February 24, 2004
Disentangling disinformation: Teresa and her commenters conclusively establish that a particular bit of propaganda being billed as “from a paper in Durham, NC” is anything but.
“Who is Bandar Bush?” Koufax Award-winning weblog commenter John J. Emerson (or perhaps his superhero alter ego, the mysterious Zizka) assembles a “long file documenting the Bush-Saudi ties (including the Bin Ladens), Bush favoritism to the Saudis, Saudi involvement in terrorism, Bush indifference to counter-terrorism before 9/11, the irrelevance of the Second Iraq War to terrorism, Blowback, etc.” As the headline reads: “Does George W. Bush have what it takes to fight the war on terrorism?” Indeed.
Slacktivist quotes from the Mexican War-era correspondence of one Abraham Lincoln:
Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him,—I see no probability of the British invading us”; but he will say to you, “Be silent: I see it, if you don’t.”More here and here. Even more here.The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.
Finally, a reminder: Whisperado plays the C-Note tomorrow night—that’s Wednesday, February 25, at 7 PM, 157 Avenue A at 10th Street. Featuring, if all goes well, Patrick’s Telecaster not going wiggy from bad AC power like it did at our last gig. And more ventures into the exciting new world of singing actual backup vocals. Next month, Patrick takes up the ocarina. [10:19 PM]
No, I was referring to the greatest living guitarist of the same name.
You can get all of Emerson's observations and more in the just-released paperback "American edition" of Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy".
Takedowns of Blair, Clinton, HRC, George Sr and of course GWB hisownself.
Alternately, you can "get all of" that stuff in Emerson/Zizka's open-sourced web page, in a fungible form that can be cut, pasted, forwarded, and otherwise easily made use of.
No criticism of the admirable Palast intended. But there's really no need to be invidious about this sort of thing.
Great, now the *editing* of articles from embargoed countries like Iran is being declard illegal. From Democracy Now:
Publishers Face Prison For Editing Articles from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya or Cuba
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/24/1557214
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control recently declared that American publishers cannot edit works authored in nations under trade embargoes which include Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Cuba.
Although publishing the articles is legal, editing is a "service" and the treasury department says it is illegal to perform services for embargoed nations. It can be punishable by fines of up to a half-million dollars or jail terms as long as 10 years.
(Robert Bovenschulte, president of the publications division of the American Chemical Society, which decided this week decided to challenge the government and risk criminal prosecution by editing articles submitted from the five embargoed nations.)
Why does the American Chemical Society hate America?
Only tangentially related to this post, but what's with all the left-leaning bloggers starting to use Instapundit's one word comment "Indeed"? Eschaton, Yglesias, Calpundit, Kos, all these guys I've noticed doing this in the last couple weeks. I know, it's no more exclusively Insta's than Fox News claim to "Fair & Balanced," but he does use it a lot. Was there a meeting or something?
Although publishing the articles is legal, editing is a "service" and the treasury department says it is illegal to perform services for embargoed nations. It can be punishable by fines of up to a half-million dollars or jail terms as long as 10 years.
As if it weren't bad enough already--do you have any idea how long it takes for a freelancer's check to arrive in the mail from Sudan?
Dumb question, Patrick (betraying my complete ignorance of band production): what's a telecaster and how do you use it during band performance?
John F.
Telecaster, as in "I took my guitar/I don't remember if it was a Telecaster or a Stratocaster..."
Ave. C, not Ave. A. That's why it's called the C-Note. It has little to do with hundred dollar bills, which are probably totally unknown there.
Thanks, Ken!
(I'm just a piano player....)
(I'm just a piano player....)
So don't anybody shoot him, okay?
MKK
Ventures??!!
You play stuff by the Ventures???
You'd want a Telecaster for that. I have an ES-335 and it just doesn't sound right for that stuff.
(Goes off whistling "Walk, Don't Run)
Ventures??!!
You play stuff by the Ventures???
You'd want a Telecaster for that. I have an ES-335 and it just doesn't sound right for that stuff.
I used to play "Walk, Don't Run" on soprano recorder, weekly (don't ask why). ES-335 seems like less of a stretch than that. (I've also played "Pipeline" and "Wipeout", but not on such a regular basis.)
You play stuff by the Ventures???
You'd want a Telecaster for that. I have an ES-335 and it just doesn't sound right for that stuff.
Well, I think their earliest recordings were on Fender equipment (which they're pictured with on their first LP), but ideally you'd want a Mosrite (the name has a macron on the "o"), which they used on their subsequent records. but in a pinch a Telecaster will do.
Jeez, I knew it was on Avenue C. Why did I type that? I hope nobody showed up looking for 157 Avenue A.
John Farrell: look here.
The "Telecaster" model line from Fender was named back when television was new enough to be a symbol for everything modern. This is a well-established pattern in branding--from an earlier age, see also toy wagons called "Radio Flyer."
named back when television was new enough to be a symbol for everything modern.
Thanks for the link--and that figures. The first thing that came to my video-bound mind was some kind of nifty box that allowed live wireless sound streaming or something like that.
So don't anybody shoot him, okay?
Thanks, Mary Kay!
In China the ball-point pen is still called the "atomic pen" because it arrived in China around 1945.
I strongly rocommend Palsts book and have 3-5 links to him, but I have lots of stuff he doesn't have.
Btw, I used to have an ocarina years ago and actually could play it after a fashion. It's easy if you've played the recorder, and essential if you ever want to add "Wild Thing" to your band's repertoire. I also once did a reasonable impromptu fake of the flute solo on "California Dreamin,' " though I'm not sure I could do it again. Anyway, if you ever want a lesson...
Though perhaps appropo for a Richard Thompson reference, we'll find our own antidepressants, thanks.
Same jerk as over on Making Light. The abuse contact for his provider is abuse@webstream.net.
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
Comments on Dirty people take what's mine.: