Duke City Derby travels to Las Vegas to take on the Sin City Rollergirls in an inter-league bout next Saturday, January 7th.
Munecas Muertas vs. Neander Dolls
Saturday, January 7, 2006.
Tickets are $10 in advance.
Please visit the Sin City Rollergirls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Duke City, Sin City, Las Vegas
Bout Time is a film about the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls.
See the trailer here.
(tip of the helmet to Wayne)
tags: roller derby, Rocky Mountain Rollergirls
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.
Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).
The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.
A spokesman for DeLay, who is fighting in a Texas state court unrelated charges of illegal fundraising, denied that the contributions influenced the former House majority leader's political activities. The Russian energy executives who worked with Abramoff denied yesterday knowing anything about the million-dollar London transaction described in tax documents.
Whatever the real motive for the contribution of $1 million -- a sum not prohibited by law but extraordinary for a small, nonprofit group -- the steady stream of corporate payments detailed on the donor list makes it clear that Abramoff's long-standing alliance with DeLay was sealed by a much more extensive web of financial ties than previously known.
Records and interviews also illuminate the mixture of influence and illusion that surrounded the U.S. Family Network. Despite the group's avowed purpose, records show it did little to promote conservative ideas through grass-roots advocacy. The money it raised came from businesses with no demonstrated interest in the conservative "moral fitness" agenda that was the group's professed aim.
Episode 5 of Radio Free Derby is up.
Featured topics in this episode:
Tucson Dust Devil Tournament Seeding
CSI: New York “Jamalot” Episode
Poetry from Flying Squirrel
Featured interviews:
Betsy Battleaxe of Charm City
Red Jenn of the L.A. Derby Dolls
tags: roller derby, Radio Free Derby, podcast
Fan voting for the Texas Rollergirls 2005 Whammy Awards is now open. Tell them who you feel deserves a little extra recognition for the 2005 season. Click on the golden skate and cast your vote.
Photo by Ryan McManus
friday random ten: Something For Everyone Edition
"The Black Angel's Death Song" - The Velvet Underground
"Cheese and Onions" - The Rutles
"If It Ain't Ruff" - N.W.A.
"Sous le Ciel d'Afrique" - Josephine Baker
"Assimilate" - Skinny Puppy
"Hey Artemus" - Sincola
"I Remember You" - The Ramones
"1970" - Mission of Burma
"Hang On To Your Ego" - The Beach Boys
"Beykat" - Youssou N'Dour
Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray is defying a gag-order and publishing torture memos on his blog relating to the coordination between the Uzbek, British, and American governments.
SUBJECT: RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE
SUMMARY
1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.
2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.
3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.
For those of you who have forgotten just what a stonewall paranoid Nixon was, the poor man used to stalk around the White House demanding that his political enemies be killed. Many still believe there was a certain Richard III grandeur to Nixon's collapse because he was also a man of notable talents. There is neither grandeur nor tragedy in watching this president, the Testy Kid, violate his oath to uphold the laws and Constitution of our country.
Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al Qaeda.
The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about how and why the men were singled out.
The expected legal challenges, in cases from Florida, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia, add another dimension to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom victories in terror cases, legal analysts say.
The question of whether the N.S.A. program was used in criminal prosecutions and whether it improperly influenced them raises "fascinating and difficult questions," said Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who has studied terrorism prosecutions.
"It seems to me that it would be relevant to a person's case," Professor Tobias said. "I would expect the government to say that it is highly sensitive material, but we have legal mechanisms to balance the national security needs with the rights of defendants. I think judges are very conscientious about trying to sort out these issues and balance civil liberties and national security."
Help End "Social Cleansing" by Police in Guatemala
Transvestite sex worker Sulma (legal name Kevin Robles) was shot in the head, allegedly by police, on 17 December, and remains in hospital in a serious condition. Another transvestite sex worker was killed in the attack. As Sulma witnessed the killing, the attackers are likely to attempt to silence her, but the authorities have not responded to requests to give her protection.
In the early hours of 17 December Sulma was in Zone One of Guatemala City, at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 11th Street, with another transvestite sex worker, Paulina (legal name Juan Pablo Méndez Cartagena). Four men on motorbikes, who witnesses say were in police uniform, ordered them to stop, and then shot them. Paulina was hit twice in the head: she died minutes later. Sulma was hit three times but survived, and is in a serious but stable condition in hospital. She can only speak with difficulty, as one of the bullets reportedly smashed all her front teeth.
Several other transvestite sex workers witnessed the shooting, but are reportedly too scared to give testimony, fearing police reprisals. Police have reportedly been patrolling the streets near the shooting, in an apparent effort to intimidate the witnesses.
Since 1999 Sulma has been member of, and worked as a volunteer for, the Guatemala City-based Organización de Apoyo a una Sexualidad Integral frente al SIDA, Integral Sexuality AIDS Support Organisation (OASIS), which works on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and provides support to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people. Paulina had started paid work at OASIS in 2004 and since then had only occasionally had to make money as a sex worker.
OASIS has requested police protection for Sulma in hospital and the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office has reportedly requested protection from the Interior Ministry. However, to date no protection has been provided.
Four jobs you’ve had in your life: bookseller, brewer, VISTA, launcher of nuclear weapons
Four movies you could watch over and over: Der Himmel über Berlin, Sid & Nancy, From Russia With Love, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Four places you’ve lived: Denver; Philadelphia; Ulm, Germany; Austin
Four TV shows you love to watch: The Avengers; The Prisoner; Yes, Minister; Twin Peaks
Four places you’ve been on vacation: Budapest, cave diving in the Ardennes, Orkney Islands, Puerto Rico
Four websites you visit daily: Daily Kos, Atrios, First Draft, Bookslut
Four of your favorite foods: tequila chicken soup, sushi, beer, pizza in a cup
Four places you’d rather be: Montréal, Berlin, Vancouver, Tokyo
seen over at firedoglake
Photo by Ryan McManus
friday random ten:
"Raison d'Etre" - Buzzcocks
"Your Good Thing (Is About To End)" - Mable John
"Forgive Me Jah" - Super Cat
"Perder la Guerra" - Glass Eye
"Make-Out Party" - The Crack Pipes
"Prick for President" - The Yuppie Pricks
"El Cuchipe (Canción Boliviana)" - Los Lobos
"Be Happy" - Standing Waves
"So I Can Love You" - The Emotions
"For Real" - Okkervil River
The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article by former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) in today's Washington Post.
Daschle's disclosure challenges a central legal argument offered by the White House in defense of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. It suggests that Congress refused explicitly to grant authority that the Bush administration now asserts is implicit in the resolution.
[snip]
As drafted, and as finally passed, the resolution authorized the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons" who "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text," Daschle wrote. "This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas -- where we all understood he wanted authority to act -- but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused."
The Annual Best Frigging Sport Ever Invented Ever Award goes to ... all-women punk rock roller derby.
BAGHDAD—Citing the Bush Administration's ongoing refusal to provide a timetable for withdrawal, the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq have devised their own exit strategy.
The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War (Investigative Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff)
The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall, before the 2004 presidential election.
But the newspaper held the story for more than a year and only revealed the secret wiretaps last Friday, when it became apparent a book by one of its reporters was about to break the news, according to journalists familiar with the paper's internal discussions.
Senator Gary Hart Challenges the Unholy Alliance of 'Faith' and Government
BuzzFlash: America is composed of many different faiths. Even within Christianity, there are many different denominations and viewpoints. Sometimes we lose sight of that, because the far right – the Pat Robertson right and the Jerry Falwell right – tend to assert themselves as though they’re speaking for all of Christianity. They’re really speaking for a small segment of Christianity.
Gary Hart: No question. It’s not that they tend to – it’s that they assume to. It’s an assumption that they are the spokespersons for all Christianity, and that’s underwritten in everything they say. There's a man who appears on TV from the Southern Baptist Convention – when you listen to him talk, he positions himself as a spokesperson for all Christianity. This is not true, and I think it’s particularly dangerous for people who are not Christians and who do not quite understand the complexity of, first of all, the Reformation and the split between Protestantism and Catholicism, and then the multiplicity of Protestant denominations. There are lots of variations, by the way, in Catholicism, as well. But among the Protestants, each tends to design his own church. And clearly the people on the right had no authority to speak for other Christians.
On the other hand, part of the blame rests with the so-called mainstream Christian churches that haven’t done a very good job of communicating a different message to the public at large. If you asked a hundred Americans what the Methodist position on the war was, they’d probably guess it was in support.
BuzzFlash: In God and Caesar in America, there is a section called "The Tyranny of the Faithful: The Dangers of Theocracy." Perhaps you can take us back in history a bit. We’ve certainly covered on BuzzFlash the issue of separation of church and state. Our Constitution was in some way the fruit of the Enlightenment and Age of Reason, when people accepted God and the divine, but said religion was something that should exist separate from the state, because the states in Europe were theocracies. In essence, much of early America was a rebellion against theocratic states and monarchies.
Gary Hart: No question. The Founders had in mind, if not from direct experience, certainly the vivid recollection of the history of the intertwining of the church and the state in their ancestral homes in Europe. That kind of theocracy resulted in all kinds of disasters involving the picking of kings, and kings inaugurating popes, and the repression of enlightened thought. That’s why they felt so strongly about all this. And all I warn about here, and I think others have as well, is that you don’t have to slip very far back into that before it begins to happen. I have a couple of passages where I say, here’s what a theocracy is like, and then say, if we’re not there already, we’re very close. The vaguely defined "White House" – probably Karl Rove – calls James Dobson, or makes a conference call to a select group of religious figures to seek approval of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, or policy issues. To submit any judge – for their approval – that’s virtually a theocracy right there – very dangerous.
BuzzFlash: You provide some extremely enlightening analysis of the issue of separation of church and state. You make the point that some of the Founders feared that, if a religion became too identified with the state, the religion itself would ultimately become impure and tainted by the political process. It wasn’t just a question of the state becoming a theocracy, but of the religion itself starting to become corrupted by the machinations of politics.
Gary Hart: It works both ways. The separation was not just to protect the state from the church, but to protect the church from the state. The people who are trying to insert themselves into positions of authority in government, through the Republican Party, ought to be awfully careful, because the same state that takes them in is a state that can turn around and, if it chooses to, by using the same authority, begin seriously to condition their behavior. People with a bit in their teeth, and the arrogance of power, don’t think that way, but they ought to.
Human Rights Watch - Landmark Torture Ban Undercut
Glenn Greenwald - Bush's unchecked Executive power v. the Founding principles of the U.S.
Digby - If The President Does It It's Not Illegal
The General - She is a hottie, dammit
Sadly, No! - Oh, the Things You Can Learn from Reading NewsMax
The Heretik - It's All About Yoo
Voting is now open for The Kippies over at The Poor Man. Vote for your favorite wingnuts in these catagories:
Chickenhawk of the Year
The Fluffy
The Purple Teardrop with Clutched Pearls cluster
The Soggy Biscuit Award
Wank of the Year
The Coveted Palme d’Hair
The Adored, Annie, Arctic Monkeys, Belle and Sebastian, The BellRays, Be Your Own Pet, Blockhead, The Boy Least Likely To, The Brokedown, Calexico, Neko Case, Cat Power, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clor, Jason Collett, The Cribs, Cuff the Duke, Jamie Cullum, Dashboard Confessional, Death In Vegas, Death Vessel, Dengue Fever, Destroyer, Die! Die! Die!, Dirty Pretty Things, Jorge Drexler, Dr. Spock, The Duke Spirit, The Earlies, Echo & the Bunnymen, Editors, The Eighteenth Day Of May, Elbow, Empire Dogs, Erase Errata, Faker, Flogging Molly, Forward Russia, Giant Sand, Gogol Bordello, Jose Gonzalez, The Go! Team, Headphones, The Hellacopters, Clarence Frogman Henry, The Juan Maclean, Kaki King, Kalas, k-os, Sharron Kraus & Christian Kiefer, Lady Sovereign, The Like, Los De Abajo, Luminous Orange, Barbara Lynn, The Magic Numbers, Magnolia Electric Company, Serena Maneesh, Mates of State, The Morning After Girls, The Most Serene Republic, Mystery Jets, My Summer as a Salvation Soldier, Neon Blonde, Nickel Creek, No things, Of Montreal, Beth Orton, Peaches, The Plimsouls, Robert Pollard, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Saves the Day, The Secret Machines, Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, Tarantula A.D., Susan Tedeschi, Towers of London, KT Tunstall, Two Gallants, Tom Verlaine, Vetiver, The Whigs, Witch, Wolfmother.
Photo by Ryan McManus
friday random ten:
"Patch My Heart" - The Mad Lads
"Monster" - Hazard County Girls
"Lone Wolf" - The Motards
"You're No Rock N' Roll Fun" - Sleater-Kinney
"Organic Beauty" - Govinda
"Talkin' at the Texaco" - Larry McMurty
"Freakshow" - Ani DiFranco
"Where It's At" - Beck
"The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" - The Pogues
"Pleasure and Pain" - Steve Jones
Here's a problem with following the president around all day long: Sometimes the story is where he's not.
Reporting that President Bush steered clear of the White House's own Conference on Aging yesterday -- making him the first president ever to do so -- fell to the regional newspapers and NPR, not the big guys.
It turns out that had Bush attended, he would have been facing a very hostile audience.
So instead, Bush held a photo-op with a hand-picked group of seniors at a swanky retirement home -- and it was well covered by the usual suspects.
[snip]
Susan Jaffe writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Robert Binstock, professor of aging, health and society at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, said President Bush's absence was a snub. It didn't help matters that Bush made time Tuesday to visit a retirement community in a Washington suburb.
" 'That he went to speak about Medicare in Virginia today, instead of an assembly of delegates from all over the country indicates that he's afraid to speak in anything but a controlled environment,' Binstock said during a session on improving the Medicare program, which provides health care for 43 million older and disabled Americans.
"Also this year, the rules have changed for delegates, so they cannot debate resolutions.
“I’m not anti-Bush; I’m anti-Bush behavior,” Mortensen told Progressive magazine. “In other words, I’m against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy shown by Bush and his administration.”
Yesterday, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released Out of Reach 2005, its annual report calculating the hourly wage that someone must earn - working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year - to be able to afford rent and utilities in the private local housing market in every state, metropolitan area and county in the country.
This year’s national Housing Wage is $15.78 an hour, up from $15.37 an hour in 2004. This is more than three times the federal minimum wage, further highlighting the difference between what people earn and what people are expected to pay for housing in the United States.
With FEMA’s hotel/motel subsidy program for hurricane evacuees scheduled to end sometime within the next several weeks, the report highlights the difficulties displaced families, along with millions of other low income families, face in their search for safe housing that they can afford.
“The disparity between what people earn and what even modest rental housing costs grows larger each year,” said Sheila Crowley, President of NLIHC. “This is the housing market in which millions of low wage workers and elderly or disabled people must try to find safe and decent homes. Now tens of thousands of displaced people from the Gulf Coast have joined them in this competition for scarce housing that they can afford. And FEMA wonders why evacuees are still in hotels.”
With a housing-related fuel and utilities increase of more than 13% in the last year responsible for much of the increase in renter housing costs, the situation is grim. For the first time, NLIHC’s data shows that a full-time worker at minimum wage cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in country, further illustrating the dire situation that denies many a right to adequate housing.
Out of Reach 2005 calculates the number of full-time wage earners a household needs in order to afford the Fair Market Rent in any area of the country. Nationally, a family with two full-time workers earning federal minimum wage would make just $21,424, significantly less than the $32,822 annually they would need to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.
In Austin-Round Rock, TX, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a two-bedroom apartment is $804. In order to afford this level of rent and utilities, without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $2,680 monthly or $32,160 annually. Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year, this level of income translates into a Housing Wage of $15.46.
In Austin-Round Rock, TX, a minimum wage worker earns an hourly wage of $5.15. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment, a minimum wage earner must work 120 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, a household must include 3.0 minimum wage earner(s) working 40 hours per week year-round in order to make the two bedroom FMR affordable.
In Austin-Round Rock, TX, the estimated mean (average) wage for a renter is $13.92 an hour. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment at this wage, a renter must work 44 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, working 40 hours per week year-round, a household must include 1.1 worker(s) earning the mean renter wage in order to make the two-bedroom FMR affordable.
Monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for an individual are $579 in Austin-Round Rock, TX MSA *. If SSI represents an individual's sole source of income, $174 in monthly rent is affordable, while the FMR for a one-bedroom is $658.
From Shock and Awe to a country torn between insurrection and democracy
It has been the strangest war. A thousand days ago, on 20 March 2003, the US and British armies started a campaign which ended a few weeks later with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
It seemed so easy. President George Bush announced that the war was over. The American mission had been accomplished. Months passed before Washington and London realised that the war had not finished. In fact it was only just beginning. Of the 18,000 US servicemen killed or wounded in Iraq, 94 per cent have been killed or wounded since the fall of Baghdad.
There is no sign that the election for the 275-member Iraqi parliament this Thursday will end the fighting. The Sunni Arabs, the core of the insurrection, will vote for the first time, but there is no talk of a ceasefire. A leaflet issued by one resistance group in Baghdad yesterday encouraged its followers to vote but warned: "The fighting will continue with the infidels and their followers."
$204.4billion The cost to the US of the war so far. The UK's bill up until March 2005 was £3.1 billion
2,339 Allied troops killed
0 Number of WMDs found
66 journalists killed in Iraq. Journalists killed during Vietnam war: 63
5 foreign civilians kidnapped per month
183,000 British and American troops are still in action in Iraq. There are 162,000 US troops and 8,000 British with 13,000 from other nations
90 Daily attacks by insurgents in Nov '05. In Jun '03: 8
82 percent Iraqis who are "strongly opposed" to presence of coalition troops.
The Sin City Rollergirls take on the Boston Derby Dames in their opening bout of their first season this Saturday, December 17,sup>th.
The new flat track Dominion Derby Girls are throwing a party and mini-bout this Wednesday, December 14th.
The Disco Death Dolls take on the Burlesque Brawlers.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005.
Granby Theater
Tickets are only $6.
Party starts at 7pm, exhibition bout at 10pm.
tags:roller derby, rollergirls, Dominion Derby Girls, Virginia
2006 World Cup Draw
GROUP A
Germany (7/1)
Costa Rica (350/1)
Poland (80/1)
Ecuador (125/1)
GROUP B
England (6/1)
Paraguay (80/1)
Trinidad & Tobago (750/1)
Sweden (33/1)
GROUP C
Argentina (7/1)
Ivory Coast (66/1)
Serbia & Montenegro (66/1)
Holland (10/1)
GROUP D
Mexico (50/1)
Iran (250/1)
Angola (500/1)
Portugal (20/1)
GROUP E
Italy (8/1)
Ghana (250/1)
USA (80/1)
Czech Republic (33/1)
GROUP F
Brazil (11/4)
Croatia (50/1)
Australia (125/1)
Japan (150/1)
GROUP G
France (12/1)
Switzerland (100/1)
Korea Republic (150/1)
Togo (350/1)
GROUP H
Spain (12/1)
Ukraine (50/1)
Tunisia (200/1)
Saudi Arabia (500/1)
Other cultures deal with a legacy of torture by declaring "Never again!" Why do so many Americans insist on dealing with the current torture crisis by crying "Never before"? I suspect it stems from a sincere desire to convey the seriousness of this administration's crimes. And its open embrace of torture is indeed unprecedented.
But let's be clear about what is unprecedented: not the torture, but the openness. Past administrations kept their "black ops" secret; the crimes were sanctioned but they were committed in the shadows, officially denied and condemned. The Bush administration has broken this deal: post-9/11, it demanded the right to torture without shame, legitimised by new definitions and new laws.
Despite all the talk of outsourced torture, the real innovation has been in-sourcing, with prisoners being abused by US citizens in US-run prisons and transported to third countries in US planes. It is this departure from clandestine etiquette that has so much of the military and intelligence community up in arms: Bush has robbed everyone of plausible deniability. This shift is of huge significance. When torture is covertly practised but officially and legally repudiated, there is still hope that if atrocities are exposed, justice could prevail. When torture is pseudo-legal and those responsible deny that it is torture, what dies is what Hannah Arendt called "the juridical person in man". Soon victims no longer bother to search for justice, so sure are they of the futility, and danger, of that quest. This is a larger mirror of what happens inside the torture chamber, when prisoners are told they can scream all they want because no one can hear them and no one is going to save them.
The terrible irony of the anti-historicism of the torture debate is that in the name of eradicating future abuses, past crimes are being erased from the record. Since the US has never had truth commissions, the memory of its complicity in far-away crimes has always been fragile. Now these memories are fading further, and the disappeared are disappearing again.
This casual amnesia does a disservice not only to the victims, but also to the cause of trying to remove torture from the US policy arsenal once and for all. Already there are signs that the administration will deal with the uproar by returning to plausible deniability. The McCain amendment protects every "individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States government"; it says nothing about torture training or buying information from the exploding industry of for-profit interrogators.
The flat track Ohio Roller Girls are skating their first exhibition bout this Saturday, December 10th.
Jingle Belles vs. Roller Gouls
Saturday, December 10, 2005.
Wow Family Fun Center, 4900 Evanswood Drive, Columbus Ohio.
11pm - 3am
Admission is $12, $8 with toy donation.
Please visit the Ohio Roller Girls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Ohio Roller Girls, Columbus
Photo by Ryan McManus
friday random ten:
"Arm So Real" - Neutral Milk Hotel
"Earthquake" - 13th Floor Elevators
"Trem Two" - Mission of Burma
"The World Is a Ghetto" - War
"Heartbreak Stroll" - Raveonettes
"Good Morning" - the Beatles
"Something's Gone Wrong Again" - Buzzcocks
"Sans Amour" - Josephine Baker
"Don't Come Beggin'" - the Shemps
"Angels at Night"- Giant Sand
Lieberman (R-Tool) Defends Bush, says Dems 'undermine President's credibility at our nation's peril.' (via Raw Story)
The Poor Man has the nomination up for Wank of the Year
TalkLeft - The Economics of Being Bob Woodward
arse poetica - Preznit Scaredy Cat
Cool Baby Bush toys (via skippy)
Hello Kitty guitar and Badtz-Maru bass (via Boing Boing)
'Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion'
Over the years, others have had uneasy doubts about the Narnian brand of Christianity. Christ should surely be no lion (let alone with the orotund voice of Liam Neeson). He was the lamb, representing the meek of the earth, weak, poor and refusing to fight. Philip Pullman - he of the marvellously secular trilogy His Dark Materials - has called Narnia "one of the most ugly, poisonous things I have ever read".
Why? Because here in Narnia is the perfect Republican, muscular Christianity for America - that warped, distorted neo-fascist strain that thinks might is proof of right. I once heard the famous preacher Norman Vincent Peel in New York expound a sermon that reassured his wealthy congregation that they were made rich by God because they deserved it. The godly will reap earthly reward because God is on the side of the strong. This appears to be CS Lewis's view, too. In the battle at the end of the film, visually a great epic treat, the child crusaders are crowned kings and queens for no particular reason. Intellectually, the poor do not inherit Lewis's earth.
Does any of this matter? Not really. Most children will never notice. But adults who wince at the worst elements of Christian belief may need a sickbag handy for the most religiose scenes...
The flat track Duke City Derby will skate their second exhibition bout of the season this Saturday, December 10th.
Dead Man's Curves take on the Big House Brawlers.
Saturday, December 10, 2005.
Club Fantasia (formerly Midnight Rodeo) (map)
Tickets are $5, 12 and under free.
Doors open at 3pm, bout at 4pm.
Please visit the Duke City Derby website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Duke City, Albuquerque
Roller derby's resurgence spreads to Milwaukee
Derby Free Radio episode three is on the air. Topics in this recent episode include:
Atlanta Rollergirls Update with Hotlegs Hooligan
GGRD 2005 Season Awards panel, hosted by Margaret Thrasher
Wrapup of the Comedy Central Greg Giraldo segment
The National Security Council document released this week under the grandiose title "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" is neither an analytical report nor a policy statement. It's simply the same old talking points - "victory in Iraq is a vital U.S. interest"; "failure is not an option" - repackaged in the style of a slide presentation for a business meeting.
It's an embarrassing piece of work. Yet it's also an important test for the news media. The Bush administration has lost none of its confidence that it can get away with fuzzy math and fuzzy facts - that it won't be called to account for obvious efforts to mislead the public. It's up to journalists to prove that confidence wrong.
[snip]
The point isn't just that the administration is trying, yet again, to deceive the public. It's the fact that this attempt at deception shows such contempt - contempt for the public, and especially contempt for the news media. And why not? The truth is that the level of misrepresentation in this new document is no worse than that in a typical speech by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. Yet for much of the past five years, many major news organizations failed to provide the public with effective fact-checking.
So Mr. Bush's new public relations offensive on Iraq is a test. Are the news media still too cowed, too addicted to articles that contain little more than dueling quotes to tell the public when the administration is saying things that aren't true? Or has the worm finally turned?
Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.
The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.
"The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect," the memo concluded.
The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options.
But the Texas legislature proceeded with the new map anyway because it would maximize the number of Republican federal lawmakers in the state, the memo said. The redistricting was approved in 2003, and Texas Republicans gained five seats in the U.S. House in the 2004 elections, solidifying GOP control of Congress.
Photo by Ryan McManus
friday random ten:
"My Girl Josephine" - Super Cat
"Two Bluebirds" - Sue Foley
"Angels With Dirty Faces" - Los Lobos
"Speed Racer" - 2 Nice Girls
"Time Is Tight" - Booker T. & the MGs
"I Do Care" - The Big Boys
"Passover" - Joy Division
"People in the House" - Glass Eye
"Damage" - Yo La Tengo
"Frankenstein" - The TunaHelpers
Think Progress - Deconstructing the “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq”
Froomkin on bush's shrinking safety zone.
Brian Whitaker on the most foolish war in 2,014 years.
RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs
The flat track Carolina Rollergirls will skate their 2005 Fall Season Championship Bout this Sunday, December 4th.
The flat track Minnesota RollerGirls skate this Sunday, December 4th.
The Atomic Bombshells take on the Dagger Dolls.
The second match features the Garda Belts vs. the Rockits.
Sunday, December 4, 2005.
Roy Wilkins Auditoium
Tickets:
Trackside seating: $12 advance / $14 game day
General admission: $10 advance / $12 game day
Ages 9 and under are always FREE with an adult!
Doors open at 6:30pm, bout at 7:30pm.
Please visit the Minnesota RollerGirls website for more inf.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Minnesota Rollergirls, Rockits, Dagger Dolls, Garda Belts, Atomic Bombshells
Getting a war lecture from Dick Cheney is like getting dating advice from Michael Jackson.
The New York Review of Books - The Press: The Enemy Within
Juan Cole comments on Seymour Hersh's reporting in the New Yorker on replacing the infantry in Iraq with US air power.
Richard Cranium has a good round up of articles on Al-Jazeeragate.
The flat track Texas Rollergirls take on the Tucson Saddletramps in an inter-league bout this Saturday, December 3rd.
Saturday, December 3, 2005
Playland Skate Center
Tickets are $10 in advance.
Doors open at 6:30pm.
Music by Sons of Hurcules and DJ El Jefe.
Texas Rollergirls roster
#4 Hydra, Captain
#00 Sparkle Plenty, Co-Captain
#4 Bloody Mary
4X4 Loose Tooth LuLu
#08 Eight Track
#10 Trouble
#21 Buckshot Betsy
#22 Slim Kickins
#23 Tinkerhell
.44 Derringer 44
l#56 Lucille Brawl
#66 Barbarella
#XX Cat Tastrophe
#3e8 Rice Rocket, Bench Manager
Tucson Saddletramps roster
Jezze James (Jezebelle)
Wyatt EEKA
Flo on the Range (Sloppy Flo)
Zoe Bowie (Whiskey Mick)
Hoot'n'Annie (Aja Consent)
The Bad (Doris Badenov)
Nokka Ho Down (Barbicide)
Fisti the Kid (Fisti Cuffs)
Doe Holiday (Deadlock Doe)
Randi Canyon (Bolshe Vixen)
Bitch Cassidy (Penny Tencherry)
Ridin' Anya (Hard Anya)
Tombstone Teri (Dirty Teri)
Please visit the Texas Rollergirls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Texas Rollergirls, Tucson Saddletramps, Austin
Pentagon Expanding Its Domesic Surveillance Activity
The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.
The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.
The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public.
"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview.
The Mad Rollin' Dolls will skate an Inter-League Bout against the Arizona Roller Derby travel team this Saturday, December 3rd.
Dairyland Dolls vs. Tent City Terrors
Saturday, December 3, 2005.
Fast Forward Skate Center 4649 Verona Rd, Madison, WI
Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm, bout at 7:00pm.
Please visit the Mad Rollin' Dolls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Arizona Roller Derby, Mad Rollin' Dolls, Tent City Terrors, Dairyland Dolls, Madison
The Justice Department's wide-ranging investigation of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has entered a highly active phase as prosecutors are beginning to move on evidence pointing to possible corruption in Congress and executive branch agencies, lawyers involved in the case said.
Prosecutors have already told one lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and his former chief of staff that they are preparing a possible bribery case against them, according to two sources knowledgeable about the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The 35 to 40 investigators and prosecutors on the Abramoff case are focused on at least half a dozen members of Congress, lawyers and others close to the probe said. The investigators are looking at payments made by Abramoff and his colleagues to the wives of some lawmakers and at actions taken by senior Capitol Hill aides, some of whom went to work for Abramoff at the law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, lawyers and others familiar with the probe said.
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R), now facing separate campaign finance charges in his home state of Texas, is one of the members under scrutiny, the sources said. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) and other members of Congress involved with Indian affairs, one of Abramoff's key areas of interest, are also said to be among them.
Prosecutions and plea deals have become more likely, the lawyers said, now that Abramoff's former partner -- public relations executive Michael Scanlon -- has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and to testify about gifts that he and his K Street colleagues showered on lawmakers, allegedly in exchange for official favors.
Photo by Ryan McManus
Friday Random Ten: Broncos 24, Cowboys 21 Edition
"Don't Turn Away" - SOUND Team
"Vous Faites" - Josephine Baker
"Every Step" - Standing Waves
"I Just Want Something To Do" - The Ramones
"Freakshow" - Ani DiFranco
"A Pair of Brown Eyes" - The Pogues
"Philly Dog" - The Mar-Keys
"Sissyneck" - Beck
"Sometimes" - My Bloody Valentine
"Exiles" - King Crimson
Robert Jensen - No Thanks to Thanksgiving
Molly Ivins on bush's spin machine
Murray Waas - Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel
The Mad Scientist: PZ Meyers
Center For Reproductive Rights
Today, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) decided its first abortion case, Karen Llontoy v. Peru. The decision establishes that denying access to legal abortion violates women’s most basic human rights. This is the first time an international human rights body has held a government accountable for failing to ensure access to legal abortion services. The Human Rights Committee monitors countries’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
"We are thrilled that the UNHRC has ruled in favor of protecting women’s most essential human rights," says Luisa Cabal, Director of the International Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "Every woman who lives in any of the 154 countries that are party to this treaty – including the U.S – now has a legal tool to use in defense of her rights. This ruling establishes that it is not enough to just grant a right on paper. Where abortion is legal it is governments’ duty to ensure that women have access to it."
My friends Erin, Jen and Tara have been sewing feverishly for the past few months.
Saturday November 19th at the Parish.
Doors 9:00... fashion show at 10 ish.
Bands follow shortly after... Clap!Clap!, The Arm, and Canoe
Chris Rose will be playing records in between bands and for the post show dance party...
Don't miss your charming hosts D.T. Magee and Jarvis A. Tablespoonfuls
Tix are $6 in advance (waterloo records or frontgatetickets.com), $8 at the door.
Photo by Ryan McManus
Friday Random Ten:
"Blues Power" - Albert King
"The Kindness of Stangers" - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
"Detectives" - The Big Boys
"Moby Octopad" - Yo La Tengo
"Hymn 13" - Sincola
"53rd & 3rd" - The Ramones
"Code" - TunaHelpers
"Come Back" - Glass Eye
"Hold On! I'm Comin'" - Sam & Dave
"The Slow Drug" - PJ Harvey
Five L.A. Derby Dolls were cast for the production of a CSI: NY episode that will air Wednesday, November 30, 2005. Tara Armov was cast as a referee, Dita Slayworth, Molly Hatchett, and Frita Fondle were cast as skaters, and Redjenn was cast as the coach for the Brooklyn Clobbers. The story was about two roller derby teams, the Manhattan Minx and the Brooklyn Clobbers, who play a vicious game, and the star of the Manhattan Minx, “She Hate Me”, ends up dead after a full on brawl and pile up.
A&Es reality show Rollergirls staring the Lonestar Rollergirls airs January 2, 2006.
Alamo City Rollergirls exhibition bout a success.
Listen to episode one of Radio Free Derby.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls
The banked track Lonestar Rollergirls will be skating all five of their team in a single elimination tournament this Sunday, November 20th.
The action starts with the Cherry Bombs skating against the Hellcats in a six jam mini-bout. The next match features the Holy Rollers vs. Putas del Fuego. The winners of the first two bouts will face off for a chance to skate against last years Calvello Cup winners the Rhinestone Cowgirls.
Sunday, November 20, 2005.
At the Thunderdome
Tickets are $10.
Doors open at 6pm.
Please visit the Lonestar Rollergirls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Lonestar Rollergirls
Arianna Huffington - My Dinner With Chalabi
The Christian Science Monitor - Yellowcake to 'Plamegate'
Iraqi detainees thrown to the lions.
More than 35,000 Iraqis have been detained by American troops since the invasion of the country but only a tiny fraction have been convicted of wrongdoing, the Guardian has learned.
John Kerry took bush to task on his Veteran’s Day Speech, on the Senate Floor. (via All Spin Zone)
The flat track Rocky Mountain Rollergirls will skate this Saturday, November 19th. This will be a round robin bout with the two established teams taking on the new Varsity Bruise squad.
The flat track Arizona Roller Derby skates this Saturday, November 19th.
The first podcast of Radio Free Derby is up.
Listen to Episode One:
Gotham Girls Roller Derby 2005 Season Summary
Gotham Girls Roller Derby 2005 Championship Bout
Interview with Violet Temper of the Philly Roller Girls
Interview with Queen Of Clubs of the Rockabetty Bruisers
Hullabaloo - Rinse And Repeat
Suburban Guerrilla - 20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The U.S.
Talk Left - A Plea for Habeas and No Justice at Guantanamo
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-IN) announced that for the first time in at least 55 years, “veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.”
Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative unit of Congress, released a report indicating that the Pentagon has been calling up reserve soldiers who are ill or medically unfit to serve. The reservists are serving primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness is responsible for managing medical and physical fitness policy and procedures, the report determined that this office has no way to determine if reserve soldiers are fit to serve or have pre-existing medical conditions prior to deployment.
The number of new recruits who scored at the bottom of the Army's aptitude test tripled last month, Pentagon officials said, helping the nation's largest armed service meet its October recruiting goal but raising concerns about the quality of the force.
Photo by Ryan McManus
Friday Random Ten:
You're Gonna Miss Me - 13th Floor Elevators
Si J'Etais Blanche - Josephine Baker
Fight Back - The Big Boys
Wow - Kate Bush
Devils Haircut - Beck
Noisy Summer - The Raveonettes
Don't Turn Away - Sound Team
It's You - PJ Harvey
Healthy Sick - Bettie Serveert
Drive, She Said - Julian Cope
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa
October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995 
----------
Andy Rowell, AlterNet: Is Nigeria The Next Persian Gulf?
tags: Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria, human rights
Bush, who appeared almost playful, fastened the heavy medal around Muhammad Ali's neck and whispered something in the heavyweight champion's ear. Then, as if to say "bring it on," the president put up his dukes in a mock challenge. Ali, 63, who has Parkinson's disease and moves slowly, looked the president in the eye -- and, finger to head, did the "crazy" twirl for a couple of seconds.
The room of about 200, including Cabinet secretaries, tittered with laughter. Ali, who was then escorted back to his chair, made the twirl again while sitting down. And the president looked visibly taken aback, laughing nervously.
Was Ali making a political statement? In his remarks about the fighter, Bush mentioned the Olympic gold medal, the grit, "the Ali shuffle, the lightning jabs . . . the sheer guts and determination he brought to every fight." He did not mention Ali's very public opposition to the Vietnam War, which led the prizefighter to lose his boxing license for three years when he refused to serve in the Army.
President George W. Bush and the current administration have now borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 U.S. presidents combined.
Throughout the first 224 years (1776-2000) of our nation’s history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions according to the U.S. Treasury Department. In the past four years alone (2001-2005), the Bush Administration has borrowed a staggering $1.05 trillion.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq carried out the triple bomb attack which killed at least 57 people in Jordan's capital Amman.
40 dead in Iraq suicide bombings.
Abramoff sought $9 Million to set up bu$h meeting for African president.
Texas voters
For - 76%
Against - 24%
Travis County voters
For - 40.05%
Against - 59.95%
Voters in my precinct (445)
For - 22.31%
Against - 77.69%
Boston Globe - The United States has cut off nearly all contact with the Syrian government as the Bush administration steps up a campaign to weaken and isolate President Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to US and Syrian officials.
NYT Editorial - After President Bush's disastrous visit to Latin America, it's unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can't afford an American government this bad for that long.
AMERICAblog - Republicans now trying to Swift Boat Ambassador Joe Wilson over Rove-Treason-Gate
The new flat track Alamo City Rollergirls will skate an exhibition bout this Sunday, November 13th.
Sunday, November 13.
At the Rollercade - 223 Recoleta, San Antonio, Tx.
Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm, bout at 7pm.
Please visit the Alamo City Rollergirls website for mor info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Alamo City
The flat track Windy City Rollers skate their Championship Bout this Sunday, November 13th.
The Fury takes on the Double Crossers in the title bout.
The undercard features the Hell's Belles vs. the Manic Attackers.
Sunday, November 13.
Congress Theatre, 2135 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago.
Tickets are $10 in advanve, $15 at the door.
Doors open at 5pm, bout at 6pm.
Please visit the Windy City Rollers website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Windy City Rollers
The flat track Philly Roller Girls have their first exhibition bout this Sunday, November 13th.
Millenium Skate World - 1900 Carman St, Camden, NJ.
Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm, bout at 7pm.
Please visit the Philly Roller Girls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Philly Roller Girls
How Roller Derby Works
Hell on wheels article on the Penn Jersey She Devils.
No Coast Derby Girls in the Daily Nebraskan.
The Atlanta Rollergirls on Atlants's PBS station.
roller derby, rollergirls
Thousands Denounce Ku Klux Klan
An estimated 3,000 people arrived in downtown Austin on Saturday to demonstrate against the Texas chapter of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which held a rally in front of City Hall to voice support for Proposition 2.
Seven members of the Klan and five supporters of their message rallied in front of the City Hall public plaza from 1 p.m. to about 1:45 p.m. The group's leader, Steven Edwards, the grand dragon of the Texas American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, delivered a message of what he called "pro-American Christian values."
About 200 police officers were on duty for the event, some wearing riot gear and clutching batons and rubber-bullet rifles. While some protesters screamed obscenities, most remained peaceful, and only two arrests were made on Saturday. One man was arrested for carrying a club and causing a disturbance and another was arrested for having outstanding warrants, said Toni Chovanetz, Austin Police Department public information officer.
Several city blocks in front of City Hall were blocked off by Austin police, including Cesar Chavez Street from Guadalupe Street to Colorado Street, and the South First Street bridge, effectively preventing anyone but members of the media from getting close to the Klan members.
The human rights activist group Texas Civil Rights Project plans to file a federal lawsuit against the city of Austin on Monday. They claim members of certain media outlets, as well as the demonstrators opposed to the Klan, were denied access to the rally, according to President Jim Harrington.
The flat track Atlanta Rollergirls skate their Championship Bout this Sunday, November 13th.
Sunday, November 13.
All American Skating Center - Stone Mountain, GA.
Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door.
Doors open at 6pm, bout at 7pm.
Visit the Atlanta Rollergirls website for more info.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Atlanta, Atlanta Rollergirls
The banked track L.A. Derby Dolls will skate at the 10th Annual No Love Party in Long Beach.
Saturday, November 12th, 2005.
The event takes place from Noon to 5:00pm at the West Coast Choppers Headquarters, 718 Anaheim Street in Long Beach. The event is free to the public, with a $10 optional donation at the door – all proceeds to benefit Youth Programs for Long Beach's Drake Park & the Greenbelt ParkDevelopment Project. The event will feature the live bands, Lucha Libre Mexicana Wrestling, a car & motorcycle display/show, an exclusive showing of Monster Garage vehicles, and the L.A. Derby Dolls skating a banked track roller derby bout! The bout starts at 2:30pm and will feature 2 all-star (all-scar) teams battling it out. An attendance in excess of 15,000 guests is anticipated at the event throughout the day.
tags: roller derby, rollergirls, Derby Dolls
Another shocking accusation by former administration insider Lawrence Wilkerson appears to be going under the media radar today.
On NPR yesterday, the former chief of staff to the secretary of state said that he had uncovered a "visible audit trail" tracing the practice of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers directly back to Vice President Cheney's office.
to join in the 2nd* Austin Mooning of the Klan
Saturday, November 5th
Austin City Hall (or nearby depending on where the police make us stand)
from 1-3PM
Who: You, me, a few hundred of our closest friends, anyone you can double dog dare to get down there and drop trou. If this is your first time mooning, it can be easier to complete the deed if you have a good friend along for encouragement.
What: Mooning is a long standing Texas tradition of irreverant disobedience. Generally speaking mooning is a spontaneous event. Defined as exposing some part of one's ass in a gesture of friendly insult, Texas law allows for mooning as long as genitals are not exposed and there is no overtly sexual action involved. You may write a cheeky statement across yourself, but obscenities are a gray area, legally speaking.
Where: Counter protesters are going to be kept as far away from the Klan rally as possible. Given the geography of the site (South plaza of Austin City Hall) it will be difficult to avoid obstructing traffic and other arrestable offenses. Please try NOT to get arrested.
Why: Because one big ass deserves another (and they can't use footage of counterprotesters that includes naked butt). Mooning also defuses the potential for violence since it's nearly impossible to swing at someone when you are giggling.
*The first mooning of the Klan was organized by Texas musician Steve Fromholz in 1993 and proved to be an effective means of making counter protesters smile and Klanspeople cringe.
