The Meatrix – the smell of excrement.
Tribrids?
I’d heard of hybrid vehicles before, but tribrids? On the path towards a fuel-efficient SUV, I suppose, but ABC News last night reported the large tax break for businesses who buy 6,000 lb SUVs or trucks.
Mayor, or replicant?
Is your mayoral candidate a replicant? Certainly they’re on the NRA blacklist.
Appoint this!
Two months in Berkeley haven’t been disappointing. Why, just across the Bay, acting-mayor-for-a-day Chris Daly appointed two people to prominent positions at the Public Utilities Commission while Mayor Willie Brown was out of town. Brown said Daly acted like a stalker, but Daly’s appointments, including a former Sierra Club president, are probably better than what a-little-too-pro business Brown would have opted for.
Bioneers
A weekend at Bioneers.
On movement building: Roundtable breakfasts for the left, to resolve differences so that the movement emerges with a united front (this method has been very successful for the right), and build base and reach out to the middle, not the other way around.
On media and democracy: Corporations are trying to get Non-Governmental Organiations viewed as terrorist organizations. Yow.
On the founding of our country: The US was born against corporations (specifically, The East India Trading Company)
My favorite line from Tom Hayden: “Intelligence doesn’t mean something is true.”
Most disturbing moment: Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser is being sued because Monsanto found GMO seeds on his property. Schmeiser has never grown GMO seeds, but because GMO material had contaminated the property, the Canadian federal court ruled that the farm is Monsanto’s property. The case goes to the Canadian Supreme Court on January 20, 2004. Visit Percy’s website.
Next year *isn’t* now. :(
Man, oh man. I wished next year was now. I hoped. Ah, crap.
Why don’t the Feds arrest Pat Robertson, after he said the State Department should be nuked? And why not take Jerry Falwell, too?
And meanwhile, let’s get a paper trail for those faulty electronic voting machines, shall we?
Grope-gate!
Pete Wilson II? Maybe. A Democratic State Congress and a Republican Governor with criminal allegations make for a wacky situation in the coming months. Grope-gate! Leak-gate! Hitler-gate! Perhaps this is the beginning of the death knell for Republican credibility? A metronome that, on the cusp of swinging all the way to the right, will head towards the center. At least two horrible proposals, Prop 53 and 54, failed tonight.
Just finished two chapters of Michael Moore’s new book. Fact-based hilarity. Get it now.
Kalakala leaving Seattle
As pointed out in MiscMedia and reported in the Seattle Times, the Kalakala was purchased for $140,000 and is moving to San Francisco. The irony of this is that the ship, a Seattle icon, was originally built in Oakland.
Check out every misstatement by the Bush administration on misleader.org – with so many to keep track of, the site also offers a daily digest and is an easy resource for the media.
Ground Zero, two years later
Two years ago the Stranger put on it’s cover the most powerful image I’ve ever seen about the events of September 11th.
Two must-see PBS specials cover the event well. Frontline’s “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero” discusses the spiritual and religious ramifications of survivors and witnesses in New York, and this week’s NOW with Bill Moyers talks about four widows demanding answers from the Bush administration to events leading up to the attacks. Al Franken’s book discusses the Bush administration failure to heed warnings from the Clinton administration about the impending threat of Al Qaeda.
Six Feet Under
Slow news month? Not exactly. I’ve been under a slightly voluntary media blackout as I finish resettling in California. During that time I got hooked on the first season of HBO’s “Six Feet Under.” That, and trying to find a good cup of coffee.
“Shouldn’t there be a statute of limitations about that? I mean, when I was a Republican, Dennis Miller was still a liberal, and still funny.”
Arianna Huffington on party-switching, from a recent appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher
Only two weeks to a beginning in graduate school. Time is moving very quickly.