Monthly Archives: July 2008

Washington Post: The Real Power in Zimbabwe

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There’s a great picture associated with this story, but I won’t use it because it originates with the AP. However, this story is from the Washington Post’s own Foreign Service news desk, so it’s probably okay to quote more than 5 words.

Context. It’s everything.

By the way, the photo on the WP story shows Mugabe as out of focus, washed out, and nearly in greyscale, and military strongman Gen. Constantine Chiwenga is in sharp focus, wearing brightly colored medals and sash, looking very vibrant and strong. It’s probably just a trick of the light, but it really highlights who’s really running things in Zimbabwe.

Inside Mugabe’s Violent Crackdown – washingtonpost.com

Then Mugabe told the gathering he planned to give up power in a televised speech to the nation the next day, according to the written notes of one participant that were corroborated by two other people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

But Zimbabwe’s military chief, Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, responded that the choice was not Mugabe’s alone to make. According to two firsthand accounts of the meeting, Chiwenga told Mugabe his military would take control of the country to keep him in office or the president could contest a runoff election, directed in the field by senior army officers supervising a military-style campaign against the opposition.

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Shriner Go-Karts: Unsafe At Any Size

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4 people were injured when a large older man in a fez lost control of his tiny ’57 Chevy Bel-Air at a Fourth of July parade.

Okay, I’m making the assumption that the car was driven by a large older man in a fez, based on my vast experience with Shriners (my brother-in-law Frank is a member) and the headgear they wear at public events (I happen to know that lady Shriners have white fezzes, and have special travel cases for them when going to conventions).

Medinah Temple owns a golf resort in the area, but I don’t know if the membership consists mostly of older men – that’s the pattern I’m used to seeing from my days as a Job’s Daughter in Utah decades ago, where the local temple was called “El Kalah.”

Shriner loses control of go-kart, 4 paradegoers hurt — chicagotribune.com

Four spectators including two children were injured Friday after being struck by an out-of-control go-kart during a 4th of July parade in north suburban Niles.

Niles Police Sgt. Vince Genualdi said a 9-year-old girl watching the parade from the curb was struck by a go-kart decorated to look like a ’57 Chevy and driven by an unidentified Medinah Shriner.

The car then turned and struck three more spectators—a 64-year-old woman, 33-year-old man and 9-year-old girl—before landing in nearby shrubbery with the woman still on the hood of the vehicle, Genualdi said.

That’s too bad about the injuries, and I’m sure the gentleman driver feels just awful. Shriners are all about caring for kids and supporting the Shriners’ orthopedic hospitals and burn units, and I will bet you that everyone will get their medical care taken care of gratis. I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Salt Lake Shriners’ Hospital when I was a teenager, and had some unforgettable experiences working with some of the kids.

It sounds like the little car had a stuck accelerator, or maybe the steering went out and the driver had trouble with the controls.

On a recent trip to southern Illinois, we noticed a couple of vanloads of Shriners who stopped at the restaurant where we were eating breakfast – a typical highway interchange chain place called “Bob Evans.” How did we know they were Shriners? They weren’t wearing fezzes, but both vans had gaudy graphics on the side announcing the names of the temples, with the Shriner sword-and-crescent logo, from two different towns in nearby Southern states. So there must have been a Shriner convention going on somewhere, drawing grand poobahs from all over the region.

No little go-karts were in evidence, however.

Second Life: On My iPhone Real Soon Now

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Reuters/Second Life » Second Life on the Xbox/PS3/iPhone?

Avatar Dusan Writer finds an interesting snippet of HTML code on search.secondlife.com which reads:

“placeholer page for XBOX, PS3, and iPhone versions of client when they launch next real soon now”

Now, we’re not banking on a Linden Lab-supported rollout of Second Life to game consoles and cell phones just yet. Veteran Second Life watchers may recall numerous incidents in which junior executives at Linden implemented policies the company later backpedaled from.

I’m pretty sure this would be bad for me, although I wouldn’t mind being able to IM friends or appear as a crappily-rendered ghost if logged in via cell phone.

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Pierre Bensusan: Altiplanos

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Altiplanos

I heard a bit of this while driving home after a long, frustratingly typical Monday at work. Pierre Bensusan was being interviewed on NPR and was discussing how this song, “Altiplanos” is dedicated to Ingrid Betancourt, a Columbian political reformist who was running for president of Columbia when she was kidnapped by FARC, the left-wing revolutionary movement. Bensusan is trying to keep Ingrid Betancourt on the conscience of the world, and hopes that one she will be sitting in a concert hall listening as he plays the song dedicated to her.

It’s beautiful music and very moving, and although I hadn’t heard of Betancourt before, I’ll be thinking of her from now on.

UPDATE: The joyful news that Ingrid Betancourt and 3 Americans were rescued in a daring operation is still resonating across France and the rest of the world. I heard a bit of another song that was played in France at one of the celebrations, may need to track that one down, too. It’s calld “Dans La Jungle,” but there may be another one out there as well.

But I was somewhat suspicious of the timing, while McCain was in Columbia, and it turns out that the White House is claiming to have assisted with planning. This doesn’t take away from my happiness at Betancourt’s release, but the later news that came out about McCain meeting with Jeb Bush in Mexico makes me think that the Repubs will stop at nothing, and use anybody, to further their party’s chances at winning the presidential election.

Be that as it may, here’s a link to Betancourt’s rescue committee website, which proclaims (I think) “Ingrid is finally free!” Also a rather moving song with video plays at this site.

This site seems to suggest that the release was purchased by the US Government. It’s in French, and Google Translate garbles it somewhat. I think for example, that “as if written on music paper” probably means “as if choreographed,” for example. Still, it would be interesting to see a followup from a US news organization. Although, given the way things have been going, we’ll probably wait a long time for that to happen.

Colombians Briefed McCain: Fixing Up The Image

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Colombians Briefed McCain Before Rescue – washingtonpost.com
CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 2 — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke repeatedly Tuesday and early Wednesday about how he would work as president to free three American hostages held by leftist guerrillas in Colombia, but he declined to reveal one key fact: Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and his aides had briefed him Tuesday evening about the plan to rescue the Americans, along with 12 other captives.

Peeps In Spaaaaace!!

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Chicago’s Adler Planetarium has a “Far Horizons” educational program that sends up experiments to the edges of space via weather balloon. They recently began a rigorous Peep Space Program, recruited various shades of prospective peeponauts from the Marshmallow-American community, and after putting them through a series of training and endurance tests, launched one lucky yellow Peep up to where the curvature of the earth can be seen. The entire launch and the beginning of the descent are on a video, but there’s also a video of the centrifuge test (note: rubber band and ceiling fan were not harmed).

Here’s the image of the close of the vacuum test. The subjects found this one rather exhausting so no public interviews were granted immediately afterward.

Vacuum test successful.

Adler Planetarium’s Far Horizons: Astropeep program

Introducing The Indian George Michael, Benny Lava

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Our friend Steve just alerted us to this awesome video. More costume changes than a triple bill with Cher, Madonna, and Celine Dion. Better hair and more awesomer dance moves than even George Michael, with 90% more heterosexual flirting.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZA1NoOOoaNw" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

YouTube – Crazy Indian Video… Buffalaxed!

Firedoglake » Rabble Rousers Post Subversive “Declaration” in NYT

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A couple of years ago, I toyed with the idea of recasting the Declaration of Independence, but it wouldn’t have been as good as this. There’s a video, too.
Firedoglake » Rabble Rousers Post Subversive “Declaration” in NYT

INDEPENDENCE DAYJuly 4, 1776 – 2008

When in the course of human events the government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the Right of the People to alter it and demand restoration of those Constitutional Principles that have so long assured their Liberty, Safety, and Happiness. Therefore, on the anniversary of our Independence, we offer this new declaration for our times.

The history of this president is one of arbitrary usurpations of power, the effect of which is to establish tyranny through false promises of greater security.

He has created a multitude of secret programs and sent swarms of petty officers to spy on Americans in a misguided effort to combat foreign terrorism. He has invested these agents with sweeping new powers to monitor our conversations and ransack our personal papers and effects without judicial supervision or any reason to believe — as the Constitution requires — that a crime has been committed.

He has further claimed the power to disregard legislation that Congress has passed.

He has suspended the laws and treaties against torture, authorized the kidnapping of mere suspects, and transported hundreds of prisoners beyond seas so that no independent judiciary could question the legality of their mistreatment.

He and his supporters in Congress have granted amnesty to the officials who unleashed torture and humiliation upon helpless prisoners, to the disgrace of our nation.

He has denied these prisoners access to attorneys, family, and friends and has claimed the right to try them before military tribunals specifically designed to disregard the most basic principles of law.

He has imprisoned thousands of lawful immigrants for months without charges, under brutal conditions, until his agents, rather than independent courts, decide that they posed no threat.

He has wrapped his usurpations of power and his deprivations of liberty in thick cloaks of secrecy, thereby showing contempt for the rule of law and the proper functions of Congress, the courts, and the press.

At every stage of these oppressions we have sought redress, but our petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

We, therefore, resolve to resist these usurpations by all lawful means at our disposal. We insist that the powers of our national government be shared by all branches of that government and not concentrated in one alone. And we call upon Congress, the courts, and the press to reassert their constitutional functions and restore the promise that is America.

To these ends, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

Declaration of Independence from George II
Via Joey, Canadian Patriot and Accordionist Extraordinaire.