As usual, Tailrank has a nice memepage about it from the blogosphere.
It’s quite a tangled cover-up. One that stretches far and wide across the Republican party. I’ve been collecting footage and actually trying to figure out how everyone’s connected and such. They’re turning on each other so fast, it’s hard to keep up.
So I’ll be posting up pieces of the puzzle, and some lists and maps and diagrams and things, so we can sort it all out.
The important part of the story is clear: Republican leaders made a conscious decision to keep quiet about Foley’s pedophilia, and they did it for political reasons and personal gain.
Just when I thought these guys couldn’t sink any lower. Now kids are fair game.
And they were trying to cover it up straight through to the end. Some of them were trying to strike a deal with ABC news – to give them an exclusive on Foley’s resignation if they just wouldn’t mention the emails.
It makes me wonder how many other deals like that with the media have been made over the last 6 years.
Oh well — in this case, ABC News held out! Thanks ABC News 🙂
Here’s the
ABC News Blog story that got the ball rolling.
ps. I knew the Repubs/Fox News were going to start bringing up Clinton/Lewinsky too, but it isn’t a fair comparison, because they were two consenting adults (she was 22!) — end of story.
pps. Now Fox News has Foley as a (D) Democrat when they show any clips of him!
wow! that’s good! (More on this soon!)
Three Judge Panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Says Domestic Spying OK till further notice
Court temporarily OKs domestic spying
By Dan Sewell, Associated Press
The Bush administration can continue its warrantless surveillance program while it appeals a judge’s ruling that the program is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday…
The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave little explanation for the decision. In the three-paragraph ruling, judges said that they balanced the likelihood an appeal would succeed, the potential damage to both sides and the public interest…
The ACLU contends that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which set up the secret court to grant warrants for such surveillance, gave the government enough tools to monitor suspected terrorists.
“We are confident that when the 6th Circuit addresses the merits of this case, it will agree that warrantless wiretapping of Americans violates the law and is unconstitutional,” Melissa Goodman, an ACLU attorney, said in a news release.
Similar lawsuits challenging the program have been filed by other groups, including in New York and San Francisco. The issue could wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Chris Paine On The Daily Show
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I knew Chris Paine way back in 1993, when I was working with him on Telemorphix’s 21st Century Vaudeville.
He was a really sweet, smart, and very creative guy with big ideas about everything. Nice to see him pull it all together to create his little masterpiece, Who Killed the Electric Car?. |
Chris Paine On The Daily Show (Quicktime, 15 MB)
Dabble Record for this interview
Songs From The Commons Shows Back Up
Due to an unexpected hosting emergency, my Songs From The Commons podcasts were down for a week or so.
They’re back up now on the Mondoglobo site, and hopefully the blog part of it will be back soon too.
I’ve created my own archive that will always be available here as a backup too.
I have show 16 in the works. All this other stuff has kinda taken over lately, but I’ll try to wrap it up this weekend.
Checking in on a more personal note…and meeting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
So a lot is going on lately. There’s so much going on, that I don’t know where to begin in explaining it. So I’ll just start putting stuff up…
It’s all good, in different ways. On the creative musical and video front, I’ve been preparing a lot over this last month that I’m ready to start rolling out over these next few weeks. On the Dabble front, we’re ready to roll out some new features and are adding a ton of new content collections from all sorts of cool websites. On the Wide Hive Records front, we have a number of new releases, and I sing background vocals on three different tracks on one of them: Salsa Blanco.
On the political front, I finally made time for a political fundraiser last Friday night, to meet a number of Congressional Candidates in this upcoming election, and I was instantly rewarded when none other than Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by to say hi.
I’m quite a fan of Bobby’s lately, as he has been one of the few people to speak out about the 2004 Election irregularities in two different Rolling Stone articles (Was the 2004 Election Stolen? and Will the 2006 Election Be Hacked?), and on numerous television programs.
It was great to be able to hand him a copy of Stealing America. (There are a several clips of him included in the film.)
It was also a big reminder of the unprecedented attack on the environment by the Bush Administration – another critical reason why we have remove this administration and all the professional crooks that are running it at our earliest opportunity.
Stealing America: How Systematic Disenfranchisement Took Place In the 2004 Election
 Photo by Mike Kash | Dorothy Fadiman has produced a new documentary, called Stealing America, that is based largely on a lot of the information that I put together in the Electon 2004 Aftermath category category of my blog. |
I’ll send you a copy of the DVD if you like, just send me an email with your mailing address.
Update and clarification 10/20/06 – I’m not dubbing copies of Dorothy’s movie and giving them away. I earned 100 copies as payment for some archiving I did for the film. Part of our agreement was that I could have 100 copies. I’m choosing to send you one of these 100 copies if you “act now” 🙂
I’ll also be breaking it up into smaller clips and making it available online later this week.
If anyone can help me make it available in other formats, when I make it available soon, please let me know. It would be very much appreciated.
There’s a showing at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, CA this Wednesday, October 4th, featuring Marc Crispin Miller, at 7pm.
There are a couple of other screenings scheduled in Northern California in October, but you can get a copy of the DVD and have a screening or throw a screening party in your town.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming election and how it seems like the repubs could just use the electronic voting machines and other tactics, like not putting enough machines in democratic precincts, to take over the election again.
To my knowledge, all of the systems that were in place in 2004 remain in place now.
Perhaps if films like Stealing America are seen by voters before this year’s election, they will know to report it to the proper authorities if they notice any funny business going on this time.
Tell Gavin Newsome To Grant The Oct 5 World Can’t Wait Protest Permits
Update September 27 – I emailed the World Can’t Wait folks and they said that the permit negotiations seem to be going smoothly now. Thanks everybody for writing!
Please take a couple minutes this morning to send an email and make a phone call to Gavin Newsome, our sometimes-liberal SF Mayor, and tell him to “grant World Can’t Wait their Oct 5 Justin Herman Plaza protest permit.” (I have a letter you can cut and paste below)
It’s already a little hokey to need to get a permit to have a protest, but it can be a good thing too, in that portopotties and other civic arrangements can be made when everyone knows what’s going on that day.
But not granting the permits, or waiting till the last minute to grant the permits, adds an air of uncertainty around the whole thing that hurts the process. I’d like to think that Gavin Newsome isn’t blocking the permits on purpose. But at the very least, there is some incompetence going on. And it’s really bad timing for it. And it can’t be tolerated.
So email Gavin at gavin.newsom@sfgov.org AND call him at 415-554-6141
and for that matter, Fax him at 415-554-6160
thanks!
Here’s the letter I wrote – so you can just cut and paste it:
Dear Gavin,
Please grant World Can’t Wait its protest permit for the October 5 Justin Herman Plaza event.
I hope this is just an oversight or something, and there aren’t seriously people in your administration that are knowingly blocking these permits.
Thanks for your time,
Lisa Rein
address here
Arrrg! A Hearty Talk Like A Pirate Day To Ya
I love talk like a pirate day. This pic is from 2003 at the Internet Archive.)
Someone sent me this great pirate translation software. I have included a translation of my blog in the “more” section.
Here’s the official Talk like a Pirate Day website. The cool thing is that ABC contacted the founder of it and got his Wife to participate in a special season premiere of “Wife Swap” – “Wench Swap.” (Here’s the commercial for the Wench Swap episode.)
You know how I love it when Internet stuff gets on to the silver screen!
Here’s a blog post from the official Pirates of the Carribean website talking about it.
When I saw the above post, I was afraid for a minute, that Talk Like A Pirate Day had originated to promote Disney’s Pirates Of the Carribean, not to make fun of how the RIAA was calling us all pirates in the early 2000’s. But I was wrong on both counts.
According to the wikipedia article, it was started by John Baur and Mark Summers way back in 1995, just cause they thought pirates were cool.
Here’s a nice How To Talk Like A Pirate video, to help you ham it up today.
If You’re Around in LA This Weekend – Sept 15-16 – Come To My Sister’s Performance In Studio City
Sierra Rein and Matt Demars
Update 9pm – due to airport hell coming down in Oakland this evening (more on this later), I’ll be at tomorrow night’s show, instead.
I’ve decided to hop down to LA tonight to see my sister,
Sierra Rein, perform in L.A. It’s a classy singer/piano gig that comes with dinner.
It is a bit pricey, at $50 a couple — But I’ll give you $25 back if you show up and come over to say hi during the show. It’s a nice dinner too.
My sis is pretty talented! I’m sure you’ll have a good time. It’s her first time performing this new act she’s been working on for a while, so it would really great to have you there!
(If you decide to go Saturday night, I can paypal you the $25 🙂
When: Friday and Saturday, September 15 and 16, 2006
Time : 7:00 dinner (8pm show)
Place: Sterling’s Upstairs, Vitello’s Restaurant, 4349 Tujunga Ave, Studio City, CA 91604
http://www.vitellosrestaurant.com/
(818) 981-3077 or (818) 769-0905
Here’s the letter from Sierra explaining the show:
Hello Y’all!
Hello Friends! Family! Classmates! Castmates! Industry peeps!
Former lovers (you know who you are!)!
Have a hot date this Friday or Saturday? Love music, great singing,
and fun piano playing? Want to see me in a sleek, skin-tight black
satin dress?
Spend a special night this weekend with me and my friend Matt DeMars
as we debut our Cabaret nightclub act, DEMARS AND REIN.
It would mean a lot to me to see you in the audience. A lot, as this
is our first Cabaret show. I know, I know, I know $50 may be steep
right now, but I won’t be lying when I tell you a great night of music
(perfect for a birthday gift, a date, or a special night out with your
loved one) is in store for you. We will knock your socks off, and if
you’re not wearing socks I’ll knock something else of yours off,
guaranteed. Live theater, cabaret music, and a meal all in one is not
a traditional or easy-to-find venue in Los Angeles. Come and support
new acts, great food, and the pleasure of live performance.
And may I remind you about the sleek, skin-tight dress?
SIERRA REIN and MATT DEMARS IN
“DEMARS AND REIN” at Sterling’s Upstairs, Vitello’s Restaurant
(818) 981-3077 at 4349 Tujunga Ave
LOS ANGELES DEBUT!
September 15th and 16th, 7pm seating, 8:30 show.
Dinner and Theater in one! $50 gets you a four course meal and an
hour of music!
See you there for two very special nights!
-Sierra
Tonight’s NOW Focuses On Political Bloggers
Just wanted to give you all the heads up that tonight’s NOW Broadcast on PBS features bloggers:
From an email sent to me:
Left-leaning political bloggers are determined to demonstrate their real world influence in the upcoming mid-term elections. But will they finally make political headway, or just more hype? On Friday September 15, at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW visits a major political blogging convention and examines the candidacy of surprising U.S. Senate primary winner John Tester of Montana to find out. The bloggers’ effect on Tester’s success is hard to accurately measure, but bloggers do take much credit for it and indeed made a strong push for his against-the-odds win.
“You have a couple million people reading liberal blogs…and they’re looking for ways to get involved. And they’re looking for ways to participate and take hold of their own democracy. And that is powerful,” says Markos Moulitsas, founder of one of the Internet’s most popular blogs, to NOW.
NOW meets the real people behind some of the Internet’s most opinionated and widely-read liberal blogs to find out if they can really move the political needle. Next time on NOW.
This week, the NOW website at www.pbs.org/now features insightful web-exclusive commentary from blogging heavyweights Andrew Sullivan and Arianna Huffington. Also, in another web-exclusive, NOW’s Maria Hinojosa interviews journalist Maziar Bahari from his home in Tehran about what drives and hinders efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions. NOW also invites users to go “beyond the byte” with Election Insight 2006, a comprehensive political investigation tool.