piran café

Not only was the press kept away from a Sarah Palin’s speech hosted by Wisconsin Right to Life in Milwaukee on Friday, but there was also a long list of prohibited items as well as a bag search. Among the no-nos:

• No exit and re-entry allowed
• No cell phones
• No recording devices
• No video or still cameras
• No laptops
• No photos or recording allowed
• No strollers or car seats

Lots of no-nos, no?

Du Silence, by Fernand Khnopff, originally uploaded by pirano.

Hilarious. Stewart on how the Fox opinion and news sides get together to create their own delightful version of a McDLT:

Oh, say it wasn’t so. Bush/Cheney using torture in hopes of perpetuating a lie?

From a report released yesterday (21-Apr) by the Senate Armed Services Committee (via McClatchy):

A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that the interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration.

and

“There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, especially the few high-value ones we had, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people to push harder,” he continued.

“Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn’t any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies.”

and

“While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq,” (former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles) Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. “The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link . . . there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results.”

stun gun enema, originally uploaded by pirano.

Remnants of Bush/Cheney (even Cheney himself) infested TV shows over the past few days to demonize the Obama administration for releasing classified documents about the previous administration’s use of torture. (I’m not sure why I even bother to watch these clips.)

That most of this info was already out there and available for awhile seemed of little consequence to those doing the demonizing. That the use of torture is a war crime didn’t seem to matter much either. They weren’t bothered that a civilized society, under Bush/Cheney’s leadership, would utilize these methods. They were only upset that the use of these methods, devised and perfected by the Khmer Rouge and Stalin, were officially made public.

Obama has made clear that those in charge will not be pursued, but pressure is beginning to grow for, at least for now, further investigations. “Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past,” he said. In other words, a battle he’s simply chosen not to fight.

So, all we can do is watch Jon Stewart:

Do you really have to waterboard somebody 183 times? I assume after 90 waterboardings the guy’s thinking ‘you’re not really drowning me.’

NO, this won’t be another juvenile joke about this unfortunately named group of protesters who took to the streets yesterday in the U.S. Besides a collective hatred of Obama, precisely what they were protesting still isn’t really clear.   When calling Obama both a socialist and fascist in the same breathe, their own confusion is self-evident. (For the teabagging-curious, Rachel Maddow has a delightful oral history of the nascent movement here.)

From the get-go, Fox News, who has a history of crossing their fair and balanced line (!), had been urging their audience to take part in the coast-to-coast orgy of public teabagging events. No big surprise. But this guy, Cody Willard, one of their reporters on the scene, has got to take top prize as top teabagging reporter. How did he get a job as a journalist? And more importantly, is he still gainfully employed this morning?

Guys, when are we going to wake up and start fighting the fascism that seems to be permeating this country?

The lunacy on the right has been amusing over the course of Obama’s first 86 days, a frustration cum desperation that has now turned to paranoia over the past 72 hours upon the release of a Homeland Security report which said that right-wing extremism is on the rise throughout the U.S. (Here in Slovenia too, but that wasn’t in that report).

While mentioning in general terms “militia movements” and “white supremacist(s)”, nowhere does it mention “conservatives”, “republicans”, or crazed right wing radio jocks. (No, not even teabaggers). But that, or the fact that the findings were compiled while Bush was still in office, hasn’t stopped many on the right, who are apparently taking it quite personally and thinking this was about them, of condemning the report as a hatchet job. Or, maybe it hit a little too close to home?

Hannity, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Malkin, et al, please, stop embarrassing yourselves. As Jon Stewart succinctly pointed out, it’s supposed to taste like a shit taco now.  So kick back, relax, and enjoy some teabagging in the comfort of your own homes.

Kiss of death, originally uploaded by pirano.

Discussing his latest novel, Man in the Dark, Paul Auster tells The Guardian about the root of his frustrations in recent years.

If there is something getting Auster’s goat, it’s American politics. It was his disgust at the outcome of the 2000 US elections that sparked the story-within-a-story at the heart of Man in the Dark, about a counterfactual US where civil war reigns and New York leads a movement to form the Independent States of America.

“It’s a war of bullets and bombs, whereas the divisions in the US now are similar to a civil war, but we’re fighting it with words and ideas,” he says.

He can pinpoint the idea for his latest story to his “frustration and disgust after the 2000 elections … Gore won, Gore was elected president, and it was taken away from him by political and legal manoeuvering, and ever since then I’ve had this eerie feeling of being in some parallel world, some world we didn’t ask for but we nevertheless got.

More…

For nearly six minutes, U.S. VP wannabe Sarah Palin carried on a telephone conversation with French President Nikolas Sarkozy before she was told it was a prank. The pranksters? Quebec comedy duo Marc Antoine Audette and Sebastian Trudel Audette, known as the Masked Avengers.

Listen to the complete conversation below. This woman wants to wake up Wednesday morning a heartbeat away from the presidency. Did the Masked Avengers, in their wildest dreams, think the call would last so long that they could actually bring up Hustler’s Nailin’ Palin?

Some highlights from a transcript via Daily Kos:

Fake Nicolas Sarkozy: I, I was wondering because you are also next to him, one of my good friends, also, the prime minister of Quebec, Mr. Richard Z. Sirois [a famous Quebec radio host], have you met him recently? Did he come to one of your rallies?
Sarah Palin: Uh, haven’t seen him at one of the rallies, but it’s been great working with the Canadian officials in my role as governor; we have a great cooperative effort there as we work on all of our resource development projects. You know I look forward to working with you and getting to meet you personally and your beautiful wife, oh my goodness, you’ve added a lot of energy to your country, even, with that beautiful family of yours.

and

Fake Nicolas Sarkozy: You know my wife is a popular singer and a former top model and she’s so hot in bed. She even wrote a song for you.
Sarah Palin: Oh my goodness! I didn’t know that.

and

Fake Nicolas Sarkozy: I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler’s “Nailin Palin.”
Sarah Palin:  Oh, good, thank you. Yes.

Fake Nicolas Sarkozy: That was really edgy.
Sarah Palin: [Laughs] Well good.

and, finally

Fake Nicolas Sarkozy: I really love you. And I must say something, so, Governor, you’ve been pranked. By the Master Avengers. We’re two comedians from Montreal.

In case that disappears, you can download here as MP3.

As mentioned one week ago, several early voters in areas of West Virginia reported that their touch screen voting machines were flipping votes.

Here’s a video showing how an uncalibrated machine, like the one used in W VA, is sending votes in all directions. I’m not predicting doom and gloom, but there is obviously the potential for some major problems.

Or was it in a film?

From the Charleston, West Virginia Gazette on Oct. 18:

Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.

“I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican,” she said. “I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

And a week earlier also in the same area:

Virginia Matheney, one of those voters, said Friday, “When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain.”

Retired factory worker Calvin Thomas of Ripley said he experienced the same problem.

“When I pushed Obama, it jumped to McCain. When I went down to governor’s office and punched [Gov. Joe] Manchin, it went to the other dude.

“After I finished, my daughter voted. When she pushed Obama, it went to McCain. It happened to her the same way it happened to me,” Thomas said.

monaco-carnival06, originally uploaded by pirano.

In this Atlantic piece, David Sedaris wonders how anyone in the U.S. could possibly still be undecided:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I can’t think of one. Can anyone? Please, just one?

Would the far-right base the she was selected to appease not demand the same if the Democrats had selected a virtual unknown as the second in command, someone who in their few media appearances has only shown how clearly out their league they are? Plenty of conservatives have, and clearly aren’t impressed.

Picking up on The Daily Dish’s call, Christopher Hitchens writes in Speak Up! Stop covering Palin until she gives a press conference that without a forum in which to raise her dubious nonsense from the campaign trail, that

continued media coverage of her appearances is no better than lending a megaphone to a demagogue, the better to amplify her propaganda.

What has she brought to the table besides the resurrection of Saturday Night Live and material for a Larry Flynt porn flick? Not a whole lot besides copy for a growing number of Obama campaign endorsements.

Gov. Palin, stop hiding. You want to be Vice President, and you think you’re up for the No. 1 spot as well. Hiding isn’t very presidential.

From recent Obama newspaper endorsements -

Houston Chronicle:

Perhaps the worst mistake McCain made in his campaign for the White House was the choice of the inexperienced and inflammatory Palin as his vice-presidential running mate.

Los Angeles Times:

Indeed, the presidential campaign has rendered McCain nearly unrecognizable. His selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate was, as a short-term political tactic, brilliant. It was also irresponsible, as Palin is the most unqualified vice presidential nominee of a major party in living memory. The decision calls into question just what kind of thinking — if that’s the appropriate word — would drive the White House in a McCain presidency. Fortunately, the public has shown more discernment, and the early enthusiasm for Palin has given way to national ridicule of her candidacy and McCain’s judgment.

Washington Post:

And we find no way to square his professed passion for America’s national security with his choice of a running mate who, no matter what her other strengths, is not prepared to be commander in chief.

Dayton Daily News:

His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was stunning. She is shockingly lacking in presidential qualifications. Some of Sen. McCain’s most enthusiastic supporters have been forced to admit this. Her defenders say her resume compares well with Sen. Obama’s, but it does not.

Kansas City Star:

Despite his age and previous health problems, McCain chose a vice presidential candidate who is so clearly unqualified for high office that the thought of her stepping into the presidency is frightening. That irresponsible decision casts serious doubt on McCain’s judgment at this point in his political career. And over the past eight years, Americans have come to know, all too well, the high price of carelessness and ineptitude in the White House.

Chicago Sun Times:

Most egregiously for a man of advanced age who knew how important this decision could be, he chose the unqualified Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice president.

San Francisco Chronicle:

McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has been largely sequestered from the news media since her selection in late August. She has yet to have anything resembling a traditional news conference, where the full range of her knowledge and views can be explored. Her avoidance of questions and reliance on cue-card talking points in the one vice presidential debate did nothing to allay doubts about whether the 44-year-old governor of two years is capable of assuming the reins of the presidency. Her selection was but an act of political calculation by McCain.

And the Chicago Tribune, in its first-ever endorsement of a Democrat for president in its 161 year history:

McCain failed in his most important executive decision. Give him credit for choosing a female running mate–but he passed up any number of supremely qualified Republican women who could have served. Having called Obama not ready to lead, McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His campaign has tried to stage-manage Palin’s exposure to the public. But it’s clear she is not prepared to step in at a moment’s notice and serve as president. McCain put his campaign before his country.

Parliament, originally uploaded by pirano.

John McCain blinked a lot at last night’s debate. A whole lot. Which apparently doesn’t bode well for his election chances.

According to a study, Eye movements and U.S. presidential elections, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, blinking at debates goes over about as well as three-day old tripe stew.

For eight U.S. presidential elections during the period 1960–2004, the rapid blinker during debates received fewer overall votes than his opponent. In seven of these eight elections, the rapid blinker also lost the electoral vote and was defeated at the polls. Furthermore, in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, seven out of ten presidential aspirants have shown elevated EBRs [eyeblink rates] (over 50 blinks per minute) and have been defeated in their candidacies.

[via Huffington Post]

bad news, originally uploaded by pirano.

Video shot outside of a McCain-Palin rally yesterday in Strongsville, Ohio, about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Cleveland.

Q: Is [Obama] a terrorist?
A: He’s got the bloodlines.

[from bloggerinterrupted.com]

For the adventure traveler: [Strongsville Tourism links] [Strongsville home page] [calendar of events]

I was going to stay up and watch tonight’s VP debate, but felt there was little need after seeing this ad.

From the adult want ads on Craig’s List LA via The Enlightened Despot:

Looking for a Sarah Palin lookalike for an adult film to be shot in next 10 days.
Major adult studio.
Please send pix, stats etc. ASAP
Pay: $2000-3000
No anal required

Edited to add that according to the NY Daily News, a producer who works for Larry Flynt placed the ad, and the film’s already been shot but the title hasn’t yet been disclosed. Any title suggestions?

UPDATE: Via Boingboing comes word that thefrisky.com has the inside scoop on the flick, entitled, Nailin’ Paylin:

According to HUSTLER, “Nailin’ Paylin” is a “naughty adventure to the wild side of that sexy Alaska governor,” featuring “girl-on-girl lovin’,” “nailing the Russians, who come knocking on her back-door,” and a younger Palin getting seduced by her creationist college professor who “will explain a ‘big bang’ theory even she can’t deny!”

Also included is a three-way scene by actresses playing “Paylin”, Hillary Clinton and Condi Rice. How’s that bipartisanship! According to the story, actress Lisa Ann got the Paylin part.

With just 108 shopping days left on the Bush Countdown clock, shoppers everywhere are scurrying about to find that perfect memento to help remember what aspiring Vice President Sarah Palin apparently knows nothing about: the Bush Doctrine.

Photographer Phillip Toledano has done his part with his online installation, America The Gift Shop, where he suggests a few souvenirs to recall the last eight years.

The selection varies wildly, from the moulded resin and plexiglass Abu Ghraib Coffee Table* pictured here, to neon signs, T-shirts, chocolate bars and an Inflatable Guantanamo Bay Bouncy Prison Cell. Really, you must take a look.

Toledano’s other recent work includes a portrait book of phone sex operators (wouldn’t that look sweet on that Abu Ghraib coffee table?). Much more on his website.

*Abu Ghraib bobble-head doll sold separately

Probably not uplifting bumper sticker material, but nifty nonetheless. Just heard this from an old friend who has The BluegrassRave Backroom in his sig file these days: Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley is stumping for Obama in the hills of southwest Virginia.

Brought to a wide audience when George Clooney wailed his Man of Constant Sorrow in the Coen Brothers’ Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Stanley has been a staple in Bluegrass music for more than 60 years. [Here's Stanley singing his dirge O Death in one of the film's most memorable scenes.]

“I think I know a little something about the families around here,” he begins, “and after the last eight years I know we all need a change.” He later calls Obama a “good man” and “a true friend of the people who live right here in southwest Virginia”.

Listen to the ad, a fabulous slice of Americana and an eloquent sign of the times, here.

Wanna know more? Definitely watch Stanley modestly introduce himself here. Stanley also has a museum in Clintwood, Virginia. Here is his fan club site, with a picture of Stanley with George and Laura Bush after receiving the National Medal of Arts in 2006, the highest honor for artistic excellence in the U.S.

Here’s another reason why you need to keep old magazines.

British artist Jonathan Yeo created this collage portrait, entitled Paris Hilton 2008, entirely from porn magazine clippings. But if you’re looking to buy, it’s too late. Damien Hirst has already dropped a hefty undisclosed amount for it.

Yeo, son of a former British conservative MP, has created similar portraits of George Bush and Gordon Brown, the latter made entirely from gay porn. Describing the Bush portrait, his first venture into the porn clippings medium after his commission for an official portrait was later decommissioned by the White House, Yeo says:

“What’s going on in Bush’s right ear is actually illegal in the president’s home state of Texas.”

 

Another souvenir from my holiday visit to the U.S.

This is on Lake Shore Boulevard on Cleveland’s east side, a short stroll from the shores of Lake Erie.

Ohio was one of the states hardest hit in the subprime loan meltdown these past few years. According to a NY Times story,

Last year, there were 1.2 million foreclosure filings in the United States, up 42 percent from 2005, according to RealtyTrac, a firm that analyzes such data. At current rates so far this year, RealtyTrac expects foreclosure filings to hit two million in 2007, or roughly one per 62 American households — a rate approaching heights not seen since the Great Depression.

And things will certainly get worse.

“We’ll see another fairly big spike in (foreclosure) filings in early ‘08,” Sharga projects. “Then there’s another group of loans that’s due to reset in May and June, so we’ll see another wave of defaults probably in the fall.”

With so many houses sitting empty, local tax bases are eroding, and will likely erode further as property values are being reassessed downwards.

Happy New Year.

$400 down, originally uploaded by pirano.

ignorant-fuckers.com. Hit ‘back’ a few times. Innocent fun.

It’s pretty amazing what a PiranCafe endorsement can bring, isn’t it?

True, the Iowa Caucuses may mean little in the bigger sphere of things, but you couldn’t have heard, read and watched news of Barack Obama’s victory without thinking that something significant did go down in flyover country last night. Even through the most jaundiced of eyes. Yup, it made my day.

If you’ve got about 13 minutes, I encourage you to watch the victory speech. Sure beats what the world’s been forced to listen to out of Washington DC for the last seven years.

I’m a huge lover of maps. I have hundreds: cities, countries, continents, bodies of water, planets. Apparently I’m not alone.

Here’s Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007 discussing maps. (Note: This has been viewed more than 18 million times on youtube since it was uploaded in August. My apologies if I’m a little behind the times… Anyway, I decided to link to the version with subtitles so some of the subtleties don’t escape you).

George Bush will be visiting Slovenia in March…

bad news, originally uploaded by pirano.

About an hour after an interesting discussion Sunday afternoon about the charges brought against Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk –more about what the Nobel prize winner called a “freedom of expression issue” here– I tried to log on to this blog at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and this is what I saw:

No, the locals aren’t just picking on me. Apparently all wordpress sites have been blocked in Turkey. Anyone know exactly what set this off?

Updated: This was a quite recent development. No time to expand, but the reason is provided here [http://wordpress.com/blog/2007/08/19/why-were-blocked-in-turkey/], along with a lengthy debate.

 … Since the CIA and FBI deems it important enough to edit entries on the popular and free web Encyclopedia. [OhmyNews has a nice synopsis of some of the edited articles here.]

This isn’t anything new. Blue-chip companies have been “altering entries to hide embarassing episodes in their history,” as have major record labels, and as did an anonymous user who edited an “entire section critical of [Diebold's controversial e-voting] machines.”

The hero de jour responsible is Virgil Smith of New Mexico’s Santa Fe Institute who developed WikiScanner, a program which allows users to track the source of computers used to make changes in Wiki. At the moment, WikiScanner’s website isn’t accessible.

reaper, originally uploaded by pirano.