Sunday, December 28, 2008

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

isn't anything?

Did you ever think you would be standing over the toilet in a dirty bathroom with a cigarette in your mouth, admiring the smoke as it floats out of the window and into the upper stratosphere when you were 11? Seeing the smoke form into letters that spell out "evacuate" is sometimes what it takes to jolt one from ones "discontent" with ones surroundings. One would say, if one were so inclined, that awareness of the situation is the first step to resolution but really the first step is the reality of it all. The situation itself is the real first step.

As I sit awake at 3:30 am, lighting another cigarette, reminding myself that I don't smoke, the smoke spells out more words. Words in a language somebody at some point in history has to have seen before. Words that speak to me in new levels of my being. Words I have yet to decipher except Evacuate and, now, Alone. The smoke, still pulling towards the sky, forms a spiral that intwines my visual perception into an argument between Set and Harsiese that just never seems to finish. Neither side will have anything to do with a diplomatic end to their contest so why the fuck should we even tell them it's an option.

Sometimes.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008

the flood

As she walked towards me I felt the oxygen molecules rush past me,
in a panic,
from her overpowering aura.
Her smile brings a familiar florescent glow.
"two cafes s'il vous...erh...please. Very small. Like Pandora"
My bewilderment overtaking the space my breath once held
Mind reeling from the blow oh her oddly chosen words.
Thoughts flood me like Johnstown
Words remain as ghosts.
One simple phrase transports me out of my plane of reality
into the 10th dimension.
We are one and everything around us at once.
Dream fills the background
creating a spiral of waves and lightning bolts that fill my chest.

Then, as if it had been the faint recollection of an intense R.E.M. dream
the moment ends. All I can see is the black ocean of her hair as she walks away into the decontaminated corridors.

The next person to walk up to me doesn't even look me in the eye.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Agony

One day
not too far away
but still light years,
Tones and chorus spoke dissent
spoke magnitudes for the true saint.
The poet.
The connoisseur of cheap wine.
Unashamed of uncomfortable pitch
or continuity issues.
It seems so far away when you look at it all now.
It was 30 B.M.
christ had nothing to do with it
because how can you vouch for existence you've not lived?

The familarity of the piece is a surrogate for the quality ascribed to it.


They.
Have.
Gone.
Too.
Far.
City of Baltimore Fire Department: MUST BE POSTED ON PREMISES
Fire Prevention Permit.
Can't even put out a fire these days without asking permission.
45 dollars.
That is too much to ask.
We blew the money on junk and empire building.
A sick and twisted game of risk gone right for the wrong people.
Red took the Ukraine from green but goddammit
THE UKRAINE IS NOT WEAK!!!

Nothing on the walls.
No spark.
No Theory in the scientific sense.
No colour.
No hope.
"No Joy".

The tiny creatures that inhabit our reality are vermin in the eyes of house wives and bourgeois
upon entering our domiciles. They pay us visits like old friends who know us very well yet are always unwelcome.
We are all created from the same star.
All atoms forged at the heart of the sun by mexicans being payed, on average, a few less than minimum wage. Cheap labor built this planet goddammit and that's the way we're going to keep it.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Neon Guru

An Albatross - The Family Album (2008)

Try it here!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Thursday, September 11, 2008

le voyage dans la lune



Yes.
I have indeed
traveled
time
space
and even a dark marsh with the rock mystic
His unparalleled wisdom due to years of not working
Battling off the Great Moloch
Inside
Between
Outside of the box is just a larger sphere
I wonder if he knew that?
Seeing past ourselves into realms Crowley talks about.
Seeing the stars for what they really
were, are, have been
Ours was a different path
a struggle
mapped out on pallet
on floor
blended
swirling into a maze of hallucination
fear
carbon
I find myself beside myself
despite myself
taking moment and adding it to
the great collective unconscious of 100's of thousands of years.

Women


Women - Women(2008)

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Modern Pop Percussion

Organ
Fill my being
Expand my horizons and bring forth
ever expanding glimpses into the void
the void that is my "soul"
the event horizon
witnessed only from a peak where you can see
what Eratosthenes already knew to be true

Qu'est ce qu'il y a?
Ca ne fait rien.
Qu'est ce quise passe?
Je n'ai aucune idee.
Je suis fatigue.
J'ai faim.
J'ai soif.
J'ai chuad.
J'ai froid.
Je m'ennuie.
Ca n'est egal.
Ne t'en fais pas.
J'ai oublie.
Je dois y aller.

Digging my lawn

Toru Takemitsu (Played by Jim O'Rourke) - Tokyo Realization

(2006) Toru Takemitsu (Played by Jim O'Rourke) - Tokyo Realization / 197 VBR
(aka 'Translate Takemitsu')


Try the album here.


Japanese-only release of two performances of Toru Takemitsu's 1962 composition "Corona", performed by Jim O'Rourke. "Toru Takemitsu (1931-1996) was a self-taught Japanese composer who combined elements of Eastern and Western music and philosophy to create a unique sound world. Some of his early influences were the sonorities of Debussy, and Messiaen's use of nature imagery and modal scales. There is a certain influence of Webern in Takemitsu's use of silence, and Cage in his compositional philosophy, but his overall style is uniquely his own. Takemitsu believed in music as a means of ordering or contextualizing everyday sound in order to make it meaningful or comprehensible. His philosophy of "sound as life" lay behind his incorporation of natural sounds, as well as his desire to juxtapose and reconcile opposing elements such as Orient and Occident, sound and silence, and tradition and innovation. From the beginning, Takemitsu wrote highly experimental music involving improvisation, graphic notation, unusual combinations of instruments and recorded sounds. The result is music of great beauty and originality. It is usually slowly paced and quiet, but also capable of great intensity. The variety, quantity and consistency of Takemitsu's output are remarkable considering that he never worked within any kind of conventional framework or genre. In addition to the several hundred independent works of music, he scored over ninety films and published twenty books."-Steven Coburn, All Music

1. Corona for Pianist(s) Written by Toru Takemitsu: Tokyo Realizaton 1 (26:19)
2. Corona for Pianist(s) Written by Toru Takemitsu: Tokyo Realizaton 2 (25:05)



Tim Hecker - Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again





Fripp & Eno - Evening Star






Jesu And Eluvium Split (2007)
psw:www.mediaportal.ru

Friday, August 22, 2008

PROYECTO "A"-S/T, LP, 1970, SPAIN




Spanish Psych/funk masterpiece. Concept album about the planets of our solar system(minus earth). Your new favorite album.

Get Album Here

Sunday, August 10, 2008

riiing

telephone
wrapped around my ear
screamed at me
tried to suck out of my mind where I was
was stuck to my head and jabbered
until I said "The person you have reached is not a working person."
"He has been changed and is temporarly connected. Please, hang yourself up."

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The communists were the first to reach the Molar System

Working downtown you see everyone. Not everyone such as everyone you know, but everyone. Every type of person there is to see.

I work down by the hospital. One of many in the junk capital of the east. Lots of sights to see. You see, I work making espresso and sandwiches. I make a little money here and there. Don't need to much to live. It seems to be something I have in common with the cats at the hospital. It's not patients though, you see, it's the Docs and snobby medical students who act like their parents are cushioning the whole experience for them. I'm sure they are. Just a guess. No, this is about the people on the street. The exuberant security guards. The janitors who dig the jazz I play and tell me that when it's slow it's because there's no horn singing. Their sad but hopefully eyes show a long existence in probably a similar condition. Not where they want to be but content with it none the less. The faces down MLK blvd. Cold even in the hottest sun. Eyes with such a contrast between the red ring around them and the brilliant whites of their sclera. The streets and sidewalks are cracked like an armored division rolled through there not too long ago. Never to be repaired. The state ignores this part of the city despite it being one of the main roads. Priorities, I guess.

The street with the cities namesake is a surreal roller coaster of sounds and colors and emotions. A vast river of complex moments all transpiring on the same path but not with the same destination. Where I go is only the mouth of the river. Where the flow runs calmly due to the "No Cruising" sign I am sure. Where the beat is low but still audible. Newly freed patients walk down the block back towards the west side of town hollarin' at the top of their lungs about nothing at all. High on life. The cats from the veterns hospital don't seem as content though. Sittin' up there in that "smoking section" right above the street. Looking down at everyone with wonder and contempt. I saw a man slumped over in a wheel chair in the middle of the sidewalk. He had headphones on. I wonder what he was listening to? If he was even still alive that is. It might have taken a long time for someone to actually check on him. His story ends there. At a black hole in his reality. All light and truth have been sucked into this void. Must be hard to be so young and so beat. Tortured by sidewalks. Glares. Fear. Pity. Apathy. No connection though. Ant auto-pilot takes over.

Jackie0oh


Jackie-o-motherfucker - Liberation

Monday, July 28, 2008

Freak Power

When Duke talks about "Zang" as an experience, I really did not quite grasp the gravity of it all until I felt it's awesome power first hand. I sat for hours during the whole ordeal thinking, "Zang? What the fuck does he mean?". And then....ZANG! No other word really defines it quite so well. It grabbed a hold of me like a strong drawback after a submarine earthquake. I felt such an intense and surreal magnetism towards this mental fault line beneath the waves, coursing through all of my being. Imagine the whole process happening within the blink of an eye. The process was physically gradual but the climax hit faster than William F. Smith hitting the 79th floor of the Empire State building. Faster than the irony of a really bad joke. Weather or not this is was a positive experience, only time will tell.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Saturday, July 12, 2008

sleepwalking

High IQ turns academics into atheists

12 June 2008

By Rebecca Attwood

Intelligence is a predictor of religious scepticism, a professor has argued. Rebecca Attwood reports

Belief in God is much lower among academics than among the general population because scholars have higher IQs, a controversial academic claimed this week.

In a forthcoming paper for the journal Intelligence, Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ulster, will argue that there is a strong correlation between high IQ and lack of religious belief and that average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 countries.

In the paper, Professor Lynn - who has previously caused controversy with research linking intelligence to race and sex - says evidence points to lower proportions of people holding religious beliefs among "intellectual elites".

The paper - which was co-written with John Harvey, who does not report a university affiliation, and Helmuth Nyborg, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark - cites studies including a 1990s survey that found that only 7 per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God. A survey of fellows of the Royal Society found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God at a time when a poll reported that 68.5 per cent of the general UK population were believers.

Professor Lynn told Times Higher Education: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."

He said that most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many began to have doubts and became agnostics.

He added that most Western countries had seen a decline of religious belief in the 20th century at the same time as their populations had become more intelligent.

Andy Wells, senior lecturer in psychology at the London School of Economics, said the existence of a correlation between IQ and religiosity did not mean there was a causal relationship between the two.

Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck, University of London, said that any examination of the decline of religious belief needed to take into account a wide and complex range of social, economic and historical factors.

He added: "Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response."

Alistair McFadyen, senior lecturer in Christian theology at the University of Leeds, said that Professor Lynn's arguments appeared to have "a slight tinge of intellectual elitism and Western cultural imperialism as well as an antireligious sentiment".

David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt intuitions."

rebecca.attwood@tsleducation.com.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Thursday, June 26, 2008

politics





Senate finalizes war funding bill


* Story Highlights
* $165 billion bill funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into early 2009
* Measure includes money for a new GI Bill, extended unemployment benefits
* Bill also provides disaster assistance for Midwest flooding
* Next Article in Politics »



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate gave final approval Thursday to a war funding measure that includes money for a new GI Bill and other domestic measures.
The Senate approved the war funding bill after Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise.

The Senate approved the war funding bill after Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise.

The $165 billion bill funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into early 2009 with no restrictions.

It also includes extended unemployment benefits and the expansion of the GI Bill, two key domestic priorities of Democrats.

The bill also provides more than $2 billion in disaster assistance for areas in the Midwest dealing with massive flooding.

The House passed the bill last week after Democrats and Republicans reached a compromise that satisfied Bush administration officials. It now goes to the White House for the president's signature.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the measure met demands from both sides.

"I hope that President Bush recognizes that our needs at home deserve at least the same attention as those we pay for abroad," Reid said after the vote.

Reid said the funding measures would protect seniors, families and those with disabilities from Medicaid cuts while doubling the president's request for military construction, veterans hospitals and international aid.

President Bush and many congressional Republicans had resisted extending unemployment benefits, but the compromise bill includes another 13 weeks of assistance. Democrats had been pushing for extending benefits to laid-off workers as unemployment rates continue to rise.


Democrats also got Republican support for a college scholarship program for U.S. troops, known as a "new GI Bill."

The program expands education benefits for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan by paying for four-year scholarships.

"At a time when 2 million men and women have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and when our troops have had to endure multiple deployments, stop-loss policies, insufficient equipment and an unclear strategy, giving them the opportunity to fuel our future economy is the least we can do," Reid said.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, a driving force behind the GI Bill, called the passage a "historic step" for the men and women who have served since September 11, 2001.

"There are no politics here," he said. "This is about taking care of the people who have taken care of us. I am looking forward to the president living up to his word and signing this legislation at his earliest opportunity.


Because disaster aid and college for veterans should be in the same bill as giving bush 165 billion more dollars for the war. This is really getting ridiculous.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

artskaype


This year's lineup for Wham City's annual music festival was announced via MySpace bulletin this morning and, good g-d, kittens, roller coasters, and gin don't have jack on a good time like this. Whartscape 2008 runs July 17-20, at "locations throughout Baltimore," Black Dice, Matmos, Celebration, Beach House, Dan Deacon, Parts and Labor, Bird Names, Jana Hunter, the Death Set, the Mae Shi, Skate Dog (Gregg Gillis), Killer Whales, Double Dagger, Thank You, Ponytail, Cex, Teeth Mountain, WZT Hearts, Lexie Mountain Boys, Ecstatic Sunshine, Video Hippos, Leprechaun Catering, the Creepers, and "like 50 more TBA."

According to the bulletin, "exact final lineup, advance ticket sales, locations, and everything else will be announced in the near future. [K]eep your bones hard and your skin fresh."

gone!



Accurate amirite

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Lords

Tue 24 s.carey studios
122 s.stockton st.
baltimore , MD lords (louisville
ky) suicide note (chicago
il) deathammer (baltimore) sexually retarded (baltimore) $7
7:00 pm

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007)


Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement (2007)
From Wikileaks
(Redirected from G-8 plurilateral intellectual property trade agreement discussion paper)


Unless otherwise specified the document described here:

* Was first publicly revealed by Wikileaks working with our source.
* At that time was classified, confidential, censored or otherwise withheld from the public.
* Is of substantial political, diplomatic or ethical significance.
* Any questions about this documents veracity are noted. Fewer than 0.1% of documents that pass initial triage fail subsequent analysis (typically developing world election material).
* The summary is approved by the editorial board.




* acta-proposal-2007.pdf (click to view full file)
* acta-proposal-2007.pdf (alternative address)

Analysis
ACTA trade agreement negotiation lacks transparency, Intellectual Property Watch, Sydney Morning Herald, Globe and Mail, Calgary Herald, Jamie Shaw,Torrent Freak,Tech Dirt,Daily Tech,Webhosting Poland,Slashdot, TheNewFreedom, and many others.

Front page news in Canada, but has yet to hit the main stream daily's outside of Canada and Australia, likely due to early reports that looked at that angle, rather than a serious trade, transparency and developmental equity issue.
Summary

In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, which was called, in a piece of brilliant marketing, the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (the agreement does not cover currency fraud).

ACTA is spearheaded by the United States along with the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland — which have large intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA’s negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA’s negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry.

A “Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” was reportedly provided to select lobbyists in the intellectual property industry, but not to public interest organizations concerned with the subject matter of the proposed treaty.[1]

Wikileaks has obtained the document.

The agreement covers the copying of information or ideas in a wide variety of contexts. For example page three, paragraph one is a "Pirate Bay killer" clause designed to criminalize the non-profit facilitation of unauthorized information exchange on the internet. This clause would also negatively affect transparency and primary source journalism sites such as Wikileaks.

The document reveals a proposal for a multi-lateral trade agreement of strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods hiding behind the issue of false trademarks. If adopted, a treaty of this form would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime, with new cooperation requirements upon internet service providers, including perfunctionary disclosure of customer information. The proposal also bans "anti-circumvention" measures which may affect online anonymity systems and would likely outlaw multi-region CD/DVD players.

The proposal also specifies a plan to encourage developing nations to accept the legal regime.

Trade representatives were hoping to formalize the agreement at the G-8 summit in July 2008.

The following summary of the trade agreement issue is from IP Justice, an international group based in San Francisco that campaigns for a just world intellectual property regime:

After the multi-lateral treaty’s scope and priorities are negotiated by the few countries invited to participate in the early discussions, ACTA’s text will be “locked” and other countries who are later “invited” to sign-on to the pact will not be able to re-negotiate its terms. It is claimed that signing-on to the trade agreement will be "voluntary", but few countries will have the muscle to refuse an “invitation” to join, once the rules have been set by the select few conducting the negotiations.

The US is negotiating ACTA through the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), an office within the Bush Administration that has concluded more than 10 “free trade” agreements in recent years, all of which require both the US and the other country to increase intellectual property rights enforcement measures beyond the international legal norms in the WTO-TRIPS Agreement. [2]

Talking points from the European Commission, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and others have published selected passages ostensibly from the document in response; refer to [3] for useful links.

The ACTA push was launched on October 23, 2007 by US Ambassador Susan C. Schwab and five U.S. members of Congress from the "Congressional Caucus on Intellectual Property and Piracy Prevention". A copy of her opening remarks follow:

Remarks by U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
October 23, 2007
• Thank you all for being here. Today we are announcing a major new
initiative in the international fight against IPR counterfeiting and piracy.
• I want to begin by thanking our host today, the Congressional Caucus on
Intellectual Property and Piracy Prevention, and its co-chairs -
Representatives Bono, Feeney, Wexler, and Adam Smith of Washington.
• Thank you also to the Members present, who have done so much to advance
the cause of IP protection, including:
- Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA)
- Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)
- Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
- Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
• I also want to acknowledge and thank the Ambassadors and representatives
of our trading partners who have joined us today.
[...]
• We are pleased to be working in this broader effort with a number of key
trading partners, large and small, including Canada, the European Union,
Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland. We hope and believe
that others will join over time, marking an emerging consensus on stronger
IP enforcement. All who share our ambition and commitment to stronger
IPR enforcement are welcome.
[...]
• With that goal in mind, the U.S. Government is eager to move ahead as fast
as possible with the negotiation of this important new agreement.
• Thank you.

Who is really behind ACTA? Follow the money:

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)[4]

Top four campaign contributions for 2006:

Time Warner $21,000
News Corp $15,000
Sony Corp of America $14,000
Walt Disney Co $13,550

Top two Industries:

TV/Movies/Music $181,050
Lawyers/Law Firms $114,200

Other politicians listed also show significant contributions from IP industries.

Context
United States
Government (bureaucracy)
Office of the United States Trade Representative

Wikileaks release date
Thursday May 22, 2008
Primary language
English
File size in bytes
378251
File type information
Zip archive data, at least v1.0 to extract
Cryptographic identity
SHA256 c339644a0e21ecdc1a8569ec6549850dd31cf811ea89606f074856f08b305221
Description (as provided by the original submitter)

1. Not to our knowledge.

2. This document details provisions of a proposed plurilateral trade agreement that would impose strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. If adopted, a treaty of this form would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime imposing new cooperation requirements upon ISPs, including perfunctory disclosure of customer information, as well as measures restricting the use of online privacy tools. The proposal also specifies a plan to encourage developing nations to accept the legal regime. Talking points from the European Commission, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and others have published selected passages ostensibly from this document; refer to http://ipjustice.org/wp/campaigns/acta/ for useful links.

3. Trade officials, copyright claimants.

4. Call Office of the United States Trade Representative, European Commission, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and other trade officials including the corresponding offices in Canada, Japan, and Switzerland.

5. Not clear; suspect that one of the parties to the agreement may have had an interest in releasing details to the public.
6. Trade representatives intend to formalize the agreement at the G-8 summit in July 2008.


Sunday, June 8, 2008

S.O.P.

Iraq will not be used against Iran, PM vows

1 hour ago

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought to reassure Iran over a planned security pact with Washington on Sunday, vowing Iraq would never be used as a platform to attack the Islamic republic.

"We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbours," Maliki said after a late-night meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran.

Maliki's comments come amid Iranian alarm over American pressure on Baghdad to sign an agreement that would keep US soldiers in the country beyond 2008. Iran has always called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

US President George W. Bush and Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by the end of July. But Iraq has now said it has a "different vision" from the United States on the issue.

Iran's concern about the deal comes amid renewed tensions over its nuclear programme, which the United States fears is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge vehemently rejected by Tehran.

The United States has never ruled out a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities while Israel has also been warning there may be no alternative to military action.

"The agreement contains no element against the security of Iran," said Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed after a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mostafa Mohammad Najjar.

"No Iraqi government will allow that its territory be used to attack Iran or another country," he added, according to a translation of his comments reported by the Fars news agency.

Maliki also met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who said that Iraq had to achieve stability "so that the enemies give up trying to influence this country," IRNA reported.

"The stability of Iraq can be reached through the development of bilateral relations" with Iran, Ahmadinejad added.

The Shiite premier also held talks with First Vice President Parviz Davoudi and Iran's top national security official Saeed Jalili.

In a sign of the sensitivity of the visit, there was little media access to Maliki's meetings with no press conference and the information communicated through official Iranian media.

Iran and Shiite-majority Iraq waged a war between 1980 and 1988 in which around one million people died but ties have warmed considerably since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

Maliki, who lived in exile in Iran during Saddam's dictatorship, is making his third visit to the country as prime minister. Ahmadinejad's March visit to Iraq, the first by an Iranian president, was also hailed as a landmark in ties.

But some observers expect Maliki to use the talks to raise US allegations of Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs, a charge vehemently denied by predominantly Shiite Iran.

The United States has accused Iran of shipping in tank-busting munitions for attacks on US troops, training Shiite militants inside Iran for operations in Iraq and supplying rockets for attacks in central Baghdad.

The US military said on Sunday it had arrested an Iranian-linked militant suspected of leading assassination squad based in Iraq's southern port city of Basra and aiding rebels to cross the border to Iran for training.

Last month, Maliki formed a panel of security ministries to assess the US accusations.

Washington was troubled by the apparent warmth of ties displayed during Maliki's last visit to Iran in August 2007 and will be closely watching his latest trip.

US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker stressed in Washington on Thursday that Iran and Iraq were neighbours and had to conduct a relationship. "The question is: what kind of relationship is it going to be?" he said.


I wonder how long it is before the US takes out Maliki.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Au - Verbs

Au Myspace

Au - Verbs password: nodata.tv

Experimental,Pop, Noise

Oh

Pay attention to the very last 5 seconds.

Always

Im not saying it's going to happen for sure but

if it does, we all can say I told you so.




Report: U.S. Will Attack Iran

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:40 PM

By: Newsmax Staff


Israel’s Army Radio is reporting that President Bush intends to launch a military strike against Iran before the end of his term.

The Army Radio, a network operated by the Israeli Defense Forces, quoted a government source in Jerusalem. The source disclosed that a senior official close to Bush said in a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney believed military action against Iran was now called for.

Bush concluded a trip to Israel last week, where he said, "The objective of the United States must be to . . . support our strongest ally and friend in the Middle East.”

The Radio report, which was quoted by the Jerusalem Post, disclosed that the recent turmoil in Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah had seized virtual control of the country, was encouraging an American attack.

Hezbollah’s aggression in Lebanon is seen as evidence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s growing influence, and the U.S. official said that in Bush’s view, “the disease must be treated, not its symptoms,” according to the Post.

The White House on Tuesday denied the Army Radio report, saying in a statement: “As the president has said, no president of the United States should ever take options off the table, but our preference and our actions for dealing with this matter remain through peaceful diplomatic means. Nothing has changed in that regard.”

However, numerous signs point to a U.S. strike on Iran in the near future:

# A leading member of America’s Jewish community told Newsmax in April that a military strike on Iran was likely and that Vice President Cheney’s March trip through the Middle East came in preparation for the U.S. attack.

# The Air Force recently declared the B-2 bomber fleet — a critical weapons system in any U.S. attack on Iran — as airworthy again. The Air Force had halted B-2 flights after a February crash in Guam. As Newsmax reported, the Air Force has refitted its stealth bombers to carry 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs, needed to destroy Iran’s hardened nuclear facilities.

# A second U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, joined the carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Persian Gulf in May, carrying far more weaponry and ammunition than on previous deployments.

# Israel is gearing up for war. In April, it conducted its largest homeland military exercises ever. The Jewish-American source said Israel is “preparing for heavy casualties,” expecting to be the target of Iranian retribution following the U.S. attack.

# Saudi Arabia is taking steps to prepare for possible radioactive contamination from U.S. destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Saudi government reportedly approved nuclear fallout preparations a day after Cheney met with the kingdom’s highest-ranking officials.

# The USS Ross, an Aegis-class destroyer, has taken up station off the coast of Lebanon. Military observers speculate it is there to help defend Israel from missile attacks.

Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a recent Pentagon briefing that the Iranians are systematically importing and training Shiite militia fighters, who slip back across the Iraqi border to kill American troops.

And Israeli intelligence has predicted that Iran will acquire its first nuclear device in 2009, much earlier than previous U.S. estimates.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved

Fail

Walmart fails to support the people upon whom they have the greatest impact on, their workers. Two of many allegations against them are listed below.

Walmart costs state and national government money. A congressional study discovered that for a 200-employee Wal-Mart store, the government is spending $108,000 a year for children's health care; $125,000 a year in tax credits and deductions for low-income families; and $42,000 a year in housing assistance. This typical Wal-Mart store costs federal taxpayers $420,000 a year, which averages out to $2,103 for each Wal-Mart employee. It all adds up to an annual welfare bill of $2.5 billion for Wal-Mart's 1.2 million U.S. employees. That's not counting the burden Wal-Mart places on state and local governments.

Vice president for benefits, Susan Chambers, recently released a memo to the board of directors saying "the cost of an associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart." This can be seen as applying pressure to fire more senior members of the walmart staff, and eliminate any benefits they may receive.1

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is generous with gifts to charitable organizations, and donates an impressive percentage of profits to commendable causes. This company has acted with a disregard for the fact that their business has undermined the communities in which they operate. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has major instances of operating with disregard for the wellbeing of it's employees. There are major tensions between their organized workforce, and the company management that have yet to be addressed adequately. They have inadequate oversight of their supply chain, which enables the abuse of their subcontracted labor force. This company is accused of exploiting the rights of native peoples. Such actions can lead to making tribal lands unusable, and undermine traditional ways of life. This company's goods are a risk to the wellbeing of its customers, and this risk taking shows a certain disregard for the humanity of those they profess to serve. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. tends to hide or at least fail to publicize their social and environmental standards. This means it is up to us to dig up their misbehaviors. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. hide their political actions, and have a poor record of supporting progressive policies.

Links:

http://www.alternet.org/environment/68352/

http://wakeupwalmart.com/

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Shh / Peaceful


Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams

Timothy Leary - Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out


Nurse With Wound - Acts of Senseless Beauty

old man take a look at my life, i'm a lot like you




The former Times editor Robert Thomson was named managing editor of the Wall Street Journal today as Rupert Murdoch tightened control of the management of the world's top selling business newspaper.

Thomson's new role is the top editorial position at the Journal. He replaces Marcus Brauchli who quit last month amid signs of discontent over the speed of changes at the paper since it was taken over by Murdoch's News Corporation in December.

News Corp said the appointment had the unanimous approval of a committee set up to safeguard the editorial independence of the Journal. The committee had objected to a lack of consultation when Brauchli resigned.

"Mr Thomson's outstanding career as a financial journalist, foreign correspondent and editor equips him perfectly for the position," said Murdoch.

Thomson, 47, is an Australian compatriot of Murdoch and he has been a loyal lieutenant of the press baron for six years.

At the end of last year, Thomson moved from London to become publisher of the Journal. His new role gives him formal control of its newsroom, which, according to the paper's journalists, he was effectively overseeing anyway. He will also be editor-in-chief of Dow Jones' newswires service.

Murdoch's $5.2bn takeover of the Dow Jones group was highly contentious throughout last year as the Journal's founding Bancroft family struggled to agree on whether to sell up.

Since the deal was sealed, Murdoch has made it clear that he wants the paper to diversify away from its business roots to compete with mainstream publications such as the New York Times. A sports page has begun appearing in the Journal and plans are underway for a glossy magazine.

Thomson can boast a depth of experience in business coverage - prior to joining the Times in 2002, he headed the US edition of the Financial Times. He has also served as a correspondent in Beijing and Tokyo, having begun his career as a copy boy at the Herald in Melbourne in 1979.

Murdoch has wasted little time in inserting handpicked people to run the Journal. Les Hinton, a former boss of Murdoch's UK papers, is now chief executive of Dow Jones.

In an attempt to rebuild bridges with the editorial committee formed as a condition of News Corp's takeover, Hinton expressed regret for failing to consult the body when Thomson's predecessor left.

"In hindsight, we recognise it would have been more appropriate to have advised the committee in advance of reaching an agreement with Mr Brauchli," said Hinton. "We have apologised to the committee members."

Monday, May 19, 2008

harmonious

Stop-motion meets street art and a strange child is born to Argentine street artist, Blu.

The fox speaks to his wife who is not quite sure





Space Art - Play Back,LP,1980,France

Space Art is a French band that was formed by two friends in Paris in 1977. The group consisted of Dominique Perrier on keyboards and Roger Rizzitelli on drums. Their first (self-titled) of three albums was released in the same year as Jean-Michel Jarre’s, “Oxygene.” Knowledgeable Jarre fans will recognize the names, because both went along on the 1981 China tour. Dominique Perrier has since played keyboards on most Jarre albums and live performances and is sometimes credited with artistic collaboration - small wonder, as their styles are very much compatible. But as this and the other albums show, Space Art is not a mere clone and has a distinctive style of its own. This is due in large part to the heavy drums very well employed by Roger Rizzitelli (highly inspired by bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Soft Machine, etc). It was all about experimenting with new sounds on new machines. They specialize in a certain set of highly tragic/dramatic chords. on their third LP they seem to appeal much the late 70s Kraftwerk sound ,providing a nice example of cosmic synth pop mixed with pseudo disco ,electronic games tunes and pure mid 70s space music.


Space Art - Play Back,LP,1980,France

On the road




http://www.last.fm/user/IAmNietzche/


add me

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Icebox in the alley





Old news but...

Sources:
Consortium, October 19, 2006
Title: “Who Is ‘Any Person’ in Tribunal Law?”
Author: Robert Parry
http://consortiumnews.com/2006/101906.html

Consortium, February 3, 2007
Title: “Still No Habeas Rights for You”
Author: Robert Parry
http://consortiumnews.com/2007/020307.html

Common Dreams, February 2, 2007
Title: “Repeal the Military Commissions Act and Restore the Most
American Human Right”
Author: Thom Hartmann
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0212-24.htm

Student Researchers: Bryce Cook and Julie Bickel
Faculty Evaluator: Andrew Roth, Ph.D.

With the approval of Congress and no outcry from corporate media, the Military Commissions Act (MCA) signed by Bush on October 17, 2006, ushered in military commission law for US citizens and non-citizens alike. While media, including a lead editorial in the New York Times October 19, have given false comfort that we, as American citizens, will not be the victims of the draconian measures legalized by this Act—such as military roundups and life-long detention with no rights or constitutional protections—Robert Parry points to text in the MCA that allows for the institution of a military alternative to the constitutional justice system for “any person” regardless of American citizenship. The MCA effectively does away with habeas corpus rights for “any person” arbitrarily deemed to be an “enemy of the state.” The judgment on who is deemed an “enemy combatant” is solely at the discretion of President Bush.
The oldest human right defined in the history of English-speaking civilization is the right to challenge governmental power of arrest and detention through the use of habeas corpus laws, considered to be the most critical parts of the Magna Carta which was signed by King John in 1215.
Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist #84 in August of 1788:

The establishment of the writ of habeas corpus are perhaps greater securities to liberty and republicanism than any it [the Constitution] contains. The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny. The observations of the judicious [British eighteenth-century legal scholar] Blackstone, in reference to the latter, are well worthy of recital:

“To bereave a man of life” says he, “or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.”

While it is true that some parts of the MCA target non-citizens, other sections clearly apply to US citizens as well, putting citizens inside the same tribunal system with non-citizen residents and foreigners.
Section 950q of the MCA states that, “Any person is punishable as a principal under this chapter [of the MCA] who commits an offense punishable by this chapter, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, or procures its commission.”1
Section 950v. “Crimes Triable by Military Commissions” (26) of the MCA seems to specifically target American citizens by stating that, “Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter may direct.”1
“Who,” warns Parry, “has ‘an allegiance or duty to the United States’ if not an American citizen?”
Besides allowing “any person” to be swallowed up by Bush’s system, the law prohibits detainees once inside from appealing to the traditional American courts until after prosecution and sentencing, which could translate into an indefinite imprisonment since there are no timetables for Bush’s tribunal process to play out.
Section 950j of the law further states that once a person is detained, “ not withstanding any other provision of law (including section 2241 of title 28 or any other habeas corpus provision) no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause of action whatsoever relating to the prosecution, trial, or judgment of a military commission under this chapter, including challenges to the lawfulness of procedures of military commissions.”1
Other constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights, such as a speedy trial, the right to reasonable bail, and the ban on “cruel and unusual punishment,” would seem to be beyond a detainee’s reach as well.
Parry warns that, “In effect, what the new law appears to do is to create a parallel ‘star chamber’ system for the prosecution, imprisonment, and possible execution of enemies of the state, whether those enemies are foreign or domestic.
“Under the cloak of setting up military tribunals to try al-Qaeda suspects and other so-called unlawful enemy combatants, Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress effectively created a parallel legal system for ‘any person’—American citizen or otherwise—who crosses some ill-defined line.”
In one of the most chilling public statements ever made by a US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales opined at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 18, 2007, “The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right shall not be suspended.”
More important than its sophomoric nature, Parry warns, is that Gonzales’s statement suggests he is still searching for arguments to make habeas corpus optional, subordinate to the President’s executive powers that Bush’s neoconservative legal advisers claim are virtually unlimited during “time of war.”

Citation
1. “Military Commissions Act of 2006” Public Law 109-366, 109th Congress. See http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_public_laws&docid=f raspberryubl366.109.
UPDATE BY ROBERT PARRY
The Consortium series on the Military Commissions Act of 2006 pointed out that the law’s broad language seems to apply to both US citizens and non-citizens, contrary to some reassuring comments in the major news media that the law only denies habeas corpus rights to non-citizens. The law’s application to “any person” who aids and abets a wide variety of crimes related to terrorism—and the law’s provisions stripping away the jurisdiction of civilian courts—could apparently thrust anyone into the legal limbo of the military commissions where their rights are tightly constrained and their cases could languish indefinitely.
Despite the widespread distribution of our articles on the Internet, the major US news media continues to ignore the troubling “any person” language tucked in toward the end of the statute. To my knowledge, for instance, no major news organization has explained why, if the law is supposed to apply only to non-citizens, one section specifically targets “any person [who] in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States.” Indeed, the “any person” language in sections dealing with a wide array of crimes, including traditional offenses such as spying, suggests that a parallel legal system has been created outside the parameters of the US Constitution.
Since publication of the articles, the Democrats won control of both the House and Senate—and some prominent Democrats, such as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, have voiced their intent to revise the law with the goal of restoring habeas corpus and other rights. However, other Democrats appear hesitant, fearing that any attempt to change the law would open them to charges that they are “soft on terrorism” and that Republicans would torpedo the reform legislation anyway. Outside of Congress, pro-Constitution groups have made reform of the Military Commissions Act a high priority. For instance, the American Civil Liberties Union organized a national protest rally against the law. But the public’s lack of a clear understanding of the law’s scope has undercut efforts to build a popular movement for repeal or revision of the law.
To learn more about the movement to rewrite the Military Commissions Act, readers can contact the ACLU at https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=DOA_learn
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=DOA_learn.