, I was treated to Sean Hannity and Mark Levin defending torture against a well-informed but out-shouted caller. They fell back on two ideas: one, that what we did was not torture (there are pictures and sworn accounts that makes this only a semantic argument that won’t fly in the long run with decent folks) and two, that it was necessary to get information. This second point is easily debunked (torture does not provide reliable information, and what prosecutions have resulted from this oh-so-critical information?) None of these excuse torture.

In case you haven’t picked up on the problem thus far, try this:

The Republicans are defending torture. Torture is not legal, not effective military policy, and disastrous as a policy within the war on terror. It is not Christian, and it’s fundamentally unAmerican.

But the GOP is the party of moral values…

Senate Democrats, fight this guy’s appointment with everything you’ve got. He could be worse than Ashcroft.

Link

Brilliant

A while back, a fellow by the name of DJ Danger Mouse performed a little experiment. He acquired a vocals-only track of Jay-Z’s recent release, the Black Album. He then sampled from the Beatles’ White Album to create backing beats, and the Grey Album was born. And it was surprisingly good. It contains some of the best mash-ups I’ve heard. (My personal favorite is still the Beastie Boys “So Watcha Want” over ODB’s “Got Your Money”.)

Dj Danger Mouse released it for free on the internet, because it was a derivative work, and he wasn’t looking to make money off the track. To him, it was a pure expression of artistic creativity. Unfortunately, word spread a little too fast, and his work recieved a death blow: a copyright infringement notice, ordering him to take own the music immediately. Unfortunately for the goons over at the RIAA, it was too late. The music had made its way onto P2P networks, and a huge number of websites participated in a ‘Grey Tuesday‘ where they hosted the music. These advocates, and I, believe that his non-commercial use of sampled music to create derivative works was fair use.

This would normally be the part where I launch into a critique of the copyright system in the US, and espouse the awesome possibilities of a system like Creative Commons. Others have already covered this case pretty well, though. Do a search for “Danger Mouse Grey Album”, and you’ll get about 8 million relevant articles.

So, why am I bringing up this old news, you ask? Well, it’s because someone just created a video mash-up of the Beatles and Jay-Z, which is almost as brilliant as the album itself. Check it out, be impressed, and remember that this kind of creative endeavour is an endangered species if copyright law continues down the wrong path.

UPDATE: Waxy has mirrors and a torrent link. Enjoy!

Don’t Believe Everything That You Read

This is the kind of asinine reporting that makes me sick.

The setup:

Study: Living in the Suburbs Can Make You Sick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Living in the suburbs may have once been part of the American dream but it can lead to nightmares such as high blood pressure, arthritis and headaches, researchers reported on Monday.

What is this? Some kind of crazy suburban viral epidemic?! Or maybe not…

We know from previous studies that suburban sprawl reduces the time people spend walking and increases the time they spend sitting in cars, and that is associated with higher obesity rates. This probably plays an important role in the health effects we observe.

Aaaahh. So the real issue here is that suburbanites are just really goddamn lazy, and their environment reflects that. Why waste money on sidewalks or bike lanes, when everyone just takes their SUV anyway? People who do care about such things tend to lead a more urban lifestyle, where they can live close to work and/or public transportation.

Now look back at the headline. Is it the suburbs that are making people sick? Or is it the lifestyle choices of the people who live there?

Remember folks, a correlation does not equal a cause.

On “Rathergate”

Or whatever ridiculous name right-wing bloggers are giving it now. Here, essentially, is their view on the matter:

Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor

1. given documents he thought were true
2. failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
3. reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
4. when confronted with the facts, apologized and launched an investigation
5. number of Americans dead: 0
6. should be fired as CBS News Anchor

George W. Bush, President of the United States

1. given documents he thought were true
2. failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
3. reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
4. when confronted with the facts, continued to report untruth and stonewalled an investigation
5. number of Americans dead: 1100
6. should be given four more years as President of the United States.

Desperation

I find it telling that the Bush campaign can’t come up with anything substantial to air. They can’t defend their abysmal records in Iraq, the War on Terror, the environment, or the economy, so they have to resort to making stuff up about the other guy.

From the Washington Post:

Three-quarters of the ads aired by Bush’s campaign have been attacks on Kerry. Bush so far has aired 49,050 negative ads in the top 100 markets, or 75 percent of his advertising. Kerry has run 13,336 negative ads — or 27 percent of his total. The figures were compiled by The Washington Post using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group of the top 100 U.S. markets. Both campaigns said the figures are accurate.

And now, Bush refuses to denounce the blatantly false accusations of the Swift Boat veterans. Almost all the major news outlets have written about the falsifications and contradictions in the ads. This handy New York Times graphic shows the web of connections between Bush and the Swift Boat ads, and debunks many of their claims.

Slimy isn’t a bad enough word for the Bush campaign.

Silenced

This picture ran on the front page of the Portland Tribune today with the following caption:

An unidentified supporter of President Bush tries to silence protester Kendra Lloyd-Knox (right) outside Southridge High School in Beaverton.

This is one of those pictures that’s truly worth one thousand words. It allegorically describes so much of what the Bush administration has practiced over the last few years. The stifling of dissent, the use of unnecessary force, and most of all, intolerance.

After all, if there’s one thing in this world I can’t stand, it’s intolerance.

Fair and Balanced My Ass

No, of course Rupert doesn’t exert influence on his newspapers…

All 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide editorialized in favor of the war.

Link

Bush in 30 Seconds

The winners are in! I particularly like the “Bring It On” ad that won Best Youth Film.

Propaganda Remix

Micah Wright has been doing some impressive work by taking old war propaganda posters and emblazening them with slogans appropriate to the times. Some are satirical, and some are meant more seriously. Many of them are oversimplified and read like the unsubstantiated way-liberal propaganda that they are, but regardless, the concept is really interesting. Here are two examples:

And here’s the direct link to the Propaganda Remix.

Grassroots Cinematography

Moveon.org sponsored a contest called Bush in 30 Seconds. This project challenged anyone and everyone to make 30 second commercials that accurately portray the harm that the Bush administration is doing to the nation and the world. The entries are in, and registered users can now vote on which ads are best. The top ads will be submitted to a panel of celebrity judges and Moveon.org leaders, and the winners will be announced at the end of January.

Some of the results are impressive, like Child’s Play (quicktime movie). Others, as you might expect, are amatuerish. Luckily, the algorithm used on the site will slowly weed out low-ranked films, so the viewing should be pretty good by this point, and will be getting progressively better.

I’m Impressed

Paul Krugman is a political journalist who makes sense. In his New Years Resolutions column, he makes some great points about how journalists are covering things like fashion and irrelevant anecdotes in their columns, instead of doing real reporting on the issues.

He’s promised to do better. I intend to hold him to that.

Gag Me.

The news recently arrived that TIME ‘s Person of the Year is The American Soldier.

First of all, I feel obligated to point out, that “The American Soldier” is not at all a person. It’s an abstract concept being applied to thousands of people who probably just wanted college tuition, and probably do NOT want to be in Iraq. It’s not their bravery and committment to the cause that gets them through – it’s the fact that they have no choice but to be there. And if they are individuals who support the “war on terror” (or whatever bogus catchphrase we’re using now), I say fine, let em fight. Better them than me.

Secondly, I’d like to bash TIME for trying to cash in on the “support the troops” movement. C’mon, TIME. Surely there was some individual that did something that you could have reported on instead.

About the only thing worse that this would have been if George Bush or Jesus Christ won…

And the Winner is…

The folks over at pandagon.com have compiled a list of the “Twenty Most Annoying Conservatives of 2003″. Who cam out on top? You guessed it! Our old chum, Bill O’Reilly!! Here’s part of his blurb:

Bill O�Reilly had a hard time getting on this list. I mean, if you take away the �wetback� commentary, and the �joke� that a black boys choir was out in the parking lot stealing hubcaps, and the lawsuit against Al Franken, and the embarassing performance at the C-SPAN Book News conference, and the threatening to beat up the son of a 9/11 victim, and the lying about where he grew up, and the whole Peabody Awards thing, and the false �Fair and Balanced� promise, and the fact that he�s a grade-A asshole that most conservatives don�t like, and the insistence that anyone who doesn�t appear on his show is afraid of him, and the faux-everyman demeanor, and the continuing jihads against Jesse Jackson, rap music, George Clooney, Al Franken, the United Way, Europe, Hollywood, Bill Moyers, the entire American left, Canada and PepsiCola, AND that he lies constantly about being a conservative…

…well, he still belongs on the list, actually.

Bill O�Reilly�s ego is the Hindenburg, the Titanic, and Michael Jackson�s last album all wrapped up in one – far larger than it has any right to be, and destined to crash on a historic level.

Fuck Bill O’Reilly. And pretty much everyone else on the list too. I hope they get sodomized by a schoolbus full of gay black atheists. (The headlines would be hysterical…)

Media ignores terrorism

The Memory Hole >The US Terrorism Plot That the Media Ignores

In May 2003, white supremacists in Texas were caught with a sodium cyanide bomb, other bombs, illegal weapons, hate literature, fake I.D., and chemicals, including hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. In mid-November, three people pleaded guilty to related charges, while seized documents indicate that there are other co-conspirators at large. The feds have served “hundreds of subpoenas across the country,” and the plot has been included in the President’s daily intelligence briefings.

But most of us have never heard about it. . . there hasn’t been a word in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, or any other big media outlet. Why have the media decided that this is a non-story?

C’mon blogosphere – let’s link to this story and get it some recognition, despite mass media’s efforts to ignore it.

The O’Reilly Factor(y of Misinformation)

MoveOn moves up::

“MoveOn’s mere existence drives Fox News fulminator Bill O’Reilly into such fits of rage that he once devoted a segment of his program to attacking the group while refusing to allow its staff on air to answer his charges. On his Sept. 17 show, he said: ‘Now, the MoveOn.org people wanted to come on here, but I can’t have them on because, you know, they’re going to attack Bush. I got to defend Bush.’

“Fair and Balanced” my ass. Fox news is a freaking joke, and don’t get me started on Bill O’Reilly.

He proceeded to rant against MoveOn’s nonprofit status, saying, ‘I don’t know why we’re giving tax-exempt status to propaganda outfits … When you say you’re nonpartisan, as MoveOn.org says it is, and then you’re not, that’s a lie, is it not?’ O’Reilly fails to register comparable outrage at the partisan activities of nonprofits such as the Christian Coalition and Concerned Women for America”

Touche, Bill.

I finally agree with something Lileks says

You know what? Michael Moore is right. There are many Americans who are ignorant of the world around them. And they�re all TV news producers. Two big bombs in Istanbul, and what�s the big story of the day? Following around a pervy slab of albino Play-Doh as he turns himself into the police. I was stunned to discover last night that Nightline not only covered the Jackson case in detail, but bumped coverage of the Whitehall speech, which was the most important speech since the Iraq campaign began and arguably the most important speech of the war, period.

Unfortunately, he returns to his usual pro-war blather later on. Screw that.
Link

Aaaaarrrghhh!

I found this little gem on someone’s blog today:

“The “news” programs should apologize for pretending that Irish people blowing each other up or Jews and Arabs blowing each other up.. is “news”. Its not.”

If you don’t understand why this statement pisses me off, then get the hell off of my goddamn site. Now.