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Last trip to Acme 
Early tomorrow morning I will be leaving on my last official trip to Acme Bookbinding. I'll be doing intensive training with some of the Imaging Department staff. Acme uses some very specialized software tools and I have had a very close relationship with the software developers. I will be trying to share as much as I know about how to use this software. I will be returning to Austin a week from today.
Upon my return I will be packing up some scanning equipment, computers, software and office records for shipment to Acme. After that I will be officially on my own and unemployed.
Have you read my resume yet? So far there have been 290 read/click-bys, but no serious inquiries.
Photo by Wes
Yesterday I reported on what a great time I had crashing SXSW parties. Wes Felter has sent along a pic he took of me and Rebecca Blood at the Adaptive Path party. (Rebecca looks great, I look a little crazy.)
Hunter S. Thompson ripped off?
Who is Asterisk?
Well here's one I don't read every day. Earlier this month several gonzo fans emailed me about an article on a website called Underground.net. The best way to find out the truth about any rumor is to go to the source, so I sent a note off to the site. The editor of the site, Shlomo Sher, does not know the true identity of the mysterious, gonzoesque writer on his site. If Underground.net sounds familiar, it's because Ryan M. wrote a story about HST a few months ago on the site.
The article in question is called Savagery of the Flighty White Nigger. It's a very well-written, gonzo article that is bound to turn the corners of most people's mouth despite the title. The question these gonzo fans were begging was...is it HST? Writing under a new pseudonym? [more]
A leaked fax by HST himself. He sounds pissed of, but the he always does doesn't he?
The man
Mojo Nixon
Do you feel safer?
Red Light, Green Light by Ryan H. Sager
Here's how the system theoretically works. There are five colors (green, blue, yellow, orange, and red) comprising some sort of perverted stoplight. Green means a low risk of terrorist attack, blue is a general risk, yellow is an "elevated condition," orange means a high risk of attack, and red means a "severe risk."
Got that? Pop quiz, hot shot: There's a purple terror alert -- what do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO!? It's just a trick question, of course. No matter what color the terrorism alert system is at, you don't really do anything.
But of course you're going to want to do SOMETHING, so here are some suggestions (straight from the newly established Shadow Office of Homeland Security) for what to do at any of the five levels of terror alertness:
Green: Eat cheese-doodles in your underwear. Elect southern Democrats to the White House. Ignore it when said southern Democrats either (a) report seeing giant swimming rabbits or (b) consort with giant kneeling interns.
Blue: Eat cheese-doodles in your underwear. Peer out the window suspiciously every half-hour. Fall asleep watching reruns of "Xena: Warrior Princess."
Yellow (our current status): Do everything faster before the alert turns red. Carbo-load. Elect southern Republicans. Wonder why the hell that Dell guy is suddenly so popular. Apply ice to Ted Koppel's bruised ego.
Orange: Elect only Texan Republicans. Call "America's Most Wanted" if you see a guy with so much as a tan. Generally freak out.
Red: Resume electing southern Democrats -- you're a goner anyway.
[more]
Afghanistan
Afghanistan: The Harrison Forman Collection
The online exhibit Afghanistan: images from the Harrison Forman Collection documents the life and culture of Afghanistan in the late 1960s, several years before the Soviet Union invaded the country. The photographs were taken by Harrison Forman in 1969. The online collection consists of 186 images selected from a set of 733 slides of Afghanistan in the Harrison Forman Photographic Collection housed at the American Geographical Society Collection.
The online collection is organized into six browsable subject categories: architecture, history, land, people, and transportation. Each category consists of thumbnail images linked to full records. A map of Afghanistan accompanies the collection. Images from Kabul, Hindu Kush, and Mazar-e Sharif can be viewed by clicking on the map.
The Harrison Forman photographic collection covers the period from the mid-1920's to the mid-1970's. This collection includes approximately 30,000 black and white negatives, 2,000 Ektachrome and 49,000 Kodachrome transparencies. The collection was given to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's American Geographical Society Collection by Mr. Forman's widow in May of 1987. [more]
Weblog Community
Ahhhh. That's nice. Happy anniversary you guys.
Poetry
Here It Is
... Can I be loving and passionate and forgiving and generous and accepting knowing that my life will betray me in the end. No reasons to be. All the reasons to be.
Hello My Life, My Carnival, All I ever wanted was to dance with you and dance with you and dance with you. My lover, my killer. Let me embrace you and kiss you lovingly on the cheek my dear Judas, my brother, my traitor. You are the one for me. You always were. You always will be. There is no other one. This life. This death. ... [more]
Branded
The Spectacular Failure of Brand USA by Naomi Klein
When the White House decided it was time to address the rising tides of anti-Americanism around the world, it didn't look to a career diplomat for help. Instead, in keeping with the Bush administration's philosophy that anything the public sector can do the private sector can do better, it hired one of a Madison Avenue's top brand managers. As Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Charlotte Beers' assignment was not to improve relations with other countries but rather to perform an overhaul of the U.S.'s image abroad. Beers had no previous diplomatic experience but she had held the top job at both the J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather ad agencies, and she's built brands for everything from dog food to power drills.
Now she was being asked to work her magic on the greatest branding challenge of all: to sell the United States and its war on terrorism to an increasingly hostile world. The appointment of an ad woman to this post understandably raised some criticism, but Secretary of State Colin Powell shrugged it off. "There is nothing wrong with getting somebody who knows how to sell something. We are selling a product. We need someone who can rebrand American foreign policy, rebrand diplomacy." Besides, he said, "She got me to buy Uncle Ben's rice."
So why, only five months in, does the campaign for a new and improved Brand USA seem in disarray? Several of its public service announcements have been exposed for playing fast and loose with the facts. And when Ms. Beers went on a mission to Egypt in January to improve the image of the U.S. among Arab "opinion-makers," it didn't go well.
Muhammad Abdel Hadi, an editor at the newspaper Al Ahram, left his meeting with Ms Beers frustrated that she seemed more interested in talking about vague American values than about specific U.S. policies. "No matter how hard you try to make them understand," he said, "they don't."
The misunderstanding likely stemmed from the fact that Beers views the United States' tattered international image as little more than a communications problem. Somehow, despite all the global culture pouring out of New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, despite the fact that you can watch CNN in Cairo and Black Hawk Down in Mogadishu, America still hasn't managed, in Beers' words, to "get out there and tell our story." In fact, the problem is just the opposite: America's marketing of itself has been too effective. School children can recite its claims to democracy, liberty and equal opportunity as readily as they can associate McDonald's with family fun and Nike with athletic prowess. And they expect the U.S. to live up to its claims. [more]
What is an Anarchist?
The New Anarchists by David Graeber
It‚s hard to think of another time when there has been such a gulf between intellectuals and activists; between theorists of revolution and its practitioners. Writers who for years have been publishing essays that sound like position papers for vast social movements that do not in fact exist seem seized with confusion or worse, dismissive contempt, now that real ones are everywhere emerging. It's particularly scandalous in the case of what's still, for no particularly good reason, referred to as the 'anti-globalization' movement, one that has in a mere two or three years managed to transform completely the sense of historical possibilities for millions across the planet. This may be the result of sheer ignorance, or of relying on what might be gleaned from such overtly hostile sources as the New York Times; then again, most of what's written even in progressive outlets seems largely to miss the point--or at least, rarely focuses on what participants in the movement really think is most important about it.
As an anthropologist and active participant--particularly in the more radical, direct-action end of the movement--I may be able to clear up some common points of misunderstanding; but the news may not be gratefully received. Much of the hesitation, I suspect, lies in the reluctance of those who have long fancied themselves radicals of some sort to come to terms with the fact that they are really liberals: interested in expanding individual freedoms and pursuing social justice, but not in ways that would seriously challenge the existence of reigning institutions like capital or state. And even many of those who would like to see revolutionary change might not feel entirely happy about having to accept that most of the creative energy for radical politics is now coming from anarchism--a tradition that they have hitherto mostly dismissed--and that taking this movement seriously will necessarily also mean a respectful engagement with it.
I am writing as an anarchist; but in a sense, counting how many people involved in the movement actually call themselves 'anarchists', and in what contexts, is a bit beside the point. The very notion of direct action, with its rejection of a politics which appeals to governments to modify their behaviour, in favour of physical intervention against state power in a form that itself prefigures an alternative--all of this emerges directly from the libertarian tradition. Anarchism is the heart of the movement, its soul; the source of most of what's new and hopeful about it. In what follows, then, I will try to clear up what seem to be the three most common misconceptions about the movement--our supposed opposition to something called 'globalization', our supposed 'violence', and our supposed lack of a coherent ideology--and then suggest how radical intellectuals might think about reimagining their own theoretical practice in the light of all of this. [more]
Checking in with US allies in 'War on Terror'
Northern Alliance Accused Of Raping And Torturing by BBC World News
UN seeks to end Afghan abuses Troops stand accused of murder, rape and extortion UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson is due in Afghanistan on Thursday as reports emerge of horrific abuses against the ethnic Pashtun population. Robinson will launch an Afghan rights commission Mrs Robinson is to spend four days in the country talking to senior officials and overseeing the launch of a human rights commission, reports said. The former Irish president, who was vocal in her criticism of the number of civilian casualties of the US-led bombing campaign, will meet interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
Her visit comes hours after the release of a Human Rights Watch report, detailing horrific rights abuses by Northern Alliance forces in northern Afghanistan. The US-based group warned that an expanded international security force was needed to end a vicious campaign of violence and intimidation there. ...
... Harrowing testimony Human Rights Watch researchers spent four weeks visiting dozens of villages and communities affected by violence and looting. The testimonies that they collected make harrowing reading. "They took all the women and girls to another room and started with my fourteen-year-old daughter," said one 30-year-old Pasthun woman. The soldiers were from the ethnic Hazara Hezb-i-Wahdat faction, the report says. "She was crying a lot and imploring them not to do this because she is a virgin," the woman said.
"But one of the men threatened her with his gun and said he would kill her if she did not undress. She was raped three times." The soldiers then raped the mother, looted her home and beat her invalid husband unconscious, Human Rights Watch says. [more]
Ironic and cowardly Senate vote
Senate Rejects Tough Fuel Standards by Josef Hebert
The Senate rejected tough new automobile fuel economy requirements today amid sharp disagreement over safety and whether the new standard would force "soccer moms" to abandon their SUVs and minivans.
Instead, senators approved by a 62-38 vote a more industry-friendly proposal that would direct the Transportation Department to develop new fuel economy rules, but sets no specific increase for the automakers to meet.
A provision that would have required automakers to increase their fleetwide gasoline economy to 36 miles per gallon by 2015, an increase of about 50 percent from current rules, came under sharp attack as a threat to the U.S. auto industry and the ability of Americans to choose their vehicles.
"I don't want every American to have to drive this car," declared Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., pointing to picture of a two-seater, bubble-like subcompact. He said the fuel economy rules amounted government mandate of to the government mandating consumer choice. [more]
According to the spineless and pathtic senate, Americans would rather fight a war than give up its dependence on big gas guzzling minivans, SUVs and cheap foreign oil.
Straight from the horse's ass
Saddam 'will be dealt with'
US President George W Bush has continued his rhetoric against Iraq, saying Saddam Hussein is a "problem" and "we are going to deal with him."
"I am deeply concerned about Iraq," Mr Bush told a Washington news conference. "But the first stage is to consult with allies and friends, and that is exactly what we're doing." [more]
Yeah, and then we'll do what we damn well please, cause we're the world only super-power.
Trent Lott is a dork
Blind Faith vs. The War Powers Act by J.B. Schwam
Trent Lott lashed out at Tom Dachsle once again with the tiresome Republican diatribe of labeling any American that does not wholly support Bush a traitor.å Daschle's said on NBC's Meet the Press "We simply cannot back down in our constitutional role. ... We always have to ask questions. That is the role of Congress. I don't think we should rubber-stamp any president," Daschle's statement is borne of congress's Constitutional obligation to advise and consent. Trent Lott seems to have forgotten this.
The president has no right to enter into a protracted open-ended conflict with no clear goals. Most Americans are too young to forget the quagmire of Vietnam.å As a result of the lesson we should have all learned by our experience with this protracted debacle the 93rd Congress in 1973 shouldered it's burden and passed the War Powers Act to remind the executive branch that Congress will uphold it's Constitutional obligation to advise and consent.
Senator Lott seems to have forgotten that congress has a constitutional obligation to provide the same scrutinous checks and balances in times of war as in time of peace. [more]
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