Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Newsweek Content A couple articles of note from this week's Newsweek - Jonathan Alter going after the pseudo-patriotism that has done such a good job stifling dissent since 9/11. An article on the conflict between the Bushies and the rank-and-file in the military/FBI/CIA/etc... It includes some truly ludicrous bits, like an FBI agent complaining that the FBI higher-ups didn't protect agents in the '70s who were attacked for illegaly breaking and entering to get info on leftists. Uh, that's 'cos that was illegal, dude. They SHOULDN'T be defending anyone who does that. There's more of that all over - Rumsfeld and his clique pissed because there's lawyers involved in deciding the army's rules of engagement, things like that. Basically, the Bushies want to break the law and some lower-echelon suckers won't do it for them. Good for them.

7:48:53 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Ashcroft defends Patriot Act in historic home of Boston patriots. Boston Herald Sep 9 2003 2:29PM ET [Moreover - Boston news] To quote the Boston Sports Guy, I think I just threw up in my mouth.
5:48:47 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

If you have any interest in politics, sci-fi, comics, cultural criticism, and where these all meet, you need to read American Flagg, Howard Chaykin's brilliant '80s comic. Here are two columns by comics writer and editor Stuart Moore on Flagg, maybe the most ground-breaking and challenging comic to come out of the '80s. Here and here. I'll write some more on Flagg later - it's just brilliant stuff, laying the groundwork for any kind of future political sci-fi in comics and other mediums...Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan owes its entire existence to this book. Sadly, it's out of print, but hopefully that'll change some day...

5:10:29 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

My boss is talking about having us switch our cellphones to have Cisco pay for them...I'm wary of this, since it's technically the rules that you (the employee) have to pay for personal calls. My boss doesn't seem to actually care about this, but I don't want to have to deal with it...
3:59:47 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Fred Phelps EXPOSED! I stumbled across a report this morning on Fred Phelps, the asshole-extraordinaire who led the protest outside Harvey Milk High school yesterday, among other nasty, nasty crap he's pulled over the years. I haven't done much more than skim the report yet, but it's pretty interesting - among other things, it points out connections between Phelps and the Christian Identity Movement, some of the scariest shitheads in the country. Give it a look, let me know what you think...

1:57:46 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Blue-Collar Dean? Howard Dean Wows the Union Members. We thought Gephardt had the major AFL-CIO union endorsement locked up. Not so. Check this out: Dean wows union rank-and-file... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime] If Dean can get unions behind him, he's a little closer to matching what I think the Dem candidate needs - strong support from all sectors of the base. I still think Clark's got a better shot at reaching that - especially with the assumed Clinton connection - but Dean seems to be addressing one of his significant perceived weaknesses...

12:42:31 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

If You Exercise Your Civil Liberties, The Terrorists Win! Ashcroft's Assault on the Constitution. People for the American Way have just released an in-depth report on the Administration's Attacks on Civil Liberties and... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime] Link to the PFAW report here. This is just what they've done in '02 alone - they had an earlier report on '01.
11:44:10 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

RIAA Sues 12-Year Old Girl [Slashdot] No, seriously. They're suing a 12 year old girl from New York City for file-sharing. Wow.
11:41:19 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Bill Joy leaves Sun. Edison turns out the lights [The Register] Oh? What's Joy going to do now, go live in a cabin in the woods and plot the downfall of technology? ...what's that? He's already doing that?
11:36:52 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Clark/Clinton '04? NY Times: "During cocktails in the back yard, one group heard former President Bill Clinton say that the national Democratic Party had 'two stars': his wife, the junior senator from New York, and a retired general, Wesley Clark, who is said to be considering a run for the presidential nomination." [Scripting News] Well, of course he'd say that about his WIFE. And no, she's not running - Clinton-haters, stop wetting yourselves in anticipation. However...I'm wondering now. Would she take the VP slot with Clark?

9:53:24 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

...and just to make my life at work more fun, we've got an internal ISO audit coming up Thursday and Friday, and an external one at the beginning of next month. Oy! We're going to get quizzed on the little plastic cards with corpo-speak on them that we're supposed to have attached to our access badges...I mean, seriously.
7:56:45 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []