BuzzBlog

Pictures of Places

2008-04-02T17:31:00.003-04:00

During the second week of March, a display of photographs from Palestine was on display in the Campus Center; however, possibly because I initially didn’t know what to make of it, I didn’t pay much attention. But on the final day the exhibit was up, I noticed something. I noticed a pine-cone, and other naturalistic imagery. I was considerably surprised when I found out that the country on display was Palestine. I thought the exhibit to be an interesting experience, causing me to realize how ignorant my, and likely other people’s, preconceived notions of what countries outside of the elitist tier of the “First World” U.S. is comprised of. When I think of the Middle East, I tend to lump the countries together into one desolate colossus of desert. It is tempting to do this because this is likely the sole image that I (and other Americans) am bombarded with and hence what we call upon in our recollections when creating associations with the Middle East. It may serve as a potential reason to pride ourselves as a developed nation.

Similarly, the tendency is great to simply associate Africa with AIDS and malnourished children, and not the lush images of palaces and flourishing cities that populate the country. The Facebook group “The Africa They Never Show You” has compiled over a thousand photographs of various locales in Africa, presenting an image of the country most Americans never associate the country with.

So why is the popular conception of these countries one that is much worse off than reality reflects? Is it solely our elitism and need to have this subservient relationship with these countries so, in comparison, our culture appears better in spite of its flaws? An important note to realize is that as America is not simply overrun by obese, ignorant people, as other countries may perceive us to be. Conversely, these one-dimensional views of countries that are not in the “First World” are incorrect as well--they are not a point that we can conveniently stop at and cease all analysis.
--Cassandra Leveille

George W. Bush Is One of My Favorite Presidents

2008-03-03T21:46:00.005-05:00

I'm not a Republican. I think the war in Iraq, and the Terror War in general, is a monumental, epic, hands-down, mentally-deficient clusterfuck. I don't like globalization. I hate being lied to by my government. Practically everything the sadists and trolls in the White House have done for the past eight years has made me nauseous. Sometimes I think fondly about the good-old-days when unpopular leaders were drawn and quartered, or at the very least decapitated.

Still... I think I'll miss Big Dubya when he's gone.

For one thing, he did more for political satire than any other U.S. president I know of -- not intentionally, of course, but he doesn’t have to try. Whenever words fall out from behind that beady-eyed idiot grin, he put food on the table of every pissed-off comedian and editorialist in the country. Lewis Black and Jon Stewart will be able to retire to haciendas in Belize by the time November rolls around -- and they'll probably have to: once their Texan cash cow gets tossed out of office, the salad days are over. They'll have to go back to digging for jokes instead of just reading the news. We might never have the benefit of another wholesale satirical slaughter like we did when Stephen Colbert tore apart the '06 White House Correspondents' Dinner. The loss of the War Chief will be felt far and wide among the people who make us laugh to keep us from crying.

On a more personal note: I owe a lot to George. I was just starting high school when he came into office, so the foundation of my political awareness was developed in the context of Bush's administration. If I'd grown up under eight years of a different president, I might not have the healthy political cynicism I feel blessed with today.

All governments do shady things for selfish interests. Governments lie; governments murder; governments steal. Sometimes these things can be justified, to whatever small extent possible, by keeping people safe -- but acts of cruelty and stupidity are all too often committed for nothing more than profit. It's a sad and uncomfortable truth-- one that most people would rather not think about -- but it's a truth nonetheless. Fortunately, most administrations have the decency to cover their dirty secrets up, allowing us to maintain a comfortable front of naivety. People want to believe their government is a wise, benevolent guardian who watches over them while they struggle through a dangerous world. As long as the government allows us to feed that idealism and doesn't ask us to suspend our disbelief too much, a few high-level scandals and illegal wars won't be much bother. It's like making a good movie: as long as the acting is convincing and the special effects are distracting, the audience will allow themselves to overlook the holes in the plot and the zipper on the monster costume.

Bush and his henchmen asked way, way too much of their audience. Maybe they were unlucky; maybe it was sheer stupidity; maybe they just had too many skeletons and not enough closets to hide them in. Whatever the case, we've been hit repeatedly with the full scope of how diabolically callous our government can be at its worst. I don't think I need to list all the ways the Bush administration has screwed us during the past eight years--I'm not even sure I could if I wanted to-- but the moral of the story, at least for me, is that I'll never completely trust a government again.

I think it's a good thing. While the government -- ours or any other -- has a lot of potential to do good things for people, it has just as much potential, if not more, to exploit them. It'd be nice to believe that the people in control are looking out for our best interests but, as Our Fearless Leader has so aptly demonstrated, they've got no problem taking complete advantage of the power we've trusted them with.

Thanks George.

-Ryan Miga

The Wrath of the Raptor

2008-02-27T00:12:00.006-05:00

In 1993, Jurassic Park was released. The velociraptor was introduced into pop culture and, as a result, those evil, door opening, conniving, dinosaurs that lived over 65 million years ago forever changed its landscape. More than any other dinosaur, raptors are viewed by the public as the “it” dinosaur.

Last year on ICTV’s DP Show, they had a sketch featuring Jake Alinikoff as a human/raptor hybrid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7rH2f4Jgss. The sketch raises the question: Why not a human T-rex? Why not a human stegosaurus? Despite their differences, the T-rex and stegosaurus were rather dumb creatures. In Jurassic Park, raptors were described as being “smart as chimpanzees.” Perhaps it’s the intelligence factor that the public craves in their dinosaurs.
A cursory search on ytmnd.com yields nearly 450 animated GIFs about raptors. Most of them revolve around Raptor Jesus. Encyclopedia Dramatica defines RJ http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/Raptorjesus as, “A minor, mildly retarded 4chan meme consisting of a raptor's head crudely photoshopped onto any picture of Jesus.” Raptor Jesus must be the missing link between deities and dinosaurs.
There’s another side to this raptor revival: dinosaurs are long gone, and yet, because of Jurassic Park, a fear still exists. Granted, T-rexes and dilophosaurs are scary too, but a raptor can open doors and slit open a man’s stomach. Raptors can problem solve. Their intelligence is both admired and feared.
Randall Munroe, author and creator of the web-comic XKCD http://www.blogger.com/www.xkcd.com, has a running joke about a fear of raptors http://xkcd.com/155/. Another comic shows a substitute teacher handing out a test revolving around raptors. The students question the test, and the teacher tells them that survival against raptors is more important than math.

A couplet of Sci-Fi channel movies plays out this fear in Raptor Island and Planet Raptor. These movies are like Jurassic Park but without the fat of other dinosaurs. The movies are pure unadulterated fear generators powered solely by raptors. The former stars of the series, Lorenzo Lamas (Renegade) and Stephen Bauer (Scarface – no relation to Jack), play a Navy Seal and Criminal, respectively, held up on an island populated by raptors.

There’s a sad (maybe fitting) truth about Raptors, though. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor), velociraptors were only about two feet high. And they were covered in feathers. I doubt that if Michael Crichton and Stephen Spielberg made their raptors in Jurassic Park reflect the actual dimensions of a velociraptor, this permeation into pop culture would have existed. And yet, here we are, in a society that both cherishes and fears a dead animal.

-Harrison

Advertising: Charlie Brown floats, other ads sink

2008-02-04T14:47:00.001-05:00

Well, the Super Bowl is over; dreams of eternal undefeated glory crushed, unlikely dumped-on has-beens celebrated (Petty or Manning, you decide!), and of course shiny newfangled things pressed on the public. For those who are like me (gay? non-athletic?) the Super Bowl is good for one thing and one thing only. . . commercials!

This year, the abundance of energy drink ads must have had some adverse effect on the non-football parts of the evening. Most ads seemed like they were hopped up on speed-- or maybe the über sexist, violent, tastelessly offensive offspring of a George Saunders short story.

Many people have already posted their best-of, worst-of lists, including Slate's Seth Stevenson. It's very funny, especially told from his perspective (a Patriots fan begrudgingly fast forwarding through the painful game). In it, he notes this Coke ad (posted above) as the clear winner of the night and I couldn't agree more. After much wincing and swearing off brand loyalty, one of my friends remarked incredulously, "That wasn't so bad. . ."

It was actually enjoyable. Let me elaborate: While other ads, obsessed with establishing a new customer base, went all out, Coke was the only company that came across confident in their consumers. They delivered an aesthetically pleasing spectacular, without horrible dialogue to boot! The nostalgic elements, a blimpy Stewie from Family Guy, Underdog (the Giants!) and Charlie Brown, were not nauseating like other ads that involved Richard Simmons or Night At the Roxbury references. And the back-and-forth battle for the flying bottle of Coke was clever in adding relevance to the viewing occasion. You stay classy, Coke!

Generation Me?

2008-01-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

Narcissistic:
1. Inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.
2. Psychoanalysis: erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development. -Dictionary.com

Apparently our whole generation is narcissistic. Reading articles about my generation, written by those not a part of it, I wonder about their conclusions. The articles (Don't Go Blaming Me. I Voted on 'Hot or Not.') in the New York Times say that we're narcissistic– but are we? To me, saying that a whole generation is narcissistic seems immature. Is writing off an entire generation just a self-obsessed cop-out due to the bad role models our parent’s generation provided? In my opinion, these articles ignore the role that society plays. Maybe we are narcissistic. On the other hand, we could just be products of the world around us– of the reality TV world we live in. We are told (or at least I was) to sell ourselves. To sell a product you have to believe in it, or at least pretend you do.

In the Ithacan yesterday, there was an article that revealed to the campus that not enough students are politically active. Is this another example of our self-involvement? Maybe we're caught up in other things ( like guitar hero, second life, the hills, etc...) maybe, just maybe, we're too busy with school. Our generation could just be suffering from anxiety about real life. There is so much pressure on us to succeed. We have been force-fed the American Dream so much that if we do break the law by protesting, or if we don't fill up our times with activities that will look good on a resume, we feel we won't get a good job. Maybe we're narcissistic because our parent's generation spent a little too much time talking about being successful and pressuring us to pick colleges while we’re still in middle school and a little less time letting us figure out things at our own pace.

I quote from an episode of Quarterlife, "A sad truth about our generation is that we were all geniuses in elementary school, but apparently the people who deal with us never got our transcripts because they don’t seem to be aware of it."

I’m not excusing us. We need to be politically active. I feel like I am, and most of my friends are. I have trouble keeping my head above water taking 15 credits. Does anyone else? If college was less about success and more about ideas, we would be more politically active.

-Josh

Community Forum on Racism in Ithaca School District Leaves Some Skeptical

2008-01-25T15:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening, on January 24, a community forum was held at the Calvary Baptist Church on North Albany st. to discuss Ithaca’s ongoing problem with racism within the city’s school district. This was a follow-up meeting to a forum held last October, which took place after IHS students voiced concern that minorities were receiving unequal treatment in the areas of disciplinary decisions, expectations, and opportunities for interaction with ICSD officials as well as a feeling of being judged based on skin color and socioeconomic status.

Although the forum gave community members a much needed (and long awaited) opportunity to express their opinions and concerns to Superintendent Judith Pastel and Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Lesli Meyers, there was reportedly an overall sense of frustration among the audience that their concerns would not immediately be met with effective actions.

Two proposals were discussed at the forum. One proposal is to form a Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, in which, "approximately 20 students (will) meet monthly with the Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction." This would allow students to give direct feedback to ICSD officials– the lack of communication between students and ICSD officials has been identified as one of the main problems.
The other proposal is to create a Student Discipline Review Panel, consisting of 8-10 students. This would give students another opportunity to voice their opinions to ICSD officials, this time on the concern regarding disciplinary expectations and actions.

For the long-standing race and class issues within the school district and the Ithaca community, this is a step in the right direction. However, some still remain impatient, skeptical, and concerned that Judith Pastel's words are worthless without further action. One audience member reminds us, "These (proposals) are words, not action. This is only the potential for action."

-Jenna

Desperation in Gaza

2008-01-21T11:58:00.000-05:00

The top story on the BBC right now is about an impending food shortage in the Gaza Strip, which has been coping with an Israeli-imposed border closure since Friday. Al Jazeera, in its headline story, reports that hospitals have been hard-hit by the blockade and that sewer systems and water systems will have to shut down soon. The BBC quotes EU officials calling Israel's actions "collective punishment," and organizations like Oxfam, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency are warning of serious consequences to public health.

So what does the New York Times have to say about the situation? Their article on the Gaza fuel shortages is the sixth international story listed, not even making the front page of their Web site. (Interestingly, the top story from the Middle East today is about Israel deciding to promote electric cars.) The story appears not to have been updated today, reporting that the "temporary" closure has caused a fuel shortage, which will "affect" hospitals, water and sewage treatment facilities. Israeli officials are quoted saying there is no crisis and that the power plant was shut down basically to get attention. The Times has not mentioned that the UN may have to halt food distribution, nor has it reported on the international criticism of the blockade. The voices of international humanitarian organizations, who seem to be unanimously concerned for the fate of Gaza's 1.5 million residents, are conspicuously absent from their coverage.

-Emily

Community Forum on Race

2008-01-15T23:27:00.000-05:00

This just in from the Village at Ithaca:

There will be a community forum at the Clarion Hotel this Thursday at 7 p.m. to discuss the recent racial tensions in the Ithaca City School District and to develop a community plan to "produce a more inclusive district and community." The event is being organized by the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service.

Free transportation via Gadabout buses will be provided from Caroline Elementary School (6:15 p.m.) , Ithaca High School (6:40 p.m.), Enfield Elementary School (6:15 p.m.), and Tompkins County Public Library (6:40 p.m.); return buses will leave the Clarion approximately 9:00 p.m.

The public, including the Ithaca College community, is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Slate's Hillary Hatefest

2008-01-15T12:42:00.000-05:00

Today, Hillary Clinton finds herself in the crosshairs of Slate's scathing trio of articles titled, "Clinton-itis."

John Dickerson starts off with a look at the PR snafus of Clinton's campaign. Following on the heels of Bill Shaheen's--Clinton's ex-campaign adviser--resignation after publicly commenting on Barack Obama's drug use, the article discusses the Clinton team's continuous mishandling of similar situations, which land her extremely negative press.

The next two articles--Christopher Hitchens's "The Case Against Hillary Clinton" (or "I just remembered what I can't stand about her") and Timothy Noah's "Hillary's 'Experience' Lie"--thoroughly cut her down to size, criticizing Clinton's character and exaggerated claims of "experience."

I'm not the biggest Hill-fan to say the least, but I wonder whether other democratic candidates will be receiving such special treatment from the web-zine. After reading each article, which make some poignant observations, the Hillary hating was just a bit too much, especially with Hitchens's bilious tone. Take into account crucial primaries in the next week and a half, and it all just seems a bit unprofessional from a consistently judicious magazine.

I will give credit to Hitchens for opening his article with this Hillarious example:

On a first-lady goodwill tour of Asia in April 1995—the kind of banal trip that she now claims as part of her foreign-policy "experience"—Mrs. Clinton had been in Nepal and been briefly introduced to the late Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest. Ever ready to milk the moment, she announced that her mother had actually named her for this famous and intrepid explorer... Sen. Clinton was born in 1947, and Sir Edmund Hillary and his partner Tenzing Norgay did not ascend Mount Everest until 1953, so the story was self-evidently untrue and eventually yielded to fact-checking.

Don't block the shot!

2008-01-15T11:31:00.001-05:00

While bored on a Tuesday, I took some time and searched YouTube for funny videos. It was most successful. One silly Arnold Schwarzenegger clip in which he attacks and defeats a poorly disguised man in bear suit, check. One cleverly edited cluster of clips from 2006's The Wickerman with Nicholas Cage, check. Then I searched for Bill O'Reilly, typically good material for a chuckle. And I stumbled across this video:

Apparently I'm way behind on this news story. Slate.com has a piece about the incident dated January 5, which covers the story from a insider angle. One reporter was standing next to him at the time. And Bill O'Reilly is selling the "DON'T BLOCK THE SHOT!" T-shirt at his site billoreilly.com.

I guess this is Bill O’Reilly version of hard-hitting journalism.

The Spaces Issue... and a video we like

2007-12-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

The December issue is out and scattered around campus and downtown. Check it out and let us know what you think. In the meantime, we came across a video by Annie Leonard, which sums up some of the points raised in the Spaces issue. The Story of Stuff is a collaborative visual effort of two decades worth of research put together by Leonard and funded through Sustainability Funders (The Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption) and Tides Foundation. A 20-minute, digitalized film that highlights the cause-and-effect of our crazy, consumer-based global market, The Story of Stuff will not only have you rethinking the means in which you dispose of your garbage, but also rationalizing whether it's necessity or habit that leads you to yearn to purchase the newest gadget on the market.

War, TV and Hip-Hop: A Buzzsaw Spectacular at the Lost Dog

2007-12-05T21:38:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: Canceled due to snow. Will be reschedule for spring semester.

Thursday, Dec. 13, Buzzsaw presents perhaps our greatest event ever. Screenings, live music, free food, and give-a-ways - all in one glorious, pre-finals evening at the Lost Dog Café.

War, TV, and Hip-Hop is a mixed media party taking a second look at three pillars of contemporary American life.

First, “The War Tapes” brings us a perspective on the war in Iraq that is free from embedded anchors, commercial sponsors, and motion graphics. A long-form documentary shot by three soldiers working in collaboration with award-winning documentarians.

Second, a screening aimed spreading awareness about two new media initiatives that want to expand their pool of active producers, not boost ratings by recruiting passive viewers. On the national level, Current TV integrates viewer created content into roughly one-third of its cable broadcasts and is looking for more. At the local level, Buzzsaw Haircut is launching a new digital video component called Buzzsaw TV. Buzzsaw TV will function both as a production unit and as an outlet for locally produced video work to be featured in a video blog, screening events, and an annual DVD release.

Finally, Kidz in the Hall bring us their acclaimed brand of politically conscious hip-hop with an aim to make us rethink the formula for the catchy rap music we’ve grown used to. Co-signed by Just Blaze, 3H (50 cent, Kanye West), and Matty C (Originator of Unsigned Hype) the Kidz debut album, “School Was My Hustle” was rated 3.5 by Scratch Magazine.

Here's the schedule:

5:30 PM: The War Tapes (Sponsored by Campus Progress)

7:00 PM Megg Farrell (Folk Rock / Hawaiian / Blues)

7:30 PM The Tundra Toes (Indie / Country / Tropical)

8:00 PM Current TV Screening

9:00 PM Buzzsaw TV Launch Party

10:00 PM Kidz in the Hall (Sponsored by Buzzsaw Haircut and Imprint Magazine. Free give-a-ways from Homegrown Skateshop.)

Lost Dog Café, downtown Ithaca. Doors open at 5:30 PM. 18 to enter, 21 to drink. No cover until 10pm.

The Iowa Derby for Donkeys

2007-12-05T15:11:00.000-05:00

The presidential candidate field tends to start off overly saturated. Luckily, America has the Iowa caucuses to narrow down the field for the rest of the country. In many cases, a poor outcome in Iowa can mean the end of a campaign for a candidate. In the 2004 caucuses, Democratic front-runner Howard Dean finished in a dismal third place and then went on to give his infamous "I Have A Scream" speech. Nearly a month later, he dropped out of the race and endorsed John Kerry.

The 2008 Iowa Caucuses are almost a month away, and there is still a great amount of uncertainty regarding the results. If Obama doesn't win Iowa, he really won't have much of a shot winning the nomination. But despite Clinton doing very well in the polls, I think Obama may have a very good shot at winning Iowa.

Here is a brief rundown of how the Democratic Iowa Caucuses work:

Voters have to select their candidate in the first round of voting. If their candidate gets less than 15 percent of the vote then they are not considered a viable candidate and those voters must select someone who is viable.

Several weeks ago, The New York Times released poll results. In Iowa, Clinton was ahead of Obama 25 percent to 22 percent. However, when voters were asked who their second choice was, Obama beat Clinton 24 percent to 16 percent. This could put Obama ahead of Clinton in the second and final round of voting and make him the winner in Iowa.

However, both Obama and Clinton should be looking out for John Edwards. He has a lot of support in Iowa and is pretty much neck and neck with the other two front-runners in Iowa. Edwards is also popular as a second-choice candidate. But if he wins Iowa, he still has a long battle ahead of him. He has spent a lot of time and money in that state and there have been questions regarding his ability to campaign in the following primaries. Yet a win there could also bring in the money that he needs.

Generally speaking, the winner of Iowa wins the nomination. Of course, this isn't always the case. For instance, Bill Clinton lost the Iowa caucus in 1992 to Tom Harkin and he went on to win the presidency. This upcoming caucus could also fall under that category. An Obama or Edwards victory in Iowa with a Clinton nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August. It could be 1992 all over again.

Truthiness in '08

2007-10-21T02:36:00.001-04:00

Can't even describe how stoked I am to be able to write about Presidential Candidate Stephen Colbert. Colbert announced his candidacy on October 16th's episode of The Colbert Report; he already has corporate campaign sponsorship from Doritos -- very, very savvy, Doritos -- and the Donorschoose.org Straw Poll has Colbert as the top choice for President, with Obama second and Mike Gravel third. In other words, the man is not screwing around.

Colbert's bid for War Chief was covered intrepidly here by the Chicago Tribune. Obviously, the good people at the Tribune are not taking this seriously, and I think they damn well should be. The video clip compares Colbert to other joke candidates in the past -- at least I hope to every God conceived by humanity that the "Supreme Vermin" campaign was a joke -- and was apparently trying to demonstrate with their beat-on-the-street interviews that nobody really cares about Colbert.

Not so, says I.

For starters, maybe the clip would have been a little less biased if the reporter had not, presumably, staked herself out in front of the local AARP offices, and perhaps tried to interview a few people who weren't old enough to remember Lincoln's campaign; I have the utmost respect for the elderly, but I think it might have been a bit difficult to get an accurate read on society's pulse from the people featured in the clip -- considering they barely seemed to have pulses themselves.

Next: I'm not sure if it's willful denial or simple ignorance, but the Tribune seems to know as much about Colbert as did the poor schmuck who infamously set him loose at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner--which is not much.

There are two lessons that everybody -- everybody -- in the media business should have learned from that massacre. First, Stephen Colbert is not some brainless jester with nothing to do but crack jokes: the man has an agenda. Second, he has the logistical means to carry out that agenda: unless the Correspondents' Dinner was a massive, epic, once-in-a-century fluke, Colbert obviously knows people who know people, and in politics, that's most of what you need. Third -- and I hate to sound sexist, but I know of no better metaphor -- the man has bulletproof cajones. My God, what must he have been thinking at that dinner: he stands up from his seat, walks past the President of the United States of America, moves to the podium not ten feet away, looks out at a sea of dignitaries and politicians, takes a deep breath -- and commences to unload a righteous hellfire barrage of thinly-veiled criticism, aimed at practically every breathing creature in the room, including -- especially -- the Most Powerful Man in the World, who is no doubt wishing he could give the word for the Secret Service to empty every weapon they have into Colbert's bespectacled frame and dump his body in the Potomac River. It was epic. It was Biblical. It damn near brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. And if that is what Colbert is capable of -- if nothing else -- then nobody, not even the Tribune, had better be taking him lightly.

It goes beyond that. Not only does Colbert have an impressive pair of...
...values, he has an army backing him up. The "Colbert Nation" commands a substantial chunk of that delicious 18-to-24 age demographic, and many of them are rabidly loyal to Colbert: they almost got a bridge named after him, for God's sake. They'll carry him as close to the White House as he wants to go.

Everybody's always lamenting how college kids never participate in politics: what are they going to do if Colbert allows himself to win in the primaries? I know it's practically impossible, but it's worth wondering: what would happen if the 18-24s turned out in record numbers in 2008 and handed Colbert the popular vote? What would that say about our political system? Is it really that impossible?

I have the utmost respect for Colbert, but I hope to God this madness stops soon: if the rest of the world realizes it's possible for a comedian to be voted President of the United States, every nation of people who can hold so much as a tree branch will be scrambling to invade us. Canadians armed with chainsaws and broken maple syrup bottles will swarm over the northern border. Migrant workers turned sleeper-cell invaders will raise the Mexican flag over the entire Southwest. Greenlanders riding polar bears will conquer New England. Ithaca itself will surely be subjugated by gravity-defying Buddhist monks from Namgyal Monastery a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Mark my words: if Colbert succeeds, the nation will burn.

Bitches and Hoes, or Women & Prostitutes?

2007-10-08T12:18:00.000-04:00

In the gym I see your ass up on the Stairmaster
But you got it on level two bitch go a little faster
Look girl, I ain’t gonna lie, I'll tell you how I feel
They should handcuff your big ass to the treadmill – 50 Cent – Fat Bitches

Since I was little, my parents have given me many of my beliefs. Two of the ones that are most important to me are my love of music and a positive self-image / self-respect. Today, however, those two parts of my life are clashing. It seems that everywhere I look (or listen), “bitches” and “hoes” are dancing around men who seem to only care about sex. For example, "I’m sick of using technology, why don't you come sit on top of me" [50 cent ft Justin Timberlake - ayo technology]. Isn’t there a slightly nicer way to ask a girl to have sex with you? And God FORBID a woman has a normal body shape. For example, Britney Spears in the VMA’s this year. I’m not condoning her horrendous performance, but in no way shape or form was she overweight. If anything, she looked healthy. So girls see healthy women being called fat bitches and lose their self-esteem and stop eating. But that’s not okay either. Because then they’re anorexic whores who are talked about by everyone from Perez Hilton to CNN. How are girls that are exposed to pop culture supposed to feel good about themselves? Granted, there are songs that promote positive self-image like Mika’s “Big Girls.” But there aren’t nearly enough. I’m all for freedom of speech, but personally, I don't see the need for "bitches" and “hoes” to be in songs. I understand some artists want to be "shocking" and "outrageous" to gain more fans. But does Ludacris really need to yell out "move, bitch; get out the way"? Can’t he just say “excuse me miss, I need to pass by you”? All I’m saying is there should be some sort of happy medium that artists can reach without being misogynistic and sounding like sexual pigs. I don't know, maybe I just need some "sexual healing."

Poem to Present New Perspective on Patriotism?

2007-10-04T23:14:00.001-04:00

Okay, enough with the personal attempts at trying to be witty. In all seriousness, when a friend sent me the poem, "First Writing Since (Poem on Crisis of Terror)" written by Palestinian-American Suheir Hammad, I was blown away. And it wasn't necessarily because she presents new perspectives that I haven't thought about, it's the level of depth and emotion congealed into her poetry that only comes from real, personal experience. Hammad's poetic memoir of 9/11 and it's post-affects on her personal life and our society are perspectives that (I believe) every American needs to read.

In one of my classes, we've been discussing what it is about the word "patriotism" that has created so many black and white barriers in our country. Since 9/11, the abstract notion of patriotism is so close to being defined on paper by our government that it leaves almost no room for personal evaluation. Who is to say what encompasses true patriotism? Hammad takes you inside her mind for anecdotal and psychological hindsight on her feelings of true terrorism and patriotism, and the mess that lies in between. I've included Hammad's poem in this blog; it was first published in the November 7, 2001 issue of In Motion Magazine. Also check out Hammad's personal website to see more of her work. Enjoy.

First Writing Since

(Poem on Crisis of Terror)

by Suheir Hammad
New York, New York

1. there have been no words.
i have not written one word.
no poetry in the ashes south of canal street.
no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna.
not one word.

today is a week, and seven is of heavens, gods, science.
evident out my kitchen window is an abstract reality.
sky where once was steel.
smoke where once was flesh.

fire in the city air and i feared for my sister's life in a way never
before. and then, and now, i fear for the rest of us.

first, please god, let it be a mistake, the pilot's heart failed, the
plane's engine died.
then please god, let it be a nightmare, wake me now.
please god, after the second plane, please, don't let it be anyone
who looks like my brothers.

i do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.
i have never been so hungry that i willed hunger
i have never been so angry as to want to control a gun over a pen.
not really.
even as a woman, as a palestinian, as a broken human being.
never this broken.

more than ever, i believe there is no difference.
the most privileged nation, most americans do not know the difference
between indians, afghanis, syrians, muslims, sikhs, hindus.
more than ever, there is no difference.

2. thank you korea for kimchi and bibim bob, and corn tea and the
genteel smiles of the wait staff at wonjo the smiles never revealing
the heat of the food or how tired they must be working long midtown
shifts. thank you korea, for the belly craving that brought me into
the city late the night before and diverted my daily train ride into
the world trade center.

there are plenty of thank yous in ny right now. thank you for my
lazy procrastinating late ass. thank you to the germs that had me
call in sick. thank you, my attitude, you had me fired the week
before. thank you for the train that never came, the rude nyer who
stole my cab going downtown. thank you for the sense my mama gave me
to run. thank you for my legs, my eyes, my life.

3. the dead are called lost and their families hold up shaky
printouts in front of us through screens smoked up.

we are looking for iris, mother of three. please call with any
information. we are searching for priti, last seen on the 103rd
floor. she was talking to her husband on the phone and the line
went. please help us find george, also known as a! ! del. his family is
waiting for him with his favorite meal. i am looking for my son, who
was delivering coffee. i am looking for my sister girl, she started
her job on monday.

i am looking for peace. i am looking for mercy. i am looking for
evidence of compassion. any evidence of life. i am looking for
life.

4. ricardo on the radio said in his accent thick as yuca, "i will
feel so much better when the first bombs drop over there. and my
friends feel the same way."

on my block, a woman was crying in a car parked and stranded in hurt.
i offered comfort, extended a hand she did not see before she said,
"we"re gonna burn them so bad, i swear, so bad." my hand went to my
head and my head went to the numbers within it of the dead iraqi
children, the dead in nicaragua. the dead in rwanda who had to vie
with fake sport wrestling for america's attention.

yet when people sent emails saying, this was bound to happen, lets
! ! not forget u.s. transgressions, for half a second i felt resentful.
hold up with that, cause i live here, these are my friends and fam,
and it could have been me in those buildings, and we"re not bad
people, do not support america's bullying. can i just have a half
second to feel bad?

if i can find through this exhaust people who were left behind to
mourn and to resist mass murder, i might be alright.

thank you to the woman who saw me brinking my cool and blinking back
tears. she opened her arms before she asked "do you want a hug?" a
big white woman, and her embrace was the kind only people with the
warmth of flesh can offer. i wasn't about to say no to any comfort.
"my brother's in the navy," i said. "and we"re arabs". "wow, you
got double trouble." word.

5. one more person ask me if i knew the hijackers.
one more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in.
one more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed.one more person
assume they know me, or that i represent a people.
or that a people represent an evil. or that evil is as simple as a
flag and words on a page.

we did not vilify all white men when mcveigh bombed oklahoma.
america did not give out his family's addresses or where he went to
church. or blame the bible or pat robertson.

and when the networks air footage of palestinians dancing in the
street, there is no apology that hungry children are bribed with
sweets that turn their teeth brown. that correspondents edit images.
that archives are there to facilitate lazy and inaccurate
journalism.

and when we talk about holy books and hooded men and death, why do we
never mention the kkk?

if there are any people on earth who understand how new york is
feeling right now, they are in the west bank and the gaza strip.

6. today it is ten days. last night bush waged war on a man once
openly funded by the
cia. i do not know who is responsible. read too many books, know
too many people to believe what i am told. i don't give a fuck about
bin laden. his vision of the world does not include me or those i
love. and petittions have been going around for years trying to get
the u.s. sponsored taliban out of power. shit is complicated, and i
don't know what to think.

but i know for sure who will pay.

in the world, it will be women, mostly colored and poor. women will
have to bury children, and support themselves through grief. "either
you are with us, or with the terrorists" - meaning keep your people
under control and your resistance censored. meaning we got the loot
and the nukes.

in america, it will be those amongst us who refuse blanket attacks on
the shivering. those of us who work toward social justice, in
support of civil liberties, in opposition to hateful foreign
policies.

i have never felt less american and more new yorker, particularly
brooklyn, than these past days. the stars and stripes on all these
cars and apartment windows represent the dead as citizens first, not
family members, not lovers.

i feel like my skin is real thin, and that my eyes are only going to
get darker. the future holds little light.

my baby brother is a man now, and on alert, and praying five times a
day that the orders he will take in a few days time are righteous and
will not weigh his soul down from the afterlife he deserves.

both my brothers - my heart stops when i try to pray - not a beat to
disturb my fear. one a rock god, the other a sergeant, and both
palestinian, practicing muslim, gentle men. both born in brooklyn
and their faces are of the archetypal arab man, all eyelashes and
nose and beautiful color and stubborn hair.

what will their lives be like now?

over there is over here.

7. all day, across the river, the smell of burning rubber and limbs
floats through. the sirens have stopped now. the advertisers are
back on the air. the rescue workers are traumatized. the skyline is
brought back to human size. no longer taunting the gods with its
height.

i have not cried at all while writing this. i cried when i saw those
buildings collapse on themselves like a broken heart. i have never
owned pain that needs to spread like that. and i cry daily that my
brothers return to our mother safe and whole.

there is no poetry in this. there are causes and effects. there are
symbols and ideologies. mad conspiracy here, and information we will
never know. there is death here, and there are promises of more.

there is life here. anyone reading this is breathing, maybe hurting,
but breathing for sure. and if there is any light to come, it will
shine from the eyes of those who look for peace and justice after the
rubble and rhetoric are cleared and the phoenix has risen.

affirm life.
affirm life.
we got to carry each other now.
you are either with life, or against it.
affirm life.

Published in In Motion Magazine November 7, 2001.

Second Life Anyone?

2007-10-02T11:39:00.000-04:00

Second life is an online internet world which allows you to create a fun avatar, whether a fuzzy bunny or ripped weight lifter, and participate in all sorts of activities. Appearing very much like Sims these people participate in discussions, take classes, go to work conferences, sell and buy virtual items with real money, and build whatever their creativity allows them to. The creeping reality is the interest of companies to create a second life presence, and the profit which may evolve from such an intricate playoff of the real world. Hotel businesses are popping up along with entertainment and even fashion industries. The main draw to me though, was your limitless ability to create. You are given tools and basic geometrics to build whatever you please, to understand and use these tools allows you to build works of art that are impossible to create in the real world. Many limitations of the real world fall away in Second Life, some very interesting discussion can be viewed on, http://www.ugotrade.com/category/second-life/. The architecture, the ability people are given in this world that they lack in the real world (e.g. ability to walk), the learning opportunity, the global connectivity, the idea of artificial general intelligence and artificial life are just a few. Also the Park school offers classes, check it out, kimgregson.com.

News Flash: College "More hanky than panky," says Post

2007-09-24T11:44:00.000-04:00

This article on the Washington Post's website was pretty funny. Saying that tons of sex doesn't happen in college is a bold stance -- radical, even. Somehow, either through wishful thinking, urban legend, or actual experience, the popular perception of college -- as American as apple pie and breast implants -- is that it's a hedonistic cesspool of drugs, liquor, and indiscriminate lovin'; convincing people otherwise is about the same as saying the moon is made of ham.

I will, if I may, offer a rebuttal:
First of all, it seems like the Post's argument against collegiate no-pants dancing isn't especially well-researched: "By e-mail and instant message, we canvassed some friends for our blog," write our heroes. Far be it for me to judge complete strangers, but I don't think it's entirely outside the realm of possibility that the lack of sex noted by these "friends" has more to do with their -- let's say "personal shortcomings" -- than with the actual amount of bumping taking place on the average college campus.
Some highlights:

"The average for the engineering school is probably like once a semester" [my emphasis].

(I don't think I need to point out the cruel irony here. Based on most of the engineers I know, the engineering school is a hell of a poor choice for a case study of sexual aptitude; might as well get statistics on steroid use by canvassing the Special Olympics.)

"Either I missed out or everyone else in college isn't having sex at all."

(To whom it may concern: hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think it's very likely that you did, in fact, miss out -- just as you apparently missed out on Proper Syntax Day in high school.)

And the finale:

"At night people just go back to their rooms and finish their homework, or maybe heat up a Hot Pocket" [my emphasis].

...dear sweet bleeding Jesus H. Christ. Who the hell are these people?

The article goes on to cite some figures from Zogby, the gist being that only (only?) 60% of students in the U.S. are sexually active, and that about half the student populations of Harvard, Princeton, and M.I.T. still haven't gotten down and dirty. I'd venture that this is partly due to the fact that the average student at those three schools is already so close to a stress-induced coronary meltdown that anything more strenuous than holding hands and talking about Linux might be fatal.
The article notes that the statistics haven't been "adjusted for homosexuality," which brings the numbers down a bit; it's also worth keeping in mind that these numbers reflect people who aren't having sex, but doesn't account for why. I'm sure at least a third of that 40% aren't abstaining because of morals or chastity: these people would love to be banging like screen doors in a hurricane, but just can't seem to make an opportunity for themselves. For example, I'd be willing to bet that the guy at the party who introduces himself to girls by asking them where they live while breathing heavily -- you know, That Guy; everybody knows of at least one -- is squarely in that national 40% demographic, but not because he chooses to be.

I particularly enjoyed the "landmark study" which reported that the average student has 1.35 hook-ups per semester. I'm not sure what .35 of a hook-up would be, but I'm sure it makes for a fascinating and thoroughly awkward story.

For me, this was the clincher for how lopsided this article is:

"I've kind of got a girl right now, but we're both too busy to actually have sex" [my emphasis].

I may be completely off-base here, but judging from my own personal experience since coming to college, this whole thing seems unnatural to me. My friends shag like rabbits on Ecstasy. I've heard reliable stories about threesomes and full-on orgies. For some of the people I hang out with, 1.35 hook-ups is a quiet Tuesday evening -- forget a whole semester. As far as being "too busy to actually have sex," anybody who said that would be met with strange looks and hysterical, uncertain laughter. Too busy to study, maybe; too busy to drink -- slightly less believable, but still possible; but too busy to have sex? That kind of talk will get you tarred and feathered in my corner of the world. Maybe I just hang out with a crowd of deviant sex-crazed degenerates, but even so, I don't think the average college student is as cold and lonely as the article would like us to believe.

This just in: maybe it's worse than I thought. According to Durex, the whole country is in a coital recession. Granted, this article is just a glorified condom ad, but if this data is even close to accurate, then we're getting beat out by -- Mother of babbling God! -- the Canadians. With their guys averaging 23 sexual partners in a lifetime -- Good Lord, can that be accurate?! -- to our measly 13, and Canadian females' average of 10 also one ahead of American woman's 9, the Great White North is making us look like... well, like a bunch of engineering majors.
So are the English.
Oh, and the Mexicans.
...and here we've been thinking we were responsible for global warming.

The moral of this story is that we've got a lot of work to do. As college students, the future leaders of the world, it's our obligation -- nay, our duty -- to lead by example and get our Great Society back on top. If you know what I mean.

Nebraska Senator Sues God (Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit listed as Possible Witnesses)

2007-09-23T15:32:00.001-04:00

Okay, so while Jesus and the Holy Spirt have nothing to do with the trial, it's very true that a Nebraska Senator, Ernie Chambers, is filing a lawsuit against God, claiming that God has acted as a terrorist agent, causing fear and the death of millions of inhabitants on earth. Furthermore, he's charging God with intentionally causing "fearsome floods...horrendous hurricanes, and terrifying tornadoes."
While this is, to a certain extent, very amusing, the senator tries to make a very interesting point, which, from the sites I've read, most people have missed. Many people immediately were hung up on the fact that Ernie Chambers is a known athiest who often bashes Christians, or actually took Chambers lawsuit seriously, believing he was actually suing God. However, Chambers comes forth to address the frivolity of many lawsuits today. He says that he's responding to another lawsuit, where a woman named Tory Bowen is using a Nebraska Judge for barring the words "rape" and "victim" from use at trial.
While personally, I don't think this is the best lawsuit to retaliate to (the subject of rape being a very sensitive one in the legal system) Chambers is attempting to make a good point: lawsuits are, and have been for years, hitting a zenith in absurdity. We're all familiar (if not, have at least heard of) the Lieback v. McDonald's case, where a woman sued McDonalds because she spilled hot coffee on herself and claimed she wasn't warned the coffee would be hot.
It may be ridiculous to say that this is an absolute new development (I don't know enough about law to know if ridiculous cases date back to the dawn of time), however it's good that someone of the legal system is taking the platform to point out the hilarity of many lawsuits today. Often it seems as if they are abusing the law, taking advantage of the system to benefit themselves. However, the danger with saying this is that lawsuits in some way have always been just that. When does a lawsuit leave the realms of reality and enter the territory of ridicule and ludicrousness? It's a hard line to draw, but, if nothing else, this latest development in the legal world will force people to take another look at the system and the humorous - yet dangerous - place it sometimes finds itself in.

Further Reading:

Nebraska State Senator Sues God

For another angle on the subject, listen at:

NPR: Senator Sues God

From Nablus: Supermen are angry, too

2007-07-25T18:25:00.000-04:00

You must be Superman to be a real man in Palestine...
You must use all your senses 24-hours a day in order to stay...
You must hear the gunfire, then the screams that fade away...
You must see the blood, again and again, and still see red...
You must hold the barbwires in your hand and smile for the elderly woman trying to bypass the Israeli checkpoint...
You must smell the teargas and cry as if there aren't enough tears in this "Holy Land'...
You must taste the humiliation and eat Nabulsi sweets all in the same day... And...
And still think of the olives and thyme...
And think of ways to end this endless crime...
Oh my beloved... do we still have time...
To hold hands and kiss... and raise our children in a cosmic bliss...
- Saed Jamal

I met Saed Jamal, a professor at An-Najah University, while I was in Nablus this weekend with a group of other students doing research for the Right to Education campaign at Birzeit. He recited his poem “Palestinian Superman” to us Saturday evening, while we ate and smoked nargeelah on the roof of a restaurant and tried to ignore the gunfire coming from the streets below.

Saed is charismatic and charming and obviously brilliant. He was an excellent host. He started by finding something interesting about each of our names or our backgrounds or interests, and from then on, he directed the flow of the conversation, telling stories, answering questions and putting everyone at ease. When he arrived at our hostel the next morning with breakfast, he charmed us again, rattling off all our names without hesitation.

Still Saed is one of those Palestinian supermen, and, as he explained to us, the point of his poem, of course, is that they don’t really exist. You can’t always hold barbed wire with a smile on your face, and even in the course of a couple hours, we discovered that Saed is generous and magnetic and also angry.

In the context of Nablus and Saed’s life, these are not contradictory. The impulse to downplay negativity to put people at ease can only go so far in some places without becoming ridiculous. And so it is in Nablus - the home of more than a quarter of the second intifada's dead - that even the jolly, reassuring host displays hopelessness and outrage. Without them, maybe, he could never have seemed sincere.

Our conversation that evening was punctuated by gunfire. A few of us attributed it, probably correctly, to a wedding celebration. But that wasn’t much comfort to Saed, who is sick and tired of the normalcy of that sound in Nablus. At night, people there must try to sleep through almost daily Israeli incursions and also fighters and revelers firing in the air. It’s too much gunfire, Saed says. It’s sick.

Like so many in Nablus, Saed knows too well the consequence of a bullet. He was shot in the chest at a demonstration in the first intifada, and once he recovered, his wounds were the evidence that landed him in an Israeli jail.

Then in October 2002 soldiers drove up to his home, where Saed’s mother, a well-known peace activist sat on her porch. Fourteen bullets later his mother was dead and he and his father were both injured. (The Christian Science Monitor wrote about his mother's death in 2003.)

Saed and his family tried to fight for an investigation and some sort of justice. But when he first called the army, they refused to come investigate, citing security concerns. They told him to come to the Hiwara checkpoint near Nablus and file a complaint there. Sa’ed wouldn’t have any of it. When does the victim ever go to the investigator, he asked the soldier. You came into my house and killed my mother. Come put a tank on each end of my street and investigate the crime scene.

To this day no investigation has been completed.

Now Saed is trying to come to the United States, where he’s been invited by a university. But his visa application has gone unanswered, perhaps because his mother’s death has marked him as somehow connected to terrorism.

“I want them to tell me that it’s because my mother was assassinated so that I can take off my shoe and swim across to the United States and shove it in the mouth of George Bush,” he said. “But they just don’t say anything.”

And so for now Saed is still in Nablus, where, like everyone, he hears gunfire and sees blood and eats sweets and fights for the kind of life worthy of a man like him.

Paris, ad nauseam

2007-07-02T15:06:00.000-04:00

No, not that one!

Sadly enough, as an incoming editor for the Ministry of Cool (and all-around internship goofer-offer), I must put in my two cents on the media carnival that has been Paris Hilton's less-than-five-star accommodations. In the past month, we've seen (or have been forced to suffer through) closely reported, widespread coverage of the waifish celebutant's stay at the Los Angeles County Correctional Facility.

If her above-the-law treatment wasn't enough (just when we thought Paris was in jail, she was briefly released because of her debilitating claustrophobia), we have been subjected to some of the most vapid news stories seen since...oh yeah, Anna Nicole Smith.

In fact, Hilton has easily surpassed both Smith's legal battles and, more recently, iPhone hype, inspiring a whole new world of meta-journalism, which I am now a part of. This includes writing about Hilton...and writing about writing about Hilton...oh, and writing about writing about writing about Hilton...and now this blog...need I do the math?

Actually, peoplepress.org have done it for me. Their findings on the week of June 4 news coverage show that Paris's whirlwind release-return to jail was the fifth heavily covered story of the week. And now, with hype commentators ranging from Judge Judy to O.J. Simpson there seems to be no end in sight for reporting on reporting on reporting.

I would like spotlight MSNBC reporter Mika Brzezinski for her hilarious attempt to burn (yes, with a lighter) her copy of the story.

My favorite part of this clip is when Brzezinski's co-anchor, amidst all the fuss, blurts out, "Lord, why is she such a journalist."

Oh right! He meant journalist pejoratively.

Well, that's all from the world of frivolously groundbreaking news. Please read Emily's blog posts below to absolve yourself from these sinful observations on observations.

Yours truly,
Mike Berlin, non-journalist

p.s. I love US Weekly, they banned Paris from their magazine. Read about it here and here
p.p.s. Need more Paris Critique?

From Ramallah: Who wants peace?

2007-06-29T07:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Tony Blair was named the Quartet’s envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Israelis say they are happy with this appointment, and so does the PA, but many Palestinians – and everyone whose opinion I trust on the Middle East – are dubious, to say the least. The war in Iraq and Blair’s behavior during the wars in Lebanon and Gaza last summer are two strikes against him, not to mention the perception here and everywhere that, as my Arabic teacher said yesterday, “Blair is Bush’s tail.” Robert Fisk’s reaction to the news is definitely worth reading.

Some people are talking about the events of the last few weeks as presenting a new opportunity for peace. I wish I could agree. What kind of peace would this renewed effort bring?

Last weekend I went to Bethlehem and stayed at Ibdaa’ Cultural Center in the Dheisheh refugee camp nearby. We met with a group of teenagers from the camp who are participating in a blogging program that tries to link Palestinian refugees in different camps to one another and provide teenagers with a means of self-expression. (The same organization also runs a really great English language site about refugees.) Five other PAS students and I sat in on a planning meeting and then had a discussion with the eight teenagers and three young women about my age, who were leading the meeting.

We talked about whether the blogging project could change anything, about the occupation and about peace. These 14 and 15-year-olds are not hopeful about the future of Palestine and have no illusions that their blogs can do anything to help their situation. They don’t believe there will be peace between Israel and Palestine anytime soon, and they cite two reasons: Israel doesn’t want peace, and the rest of the world – particularly the Unites States – doesn’t want peace.

A 15-year-old girl qualified that analysis for us. There are many Israelis who want peace, she said, but the Israeli government doesn’t. Likewise, a boy told us he understood the difference between the American people and the American government. It’s the American government that is to blame for what is happening to his people, he said.

But that argument only goes so far. As convenient as this dichotomy is for promoting goodwill between Palestinians and Americans and Palestinians and Israelis, the sad truth is that to a great extent the American and Israeli governments are representing the wishes of their people.

One of the group’s leaders – an Arab Israeli – argued this point to the students. Israelis want security, she said, and that hardly resembles peace for people in the West Bank and Gaza. Just look at the wall, she said. More occupation means security – the facade of peace – for Israelis, but more violence and suffering for the Palestinians.

I went to a panel yesterday in Jerusalem about the role of the international community in the peace process, and Shlomo Ben-Ami, the former Israeli foreign minister, made a similar statement. Israel and Palestine cannot produce an agreement themselves, he said, because the political realities in each of their countries will not allow it. “The Israel that I know – not the Israel of my dreams, but the Israel that I know – has much more in common with Hamas than with the PLO,” he said. Israelis in general, he believes, are not ready to make the concessions that are necessary for peace.

So what would peace here look like, and whose is it to give? For a long time, the peace process here was based on the idea of “land for peace.” Israel would return land to the Palestinians in exchange for “peace” – as though peace was something in the Palestinians’ power to give.

“Peace,” of course, meant that the Palestinian resistance would stop. The resistance to the occupation, then, was expected to end before the occupation itself. Hope as we might, that couldn’t and didn’t happen. But even if it had, would there have been peace? Is peace just an end to Palestinian bombings and Palestinian demonstrations (which, judging by the IDF’s response, Israel also sees as a threat)? Stop complaining about your situation, we seem to say to the Palestinians, and then we can talk about where and how you might live. Stop trying to resist us, and then we will stop oppressing you. That strategy seems neither just nor pragmatic.

There is inherent violence in the occupation, and whenever we talk about peace we have to understand that. The wall and the checkpoints are violent, not only because they are strangling the Palestinian economy and preventing travel to school, work and to visit family, but because they are a constant reminder of humiliation and powerlessness. (One of the leaders of the blogging group told us that she was hospitalized once for depression, which she attributed to the stress of going through three checkpoints a day for four years in order to go to school. Writing, she said, has finally helped her cope.) Real peace requires an end to occupation. What exactly that will look like for the Palestinians and Israelis and what kind of state or states will exist here remains to be seen. But if we say we want peace, we have to want freedom, rights and land for Palestinians.

I’m not sure how sincere America or Israel is in its desire for that kind of peace. For Palestinians, because they are the occupied, peace is ultimately the only means through which they will get their rights. Israelis need peace, too, but it’s harder for the occupier to see this. Israel has other tools at its disposal to get what it wants. The wall and the settlements take land and resources without peace. The checkpoints bring a sense of security without peace. Israel and the United States have the ultimate power over the situation, and that makes it both more necessary and less likely for them to make the concessions that are necessary for peace.

In the meantime, the occupation and the resistance continue. The IDF this week conducted major operations in Gaza and Nablus, against both Fatah and Hamas, in which at least two civilians were killed. (Al Jazeera notes that the Nablus incursion also prevented students from taking their final exams.) These incursions occurred despite strong condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, to which Israel and the U.S. have so eagerly pledged their support.

As Saeb Erekat, the head negotiator for the Palestinians, said at the panel yesterday, “The Middle East is going down the toilet faster than people think.”

From Ramallah: What happened last week?

2007-06-18T11:04:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about my last post and trying to get a better grasp on the significance of what has happened here over the last few weeks. As I wrote about before, I’m intuitively a little uncomfortable with the media coverage I’ve been seeing. It seems to exaggerate the sense of tension and the significance of specific actions taken by Fatah and Hamas. But I feel strange saying that, because clearly developments over the past few weeks are hugely significant.

I was talking to Martin, one of my friend's roommates, yesterday about what he thought. Martin's a Brit who just made a short documentary about Marwan Barghouti and seems to be tuned into the political situation. Most Palestinians, especially those in Ramallah, are happy that Hamas is out of the government, because it means that Western aid will return. What they have learned over the past year and a half, Martin said, is that if they elect the wrong party, they will be isolated and essentially starved into submission. If they elect the party supported by Israel and the U.S. they will not see their political goals realized – or even pursued, really – but their government will be able to pay salaries and they’ll be able to eat. Fatah was voted out in 2006, because the Palestinian people didn't trust them. Many Palestinians welcome the new Fatah-controlled government not because that perception has changed but because every other option is unbearable.

What happened this week, then, was the confirmation of the Palestinians’ powerlessness. They tried, through a democratic process, to replace a corrupt party that had failed them in the Oslo peace process, and things only got worse. Now the hope of a two-state solution is essentially gone, and so too, perhaps, is the hope that Palestinian politicians can bring any of the things the Palestinians want – an end to the occupation, settlements and assassinations, release of prisoners, etc.

This is just one of many reasons why the actions of Hamas and Fatah over the past few weeks matter, and so it makes sense that the media are following them closely. But it’s the sense of chaos they presented that, I think, missed the point and exaggerated the government's power. Chaos in this weak government does not translate into chaos in the West Bank generally. Life here over the past few days doesn’t feel chaotic at all, and my sense is that’s because the Palestinian government has so little power, and, although the fatal bullet may have come this week, the hope of a viable state had been dying for a long time.

There is so much going on here apart from the Palestinian government that has an enormous impact on the lives of Palestinians and the prospects for peace. Where is the coverage of civil society and the effects of the occupation? Americans know so little about Palestinians, yet so many of us have such strong feelings about how the Israel and the United States should treat them.

Report from Ramallah - Part 1

2007-06-16T10:57:00.000-04:00

Upfront editor Emily McNeill is in the West Bank for the summer, studying Arabic at Birzeit University and learning about life in Palestine under occupation. Whenever possible she'll be blogging for Buzzsaw about her experiences there. Questions or comments? Post them here or email her directly at emilymcneill@gmail.com.

From what I can tell, today is the calmest since I’ve been in Ramallah. I did some errands around the city this afternoon, and the streets were full of people who seemed to be going about their business as usual. Thursday night and yesterday the streets were quiet, and people I’ve talked to say the atmosphere was unusually tense.

The media, though, seem to have come to the opposite conclusion, and in some ways they’re certainly right. The political situation remains very unstable and today Fatah fighters made their most visible move against Hamas in Ramallah and Nablus. But some of the coverage – particularly the images – suggests a very different environment than what I see around me. Not surprisingly the media is captivated by images of men wearing masks and carrying machine guns.

I was buying some juice in Al-Manara (the central circle in Ramallah where a lot of demonstrations take place) when a lot of these masked gunmen were gathered there. Mostly they were just milling around holding their weapons while crowds of people either walked by them around the circle or stood watching. Cameramen were set up around the circle following fighters around and sticking cameras in their faces. It was a ridiculous scene, and it reminded me of the little I’ve read about Walter Lippman. I looked him up on Wikipedia when I got home and found this quote: “The function of news is to signalize an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them in relation with each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act.”

The images these journalists were collecting in Al Manara “signalize” the event of the day – Fatah’s moves against Hamas in Ramallah. They illustrate perfectly a sense of tension, unrest and violence and are the ideal images to accompany tonight’s reports on the turmoil in the Palestinian government. But while that turmoil is real, these images are caricatures. Take a step back and the men in these images are a small – though unsettling – piece of a much larger picture. Ramallah, a city of 40,000 people, is going about its business today while gunmen show off for TV.

I’m not arguing that the images of gunmen are irrelevant. These men are on the streets of Ramallah, and the fact that they’re flexing their muscles and harassing Hamas is significant. But the obvious question is whether the coverage encourages a real understanding of the situation in the West Bank today, and if not, what factors does it ignore and what stereotypes does it reinforce? Even if we could agree on the answers to those questions, how could journalists go about producing material that was further from "news" and closer to "truth?"

It's complicated. But, like so many people have said before, I find myself wishing today that it wasn't just the pictures with shock value and the people perceived to have power that were making it onto the front pages.

MY MOON, MY MING

2007-05-24T16:21:00.001-04:00

It's a crime you haven't read the new issue of buzzsaw yet ...

2007-05-24T16:00:00.000-04:00

So, the new issue is out. Copies are littered around the Commons and the college. It's the crime/Hurricane Katrina issue. I don't suspect it'll go online until the fall (or later in the summer at least), so you'll want to nab one up like the fast-disappearing print periodical it is. -APF

Striving in Greater Hopes
At first glance, you wouldn’t expect the petite frame of Cyrille Robes to produce such a powerful and soulful voice, but then again the Long Island, NY based band Striving in Greater Hopes (S.I.G.H) has grown accustomed to surprising people. Fusing melodies and catchy lyrics, S.I.G.H produces music that is both hard hitting and raw. S.I.G.H’s aggressive approach to song writing and their mixture of so many different genres, including metal, pop, hard rock and punk, really gives most, if not every listener something to enjoy. Cyrille’s melodic voice perfectly balances the heavy rock riffs of the rest of the band. With their sound echoing bands such as Incubus, Evanescence and Killswitch Engage, S.I.G.H’s metal-driven pop rock is nothing short of entertaining. Their sound remains fresh and unique by combining various styles of diverse bands, yet still adding their own spices into the mixture. Bassist and back up singer, JayR Castillo, accompanies Cyrille’s graceful and upbeat singing with his energetic screams throughout different tracks on their self-titled EP. With their fast riffs and thoughtful lyrics, Striving in Greater Hopes creates unforgettable music. If it’s not their fusion of genres that will get you hooked on each track, it’s the catchy choruses. Each track on their EP has a chorus that will inhabit your mind for days on end and song titles like “Ignoraphobia” and “Schandenfreude” are sure to get your attention even before listening.

S.I.G.H’s 4-song EP rocks from start to finish. Each track has its own unique style, and each band member’s talent brings something important to their sound. Jeff Lyons sets the pace on the drums, JayR brings the groove on the bass, guitarist Jason Mueller and Ithaca College senior Daniel Buquicchio add the killer riffs and Cyrille brings it all together with her amazing voice. With all of their own original material and growing fan base, S.I.G.H continues to tour all around the North East with scheduled concerts almost every week. Check out their music and tour schedule. Catch a show if you’re in the area. You won’t be disappointed. -Jackie McBrien

A Night at the Drive-In

2007-04-19T13:31:00.000-04:00

If Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, the exalted directors of Grindhouse, know anything, they know crappy movies. Through some postmodern loophole, they are Hollywood’s chief purveyors of comic book crud passing off as art. With Grindhouse, their intent is not to simply pay homage to their dollar-bin influences, but instead downright emulate them; and I don’t think any other directors could have done the job better.

The result is two “mini” (ninety minute) movies and a smattering of horror-movie-parody trailers that were lovingly directed by such schlock-and-gore fans as Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Eli Roth (Hostel). Everything is exactingly in sync with a seventies drive-in double bill; even the film stock has been washed out and aged. In terms of atmosphere, Tarantino, Rodriguez and their cohorts are geniuses; one leaves feeling sociable and giddy.

The first feature, Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, culls all of the clichés from the now-hackneyed zombies-on-the-rampage genre: a small town setting, a well-intentioned hero with a past, military complicity, a liberal volume of blood spray, and an apocalyptic ending. This segment is not particularly memorable, but it was so overwrought and so full of cheesy dialogue that it never lost my attention; disposable movies such as this should just wash over you. The cast has all the right stock players – people that never have and never will become stars, and have since given up trying. Some, like Michael Biehn (the protagonist in the original Terminator plays a gruff sheriff here), and a tired Bruce Willis, are jokes in and of themselves.

Tarrantino’s flick, Death Proof, despite being full of horny girls and mean muscle cars, actually betrays its roots at times. An early scene at a bar, for example, could be the set-up for a more substantial film. To my surprise, the middle actually sagged. Tarantino, the writer, got indulgent; his attempts at characterization go nowhere and – worse – lack his trademark wit. There’s a very long take that spins around a group of girls at a table that seems like something out of Grand Illusion and not Vanishing Point. And there is a whole lot of build up for a stunt that seems comparatively unimpressive. But the movie zings when Kurt Russell is on screen as an old TV stuntman who likes to use his “death proof” car as a murder weapon for unsuspecting women. He goes between being a smooth but world-weary charmer while he’s on the winning side and an apoplectic wuss when he’s on the defensive. He finally harasses the wrong girls – themselves Hollywood stunt people – who decide to get back at him and then some.

Their car chase/dog fight is probably the best that I’ve ever seen on the big screen; I’d put it next to The French Connection without flinching. One friend likened watching it to getting high; the choreography, coupled with the feminist revenge fantasy – because you really want to see the murderous old chauvinist finally get his comeuppance – really leaves you feeling elated. It’s the perfect high note for Grindhouse to end on.

The beauty of this movie is that it's wholly loyal to what it’s doing; Rodriguez and Tarantino never try to elevate the material into what some critics mistake for “art.” This is empty, compelling popcorn entertainment, and the perfect movie-going experience. And unlike movies, such as 300, it's thoroughly witty and without a nauseating flair for propaganda.

-Elliott Feedore

more music. . .

2007-04-19T12:36:00.000-04:00

In addition to the previously discussed FREE events this weekend (two awesome buzzsaw shows, click here if you don't know), there's an assemblage of other activities. Directly after our Friday- Robot Ate Me- show there'll be a dance party fundraiser for the Ithaca Opera Project right at No Radio. Bob describes it as follows:

Friday, April 20th at 10 pm
Dance Party
Love-In vs. Freak-Out
No Radio Records
312 E Seneca St
$3/18+

Also, the same night there's a 10pm Fanclub show at the Lost Dog with Ike Yard,"NYC electro / no wave / industrial band from the early 80s." Check out Natasha at the Times' story on that.

If you still want more music after the mass of concert-parties this weekend, this Sunday Mara Levi will be playing a free show at Felicia's Atomic Lounge (508 W State St) at 7pm. She's from DC and plays pretty cool singer-songwritery stuff.

MUSIC!

2007-04-18T02:33:00.000-04:00

These shows will also serve as the collective release parties for the first-ever Buzzsaw Haircut Compilation CD.

Whale + Synthesizer =Awesome

2007-04-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

Wholphin, the McSweeney's DVD magazine, posted a video by Nicholas Thorburn of The Islands featuring a song from the last album, Return to the Sea, along with some awesome whale footage. The story is pretty sad, but the whole package puts an interesting spin on what was originally kind of a snoozer of a song.

Check it out here: Tsuxiit

Buzzsaw Concert Announcement: UPDATE

2007-04-12T17:23:00.000-04:00

UPDATE

Both shows are POSSIBLY FREE OR POSSIBLY $3, all-ages, start before 7pm, and at No Radio Records (312 E Seneca St, Ithaca, NY)

Friday, April 20
The Robot Ate Me
Run Chico Run
Sorry Safari
This Fantastic

Saturday, April 21
Tiger Saw
Stanley & the Livingstons
The Tundra Toes
Machine Gun Joe

(the potential fee would be to aid buzzsaw in its effort to fundraise the required percentage of its budget necessary for future funding)

p.s. And as a supplement to the preceeding post, here is my favorite Kurt Vonnegut passage, also my favorite page of text ever written:

So this book is a sidewalk strewn with junk, trash which I throw over my shoulders as I travel in time back to November eleventh, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.

I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old me who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

* * *

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

And all music is.

-PHILBOYD STUDGE

-Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions. New York: Dial, 1973.

Vonnegut and the Ithaca Issue

2007-04-12T09:42:00.000-04:00

The Ithaca Issue has been out for about a week, and most of it is now online as well. Check it out, and let us know what you think. (You can read what the editors have to say about it here.)

In other news, Kurt Vonnegut died last night. He's a favorite of the Buzzsaw editors and so I thought I'd share with you my favorite passage in all the literature I've read (which, admittedly, is not that much). It comes from Vonnegut's 1969 classic, Slaughterhouse-Five.

He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:

American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter plans flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.

The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.

-Emily

Essex Green Interview

2007-04-03T16:48:00.000-04:00

A long, long once-upon-a-time-ago, Buzzsaw Haircut interviewed The Essex Green, a stellar indie-pop act that played a highly entertaining, if not a bit poorly lit, set at Cornell on March 3. We talked with Chris Ziter, guitarist and vocalist, about the trials of being in a long-distance band, the stigma of being labeled a "60s" act, and a couple other topics, some of which got inevitably lost and misplaced in the passage of time between the actual interview and our transcription thereof. Enjoy.

Buzzsaw Haircut: So how has living in Cinicinati changed being in the band [as the rest of the members live in New York City]?

Chris Ziter: As a band we've always lived near each other, and our rhythm section, our bassist and drummer, have either been local folks or people that have lived in other countries. We never really necessarily settled on certain people. So we were always project-based as a band -- we would pick times for getting together to either work on live songs for a tour or songs for recording. So in a sense that's pretty much the same, we just have plan it out a little bit more when we get together. With recording, we try to write the songs separately and then bring it all together. It changed a little bit more from a friendship point of view, not running into each other as often, but from a work point of view, it hasn't affected it that much.

BH: Can you talk about the songwriting process? How does it work putting an album together, with all three songwriters writing independently?

CZ: Jeff Baron, the lead guitarist, and myself went to college together and we were in a local band at the University of Vermont. We started playing music together our senior year in college in a local band with four members who all wrote songs, and we'd each record them on 4-tracks. So the idea of writing songs separately and recording demo versions of them, then playing them for the other band members and having everybody work together on what becomes the live version is just something we've done from pretty much day one. And once we started Essex Green and Sasha was in it-- she'd played with our old band for a little while, and she was watching how we were doing things and that's just the way we've always made music. It kind of taps into the personal side of every songwriter in the band and they spend some time with the song, then they bring it to the table and it gets shaped around before we go into the studio.

CUT::This is where this interview gets interrupted by an old woman in Biloxi, Mississippi discussing her work helping people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She tells many great stories::CUT

(BH's assumed question: What's it like working with Merge [Records]?)

CZ: In general, they're just really, really top-notch people. A great independent label. It's really one of the last major, true indies; no major label money coming in from anywhere. We have a lot of respect for how they do business. But there is handicaps that come with any independent label -- that they can't spend a ton of money that a major label would be spending on marketing and what have you. So our PR is limited, and we have to kind of pull stuff out of our own pockets to supplement that if we want. They've been great as far as us being proud to be on that label with their roster, and people definitely notice us because we're on [Merge]. I think we get a certain amount of respect just based on that.

BH: Do they have people working to get your stuff on commercials and movies, or does that come about by people just hearing the band?

CZ: They do a lot of hard work that we certainly couldn't do ourselves. [For example], they give us some advance money for recording. They have a lot of really great bands on their label and they're very busy people just trying to make it, and when a band like the Arcade Fire comes along they can finally get some sort of payback for all the hard work they put in. But in general, it's the same as being in a band, people are doing it for different reasons and they're just trying to make ends meet so they can keep doing what they love to do.

BH: How would you describe a typical audience?

CZ: It's strange, you know, we've gotten really into opening for either bigger acts or contemporary acts that have just started to gain some popularity. And that's one of our favorite things to do because you expose yourself to a lot of different audiences. A lot of cases we can come out of that really positively. Our audience is definitely the indie crowd, but it can really range from really young to much older people because our music has that range from the different levels of songwriting that are happening. And our kind of preference for 60s-style production and arrangement. It's generally pretty much a mix, hard to pin it down.

BH: Do you feel like the 60s comparisons that critics like to latch onto help or hurt the band?

CZ: We get pegged for the 60s thing more than we certainly talk about it. That's the kind of music we like listening to, but when we're writing the music and then recording it and arranging it, we're doing it based on what we want to hear. It's not like we think, "Oh, this sounds like The Zombies," or "This sounds like The Kinks or whatever." We're not thinking along those lines and we don't actively associate ourselves with being a 60s band or a 60s interpretive outfit or anything like that. We get pegged that a lot, I don't know if that has to do with our name. In one periodical we got pegged as a Kinks revisionist band solely on the fact that our name is close to the kink's Village Green Preservation Society. It's just wierd how people kind of want to put that stamp on you, and I suppose the Elephant 6 label might of helped do that. And I have no problem with it. Our music, we feel, is more complex than that. On the last record it ranges from 60s and 70s [influence] to some stuff that has an 80s sound going on. It's a mix, I dont think it helps or hurts us necessarily.

BZ: So you think the people who listen to your music just listen to the record? That's really something they're thinking about?

CZ: It might be. The one thing we really associate with the 60s is the arrangements of the songs and the production. We're going for a specific sounding amp and specific sounding keyboard and stuff like that, and we choose those olders sounds rather than a lot of synthy stuff. But that's just the kind of music we like listening to and the kind of things we like to hear, so i can see why people consider that in our music, but, outside of that, I think it's a little more complex.

BH: What are your future expectations for the band? Are you guys working on another album, or just songwriting for now?

CZ: We've been friends for a really long time, I hope and expect that we will continue to make music for a long, long time, even into older ago or whatever. [I hope that] as we all get older, we get families and consider moving various places like I have in some ways, it's gonna be the way we all keep connected to each other. Obviously I'd love to have a break-out record and love to be able to play some big festivals and tour with some really big acts and stuff like that. But we've had some really great, big shows and we've done really well in certain countries, like Sweden, so we're really lucky.

BH: So are you guys working on another album for 2007 or just concentrating on weekend tours?

CZ: We did a lot of touring in 2006 for our record, and we just toured with Camera Obscura a couple of weeks ago, and I'm on my way to New York for these shows we're doing this weekend. And everybody's just kind of writing. I think starting next fall we'll probably get together and start the process of recording. We're all into the idea of going about this record a little bit differently by spending more time in an actual studio and not recording as much by ourselves, so we can both get the record done quicker and get more a live feel, because we've really enjoyed the live stuff we've been doing.

Ted Leo xoxo

2007-02-23T17:04:00.000-05:00

With the new Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse records coming out in March, we want to make sure our man Ted gets his proper due for Living with the Living, scheduled to release March 20.

The new album's on the internet, and it's dang good. I haven't quite gotten into the whole thing yet, but from a cursory listen it sounds like TL decided spread the love around and make a song for every genre. Plus there's a tune about this,which looks freakin' tasty as hell.

Here's a link to one notable track, Bomb. Repeat. Bomb (1954), courtesy of TheHypeMachine. Sounds like Ted's summoning the specter of late-80s/early-90s post-punk, with delicious, delicious results.

In other news, Buzzsaw's putting on a FREE show this Thursday, March 1 at No Radio Records Skybox, Stanley & the Livingstons, The Tundra Toes, and the unholy debut of This Fantastic. Music starts at 6:30pm.

The Ism Issue

2007-02-23T12:43:00.000-05:00

Our second edition of 2007, the Ism Issue, is now out on Ithaca College campus and can also be found floating around downtown. The issue is also up on our Web site, where you can read all the printed articles, plus additional content, including a previously unpublished report on IC's journalism department written by Prof. Alan Wright's Issues and the News class.

There have been some new developments in the Park School since our story on the journalism department went to press. The Daily Californian reported on Feb. 21 that Park School Dean Dianne Lynch is one of four candidates being considered for the position of dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley. This is quite an honor for Dean Lynch, but one wonders what effect uncertainty over her future will have on plans to revamp Park's journalism program and start a Center for Independent Media. So far, Dean Lynch has made no public statement about her intentions, and both the Park School blog and the Ithacan have been silent on the matter.

ADDENDUM: Dean Lynch has said she takes issue with the identification of her in the Daily Californian as a "front-runner" for the position. She was nominated for the post and will travel to Berkeley in March for an interview, but she has not yet spoken with the search committee and says the process is still in its early stages. Although four candidates have been scheduled for interviews, Berkeley may still consider more people for the job. If and when she is a finalist, Lynch said, she will inform the IC community. Meanwhile, she is not looking to leave the Park School.

2006's Definitive Top Fives

2007-02-03T12:26:00.000-05:00

Chapter 3: A video we didn't take . . .

2007-01-24T13:00:00.000-05:00

In stark contrast to the now succeeding grainy concert video footage, here is a superbly done music video of what is, in my fragile and ever-so flippant opinion, the best freaking song ever. Of Montreal's new album is good. No, it's gooder than good, it's gouda. Here's a quick review by a current Buzzsaw writer. Look for a full write-up in the next issue.

Concert Videos

2007-01-24T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hey, remember when we promised videos from our last concert? Well, neither do I. Here they are anway. Look out for info on the upcoming Buzzsaw sponsored concert March 1.

Buzzsaw Takes to the Streets

2007-01-17T16:11:00.000-05:00

If you missed President Bush's speech last week announcing his new plan for Iraq, here is a transcript of the address with commentary from Stephen Zunes of Foreign Policy in Focus. Zunes breaks down Bush's argument to show that his characterization of the situation, while perhaps more realistic than before, is still woefully innaccurate.

Here's another reason, courtesy of Chris Hedges, why Bush's plan is a bad and even catastrophic idea. More troops + less mobility = more bloodshed = more resentment.

So what to do? Congress is hashing out a strategy for how to resist the "surge." Meanwhile antiwar groups are planning a massive demonstration in Washington DC for January 27 to call for an immediate end to American military action in Iraq. Buzzsaw is proud to be a cosponsor of the Ithaca delegation. For more information on the Ithaca group and to reserve a spot on the bus from Ithaca to DC, send an email to buzzsawhaircut[at]gmail.com. For information on the march visit www.unitedforpeace.org.

Happy New Year (and thoughts on Iraq)

2007-01-01T23:13:00.000-05:00

Happy 2007! Buzzsaw's got some exciting things lined up for the new year. Next month Sawdust will present "Buzzsaw for Kids" and we'll also be releasing the Ism Issue. Work continues on the Web site - and we'd love to hear your feedback!

Meanwhile there's still a war going on. As the death toll of American soldiers passed the 3,000 mark, the Washington Post published a moving and important piece that tells the stories behind some of the military casualties.

There's a lot of anger among "the left" about Iraq. The more we learn about what has really gone on in Baghdad and Washington since 2003, the more justified that anger appears. It’s not just lives and dollars that have been lost, and it’s not just the respect of the world. In Iraq we've had to watch our government’s arrogance and ineptitude bring out some of the worst in humanity. How could you, we want to scream at all of them, at the top of our lungs.

But then you read words from the parents of SPC Ross A. McGinnis, who died on Dec. 14 in Iraq when he threw himself on top of a grenade and saved the lives of four of his friends. And that's when our talk of some existential tragedy rings a little hollow. The disillusionment that we feel is real, but it is not the loss of a son or a sister or a friend.

Somehow while we wring our hands we forget that we said we would support the troops. Meanwhile they are coming home in coffins and wheelchairs, and, in our minds, our prejudices reduce military service to a trap into which the poor fall.

We absolutely should be angry. We can fight with all our strength the idea that this war is bringing freedom or justice to the people of Iraq. But as we do, somehow we have to also acknowledge the courage of soldiers who - whether for the sake of that idea or for their comrades - are making devastating sacrifices. And we have to support them and their families with more than words.

All this has been said before, over and over. But it's a new year, and so maybe we can try again.

-Emily

Religion Issue

2006-12-16T13:24:00.000-05:00

Hi all. The Religion Issue finally hit the streets earlier this week, and it is most certainly the best Buzzsaw ever (like forever ever). In coordination, the website is now up and running (albeit with limited functionality). Stay tuned as we work out the kinks and fill in the past year of articles!

Here's a comic!

Halloween is HERE!

2006-11-28T21:20:00.000-05:00

Loyal reader,

Here is Mike Berlin's deliciously dated and scintillatingly scandalous piece on our favorite of recently bygone holidays (no, not that one). Thank you Mike, staff writer extraordinaire, we love you. sincerely. -buzzsaw

I sit in the living room of my three-bedroom apartment and stare at the piling dishes, papers, and trash bags in the corner. We live in utter squalor. In a holiday attempt to be festive, three carved pumpkins decorate the room, swimming in a sea of clutter, rapidly rotting away. This is the spirit of Halloween in the den of three college juniors.

My stomach growls angrily at me and I get up to forage in the pantry. On the way, I pass a plastic bag filled with browning pumpkin guts leaking through to the floor from a carving session past. In the true spirit of Halloween, I imagine dust, cobwebs, and flying bats to present themselves in the kitchen cupboard, but instead I’m greeted by store brand Mac N’ Cheese.

Disappointed, I resolve to watch more Food Network in an attempt to absorb the enticing cuisine metaphysically through the television screen. It’s this and the promise of the free food that lies ahead which keeps me strong and weary of the two New York style pizzerias down the street.

It’s Halloween, and me and my nostalgia-starved friends are going to hit the town (of Ithaca) in search of free treats. Our first semester off the meal plan, and we were more than ready to gorge on free candy. For many this would be the first time in a decade.

We had never necessarily lost the spirit of Halloween, but our ideas had evolved. As college students, we became red cup toting, weekend warriors, parading up and down South Hill from party to party. Costumes became a bit more risqué.

I recall spotting Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love at a party the weekend past, complete with punctured veins drawn with eye makeup. In hand, they carried a cheap plastic baby doll, which they continued to throw around and inject with invisible heroin from a syringe stolen from the campus health center. For me, this hadn’t stirred up childhood memories of trick-or-treating, but I’d given them points for the make-up job. My weekend costume wasn’t quite suitable either.

I dressed in drag as Ann Coulter, equipped with a slew a neo-conservative ideals and a sign reading “End Women’s Suffrage Now!” Though I’m sure the residents of Ithaca would’ve appreciated the irony, I knew children would shudder in fear of my hairy legs protruding from a mid-length skirt.

Now, it’s time for a costume change. I leave the apartment and head to the kingdom of standard and cheap—the dollar store. Amongst the instant meal mixes and putrid hand soaps, there lies a corner filled with sparse Halloween themed items. There is a rack of flimsy plastic masks. Each resembles something Tom Cruise would peel off his face during a “Mission Impossible” movie. I choose one at random and grab fake police tape and a devilish pitchfork. A savvy $3 investment and I’m all set.

As friends start arriving to the apartment, it’s apparent that we all are cheaping out on our costumes. Both Steve and Evan are wearing similar masks to mine, possibly costing a few dollars more. Brittany is wearing a shiny orange wig. Cassandra is wearing makeup. I give her some police tape to wrap around and we call it “a-policewoman-entered-in-a-beauty-pageant,”—a spooky twist on the plot of “Miss Congeniality.”

Finally, we embark on our journey with danger in the air as Cassandra says, “A kid in my class said it’s illegal to trick-or-treat as college students.”

The three of us taller than six feet are a bit fazed, but we understand that Halloween is a time to be daring in the face of terror and disgruntled adults.

As the streets turn residential, kids of all ages, dressed as the Nickelodeon characters of their generation scurry about collecting their treats. It all seems the same at first, until I start to notice some children with cell phones in place of parents. One child is even dressed as a cell phone, occasionally yelling “Can you hear me now!”

My imagination goes wild thinking about the next generation of children navigating the streets with their GPS systems, plotting out the routes that turn out maximum candy collection.

We have our own methods, deciding to knock on doors with the porch lights on—none of this “ Turn left for the next Snickers Bar in .23 miles.”

We knock on our first door, highly anticipating, poised, waiting to say “trick-or-treat!!!” It’s Nicole from Research Methods in Psychology. She answers the door holding a bowl of candy, smiling shame into us. We move on, our bags a bit heavier and our tails between our legs.

The next few doors turn out pretty well with parents complimenting us on our spirit. They hand out generous fortunes of chocolate, as if we had more self control than children. One woman asks what we’re supposed to be. I hesitate and think: unlicensed plastic surgery gone wrong. Brittany replies, “These three are cheap monsters, she’s a beauty queen, and I’m a rockstar.” Very well put.

Steve adds in, “We’re all 14,” and gets a laugh all around.

After conquering a few more blocks, we turn down another street. Brittany and Evan sit the next few houses out, suspiciously smoking cigarettes on the adjacent sidewalks as we continue to ring doorbells. The spirit of Halloween begins to overtake us and we become quite chatty with the adults, teenagers, and small children who start to answers the doors with depleting candy bowls as the night goes on.

Eventually, our hunger catches us and we pull into a playground to lighten our bags for the walk home. Sitting on picnic tables, discarding wrapper after wrapper, I find this to be a great “young at heart” cinematic moment.

A cop car slowly drives down the street. With the ever present danger of minor scolding ahead we decide to head out, our stomachs full and our teeth sugared. “Mission accomplished, agents.” We peel of our plastic faces and continue to stuff them with chocolate. -Mike Berlin

A New Direction

2006-11-09T16:32:00.000-05:00

I promise a full concert recap (with some freakin pictures and video) is on the way. To hold you over, here's a link to Matt Taibbi's election night column. He's been one of my favorite writers employed by a real magazine since his piece on John Kerry's robot publicity stunts 2 years ago. In other news, Rolling Stone still gives every cd three stars regardless of what the reviewer says. Well except for this.

Mailing it in

2006-11-06T14:17:00.000-05:00

So. Election Day is tomorrow. I know I promised to give some reasons not to vote (the AARP's awesome, misleading commercial for www.dontvote.com caught my attention), but looking at my absentee ballot, I feel like the more important question is 'why the hell haven't I heard of anybody on this?' With 11 parties on the ballot I was familiar with where they generally stood. But the candidates? I knew they had names, and parties, and that was about it.

I flipped open this week's Ithacan and found a break-down of the midterm elections, and while there was a general summary of the latest scandals and a few sentences about the Democratic and Republican candidates, the rest of the candidates were relegated to the name-party combination I already had. Further in, I found an article arguing for not voting. While that idea, as you can probably tell, did cross my mind, the allure of mailing a letter was too much. So, as long as I was embracing the pretence of democracy, I figured why not give my vote to someone who I might actually agree with. Maybe if I was the only one they would send ME a letter.

So I did some research, which I am not going to share with you, but I do encourage everyone to google (the only research worthwhile) the Republican, Democratic, Independence, Conservative, Working Families, Green, Libertarian, Rent Is Too High, Socialist Workers, and Socialist Equality parties before tomorrow. Not that their websites will necessarily tell you the truth, but you might find something useful.

If you're voting absentee, it needs to be postmarked today at the latest, so you've either voted already or not (either way we can watch the exit poll results on tv and ponder over the futility of our efforts). If you want someone to tell you how to vote check out alt-weeklies the City Newspaper and the Ithaca Times for some decent ideas. The City's campaign for voters to write in REFORM for state assembly seems like a particularly good idea for the jaded.

If you don't care about politics, look for a full City on Film Show recap within the next few dates (with pictures and video). Read Popcorn Youth's interview with Bob Nanna. And if you're not sick of this yet, Bryan Kerwin's reflection on Elliot Smith is below. It's a little dated but what the hell.

-Andrew

Elliot Smith: Three Years Later
I credit one person with starting me on the path out of my blink-182 jones in high school – Elliott Smith. Like many people, I first became aware of Smith’s music thanks to Gus Van Sant and Good Will Hunting (you know, the movie where Matt Damon is good at math), and I was immediately drawn in. The sparse and haunting arrangements, the ghostly tremor of Elliott’s voice, the palpable angst – all the songs affected me in a way that pop-punk dick humor had yet to touch. I immediately went to the music store (and subsequently the internet) and collected as much Elliott as I could get my hands on.

When Smith passed away on October 21, 2003, I was a freshman in college, and it hit me right then that my generation had lost a great musician. We were too young to really absorb Cobain, but Elliott Smith was something of a contemporary, someone who was living and making music that distilled things about my life at the time I was living them. We all know the tendency of public opinion to inflate an artist’s importance after their death, especially if they died young, but this doesn’t apply to Smith – his genius was recognized every time he put out a record.

On the third anniversary of Smith’s suicide, we can look back at some of the things he left the world, most importantly, the music. Records like XO and Figure 8 still resonate as much now as when they were released, and I expect that’s a trend that will continue as new people discover them. There’s a clichéd sentiment that I will repeat here unabashedly: We’ll always have the music. Elliott’s family has also set up the Elliott Smith Memorial Fund, a charity organization that donates proceeds to Free Arts for Abused Children. For fans that have the same personal connection to his songs, and want to help out, check out www.sweetadeline.net for more information, and for tons of other stuff about Elliott Smith. -Bryan Kerwin

Election Issue!

2006-11-03T15:31:00.000-05:00

So the Election Issue has been released. Pick up your copy either on the Ithaca College campus, one of our pickup locations around the Commons (No Radio Records and Junas come to mind), or at our Buzzsaw events, much like the one this SATURDAY. Just one correction I'd like to make: Joy Kucinkas wrote the excellent Little Miss Sunshine review in the most recent Election issue. By some demon force her name was erroneously omitted. I'm going to put a hold on the blog until the show this weekend is over, but when we come back get prepared for the ANTI-ELECTION blog entry. Yes, though the obvious reason why I will not be voting in this upcoming election is that the monroe county board of election has once again failed to mail me my requested absentee ballot, will I be able to ideologically support this bureaucratic bungle? Until Monday . . .

THIS SATURDAY NOV. 4, 7:30pm
The City on Film, American Watercolor Movement, Skybox, I Need Sleep
Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
All-ages. Tickets at the door: $5.

See you at the show.
-Andrew, MOC

I Need Sleep!

2006-10-28T16:07:00.000-04:00

Seriously, I need sleep. But that's not all. Previously I mentioned another national act possibly coming for the November 4th Buzzsaw show (scroll down for a refresher). Well . . . the rumors are true. Opening the show is going to be racket pop (i heard somone on the street use that . . .) group I NEED SLEEP!
Check out I Need Sleep on their Myspace

In additional news, the buzzsawblog has already reached unprecedented levels of fame and fortune (in REAL PRINT MEDIA!) That's right, we've transcedended this paltry electronic medium to greater heights. Check out the sweet buzzsawblog plug in October 18th's thaca Times or in the eternal online archive here.

Thanks to the informative article linked above I became informed of the Ithaca Times' own weblogs: Popcorn Youth, a running discussion of the arts and entertainment happenings of ithaca, and dirty life and Times, kick-ass commentary on pretty much everything written by Buzzsaw-alum Bryan Chambala. Want proof? I found his first 3 Buzzsaw articles in the hallowed vaults here, here and here. That's right, read the Times without fear; it's all in the family.

-MoC

Boys and Girls in Ithaca

2006-10-26T18:58:00.000-04:00

Hey devoted buzzsawblog reader!

Here is a rather unimpressive review of the newest cd by indie-rock loverboys THE HOLD STEADY! In light of its mediocrity, I cut it from the magazine so we could have more delicious pictures! On a side note, the newest edition of Buzzsaw Haircut, loveably titled "The Election Issue," will be in your grubby hands Thursday of next week! That's November 2nd by my caluculations. Just 2 days before our biggest Buzzsaw Haircut sponsored concert yet. Here's the details:

The City on Film (Bob Nanna of Hey Mercedes/ Braid fame)
American Watercolor Movement
Skybox

Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall, Ithaca College
all ages
$5 at the door
7:30pm

There may possibly be one more band opening up (yes, another national act, I know unimaginable!) so check here this weekend for more info. Like I promised here's the review! More online only content to come!

The Hold Steady Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant, 2006)
Budweiser-bar guitar splashed with frantic (beat poetry) gutter ramblings from the Twin Cites. I’ve gotta say this album is much more melodic than their past records, Craig Finn still yells like Allen Ginsberg on cocaine wearing a Peter Sellers mask, reminding you of everyone in Shit City, New York and all the times you felt connected and lost. Your best friend’s parents are out of town: there’s someone screaming with her boyfriend in the front yard, then everyone’s making out in the bathroom, then everyone’s pouring Genny Light into their mouths, then everyone’s passed out, someone’s getting garbage plates and someone can’t find their keys. I had to put on my copy of Born to Run to remind myself where we got these ideas from before this album came out (Ed. The Springsteen reference reflects more of a critical consensus than it does this particular writer’s actual experience). Every tragedy and victory of your life, of your mistakes and missteps, all in stereophonic sound. It’s the Boss’ world, we’re just living in it. –AF

Listen to the Hold steady here
Go to their webpage here
Search for a real review here

Web Exclusive Album Reviews

2006-10-03T12:54:00.000-04:00

How's it going everyone? So, Buzzsaw's back on the internet. We're going to be updating this blog regularly again, so check it often. In fact, you probably should make it your homepage. At least until our regular website gets redesigned. If you've got any comments, send them over to buzzsawhaircut at gmail.com . To start us off, and as a freaking sweet reward to you dedicated web people, here's three exclusive album reviews from our staff writers.

-MoC

M. Ward Post-War (Merge Records 2006)

Disclaimer to Rock Against Bush followers: there’s no “Let’s Impeach the President” on this album. Despite the name of M. Ward’s latest release, the songs at hand address the issues that M. Ward fans would expect: the loss of friends, the women who toy with men’s hearts, and the search to answer all those questions that keep us up at night.

While the subject matter does not break any new ground, the music certainly does. M. Ward’s past albums mixed contemporary songs alongside tunes more reminiscent of a by-gone era. On Post-War though, Ward is finally able to combine these two types into one; ragtime, blues, and folk melt into alt-country and indie rock creating a beautiful amalgam of genres within each song. The arrangements on songs like “Right in the Head” are lush and sweeping, possibly because of production input from My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, without ever losing the grittiness of Ward’s earlier works. Ward’s trademark instrumental interludes are replaced by “Chinese Translation” and “Eyes on the Prize,” which maintain his characteristic meandering guitar work while including surprisingly catchy choruses.

While “Post-War” will surely satisfy those who’ve been listening since the beginning, it’ll also fit perfectly alongside blog-happy bands like The Decembrists and Spoon on the CD racks of new fans. One thing’s for sure though: when you see your hipster friend opting for over sized flannel instead of his usual skin-tight tee, you’ll know exactly what’s in his stereo. -John-Severin Napolillo

Peeping Tom Peeping Tom (Ipecac, 2006)

Anyone familiar with Mike Patton’s work knows that he’s no stranger to the avant-garde. In the late ‘80s he was fusing rock, rap, funk and other styles with his band Faith No More, almost a decade before that became popular. Since FNM’s disbanding, Patton has found a niche in the fringes of modern music with diverse, schizophrenic projects like Mr. Bungle and Lovage, combining elements from all over the musical spectrum. So naturally his fans were quite confused when he announced his new “pop” project, Peeping Tom. Was he joking? Being ironic? Was he really collaborating with Norah Jones?

The album does raise the question of Patton’s motivations. Listening to it makes one wonder if he’s making an ironic statement, or if he’s just broadening his horizons to a new audience. Is he quoting Britney Spears lyrics and spewing rock clichés on the first single, “Mojo,” to have a laugh at pop culture, or the fact that this album is the closest he’s ever been to it?

While Peeping Tom’s debut album maintains much of the genre-bending originality that makes Mike Patton stand out as a musician, it is also his most accessible work since his days with Faith No More. It’s an album of duets, with guest stars ranging all the way from Dan the Automator to Massive Attack to Rahzel (and the Norah Jones rumor was true too). While it may not be the best album he’s ever made (he set the bar high in 1999 with the Bungle album California), it’s still one of the most original albums released so far this year. - Josh MacMillin

The Cat Empire Two Shoes (Virgin, 2005)

If I were to visually translate this Aussie six-piece band’s latest album, Two Shoes, in a Dali-esque fashion (something that should only be done in small, regulated doses), it’d probably be a guy in a tuxedo with a beach ball where his head ought to be. Effervescent as any self-respecting carbonated drink, the Cat Empire melds punctuated pop melodies with a big band sound while sprinkling in sweeping jazz riffs and plenty of summer between the lines.

“Sly,” the album’s spirited opener may not be much of a thinker (little of the album is, really) but it puts the Beach Boys to shame with its buoyant bonfire-on-the-sand feel. A “girls, sun, and surfing” song, this single’s sure to put a smile on your face in the dead of winter…so yeah, most of the school year.

If that doesn’t suit your tastes then perhaps “Two Shoes,” for which the album is named, will with its salsa beat and rolling ballroom dance story. Or maybe the pseudo-existential (not really) “Protons, Neutrons and Electrons” is more your style. In any case, this is a band with a sense of humor, rhythm and fun.

And of course if all else fails, their accents are delectable. Who doesn’t like being told they “tayste like vaniella?” -LuAnn Fong

M. Ward's Homepage
Peeping Tom on MySpace
The Cat Empire

2006-08-20T16:50:00.000-04:00

Bobby Bare Jr,

His first music video, "Let's Rock and Roll."

"In The News"

2006-08-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

Kris Kristofferson has a new anti-war song streaming on his website that is a damn fine piece of topical and relevant songwriting. I'd say it's actually one of the better Iraq war/Post 9/11 songs that I've heard. But then again, maybe this glitterati is just sucker for outlaw country artists. None the less, do check it out. It's got a video companion that helps illustrate what the words are referring to.

- Glitter

2006-08-07T09:01:00.000-04:00

The Mattoid

Glitter approved!

Read with below

2006-04-09T17:00:00.000-04:00

Ah, another piece of the puzzle. The intersection of the Bush administration's theories on presidential power and the domestic consequences of the War on Terror.

- Glitter

Fitzgerald and the WMD Rationale

2006-04-09T16:10:00.000-04:00

For a lucid demonstration of how the Plame scandal interweaves with the political selling of the WMD rationale for the war in Iraq, please do take the time to read David E. Sanger and David Barstow's article in the New York Times today.

I've said this in passing before, but I'll say it on this blog's record now. Even if the Fitzgerald investigation does not result in the legal toppling of George W. Bush, it will still serve as a political wrecking ball to his administration as well as the current Republican majority.

Key graf of that thesis, here:

The new account of the interactions among Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby was spelled out last week in a court filing by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case. It adds considerably to a picture of an administration in some disarray as the failure to discover illicit weapons in Iraq had undermined the central rationale for the American invasion in March 2003.

I've written about this idea in a more general sense before. You can find that article here in the Privilege issue of Buzzsaw.

- Glitter

Sobered up

2006-04-03T12:07:00.000-04:00

If you're the type who's curious about how things are going in Iraq, may I suggest you read these two articles?

Civilians in Iraq Flee Mixed Areas as Attacks Shift.

Sectarian Strife Fuels Gun Sales in Baghdad.

The last few weeks have been quite the shitstorm of work for this Glitterati, but I do promise that regular updating will begin anew. And I promise to keep this promise.

- Glitter

That Was Frank

2006-03-20T16:28:00.000-05:00

Pretty harsh Op-Ed on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the New York Times today. It's written by Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army major general who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004. Eaton calls for Rumsfeld to step down.

Key grafs:

Mr. Rumsfeld has put the Pentagon at the mercy of his ego, his cold warrior's view of the world and his unrealistic confidence in technology to replace manpower. As a result, the Army finds itself severely undermanned — cut to 10 active divisions but asked by the administration to support a foreign policy that requires at least 12 or 14.

...

Donald Rumsfeld demands more than loyalty. He wants fealty. And he has hired men who give it. Consider the new secretary of the Army, Francis Harvey, who when faced with the compelling need to increase the service's size has refused to do so. He is instead relying on the shell game of hiring civilians to do jobs that had previously been done by soldiers, and thus keeping the force strength static on paper. This tactic may help for a bit, but it will likely fall apart in the next budget cycle, with those positions swiftly eliminated.

...

More vital in the longer term, Congress must assert itself. Too much power has shifted to the executive branch, not just in terms of waging war but also in planning the military of the future. Congress should remember it still has the power of the purse; it should call our generals, colonels, captains and sergeants to testify frequently, so that their opinions and needs are known to the men they lead. Then when they are asked if they have enough troops — and no soldier has ever had enough of anything, more is always better — the reply is public.

Our most important, and sometimes most severe, judges are our subordinates. That is a fact I discovered early in my military career. It is, unfortunately, a lesson Donald Rumsfeld seems incapable of learning.

Ouch. Quite the stinging critique, though I don't really agree with the suggestion of Lieberman as a replacement.

(Via TalkingPointsMemo.)

- Glitter

3 Year Anniversary of Iraq War

2006-03-20T01:29:00.000-05:00

So we've now been in Iraq for three years. I don't have any grand words to impart at the moment. With much confusion I was against this war when it began. Now I find myself still confused, but unable to decide what I think is the correct course of action. The only thing I do know is that it is important for Americans to remain intellectually connected to the fact that there is a very real war all the way across the world that is being waged in our name with the blood on our tax dollars. We should not forget that while we sleep safely at night, others hear explosions.

This timeline provided by the Center for American Progress is an easy way to remind yourself of what has occureed in these past 36 months.

Here's a link to the New York Times special section on "The Reach of War."

Juan Cole is must read in general if you want to pushed to expand what you consider when thinking about Iraq. Whether you agree with him or not, the amount of pure information put forth and linked to is staggering and worth checking back on.

Video of Chuck Hagel (R-NE) discussing what he describes as civil war in Iraq.

The Brookings Institution's Iraq Index.

The Pentagon's Quarterly Reports reports on Iraq.

The former Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, describes Iraq as in a civil war

Keep the war in mind this week.

- Glitter

Quick News Round-Up

2006-03-14T12:37:00.000-05:00

* Colleges are buckling under pressure, much of it from the Bush-run Education and Justice Departments, to open up affirmative action programs to everyone, including upperclass white males. The article states that many of the current moves by colleges and universities might be a pre-emptive attempt to protect themselves legally due to the changing nature of the Supreme Court (I.E. the Roberts and Alito appointments and the liklihood of a new case testing current affirmative action policies.)

* Yesterday was an incredibly bloody day in Iraq. 87 people have been found dead in Baghdad. Seems to be reprisal for attacks on Shiites that happened on Sunday. Key graf in terms of what the violence means:

While the shrine bombing and the reprisals that followed pushed the country to the brink of civil war, the new round of reprisal killings has led many people to worry about an extended tit-for-tat sectarian conflict.

* I have no idea what this means in terms of Israeli-Palestinian relations and their continuing conflict, but Israel just raided a Palestinian prison.

* Mad Cow Disease confirmed in Alabama. This is the third confirmed case in the U.S.

* Talks in France over a proposed youth job law seem to be intense. The proposed law, which both President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin support, would make it easier for firms to release, or "fire," young workers. Worker's rights groups and unions are strongly against the law.

This is just from the New York Times, I'll be back later with more.

- Glitter

The Feelies Live

2006-03-06T05:15:00.000-05:00

How is the crowd not more into this?

- Glitter

Just a link

2006-03-04T20:38:00.000-05:00

There is an interesting roundtable discussion with John Darnielle, Rick Moody, and Jonathan Lethem in the LA Weekly about the interaction of music and literature.

- Glitter

Bill Frist: For the rules when they help him, against them when they don't

2006-03-04T16:28:00.000-05:00

Firedoglake's got their eye on a little bit of cynical hypocrisy coming out of the Senate Majority leader's mouth.

It's also worth going directly to Glenn Greenwald's post in order to remember that this little bit of, dare I say it, flip-flopping, just may be crafted to disrupt and avoid hearings about the NSA domestic eavesdropping program. This is not the first time that Frist has threatened to change the rules and procedures of the Senate in order to protect his party's political machinations. Remember the Nuclear Option.

Glenn points out:

While Frist’s threat here is, in one sense, of a piece with those tactics, it is actually quite extraordinary and motivated by a particularly corrupt objective. The whole purpose of the Senate Intelligence Committee – the only reason why it exists – is to exercise oversight over controversial intelligence activities. Whatever else one might want to say about the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program, it is controversial on every front. There is no conceivable rationale for the Intelligence Committee not to hold hearings.

It would be an extraordinary abdication of the responsibility owed to Americans by the Intelligence Committee for it not to investigate the Administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program – a program which scores of prominent politicians and scholars from across the political spectrum have condemned as being legally dubious at best, and which polls show a majority of Americans oppose and believe is illegal.

ReddHedd over at firedoglake implores readers to get the word out about this potentially shitfuck of a move. She suggests that people "take some time to write, fax and call your Senators, radio talk shows and media folks -- both via e-mail and on any media blog comments threads where this would be approriate to discuss." Think about doing it.

- Glitter

Creeping Theocracy Watch

2006-03-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

State bill in Missouri proposes Christianity as "Official Religion":

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.

House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is pending in the state legislature.

Many Missouri residents had not heard about the bill until Thursday.

Karen Aroesty of the Anti-defamation league, along with other watch-groups, began a letter writing and email campaign to stop the resolution.

The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.

The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."

State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.

KMOV also contacted Gov. Matt Blunt's office to see where he stands on the resolution, but he has yet to respond.

(Via Atrios.)

- Glitter

My Glorious Bounty of Wasting Time on You Tube

2006-03-03T02:53:00.000-05:00

As is the case when I should be doing legitimate work, I have been finding various items on the web to occupy my time. My latest temptress has been the devil You Tube. There is something strangely democratic about how this site and others like it creates free access to video information.

The following have been some of my favorite clips that I have found:

* Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler on Letterman.

* Captain Beefheart on Letterman.

* Captain Beefheart live in Belgium.

* Bill Hicks on Letterman.

* Tom Waits Interview on Letterman in 2002.

* Tom Waits performing "Chocolate Jesus" on Letterman.

* Tom Waits performing "Make It Rain" on Letterman.

* Tom Waits performing "All The World Is Green" on Letterman.

* Music video for "What's He Building?" by Tom Waits.

* Tom Waits performing "Goin' Out West" on the Arsenio Hall Show.

* Tom Waits performing "Small Change" on the Old Gre Whistle Test.

* Tom Waits performing "Elephant Beer Blues" on Danish TV.

* Tom Waits performing "The Piano Has Been Drinking" on a comedy show with Martin Mull and Fred Willard.

* Harmony Korine on Letterman.

* Devo on Letterman in 1982.

* X performing on Letterman.

* John Lennon performing "Instant Karma" on Top Of The Pops.

* Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recording "One Too Many Mornings".

* Bob Dylan performing "Lovesick" at the Grammys (look for Soybomb!).

* Bob Dylan performing "Like A Rolling Stone" in Newcastle, England on May 21st, 1966.

* Bob Dylan performing "The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carrol" on the Steve Allen Show>

* Alternate video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan.

* Hank Williams perfroming "Hey Good Lookin'".

* Hank Williams III performing "Howlin' At The Moon" live at Stubbs in Austin, Texas.

* Hank Williams III performing "Nighttime Ramblin' Man" on Craig Kilbourn.

* Hank Williams III performing "Straight To Hell" live in New Orleans.

* Music video for "You're The Reason" by Hank Williams III.

* Buddy Holly playing "Peggy Sue" on Ed Sullivan".

* Music video for "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

* Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, and Little Steven Van Zandt performing "London's Calling" in tribute to the late Joe Strummer at the Grammys.

* Music video for "London Calling" by the Clash.

* Anti-video music video for "Bastards of Young" by the Replacements.

* Husker Du performing "You Could Be The One" on the Joan Rivers Show.

* Biggie freestyling at 17 years old in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.

* Pavement performing "For Sale: The Preston School of Industry" on a Danish TV show.

* Music video for "Cut Your Hair" by Pavement.

* Music video for "Dark Wave" by Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks.

* Music video for "Jo Jo's Jacket" by Stephen Malkmus.

* The Beach Boys performing "Good Vibrations" on TV.

* Bugs Bunny and the Monkees Kool-Aid commercial.

* Beat Happening performing "Black Candy" on public access television.

* Sid Vicious breaks his leg coming off the top rope.

* Television performing "Foxhole" live on TV.

* Patti Smith performing "Because The Night" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* Patti Smith performing "Hey Joe" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* Patti Smith performing "Gloria/Land of 10,000 Dances/Le Mer" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* Talking Heads performing "Psycho Killer" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* David Bowie performing "Oh You Pretty Things" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* The Go-Go's performing "We Got The Beat" on the Old Grey Whistle Test (I've always had a school boy crush on Jane Wiedlin).

* Bill Withers performing "Ain't No Sunshine" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* The Specials performing "A Message To You, Rudy" on the Old Grey Whistle Test.

* Frank Zappa performing "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing" on SNL.

* Frank Zappa on the Arsenio Hall Show.

* Terry Funk vs. Eddie Guerrero in the NWA in 1989.

* Kurt Angle wins the Olympic Gold Medal in 1996.

- Glitter

Blog update

2006-02-21T00:35:00.000-05:00

I've updated the links on the right with as many Ithaca related blogs I could find using Google and by searching Blogger.

The blogs are roughly ordered top to bottom as such: Local Ithaca Media > Ithaca College Blogs > Cornell and Ithaca Community Blogs > Politcal Blogs > Music Blogs.

For the Ithaca blogs, an inclusion on the links list is in no way an endorsement of the content, rather an acknowledgement of their membership in the online Ithaca community. I tried to only include blogs that stepped beyond the purely personal.

Hopefully once I get a bit more understanding of how to actually manipulate things on the web (i.e. the actual making of a webpage), I will redesign the color scheme and layout of this blog so that it is a bit easier on the eyes and sexier to look at. I'll also create clearer categories for the links on the right.

Though I've failed at following up on some of the topics I've said I'll follow up on in the past (like the Ithacan critiques), I will write tomorrow about the stabbing that occured at Cornell over the weekend.

- Glitter

Oh, and in a random aside, The Hype Machine is an all too addictive fix for my music junkie monkey. Check it out.

Darfur

2006-02-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

Well, this certainly seems to be the news item of the day. Bush is loudly suggesting that NATO should significantly increase its military presence in Sudan. That's kind of a big deal. Considering that the genocide there is quite real and quite the bruise on any serious person's moral record. I know many people who are well aware of the genocide, but not so many who have responded to the urgency of the situation, myself included. This is one of the major areas, granted there are many, that Buzzsaw has fallen short in its coverage of international events is a lack of an article about Sudan. We've had them in the works before, but for one reason or another they have always fallen through. Hopefully we will have one for the upcoming "War is Complex" issue.

Now, I don't know if this is the correct policy prescription in any form, but I do know that Bush's call does bring a very large spotlight onto the genocide. Which can only be good. Though I do worry that this may be an example of big booming words followed by much smaller action. Notice what's buried at the very end of the article:

NATO diplomats said in Brussels this week the allies would look kindly on new appeals for help for African troops in Sudan but ruled out for now a major deployment of their own.

The U.N. Security Council has authorized Annan to draw up contingency plans for U.N. peacekeepers to go into Darfur.

Annan has indicated that U.S. help in planning was not enough and emphasized he needed sophisticated logistics, such as air support and intelligence so that soldiers could get to a trouble spots in time.

Washington has been noncommittal on troops for such a mission. If there were to be any significant deployment of U.S. troops in Darfur, it would be Washington's first major foray into African peacekeeping since it quit Somalia in 1994.

Also interesting to note are the two Senators who co-sponsored the resolution "calling for NATO troops to help the African Union `stop the genocide' in the Darfur region."

Both Biden and Brownback are both seeking the White House in 2008 for their respective parties.

This is definitely a story to keep an eye on in order to play witness to whether promises and pledges are followed through on.

- Glitter

My Favorite Country Kids

2006-02-17T16:50:00.000-05:00

With his tour in full effect, Bobby Bare, Jr is getting little bit of press. Here's a Cleveland paper's lowdown on Bobby and crew coming to town. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it to Buffalo to see him, but if you can make the drive, it's sunday night and certainly worth the $8 ticket price. The Young Criminals Starvation League smoke live. Here's an Indianapolis papers' take on the man.

My new musical obsession, Hank Williams III, also has a tour coming up and an album coming out. Here's a review of his new album, Straight To Hell. Remember, as Hank III says, if you're going to buy it, don't buy the censored version from Walmart or Hank's record label, Curb. Blender has an interview with Hank III too.

- Glitter

The Ongoing NSA Program Saga

2006-02-17T12:29:00.000-05:00

So inquiries into the NSA program are going to happen, but just not about any of the aspects of it which people are legitimately curious about. For the record, there is still a program that was authorized by the President that allows the NSA to eavesdrop on American citizens' international communications without a warrant. But now, instead of looking into whether the program infringes harshly on civil rights and civil liberties, the Republican led Congress wants to change the FISA law that the Republican president broke so that it can no longer be considered broken.

Now, I don't claim to know many details about this program, as no one really does, but apparently the deal is that Congress will change the law in order to protect a program they don't know much about other than the fact that they apparently have no oversight over it. I think Senator Wyden brings up a good point here:

Mr. Roberts and other Republicans say they are wary of an investigation into the secret program because providing information to Congress might result in leaks. But Democrats say there is no way to pass legislation involving the program until they have more information about it.

"I don't think it's possible for Congress to produce responsible bipartisan legislation dealing with a program that Congress knows very little about," Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said.

And I agree with Senator Specter here:

"Unless they're prepared to have a determination on constitutionality as to their programs, window dressing oversight will not be sufficient."

If anyone is curious about how the White House is putting pressure on Congressional Republicans to cover for them, perhaps this will be enlightening.

Glenn Greenwald has a more optimistic take on the latest developments in the inquiries into the warrantless eavedropping program. Consider it a pep talk after the first quarter of a basketball game when the opposing team just scored a flurry of points right before the bell. These recent developments aren't good for morale, but they don't necessarily speak of the outcome of the story that is unfolding.

The Times has an outraged editorial about Senator Pat Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Commitee, continued obstruction of investigations into the administration.

Oh, and somewhat unrelated, but kinda sorta fucked up.

- Glitter

Hackett Drops Out of Ohio Senate Race, Politics in General

2006-02-14T18:18:00.000-05:00

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about my mulling of a Congressional campaign to work on after I graduate in May. At the time the front runner for my grunt work was Paul Hackett. That feeling has now become null and void as Hackett has dropped out of the race and supposedly politics forever.

It seems Hackett was pressured to drop out by party insiders, specifically Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Senator Charles Schumer of New York, in order to make room for Congressman Sherrod Brown. While it is understandable that the party infrastructure wants to support the candidates whom they believe will have the best shot at winning, I can understand why Hackett feels he got a bit screwed over by them. According the the Times article, Reid and Schumer are the same Senators who urged him to join the race in the first place. It's been said that they wanted Hackett to run again in Ohio's Second district against Jean Schmidt, who narrowly beat him in a special election last year. However, Hackett claims he had already given his word to fellow Democrats who are running in that district that he would not run, and he does not want to renege on his word, which is an utterly respectable position, though perhaps disappointing from a purely political POV as Hackett would surely be the strongest candidate that could be fielded in that district. There's been a lot of mixed feelings about this on the internet with some like Markos, the Kos of Daily Kos thinks this is understandable and probably for the best. Many of his commenters disagree. As for me, I agree with Kos in the sense that strategically this might be better (though I don't really know, and Hackett out of politics is bad for Dems), but personally it is really disappointing because Hackett was a politician who actually riled me up and inspired me.

Now, this is also disappointing news for me because not only was Hackett running for a Senate seat that will be important in wrestling control of Congress from the Republicans, but he is also a veteran of the Iraq War, which is one of the pre-requisites for me in terms of working on someone's campaign this summer and fall. I'm not hardline on that point, but I really do think it would be the most enlightening experience I could seek out. There are still plenty of vets running as Dems in plenty of parts of the country, and I am sure I will find one I will feel comfortable working for, but most of them are for House seats, and while the House is certainly important, the Senate is the best shot we have at taking back one of the chambers of Congress. Though apparently things are looking better in the House then they had previously.

Hackett explains his decision here. He sent the same message to is email list.

More thoughts from Kos. Chris Bowers gives his thoughts on it here. Atrios simply calls it ugly.

If you're down in the dumps about this development, maybe this will help, a recording of a live Of Montreal concert that consists mainly of covers.

- Glitter

Defining America

2006-02-13T12:37:00.000-05:00

The New York Times ran an interesting editorial observer yesterday about the role of Noah Webster in American history. Apparently he was an old time progressive, but perhaps more importantly, his efforts to establish an American lexicon of words was direct effort to distance America from England and in some ways to help establish a distinctly American culture.

The latest issue of Buzzsaw Haircut, The America Issue, aims to take look at some slices of American culture and what it means to be American or to even label something as American. Admittedly we were unable to cover many many aspects of the debates that surround the idea of America, so I thought this piece on Webster might be an interesting addition to our efforts, particularly covering an area we missed out on.

As for the plug that was surely telegraphed by the previous paragraphs, The America Issue is on campus now. Check it out.

- Glitter

Cheney Gives Shotgun Rash

2006-02-13T02:49:00.000-05:00

I assume most people have heard the news about Vice President Dick Cheney shot a millionaire friend with a shotgun while hunting quail. By all accounts this seems to legitimately look like an accident, but it's also seems like it is still being spun by the White House.

Josh Marshall has a few posts delving into it, using his large readership as a base of knowledge about the likelihood of this particular huntin narrative(here, here, here, and here).

Interesting stuff. Obviously not a huge scandal or anything, but it certainly fits into the Cheney as bad guy image that is pretty common these days.

- Glitter

Oh, and this news broke on the same day that Republican and Democratic Senators called for an investigation into Cheney's involvement in the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity. George Allen is not someone generally considered a moderate or a RINO (Republian In Name Only), so it's pretty big that he's the Repub talking on this. Probably the best source for further and updated info on the Plame scandal is Murray Waas.

Flipper Kidz Fun Show

2006-02-13T00:22:00.000-05:00

The show's on right now. You can listen here.

For a playlist, check this livejournal.

- Glitter

Oh, and a hat tip to Copy,Right? for the french cover songs.

Blog Discourse

2006-02-12T15:08:00.000-05:00

As seems to be the norm here, Peter Daou has written something worth reading. Check it out here. Daou and Josh Marshall are the two people thus far who I feel have been able to see the forest amongst the trees of the blogosphere in terms of analyzing and realizing the politcal potentials of this medium. Others, such as Kos and Atrios have definitely done much in terms of articulating and illustrating the potentials for this medium in terms of fostering political community and effectively activating it for change. However, in terms of articulation, I feel like Daou's essays on "the triangle" have been the clearest argued statement of how blogs can affect political change and Marshall's use of his readership's muckraking abilities on specificed issues such as social security bamboozlement has been the epitome of the potential of the blogosphere in bringing together citizens as active independent researchers conferring together to figure out what is the "truth" as best they can. So yeah, to me, most anything Daou writes about what blogs are doing, aren't doing, could be doing, shouldn't be doing, and so on, is worth a read.

I'm going to weigh in a little bit later on the latest chapter in the blogs vs. Washington Post scuffle, especially regarding the Post's online editor, Jim Brady's latest missive about the ordeal. My opinion in short form: The Post fucked up then fucked up again, but I don't agree with all of the criticism and tactics that have been dished by some of the big liberal blogs, mainly Atrios and Firedoglake.

- Glitter

PS, for those of you on the Ithaca College campus, keep your eyes open for the fresh issue of a certain magazine that will be hitting the stands this evening.

Library Tax Update

2006-02-11T22:01:00.002-05:00

So I should have written about this on Weds., but I didn't, and I can't change that now.

So, the tax was defeated, by rather definitive margin too.

About 65 percent of all voters cast their votes against the proposed $540,000 tax levy. The vote count was 3,091 against and 1,679 for the tax, according to unofficial results from the ICSD.

I can't say I'm surprised by this. I only started paying attention during the last few days, but it was clear at that point that the dominant narrative was that the tax was not needed as direly as the library posited. Both local newspapers editorialized (here and here) against the tax, using separate, but confidently reasonsed arguments. The opposition made a louder argument in the press, and the library never sufficiently argued its position and reasoning for new tax. Whether the tax was needed or not, the impression created by the coverage was that it was extraneous and mysterious.

I never really came to a decision as to how I was going to vote on it, and to be fully honest, I didn't vote because I legitimately could not tell for myself what the right decision was. Thus my inertia, which I concede and know is not a good an example to be setting as someone who argues for active citizen participation in elections and governance. So, I fucked up and didn't vote. However, when I reflect on it now, I'm sure that at that moment in the booth when I would have had to make my final decision, my gut impulse would have swayed me to vote against the tax.

Perhaps the reason that I feel so odd about my opinion on this is not because of the merits of that decision and the fact that I would have voted against an increase of library resources at the cost of increased taxes, but because it means my decision aligned with the political goal/aim of Joe Brennan, a Republican in ICR who's sense of ethics caused another member of ICR to quit the club in protest over Brennan's potential leadership. Though in Joe's defense, I do have to say that the person who quit has a peculiar system of ethics. Conversations with him about relationships and the death penalty tend to contradict.

But yeah, I don't mind ending up at the same principled point (albeit from different direcetions and paths) with conservatives whose reasoning and moral base I can empathize with, but for some reason I have never been able to find an empathetic point with Mr. Brennan's arguments. That's not to say that he is someone who is beyond empathy. I've just never been able to find it when talking politics with him. He's very much in the vein of a Ken Mehlman where he so naturally spins for a political party's talking points, and yes all political parties spin talking points, that you hardly ever get the feeling he is struggling with the principles involved rather than just how to win political power.

So that's one of the places where my tension over this vote comes from.

I also think I am reflexively weary of the media manipulation when two people from the same ultimate source are labeled as being from different organizations and representing different points of view. Such as this:

Opponents of the tax said they were surprised with the results.

“I have never been so happy about being so wrong,” said Mark Finkelstein, the vice chairman of the Tompkins County Republican Committee. “I think it shows enough is enough. Perhaps this is some sort of turning point, and the taxpayers are saying ‘There is a limit.'”

Joe Brennan, the leader of the Students Against the Library Tax, said: “The voters of the Ithaca City School District have spoken, and hopefully this failed idea of a library tax is truly laid to rest in the history books.”

Ok, Finkelstein and Brennan are both cogs in local Republican party machinery. From what I understand of the Ithaca College Republicans through the infomral conversations I have with much of the leadership of, whom I have taken various classes with, Brennan is the person in the campus group who is most closely tied to Finkelstein and the local GOP. No where in the coverage of Students Aganist the Library Tax was it mentioned that it was comprised solely of members of the Ithaca College Republicans (as far as I can tell). I believe Brennan even goes on Finkelstein's cable access show regularly. Clever, strategic media outreach by the Repubs and a poor contextual job by the local media.

So yeah, that's that. I suppose this experience could be called my first foray into the world of being a lurker on local politics.

- Glitter

CPAC is Back

2006-02-10T12:18:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again when all the disperse strands of movement conservatives gather together to show off their claims to ideological purity. That's right folks, it's CPAC 2006. Myself, and two other Buzzsaw editors attended the conference last year as undercover correspondents, and I can say it was a surreal and frightening time, but also a strange look into an active movement for political and legislative power in this country (and perhaps world). Unfortunately the article we wrote doesn't seem to be online. So, instead, if you're curious, may I suggest checking out the current conference through the eyes of an undercover Campus Progress correspondent.

It's especially worth a look for college students, as much of CPAC is focused on grooming the young of the conservative movement. It's also notorious for drunken College Republican shenanigans.

That's all for now, but hopefully I'll have a post up later today going over yesterday's Ithacan as well as other news of the day.

- Glitter

(Full disclosure: Buzzsaw Haircut is partially funded through a grant from Campus Progress.)

This seems like a rather big deal, and also rather deceitful.

2006-02-08T15:59:00.000-05:00

Allen Sloan in the Washington Post:

Last year, even though Bush talked endlessly about the supposed joys of private accounts, he never proposed a specific plan to Congress and never put privatization costs in the budget. But this year, with no fanfare whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the federal budget proposal, which he sent to Congress on Monday.

His plan would let people set up private accounts starting in 2010 and would divert more than $700 billion of Social Security tax revenues to pay for them over the first seven years.

If this comes as a surprise to you, have no fear. You're not alone. Bush didn't pitch private Social Security accounts in his State of the Union message last week.

Seems the Social Security trench wars are back on. Better check in with Josh Marshall.

Now it just so happens we still have the Conscience Caucus list online -- remember, that's the list of the Republicans who wouldn't publicly commit to phase-out last year.

Are they coming out against Phase Out Round Two?

I wonder how this will play out for the 2006 elections? Grassroots pressure seemed to turn the tide against Round One. Can it do it for Round Two?

Here are more numbers from Sloan:

Unlike Bush's generalized privatization talk of last year, we're now talking detailed numbers. On page 321 of the budget proposal, you see the privatization costs: $24.182 billion in fiscal 2010, $57.429 billion in fiscal 2011 and another $630.533 billion for the five years after that, for a seven-year total of $712.144 billion.

In the first year of private accounts, people would be allowed to divert up to 4 percent of their wages covered by Social Security into what Bush called "voluntary private accounts." The maximum contribution to such accounts would start at $1,100 annually and rise by $100 a year through 2016.

It's not clear how big a reduction in the basic benefit Social Security recipients would have to take in return for being able to set up these accounts, or precisely how the accounts would work.

It will be interesting to see if this gets much press beyond Sloan's article and a sail around the liberal blogosphere. I'm sure TPM will be on the case.

- Glitter

Something of Note about the Role of Blogs

2006-02-08T11:47:00.000-05:00

I would never argue that blogs are some kind of threat to traditional forms of media or journalism, as some bloggers can tend to imply in the dizzying heights of blog triumphalism. But I would like to point out two specific recent instances where original reporting by blogs has opened up larger stories and actually had the type of impact journalism is meant to have, in that they brought more truth to the discourse.

Example #1: Glenn Greenwald and the DeWine Amendment.

On his blog, Unclaimed Territory, Glenn pointed to legislation that was introduced by Ohio Senator Mike DeWine in 2002 that sought to eliminate the same barrier in FISA that Gen. Michael Hayden argued the administration was necessitated to bypass for the NSA eavesdropping program. But at the time, the Bush Department of Justice objected to the legislation, arguing that FISA was fine as it was and the change might be unconstitutional. This revelation brought many new questions to the discussion of the NSA eavesdropping program and in effect shifted the discourse a bit. This story was picked up by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, amongst other news media outlets. All gave credit to Glenn for first scooping the story.

Example #2: Nick Anthis and the Bush appointee

I noted before that a NASA scientist was complaining about having his voice muffled by political appointees of the Bush administration. Days later, another article came out that named George Deutsch as the person who actively tried to suppress the scientist as well as alter the language of NASA educational materials so that they allowed room for intelligent design. Two days ago on Feb 6th, on his blog called Scientific Activist, Nick Anthis posted that through his own reporting he had discovered that Deutsch had never graduated from Texas A & M, even tough news reports had listed him as a graduate. Today, the New York Times reports that Deutsch has resigned, at least partially over lying about his graduate status from Texas A & M. Just like with Greenwald, Anthis' blog was given a hat tip for making the initial discovery that opened up this new part of the story.

Now, these two cases by no means prove that bloggers are all journalists, but I do think they does throw spit in the eye of the argument that bloggers are nothing, but partisan and opinionated pundits. Some are, some aren't. There are many forms in the blogosphere. As Jay Rosen points out (well, he's quoting James W. Carey), journalism is a practice, not a label. You are a journalist when you are reporting on and recording for posterity what is going on in life, not just because you draw a paycheck from a news media institution. To me, the above mentioned examples are but two instances of how blogs can positively play into our culture and democracy.

- Glitter

Doesn't Rove Have His Own Investigation To Worry About?

2006-02-07T12:35:00.000-05:00

White House puts politics over rule of law...film at 11.

Oh, and does this vaguely sound like either a bribe or extortion to anyone?

The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.

"He's [Rove] lining them up one by one," another congressional source said.

Mr. Rove is leading the White House campaign to help the GOP in November’s congressional elections. The sources said the White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.

Those deemed disloyal to Mr. Rove would appear on his blacklist. The sources said dozens of GOP members in the House and Senate are on that list.

It does to me.

- Glitter

NSA Congressional Hearings Day One

2006-02-06T16:43:00.000-05:00

You, whomever may read this, may have noticed that I'm rather interested in the revelation of NSA's warrantless domestic spying program authorized by the administration.

The first day of the Senate hearings was/is today, with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifying, though apparently not under oath. I haven't gotten a chance to read too much about how it went, so I'm just going to link to things as I go through it. Consider this a round up:

* Senator Leahy's smackdown opening statement.

* WaPo's article,Gonzales Defends Legality Of Surveillance.

* Gonzales' prepared opening statement.

* NY Times' article, Defense of Eavesdropping Is Met With Skepticism In Senate.

* Glenn Greenwald's live blogging of the hearings. In general, Glenn's blog is kind of the go to site for left of the aisle analysis of this affair.

* Reuters' article, Democrats Frustrated By Gonzales On Eavesdropping.

* LA Times' (via Chicago Tribune) article, Spirited Debate On Limits Of Presidential Power. Be sure to read page 2 of it.

* Think Progress picks out a strong point made by Lindsay Graham (R-SC).

* Here's the Fox News' take on the proceedings. Strangely, their front page, as of 5:39 PM, has the hearings relegated to a side bar while 3 stories pointing towards "big bad Muslims" are front and center.

* John at AmericaBlog has a running commentary throughout the day. Take a scroll down it. Same goes for Digby

* For a taste of how the hearings are being interpreted over on the still-supporting Bush Right side of the aisle (I say that because some conservatives and Repubs have come out against this program), you can check out Powerline, a good enough weathervane for the apologists.

I'll probably give my thoughts on this sometime soon.

- Glitter

Library Tax Debate

2006-02-06T11:52:00.000-05:00

It's been a motto of mine for a year or two now that I will only be legitimately politically engaged once I am engaged in local politics. With that idea in mind, I have been trying to read more and more about not only Ithaca College, but also Tompkins County issues. So today, I'm going to try to look a little deeper into a pertinent local issue while adding what I can to the discussion.

Tomorrow, Feb. 7th, there is a county-wide referendum to decide whether or not to approve a new tax that would ultimately provide $540,000 in new funding for the Tompkins County Public Library. (BTW, having just read the above linked article for a second time, and for an article that claims to be looking at the spectrum of debate, it seems to lopsidedly report on the opposing viewpoint. Strangely, or not so strangely, the article appeared in the same issue as the paper's editorial against the tax. Another article that focuses more on the library's POV, and is generally more balanced, can be found here.)

When I first recieved a flier about this at the library, my initial gut reaction was "of course the library should be supported, it's a great public service that all can benefit from." But I do have to say, after reading this editorial in the Ithaca Journal, I'm not so sure anymore. The editors do make a rather compelling case against the tax, mainly due to the fact that the tax will be added onto property tax, and according to the editors:

the property tax levy carried by local households in the Ithaca school district has increased $12.54 million, about 28 percent, in the past five years. For city residents, that increase comes on top of a 75 percent jump in combined county and city property taxes for the same time.

I'm not completely convinced by the editorial, but I do have to say, if their numbers are right, they do raise some vexing questions. Another issue they bring up is the state of the library workers' labor contract. Apparently they have a pretty good deal through United Auto Workers 2300. I consider myself pretty pro-union, and don't really mind that much that library employees get paid a decent salary and a living wage (Under the recently expired contract, librarians were earning between $20.99 and $26.25 per hour; Clerks earned $13.30 an hour; and Pages earned $11.79 per hour), but some of the provisions pointed out by the Journal do seem extraneous to me. According to the Journal's editorial:

Union employees at the library work 35-hour weeks, with time between 35 and 40 hours triggering “compensatory time” or paid time off. The contracts contain seven paid holidays, five “floating holidays,” 12 personal/sick days and two weeks vacation as a starting point; meaning even without comp time, after the first year a new employee can have as many as 34 paid days off. The deals also carry over a previous arbitrator's ruling making summer Saturdays join all Sundays as workdays at time-and-a-half pay. That means, putting aside comp time again, for every weekend the library is open in the summer wages equal to the cost of another Sunday are burned in overtime.

Terry Sharpe, President of the UAW Local 2300, responded to criticism of the union's contract with a letter to the editor here.

He raised the interesting point of how focus has been on the labor contract while the library administration earns and spends a lot:

If the public somehow believes that our union workers earn too much, why is no one asking about the director's salary ($84,152 in 2004), which is significantly more than those of many county managers? What about the huge annual bonuses awarded to the director and assistant director (totaling $20,050 in 1999-2001)? Why do they spend thousands in legal and miscellaneous fees ($45,400 in 2004)? Why do they hire an expensive lawyer to negotiate the labor contracts, when traditionally the library trustees have always negotiated these themselves? Why pay a private company to water and maintain the plants?

Truthfully, after having read all of this, I don't quite know where to stand on it. The meme by most supporters is that the tax increase would come to about $25 per year for the average residential property in the Ithaca City School District. I don't know how much this will affect people in the district, especially those who come under the average. Apparently the tax works by a "rate of 17 cents per $1,000 of taxable assessed value in 2006 and will be on the same bill as school district taxes. A house assessed at $100,000 would pay about $17 for the library tax."

The Journal printed 6 letters supporting the tax (here, here, here, here, here, and here) as well as one opposing. The Ithaca Times also came out against it in an editorial as well. The Times also had an Op-Ed in favor of the tax.

It seems to me that oppositional voices have some legitimate concerns, but there also seems to be a more generalized anti-tax feeling fueling much of the opposition to this particular tax. This seems most apparent to me in the case of the so-called Students Against Library Tax (SALT), run by an Ithaca College student who is an active, and quite partisan, member of the Ithaca College Republicans. That person, Joe Brennan:

wrote an Op-Ed for the Journal that doesn't address any of the substantial issues raised by most opponents, but rather just attacks the process. His first point of contention is that the election is in February, instead of the generally accepted electoral month of November. This point seems odd to me considering Brennan just got back from a holiday season campaign in San Diego. This leads me to believe that the criticism of the timing of the election is hypocritical and likely just political.

He does also raise the legitimate question of the fact that the election and much of the pro-tax support was being funded by a philandthropist who until recently had been anonymous. This does raise some questions, but it is also a diversion from tackling the tax on its merits - whether it is the right choice for the community or not in terms of finances and services.

My instinct that Brennan is against the tax for ideological reasons stem from having had two classes with him as well as from this graf in his Op-Ed:

As it stands, New York already has the second highest combined state and local taxes. By passing this measure, not only will we further perpetuate this problem that has caused thousands of citizens and jobs to head elsewhere, but we will be publicly stating our support for such a policy. I cannot do either in good faith, and have formed Students Against the Library Tax in response to my beliefs on the issue. Our group is dedicated to informing the public on the issues raised in this article and strongly urges the defeat of the library tax.

As for SALT, I find it kind of odd that the group is being displayed as a student initiative, yet to my knowledge there has not been a single effort to engage the Ithaca College student community on this issue. I have not seen a single op-ed or letter to the editor in the Ithacan nor have I seen a single flier on campus. For a group that is purporting to speak for students it has done a piss poor job of informing students that an election is even occurring. If one of Brennan's main worries is that people won't turn out for this election because it is in February then why isn't he trying to inform his community that the election is occuring? Without these efforts, Students Against Library Tax reeks to me of a manipulative attempt to use the image of students (which can be a strong image rhetorically in a discussion about libraries) without actually engaging students.

BONUS UPDATE: A view into College Republican electoral tactics. Also, an article by Franklin Foer about the teaching of dirty tricks to Republican youth.

Now, I may end up taking the same final position on the tax as SALT, a No vote, but their tactics don't seem right to me. I'm not basing my position on ideology (or fufillment of school credit), but rather a weighing of the pros and cons of the matter. SALT however, its not clear to me what their real reasons for being against the vote is. If it's cause they're ideologically anti-tax, why don't they just come out and say it?

Hopefully I'll have made a decision by the end of the day in terms of yay or ney.

Oh, and finally, some needless libel of Mr. Brennan through his own actions and words:

Joe on a Mets message board:

There are a lot of Asians here at Ithaca, some with funny names. There' Soo Me Kim, and So Yung Ho.

On the subject of names, (and I know this is superficial, but I'm up front about it) I have a very hard time becoming attracted to girls with obscure names. Fortunately for me, I recently came by a pretty Ms. Lisa Smith.

- Glitter

Two Interesting Sounding, Upcoming Talks

2006-02-06T02:20:00.000-05:00

Via Intercom:

Professor Craig Duncan of the Ithaca College Department of Philosophy and Religion will give a talk entitled "The Question of Torture" on Wednesday, February 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Friends 306.

The talk, which will be a mixture of lecture and discussion, will explore the question of torture from the perspectives of moral and legal philosophy, with an eye to illuminating recent controversies over torture. The talk is free and open to the public. It is being sponsored by the Ithaca College Philosophy club.

And again via Intercom:

Simon Deng, a former Sudanese child slave, will be speaking at Ithaca College on February 7 at 7:00 p.m. in Emerson Suite C. He will offer a first-hand narrative of slavery in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Abducted into slavery at age 9, Simon endured a brutal life as a slave before finally escaping at age 11 and going on to become an important voice in the abolitionist movement.

Sponsored by DIIS; the Departments of English, Politics, Philosophy and Religion; the Anthropology club; MAUYA; SGA; IC Journal; Honors Program; the Diversity Awareness Committee; and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Both definitely sound interesting, I'm marking my calender.

- Glitter

Radio

2006-02-05T23:42:00.000-05:00

Flipper Kidz Fun Show at midnight.

This is the official time for the rest of the semester, Sunday night to Monday morning, Midnight to 2 am.

Tune in!

- Glitter

Your Source for Contacting Local Media

2006-02-05T13:47:00.000-05:00

I plan to post more later, specifically about what marching orders we might expect the Republican party's campus foot soldiers to be following in the month of February, at least according to one of their own field guides.

As for now, I just wanted to link to a very useful website with contact info for local media all over the country. Though it is by no means complete, considering it only has the Ithaca Journal for print media in Ithaca, even though this community is also served by the Ithaca Times, the Cornell Daily Sun, and the Ithacan. Not to mention more left of center magazines like Buzzsaw Haircut and Turn Left, as well as the heir's of Ann Coulter's Cornell legacy, the Cornell American. (It's only in the name of fairness and balance that I link to the Cornell American, it is in no way an endorsement.)

(Hat tip Jane@FDL, which she in turn got from an unamed diarist at Daily Kos.)

- Glitter

Designing Park 3rd Post

2006-02-04T15:08:00.000-05:00

Dean Lynch has made her third post to her Other blog, Designing Park.

This one is about how she wants the Park school to follow the Music school's model for governance. She links to a bunch of documents describing the structure, but also warns that they are stiff and stuffy, and she will have someone offer a more understandable explanation soon.

I think she may have also given a clue as to who her target audience is for the blog in this graf:

While I would be happy to summarize the processes and bodies for you, I think it would make more sense for one of the faculty to take on that task; it's really important that there is no concern about bias or filtering here. Please let me or Gordon know if you're willing to provide that service.

Seems to be an expectation that the faculty is reading the blog. I wonder if she expects students to be reading it as well.

- Glitter

Friendly Ithaca Blogs

2006-02-03T17:08:00.000-05:00

Josh Elmer, an up and coming Buzzsaw writer, has a really good post over at his Live Journal about "The State of Indian Nations" and how it relates to his own personal history.

For some reason there doesn't seem to be permalinks on his site, so just scroll to the post titled "2:43pm: State of the American Indian" on February 3rd.

Also, got a link to another Ithaca College student's blog, Insert Wit Here, it's by Jon Callan and it seems to be focused on comics.

- Glitter

Stonewalled, nothing but Stonewalled

2006-02-03T00:23:00.000-05:00

So, the adminstration doesn't want to turn over internal legal opinions about the NSA domestic eavesdropping program.

The argument is that the administration's legal arguments have already been made in public, so it would be redundant and useless for memos to be released. According to an unnamed administration official, everything in the memos was also in the 42-page "white paper" that was issued last month.

To me this raises the question, if everything pertinent was included in the "white paper" then why is there resistance to releasing the memos? Refusing to release the memos only throws gas on the fire of suspicion surrounding the program and the legal thinking that allows it, or atleast portends to allow it.

Similarly to pre-war intelligence about WMD, it seems the administration wants to be the only judge of what information is noteworthy and important. But as we know, they have a track record for emphasizing the bits of info that supports their case while downplaying or ignoring bits that detract from it.

I think Chuck Schumer's got it right when he says:

"Without the Justice Department memos and without more witnesses, it's hard to se how anything other than a rehashing of the administration line is going to happen," Mr. Schumer said Wednesday. "I am worried that these hearings could end up telling us very little when the American people are thirsty to find out what happened here."

Unsurprisingly, one of the memos in question is thought to have been written by John Yoo, of torture memo fame. Yoo is one of the most influential lawyers guiding the administration's claims to increased executive power.

Another memo in question was apparently written by Jack Goldsmith, whom Newsweek highlights as being one of the stronger dissenting voices within the Justice Department, in terms of assertions of Presidential power.

If these two memos are in question, and if they were in fact written by these two men, then it seems to me that there is reason to believe that their could have been differing opinions within the Justice Department about the legality of the NSA program. And that is pertinent to the Congressional investigations.

Hopefully, Congress will be able to breakthrough the stonewall being put up by the administration, and we the people can get some answers about an issue we have every right to be up in arms about.

My own jumping to conclustions mind thinks the domestic spying scandal could be the one that sparks the political and legal flames that burn the White House from inside out. I wouldn't be surprised if the administration's final defense comes down to this.

- Glitter

Patriot Act and the Death Penalty

2006-02-02T16:28:00.000-05:00

There's an interesting post in the diaries over at Daily Kos about proposed changes in the PATRIOT ACT that would give some decision power over death penalty cases to the Attorney General instead of judges. Kind of makes one wonder how many non-terrorism related law changes are actually in that law.

The post stems from a Seattle Times article titled "Additions slipped into Patriot Act".

Definitely worth checking out.

- Glitter

Ithacan Round Up

2006-02-02T11:40:00.000-05:00

* The cover story is pretty good this week, focusing on the effects of pollution released by the Morse Chain division of Borg Warner, which was purchased by Emerson Power Transmission in 1983. Specifically it looks at the effects of chemicals in the soil on residents of the area. Good Job to the Ithacan and writer Stacey Coburn for covering this. I'd heard mention of this problem during the summer from a professor, but never was able to get a writer to follow up on it. I'm glad someone has now.

Interesting quote at the bottom from Ithaca College's own Meg Jamieson:

Jamieson said she hopes Emerson, the DOH and the DEC are being honest when they say they want to help ensure the safety of residents’ homes. But she said officials at the Jan. 25 meeting failed to mention what happens when residents are exposed to the eight chemicals that are considered to be related to the plant.

“There were continual reassurances that they were doing the right thing, but there was also a continual stonewalling of the neighborhood’s concerns, and our only presentation of options was furthering testing,” Jamieson said.

* It's good to see SGA attempting to connect students to politics and legislation outside of the campus. Focusing on student aid is a good way to forge the connection that what happens in Capitol buildings (on the local, state, and federal level) can have a real world effect on students and members of the academic community. Two thoughts about the article/story:

1)It quotes senior Julie Roberts as if she were just a random student who was in the pub during the protest and was inspired to get involved, but the article does not divulge that she is a rather active member of Students for a Just Peace (SJP), a group in which Dan McCarey, one of the organizers of the protest, is also a leader in. I have no problem with what Julie said or that she was quoted, but I do feel like this piece of information does provide a bit more context for her words.

2)This might be a half-baked notion, but I've thought for a while now that having to secure a particular permit for a particular place in order to demonstrate using one's free speech rights was rather antithetical to the notion of free speech. I realize there are legal precedents for free speech being hemmed in by time, place and manner considerations, but the idea that free speech on this campus can only happen at "Free Speech" Rock or by approval of bureacrats on campus just doesn't sit right with me. I know that there have been demonstrations and what not on campus that have not been at free speech rock, but comments like:

“We have procedures in place for students who wish to demonstrate or put up displays, but without the proper approval, groups run the risk of losing all ability to advertise and solicit on campus,” she said. “Purposefully ignoring college policies undermines the sense of community we are trying to create.”

not only sound like a threat, but also like "it's ok to express your opinion in demonstration, but only if you do so with in the boundaries we set up for you." Alas, kudos to the fire safety official who allowed the tent to stand for the remainder of lunch.

* Intersting editorial about the St. Patricks Four. I do believe it contains the editorial board speaking out against the war in Iraq, calling it unjust and a violation of international agreements. Good for the Eds on that point. However, I do think they are slightly off point with the headline "Criminalizing Peace Activism." Although the editorial acknowledges that the convictions were "appropriate" and that "The St. Patrick’s Four should be punished for breaking the law," the headline and subheadline give the impression that the paper feels they should not be punished for what they did. While I agree with the main thrust of their argument that this should not have been a federal case and federal imprisonment is not the appropriate punishment, the headline "Criminalizing Peace Activism" reminds me too much of when Tom Delay told his supporters that liberals and the press were "criminalizing conservatives". It has always been my understanding that part of civil disobediance was the acceptance of the legal punishment for your crimes. I've actually always thought that was part of the symbolic power of non-violent action, in that a person is willing to risk their comfort and break the law in order make their statement. In doing so, the action elevates the cause above the individual. But within that is the knowledge that one's actions are breaking established law, whether that law is just or not is a different story, but it is the standing law at the time of the action. So, it seems to me that being legally punished for knowingly breaking the law is hardly having one's actions criminalized. Now, if they wanted to talk about the troublesome aggresiveness of the government in pursuing the case, I would most definitely support them. And in fact, I support most of this editorial. There is a disturbing trend in this country right now of singling out anti-war and left voices, as was demonstrated with the arrest of Cindy Sheehan at the State of the Union for simply wearing a T-shirt with the number of dead US soldiers on it. One example of this that is clearly illustrated by the St. Patrick's Four case is the stupid practice of relating them to "terrorist organizations." Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric is an asshole for trying to argue that the St. Patrick's Four is part of a terroist organization.

* Their editorial on Bill Bradley is rather stinging. Can't complain with much there. Though I do doubt much change will come about in terms of how the commencement speaker is chosen, since the only people agitated by it are likely to be seniors, and changing the process won't do anything for them, since they've got Bradley now and the decision is rather final. Real change on this point would have to come pro-actively and pre-emptively from younger classes, so that they aren't caught complaining about the process after the process has already been completed. As for Bradley, he may be a boring speaker, but hopefully he'll have some good things to say. I'm not really familiar with him as a politician as 2000 was right before I started paying attention to politics and about 2 years before I became a news and political junkie.

* Dean Lynch gives another indication of the direction she is trying to push the Park School, and with that, much of the rest of campus. My one question is if the student's in the Park School's Advisory Council is enough student input. I'm especially curious if students were given the information about the proposed changes in a timely manner that would have allowed them to air their concerns with their representatives so that their representatives could legitimately speak for other students, rather than just themselves as students. None the less, Dean Lynch seems to have some good ideas, and she is pretty damn supportive of student projects and what not. As always, I'll be checking her blog and keep things updated over here on what she is publicly stating over there.

* Pretty interesting Op-Ed by Jon Bougher about Iran and the media's coverage of it. Definitely made me think, and I would say it is one of the better guest commentaries I have read in the Ithacan in a long time.

* Strong column by Kim Gilman this week. Glad to see someone speaking loudly about this issue. Especially given the Ithacan's disappointing coverage of labor issues in the past. Two words I feel are missing from the column though. Peggy Williams. What are her feelings towards unions? Do we really know what she thinks about any of these hot button issues?

* Although I can't say I hardly ever come close to agreeing with him, Patrick Schwab has written his first ever coherent letter to the Ithacan. This is an important, perhaps even monumentous, occasion for the Republican presence on our campus. The first step towards having your politics respected is having your words follow actual logical trains of thought. I personally don't mind having a robust conservative movement on campus as it kind of forces us liberals to keep our politics robust. Hopefully this example of coherence means we won't have to sit and read shit like this and this again. However, as is the case with most of what Mr. Schwab writes, I can't help but focus in on certain rhetorical flourishes he uses, like "it seems as if Williams relented to a particular group." Who could this particular group be? Would Schawb be as outraged if Williams caved to his particular group and accepted their Intellectual Diversity proposals?

However, even if I can read some problematic undertones into his words, I do have to agree that the logistical concerns he raises are legitimate, though I would also say that the conversation of how to incorporate an MLK Jr. day holiday into our campus schedule has been going on for a long time now, and Mr. Schwab could have participated and "spoke up" back then when his voice could have constructively done something. But of course, then he might have had to interact with "particular groups," and that would have hurt his intellectual diversity.

That's about it for me and the Ithacan today.

- Glitter

They Clash...

2006-02-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

"Bill O'Reilly vs. NBC" Vs. "Keith Olberman vs. Bill O'Reilly"

(Via Crooks and Liars)

- Glitter

Chris Hedges

2006-02-01T11:55:00.000-05:00

Didn't get a chance to update yesterday, whole lot of stuff to talk about today. For now, I'll talk about a speech I watched last night that wasn't by George W. Bush.

Chris Hedges:

spoke at IC last night about his book War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning. In general, the talk was pretty powerful. Hedges speaks in a very deliberate and heavy tone that seems to repeatedly remind the listener that he has "been there" and he has really "seen it." Even though the speech was mainly a rehashing of most of the main points of the book with a few examples to illustrate, and I had already read the book, I still found myself moved by his reminder that war is not what we see on TV, but a FUBAR situation that pushes humans to all ends of the emotional spectrum while dancing around the edges of its core, which is Death. At least that's the message I have gotten from Mr. Hedges. Unlike him, I have never been face to face with war, so I have no way of knowing if his account of it all is correct. But it certainly is compelling.

I found myself a bit surprised at how snugly his talk fit into the general sentiments of Ithaca activists. War is horrible. The media lies. Bush and crew are bad. Now I'm not saying there isn't some validity to each one of these positions, but in my experience with world renowned journalists such as Bill Moyers and Seymour Hersh, they give speeches that force the local population to challenge their deeply held convictions about the political realities of complex issues such as war and the forces that bring us into it. I don't mean to say that Hedges wasn't challenging and rewarding, which he most certainly was. I just mean to say I was surprised by how accomodating his views were to the prevalent views of Ithaca. For myself, perhaps it is good that someone whose reporting I greatly admire has now challenged me to reassess how I view the politics of my host city here, which I usually do with a pinch of skepticism.

Also, interestingly enough, I got the distinct impression that bringing Hedges to campus was a political statement by the Provost of IC, Peter Bardaglio. In his introductory speech, Bardaglio made a stinging reference to Hedges being a witness to war unlike George W. Bush, followed by a plea to the audience to keep Hedges words in mind when listening to the State of the Union later in the night. And Hedges was definitely anti-war. In some ways, this doesn't surprise me since Bardaglio and the Office of the Provost were at the forefront of the Engaging Democracy And Troubling The Water speaker series in the 2003-2004 academic year, which for all intents and purposes, did end up leaning on the left side of the spectrum. But at the same time, Bardaglio has also been one of the most vocal supporters (perhaps appeaser would be a better word) of the Ithaca College Republicans' push for "Intellectual Diversity" on campus. Bardaglio co-wrote a guest commentary with Roger Custer, calling for IC to "embrace intellectual diversity." He was also integral in bringing Jonah Goldberg to speak on campus in the spring of 2005. My guess is that Bardaglio is personally liberal, but his position as Provost forces him to take seriously the complaints and initiatives of Republicans and conservatives on campus. In other words, his expression of external politics is overrided by the internal politics of IC.

Here is an article that takes exception to "Intellectual Diversity," as well as a description of the controversy at Source Watch. Professor Charles Venator Santiago of IC wrote about it in the Ithacan here.

A few choice Hedges quotes I was able to jot down in my notebook:

" I always distrusted power, no matter whose hands power was in."

"Current coverage of war in Iraq does not expose the pathology of war."

"War for now is presented briefly, through the distorted prism of the occupiers."

On embedded reporters: they have "no relationships to victims, essential for balanced coverage" of war.

"The press has lost the outrage to expose great lies, to hold liars accountable, and even when it is uncomfortable, to expose the truth."

"Once you master a people by force, you depend on force for control."

In war, we are "compelled forward not by logic, or passion, or understanding, but by fear."

"we have become the company we keep."

"The seduction of war is insidious."

"And the essence of war, Death, is always held from the public view."

Post-Vietnam: US citizens were "forced to confront our own capacity for atrocity, for evil, and in this we see ourselves."

In war "all things, including human beings become objects. Objects to gratify, objects to destroy, and sometimes both."

"It doesn't matter how many Mr. and Mrs. Johnsons are anti-war because those who know how to use the weapons are not."

When asked about parallels between the Bush administration and the Nazi propaganda tactics, Hedges responded that (and this is a paraphrase): this administration runs a very sophisticated propaganda machine, Bush flying onto the air craft carrier after major combat operations had ended reminded me of Triumph of the Will. They are very aware of propaganda techniques and how to manipulate public opinion, and some of those tactics may have come from them, but that is as far as I would go with the Nazi analogy.

The New York Times is in a "slow self-immolation."

"If you think Fox is bad, turn on Trinity Broadcasting or CBN - and then maybe the Nazi analogy works."

- Glitter

Radio Show

2006-01-30T21:56:00.000-05:00

My radio show, the Flipper Kidz Fun Show, will be hitting the sweet waves of the internet at 10 Eastern Standard Time.

Feel free to listen

Lot's O Junk I like....especially The Mattoid.

- Glitter

BFD

2006-01-30T14:49:00.000-05:00

I meant to post this yesterday, but never got around to it.

The New York Times featured a kick ass editorial yesterday about "Spies, Lies and Wiretaps". The editrorial is written in a rather "drop the bullshit" manner that goes one by one through the Bush administration's defenses of its recently disclosed warrantless eavesdropping program and swats them down in clear language. The reader is even helped by bolded titles for each attempted defense and misdirection.

A brief example:

The spying is legal. The secret program violates the law as currently written. It's that simple. In fact, FISA was enacted in 1978 to avoid just this sort of abuse. It said that the government could not spy on Americans by reading their mail (or now their e-mail) or listening to their telephone conversations without obtaining a warrant from a special court created for this purpose. The court has approved tens of thousands of warrants over the years and rejected a handful.

As amended after 9/11, the law says the government needs probable cause, the constitutional gold standard, to believe the subject of the surveillance works for a foreign power or a terrorist group, or is a lone-wolf terrorist. The attorney general can authorize electronic snooping on his own for 72 hours and seek a warrant later. But that was not good enough for Mr. Bush, who lowered the standard for spying on Americans from "probable cause" to "reasonable belief" and then cast aside the bedrock democratic principle of judicial review.

The whole thing is worth a read, and it's pretty obvious that the "paper of record" considers this to be a pretty big deal for the nation. From my experience, editorials are usually rather short, often no more than one internet page, but this editorial was not only given two internet pages, but also a large, prominent and boxed location in the print edition of the Times' sunday opinions page.

And they're right. This is a big fucking deal.

- Glitter

Matthews and "Scalito"

2006-01-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd throw my hat into the Chris Matthews bashing that is so in vogue at the moment.

Most news junkies will likely remember how Matthews accused Dems of "going after Alito's Italian ancestory" soon after his nomination was announced. Well, an article in the New York Times today shines a little bit of light on where that meme may have come from:

The team worked through a newly formed group, the Judicial Confirmation Network, to coordinate grass-roots pressure on Democratic senators from conservative states. And they stayed in constant contact with scores of conservative groups around the country to brief them about potential nominees and to make sure they all stuck to the same message. They fine-tuned their strategy for Judge Alito when he was nominated in October by recruiting Italian-American groups to protest the use of the nickname "Scalito," which would have linked him to the conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.

It's amazing how Matthews ended up spewing Republican talking points so easily. It really makes one wonder.

- Glitter

And I finally bring Pro Wrestling to the blog...

2006-01-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

Interesting post on a blog run by Scott Keith, the online writer who did a good deal to shape my understanding of one of my high school obsessions, the WWF(now WWE) and the pro-wrestling business.

The basic storyline is that during the Gulf War, Sgt. Slaughter:

betrayed his army roots and his country, and aligned himself with General Adnan, who was the heel embodiment of the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein:

In doing so, he underhandedly won the WW(F)E world title from the Ultimate Warrior :

at the Royal Rumble. This set the table for a showdown between All American Male Hulk Hogan:

At biggest show in pro wrestling, Wrestlemania:

So, basically at the time, the WWF put the politics of the Gulf War in to the simplified morality tale of pro wrestling, good versus evil, face versus heel. Sgt. Slaughter was a literal trader who denounced America and took up the Iraqi flag. If Ann Coulter had been around back then, she would have called him a liberal. There were some very heavy undertones to the storyline, which has come to be seen by some as a black eye on the company's history and reputation, eventhough the WWF promoted it as one of the highest selling pay-per-views at the time.

The tone of the angle was one of an "aggressive" streak of patriotism that one would expect to find in a Casey Nethercott, not a highly successful entertainment show aimed at kids and teenagers. Though of course, there have been arguemtns that the overall message of the WWE is a conservative one. I haven't really watched much since 2001, but the bits and pieces that I have seen seems to indicate that the WWE does still create a moral world that is largely based on many conservative archetypes and norms.

From what I've vaguely gathered, the WWE has run storylines based around terrorism that bring up a lot of questions about racial representation in the media.It's hard to tell whether this is an expression of what the writers actuall think about minority characters and the politics of global conflict or if it is just an indictation of what the witers think will sell to the public and their fanbase. Either way, it's hard to deny that the lessons of the spectacle that is pro wrestling can wade into some pretty iffy territory, especially when considering the potential power it has to normalize notions. After all, it is it's own mythology.

Saturday Morning News Round Up

2006-01-28T11:30:00.000-05:00

* Seems that draft legislation, known by critics as Patriot Act II, included legislative changes that would have expanded the President's power for domestic spying. Most interesting graf to me in the Post article is:

One provision would have made it clear that the president could order wiretapping without court supervision for 15 days after Congress approved the use of military force, as it did against al Qaeda. Current law allows such spying for 15 days without a judge's approval only when Congress issues a declaration of war.

Justice officials have argued more recently that the two types of declarations are legally equivalent.

I am no lawyer nor even a law student, but my layman's understand of things tells me that in the law specific phrases and concepts have specific meanings and can't always be interchanged. Though that doesn't mean the administration can't assert that things mean whatever they want it to mean, or atleast whatever they think the public might politically accept.

* At least some US soldiers are kidnapping the wives of men believed to be insurgents in an effort to leverage their husbands to turn themselves in. It's hard to tell from the article whether this practice is an example of isolated incidents on the ground or indicative of a more generally accepted method. Either way, I'm pretty sure it violates the words of the Geneva Conventions.

* NASA is trying to quiet one of its top scientists as he is speaking out against greenhouse emissions and their role in climate change. NASA's office of public affairs wants to "review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists." This is interesting too:

The fresh efforts to quiet him, Dr. Hansen said, began in a series of calls after a lecture he gave on Dec. 6 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. In the talk, he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles, and that without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth "a different planet." The administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but not reverse, the growth of emissions.

What a coincidence, this happened soon after he directly criticized the administration. Hmmmm. That's strange.

* A conference is being held this week in Virgina about if there is a set of ethics for the espionage community, and if there is, what should it be. Sound like it would be damn interesting to attend, a real cross-section of moral philosophy and the nuts and bolts of geo-political trench warfare.

* The release of a video tape of two kidnapped Germans in Iraq is a sad reminder of not only how chaotic things seem to be over there, but also how helpless I feel in the face of it over here.

* This is everywhere over the liberal blogosphere, but I'll post it too. The Bush Administration has backed an Iran introduced motion to deny two gay rights groups a voice in the UN.

* It does seem that the Left blogosphere is not going to allow the Right Wing Noise Machine to be the only team in town working the media refs. Part of me recoils at playing with the fire of right wing tactics, part of me punches that other part of me and screams "it's about time we had our own watchers watching the watchers." I'm remind of something Todd Gitlin said in a recent Nation article about Campus Progress:

I asked the former president of Students for a Democratic Society, Todd Gitlin, now a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, for his thoughts about the trends on the new student left. "I think there's a desire for results, a hard-bitten realism," says Gitlin. "The primary goal is not some sort of symbolic display, or some sort of posture or attitude, but results. If that's what it means, then I applaud the turn to practicality. Today the far right is in charge, and I don't think you can create the possibility of broad-based radicalism until you defeat the far right. Put the center in power and then you have the possibility--or the luxury--of radicalism."

Seems to be the trend for Progessives at the moment. First we need to push back, then once we've gained our ground, we can advocate for the policies we think are better. Of course this involves many factors, including the battles over narratives in the news cycle and the battle for voters in elections. (sorry for the overuse of the war analogy, I know it's a sign of weak word choice.)

* Here's an article in The Post about some of the tensions between activist liberal blogs and more traditional Democratic insiders. My first impression is that the article creates the impression of the blogosphere as a monolithic entity, when really it is all kinds of people approaching things from all kinds of angles. I don't deny that there is coordination between some blogs on some issues, but I'd classify that as a case by case basis. In the instance of complaining about the choice of Tim Kaine to voice the Democrats pushback of the State of the Union, I definitely didn't see that as a unified criticism in the blogs, though there certainly was plenty of outcry. Also, the author of the article, Jim VandeHei, groups Code Pink in with the blogs because they use their website as part of their activism, but from what I can tell, they don't actually have a blog, and unlike most blogs, they are an organization brought together specifically for activism, while blogs are more like a citizen's group gathered at a local bar to discuss politics (see Drinking Liberally). A website is not the same as a blog, or at least, a blog is a specific kind of website. Most press discussions about blogs that I have read have not given the sense of blogs that I get from reading them. Perhaps the best discussion of the political potential for progressive blogs that I have read is this essay by Peter Daou, Kerry's point man on blog outreach and the creator of the Daou Report.

* And finally, in other news, Skye Friday triumphantly returns!

- Glitter

hmmm, what interesting timing Mr. President

2006-01-27T15:34:00.000-05:00

Josh Marshall points to a potentially worrisome development in the Justice Department's Abramoff investigation.

Apparently, the prosecuter heading the investigation will step down because President Bush has just nominated him for a federal judgeship.

It seems to me that it is logical that the timing of this appointment raises questions about the motivations behind it. You know, are they taking a prosecutor who has proved effective in actually pursuing corruption cases (often against Republicans) at the height a scandal that reaches into the White House, though no one knows how far, and it certainly reaches directly into the Republican party's political machinery.

Of course, Scott McClellan is worried that there might be politics involved in this:

The White House, which announced Mr. Bush's selection of Mr. Hillman for the court in a routine e-mail message on Wednesday that included 15 other nominations to judgeships and federal jobs, dismissed the calls for a special prosecutor.

"It's nothing but pure politics," said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary. "The Justice Department is holding Mr. Abramoff to account, and the career Justice prosecutors are continuing to fully investigate the matter."

A special prosecutor would not be especially welcome at the White House. Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the C.I.A. leak case, is more than two years into an investigation that has resulted in the indictment of a top vice-presidential aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., and has left Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, under investigation.

Mr. Hillman's departure from the Justice Department creates a vacancy at the top of the Abramoff inquiry only three weeks after Mr. Abramoff, once one of the city's most powerful Republican lobbyists and a major fund-raiser for Mr. Bush, announced his guilty plea and agreed to testify against others, possibly including members of Congress.

A former senior White House budget official, David H. Safavian, has been indicted in the case on charges of lying about his contacts with Mr. Abramoff, a former lobbying partner. The Justice Department's plea agreement with Mr. Abramoff makes clear that prosecutors are investigating several members of Congress and other public officials who are suspected of having accepted gifts from the lobbyist in exchange for official acts.

Colleagues at the Justice Department say Mr. Hillman has been involved in day-to-day management of the Abramoff investigation since it began almost two year ago. The inquiry, which initially focused on accusations that Mr. Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes out of tens of millions of dollars in lobbying fees, is being described within the department as the most important federal corruption investigation in a generation.

Mr. Hillman's nomination for a judgeship was among the factors cited Thursday by four Democratic lawmakers, two senators and two representatives, in calling on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to name a special prosecutor to oversee the corruption investigation.

The timing of Mr. Hillman's nomination "jaundices this whole process," Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in an interview. "They have to appoint a special counsel. I think there will be broad support for one."

Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, called the timing "startling" and said, "You have one of the chief prosecutors removed from a case that has tentacles throughout the Republican leadership of Congress, throughout the various agencies and into the White House."

It fries my grits when the administration (or any politician for that matter) does something blatantly political and then dismisses all criticism as politically motivated. Up is down.

I'd pay attention to Talking Points Memo for the latest developments on this since you know Josh and his team of Muckrakers will be all over it.

- Glitter

Designing Park #2

2006-01-27T12:14:00.000-05:00

Dean Lynch has a new post over at her new blog, Designing Park, and it's basically a link to an Atlantic Monthly article on Higher Education by James Fallows and V.V. Ganeshanathan. Interstingly enough, she doesn't link to an archive of the article at the Atlantic's website, but rather a PDF of it hosted on this website.

I still have no idea who this blog is meant for, as she hasn't advertised it over on her other blog, All Things Park, which is known to be her forum to announce, discuss, and advertise, well, all things related to Park. Perhaps this blog isn't meant to be too public yet. I really don't know, so until then, I link, you decide.

- Glitter

Paul Hackett, Pro-Gay and Proud of it.

2006-01-26T22:17:00.000-05:00

For a couple months now I've been answering the "what are your plans after college" question with a vague idea about working on a 2006 congressional campaign for a returning Iraq War vet running as a Democrat, or a Fighting Dem, as they have become known as.

The problem for me has been figuring whose campaign I want to jump on. Figuring that out involves questions of location, strategy, principle, and well, personality. While I'm still not even close to making a decision, Paul Hackett's campaign sent out an email today that definitely shifted me a bit towards him.

Here's what he said that made me feel that he might be a politician I could work for in good conscience (granted I don't know all his positions yet):

Last week the Columbus Dispatch published a column about my candidacy that said, in part, the following:

"Asked to define being pro-gay rights, Hackett said anybody who tries to deny homosexuals the same rights, including marriage, as every other citizen is un-American. Are you saying, he was asked, that the 62 percent of Ohioans who voted in November 2004 to constitutionally deny same-sex marriages are un-American?

"If what they believe is that we're going to have a scale on judging which Americans have equal rights, yeah, that's un-American. They've got to accept that. It's absolutely un-American." Columbus Dispatch (01/15/06)

It wasn't long until the Republican attack machine came after me demanding an apology. They called what I said "hate speech." The Republican Party was up to its old tricks again, using fear to silence opposition. They expected me to back down like too many Democrats have in the past.

My response?

I said it. I meant it. I stand behind it. Equal justice under the law for all regardless of who they are and how they were born is fundamental to our American spirit and our American freedoms. Any person or group that argues that the law should not apply equally to all Americans is, frankly, un-American.

I realize that compromises have to pragmatically be made in politics, especially when running in tough races, but support of gay marriage and equal rights for sexual minorities is one place where I feel like I can't bend too much on principle. Truthfully, I'd have an easier time supporting a pro-life candidate than I would one who is against equality for gays and lesbians, though ideally I want support a candidate who is both pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. Although I disagree with pro-life policies, I can empathetically understand why someone would advocate against abortion if they think a fetus really is equal to an out of womb human. I can't empathetically relate to someone who is anti-gay.

Oh, and in the vein of support for pro-life Democrats, I was formally considering jumping on to Bob Casey's campaign for Senate in PA because I would really love to see Rick Santorum out of office, but his declaration that he would support Alito killed that idea for good.

So, yeah. In terms of currying my grunt work support: Hackett - 1, Casey - 0

- Glitter

Silver Jews! Silver Jews! Silver Jews!

2006-01-26T19:49:00.000-05:00

Seems to be that David Berman's gonna be doing a little speaking soon. The University of Pittsburgh has put out a press release announcing that the Man himself will be holding a reading on Weds, February 8th. How long is the drive from Ithaca to Pittsburgh?

With that in mind, Berman told Pitchfork that he charges $1000 for a reading. Anyone know how much discretionary funds the IC Writing and English department have on hand for speakers? Just a thought.

In more Silver Jews news, Pollstar has posted an article that contains a new interview with Berman.

Oh, and something I found while Google searching for SJ news. Paste Magazine has an interesting article up about the taping of a new music show on Turner South called Music Road, hosted by acoustic-pop troubadour Edwin McCain. Basically the concept is that McCain goes around the country to renowned music venues and hosts a taping of the local scene's best acts. The Athens, Ga show featured Vic Chestnutt, Elf Power, Drive-By Truckers, Phosphorescent, Don Chambers and GOAT, Liz Durrett, and members of Hope For A Golden Summer.

While I was reading the article, I couldn’t help but wonder whether a show like this could realistically be held in Ithaca. Logistically I’d say no, simply because we do not have any venues that cater to local music that have any kind of prestige outside of Ithaca. I suppose something could be held at the State Theater, but that’s not exactly a venue that showcases the local music scene, let alone traveling musicians who aren’t already big names. I suppose the argument could be made that there is enough of a local music scene here to warrant a spotlight, particularly if Donna The Buffalo, John Brown’s Body, and perhaps Johnny Dowd topped a bill of other local acts.

I don’t know though, I know there is a local Ithaca music scene, but I can’t say I’ve ever really been too taken by it. I will freely admit that I haven’t been the most pro-active in engaging with the local music scene in Ithaca, but at the same time, of the above listed acts, only Johnny Dowd has piqued my interest to any real extent. This might just be a case of not giving something a fair listen, though my gut tells me that's not the case and the Ithaca music scene just ain't for me.

Of course, I would never claim to be the prototypical music fan.

- Glitter

A Question of Framing and Narratives

2006-01-26T15:33:00.000-05:00

Today's New York Times article titled, "Photos With Disgraced Lobbyist Are 'Not Relevant,' Bush Says, is a good example of the issues Peter Daou brought up in his most recent essay.

The Times article is an understandable reporting of the President's news conference this morning, and it is newsworthy whenever a top administration official actually answers questions, especially since this particular President has been more loathe than most in holding Q and A's with the press. While the Times' reporter, David Stout, gives most of the words in the article to the President and his message, he does try to include criticisms and diverging viewpoints. This is to be expected and understood, though it does seem to be an exercise in trying to give the appearence of balanced journalism rather than an attempt to square what is truth with what is spin.

For example, I point to this paragraph in reference to the NSA's eavesdropping program:

As for the National Security Agency's surveillance program, which many Democrats have said was of dubious constitutionality and legality at best, Mr. Bush said it had been vetted by lawyers and was essential. "And so as I stand here right now," he said, "I can tell the American people the program's legal, it's designed to protect civil liberties, and it's necessary."

The problem with the reporting here is that it gives the impression that worry and outrage over the NSA program is only a partisan matter, which it is not. Many conservatives, including movement lynchpins Grover Norquist, David Keene, and former Congressman Bob Barr, are outraged over the revelation's of the program's questionable use of warrantless searches. Furthermore, non-partisan government reports by the Congressional Research Service have also found that the reports to Congress on the program and the administration's legal rationale for it do not hold up to legal scrutiny.

Clearly, it is not just Democrats who are criticizing the administration on this, but the impression that it is gives the President and his supporters the easy dodge of "oh, this is just politics."

Not to sound shrill and cliched, but seeking impeachment over a blowjob is just politics. Seeking answers as to whether the President and his administration disregarded the constitutionally guaranteed rights of this nation's citizens is a matter national importance.

- Glitter

Sidenote: Hopefully later tonight, I will write my first of many weekly posts responding to and commenting on The Ithacan and Intercom.

Drag City has News!...and other music-related tidbits

2006-01-24T21:44:00.000-05:00

A little stream of information has poured out today from that Great Lake of an indie record label that is Drag City

Loose Fur, of the Misters Tweedy, O'Rourke, and Kotche, has a new album coming out soon called Born Again In The USA.

Silver Jews tour has nearly all sold out, though Drag City does vaguely imply that there may still be tickets available for the second night in New York City.

Azita, who plays on the most recent Silver Jews album, Tanglewood Numbers, also has a new album coming out. Her Life On The Fly was a pretty sweet album.

For more Drag City news, check their website.

-----------------------------------

In other music news, Bobby Bare, Jr. has not only a new Live album available, Nick Nacks & Paddy Whacks, but he's also going on a short February tour.

Here are the dates:

feb 15 - CHICAGO, IL - SCHUBAS
feb 16 - INIANAPOLIS, IN - THE STONE MUG
feb 17 - CLEVELAND, OH - BEACHLAND BALLROOM
feb 18 - MAUMEE, OH - VILLIAGE IDIOT
feb 19 - BUFFALO BUFFALO, NY- BUFFALO ICON
feb 20- BOSTON, MA - T.T. BEARS
feb 21- NEW YORK CITY - MERCURY LOUNGE
feb 22- PHILADELPHIA, PA - KHYBER
feb 23- ARLINGTON, VA (WASHINGTON DC) - IOTA
feb 24- TBA
feb 25- ATLANTA ,GA

-----------------------------------

And finally, Pitchfork reports that Art Brut will be touring North America in the spring.

Here are those dates:

01-24 Cologne, Germany - Stollwerck
01-26 Milan, Italy - Rainbow
01-27 Florence, Italy - Sonar
01-28 Bologna, Italy - Covo
01-29 Rome, Italy - Zoobar
01-30 Roncade, Italy - New Age Club
02-01 Bordeaux, France - Angouleme
02-02 Nantes, France - Olympic
02-03 Evereux, France - L'Abordage
02-04 Rennes, France - L'Ubu
02-06 Paris, France - La Maroquinerie
02-07 Dijon, France - Le Grand Mix
02-08 Lille, France - La Laterie
03-15 Austin, TX - The Parish (SXSW)
03-16 Austin, TX - TBA (SXSW)
03-17 Austin, TX - Emo's Annex (SXSW)
03-19 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
03-20 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
03-21 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
03-23 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
03-24 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
03-25 Seattle, WA - Neumos
03-28 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
03-30 Chicago, IL - Metro
03-31 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
04-01 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
04-02 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
04-03 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs
04-04 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
04-05 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
04-07 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
04-08 Haverford, PA - Haverford College
04-09 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04-10 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
04-11 Brooklyn, NY - TBA

- Glitter

Dean Lynch's newest blog

2006-01-24T20:38:00.000-05:00

It's a goal of mine to get this blog a bit more Ithaca-centered, hence the Ithaca-related websites topping the links on the right. So in that spirit, I present the following:

Many people probably know that Dianne Lynch, Dean extrodinaire of the Park School at IC, keeps a blog, All Things Park, where she can post updates and announcements about all sorts of projects and developments in the Park School. She's even mentioned Buzzsaw there before.

What I did not know, and I assume many others do not know, is that she has also started another blog, Designing Park. Its premiere, and thus far only, post was written on Sunday, Jan 22nd, where Dean Lynch posted links to a PDF of a presentation she made as well as a set of slides about enrollments, provided to her by Larry Metzger, vp of enrollment planning.

I've heard rumors and rumblings of a movement to restructure the curriculum at Park, and I'd say that this new blog indicates that the discussion is just beginning, and hopefully it will be an interactive one for the entire academic community (students, faculty, and administrators) who have a vested interest in the decisions that are made around the "design" of our college's educational direction.

As was brought up by Students for Park, which was spearheaded by Buzzsaw's own Jeremy Levine and Kate Sheppard, I hope that the voice of students is not lost in this conversation.

As for now, I'm going to add her new blog to our list of links.

- Glitter