Even more important now than then. You know that’s true, both because I said so and because I’m older than you are.

I’m looking forward, sadly, to a day when YouTube — and that is to say, Google — caves to pressure from some group or another to take this video and all other versions of this song off the intertube forever. Perhaps then people will wake the fuck up. Save your copy to encrypted storage today!

Last call for alcohol.
Last call for your freedom of speech.
Drink up. Happy hour is now enforced by law.
Don’t forget our house special, it’s called a Trickie Dickie Screwdriver.
It’s got one part Jack Daniels, two parts purple Kool-Aid,
and a jigger of formaldehyde
from the jar with Hitler’s brain in it we got in the back.
Happy trails to you. Happy trails to you.

I am Emperor Ronald Reagan
Born again with fascist cravings
Still, you made me president

Human rights will soon go ‘way
I am now your Shah today
Now I command all of you
Now you’re going to pray in school
I’ll make sure they’re Christian too

California Uber alles
Uber alles California

Ku Klux Klan will control you
Still you think it’s natural
Nigger knockin’ for the master race
Still you wear the happy face

You closed your eyes, can’t happen here
Alexander Haig is near
Vietnam won’t come back you say
Join the army or you will pay

California Uber alles
Uber alles California

Yeah, that’s it. Just relax.
Have another drink, few more pretzels, little more MSG.
Turn on those Dallas Cowboys on your TV.
Lock your doors. Close your mind.
It’s time for the two-minute warning.

Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the third world war?!?
You too will meet the secret police
They’ll draft you and they’ll jail your niece

You’ll go quietly to boot camp
They’ll shoot you dead, make you a man
Don’t you worry, it’s for a cause
Feeding global corporations’ claws

Die on our brand new poison gas
El Salvador or Afghanistan
Making money for President Reagan
And all the friends of President Reagan

California Uber alles
Uber alles California

He obeys her because she is his elder, because she conjoins within herself the vision of many, and because he owes to her his begetting and his nurturing.

He honors her above all others, placing her in a special niche within his secret heart, in front of which the candles of respect and admiration are forever kept alight.

He defends her against all enemies, and counts his life well lost in her behalf.

Above all else, he loves her deeply and without display, knowing that although he shares that privilege with others, the nature of his own affection is unique and personal, rising from the deepest well-springs of his being, and returned in kind.

This is the good citizen. While his kind prevails, so also flourishes the Great Republic.

– Max Rafferty, California Education, Vol. II, No. 8 (April, 1965), quotes from Thomas Harris, I’m OK  — You’re OK, 1967

Fuck you, Max Rafferty. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, and fuck the “good citizen”, and fuck the “Great Republic”. May they all die screaming, excluding the innocent horse.

Fortunately, Harris quotes Rafferty to make a point, and not one of agreement. He leads in with:

We call our defense “patriotism,” and their defense “enslavement.” To some extent all nations live behind a curtain. Perhaps it is the same curtain.

It is the same curtain, indeed, though Harris doesn’t identify it outside of his paradigmatic approach to psychology (which has plenty of value). The curtain is statism.

Answering that casts us back to around 1997 when I read Roger Gallo’s Escape from America. The book advances the Perpetual Traveler, or PT, philosophy, and provides a bunch of practical information for those wishing to go that route, perhaps now largely out of date. PT also stands for “Prior Taxpayer”, as one who arranged their affairs carefully could legally avoid becoming subject to income tax anywhere in the world, while maintaing a high-flying lifestyle.

At the time, I had been on a seemingly meteoric career path, going from hobbyist hacker to megabucks consultant in networking and internet technologies in just three short years. And then the big job offer came, with the first-employee options package attached, and I leaped. At the peak of the internet boom we went IPO and my paper promises came to be worth several million US$. “Fuck you” money. A fortune. As soon as my four years of options vesting was complete, I would cash out and embark on my own PT journey.

Needless to say, the story doesn’t have a happy ending. The market collapsed, investors’ metrics changed and, fine, I made out better in the end than if I’d never taken the position. But it wasn’t the “fuck you” money, and it wasn’t a fortune.

Unemployment, retrenchment and a great deal of squandering dissipation followed. The main impetus – leave the US, see the “other sides” – remained, though, and tickled me from time to time.

In 2003 I found myself isolated a thousand miles from home, stuck on a one-year contract doing a job that paid very nicely for about 3-5 hours of real work per week, with the rest of my time devoted to soothing, cajoling and repeating endlessly “yes, it will work” while the project schedule ticked by, me always ahead of it. Fortunately I didn’t have to spend most of that time at the office pretending to be busy 8 hours a day, but found ways to pretend while sleeping late, staying home except for the rare project review meeting, and doing little.

Around the end of 2003 I was bored out of my mind and started thinking of becoming a PT again, or at least leaving the US. I had been fed up with the political aspect of the country for a long time already, and having watched the launch of the Iraq war early that year drove the knife back into old wounds from Gulf War I. Time to go. Where previously I told myself that first I’d make a pile of money then leave the US, I now found myself thinking: learn how to minimize your lifestyle and expenses, save as much as you can through the end of this contract, and get out.

My girlfriend, still living back in California while I was freezing my ankles off in Wisconsin, was very keen on this. We both started fantasizing together about what we might do, and eventually she hatched a plan. She would get certified as an English teacher, and then we would bounce around the world every year as she got new contracts, perhaps traveling some more during the summers.

So, in summer 2004 she and I set off for Playa del Carmen, Mexico, where she spent 4 weeks getting CELTA certified and I spent 4 weeks improving my Spanish. We very much anticipated and wanted to get to a Spanish-speaking country. Latin America was not to be, though, as at least at that time it was quite difficult to conduct a job search, interview and acceptance as an English teacher strictly via phone and internet.

The case wasn’t the same in Europe, though, and having heard great things especially about Poland, she began contacting schools in the old Commie Bloc. Interest from Poland, interest from Hungary and some interest from Slovakia. And Slovakia’s where she got the contract, so off we marched to Bratislava.

The plan had been 9 months in Bratislava, a few months traveling, then repeat at a new location. I found myself rather liking the place, though, and making new friends. She, meanwhile, had a different circle of friends all connected with the English school. I started voicing the idea that I didn’t really want to split after 9-12 months. Other STUFF happened (none of your business!), and we split up, she taking up with another gentlemen who she’s still globetrotting with today. And we’re still great friends.

And here I remain, in Bratislava, Slovakia. Kinda funny writing this while I’m in Paris, but whatever

From Anarchist news dot org:

Santa Cruz: Condo Windows Smashed

Submitted by anon on Mon, 2008-07-14 23:15.
Tags: Anarchist Practice

On the 4th of July, amidst the tourist frenzy and sounds of fireworks, at least 8 windows were broken on a condominium that is being built in the lower Ocean neighborhood.

The homes that once stood there housed primarily Latino families. These families were evicted to make way for more expensive housing. This type of development raises the property values, which in turn, forces out more low-income and working poor people from the area. It is a clear example of gentrification in our town.

We will continue to attack the sites of gentrification when and where we see them.

You’re supposed to be smashing the state, not private property, you fucking nitwits!

Also splattered at Santa Cruz Indymedia.

First of all, and let me be very clear, I love you guys (and girls).

Around 8:30am Pacific Time on September 11, 2001, after my girlfriend and I had watched — shocked, horrified, and barely awake — mass murder in our bedroom as the second World Trade Center tower collapsed , her prior boyfriend sent out a message on a local Santa Cruz, California-based chat and messaging system that predates the modern internet.

What he said exactly, I don’t remember. But the essence of it was this: “This is the end of America. Martial law is coming. The last barriers have fallen today.”

I recognized the truth of this immediately. The thought was my own, though he found a voice for it first. He’s at least one more standard deviation away from the human average intelligence than I am, so it was no surprise that he’d get through the shock to the most important conclusion more rapidly than I could.

He was right of course. We both were. The USA PATRIOT Act, the Global War on Terror, Military Commissions Act, FISA, fusion centers, national security letters, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, Afghanistan, Iraq, FOX NEWS, stormtroopers on the streets, gleeful embrace of the new American authoritarianism, mothers forced to publicly consume their own bottled breast milk at the airport, the Imperial Presidency, $400 million for construction of large-scale detention centers inside the US, no impeachment no matter how great the lies, the rise of a modern Stasi culture in the land of the “free” and home of the “brave”, all set to the stirring anthems of American exceptionalism and slogans evoking bygone days when things like words and principles and logic actually meant something.

No matter what you think is the truth of 9/11, no matter what you’ve heard or read or thought or said, you do have to watch the video. I’ll explain why in a moment.

What do I believe, you ask? I am really not sure what to believe. I’ve watched and read and listened to probably every substantive argument made, every investigative dissection and every crackpot, jackass theory about the events of 9/11. I’ve seen all the movies, I’ve watched all the YouTube videos. I’ve read the manifestos, the scientific probes and the loony fringe theories.

What falls out of all this, so many years later, is that there does not exist a preponderance of evidence  — nay, not even so weak a standard as probable cause — to believe that the official story of the events of that day is substantially in accordance with the truth. Some ancient cultures believed such rubbish as that the Earth was flat and carried on the back of great elephants who stood on the backs of cosmic turtles who rested atop more elephants and further turtles, ad inifinitum. At least the ancients chose such solid, believable creatures as elephants and turtles. What we are asked to believe today is that the modern reality of Western civilization is a world, donut-shaped, resting atop a house of cards supported by toothpicks and propped up by tissue-paper origami.

The 9/11 Chronicles: Truth Rising is a landmark film. The actors are nothing special, the audio mixing is often sub-par, the cinematography is uninspiring and there is no plot to speak of. Even the subject matter, at times — and especially for the uninitiated — may fail to connect and evoke the emotional response necessary for cinema to be an effective medium for human expression.

Also available in higher quality via BitTorrent download and from infowars.com on DVD.

What you are watching, though, isn’t an entertainment production. It’s not even really a documentary in the traditional sense. But what occurs, powerfully and over and over again is a profound conflict, a human story of several extraordinarily passionate serfs confronting their masters with their own hypocrisy, and refusing to back down in the face of overwhelming force. Whatever you believe about 9/11, whatever you believe about “Islamofascists” and “Axes of Evil”, even the most benighted and deluded of you should recognize — in what they do, what they say, and how they act — the human spirit. The indomitable, courageous and unyielding force of a being strong and brave enough to stand up to his master and say: “WHAT THE FUCK?” and “NO MORE!” and “HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT, AND STILL CALL YOURSELVES HUMAN?”

And again, and again, and again and again, the response comes back, oh so clearly, from those they challenge, those who have sold their souls and their humanity — be it for mere money, for status, for power or just for the chance to be on the team they feel is winning. The response is nearly uniform in its contempt, in its disgust that these mere peons would dare to question their masters. It is entirely uniform, though, in the self-abnegation, the servility displayed by those so-called “humans” who would defend that donut-shaped earth atop that house of cards supported by those toothpicks resting on that tissue-paper origami.

For showing this clearly, the authors of the film have won my endless praise. The bravery and dedication necessary to do this is no trifling matter. These people face death threats, harassment, physical assault, ridicule and legal action everywhere they go.

The fundamental analysis of the 9/11 truth movement is simple: the global elite — whoever they are — using their governmental tools either caused the attacks to happen or let them happen in order to profit from them. Those responsible are criminals of the highest order, and must be brought to justice.

If you accept that analysis, however, you must imagine that this elite is both very powerful and completely divorced from the morality of the common people.

Yet the 9/11 truth movement has adopted a rather strange posture in response. The call goes out over and over again to “demand a new investigation”. Who is going to carry out this investigation? Who shall be charged with carrying out the mechanics of bringing the criminals to justice? Why, the state, of course! That very institution which the fundamental analysis of 9/11 truth puts forward as being the instrument of the attacks. That very institution which is the tool of the elite who wanted the attack to happen. A great many of the people in the movement believe that the state was culpable in producing the destruction and terror of 9/11, yet they persist in appealing to the state to discipline itself.

This is madness! If the fundamental analysis of 9/11 truth is correct, what you are doing is the equivalent of asking a group of war criminals, the darkest evil in their hearts, heavily armed and with the support of millions, to simply turn themselves in. Why on earth would they do that? Why would they take any action whatsoever to disadvantage themselves? And do you really think that trying to shame those responsible will have any effect whatever? If they are responsible, they set aside such petty human concerns as shame, guilt and empathy long, long ago. You might as well approach the rabid dog that just tore your child’s throat out and ask, “now, puppy, don’t you feel ashamed for what you’ve done?”

If the 9/11 truth movement’s cause is just and if it is to succeed in bringing justice, a change of strategy and tactics is required. The state will never deliver justice if it itself is culpable.

Even so, holding the company responsible for the actions of its customers who use its products to kill is as ridiculous as holding knife manufacturers responsible for stab wounds. One doesn’t need scientific studies or product warning labels to learn that electrocuting someone might be dangerous to their health. In America, at least, children learn this from their parents almost as soon as they can understand speech.

The real criminals, once again, get away scot free, with their boss praising his murderous underlings as “heroes”.

If a family member is in trouble, do you really want to call the police?

From The Monterey County Herald:

Taser held responsible in Salinas death

Jury awards family $6 million, exonerates Salinas police

7 June 2008

A federal jury has held Taser International responsible for the death of a Salinas man in U.S. District Court in San Jose on Friday, and awarded his family more than $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages.

An attorney for the family called the verdict a “landmark decision,” and indicated that it was the first time Taser International had been held responsible for a death or injury linked to its product.

Taser Tester

But the jury exonerated Salinas police, including four officers, in the death of 40-year-old Robert Heston Jr. on Feb. 20, 2005. Heston died a day after being shocked repeatedly by officers using Tasers. An autopsy found that Heston died from a combination of methamphetamine intoxication, an enlarged heart due to long-term drug abuse, and Taser shocks.

Heston’s parents, Betty Lou and Robert Sr., and their daughter sued Taser International. They alleged the company failed to properly warn users that its product could be dangerous, and even lethal, when used repeatedly in conjunction with chest compressions and on people under the influence of drugs.

The family alleged wrongful death, assault and battery, and negligence in their suit against the Salinas Police Department and officers Juan Ruiz, James Godwin, Lek Livingston and Michael Dominici.

The six-person jury found that Arizona-based stun-gun manufacturer Taser International should have more effectively warned police that Taser shocks were potentially dangerous. Salinas police testified during the trial that they were not warned that the shocks could be dangerous.

A possible precedent

Plaintiffs attorney John Burton said the verdict is precedent setting, noting that this was the first time a jury found Tasers are dangerous when used too often.

“We’re overjoyed,” Burton said.

According to Burton, the verdict included $5.2 million in punitive damages, and $1.021 million in compensatory damages. The jury found that the victim was 85 percent at fault, resulting in an apportioned final damages award.

Co-counsel Peter Williamson said the Heston family was “absolutely overwhelmed and extremely proud that they stood up for their son and brother.”

Williamson said he spoke to three jurors, including the jury foreman, after the decision. He said the jury agreed with the “crux of our case,” that Taser International should have made more of an effort to warn people about their product once they realized it was potentially dangerous, perhaps even e-mailing all its customers.

“They should have sent out a warning and they didn’t,” he said.

Burton said he still believes Salinas police should have been held accountable, but understood the jury’s rationale.

“Taser continued to say their product was safe,” he said.

City Attorney Vanessa Vallarta said in a statement, “We are pleased and relieved by the verdict. This is a sad and tragic case. The jury affirmed that our officers did exactly what they were trained to do in the course of a very violent episode.”

Contacted later by phone, Vallarta said the verdict “certainly raises questions” about the use of Tasers and the city would be evaluating their use.

The decision “does put the state of the law somewhat in flux on this,” she said. “In light of current scientific evidence, there may be a need for a change in procedures.”

No big changes planned

Salinas Police Chief Daniel Ortega said his department wouldn’t make any major changes in its Taser use and training procedures, despite the verdict finding that Tasers can be dangerous. Ortega said he was “elated” that his department was exonerated and called his officers “heroes” in the incident. He expressed doubt about the verdict against Taser International and said he expected the company to appeal the decision.

“I have absolutely no intention of not using Tasers,” Ortega said. “It’s not going to change a whole lot.”

Ortega said he would keep trying to purchase Taser cams, which videotape incidents when Tasers are used, and suggested that if the officers had been equipped with the Taser cams the trial never would have occurred.

Salinas police responded to Heston Sr.’s Rodeo Avenue home in 2005 after a friend called 911 to report that Heston Jr. was behaving violently.

In an attempt to subdue agitated Heston Jr., who was later found to have high levels of methamphetamine in his system, officers shocked him repeatedly with Tasers. Some shocks were administered after Heston Jr. was held down by several officers.

When Heston Jr. began turning blue, the officers started CPR and he was raced to Natividad Medical Center. But he never regained consciousness and died the next day.

Burton contended that Heston Jr. was shocked 30 times.

Taser International representatives did not offer comment on the decision.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg quotes Taser attorney Doug Klint:

Use of the Taser on Heston didn’t cause his death, Klint said. Heston fit “the well established symptom pattern for methamphetamine intoxication and associated excited delirium,” a condition linked to sudden death in custody, Klint said.

The company went on to issue a press release, saying:

“We are disappointed that the jury awarded compensatory and punitive damages in this case given the many world renowned experts that testified to the fact that the TASER ECD was not a causal factor in this death, which fit the well established symptom pattern for methamphetamine intoxication and associated excited delirium,” said Doug Klint, Vice President and General Counsel of TASER International. “TASER International intends to pursue appropriate legal channels, including a motion for a new trial, judgment notwithstanding the verdict and filing an appeal in this matter,” stated Klint.

“Certainly, this was a tragedy for the Heston family as well as for the officers involved. We however do not feel that the verdict is supported by the facts including the testimony of the world class experts who testified on our behalf with scientific and medical evidence. Our commitment to continue to defend our life-saving products and to support law enforcement remains unchanged,” concluded Klint.

TASER International’s products protect life.

And the New York City Police Department is dramatically increasing taser deployment.

“The future of marriage in California should be determined among the 36 million residents of the State of California — not by the personal, closed-door deliberation of seven judges,” said Rev. Sam Rodriguez, Jr., an Advisory Board Member of the Alliance for Marriage Foundation.

Revered Sam is right, of course, but only partially. Marriage is something which should be determined among people, not forced upon them by government, be it by activist judges, uppity legislators or the diktat of majoritarian democracy. In fact, the marriage of any given two (or more) of California’s 36 million shouldn’t be a matter for the other 35,999,998 at all, and especially not one that’s going to be either supported or contested by the inhuman force of the State.

Nobody will offer that amendment, of course.

S.F. settles excessive force suit for $235,000

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Kelly Medora, a petite preschool teacher who weighed about 118 pounds, went out with a friend in North Beach one Saturday night in 2005 for some fun.

Instead, San Francisco police officer Christopher Damonte, who weighed about 250 pounds, arrested her for jaywalking, twisted her arm behind her back and broke it with an audible crack.

Although Damonte and the city denied wrongdoing, the city recently mailed Medora a check for $235,000, the largest amount ever to settle a lawsuit claiming San Francisco police used excessive force not involving a weapon.

The Office of Citizen Complaints, meanwhile, has found that Damonte used excessive force in the incident and that another officer failed to investigate Medora’s complaint. Damonte faces a disciplinary hearing at the Police Commission and potential punishment including dismissal.

Damonte, 41, a six-year veteran of the department, has been the subject of other misconduct complaints, according to city sources. He was admonished in 2003 for inappropriately threatening to arrest a woman without authority, and he is among more than 18 officers disciplined for their role in the controversial 2005 Bayview Police Station videos, which Mayor Gavin Newsom denounced as racist, sexist and homophobic.

Good for Ms. Medora for getting something approximating justice out of the situation.

There’s just so much wrong with this situation though.

• SF taxpayers forced to pay put this uniformed gangster out on the street, for their “protection”, of course
• Uniformed gangster, despite a solid career of citizen abuse, is out on the prowl
• Uniformed gangster decides to pick on young woman for victimless crime (jaywalking)
• Uniformed gangster assaults young woman
• Uniformed gangster breaks young woman’s arm as retribution for not being sufficiently submissive
• SF taxpayers forced to pay for court and prosecutor in the case
• SF taxpayers forced to pay compensation to young woman for uniformed gangster’s crime
• SF taxpayers forced to pay plaintiff’s legal fees in the case
• Uniformed gangster faces, at worst, loss of uniform and pension, and a not-so-glamorous career as an even more surly uniformed gangster working for mall security

But let’s read on:

According to Medora’s account, Damonte seemed “irate” and “angry” from the start.

“I was fearful just of his demeanor,” she testified. “He was definitely very threatening with the questions he was asking and his body language and his facial expression, the tone of voice he was using.”

Damonte grabbed her friend’s arm, held it up by her face and demanded she tell him her age, Medora said. Damonte said he would cite her, but didn’t say why.

Medora saw the name “R. Fitzpatrick” on Damonte’s jacket – he had borrowed it from another officer – and asked if that was his name. This seemed to set him off, she said. He said yes and demanded why she wanted to know.

“I don’t believe you’re treating my friend appropriately,” she replied, court records show. “You haven’t told us what we’re being cited for. Please let go of her arm.”

Medora said Damonte started to scream at her. Fearful, she said she turned and walked up to another officer and complained about Damonte.

By her account, Damonte then demanded Medora’s driver’s license. Medora said she’d give him her license if he told her what she did.

Instead, Damonte said “detain her,” by this account, and he and two other officers surrounded her. She said she did not resist them, but merely clutched her purse. Then Damonte grabbed her right arm.

“It all happened very quick,” she testified. “Like he physically took my arm and twisted it up back by my neck to a point where I was completely immobilized. And I said ‘ow, ow.’ And he pulled even harder, and he snapped it.”

There was an audible “pop,” according to a police report.

The city’s lawyer said in court papers that Damonte used an approved method of holding her arm, but she struggled. Then “in an effort to escape,” she squatted down and “broke her own arm.”

Ah yes, they do so often break their own arms…

Besides the insult and injury to Ms. Medora and everything mentioned above, the real injustice here is that the people, not this uniformed gangster, are getting saddled with the bill for his misdeeds.