Blah, blah, blah

John Edwards finally endorsed Barack Obama. Did he get his jet ski?

from www.comedycentral.co posted with vodpod

The latest Pew Research poll shows that Clinton and Obama are now neck and neck, whereas last month, Obama had a 10 point lead.

Harpers

• Turns out most people choose cooperation over competition: “why, if humans prefer cooperation when given that option, are there so many instances of competition shown in everyday life?”
• Hawaiians make move for national sovereignty and occupy historic palace, declaring it would take over the official government duties. The Hawaii Kingdom Government is a constitutional monarchy of the rightfully independent nation of Hawaii. They do not recognize Hawaii as a U.S. state, but as an autonomous nation occupied by the United States.
• Radiohead joins MTVexit to make this video about sweatshop labor.


Because the project is funded in part by USAID, I’m surprised how not terrible it is. Sure, it’s cliche and not insightful, but at least, it’s not dehumanizing and it makes the connection between the two kids.

It just doesn’t offer any analysis about the problem — why is the white kid wearing the shoes made by the other kid? And who is profiting from the exploitation of child labor? Corporations — like those who sponsor MTV programming and that of other Viacom networks.

And it doesn’t really offer any solutions. But MTVexit isn’t really about stopping sweatshop labor. Their mission statement says they want to increase awareness about human trafficking through education and outreach with local anti-trafficking organizations. Sounds like they’re trying for an easy PR boost.

Few would deny that child labor and human trafficking are bad — besides Nicholas Kristof, Milton Friedman and a few other insane ideologues who deny reality and ignore human suffering — so I can’t see what this campaign actually hopes to do — besides give MTV the false appearance of caring.

By the way, MTV’s website has a whole section on activism, listed under the subtitle “Movies, Games & More.”

• Clinton makes cheap attempt to appear in touch with working folks, AP couldn’t even resist scoffing:
  
  

  SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former first lady who hasn’t driven a car or pumped gas in many years because of Secret Service restrictions, joined a blue-collar worker at a filling station Wednesday to illustrate how the high price of gasoline is squeezing consumers.

  
  The Democratic presidential candidate and sheet metal worker Jason Wilfing, 33, pulled into the station in a large white Ford 250 pickup truck, Clinton riding shotgun. Never mind that it wasn’t even Wilfing’s truck — he had borrowed his boss’s larger vehicle to accommodate Clinton’s security agent and personal assistant, who rode in the back.

  Trailing Wilfing and Clinton was a Secret Service motorcade consisting of six gas-guzzling Suburbans, two squad cars and a green SUV bearing photographers and TV cameras. Several other reporters and cameramen stood shivering in unseasonably cold temperatures, ready to capture the multi-vehicle arrival.

  Clinton and Wilfing stepped out of the car and approached the pump. Wilfing chose regular unleaded gasoline, and began filling the tank. The two engaged in chit chat, with New York senator mentioning her proposal for a temporary gas tax holiday to ease the price pinch on consumers.

  The tank filled, Clinton looked at the price recorded at the pump and shook her head.

  “Sixty-three dollars,” she said. “For just about half a tank.”

  Shutters clicked, cameras whirred. Point made.

A few pies to the face greeted Thomas Friedman - New York Times columnist - as he was preparing to give the keynote address on Earth Day before a packed auditorium at Brown University.

His talk - titled “Green is the new Red White and Blue” - was about how corporate environmentalism (which would give corporations ownership of our common resources and legal rights to pollute our air and water under the facade of conservation) can restore the United States to its “natural place in the global order.”

“Luckily, this outrageous neoliberal capitalist propaganda was interrupted with a surprise visit from the Greenwash Guerrillas.”

That’s a very successful pieing. You can see Friedman flustering as he visibly debated himself about whether to continue with the speech.

He decided to go back and clean up before delivering his address.

And his lecture made the reasons for the pieing — his racism and imperialism — all the more apparent.

For example, two of his talking points:

• “He used two hands to graph the price of oil against the freedom of the people in the country selling it, which he argued is an ‘inverse correlation.’”
• “We’re going to get really super-efficient at raping the natural world,” he said during the lecture, adding that clean, cheap energy can become “a license to buy a Hummer and drive it through the Amazon.”

Right, corporations are kicking families from their homes and communities, destroying the farmland and natural environment to produce pseudo-fuels known as biofuels — e.g., corn ethanol — for fucking hummers that CEOs can then drive over the ruin they caused — a purely callous final insult.

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The Guerrillas also threw leaflets to the audience, stating:
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I like it - the idea behind the ad, that is, not the ad itself.

Today the company pulled it because cranky u.s.ers hate thinking about their violent history and theft of land. I guess people don’t care that the map looked like that a little more than a century and a half ago (1848).

Nevertheless, it was just an ad - meant to capitalize on a popular sentiment.

“I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this [climate change] problem,” Barack Obama said today. [CNN Political Ticker]

I wonder if he’d ask Gore to head the EPA. Wouldn’t that be a major change for environmental health?

This latest information from CNN adopts a slightly different tone from MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann’s ramble a few nights ago. The credulous Olbermann spent considerable time supposing a Gore victory in the democratic primary — as if it were in any way acceptable for delegates to throw away popular opinion and vote for someone who is not even running for office.

“If it goes into the convention,” said Representative Tim Mahoney (D-FL) last week, “don’t be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket.” [The Daily Mail]

“What? Does Olbermann smoke crack?” In the words of my friend, “Not a single democrat would be happy about that.”

Clinton Surprise: “I’m Stepping Aside for Obama”
Hillary Clinton shocked the nation this April Fool’s Day by announcing early this morning that she was pulling out of the Democratic presidential race and throwing her support to Barack Obama. “I cannot in good faith continue my candidacy when the math says I cannot win,” Clinton stated, surprising a crowd of supporters at a breakfast event in Philadelphia.
view rest of article

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), March 28, 2008. Perhaps his slip suggests what he really believes would happen. Would Clinton really concede if the delegate count was not in her favor or would she try to woo the superdelegates?

This is obviously satire, but I want to point out that their estimate of the Iraq death toll is low. While there are around 90,000 documented deaths, the deaths of many people go unrecorded. A January 2008 study in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated that 151,000 Iraqis died violent deaths because of the Iraq war through June 2006.

During the San Francisco antiwar protests on March 19, a security officer outside of a closed Bank of America branch flicked off a protester for taking photographs. The bank was closed because of the protests that marked the five year anniversary of the Iraq War.

I love it. The state protecting capitalism reduced to using the finger against resistance.

from Toronto, Canada

Naked dude running on public streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

A doctor saw Andrew Croulet, 27, of Brookline, PA running on snowing streets outside his home. He called 911 and offered Croulet his sweater. Officials say he was under the influence of some substance. He got hypothermia and faces charges of disorderly conduct, public lewdness, and resisting arrest.

Naked dude on store rampage in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Nicholas Hadzick, 28, of Freeland, PA (closer to Pittsburgh) got drunk and naked and went on a rampage. He drove a fork lift into a wall of the resort where he was staying. Then he went across the street to the store in the video to do an additional $40,000 worth of damage.

They looked like the same guy to me, but they’re different people. What’s up with white men getting naked during winter in the Pennsylvania?

No. 1: It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thanks. I’m no longer America’s creepiest governor.

harpers

Where Hillary Clinton’s campaign ad took its cue.

During a campaign stop in Texas, Hillary Clinton’s campaign treated the press to a filing center in the men’s bathroom. Journalists filed stories at tables set up next to urinals and bathroom stalls. (March 4)

Such a woman. So passive aggressive. (i’m kidding)

from www.theonion.com posted with vodpod

From the suppliers of Wal-Mart’s Sams Club soda, comes the first bottled water specifically for dogs. Cott Corp. has introduced FortiFido, which comes in four different flavors–peanut butter, parsley, spearmint, and lemongrass. One and two liter bottles go for $1.39 and $2.29.

Cott Corp. must be really hurting after Wal-Mart cut back on its purchases. Their stock is at a nine-year low., but this new product wont help. Dog water is really a specialized product with a narrow market. And it’s stupid.
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Oh, Billary. Freudian slips are second nature to him. He didn’t even notice.

Does this validate or ameliorate K-dog’s UFO siting?

To add critique would be too excessive for something which speaks so clearly for itself.

But really, how is that not satire? “You don’t have to be ugly in heaven.” HA. All that false earnestness = hilarious!

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Via Alternet. Please ignore the Paultard’s endorsement at the end.

“Tanzanian women wear outfits bearing the image of U.S. President George W. Bush during his arrival ceremony at the State House in Dar es Salaam February 17, 2008.”

what would triumph say?

Hillary Clinton launched an all out negative ad in Wisconsin against Obama–a declaration of war to take back the lead (she only plays nice when she’s winning):

Obama responded, “I understand Senator Clinton periodically [pauses] when she is feeling down [pauses] launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal. But I think this kind of gamesmanship is not what the American people are looking for.”

Did Obama really just go there? Is Obama claiming that Clinton is PMSing? Oh no, he didn’t. Strategic word play, and Obama is an amazing orator. I have no doubt that it is intentional.

an unintentional diversion

from www.liveleak.com posted with vodpod

Hillary Clinton supporters have highlighted Clinton’s missing youth vote in this video endorsing her candidacy:

CubbyChaser on the Indecision 2008 blog points out the video’s key advantage over Obama’s popular “Yes, We Can” video: it “illuminat[es] what would happen if the Jackson 5 and a late-stage Alzheimer’s patient collaborated on a campaign song for your candidate.”

a parody of obama’s “yes, we can” video. it’s like oh yes we can stay in iraq for 10,000 years.  “that’s fine with me.”

Harper’s Magazine

performance!