Judge Drops Charges from Blackwater Deaths in Iraq by Charlie Savage.
It would be nice if the Justice Department would prosecute a case of this magnitude without violating the constitutional rights of defendants. They boggled the Sen. Stevens case too.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Zinn Quote of the Day
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory
-Howard Zinn
Crooks and Liars, redux
Traficant: Yes! I'm running for office!
He's got a nice wig and a big personality. He's a crook too. I wonder if the voters will give him the privilege of serving them again. I certainly hope not but the American voter has a short term memory...
Domestic Partnership Policy
One of the laboratories of democracy - Cowlitz County in this case - has taken a step forward by instituting a new domestic partnership policy. Axel Swanson - a friend and fellow alum of VLS - is a County Commissioner in said county. I'm impressed with this fellow - he's come a long way from his days in student government at VLS. He's matured and is serving his constituency well. He told me that he was considering running for Congress to represent the great state of Washington. We'll see...he's not done yet. Good work, Axe! Peace.
Here's the article from The Daily News - Serving the Lower Columbia.
Here's the article from The Daily News - Serving the Lower Columbia.
Rolling Stone's 25 Best Albums of 2009
Rolling Stone's 25 Best Album's of 2009.
Of the purported 25 Best Albums, I only have four of them:
Of the purported 25 Best Albums, I only have four of them:
- U2: No Line on the Horizon (Ranked #1)
- Pearl Jam: Backspacer (Ranked #11)
- Wilco: Wilco (The Album) (Ranked #16)
- Mos Def: The Ecstatic (Ranked #17)
My ranking of those four albums would be different. I would reverse the order a bit - I confess that I'm a huge fan of Pearl Jam.
Clancy's 4 of the 25 Best Album's of 2009
- The Ecstatic - Mos Def is an amazing and talented artist. He really speaks the truth with deft flow mixed with good tunes. I saw him in August of this year with Scott, Scott, and Jen. It was a really good show that he dedicated to the late KOP. A great album.
- Backspacer - They continue to make relevant and good rock-n-roll. Their live shows are electric, long, and often have deep cuts from the catalogue. The album is a good mix of punk, melody, rock, and storytelling. I look forward to catching them in Boston or Montreal or parts unknown.
- Wilco - This band kills it on their albums and live. I'm going to see them in Montreal in February. Great album.
- No Line on the Horizon - U2 kills it, but this album isn't the best of 2009. It's really good don't get me wrong, but it's not as strong some of their earlier efforts this decade. They re-issued The Unforgettable Fire which I think is better than this album. I've listened to it far more this year than the new album.
Levon Helm is back on the scene. He probably never left, but he's been putting out some good music lately. I bought Dirt Farmer this year - which is a really good album - and will likely pick up Electric Dirt in the coming months.
General Electric, polychlorinated biphenyls, and the Hudson River.
The General Electric superfraud: Why the Hudson River will never run clean by David Gargill.
PCBs are synthetic oils made up of one to ten chlorine atoms bound to a biphenyl ring. The varieties used along the Hudson were amber in color, with the viscosity of maple syrup, but slipperier. The oils were long hailed as miraculous for allowing electricity to flow without altering the charge or being altered themselves, and for their non-flammability and resilience. Chemical anthropologists will be finding them thousands of years from now, assuming we’re still around. Their toxicity was well established by the 1930s, and no safe level of exposure has been set for cancer or non-cancer health risks; all that’s known is, more is worse. This is unfortunate, because until they were outlawed in 1977, PCBs were of use nearly everywhere electricity could be found, especially in wire, transformers, and capacitors. The oils were therefore ubiquitous, effective in preventing electrical fires and other disruptions, enabling much of modern life’s ease, particularly the portion abetted by General Electric.
PCBs are synthetic oils made up of one to ten chlorine atoms bound to a biphenyl ring. The varieties used along the Hudson were amber in color, with the viscosity of maple syrup, but slipperier. The oils were long hailed as miraculous for allowing electricity to flow without altering the charge or being altered themselves, and for their non-flammability and resilience. Chemical anthropologists will be finding them thousands of years from now, assuming we’re still around. Their toxicity was well established by the 1930s, and no safe level of exposure has been set for cancer or non-cancer health risks; all that’s known is, more is worse. This is unfortunate, because until they were outlawed in 1977, PCBs were of use nearly everywhere electricity could be found, especially in wire, transformers, and capacitors. The oils were therefore ubiquitous, effective in preventing electrical fires and other disruptions, enabling much of modern life’s ease, particularly the portion abetted by General Electric.
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