Open Debates.org is trying to wrest control of the presidential debate process from the Commission on Presidential Debates . This company (and yes, it's a non-profit company vested with this responsibility, not a governmental agency) has had complete control over the pres. debates since 1988 when the National Democratic and Republican National Parties seized control from the League of Women Voters. Basically, a corporation controlled by the two parties runs the debates; it's no wonder then that the debates frequently (almost always) feature only the two-party candidates, leaving third-parties and independents without a public forum for debate.

Sign the petition if you "believe that the presidential debates should serve the American people first, not political parties. We support replacing the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates with the nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission..."

"A Wall as a Weapon," Noam Chomsky

I've been waiting for someone to have the balls to write about this in the mainstream (NY Times via Google News). I didn't expect it would have to come from Noam, but I guess there's nobody who could do it better. Here're some tidbits. Take the to read the full article.

"What this wall is really doing is taking Palestinian lands."

"...the wall would cut the West Bank into 16 isolated enclaves, confined to just 42 percent of the West Bank land that Mr. Sharon had previously said could be ceded to a Palestinian state."

"Palestinians in the seam between the wall and the Green Line will be permitted to apply for the right to live in their own homes; Israelis automatically have the right to use these lands."

"It is misleading to call these Israeli policies. They are American-Israeli policies — made possible by unremitting United States military, economic and diplomatic support of Israel."

"At most, the Hague hearings will end in an advisory ruling that the wall is illegal. It will change nothing. Any real chance for a political settlement — and for decent lives for the people of the region — depends on the United States."

Thanks for the poem, mama-trisha-san.The weekend was insanity. You would have loved it, maybe except for the almost-dying part. Well how close is debatable. According to Holly, she could have gone on a couple more miles. Yeah, I was close to dead I think. Two and a half cabins of friends. Too much fun. Too much of a lot of things in fact. Again how too-much is debatable. We had a three-way convergence, an almost impossible anomaly. I had told Dave to meet us to ski on Saturday. He never confirmed. Holly's sister was supposed to meet us. And, right on the fucking dot, all three of us got to the departure place almost simultaneously. We should have known what this foretold. When something goes this right, something must surely give, especially after toking in the van. We skiid (such a pleasure to write), chamille (aka southernyankee), dave, holly, cintra (holly's sis), matt, pat+terri (not me), terry (me), tina (oh wait she didn't go, get off my list bitch), and tk. A pack, a gang, swarm, no horde of crazies. The weather was ok, by the time we started it was slightly less than ok. Our spirits were fresh though, like a false spring had invaded our marrow. The snow was sticky, it should have been slick. We picked the trail, enboldened by our last very successful effort, perhaps a bit too emboldened infact. The longest loop: Ridge Run via Patterson. Labelled "More Difficult" (accurately labelled: "Too-fucking Long-ass Loop to Nowhere-special"). A couple of us's hadn't ever been X-skiing before. That's alright, says us's, nothin doin. Oh poor Chamille, still I carry remorse for you, I thought I was going to give in to the elements as a sheen of hoarfrost coated the leftside of my face, and I was a 'practiced' skiier. The weather became hurriedly inclement. The trail was insignificant, and what trail there was stuck to the skis. I remember asking Dave if he thought that maybe the fact that there wasn't really a visible track was a sign that we should choose a different trail. We were full of ourselves though, and carried forward with demented determination, doggedly drudging downward, driving deep drifts, dullards downing drinks, diggy-diggy-doo-dah. Truns out we picked the (by-far) longest trail. We were supposed to be back by 5:00 to turn in the rental skis, we made it by 5:30. Well, most of us at least. We had left a couple supposed veteran skiiers (namely pat + terri (not me)) to themselves. Later we would decide that it was a strange thing to do, but at the time seemed reasonable (I have experience with them and thought they'd probably slipped into the woods for a little frigid passion play). Anyways back to us steaming in the hot room at the top. It's 5:45, then 6:00, the sun is setting. There are no lights on the trails. We wonder if maybe we should call somebody. Let'em know, hey our friends are somewhere out there, we kinda, umm, lost'em. Well, 6:30 comes, bringing full darkness with it, and we decide to go tell someone. We call the po-po and they say no prob, happens all the time, we'll just hop on yon mobiles and fetch'em up for yous. I was thinking to myself, if the police actually do go out and "rescue" them it would be the first time an officer of the law has ever helped me (usually they're busy harrassing me, ticketing me, and making me paranoid as hell). Of course, just as the po arrived on the scene, out popped the lost couple from the wilderness. "Just, bringin' up the rear," according to terri (not me). So the police remain only nuisances in my vocabulary, but the friends are safe and revelry can commence once again. Hey, that's enough for now. Maybe I'll write some more stuffs down as they filter slowly through my head, percolating pertinent party parlances. Out mutha-fuckas.

San Francisco is just too fucking cool. They are suing their state. Yes, the city of San Francisco is suing the state of California over whether denying marriage to same-sex couples violates the Callistitution.
How much more 'oomph' does a city have than any individual that would sue for the same right. It's just so cool. I wish my stupid-ass city would do something like this. But, what would Tony Viso do?

paulnotpaul: i wish you had left your symptoms and diagnostics [inlink]userName=paulnotpaul&blogID=2,[/inlink]. I and the other two members of my family had sickness last week. The only thing I got from your journal was that you were sick but not too sick. That certainly fits my description. To me it felt like I was gonna get sick for about a week and then it just went away. I don't know if that's a buffalung though. Buffalung buffalung whoopie-I-yay-yo cowgirly.

Wow, Howard Zinn is just too cool for school. Here's an article of his from the Progressive online(link to your right). It just sums up so much of what this fucking administration is doing. I'm having a hard time lately. Trying to read through a couple things (namely CrimethInc.'s Days of War Nights of Love and Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky) that are making me insane. And then when I look up from reading I'm confronted with reality which, if anything, is worse than the predictions and analyses in the books. Shawn again has a great example of the arbitrariness of the current power structure with Bushco's funding of close captioning (a seemingly nonpartisan issue) [inlink]userName=shawnr&blogID=7,[/inlink] What the fuck, I mean really, c'mon now. I lament. At least some gay people are married, some for as long as three days now. That's awesome. But why does it have to be John Kerry? Yes I'm wandering I know. I can't talk about one thing too long or my hatred overwhelms me in a sea of pussy black vitriol, and who needs a sticky keyboard? I digress and now bid adieu.

Well Shawn comes back with a bang, eh? Talking about gifting the AIDS and snuff-porn sites [inlink]userName=shawnr&blogID=6,[/inlink]. I have definately heard of the video and about the actual practice itself. I agree also that it may not have been so easily accomplished without these web niches being available. It seems to me that it might have been a plot hatched by some guys who already had AIDS and were bitter, more than a thing that would've started on the outside. This guy starts up a chatroom talking about how much better he feels now that he doesn't have to worry about it and convinces some, albeit stupid, people to get the gift. Once you've been bitten, especially in such a way, a cycle would start that could lead such dangerous places. It's pretty fucking creepy though. Especially the talk of other chat groups about how not to take the AIDS drugs and disbeleif that there are different strands of the virus that can be distributed between men who already have one type.
What an eventful morning I've had thanks to shawn, talk of AIDS and some snuff porn. Though I didn't actually see any real snuff (where someone dies), just some random weirdness. The Snuffx site has the Paris Hilton video for those who want to see. Also found this highly disturbing, yet somehow hilarious picture.

Bootyful. Can't say I'm really into mixtures of violence and sex. Maybe an asslap or two here and there but that's about as far as I go. It's a sad side-effect of our masculine macho-dominated culture that makes these two extremes meet for many people. Like love and obedience. 'Snuff fo now.

Holly and I were at the movies yesterday to see the final to cremasters (which bytheway were very good) and we parked in the lot. You pay two bucks and then you go to the theater, buy your tickets, and you get your two bucks back. And I was thinking that it's so ridiculous that we have so little trust, that we couldn't just say, "yo, we're going to the movie" and then just park without the weird money turnaround. To me it's a sad state when every transaction has to be monitored because we can't trust each other whatsoever. But it also got me to thinking that half of the reason people don't follow rules is that there are rules. Who wants to do something just cause someone tells them to? Rules are made to be broken. Maybe if we weren't so insulted daily by these rules we wouldn't feel the need to break them. I think, too, that it wasn't so very long ago when many of these things were different, where trust was more forthcoming. I'm sure it's corporations. They have no personal connections to us, they don't care if we're insulted as long as they're paid (where else are we gonna get our cheap shit from). On the same note if we steal from them it's not like stealing from Sam the Butcher who lives down the street (more like Sam the CEO who lives in Laguna). At the same time we're farther apart and have less social cohesion. We don't know the rulemakers and they don't know us. I have to stop before I start talking about numbers now. The lesson is teaching above enforcing. Tell people why they shouldn't do something instead of making them not do it on threat of punishment. Now, goodbye.

I was talking to Mike Niman at the coop house party, and among us fating the world's doom and the return of facism he mentioned this cool site. It's the prelinger archive compiled from various sources. I don't know entirely what it's about but so far I've seen lots of things from the 50's. Commercials and school education videos. The famous Duck and Cover with the ducking turtle advising everyone to constantly be vigil because you don't know when you'll see that flash, and boy won't you be glad you noticed that ditch to shelter in. Nice succint propaganda. The Are You Popular is very nice too, teaches boys and girls how to make people like them. For example if a boy's taking you out you can "pay him back" by letting him come over later to have some fresh baked brownies. There's a nice Sex Ed one called As Boys Grow which features the "coach" talking to the boys in the gym room. Notable utterances include, "let's talk about these nocturnal emissions," and "rythmyc movements, a pumping back and forth, cause ejaculation." They actually talk about masturbation being okay which surprised me for the 50's. God, this one's great too seems like Bushmerica to a tee, hee-hee! Oh man, one more, this one's just great too . "One never knows when the Homosexual is about, he may appear normal, and it may be too late when you discover that he is mentally ill." I'll add the link to my sidebar too. There's thousands of videos, surely hours worth of fun. Take care and keep and eye out for bright flashes.

So I thought I was pretty cool with my ten origami tricks. This guy is simply amazing. I honestly hadn't even imagined origami this complex. I think he must have like 12 miniature fingers on each hand and a computer brain. Take a look.