Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Haiku for you.
The president lies
Where did the jobs go King George?
America lost
Where's my job you oaf?
Government cheese by the loaf
Rich get breaks, poor pay
Can't kill everyone
Don't mean we won't try okay
It's our oil we say
Tax freedom tax poor
Business scams worth dying for
Fat cats sing and dance
Re-elect a fool
Watch the country suffer more
No blowjobs just whores
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
$$$
Who's giving.
Who's getting.
One nation (crushed) under Corporations
Wal-Mart has responded to the union drive by trying to stop workers from organizing -- sometimes in violation of federal labor law. In 10 separate cases, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Wal-Mart repeatedly broke the law by interrogating workers, confiscating union literature, and firing union supporters. (Mother Jones)
The FBI estimates that, 19,000 Americans are murdered every year.
Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products, and hospital malpractice. - From the Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990's via Corporate Predators.
Temp workers earn less than regular workers. Women agency temps are paid 10.7% less compared to full-time workers and men agency temps are paid 9.6% less.
Industry sources report that 2.18 million workers were employed as temps on an average day in 2001 down 14% from the previous year due to recession. Over the course of the year 9.6 million people worked as a temp. - From Fairjobs.org
Employers initiated 3,597 mass layoff actions in January-February 2003, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the 2 months, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment, and the number of workers involved totaled 340,474.
During 2002, 20,269 layoff events occurred in the nation, resulting in 2,244,631 initial claims filings for unemployment insurance. In 2001, there were 21,467 events and 2,514,862 initial claimants. - From Bureau of Labor Statistics.
CEOs had an average base salary of $490,000 with a grant value of stock options equal to six times their salary. However, CEOs at companies with more than $1 billion in revenues received salaries that were more than three times higher than the salaries of CEOs at companies with less than $100 million in revenue. - From Workforce.com
The federal government has settled with scores of firms nationwide that were accused of conducting illegal trade with nations such as Iran, Iraq and Sudan. The companies involved range from Bay Area heavyweights like ChevronTexaco and Wells Fargo to national retailers such as Wal-Mart and Amazon.com. (San Francisco Gate)
Why?
Why do we buy their products?
Why do we allow ourselves to be their slaves?
Why do we elect their pawns?
Because we have no choice?
This is the American Dream?
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Hate on Trial
I first moved to Portland, Oregon in the Fall of 1990. The first Gulf War was starting to shape up, and Californian bigot Tom Metzger was being sued in civil court for his role in influencing three racist skinheads in the beating death of Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw. The attorney representing Seraw's family (well, one of several) was Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a man who three years earlier bankrupted the United Klans of America in a similar trial.
While this was an embarrassing time for Portland-earning the name "Skinhead City" isn't exactly good for tourism-it was a fascinating time to live here. The trial, along with protests over the upcoming war, brought the issue of freedom of speech to the forefront of discussions everywhere.
I've just finished reading Hate On Trial by Morris Dees and Steve Fiffer, and I have to say it's a pretty amazing book. If you're looking for a glimpse of what things were like 13 years ago, or if you're simply a First Amendment junkie like myself, get down to your local library or used bookstore (Hate on Trial is out of print) and grab a copy. John Grisham has nothing on real life.
Seraw's family were awarded $12.5 million dollars and the blemish on the Rose City's name began to heal. Many skinheads left the area for places like Idaho (only to have Dees stop them there with a $6.3 million dollar judgment against Aryan Nations), many more simply grew their hair, dropped their goofy uniforms, and blended into the populace. And the change of costumes worked, Portlander's have allowed themselves to believe that what we can't see, can't hurt us. Or can it?
The truth is they're still out there, and in the wake of 09.11, their numbers are slowly growing again-not just in Portland, but everywhere. I'll grant you on face value it's hard to take them seriously. With the neo-nazi's love of pageantry and grade school sloganeering, it's easier to perceive them as rejects from Hogan's Heroes than any kind of real threat, until they kill someone again.
Some recent headlines on Oregon hate groups:
Links to Portland Anti-Hate Organizations:
An informed community is the best defense against hate.-From 10 Ways to Fight Hate from Tolerence.org.
Saturday, April 26, 2003
The Boss
The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about - namely freedom.-Bruce Springsteen
Undervalued
The Philadelphia-based company, now the Portland area's dominant cable-TV provider after November's acquisition of AT&T Broadband, realized about 10 months ago that its high-speed Internet service was "undervalued" and began raising rates, said Dan Williams, a Comcast spokesman.
However, Comcast customers who buy both high-speed Internet service and cable TV will receive a monthly $10 "loyal customer" discount, according to letters mailed out last week. - OregonLive
So in order to "save" $10.00, you have to take on an additional $48.99 or more a month? Can you say information super-highway robbery? Comcast is the Ike Turner of utilities, pimp slapping its customers around in the name of loyalty. But they're the victim, their service is undervalued. Try telling your boss that you're undervalued and you are raising your salary, but he/she could save a few bucks off your monthly paycheck if he/she hires half your family. Comcast's stock is trading at $31.73 (as of 04.25.03), I'm sure they're feeling the burn. There's even an ad for their "service" within the article for those sympathetic souls wishing to boost the long suffering, undervalued corporate rapist's self esteem. I'm switching to DSL.
Friday, April 25, 2003
Randomosity
Hangover-Nature's way of saying good morning.
T-shirt Idea: My President raped the economy and all I could steal was this lousy T-shirt.
Don't be unique, don't be special. Be proud to be normal. Courtesy of John, 1989's Boy of the Year. My man needs some appropriate superhero music to go with his powers of super-normality.
Everyone has seen this already haven't they? The only that that truly surprises me is he didn't eat it.
Younger Cop: And was there anything of value in the car?
The Dude: Oh, uh, yeah, uh... a tape deck, some Creedence tapes, and there was a, uh... uh, my briefcase.
Younger Cop: [expectant pause] In the briefcase?
The Dude: Uh, uh, papers, um, just papers, uh, you know, uh, my papers, business papers.
Younger Cop: And what do you do, sir?
The Dude: I'm unemployed.
Yes, I spend entirely too much time on IMDB.
Inflation
We initially refused to believe an alert ABC News fan who told us that the closed captions for the 6:30 p.m. Tuesday feed of Peter Jennings's "World News Tonight" informed viewers that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was "in the hospital for an enlarged prostitute.-Washington Post, about halfway down the page.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Can we put Congress in?
"If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water."
"There is no reason why we can't turn sewage, including human excrement, into a glorious oil," says engineer Terry Adams, a project consultant. - Discover
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Because 2003 is 19 years too late.
"The proposed addendum to the Patriot Act, which the Justice Department has insisted is only a draft of ideas, would enlarge many of the controversial provisions in the first Patriot Act. It would give the government authority to wiretap an individual and collect a person's DNA without court orders, detain people in secret and revoke citizenship, among other powers."-The Washington Post
Arcata, California became the first city in the nation to outlaw voluntary compliance with the Patriot Act. Say what you want about the "left coast," liberals, etc., but I'm glad there's people out there willing to fight against fascism masquerading as national security. What's so patriotic about wiretapping and detaining people in secret? I thought one of the reasons we "liberated" Iraq was so its citizens wouldn't have to live in fear of illegal imprisonment, secret trials and governmental home invasions? They may be able to sleep a bit easier at night, but what about us?
How long until we just throw the Constitution out the window? How can conservatives bash the Democrats love of "big government" while defending something as Orwellian as the Patriot Act? When does it end? Silly Rabbit, you can't defend freedom by taking it away.
"Our land, I love it too, I think I love it more than you, I care enough to fight, the stars and stripes of corruption"-The Stars & Stripes of Corruption by Dead Kennedy's
Great Reading
Check out the Bakersfield Californian's stories on the Lords of Bakersfield. It reads like the West Coast's version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Fascinating stuff.
And yet several weeks ago Jamie Kellner, CEO of Turner Broadcasting, said, "Anytime you skip a commercial, you're actually stealing the programming." When asked whether it was also a copyright violation for viewers to go to the bathroom during commercial breaks, Kellner conceded, "There's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom."-The San Francisco Bay Guardian
How absurd is that? The article quoted dates back to June 2002, but the lawsuit it references is still going on. Craig Newmark of Craiglist.org and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing a gaggle of networks for the "right" to skip commercials via devices like ReplayTV. Sonic Blue, the creators of ReplayTV, were sued by the same networks who claimed, "the DVR violates copyright laws because it can automatically bypass commercials and transmit copies of programs to other ReplayTV 4000 owners."
Scentless Apprentice
Over the last four years or so, I've become psychotically sensitive to certain smells. We're talking full-on, one whiff turns the stomach to curdled milk and the battle to resist vomiting is on. The thing is, half of these smells are things that I formerly liked.
It all started with butterscotch, as a kid I could pop those hard yellow candies with all the vim and vigor of a speed freak. Now, even a hint of that sickly sweet smell is enough to put me down for the count.
From there it morphed into French Vanilla (Q. Don't you mean Freedom Vanilla you unpatriotic son of a bitch? A. Uh, no.) a flavor I never had much use for to begin with, but at least it never made me ill. Needless to say walking by coffee shops is no fun.
And most recently, White Russians have been added to the fold. Now I am pissed. I'm a bowler, I'm a Big Lebowski fan, and I love White Russians-well I did up to a week or so ago. It could be the Kahlua alone, or the combination of Kahlua and milk/cream that's creating the smell, but either way one of my favorites drinks now makes me ill just looking at it.
The thing that freaks me the most is I can no longer differentiate between any of those smells, they are all the same rank butterscotch aroma. I'm probably just slowly going insane and the butterscotch tormenting is some kind of karmic retribution for past transgressions. Whatever the reason for this affliction, it really, really, really sucks.
Monday, April 21, 2003
Blue Ribbon on the collar
"When did "blue-collar" become the prevailing "steelo" among so many middle-class, college-educated, salaried Portland hipsters? If you're not a mechanic, lose the blue uniform jacket with someone else's name patched onto it. Not to mention the foam mesh trucker cap you picked up at Urban Outfitters for $24."-Willamette Week
Perhaps the only time in my life I have agreed with the Willamette Week. For those of you outside of Portland, WW is a complete cesspool of yuppified sludge masquerading as an alternative weekly. They should just change their name to Better Yuppies & Gardens. However, this time they hit the nail on the head.
No news at 11
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
But if they do it themselves, more power to them.
A King County newspaper published a fake story to assist the police to catch a jailed convict in an arson plot. Placing information about wanted criminals is one thing, creating a fake story is another. News is supposed to be just that, news-based in fact and grounded in reality-not a tool for the police.
CNN reveals the "news" they kept to themselves, censoring themselves in the name of "safety." What else have they kept to themselves?
Imbedded journalists reporting government approved sound bites and no one says boo. While not giving out exact locations of troops is fairly reasonable, what else wound up on the cutting room floor?
We already have the president treating the constitution like a White House intern. And Bush v2.0 has no problem using fake information to suit his own needs, do we really need the news media following his example?
What if the news chose not to cover Rodney King? Or Amadou Diallo? What would the country be like today if Woodward & Bernstein kept Watergate to themselves?
Instead of covering the latest bills designed to rape our schools, curb our freedoms, and feed the fat cats wallets, why not fill the "news" with some fluffy stories about firemen getting cats out of trees, or a neat-o story on the next wave of products destined to make our lives easier? It doesn't have to be true, nothing else seems to be anymore. Truth just gets in the way of the status quo, and we certainly don't want that.
"There ought to be limits to freedom."-George W. Bush
Friday, April 18, 2003
Don't think we'll find anything????
"I don't think we'll discover anything, myself," Rumsfeld said at a town hall-style meeting with Pentagon employees. Um, isn't that what we went over there for in the first place? First we said it was to get the weapons of mass destruction, then it became liberation, what's it going to be next month? With all the vague reasons thrown about for this war, I'm starting to wonder who's going to liberate Iraq from us.
Pro-Wrestling goes bye-bye
"The new owners of the station cited that pro wrestling doesn't fit the image the station wants." Bear in mind this is a station that carries such culturally relevant shows like Elimidate, Blind Date, and Jerry Springer. All of which make professional wrestling look like a night at the opera. What kind of image are they going for?
Thursday, April 17, 2003
My Favorite Quote
But it's not too late to discover America, which seems to get discovered over and over and never definitively.-Andrei Codrescu
LSD Turns 60
"Afterwards on the way home I suddenly had hallucinations, a beautiful and pleasant trip. The only thing was, I could not at first explain what had made me so high."-Albert Hoffman
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Latest Dreams
I'm trying to turn John Belushi onto the Revolting Cocks, but he keeps handing me the wrong album.
I've got two ovens turned up all the way, each contains one body. There's a garage sale going on, and the customers want to know when the brownies they smell will be ready. I smile and light some incense. I have no idea who is in the ovens or why I put them there.
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
Speaking of lungs
I wrote an e-mail yesterday that went something like this, "I'm going to pick up a pack of cigarettes later cause I like to quit smoking at the end of the day rather than the beginning." How pathetic is that? I've attempted to quit smoking so many times I have actually developed a preference to the time of day to quit. With logic like that, I should run for office.
Monday, April 14, 2003
Repo Man
Some of the best lines from Repo Man, courtesy of IMDB.com
Kevin: There's fuckin' room to move as a fry cook. I could be manager in two years. King. God.
Duke: You say our names, we're going to have to kill all these people, Archie!
J. Frank Parnell: Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.
Otto: They don't pay bills in Russia, it's all free.
Bud: All free? Free my ass! What are you, a fuckin' commie? Huh?
Otto: No, I ain't no commie.
Bud: Well, you better not be. I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either!
Duke: The lights are growing dim Otto. I know a life of crime has led me to this sorry fate, and yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am.
Otto: That's bullshit. You're a white suburban punk just like me.
Duke: Yeah, but it still hurts.
Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes.
Duke: Yeah! Let's go get sushi and not pay.
Sunday, April 13, 2003
To the Spammers
No, I don't want a dick bigger than Shaq's. I'm 5'7" and I'm guessing that would look a little weird.
"NATÜRLICHE PENISVERGRÖSSERUNG IST MÖGLICH! KEINE PILLEN! KEINE PUMPEN! KEINE OP!"
The only German I know is Ich bin der Oster Bunny. I am quite curious why the Germans are worried about by penis. But to set their minds at ease, my penis and I have been doing just fine over the years. We even went out for ice cream the other day, you should have been there.
I don't need a first or second mortgage, and I seriously doubt that I have thousands, if not millions of dollars laying in wait for me at some government holding pen.
I don't want or need a list of bulk e-mail addresses to market anything or anyone. (Although I wouldn't mind getting off of the list used to send them.)
I don't have any real desire to marry anyone from Russia, Yugoslavia, Taiwan, or anywhere else. Besides, my wife would kill me.
In short (insert your own penis joke here), I'm sick of the anonymous pen pals that litter my inbox with their obsessions over my health, girth, marital status, and financial well-being.
Hugs & kisses,
m/a/z/e
Friday, April 11, 2003
I think that we believe...
"I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria, for example. And we will -- each situation will require a different response and, of course, we're -- first things first."-George W. Bush
It's getting to the point where we are going to need a translator to understand anything this man says. I think that we believe?? I keep waiting for him to call a press conference, rip his mask off in true Scooby-Doo fashion, and righteously proclaim that he has-in fact-been Dan Quayle all along.
Now that's surprising.
The Pentagon contract given without competition to a Halliburton subsidiary to fight oil well fires in Iraq is worth as much as $7 billion over two years, according to a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers that was released today.- NY Times
Really though, it's just a coincidence.
Tags: Halliburton, m/a/z/e
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Can Scientology be far behind?
"You remind me of the babe. What babe? The babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the babe." Haiti Officially Sanctions Voodoo. And in other shocking news, Oregon has finally figured out that pro-wrestling isn't real.
Saturday, April 05, 2003
Some (More) Reasons Not to Shop Wal-Mart
Three existing community jobs are destroyed for every two new jobs at Wal-Mart.
A jury found that Wal-Mart fired a white female employee because she was dating a black man, in a 1998 case.
Federal judges in three states have fined Wal-Mart--as much as $120,000--for destroying evidence, withholding documents, and other violations in cases where Wal-Mart shoppers were either injured or a crime victim at a Wal-Mart store.
Wal-Mart's massive "Buy American" advertising program lures customers with the promise of selling apparel products made by American workers. Less than 20 percent of all clothing sold in Wal-Mart is labeled "Made in USA." - From: Wal-Mart Watch
"Wal-Mart agreed Friday to immediately suspend sales of rifles and shotguns in its 118 California stores, following nearly 500 violations of state firearms laws in six stores." - Yahoo
Pop Quiz
"The most irate among them liken their newest bronze resident to installing Adolf Hitler's semblance in Tel Aviv." - Christian Science Monitor
Who are they talking about?
A) Saddam Hussein
B) Joseph Stalin
C) Abraham Lincoln
Thursday, April 03, 2003
Attica! Attica!
If only they would have introduced this bill years ago, we could still be fighting Vietnam.
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Hilarious
"You snooze, you lose," Offspring singer Dexter Holland said. "Axl ripped-off my braids, so I ripped-off his album title." - Rolling Stone
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
This song always gives me chills.
If you are hungry I will
bake some bread for you
If you are worried I will
hold your head for you
If you can't sleep at night I will
screen your dreams for you
And if you feel uptight I will
make everything alright for you
If the key don't work/knock on the door
If the key don't work/knock on the door
no matter how far away you seem I am always
here at home-Home by Spearhead
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