And what is so wrong with empire? Well, for one, it hurts people. Check out this article by Tom Englehardt:

Being in Base Denial

Going on an Imperial Bender

How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice
by Tom Englehardt

Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don't stay, often American equipment does -- carefully stored for further use at tiny "cooperative security locations," known informally as "lily pads" (from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis).

At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planetwide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.

description: A protest led by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign leads to police tear gas and concussion grenades at the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, MN. Marta Costello is caught in the melee as she brings you the gnooze (the g is silent).

Let Ralph Nader Debate!

I just wanted to post a link back in my personal blog to a previous story I published about Jeff Sharlet's book, "The Family." Here's the link: The Family: Elite Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

I went to Arlington Northwest at Heritage Park today. I helped set up headstones and did some photography too. I am going to post some of those photographs, and set up a flickr embed to display some more. The whole set can be found here: Arlington Northwest Iraq War Memorial 2008

Arlington Northwest

There were many hands to help set up the memorial, but it still took about 5 hours just to get all the markers in place. Here's a statement published by the Veterans for Peace Rachel Corrie Chapter (VFP 109) about the Memorial:

WHY WE PRESENT THE ARLINGTON NORTHWEST MEMORIAL



Veterans for Peace presents the traveling Arlington Northwest Memorial Display and Vigil to support our troops, their families, and our community.


I took some pictures of the FLOD today from Heritage Park (while I was there for Arlington NW.) Here they are:

Capitol Lake with Dead Salmon Amid Thick Weeds

I love this:

This is enough to bring Milton Friedman to tears. I remember from my US history lessons that it was a deregulated market (particularly in the financial sector) which brought on the market collapse of 1929 and the ensuing severe economic recession.

Despite their affiliation with many of the ideological underpinnings of Milton Friedman's "Chicago School" economics (privatization, disaster and gun capitalism, totally unregulated markets) - it seems that the current decision makers see that sometimes the government has to step in - in order to prevent disaster. (But I thought these decision-makers like disaster - disaster means major investment opportunity and profit potential...) Of course, this last gasp effort to save these struggling mortgage giants could have been avoided with increased oversight and appropriate regulatory devices/actions. But hey, hindsight is 20/20, right? I mean, what fun would it be to simply learn from mistakes?

Well, I am of the opinion that in the severe unethical environments of business and government, that regulation is essential. Perhaps if we had a world that was ethical to the point where people didn't do harm to each other, or seek to exploit others for their own (supposed) advance, then we wouldn't need government. I believe in a vision of "utopian" anarchy. But how will that be possible while these massive corporations have so much power and influence? So much power.

From Yahoo! (I don't know if the link will stay so I am posting the whole story):

AP US Government takes over mortgage giants

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER and ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writers 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

12 mini-reviews for the short attention span, taken from dark corners of stevenl's video vault:

2001: a Space Odyssey / directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968, VHS). Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Leonard Rossiter, Douglas Rain (voice). I wanted to start off by using the old saw "In space no one can hear you snore," but I can't honestly use it concerning this story about the first manned flight to Jupiter. Pretentious and tedious, this film is also enigmatic and beautiful. An overture and intermission is in there in order to give the audience a chance to buy overpriced popcorn. When this was released in 1968, most of us were still trying to adjust to the fact that Americans were actually going to walk around on the Moon. Even for those of us who were teens, who were born in a world with 48 stars on the flag, where Elvis was still driving truck, Segregation ruled the South and Sputnik, the first satellite, had yet to be launched a lot had happened in a short time. Kubrick was able to tap into that. But the film is very dated now. Just get a load of all those hexagons. This is not particularly engaging as a story with the exception of the portions involving the ship's computer, HAL. In fact, "I'm half-crazy" HAL is far more interesting than any of the human actors. The shots where we see the astronauts from HAL's point of view are particularly chilling and the computer's homicidal crimes are portrayed in a quiet way-- a decision in storytelling separating Kubrick from second-rate directors. It is after HAL's departure from the plot that the movie goes quintessentially 1968, presenting us psychedelic special effects worthy of an Iron Butterfly concert. The conclusion was a cop-out. And very long and drawn out one at that. The special effects extravanganza, which is impressive throughout most of the story, includes Kubrick's trademark Big Faces and symmetrical compositions. A year after this film was released, Armstrong and Aldrin made their lunar visit. I was camping that night, and from my primitive campfire with the sparks climbing into the stars, just stood staring at the Moon and knowing that in a 1000 years hence this was probably going to be the only event in my lifetime that would be in any sort of chronology detailing the highlights of human history. Many of us felt that way. Total wonder. Kubrick captured the feeling of the day but I'm not sure he was able to transcend the "you had to be there" level to later generations.

Hello all -

Thought I'd let those of you who are interested know that the city council will have the first reading of the Noise ordinance at Tuesday night's meeting.

I know this will probably get lost in the free-zone debate - and perhaps that's what the council wants - but I'd like to believe that there's enough cross-over frustration with this council's agenda that our comments will be heard.

I, at least, intend to try to speak again and ask that the council implement the planning commissions suggestions.