Friday, May 30, 2008

Rat City Rollergirls vs. Starbucks




Seattle P-I

The Rat City Rollergirls of Seattle are this close to being preserved for time immemorial in a video game.

While the game developers do their thing, the all-female roller derby league has to trademark the logo that it has used since the league formed in 2004.

It seemed simple enough. But after the league filed its paperwork in Washington, it realized a challenge: There's another entity in town sporting a round logo with two stars, sans-serif font and a babe in the middle.

Starbucks has asked the league to change its logo, said Quinn Heraty, a New York lawyer representing the Rat City Rollergirls and its national association, The Women's Flat Track Derby Association.

"The issue is with the shape of the logo, including what they're calling concentric circles," she said. "They're saying that the dimensions of the circles are too close to their own. ... I mean, come on, circles and portraits? Big deal. Starbucks didn't invent that."

friday reads

A British resident who is facing the death penalty in Guantanamo Bay has made a final desperate plea to Gordon Brown to end his six-year ordeal and bring him home today.

Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in D.C. Superior Court. he defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.



Memo to Scott McClellan: Here's what happened



Deep in the Amazon jungle, one of the Brazil's last uncontacted indigenous tribes has been photographed from the air, to prove its existence.



India's centuries-old controversy over caste and discrimination brought parts of Delhi to a halt yesterday as thousands of members of an ethnic group demanded that their official status be lowered in order to provide them with better access to jobs and education.



Nearly half of American air travelers would fly more if it were easier, and more than one-fourth said they skipped at least one air trip in the past 12 months because of the hassles involved, according to an industry survey.



Get Busy. Get Equal.

friday random ten

random_ten
Photo by Ryan McManus



Puffy - Jet CD
"Jet Keisatsu"
Puffy
Jet CD (1998)


The Waitresses - Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful?
"Quit"
The Waitresses
Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? (1982)


Experimental Aircraft - Third Transmission: Meet Me on Echo Echo Terrace
"With a Gun"
Experimental Aircraft
Third Transmission: Meet Me on Echo Echo Terrace (2008)


Ra Ra Riot - Ra Ra Riot
"Ghost Under Rocks"
Ra Ra Riot
Ra Ra Riot EP (2007)


Bailter Space - Bailterspace
"Tanker"
Bailter Space
Bailterspace (2004)


Soko - Soko Not Sokute
"I'll Kill Her"
Soko
Not Sokute (2007)


Moimir Papalescu & the Nihilists - Lewis Neptune
"Fast Car"
Moimir Papalescu & The Nihilists
Lewis Neptune (2006)



"Papa Doc"
Dadamah
This Is Not a Dream (1995)


1910 Fruitgum Company - Indian Giver
"No Good Annie"
1910 Fruitgum Company
Indian Giver (1969)


Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
"Streets of Fire"
Bruce Springsteen
Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)


Bonus tracks


Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
"Hung Up and Hanging Out to Dry"
Julian Cope
Peggy Suicide (1991)


The Acorn - Glory Hope Mountain
"Lullabye (Mountain)"
The Acorn
Glory Hope Mountain (2007)

Thursday, May 29, 2008

refresh your mind

Moimir Papalescu & The Nihilists - Summer Deviation

thursday reads

Britain proposed on Wednesday to end the use of cluster bombs by its armed forces, saying it wanted a planned international convention outlawing the munitions to be as strong as possible.


Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says

If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.

Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.



Eric Boehlert: Why did the press ignore Ted Kennedy in 2002?


Glenn Greenwald: Corporate executives forced pro-Bush, pro-war narrative


Oklahoma has become a laboratory in which the worst right-wing elements are ramming xenophobic and anti-gay legislation through the Legislature


A customs supervisor arrested Wednesday faces forty years behind bars for accepting bribes in exchange for letting drugs and other contraband go through JFK Airport.


Nobody was expecting an easy year for U.S. banks, but many observers thought the bulk of the industry's credit troubles would come in the first quarter. Now, it seems the rest of the year may be even worse.


Sen. Larry Craig is writing a book telling his own story and describing his experience over the past year.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

wednesday reads

The number of troops with new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007 amid the military buildup in Iraq and increased violence there and in Afghanistan.

GAO faults training for VA claims processors



Crooks and Liars has video of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow discussing former White House propagandist Scott McClellan's new book.

Emptywheel has some interesting news on Scottie.

David Corn asks, "Where's the Apology?"

Juan Cole: The only time two people have to try hard to get their stories straight is when they have done something wrong and are planning to lie about it.



Timing is Everything. Could Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young be indicted so close to elections?



UBS has told members of its former private banking team responsible for rich US clients not to travel to America, the Financial Times reported.



Panties for Peace



Labor Beat Remembers Utah Phillips

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

tuesday reads

A Chilean judge has ordered the detention of almost 100 former soldiers and secret police officers from General Augusto Pinochet's regime as part of investigations into human rights abuses, according to reports.


Corruption on the rise in DHS Border Patrol.


Morris Talansky, the U.S. businessman at the center of an investigation into Ehud Olmert, testified that he handed the Israeli prime minister cash-filled envelopes before he led the government.


Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, The Pentagon Takes Over


The Bush administration has a pet word to describe its regulatory policy. The word is "transparent."


On Memorial Day weekend, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and VA Secretary James Peake stood side-by-side in Fairbanks, Alaska to showcase their opposition to--and lack of respect for--today's newest veterans.


Thirty illegal kitchen workers were occupying a restaurant amid tense scenes in the heart of tourist Paris yesterday.


The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines.


French skydiver Michel Fournier's bid to set a new altitude freefall record was scuppered Tuesday when the balloon that was to carry him into the stratosphere separated from the gondola.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

sunday reads

Glenn Greenwald: How Telecoms Are Attempting to Buy Amnesty From Congress


Street battles raged in Naples yesterday between police and protesters opposed to a new rubbish dump only days after Silvio Berlusconi set down a new hard line on a garbage crisis that has left piles of rotting rubbish on many city street corners.


Dave Neiwert - The Immigration Raids: Harbinger Of A Police State?

Austin Cline - Blood & Roots, Blut & Boden: American Racism Rearing Its Ugly Head


In a major victory for consumers' rights, a federal district judge has firmly rejected software vendor AutoDesk's claim that its license agreement restricts its customers from re-selling the software they lawfully owned.


Debunking The Faulty Premises Of The Pirate Bay-Criminalization Treaty


Good Night Dick