Electric Monkey Pants

I just posted this story to slashdot. Hopefully, they will publish it, but just in case:

In an attempt to sidestep corporate-controlled media, the Participatory Culture Foundation (in association with Downhill Battle) has unveiled a downloadable video player named Democracy that uses Bittorrent and RSS to discover and download videos. They also provide content publishers with the PHP-written Broadcast Machine to enable easy sharing inside the Democracy framework. Democracy software is open source (GPL) and available for Mac and PC with a Linux version coming soon. I’ve downloaded the Mac version and it works great. The interface is elegant and iTunes-like. It’s a resource-hog and can be a bit slow, but it’s really good for a beta version.

Truly. This looks like a lot of fun. Check it out!

America! Fuck Yeah!!

Indictments! Fuck Yeah!!

Accountability!! Fuck Yeah!!

Justice for once! Fuck Yeah!!

Impeachment!! FUCK YEAH!!!

Okay, so I’m a little late on this one. I’ve been working like a dog lately. It’s been insane at work for the last week. It was so busy that I almost passed out at 6 pm Friday when I finally got off work (much earlier than the rest of the week). But the good news is that I have a bunch of vacation time coming. So what does that mean?!! – Website updates!! Yay! I will try to get off my ass and actually do something.

In the meantime, I just wanted to weigh in on the recent spate of indictments and investigation surrounding the republicans. It’s always fun to see them squirm. But the Democrats are little better. Just remember: Every politican in Washington is a whore. They’re all power prostitutes. They sell their votes to the highest bidder – “campaign contributions” is just another word for “bribery.” Lobbyists just have to wine and dine them to butter’em up, and then write a check. It’s hard to respect such a person. There are probably a couple (like: two) of good politicans, but they’re stuck in the same slimepit as the other corporate whores; they’re swimming in that cesspool, and you cannot do that and remain clean. If anybody ever tells you that you should respect a certain politician, just laugh in their face. Such political prostitutes are not worthy of respect.

Wow, slashdot actually published one of my story submissions. Welcome, slashdotters; please go easy on my server. 🙂 Your presence has shamed me into updating my blog.

In unrelated news, the Plamegate scandal seems to be worsening for the president. Good. If he has been unfaithful to the integrity of the office of the presidency – as I think he has – then he should be impeached. Google around for some info on the Plame case and you can’t help but wonder if this is the beginning of the end for this administration.

Sorry, I haven’t posted much lately. I’m just recuperating from the busy-ness that was the art show. Speaking of that, it was a success on both days. It wasn’t terribly packed, but I think we all enjoyed ourselves and quite a few people showed up. I’ve been laying low since then. I was scrambling to get everything done in time. We passed out copies of our EP, Crunked up Intellectuals and played live. It was nice, but there’s something to be said for loud amplifiers. Maybe someday soon we’ll blow some eardrums. But this time we only tickled them gently.

In other news, I’m considering redesigning this blog and letting blogger.com work its stuff. I’ve been doing it solo so far, but Blogger.com organizes, automates much of it for you and let’s you use your own hosting. For free. So, that seems like the way to go. Because of on-going Dreamweaver (and IE) issues, I don’t update this blog as often as I should. Part of it is the design, so I’ll have to make some changes.

I haven’t posted for awhile, so I thought I’d confirm that I’m still alive. The reason, of course, is that I’m extremely busy. We’ve got an Art Show coming up very soon and I’ve got to get everything ready. I’m displaying some digital works of mine (photographs, graphic art) and I’m performing acoustically with Matt. We’ve decided to call ourselves Effigy.

So, if you’re in the neighborhood, come check us out. It should all be very low-key and pleasant. The venues are rather small, but we don’t have that many people exhibiting anyway. Lots of work to do, though. Nicole is busting her ass off, along with Darius, to get everything ready in time. Matt and I hope to have CDs ready to pass out. You can see the cover to the right. Since we’ve only got a week left, it’s crunch time!

Have you heard of the Downing Street Memo yet? Probably not, since the media has mostly refused to cover it except in passing. Once you learn that the Downing Street Memo is the smoking gun that will probably eventually bring down this illegal and immoral government you start to wonder why the media suddenly has an aversion to scandal and drama. Seems odd, doesn’t it? Well, I’ll get to that.

First, what is the Downing Street Memo (a.k.a. DSM or “The Rycroft Memo”) anyway? Well, the first thing to understand is that it is British in orgin. It was written in preparation for a national security meeting at Downing Street, basically so everybody was on the same page. It was written in July of 2002 as the war machine began gearing up for the eventual invasion of Iraq in March of 2003.

So where’s the smoking gun? Well, rather than explain it, let me just quote it:

Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

So you can see that not only did they not have any plan for the aftermath, the Bush administration was out to “fix” the facts in their favor. This accusation has been around since right before the war began, if not earlier, and this memo shows that twisting the intelligence (oh why beat around the bush – LYING) was part of the plan from the get-go.

BTW, the British government has NOT questioned the authenticity of the memo. This is the real deal, folks. Bush is toast.

Or he would be, if we had a functioning fourth estate. It’s commonly said that Republicans control all three branches of government. Well, guess what; they control the pseudo-fourth as well. The Media has long been considered a fourth pillar in this union of states, and one might conclude that that makes the media a little too cozy with the other branches of government. I would agree. You see, the Republicans now control the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches along with the mainstream media.

I know, I know. You’ve been hearing these terms like “liberal media bias” and “judicial activism” flung around and here I am saying that the media is under the control of conservatives. Well guess what — it’s true. Where did you first hear the term “liberal media”? My guess is you heard it in the media. Where did you hear “judicial activism” (a relatively new lie)? From the mouths of far-right politicians, dutifully reported by the media. These myths have been perpetuated by the same people who are supposed to be telling you the truth. But the truth doesn’t get big ratings these days, it needs to be “sexed up.” And if the truth makes the powerful look bad it often doesn’t get reported at all.

While it’s true that most reporters lean Democratic, this is not as important as it may seem. Who signs their paychecks?

Rich people. And who do rich people tend to vote for?

Other rich people. (heh! Well, no choice there) That is to say, Republicans and moderate Democrats (who I like to call “Republicans-Lite”) The editors of your newspaper, the producers of your favorite news programs — these people don’t have a job unless they keep the reporters and journalists in line. The editors act as a link between the Rupert Murdochs and the Dan Rathers of the world. Rupert tells them how to dance, and dance they shall, if they want their paycheck.

That’s the ugly secret, people. The media is actually a conservative enterprise. You may notice a disconnect between conservative “principles” and the crap on TV, but that just means you have been fooled into thinking the conservatives actually care about morality, small government, fiscal responsibility, etc.. Yeah right. They serve a higher power – Money. That’s why you can turn on Fox – Murdoch’s channel – and see what is basically really soft-core porn during prime time. Morality is nice, but sex pays the bills.

Republicans have admitted that their lockstep braying of “liberal media bias” is part of a strategy. They do it to throw the other side off it’s game and to keep the media (the part of it isn’t cowed already) on the defensive and second-guessing themselves. This strategy is working brilliantly even today. As for “judicial activism”…. don’t make me laugh. Judges are probably some of the most conservative people in the country. You don’t become a judge by dropping a lot acid and going, “Wow, man. Freedom…. dig it!” I don’t think the “activist judge” meme is worth any more mention. What a crock.

Back to my original point – the Downing Street Memo is being deliberately and maliciously buried by the mainstream media because it proves that George W. Bush is a filthy, lying warmonger. His many friends in the media are trying their best to make this story go away, usually by ignoring it, sometimes by mentioning as something unimportant. But it’s not going away, not if I have anything to say about it. And when we’re cleaning out the White House, I think we should take a close look at the media as well. They were supposed to find and report the truth for us. They knew Bush’s case for war was thin at best. Do you remember the lead up to war all those 27 months ago? I do. I couldn’t believe how gung-ho the media was. They were absolutely drooling over the possibility of war because they knew it would drive their ratings through the roof. And it did. It’s all about money, folks.

The jingoism and blind warmongering was sickening. I couldn’t watch it; not that I really watch much TV anyway (I don’t own one). There were a few timid protests in the media, but for the most part I had turn to alternative media to get some real perspectives on the events unfolding. Let me say this loud and clear:

THE MEDIA FAILED US.

And they should pay. For their betrayal many lives have been lost. For our trust in them, misplaced as it was,
we have re-elected a liar and a war criminal. We have shamed ourselves in the eyes of the world, we have invaded a country that was no threat to us and spread terror across the globe. The Iraq invasion has created a whole new generation of terrorists – I’d be pissed if my country was invaded, too (not that I agree with their tactics. Suicide-bombing is wrong. But we shouldn’t even be there!).

So when the media finally turns Bush and starts whipping up the scandal, just remember who helped him fool us. Just remember who repeated his lies without even trying to call him on the ones they knew were false. Many people still believe Iraq was involved in 9/11 when in fact most of the hijackers were Saudis – you know, the guys whose hands Bush is often seen holding. It should be noted that this is not a gay thing – it’s actually normal for Saudi men to hold hands in public in Saudi Arabia. But that just drives home how close the Bush family is to the House of Saud. Oil = money you know. Money is the driver behind all of this. Our leaders worship the Bull-God.

Please tell others about the Downing Street Memo. Please tell others that the mainstream media is nothing more than a lie distribution network. Please hold the government and the media accountable for their crimes against humanity. Please do not let this issue fade. We need to stand strong and nail the bastards for what they’ve done to us. I’ve got family over there, and I want to see them come home safe and all in one piece. Do it for the soldiers, do it for democracy, do it for America…. do it for Truth.

Still at it, down here on planet Earth. Rockin’ and rollin’, right past my 10,000th day. Like I said earlier, I hit 10,000 days old on June 11th. Not fuckin’ bad, man. That’s quite a few days. I didn’t really have a party, but I did what I wanted to do; what more can I say? It was a tough day, like the preceding 9,999 days, but it was also rewarding and fun.

Now, how about a complete topic shift. Two things in the news lately, that have become linked in my brain somehow: Michael Jackson’s acquittal from child molestation charges, and Apple’s decision to move to Intel processors and abandon (presumably) the IBM/Freescale PowerPC. What do these seemlingly unrelated events have in common? Well, they’re both twisted and hard to understand initially. But if we look closer, we’ll see why they are reality when a more “sane” reality could’ve persisted.

First Michael Jackson and his head licking ways. Two words: O. J.

So how much does justice cost? That’s a slanted question. Justice doesn’t cost much at all if your opponent is poor. The government is not poor, and Michael may be bankrupt, but in this case, having the best defense lawyers around can make all the difference. They wisely attacked the holes in the government’s story and smeared the credibility of the accusers over the wall like a fat mosquito on your arm in autumn. Let’s hope he didn’t really do it.

But would you let your kids sleepover?

Okay, next: Apple deciding to up quit the PowerPC for some weak-ass Intel shit. What were they thinking? Well, it sounds like they were thinking, which is actually pretty surprising for a corporation (in this case I think we can give props to Steve Jobs). They’ve had Mac OS X ported to Intel’s x86 processors since Day 1! Now they have a technology that should allow people to run their old PowerPC software on Intel, via Rosetta. And they’ve kept this all underwraps (codename: Marklar) for 5 years. Damn…. That’s pretty impressive.

Longterm strategic thinking is not easy to do in the computer industry; things change so fast, it’s hard to count on anything. But The x86 line of processors has been around for over 20 years and they completely dominates the personal computer playing field. Personally, I think the x86 line has too much baggage, but I think Intel finally got a clue after driving the Pentium 4 into a (very hot) wall. Apparently they can’t get any decent yields over 4 GHz. They spent too much time playing into the megahertz-based marketing. Bigger numbers are better right? Well, not always. The 2.7 GHz PowerPC can toast the 3.8 GHz Pentium 4 in many tasks. Chip design is important. But it sounds like Intel has a great chip in the Pentium M, a continuation of the Pentium III line.

Since Apple has been planning this awhile — and practicing, with the transistion to the PowerPC in the first place, and the recent Mac OS X transition. When Steve Jobs named his post-Apple company NeXT, he wasn’t fucking around, was he? He had the vision for where the Mac would go long ago, and his recent moves have simply married NeXT-based technology with the Mac’s traditional ease of use. Only now he’s making a frontal assault on Microsoft.

What’s that, you say? How can a company with 3% of the market take on a behemoth (with over 90%) like Microsoft? Well, first you start by making a vastly superior product, which Apple has done with OS X. Second, you get buzz on your side while the giant is attacked from every single angle, and stupidly tries to engage each attacker as he comes, losing momentum when the next strikes. Microsoft is under siege and their next generation operating system, Longhorn, is looking like a total disaster. They over-promised on its features, and now they’ve been hemorrhaging features ever since, while simultaneously pushing back the release date. XP was released back in 2001, amazingly, and Longhorn won’t be here for a year and a half — minimum. Could be longer. Well, that gives Apple enough time (it’s a huge amount of time in the computer world) to complete a transition that is terrifyingly bold. Jobs is betting the company on this one. He’s got the iPod, but the Mac is hugely important to Apple’s long term success. If the transition goes badly, he’s screwed.

Still, I think the movement is brilliant, but it does sever many advantages they’ve had. But I think they’re counting on people hacking OS X to run on regular PCs. It will actually help to spread the OS and solidify their marketshare. People want to try a new OS before they fork over a ton of cash for Apple’s hardware. But once they do they will get the advantage of running one box with both Mac OS and Windows on it; each running natively at full speed on the same processor (but not at the same time, of course). Apple won’t try to prevent people from installing Windows. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they started including 2 hard drives in their boxes to facillitate dual-booting. Once they do this people will have the chance to compare each OS side by side, and that’s not a comparison Bill Gates wants to make. He’s always relied on marketing and promised to add upteen million new features to each new version. But now the feature-bloat has caught up to him, along with the relics of old OS, hidden like the bones of a small mammal in your closet. DOS lurks deep within Windows (check the properties box for the old school DOS filename), complicating things while Bill tries to leap into the future. But he’s always been a follower anyway. He’ll wait for the Steve to make his move before striking back. Microsoft will need a corporate enema before he does so, though. From all accounts, the company is not its former self. It’s giant with cancerous gland problems.

Anyway, enough ranting. I’m just interested to see how this plays out. I think it really matters; history books will speak of it. Apple and Microsoft have vastly different cultures and values, and the decisions they make now will affect our world for years to come, for good or ill. Let’s hope we, the customers win out.

This weekend, when you’re remembering the sacrifices of the soldiers and heroes who have died defending our country from tyranny, take a moment to contemplate how totally and completely fucked we are now that all the true patriots have gone out and died for freedom while chickenshit cowards have stayed behind to run the nation. Yes, they’re very happy to send you off to war, but will they fight it themselves?

Hell no.

The current regime of lying chickenhawks and their enthusiastic supporters in the blogosphere will take the time to praise the soldiers this weekend, but will they do all they can to bring them back quickly? I suspect that Bush is not done adventuring around the world. Shit, he’s got a whole goddamn army at his disposal. The temptation to land troops on Michael Moore’s lawn must be enormous. But I suspect he will target another foreign foe first. Since outright, unprovoked violence against innocent citizens is still not as acceptable as Bush would like it to be, he’ll have to quietly clamp down on our civil liberties first. To do that he will need either another terrorist attack or another invasion.

So, maybe we should start the betting? Who thinks North Korea? Nah. I’m betting on Iran. It’s got lots of advantages. It’s right next door to Iraq, it’s probably got some oil, and its citizens are mostly Muslim. Bombs away!!

As you can see, I’m not pleased with the current administration’s foreign policy… to say the least. But I try to look on the brightside: There’s still a chance they might get hit by a bus. Actually, it would be better to have them arrested. I think “crimes against humanity” would fly, but the truly impeachable offense is lying to the American public, which everybody knows they have. It’s amazing to me that there isn’t more outrage, but that’s probably because the mainstream media denies people like me a voice (with a few exceptions). Just about every person I talk to abhors Bush and his unlawful regime, there’s just not much they can do about it. For the record, I tend to only talk to smart people if I can help it, so this is not a representative sample. Regardless, I’m still waiting for somebody in Washington to grow some balls and take him on. I think we’ve given him enough time to hang himself with his own rope. He just needs a push.