For almost 60 years, the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in tactics that are used to wage war against their own people. Courses taught at the school include counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Among those targeted by SOA/ WHINSEC graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for human rights.

Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and forced to become refugees by those trained at the SOA/ WHINSEC. During the November 1999 Vigil, over 4000 activists disobeyed military authorities, processed onto the grounds of Ft Benning, GA -home of the SOA- and overwhelmed the authorities in a solemn funeral procession.

More than 15,000 thousand of us will again gather in front of the gates of Ft Benning over the weekend of November 18th-20th, 2005. This year will you be among those who cross the line onto Ft Benning?

Link

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Mark of Shovelware sez:

"Why, when, say, the levees fail again in New Orleans, do some people feel the need to POST A NOTE TO THAT EFFECT? Is it the Cokie Roberts effect—the chattering class's presumption that it must have something, anything to say about everything? (Joan Didion famously said that she left New York because she didn't have an opinion about everything.) The newswire chatters, and out comes the late-breaking news, and the Jarvises of the bloviosphere labor mightily to bring forth a quip about Commander in Chief, or Hurricane Katrina, or the International Freedom Center at Ground Zero, or why it's "appalling" that transit officials are suing over the copyright of subway maps (oh, the humanity...)"

Link

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Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress

A watchdog group, naming what it calls "the 13 most corrupt members of Congress," is calling for ethics investigations of some of the most prominent leaders on Capitol Hill in a report to be released Monday.

Its report, titled "Beyond DeLay: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress," is based on news articles and other documents, the watchdog group said. It made the report available to the Los Angeles Times.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington "was compelled to research and release a report on these corrupt members because the ethics committees in both the House and Senate are completely inert," Sloan said. "The report calls for the House and Senate to act to investigate and take appropriate action against them for these violations of the rules."

The watchdog group has been outspoken in criticizing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for what Sloan calls his ethical lapses.

"Nonetheless, we recognize that Rep. DeLay is not the only member of Congress whose behavior merits scrutiny," the report says. "There are a significant number of other members who have engaged in similarly egregious conduct, thus the name of the report: 'Beyond DeLay.' "

When your name is part of the title of an investigative report on sleeze, it's time for appropriate action to be taken.

The 13 members of Congress recommended for investigation by the watchdog group are:

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No Direction Home: Bob Dylan On TV in the US tonight and tomorrow night - (PBS)

For the first time, The Bob Dylan Archives has made available rare treasures from its film, tape and stills collection, including footage from Murray Lerner's film Festival documenting performances at the 1963, 1964 and 1965 Newport Folk Festivals, previously unreleased outtakes from D.A. Pennebaker's famed 1967 documentary Don't Look Back, and interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Maria Muldaur, and many others. In anticipation of the film, members of Dylan's worldwide community of fans also contributed rarities from their own collections.

With this rare footage from his archives and from fans, count me in.

Bob Dylan

Link

9/26/05-Edited To Add--DO NOT MISS
Being a Dylan fan enables me to hear one of his songs and recall the specific year it came out, what album it was on, the chords it's played in, and where you first sang it or learned to play it on the guitar.

Having watched, read, and listened to most anything Bob Dylan's ever done, Part 1 of this PBS special had much I'd never seen before. What immediately struck my husband and I first was the depth and candor in which Dylan spoke as if it were just him and you chatting one on one.

When word prophet Allen Ginsberg returned from India to hear Hard Rain for the first time, he wept. It was the time of passing the torch from one generation of poets and bohemians to the new era of songwriters and protest singers. In that context I remembered myself in teenage years discovering who I was, and seeking guidance from the poets that were prophets, and the singers who were worshipped.

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Kate Bush's new album AERIAL will be released on November 7th. Kate's new single KING OF THE MOUNTAIN is out on October 24th. The single will get it's world premiere on BBC Radio 2 on Wed 21st Sept between 9.30am and 10.30am. [via]

She said: "I'm so pleased with everyone's work on this record. There are some lovely performances and I hope you will all feel it's been worth the wait.
Link

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Vegans file lawsuit over surveillance at ham store

By JILL YOUNG MILLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/23/05 They don't eat ham. And they don't like to be spied on, either. The story begins outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway just before Christmas 2003.

Vegans Caitlin Childs and Christopher Freeman were arrested after a protest at a HoneyBaked Ham store.

That day, two vegans — vegetarians who eat only plants and plant products — were wrapping up an animal cruelty protest with a handful of other vegans when they noticed a man in a CVS pharmacy parking lot taking pictures of them.

After the ham protest, Childs and Freeman walked over to the mysterious man's car and wrote down his license plate number. When they drove off, they noticed the car following them.

They pulled into a parking lot at a Mexican restaurant. The car and a police car pulled in behind them. The vegans were ordered out of their car and told to hand over the piece of paper with the tag number on it. Childs refused and was handcuffed and searched. She and Freeman were arrested for disorderly conduct and jailed.
[More »]

This case illustrates the overreaching of homeland security by monitoring clearly peaceful protesters. This is a poor allocation of resources and chills free speech.
Thanks Carol

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saturday morning me//
sipping hot green tea/half a banana/
long batik housedress/black flipflops/
braid of braids/still in a morning fog/
listening-interpol on radio paradise/
so how about you?/

{Saturday Quote}
"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony."
~William Henry Channing

Proud graduate of the Dick Cheney Charm School. You gotta fucking problem with that?

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Jury Deliberating...
The first and only federal conspiracy trial arising out of civil resistance to the Iraq War is ongoing in Binghamton, NY.

No verdict has been returned yet in the trial of The St. Patrick's Four. The jury will resume deliberations at 9:30 AM, Monday morning, September 26th.

Representing peace activists all over are four Catholic anti-war activists who have already stood trial for their stand against the invasion of Iraq. Now, more than two years later, cleared of the original charge of criminal mischief, they are being charged with conspiracy and are being tried again.

THE CRIME: On March 17, 2003, Dan, Clare, Peter, and Teresa entered a military recruiting center in Lansing, New York, and poured a half cup of their own blood around the vestibule. No one was prevented from entering or leaving the recruiting center as they then knelt and read an impassioned statement against the Iraq War.

Link

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US Army Plans To Bulk-Buy Anthrax - The US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.

What in the hell can that be all about? We've got three more long-ass years with Bush at the helm. Plenty of time for him to fuck us all up real good. [/shudders]
Link

How Berkeley Can You Be? and the
ArtcarFest are a few events in California that are sure to draw a crowd. They seem to have ALL the fun out there.

Netvibes looks interesting. I like stuff you can personalize, like Crayon, who has been around for several years now. I supposed Yahoo! does it best. And Google is letting you personalize their home page now.

Jack from The People's Republic Of Seabrook lives in the line of fire right on the Texas coast, but he and his wife have evacuated. Hope their property withstands Hurricane Rita that's coming their way. And another blogger friend, Jen is boarded up tightly in Houston, so I'm sending love and support to Jack and Jen as well as all the others who may be in the path of the hurricane.

Make levees, not war.

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Friday Random Ten
Set your music player to "shuffle" then list the last ten songs you heard.

1. Porcupine Tree- Point 3
2. Radiohead - Go To Sleep
3. Thievery Corporation - The Revolution Solution-w/ Perry Farrell
4. Red House - Jimi Hendrix
5. Cowboy Junkies - Lay It Down
6. Angel From Montgomery - John Prine
7. The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir
8. Clocks (Psyclone Remix) - Coldplay
9. Good Times, Bad Times - Led Zeppelin
10.Cramps - The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon

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The billboard of Lord of War, starring Nick Cage, got a facelift. Much more appropriate. Link

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Hugo Chavez had the world stage at the UN this week and took full advantage of it. Chavez generated the loudest burst of applause for a world leader at the summit with his unbridled attack on what he characterized as American militarism and capitalism.

He went on to rake Bush over the coals on the shabby handling of the Hurrican Katrina disaster. And accused the United States of abetting "international terrorism" by failing to arrest television evangelist Pat Robertson for saying that the United States should consider assassinating Chavez.

Chavez, passing the five-minute limit for speakers, grew irritated when a U.N. official slipped him a note requesting that he wrap it up. Turning toward the president of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, he said: "I think the president of the United States spoke for twenty minutes here yesterday. I would ask your indulgence to let me finish my statement."

Down, Fredo. I like your spirit, but Michael may not be happy about it.

Link

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saturday morning me//
espresso black/whiskey back/
fattie attack/hold the crack/
gnarly braids bunched at the crown/
long faux velvet burgundy gown/
candles burning in the room/
listening: Robert Johnson - Dust My Broom/
so how about you?/

Does this crassly opportunistic piece of pseudo-trendy journalism make me look fat?

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WHAT SHE SAID......

No War But Class War! -- Beth Moore, Axis of Logic
When I have spoken and written of a revolution of the working class against those who live from the products of our work, and who rule us by propaganda, lethal force, and murderous negligence, many have objected. Revolution is equated with violence, and often for good reason. If the ruling class resists when the people demand the power due them, and reasonable rewards for their labor, in the form, at least, of living wages, it is in the nature of that ruling class to resist with lethal force. Lethal force, in self-defense, then, has often, historically, been the only recourse for those who would demand that the power reside in the people.
Take away the spin and see if for what it is.....a class war.
Link

Some Of My Best Friends... -- Carol Leif, MsMagazine
All right, I get it. John Roberts is nice to women. He doesn't outwardly hate black people. That's fantastic. Super-duper, even. Can we move on now?

Personal stories of his kindness, politeness and good manners make for a great chapter in his biography. They don't mean anything about how he would vote in cases of privacy, choice, gender discrimination, or civil rights.
MsMagazine has been blogging the Roberts' hearings.
Link

Dean On Roberts-Ain't No Sunshine Til He's Gone
-- by Carla at PreemptiveKarma
I haven't been following the Roberts hearings. First of all I've been too damn busy with real life to sit down and watch it. But I've also steered clear because I've felt his confirmation was a done deal from the outset. And I'm not interested in watching all sides mug for the cameras. It's just too annoying.

The good Doctor Dean seems to like and respect Roberts-- but has written a piece about why Roberts is the wrong man for the job.
I feel the same way about the 'done deal'. They're just going thru the motions.
Link

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Internet|Overheard

Bad Cop, No Donut! is a weekly radio segment produced by Ron Anicich at CKLN 88.1FM in Toronto about North American police brutality, misconduct and corruption. Bad Cop, No Donut! is now broadcast by a growing number of internet and non-profit, community radio stations.
Link

Quote Of The Week: "It's gotten to the point where I can't listen to anything; it's trashy. It's just a hundred channels of garbage all over. It's almost like a global effort to knock the sense out of you ..." — Jeff Beck

Performance
Carefully coached
Mr. Roberts won't tell us
a damn thing about his plans,
just humbly assuring you
he's a modest guy
who loves the law.

Images but no ideas,
a dagger is not pulled
an ironic villain goes unscathed.

The Democrats huff and puff
but this isn't New Orleans
andnobody's house is falling in.
--Stew Albert

Who was the first person to say "See that chicken there-- I’m gonna eat the next thing that comes out of it’s butt."

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Animal Collective
Following 2004’s widely acclaimed ‘Sung Tongs’ album and more than a year of snowballing momentum, Animal Collective return with an eagerly-anticipated new album – a truly stunning, inviting, often heart-warming experience. ‘Feels’ is the band’s seventh album to date and, as has come to be expected, sees them again kicking off from their previous release to explore another different direction. Where ‘Sung Tongs’ was largely acoustic-based and the product of just two members of the Collective (Avey Tare and Panda), ‘Feels’ is in contrast a full group effort (also including Geologist and Deakin). Moving further away from the suggestion of folkish affinities (they always sat in their own space, came at things from a different angle), it is electrified, rhythmically more urgent, and overall a considerably denser work. Those sweet melodies and big catchy hooks remain intact, and the songwriting is once again bold, brave and adventurous, as ever indelibly stamped with their own unique personality.
Link

Vashti Bunyan
If it is possible to pour the silent musings of a unique mind that has come to freedom with itself and the world into songs, then Vashti Bunyan has managed to do so. And has kept a tenderness and childlike love for all the people and animals and things around her alive. These eleven songs will strike the listener with their empathy and gentle freedom. Even though it is mainly Bunyan’s adorable singing accompanied by some piano or guitar, the impression is immediate and lasting. Time is not being turned back here, it is simply made to stand still and listen. Both cds available Oct 17 and I'm really anxious to hear all the cuts.
Link

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Don't Date Him Girl
Women bent on revenge and on saving others from their fate can anonymously post their dating horror stories on the 2-month-old site, complete with names and pictures. They can also check the database of cheaters for a suspected player.

Thanks for the warning, although no explanation necessary for this fine specimen. I posted something similar on Sept 7 about a Dickhead Registry Actually, it's been a veritable parade of dicks and drugs around here lately. Link - via

Live Blogging Martha
11:10 We understand that the hurricane shout-out is obligatory and basically unavoidable, but Martha’s flat voice is about as warm as George W’s. “Yesterday was also 9-11.” Thanks, we had no idea. Let’s fucking cook something… via

If President Bush is going to exclusively play to military audiences, he must carry a golf club like Bob Hope and tell the Marines that the mess in Iraq is bigger than Dolly Parton's boobs. Why is there a troop shortage in Iraq? Because so many of them have to be here doing photo-ops with this clod. This guy has shown his ass to more servicemen than a bar girl in Thailand. --Bill Maher

Queerty is a fun, new site that's agenda-free. If it were any gayer it would be Elton John's fanny pack.

"NAPS is all about laughs. We are not degenerates or Pervs, we are PREverts with a good sense of humor and want share some laughter." Brand new site that's really taking off. Link

100 days without Sex - Belle de Jour scandalised literary society with her candid diaries of life as a prostitute - and her admission that she enjoyed sex with strangers. So how would she cope with celibacy? Link

Drawn curtain reveals naked emporer, fiddling.

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It's way past time to give out the Dickhead Award and I decided on Dick Cheney for his pure detached insensitivity.

While tens of thousands of Hurricane survivors were left homeless and hungry (that is, if they were lucky enough to not be dead), Vice President Dick Cheney decided it was a great time to go mansion shopping. You heard me right: mansion shopping. These assholes aren't even trying to look like they care anymore. According to the Washington Post, Dick Cheney was checking out real estate in St. Michaels, a tiny resort town on the Maryland's Eastern Shore. Apparently "Cheney's house," which is listed at $2.9 million, "backs up in spectacular fashion to an inlet of the Chesapeake Bay." How charming. But I suppose it is possible that I am being too hard on the Vice President. Given the timing of the purchase, I think there may be something else going on here. Maybe Vice President and Mrs. Cheney were so distressed by the stories of displaced families from New Orleans that they are buying the property in order to use it for emergency housing for hurricane survivors. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Then after the guy in New Orleans who yelled Go Fuck Yourself, Cheney, got handcuffed by his Cheney's 'aids', he just seemed like the right choice for latest my Dickhead Award. via

And if he doesn't like it, he can go Cheney himself.

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We Had To Kill Our Patients

"I injected morphine into those patients who were dying and in agony. If the first dose was not enough, I gave a double dose. And at night I prayed to God to have mercy on my soul."

Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.

In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told how she 'prayed for God to have mercy on her soul' after she ignored every tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save. [More...]

I don't know what to say about this. Still processing it all...

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Strung-Out Justice?
For the nine years between 1972 and the end of 1981, William Rehnquist consumed great quantities of the potent sedative-hypnotic Placidyl. So great was Rehnquist's Placidyl habit, dependency, or addiction—depending on how you regard long-term drug use—that by the last quarter of 1981 he began slurring his speech in public, became tongue-tied while pronouncing long words, and sometimes had trouble finishing his thoughts.

Rehnquist on stumbling biscuits? Joo-joo beans? I'm stunned. I remember Placidyls were rampant in the late 1970's. Think Quaaludes X's 2. Such a potent drug that many dedicated drug addicts either avoided it or experimented only casually with it. How in the hell do you run the Supreme Court while you're babbling and stumbling all over the place, when I couldn't find my ass with both hands? More...

Spin doctors finally arrive in New Orleans.

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Pingoat is another pinging service. But here is a comprehensive list of sites that ping on BlogLogic.

The man from Gulfport, MS who said to Dick Cheney, "Go fuck yourself!" gets a visit from Cheney's goons after the incident. Link

Cabinet of Wonders Forum - The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. New and already very busy forum with titles like Esoterica, The Seance Room, Forteana, Folklore Tradition and Myth, you get the general idea. Link

saturday morning me//
two-fisted drinker--coffee and oj/
cool breeze/whatta giant sunball/
still in my long flannel gown/houseshoes/
pass the spliifferoo, my captain/
empeethree--animal collective-the purple bottle/
so how about you?/

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Friday Random Ten - where you set your music player to "shuffle" then list the last ten songs you heard.

1. Lou Reed - Satellite of Love
2. The Zombies - Tell Her No
3. Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day
4. Rolling Stones - Lady Jane
5. Eric Burdon & The Animals - San Francisco Nights
6. The Strokes - Is This It
7. Siouxsie & the Banshees -- Peek a Boo
8. Cramps - The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon
9. Robert Plant - Shine It All Around
10. Animal Collective - Mouth Wooed Her

Friday Random Ten from Feministe.

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Meet the F--kers
The Daily Show points out how f--ked up the whole FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina disaster was.

Video-WMP
BitTorent-WMP

[via]

With Time magazine discovering the resume padding of Mr Brown, it doesn't look like a good week for "Brownie".

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Autumnal Equinox

September 22 @ 22:22.

Mabon, or Autumnal Equinox is being celebrated soon. The Wiccan calendar contains 13 full moons (Esbats) and 8 Sabbats, or days of power, making 21 Wiccan ritual occasions. The Esbats are for celebrating the Goddess. The Sabbats mark the sun's yearly cycle and tell the story of The Wheel of the Year. On this day, the length of night time is equal to the length of daytime.

Mabon is a bittersweet time when the abundant Earth is pouring forth Her harvest and yet Summer has faded into Autumn and signs of the dying year are all around us. Night and day are once more in equilibrium, but now light gives way to the ascendancy of darkness, and the coming of Winter. We are entering a time of stillness and reflection. This is the time to take stock of our lives, and give thanks for all things ... for all experiences, the joyful and the challenging, teach and enrich us. This honoring of all facets of our lives prepares us for Samhain when we will release those aspects of our lives which no longer serve us.

THE RITUALS
This is the second harvest Sabbat. The Goddess is entering into cronehood, and the dark of the year is beginning, so this is a time often associated with mysterious lore and wisdom. The altar and circle should be decorated with autumn leaves, gourds, berries, pine and cypress cones, acorns, oak sprigs and other fruits of the season. [More...]

Blessed be this season of Mabon, time of the second harvest, the harvest of fruit and wine.
Tonight all things are in balance: Goddess and God, Life and Death, Light and Dark.
Tonight the darkness will conquer the light, leading us deeper into the waning year. [More...]

Either through your religious affiliation or just as a member of the human race, do you do anything to celebrate this day? I am looking for ideas.

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The Online Dickhead Registry - It ain't easy being a dick. Link

Think you can't get supplies directly to those in need in Louisiana and Mississippi? Michael Moore will show you how to bypass the red tape and what to send. It's clear the government can't get it done. Let the people take care of their own. Link

At up to £300 an ounce, exotic strains of designer cannabis are fuelling a booming market in herbal highs for affluent smokers. For an emerging generation of herb elitists, the generic skunk sold on street corners - the plonk of the cannabis world - no longer hits the spot. These media executives, creative professionals and party people choose to have their executive brain functions impaired by only the best brands of cannabis: AK47, Charas, Kali Mist - vintage weeds that represent the summit of 25 years of selective breeding and artisan horticulture. Link

Ketamine replaces ecstasy as the drug of choice. People aged 18 to 25 are taking ketamine for a more trippy night out. You can spot them on the dance-floor because they're not dancing, they're sitting down in a bit of a vegetative state." Link

Hell No We Ain't Alright --by Chuck D from Public Enemy is a passionate piece on the Katrina catastrophe.
Link

If men could knit... Click here - NSFW

This website looks best when viewed on company time.

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