Tuesday - deep in and tunnelling through

Tuesday June 23, 2009

. . . .Oh dude, we're in it now, deep and heading waaay out to sea.

. . . .From listening to the playlist in the podcast, you're probably under the assumption that my musical tastes do not include rap or hip-hop. You're wrong, real, real wrong. I really do love it, and understand it as a form of poetry. That said, there are some genres within those two that I don't listen to and can't stand, gangster and thug rap being two of those. (If you don't know the difference, do yourself a favor a take a listen sometime on HBO to Def Poetry or Brave New Voices, that's where the true art form starts.) All that is a prelude to my saying that Mos' Def is coming out with his first CD in a long time, and it'll be worth wait. Mos' is a great actor, Golden Globe and Emmy nominated, a community supporter of the arts, a very vocal political and social activist, and made his start in rap. Check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone for more details. (Psst!! He's a huge Rage Against the Machine fan, automatically puts him up the ladder in my book)

. . . .In other culture news, the Oscar-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, has put together another one, that I'd heard about and was waiting for. It Might Get Loud  is hours of footage of putting three master guitar gods of three generations together in a studio and seeing what happened. Jimmy Page of Led Zep, The Edge of U2 and Jack White of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and countless other projects were all put together and told to play. I can't wait to see this one.

. . . . .They had to do it, they just had to. . . .Republican Congressman Representative Dana Rohrabacker of California said today on MSNBC's "Ed Show" that President Obama was "responsible for the violence in Iran". So what the hell is with these morons?

. . . .In Iran, Mousavi is now under house arrest, but the protests continue and are actually ratcheting up.
. . . .Of greater interest to me is that fact that some mullahs are now joining in the protests, and the footballers (soccer players) that wore green in support of the protesters have now been dropped from the football team and banned from playing (that's huge stuff).
. . . . The question earlier today was whether or not Mousavi was leading the protests or just taking his cue from them. The answer lies in his house arrest, it's the people. They want their country, and they want to determine their own destiny and not leave it in the hands of the Cleric and the High Council. How interesting, a people who don't believe that they need an intermediary to talk to God for them.
. . . .Of course, it truly was Mousavi's use of Facebook early on in the protests that organized them, and the continued use of Twitter that allows them to continue.

. . . Continued coverage of Iran here, here , here and here.
. . . .There is a truly interesting article in Wired magazine in the current issue on Facebook and why it's basic structure and premise outstripped MySpace, and how their allliance with Microsoft will allow them to be the real player that may finally challenge Google for the dominance of the matrix. (It's not affectation, the web has gone far beyond it's original parameters and now truly exists as a matrix). Check it out here. It details some of the future plans for Facebook, and it's plans for expansion beyond it's present platform and it's planned future apps and alliances.
. . . .Over on the Daily Beast, the same subject comes up, but in a financial context. It details how Rupert Murdoch completely blew it by snapping up MySpace and doing his normal number on it (think Fox News) and completely destroyed it. The CEO of Facebook may only be 25, but he completely screwed Murdoch, which delights me, and outfoxed Google on their initial offer. The kid's alright with me.

. . . .On that entire subject, I truly get it. I have a couple of friends who are nerved out about Facebook and how it operates. Think of Google as a completely structured anonymous environment, much like the society that we live in. You search for information, it gives you info, anonymously, you think. You make your choices out of the list it gives you, again, the appearance of anonymous, autonomous choice. Not so. The second you request a search result, the secret of Google's success goes to work, in nanoseconds faster than you can react to. Those ads that appear on the side of a Google page when you search? They went up for auction the second you hit enter on the search, based on your IP address' keystroke and search history, different advertisers and different webpages are competing to be seen by you, all behind the scenes, but tailored to your computer's patterns.
. . . . .Facebook is quite different. It drops the veneer of anonymity and acts like what it is. A great big block party or barbecue made up of your family, your closest friends, your acquaintances and some folks you don't know, but were invited. In other words, people of similar tastes, people who would be friends, neighbors or members of groups or communities in the real world. Everyting is shared, from photos, to stories, to interests, and links to other web pages, to political, religious and social leanings. In other words, it strengthens the community and the bonds. It reinforces the connections and connectivity.
. . . .Using the same analogy, Twitter is like stopping at the bar after work for happy hour. It's a quick drop-in and check-in with some people you know, a quick wave to some others and a "hey, isn't that. . . .?"

. . . .I absolutely love Rescue Me, regular readers know that. I can't figure out if Tommy Gavin is me, or if I'm Tommy Gavin. The show can be jaw-droppingly stunning at times. Jaw-dropping. Tonight's ending scene with Tommy being forced back to his roots and saying the Lord's Prayer in the hospital room with Sean's mother was one of those "oh, shit" TV moments.

. . . .The President today at his press conference gave a great answer when talking about the broad context of health care reform. I recommend you check the link out here for the entire conference. In short, his answer to the question of the "public option" was simple and logical. If, as the private insurers claim, the private marketplace for insurance provides an economical, sound plan that people would choose based on it's costs and options, then the choice of a "public option" should provide no threat. Those people who like their coverage and belive it to be the best value for the money would no doubt then keep their insurance. The marketplace will decide. For those on the Right who are free market capitalists, who then can argue that point?

. . . .OK, so what's up with Republican Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford? If he truly did just take off for the weekend and go hiking on the Appalachian Trail, kudos to him for taking some time out for himself. It's been nothing if not difficult for him, since he truly was, on principle, opposed to taking Federal stimulus money, whilst his State legislature hammered him, wanting the cash. If, as facts are coming out now, he was tracked through the Atlanta airpost and he was Twittering all weekend, where the hell was he? Looks like just another fruitcake from the Right.

.. . . . Speaking of which, did  Ohio Republican John Boehner actually say today that "being in Congress is like being in front of machine gun"? Yes, he did. Check it out here. He feels that he's a victim of Congressional abuse.

. . . .I've said all along that we don't need to go searching for exotic new forms of energy and just standing around holding our hands on our butts until some miraculous new discovery comes along. From reader Dave, the article from RigZone via the Wall Street Journal, that details the amounts of Natural Gas available to us right now:

The amount of natural gas available for production in the United States has soared 58% in the past four years, driven by a drilling boom and the discovery of huge new gas fields in Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania, a new study says.
The report, due to be released Thursday by the nonprofit Potential Gas Committee, concludes the U.S. has more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas still in the ground, or nearly a century's worth of production at current rates. That's a 35.4% jump over the committee's last estimate, in 2007, of 1,532 trillion cubic feet, the biggest increase in the committee's 44-year history.
The report comes as rising oil prices have again made energy a hot topic in Washington. On Wednesday, a Senate panel voted 15-8 in favor of an energy bill that would, among other things, open up new areas to offshore drilling. The House of Representatives may vote as early as next week on a new climate-change bill that would cap emissions of the gasses that contribute to climate change. The Senate must also approve the measure. The natural-gas industry has promoted gas as a more environmentally friendly, domestically produced alternative to coal and oil. Industry supporters said the new report could bolster their case by showing that the U.S. can rely more heavily on gas without running out.
"Natural gas is right now. The resource is here. The ability to develop it is here," said Chris McGill, managing director of policy analysis for the American Gas Association, an industry group.
The new study represents an authoritative confirmation of other recent estimates, including an industry-backed report last summer that concluded the U.S. could have as much as 2,247 trillion cubic feet of gas. Unlike that report, which was based on company estimates, the Potential Gas Committee's study was prepared by industry geologists who analyzed individual gas fields using seismic imagery and production data provided by gas producers. The surge in gas resources is the result of a five-year-long drilling boom spurred by high natural-gas prices, easy credit and new technologies that allowed companies to produce gas from a dense kind of rock known as shale. The first big shale formation to be discovered, the Barnett Shale near Fort Worth, Texas, is now the country's top-producing gas field, and companies have made other huge discoveries in Arkansas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Together, the shale fields account for roughly a third of U.S. gas resources, according to the Potential Gas Committee.
The sudden increase in supplies, combined with a drop in demand due to the recession, has led to a gas glut, pushing prices to about $4 per million British thermal units down from more than $13 per million BTUs last July. 

 . . . .The trick is to start getting people to put money into converting their wonderful stoves and water heaters over to Natural Gas, which is a cleaner, cheaper alternative to electric appliances that rely on coal-fired plants.

. . . .R.I.P. Ed McMahon, the original sidekick and best buddy. You'll be missed, Ed. 

. . . . . .The ACLU has their teeth into a good one right now. It's sending out information on the State Sponsored Secrets Act of 2009:

The CIA's rendition and torture program is not a "state secret." It's a national disgrace.

On Friday, the Justice Department asked the 9th District Court of Appeals to rehear its argument to throw out our extraordinary rendition lawsuit on the basis that it cannot be tried without revealing "state secrets."

We must not protect torturers and their enablers from accountability for their actions. And we must not let the government hide behind the overly-broad use of state secrets.

The ACLU’s extraordinary rendition lawsuit was filed by five men who were forcibly kidnapped and secretly transferred to U.S.-run prisons where they were tortured. The case targets Jeppesen DataPlan, a subsidiary of Boeing that provided crucial support services to the CIA for illegal torture flights.

The Bush administration initially had the case thrown out by improperly asserting the "state secrets" privilege. The ACLU appealed and in May, won the right to move forward with the case.

Now the government is trying to throw the case out again. On Friday, the Justice Department asked the appeals court to rehear the decision and uphold its bogus "state secrets" claim.
 The government has asserted the "state secrets" claim with increasing regularity in an attempt to throw out lawsuits and justify withholding information from the public.

Let’s be clear -- no one is interested in taking away the government’s legitimate right to protect sensitive national security information. But, the Bush administration expanded the definition of "state secrets" dangerously beyond its previous limits and set a dangerous precedent that has continued.

In addition to extraordinary rendition, the claim of "state secrets" has also been made about illegal wiretapping, torture and other breaches of U.S. and international law.

Supporting this bill will have an impact on countless civil liberties cases in the months and years ahead.

 . . . The State Sponsored Secrets Act of 2009 can't be found on Open Congress yet, it still needs to be sponsored and brought into committee.
. . . .However, the American Clean Energy and Security Act can be tracked there, as H.R. 2454, on Open Congress, as it should be ready for a floor vote on Friday.

. . . . Outta here for the evening. I'll update tomorrow. Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. Seize the precious moments before they slip through your hands. This rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one gets out alive. We don't get to dictate the terms and circumstances of how the ticket gets punched. So it's not about yesterday, tomorrow or might have been. It's about right here, right now. It's about friends and family. Go change yourself, go change your world and it changes the larger world.

. . . .Got your back

The Desolation Angel