Mercy by Duffy.

Rockferry by Duffy.

I think I'm in love by Beck.

Disco Lies by Moby.

Gamma Ray by Beck.

Yay! Immigration reform! Yay Data Transparency! Go Team!

Ok so now that that's all out of the way, I'd like to talk seriously about putting pressure on the new congress coming in to
end the war immediately.

I was updating the words to my anti-Iraq war song, In the Spirit this morning...

It started out with "30,000 faces disappear" - I was referring to the Iraqi civilians that were killed in our first sweep of invasions in 2003.

Well, since that time, five years have passed, and a lot more people have been killed. And I make a point to say "killed" rather than "died," because I want it to be clear that none of these people died from anything that would have happened to them had their not been a war.

This was also the point of a report published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which stated:

As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. The deaths from all causes—violent and non-violent—are over and above the estimated 143,000 deaths per year that occurred from all causes prior to the March 2003 invasion.

(Washington Post Story - NY Times Story)

Let's put pressure on this new congress to pass a bill on its first day back in session.

The first act of this new congress should be to declare:

1) The war is over.

2) No more troops will be sent.

3) The troops start coming home now.

Whaddaya say people? Let's make the new Democratic congress show us what they're made of, right away.

Let's make this a priority now, or I fear we're going to find ourselves spending another year protesting this new government just to get them take action to stop the war.

Let's insist that congress deal with the war as its first order of business!

People voted. Votes were counted. Obama won. I look like chicken little a little. The end.

Well not quite the end, in the sense that, in my state, Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriages passed, which I think is quite unfortunate, and makes the progressive Obama victory just a little bittersweet...

It also made me change my "gay rights" category to "equal rights "civil rights" because this isn't about the right to be gay, it's about the right to marry whomever you wish. It's a pretty big part of that whole "pursuit of happiness" thing, if you ask me.

Update: 11/07/08 - (And yes, I just changed again. I remembered what happened with the whole ERA thing in the 80s, and how saying "equal rights" instead of "civil rights" seems to water the concept down somehow. Being able to marry whomever you wish is a CIVIL RIGHT. Ok, now I can move on...)

But alas! Time to move forward and keep up this momentum we seem to have going.

Thanks for all your information, love and support, during these past 8 years of hell.

There were some times in there when all we knew we had was each other - over the internet.

Now we are making our presence felt in the "real" world too. Good job!

Onward!

I awoke in New Zealand today to an article in the New Zealand Herald, and I had a strange sense of deja vu. It is still Monday in America. And like the Monday before the 2004 election, and the Monday before the 2000 election, there is enormous confidence among Democrats that we are going to win this.

But as with 2000, and 2004, I have become a bit terrified about where
we'll be Tuesday. For as presented by the New Zealand Herald, however
optimistic the static view of the swing states is, the dynamic view —
what is the trend — is sobering, to say the least. As this graph
shows, only Florida is trending in the right direction. Every other
critical state is trending away from Obama.

Now of course, maybe not quickly enough. Of course, the advantages are
significant, especially relative to 2004. And of course, McCain would
have to move mountains to overcome the enormous machine that the Obama
campaign has built.

But here's the weird deja vu I feel. In 2004, I got on a plane Tuesday
to fly to London. When I got on the plane, I watched every pundit, as
well as Kerry's daughter, speak about how all the polls were with
Kerry. The "exit polls" indicated a clear Kerry victory. But then when
I landed, I sat it utter disbelief in the United lounge at Heathrow,
watching the Ohio numbers go against us, and therefore, delivering 4
more years to Bush.

We Democrats have trouble closing the deal. We have trouble continuing
the push to the very last moment. We have repeatedly been blindsided
by the fact that the other side votes regardless of the expected
result, while we're more contingent — making the effort if it seems
necessary, relaxing when it doesn't.

Please, don't let this happen again. Please, if you're an Obama
supporter, do absolutely everything you can in the next 24 hours to
make sure every single possible Obama vote turns out to vote...

There is an energy I have never imagined could be behind any
politician. I have known for more than a decade that this man is the
real deal. And it gives me enormous hope for this democracy that we
are about to vote to make him President.

Unless we don't. Unless we let this slip by, again. Unless we sit in
our comfortable cubicle, and let politics be run by the other side.

Don't do this. Do something this time. Please at least help spread
this message. Make sure everyone who could matter here knows what you
believe. And don't stop until the clock runs out.

I've had this little anthem (lullaby version) in my head this last week, and I thought I'd share it with you.

It's based on some things I learned from my own archived news footage from the 2004 election about strange things going on with the actual vote count in relation to the exit polls. The Bushies tried to tell us it was the exit polls that were incorrect. But that didn't make sense then, and it makes less sense now.

This clip is a re-edit from a clip within the documentary from Dorothy Fadiman's Stealing America - which was released a few months ago across the country. (The movie uses a lot of footage from my and thePete's video archive from the 2004 election.)

(Video - 11 MB)

From Judy (to Wolf Blitzer): "Well, we're trying to figure all this out right now Wolf. Apparently, what has happened is that the Associated Press, they were feeding numbers into us, and then suddenly, those numbers changed."

High Res version of this video clip - 230 MB (Sorry there is no hi-res version of either song recording.)

This year, let's stay up and watch until we know the votes have been counted correctly -- which, we know from the polls, could only mean a huge win for Obama.

Here's a sorta "traditional" version of the song:
Staying Up All Night (campfire version)

Here's a lullaby version of it for my biggest fan :-)

Here are the words (roughly, depending on version):

Stayin up all night
stayin up all night
and you'll be there with me
and it'll be alright
you can call us crazy
and we hope they're right
until the race is called
I'm stayin up all night

Stayin up all night
Stayin up all night
and we'll all watchin
cause we've seen the light
what happened last time
it just wasn't right
until the race is called
we'll be staying up all night

and you can call us crazy
and we hope you're right
until the race is called
we'll be stayin up all night

RE: Plan B

Well, if they try to tell us that Obama has lost in "another close race," I say we demand a recount and hit the streets - Ukranian style.

So it might be a good idea to try to take Wednesday off work if you can, to:

1) rest up after being up late Tuesday night

and

2) be available for a protest, if we need to have one

So again - the main plan is to just watch and win :) - which should be easy enough. But if the bullshit hits the fan in the middle of the night again, let's be ready to deal with it head on Wednesday morning (Plan B) - by emailing phoning our representatives endlessly - and, hittin the streets!

Although Obama is currently WAY ahead in the polls, I remain cautiously pessimistic until the race is safely over, and I urge you to come to your polling place with a notepad and camera in hand, to take note of anything strange that may happen when you are voting.

My report from December 2004 on the voting irregularities in Ohio.

Here's why: whoever was messing with our elections in 2000 and 2004 is still in control of them. Very little has changed between now and then in the voting accuracy and/or recount department. Everything that we learned from Ed Felten and his team at Princeton University still holds. All the dangers from not having a voter verifiable paper trail are still in place -- for instance, as a protection against "vote-switching" software, which has apparently reared it's ugly head again.

These dangers have become so widely understood, and become such a part of our American culture, that the Simpsons even parodied it for a laugh.

We're laughing now, but are we going to be laughing when McCain somehow beats Obama, in the end, in what we're supposed to believe is another close race?

There's a recently-released documentary on this subject, Stealing America, by award-winning film maker Dorothy Fadiman. The film uses a great deal of my and my brother in-laws' archived news footage from the 2004 and 2006 elections.

In the 2004 election especially, it was amazing to me how the news footage was able to illustrate the strange sequence of events that took place in the middle of the night with both the voting count and the exit poll numbers. There was evidence of the vote-switching too, although, at the time, most of it was explained away as "glitches."

This clip from "Stealing America" interviews numerous individuals from all walks of life who had this vote switching happen to them.

Sure, the Republicans are in charge of these particular elections in Putnam county, but the point is that the Republicans, the Democrats, or anyone else that wanted to, without much effort, could hijack these voting machines and change the outcome of our elections.

As you will see in the clip from Stealing America, many of these people first blamed themselves when something odd occurred -- either blamed their own lack of expertise with computers, or their own unfamiliarity with the voting process in general, and so they weren't questioning what was happening.

Here's a classic example of "blaming the voter" from the Charleston Gazette:

Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain".

In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated.

They also blamed voters for not being more careful.

"People make mistakes more than machines," said Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright.

Shelba Ketchum, a 69-year-old nurse retired from Thomas Memorial Hospital, described what happened Friday at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield.

"I pushed buttons and they all came up Republican," she said. "I hit Obama and it switched to McCain. I am really concerned about that. If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines.

"I asked them for a printout of my votes," Ketchum said. "But they said it was in the machine and I could not get it. I did not feel right when I left the courthouse. My son felt the same way.

"I heard from some other people they also had trouble. But no one in there knew how to fix it," said Ketchum, who is not related to Menis Ketchum, a Democratic Supreme Court candidate.

Ketchum's son, Chris, said he had the same problem. And Bobbi Oates of Scott Depot said her vote for incumbent Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller was switched to GOP opponent Jay Wolfe.

"I touched the one I wanted, Rockefeller, and the machine put a checkmark on the Republican instead," Oates said of her experience Thursday.

She said she caught the mistake, called over a worker in the county clerk's office and was able to correct her vote. But she worries other voters may not catch such a mistake.

This time around, we need to take the opposite approach. Pay very close attention, and report anything strange to the various groups set up to help document what took place immediately.

Another important thing to remember is not to blame yourself if something screwy happens at the polls when you go there to vote. Bring a camera, notepad, and a keen eye. And let's stay up and make sure the votes are counted this time.

Diane is the author of two groundbreaking books on the subject: Finding Community and Creating a Life Together.

If you're intrigued about the concept of an Ecovillage, but know little or nothing about them, like me, this is a great way for you to catch up, in a big way, in about 90 minutes, with one of the formost authorities on the subject -- and in a nice friendly party potluck atmosphere.

Now what could be better! :-)

What: Ecovillages: Where They Are, What They're Doing, Why They’re Important -- A Slide show and talk with Diana Leafe Christian

When: Saturday, August 23, 2008

Where: 2339 Parker Street, Berkeley 94704

(south campus close to Telegraph/Dwight) top floor lounge

TIME: 7:00 - 9:00 pm

Free But Donations Appreciated!!

RSVP encouraged but not required to: Freya Carol Hermanson: urherenow@sbcglobal.net

Here's the info straight from the source:

Diane Sez:
If you know anyone in the Bay Area who might like to see my Ecovillage slide show, described below, I'm showing it again on Saturday, Aug. 22nd at the Parker Street Co-op in Berkeley. Here's a description, below.

Ecovillages: Where They Are, What They're Doing, Why They’re Important Slide show and talk with Diana Leafe Christian

Saturday, August 23 2339 Parker Street, Berkeley 94704 (south campus close to Telegraph/Dwight) top floor lounge 7:00 - 9:00 pm Donation Appreciated

With over 200 photos, this hour-long slide show shows the ecological, economic, and social/cultural/spiritual aspects of sustainability in ecovillages worldwide. Diana shows how ecovillages use: * Permaculture design, natural building, off-grid power * Alternative technology, sustainable agriculture * Local currencies, on-site cottage industries * Cooperative decision-making, conflict resolution, and much more

Three kinds of ecovillages:
* Intentional communities in the Industrialized North

* Ecologically aware traditional villages in the Global South

* Sustainability education centers in both hemispheres.

Ecovillage examples include: * Findhorn in Scotland, Auroville in India, Crystal Waters in Australia

* Ecovillages in Italy, Germany, Russia, Israel, South Africa, Senegal, Brazil

* In North America, including Earthaven, Dancing Rabbit, Ecovillage at Ithaca, and Los Angeles Ecovillage

Diana Leafe Christian is author of "Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities" and "Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community" (New Society Publishers, 2003 and 2007). Editor of "Communities" magazine for 14 years, she now publishes “Ecovillages,” a free online publication (EcovillageNewsletter.org). Diana speaks at conferences, and leads workshops for and does consultations for communities in the U.S. and Canada. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina. www.DianaLeafeChristian.org.

Refreshments will be served.

RSVP encouraged but not required to: Freya Carol Hermanson: urherenow@sbcglobal.net

Diana@ic.org (new address)

www.DianaLeafeChristian.org

Author of Finding Community and Creating a Life Together

Sign up for "ECOVILLAGES," my free bimonthly newsletter: www.EcovillageNews.org

It's a Benefit for the American Cancer Society - with an INCREDIBLE collection of talent pooled for the occasion!

Date: TODAY! July 18, 2008
Time: 10am - 10pm SL time
Location:
Wishfest on Financial Isle

Relay Raiders present a 12 hour music event that will take place just before
the opening of the relay weekend.

There are 2 stages. A red stage that will be played by musicians and a
purple stage that will be played by DJ's.

At 7pm DJ Dakota Christensen will take over both streams as we will remember
Stori Knopfli. This will end at 10pm and will be followed by fireworks.

This all will take place at the Wishfest Sim(Financial Isle).

That kindly has been donated for use by The Wishfarmers.

Schedule Purple Stage:
10am - 12pm: DJ Ionic (Techno/Minitech)
12pm - 2pm: DJ Jenns (Electro)
2pm - 4pm: DJ Miss Cyberpink (Electro)
4pm - 7pm: DJ Nexeus Fatale (a Variation of audio pleasure)
7pm - 10pm: DJ Dakota Christensen will take over both streams as we will
remember Stori Konpfli. 7.16/07

Schedule Red Stage:
10am - Cylindrian Rutabaga
11am - Freestar Tammas
12pm - Soundcircel Flanagan
1pm - DJ Bono (Progressive House)
2pm - Relaycast by Maximillion Kleene, Mimi Carpenter and Dolmere Talamasca
3pm - Dewran Wopat
4pm - Charles Coleman
5pm - Dolmere Talamasca
6pm - JueL Resistance
7pm - 10pm: DJ Dakota Christensen will take over both streams as we will
remember Stori Knopfli. 7.16/07

Hey guys, time to put good taste aside this weekend and come to the premiere of the comedy-horror flick I'm in - and I sing the theme song for - premiering this weekend in San Francisco.

I'll be there for Friday night's 7:30 show!

Hope to see you there!

Don't come if you're squeamish. Like, seriously. It's a gross flick :-)

Funny as hell. Arguably more funny than gross, but I won't mince words.

Here's the poop from the directors (Rick Popko and Dan West):

SF world premiere of "RetarDEAD," a feature-length horror/comedy from
the creators of "Monsturd."

The premiere will be held at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre
Located at: 2961 16th Street (BART accessible! - 16th Street Station)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 863-7576

Tix are $10, and advanced tix can be purchased online at:
http://www.victoriatheatre.org/calendar.htm

Showtimes are:
July 11 & 12 (Friday and Saturday): 7:00 p.m. & 9:30 p.m.
July 13 (Sunday): 5:30 & 7:30 p.m.

Important: Limited edition barf bags will be handed out to the first 500 ticket
holders!

The filmmakers will be on hand to host a Q&A after each show.

The trailer and a Creative Commons MP3 of the end theme song can be
found here:

http://www.4321films.com/retardead/index.html

Story synopsis:
Evil has come to the Butte County Institute of Special Education, and its students will never be the same.

After surviving a ferocious battle with his own monstrous creation, Dr. Stern returns to continue his horrible research in this blood-drenched sequel to the cult hit "Monsturd." Armed with a fatal hyper-intelligence serum, the mad doctor transforms a quiet community into an army of flesh-eating zombies.

It's a showdown of limb-chopping, head-bursting proportions as Stern's nemesis, F.B.I. agent Susan Hannigan, and the local sheriff's department take on the zombie plague in the ultimate battle royale.

Somatika Xiao has re-located Wishfest to a new home on Financial Isle.

Here's the SLURL to get there. I go on at 7:00pm SLT/PST.

Update: Nick Noir will still do a few songs at 7! So I'll go on a little bit after him

Here's the line up:

5:30 pm - Just Some Guy (Gary Bukowski)


6:00 pm - Cylindrian Rutabega


7:00 pm - Me

Gary Bukowski




Nick Noir at Wishfest 1.0

I'll have a link to the stream up here soon.

Cya tonight!

I've already expressed my concerns in a song a few years ago [lyrics]. Same company, different country, and in many ways, same shit, different day. This is becoming the rule, and not the exception, for technology companies, nowadays.

What do we do when using technology to support over zealous government authorities is just "good business?"

What do we do when it's a company like Google. Who, arguably, none of us could live without?
(Hey, I'm just speaking for myself.)

I don't have any answers. Sorry. Just concerns.

Maybe a little evil: Google outs Indian man to authorities
By Jacqui Cheng, for Ars Technica.

An Indian man was arrested over the weekend for allegedly posting derogatory and vulgar content about Indian politician Sonia Gandhi on Google's social networking site, Orkut. 22-year-old Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid had posted his comments in an Orkut community called "I hate Sonia Gandhi" through an Orkut account associated with his Gmail account. With Google's help, local authorities were able to verify Vaid's identity and make the arrest...

Google admitted today that it had forked over Vaid's information after it was requested by Indian law enforcement. A spokesperson for Google told IDG News Service that, while the company is committed to protecting user privacy, it must obey local laws and legal processes.

So here it is, a little A-Z Index -- of all my published songs to date, that I know about -- and it will just live on the lisarein.com homepage from now on.

Hope to see you at the show tomorrow night :)

lisa

When: Wednesday, May 14th 7:30pm

Cover: $5

Streaming url: http://66.186.45.114:8022

Blue Fusion Lake House slurl: SLURL

I hope you'll join me in Real Life in San Francisco, and in Second Life or via webstream from anywhere in the world, as I perform at 9pm SLT/PST time on May 14, 2008.

I'm just a little part of a huge Second Life showcase featuring SL star Keiko Takamura and 5 other artists -- but I get a full half hour set.

Here's a link to my music, if you're unfamiliar with my recent stuff: http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/my_music_live_video/

The complete line up (all times are SLT/PST):

7:30 - BabbleGrabble Swindlehurst http://babblegrabble.com

8:00 - Pato Milo http://www.myspace.com/patomilo

8:30 - Jacopo de Nicola http://www.myspace.com/jacopodenicola

9:00 - Haley Bailey (aka Lisa Rein) http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/my_music_live_video/

9:30 - Melanie Keller http://www.myspace.com/melaniekeller

10:00 - Keiko Takamura featuring ZeroOne Paz on percussion http://www.myspace.com/keikotakamura

They have free Wifi at Rocket Room too, so, even if you have to work, you can bring your laptops and geek out at the show!

Hope to see you there!

When: Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 7pm

Where: Wishfest 1.0 - Solaris II - Second Life

As one of the first indie musicians to join and perform in Second Life, she has built a strong presence in the virtual world. A world where she is also known for her visual art work; her paintings, drawings and photography are displayed in various galleries throughout Second Life.

JueL also owns and performs at the infamous "Living Room #13" where she has headlined and hosted Naked Acoustic Sessions for almost 2 years, bringing in only the finest seasoned and raw musicians of SL.

JueL is currently working on her latest CD while preparing for her 2nd adventure to Mahoneyfest in Georgia. Her latest work in progress is a compilation of both recent and past experiences blended soulfully into a deep groove of blues, americana, folk and "unplugged acoustics".

We're very excited that JueL will be coming by to play Wishfest Sunday night!

Nick Noir will be going on right after her, at 8pm.

See you there!

Last night's Wishfest 1.0 show started off our festival with a big bang. About 24 people showed up -- that's actually a lot for an SL event! As you can see from the movies, it was really hoppin!

Here's my favorite of Cylindrian's songs, "Sweet Alice."

I've made it available both as a big 54 MB and a smaller 20 MB file.

I've also made an audio file available as an MP3 (6 MB) and a higher fidelity wav file.

There's also a lengthier movie (19 MB) of the same song that includes some pre-song conversation with the crowd, and clip of another song (64 MB), that I'm sure Cylindrian will soon tell me the rightful name of :)