Obviously

Sick tunnel scene:

Federal authorities were trying to determine on Thursday what was smuggled through a sophisticated tunnel into the United States from Mexico they call one of the longest ever found.

"Whether the tunnel was used for smuggling aliens, smuggling narcotics or a worst case scenario, some sort of weapon, we don't know," Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Diego, said at a news conference.

The tunnel has cement walls and supporting planks, is no less than five feet (1.2 meter) tall and wide, and runs as far as 60 feet underground, Unzueta said. It has lighting and ventilation, and a pumping system to drain groundwater

With those measurements it could only be Mexicans...

Nice

What's the excuse for this?

H.H.

Last night's MF Doom/Big Daddy Kane show was very mixed.

MF Doom just didn't hit it like I hoped he would. Too raw, and not enough emotion, which is completely opposite of his studio work. Too bad. The good thing is he's coming back in March to the DangerDoom material, which he didn't do last night.

Talib Kweli came out for the encore, but frankly, I can't really do the Talib thing at that hour.

As for Big Daddy Kane, this guy is phenomenal. My first time seeing the Old Schooler, and he did not disappoint. HE GETS THE JOB DONE!

Fantastic flow, vibe, emotion, the whole package. Really the night's savior.

The best thing to look forward to right now is Ghostface and the Wu Tang Clan on Valentine's Day.

Just listen to this clip from his new album. The guy is UNRIVALED in ALL OF MUSIC right now.

Anyway, Doom needs to lower his volume, and get more involved with his own songs. Lose the stage backup.

Seems to Me

The country is more concerned with James Frey lying about a book than George Bush lying about a war.


I'm just wondering if Frey walks to the bank, or has someone drive him.

As Peter Sorta Said

So Hamas isn't just some behind the scenes fundamental group anymore? Now they're on the letterhead.

Yep, that's it.

I'm not going to blame Bush for this, but I really can't wait to hear his retread speech about foreign policy, and democratic movements. I'm sure avoiding the Israel/Palestinian problem for 4 years, to avoid any wrenches in the reelection, didn't help much. I'm equally sure that attacking Iraq was also not a helpful maneuver.

But, in the end, it's never going to end until our foreign policy goals change. When we stop propping up dictators in the Middle East solely to get oil on the cheap, and maintain stability, then, and only then, will things POSSIBLY change.

To think for a second this isn't a version of the Marxist struggle between the haves and the have nots is really shortsighted.

We have. Israel has. We support those who have. Then there are the have nots. It's not our job to support the have nots, but it's certainly not our job to support those who make sure they have nothing to live for, and those are the people we're in bed with, especially people like George Bush, and his entire family/friends group.

Amazing to hear Bush spin this victory into a positive, on some level:

President Bush called the Hamas win a “wake-up” call for the Fatah leadership. "You see, when you give people the vote, give them the chance to express themselves at the polls and they're unhappy with the status quo, they'll let you know," he said. "The people are demanding honest government. The people want services. They want to be able to raise their children in an environment in which they can get a decent education and they can find health care. And so the elections should open the eyes of the old guard there in the Palestinian territories. I like the competition of ideas. I like people who have to go out and say, vote for me, and here's what I'm going to do. There's something healthy about a system that does that."

Scary enough, what he's saying is actually true, but he really shouldn't even be addressing it this way because the change he's asking for is actually fought against by the people he's in bed with.

If we supported the people of these countries, and not the dictators, the citizens would receive support, education, and honest government from the masses; not the rulers.

Nice

Bring on the hurricanes:

Last year was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was unusually hot in the Arctic, U.S. space agency NASA said on Tuesday.

All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

In descending order, the years with the highest global average annual temperatures were 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2004, NASA said in a statement.

"It's fair to say that it probably is the warmest since we have modern meteorological records," said Drew Shindell of the NASA institute in New York City.

We believe in "voluntary" controls on emissions...

Hmmm

What a shocker:

In the 48 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, the White House received detailed warnings about the storm's likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property, documents show.

A 41-page assessment by the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), was delivered by e-mail to the White House's "situation room," the nerve center where crises are handled, at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, the day the storm hit, according to an e-mail cover sheet accompanying the document.

The NISAC paper warned that a storm of Katrina's size would "likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching" and specifically noted the potential for levee failures along Lake Pontchartrain. It predicted economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars, including damage to public utilities and industry that would take years to fully repair. Initial response and rescue operations would be hampered by disruption of telecommunications networks and the loss of power to fire, police and emergency workers, it said.

You can't blame them for not being consistent. Afterall, they ignored this too!

You Know

You don't look at the news for a few days and the shit storm is a hurricane:

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The Senate version would have targeted private HMOs participating in Medicare by changing the formula that governs their reimbursement, lowering payments $26 billion over the next decade. But after lobbying by the health insurance industry, the final version made a critical change that had the effect of eliminating all but $4 billion of the projected savings, according to CBO and other health policy experts.

In November, as part of a broad budget-cutting bill, the Senate approved a measure to save billions of dollars by reducing Medicare reimbursements to private insurers. Most of those savings disappeared after the final bill emerged from House and Senate negotiations last month.

That change was made in mid-December during private negotiations involving House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and the staffs of those committees as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House and Senate Democrats were excluded from the meeting. The Senate gave final approval to the budget-cutting measure on Dec. 21, but the House must give it final consideration early next month.

The change in the Medicare provision underscores a practice that growing numbers of lawmakers from both parties want addressed. More than ever, Republican congressional lawmakers and leaders are making vital decisions, involving far-reaching policies and billions of dollars, without the public -- or even congressional Democrats -- present.

Uhhhraq and Other Fun Stuff

Oh, where to begin, where to begin?

Did you see this story in the (liberal) New York Times yesterday? Damn liberals! Always reporting the news!

At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last year than it did five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters.

If royalty payments in fiscal 2005 for natural gas had risen in step with market prices, the government would have received about $700 million more than it actually did, a three-month investigation by The New York Times has found.

But an often byzantine set of federal regulations, largely shaped and fiercely defended by the energy industry itself, allowed companies producing natural gas to provide the Interior Department with much lower sale prices - the crucial determinant for calculating government royalties - than they reported to their shareholders.

As a result, the nation's taxpayers, collectively, the biggest owner of American oil and gas reserves, have missed much of the recent energy bonanza.

Oh, read the WHOLE THING. Such good times.

When you get through reading that you'll want to keep a glance at this too. Seriously, don't go further until you've read some of the first, and the second one by Krugman.

Yesterday, after having read both of these, I almost stood up in the restaurant I was in to ask, "Is there a Republican in the room?" I really wanted to punch someone in the face, badly. But I calmed myself.

It's really an amazing country, isn't it? You have our government, under Bush and Cheney, making sure large energy companies do not pay their fair share in taxes. You have these people leasing your lands, taxpayer lands, and not getting back the value which they deserve. You have the people who work for these companies getting tax cuts. You have the companies cheating, and getting tax cuts. You have the auditors being fired when they do their jobs. You have middle class people getting squeezed more than rich, paying taxes to educate children, and fight wars. But again, you have these enormous energy companies getting away with not paying their tax bills, but you have the American taxpayers footing the bill for was so these very companies can make even MORE MONEY on oil and gas abroad!

Are you fucking kidding me?

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
Iraq is proving itself to be more and more of a disaster every day as this article points out. I can't even get past the fact all these things are happening, and yet they're hardly discussed. We just move along, ho hum ho hum.

After reading these stories yesterday I walked past a greeting cards store and wondered, "Does this person support Bush because he'll promise a 'small business tax cut?'" To think there are so many people who would, completely overlooking the fact that major corporations aren't paying their bills on land WE OWN, is amazing.

All our tax bills would be lower if you enforced the tax laws on the largest companies, and the largest cheats. It just so happens that all the influential people working in, and around the White House these days are connected to these companies. What a coincidence.

Even that dumb goose-stepping bitch figurehead had a motherfucking oil tanker named after her.

Nice country.

So Lame

To read this:

The Silver Jews have often been mislabeled as a Pavement side project due to the occasional involvement of Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, but the group has always been Berman's own, with increasing assistance from his wife, Cassie.
Although Malkmus won't be along for the tour, Nastanovich is on board for drum duty and fellow Pavement alum Steve West is doing sound. Brian Kotzur, Tony Crow, William Tyler and Peyton Pinkerton - all of whom have worked with David and Cassie in the past - will round out the band.

Really hope this news changes.

I did notice in the Q & A that Dave Berman and I are thinking the same on some level:

There is some serious rockin' on the new album. Did the nature of the new songs have anything to do with your decision to begin performing live?

In general, I have a more aggressive attitude toward my personal survival. The tone of the music and my willingness to promote it reflect that change of heart.

In general, I too have a more aggessive attitude toward my personal survival. The tone of what I say and do, and my willingness to promote it will reflect that change of heart...I assure you.