Keeps getting better and better…
“Here we are in June of 2003. Show me the weapons; where are they? What evidence did this administration have to spend $63 billion in taxpayers’ money? What evidence did this administration have to put the lives of American servicewomen and men on the line?”
-U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, June 5, 2003
What I’ve been thinking all along, and what I’d hoped more Americans would be:
As an article by Thomas Powers in the Globe notes, Bush, in his State of the Union Address, contended that Iraq possessed the following: 30,000 warheads, 500 tons of chemical weapons, 25,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin. In a dramatic appearance before the United Nations that helped convince many of the justification for war with Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq maintained a factory for making poisons and explosives in Khurmal, chemical munitions bunkers at Taji, rocket launchers and warheads containing biological warfare agents ”hidden in large groves of palm trees,” and a ”suspicious caravan of trucks” at the Amiriyah Serum and Vaccine Institute, a center for testing biological and chemical weapons. As Powers reminds us, ”None of this has been found.”
…
Hillary Clinton took $8 million from a book publisher and possibly didn’t tell the whole truth about the Lewinsky scandal. George W. Bush took the armed forces of the United States of America, put lives at risk, and shook the world order to wage war against Iraq. Maybe he told the whole truth about why we were going to war and maybe he didn’t
I honestly can’t understand why more of us aren’t outraged at what this country is doing; to ourselves as well as the rest of the world. I’ve never cared much about politics or government; I’m an American. We’re basically taught not to. What’s really difficult for me to trying to explan to my 5-year old that no, Iraq people are not bad. American people are not all good. He’s looking for a Star Wars-esqu Good Guys/Bad Guys type explanation and I just don’t have it for him. How do I tell him that we’re the bad guys?
I know it’s not hard to get a dramatic photo on an NYC subway, but damn. Via Coudal.
Okay, so what the fuck happened to Jewel? I guess her new ‘direction’ is unsurprising to a lot of you, but me, I thought she was pretty swell. For a while anyway, basically during the run of her first album. For those of you keeping score, she is officially the embodiment of selling out.
Called Rendezvous, the service enabled listeners and their friends to access one another’s music and listen to it ? but not download it ? from any computers. Hackers, however, had figured out how to download the music as well, creating programs with names like iLeach and iSlurp. So on Tuesday Apple sent out an update for its iTunes software, disabling Rendezvous and limiting music access to a user’s local network at home or at work.
Yes, New York Times, Rendezvous’ only function was iTunes music sharing across the internet. Gah. Rendezvous sharing is actually STILL enabled, but TCP/IP sharing is not. I hate tech writers. And John Gruber agrees with me: “They’re all a bunch of Jerk-offs.”
What the Bush tax cut could have bought.
I fucking love Republicans. They’re so, so awesome. And completely unpredictable about how they really care about this country!
I give up. Tai knows everything. All shall bow down in his exalted presence. He gave me the crucial advice that allowed me to install Linux on an otherwise uncooperative Compaq Presario 5441.
Need linux help? Hire him.
From our namespace cousins at Alternet.org: The Matrix’s Neo is the Hero of My Generation.
There are some fundamnetal flaws in it, and some glazing over of deeper issues, but he does say one thing in particular that feels familiar:
That may be the big joke behind the Matrix. Even those who are trying to step out of the system step back into it when they buy the ticket. The movie has become another a product for sale. But to me, Neo can’t be co-opted.
My generation has been through this in the past. We’ve seen culture and ideas we identify with sold back to us, like graffiti, hip-hop or skateboarding. Big-time industries only see the surface, and not the deeper reasons why they resonate with us. Corporations see the Matrix as cool martial arts, leather trench coats and shades – but we see an idea that finally defines that feeling that this society is fake. Even if the movie comes from Hollywood.
Thoughts? Is Neo someone with a vision, the inspiration from him taken directly from Shepard Fairey or Shawn Wolfe; he sees through the bullshit? Or is it really about kicking ass while wearing trenchcoats and sunglasses in the dark?
