blogging in the real world?

so I've been writing in that self-selected echo chamber myspace for most of the past year.

see... I go there anyway after work most days, to pretend like I'm hanging out with friends,

and posting in one place is easier than posting in two...

but there I'm only writing for people who (mostly) already know me...

thanks to the triumvirate of rain, the housing market crash, and economic slow down I have some free time (meaning I'm unable to find someone who wants to rent me) today, I'll be moving stuff over from Myspace and augmenting the posts.

nerd con

I flew down to LA for 26 hours to go to this big ass convention for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars.

If you know me, you know that Star Wars plays the the same role in my life that the bible does for some other folks... except that I know Star Wars is a bunch of made-up bullshit, and I'm not about to kill anyone over it. But it did give me a mythological backbone for my ideas about change and freedom and cooperation and good and evil and truth. The core story is a about a kid who starts out wanting to free his fellow slaves, then he's indoctrinated by a secretive and powerful cult that denies amorous love, then he goes ape shit nuts trying to figure out how to have it both ways, then he decides the only way to bring peace is to consolidate power, then his kids call bullshit and he kills the bad guy and is redeemed all in a 13 or 14 hour cycle with spaceships and laserswords and hairydog men.  Change a few names and you've got Gilgamesh, or Dorothy, or Yi, Rupe, Ajax, Finn, etc.

Last time I went to a nerd convention I was really bothered by the triumphant "I am so great" attitude of the mouth of Lucasfilm, my P.O. Box neighbor, Steve Sansweet. Maybe I've been suckered by the geek solidarity that comes from seeing hundreds of Stormtroopers march in formation, or some guy in a Boba Fett costume fly over the LA Convention Center courtyard in an actual jet pack, or 4 year old kids saying "I'm not afraid of monsters, cuz I have a lightsaber," or the schmaltzy sentimentality of a giant toy maker producing an action figure in memory of a little girl that died of brain cancer; but it seems that Lucas has enjoyed some kind of reality check. The focus of this convention was the fans, and the creative careers and hobbies fans have built, from costuming, to fan films, to car mods, to those guys with that Robot Chicken show.

There is not a doubt in my mind that Star Wars is little more than a money pump for George, but I think he's definitely realized that if he doesn't let other folks play in the sandbox, he'll end up kind of lonely. That massages my wallet enough to keep consuming, plus the animated and live-action TV shows might be enough of a carrot to get me to write regularly and well.

cops kill kids

for background go here and search "Jeremiah Chass". For an historical context check here and here and here. Don't forget the annual police riot on Cinco de Mayo, roving check points to impound vehicles from folks too poor to keep up registration and insurance, rumors of pending ICE raids...

Sonoma County has a self-image as a bucolic refuge from the urban centers of Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco. It's close enough to enjoy the cultural benefits, distant enough to ignore the social problems. This county's perception of itself is built on a lot of pseudo-religious feel-good new-age bullshit. People hope to shop their way to better tomorrow at Whole Foods and the Harmony Festival. People hope to meditate their way to a better tomorrow, by visualizing world peace. People expect "community" to spring up fully formed from nothing more than a good idea.

Unfortunately the only way that things actually happen is if they get done. For this to happen someone has to do them.

Our society gives unquestioned authority to police. Police can kill kids who are freaking out because their parents want to lock them up, and get away with it.

If we are going to change this we have to change it. We have to take the right that cops have to legitimately use violence without question or repercussion away from them.

In 2005 cops killed more residents of Sonoma County than criminals did.

The local media doesn't even print police call logs.

In fact early reports of Jeremiah's murder make it clear that local reporters had no idea how to get public records.

three times dumb

today I'll catch up with a three fer.

Sunday:

Cynicism coupled with irony was funny for about half a season of South Park, since then it has infiltrated every aspect of American discourse. When the voice of reasoned liberal maintenance of the status-quo talks about citizen participation in the judicial process as a negative, it is an illustration of the goals of the liberal status quo. Liberals just like conservatives are happy to have an entrenched political class, professional decision makers, who preside with benevolence over us plebes. By the bottom of the article jury duty is summarized as a possibly enjoyable public service, but for the first 8 paragraph it echoes the common whining that surely isn't news. Nowhere in the article is jury nullification mentioned, no where in the article is the idea of "a jury of peers" examined, nowhere in the article are intersections of race and class and ability to take a week off work discussed.

It only took four years of war, 600,000 dead Iraqis, 3000 dead GI's, and the collapse of the president's legitimacy for the Press Democrat to be able to parse the "support the troops" jingoism from the actual human desire to keep loved ones safe. Now if it could examine the legitimacy of the spit on soldier myth or it could remind the world who it was that: opposed and the Vietnam War Memorial and who designed it, who it was that cynically and jingoisticaly tried to buy the vets off 15 years after the wars end, finally someone needs to research and write about the cold shoulder Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion gave to vets returning from southeast Asia.

Suicide by cop is a public relations creation. There is no recognized psychological syndrome called "suicide by cop", there is no researched sociological phenomenon called "suicide by cop". The phrase "suicide by cop" has been coined by law enforcement agencies and their apologists who try to divert, disrupt and discount any questioning of police power and authority. Even accepting the lay definition offered here Thurston was unarmed and fleeing from police, the glove don't fit.

Santa Rosa city council still fails to understand that downtown Santa Rosa is blighted by the mall and 101. This $3 million waste is the latest effort to avoid the truth. Maybe if the Santa Rosa City Council was more than a glorified block association for the affluent Montgomery neighborhood, some truth could get spoken.

Once again ceremony has been turned into a commodity.

If Ann Richards is a visionary rebel leader WE ARE FUCKED.

Hey look it's not news but it's scary and there's a movie on the way.

About fucking time now maybe some of the wealth made by slaves can get to their descendants? Oops there's my Marx showing...

If Pat Robertson was calling for my assassination I'd be stocking up on guns too.

Monday:

I wonder what were folks in California would rank the war on their list of concerns versus... I dunno... spandex clad billboards. I wonder why there hasn't been a rolling interruption of business as usual up and down the state for a week solid to discuss the war?

More happiness at the corner of profit and charity still no acknowledgement of human rights... you know like food, clothes, shelter, education, health care.

After several decades of annexation plans rejected for their bald faced racism suddenly the Press Democrat is reporting on Roseland a developers wet dream: depressed property values from the a combination of white flight, county neglect of the infrastructure, a fictional blight of crime, and large undeveloped tracts.

Tuesday:

Surprise surprise stonewalling disguised as concern for officer safety.

Maybe Jesus does love you after all, no wait that was money from PEOPLE that kept the shelter open.

The scale of this one man crime spree probably exceeds the economic impact of every boosted Ipod and car stereo in the county for a year, but it won't get discussed in those terms. The most telling part is that he had over $1 million in stuff that no one knew was missing, and that up to half of it was viewed as obsolete trash that Agilent was going to write off as a loss. Do you understand that? $500,000 worth of perfectly usable machines were seen as "last generation" so they were going to be tossed out and written off from the corporations books. It's an accounting scam, a tax cheat, corruption. No one will talk about it that way either.

This is what happens when a reporter puts a by-line on a police press release. Warrants are public records, the reporter could have found out what the warrants were actually for instead of parroting the menace of "no bail warrant". And what exactly is "suspicion of possessing a concealed gun in a car" is the suspicion that the concealed gun was in the woman's car at the time of arrest? or is it that she had a loaded gun in plain view in a car? or that she had a gun in car at some time in the past?

An undumbable force

Since the 70's, with the convergence of war damaged, err... I mean..., battle ready vets and a war at home against the radical left, Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams have become a fixture of nearly ever police force large enough to have more than two employees. SWAT teams are sold to the public as what is neccessary to keep them safe from todays sophisticated criminal gangs. In popular culture SWAT teams are the armored guys who clear the hotel just in the nick of time before the dusky badguy levels the place. In real life SWAT teams are much like rookie soldiers in a certain forgein occupation: they have no idea what's going on "He was believed to be armed and posed a threat to officers, although no weapon was immediately found, Briggs said."; they are focused on the safety of the team not the safety of the public "Motel guests were startled by the shooting."; they are not accountable to they people they are supposedly serving. If the man they shot can't be identified, and the woman they're holding can't be identified, how can anyone confirm they have the people they were looking for?

Another thrilling success at the intersection of profit and charity. Dead in the park at 62, let's see carry the one... he would have been 19 in 1964... at the risk of making too many assumptions: way to support the troops folks! Those bumper magnets really are getting all the hard work done.

This is what happens when you fuck with the cops in Cotati. Even if you are a respected local politico. If Kirchmann was drunk and abusive, isn't it 6 weeks enough time for charges to be filed? Kirchmann's charges of harrassment are 100% investigatable, but it seems the local paper doesn't do that.

Cops are weird people.

For everyone who hasn't looked hard at the Kennedy/Johnson years, or Carter, or Clinton here is your first lesson in the futility of the Democratic Party. All the US needs to do in Iraq is, to quote the house from Amityville, get out.

I'm sure all you all either run into or perpetuate the "best system" ever bullshit. Secret prisons, secret evidence, torture... yep, best ever... at fucking sucking ass. I realize that this story is about those Frenchified wimps up north, but that secret evidence, secret prisons and torture are only on the mind of most US citizens as tired plot motivators on 24 is a real problem.

And finally Walter Reed, these stories and the public reaction to them is the best illustration of what "support the troops" means, it's a jingoism for "shut up and die." New paint and sweeping up the mouse turds won't address the real problems raised in the original report, check this.

Funny how so many important stories get run on Saturday.

the dumbening continues

day two:

There's been a bit of a virtual dust up over homeless people hanging out at the Sonoma County Library main branch. My suspicion is that the complainers are a loud small group with an axe to grind about both the visable poor and libraries. Leave it to a librarian to understand that homelessness is a complex social, political and economic problem, that won't be solved by criminalizing poverty; and leave it to the desk jockeys to appease whiney NIMBY's.

In all the paranoia about sex offenders almost no one checks facts. I searched for the accused in the linked article in both the national database and the state that he is supposedly registered in. Guess what... no hits. Remember cops lie, reporters are lazy. Other fun facts about sex offenders: urinating in public is a sex offense, in CA if a 19 year old has consensual sex with a 16 year old the 19 year old has committed a sex offense (guilty, btw). The best part about the current hysteria in CA is that new laws have ensured the creation of remote ghettos populated by at least a higher proportion of, if not entirely, sex offenders... it'll be like Village of the Damned, but with baby fucking, or at least a lot of peeing on the exterior walls.

With flat standardized test scores, reporters are still unable to question the official line. Maybe standardized tests measure a standardized skill in a standardized group, and maybe human learning is a multifaceted complex phenomenon effected by culture, personal interest, and other social factors. But what the fuck do I know I picked punk rock and malt liquor over skool.

Does everyone remember the shit storm that the Argus-Courier (unfortunately their website has been gutted and turned it a giant ad for Petaluma's new boutique couture) and Press Democrat brought down on the People's Revolutionary Organization last fall? Funny how a homeowner who actually committed thousands of acts of vandalism is held up as a folk hero. Then the piece ends with an admonishment to not do what he did. Fact is what the "pot-hole animal" did worked, and it worked because of how public consciousness works; political, social, and cultural campaigns use propaganda, stark images, and loud interruptions of the complacent because that's what it takes to get people to examine their lives. What the "pot hole animal" shows us is that once the public mind has been changed things like "the law" don't matter anymore.

new style?

okay I'll be posting links to stories from the local daily that get my teeth grinding for hopefully obvious reasons.

First are rectangles squares? The whole premise is so maddeningly dumbening that we are all stupider for having read the lead. Epithets will always be slang, epithets are crude street language...slang! I understand that it is hard to write a deep piece about social values and the intersections of political consensus and teenage behavior, but cracker please this is totally half assed.

Next up we have the cause celeb for the local good germans, check out the reader comments "shut up...obey" is my personal favorite. Too bad the reporter lacks the ability to refer to the bill of rights and settled case law.

Mississippi circa 1950 anyone? Here the Press Democrat utterly fails to mention that this is what happens when a medical system is motivated by profit or charity, instead of basic human rights. I guess examining fundamental motives has to be left to high school drop out, drug addict, loud mouths.

And finally Jesus doesn't love you any more. 'Nuff said.

non-sequitur: did everyone catch the Stan Lee cameo in Heroes on Monday?

When whitey dies people listen

Check here for background and context.

Brad Will was an anarchist journalist, he was murdered on the barricades in Oaxaca last week. On the day Brad was killed so were two other people: a teacher, Emilio Alonso Fabián, from the Los Loxicha region; and a neighborhood resident named Esteban López Zurita. The conflict in Oaxaca has been boiling for years and jumped up in the past five months. Predictably Brad's murder inspired a lot of action back in the states, most of which recognized Brad's role as a journalist and as such an observer of and interloper in the struggle. The vast majority of "movement" press (by "movement" press I mean everything left of Democracy Now!) covered this story well, parsing Brad's long history as an activist from the situation in Oaxaca, and using the personal angle presented by Brad's murder by state agents as a hook for interest in the long term fight in Oaxaca.

Almost as predictably there has been a backlash against the percieved lionizing, and in some cases even remembering or honoring Brad's life and work. You see Brad is white and american, and if there is something that the american left has always been good at it is a ass-backwards understanding of white privilege. If Brad was a frat boy who died at a donkey show in TJ, this would be easy to lay to rest. But Brad was a committed life long activist. So how do we define him? By what he choose to do with his life? Or by some accidents of birth? How do we address the privilege that he did enjoy? Was it something he used to expose the system that provided it? Or was it something he unconsciously ignored? And how do we use the conversations sparked by his murder? Do we castigate the "stupid white kids" who didn't know anything about Oaxaca before this? Do we rail against the system of power and privilege that gave Brad the ability to travel and be a witness and journalist?

One thing about white supremacy and white privilege is it's perniciousness, everyone is fucked up by it and most aren't consciously aware of it. When something like Brad's murder happens it is an opportunity to expose white power and white privilege. When whitey dies people notice. I don't think it is crass or exploitative to take advantage of that, it's pragmatic. Also to not call attention to Brad's death and Brad's life and Brad's work and Brad's struggle because Brad was/is white is just about the most misdirected confused conflation of the personal and the political that I can think of. It's almost as dumb as me refusing to go to college because I would be taking advantage of my privilege, I can guarantee you that no oppressed person got my vacancy at where ever it was I didn't go to college, I can also guarantee that the spot went to some soulless dot comer. Yes all the martyrs in Oaxaca (and everywhere else) deserve every bit of attention Brad is going to get, no Palestinian should have to live in Rachael's shadow either, and no tree in Judi's. But we are damaged by the world we have come into, we often don't see things until they happen to someone "like" us, and if Brad's death can get one latte sipping hipster to examine white privilege, to think about international solidarity, to realize that their ease and privilege is directly related to exploitation and extraction abroad and at home, then I'll happily show his work to them.

While I agree that challenging systemic white supremacy and white privilege is crucial, and resolving it's interpersonal damage is imperative, I think expecting inexperienced folks who's first exposure to the situation in Oaxaca is the state sponsored murder of an anarchist journalist who happens to be a white american to spontaneously understand that their sympathy and empathy for Brad should also be felt for everyone else on the ground in Oaxaca forgets what white supremacy does to white people, they don't have to think about it, it's the norm. Relationships and consciousness that can be built from people's gut empathy is where this kind of critical analysis can be useful. An approach of "he was a white guy, forget about him" is a bit cock-eyed. That approach ignores reality. In the grossest terms: reality is that white americans only pay attention to the deaths of white americans. To expect that to change without there being a countervailing norm (like one that honors all life, or a broad movement of international solidarity) forgets the work we have to do. We have to change peoples minds. I don't mean issue based arm twisting, I mean we have to change the way people think, the values they base their decisions on, their view of the world around them. Brad did that work, everyday as far as I can tell. And somebody better fucking say so.

If we don't recognize the exceptional path Brad took, we are saying there was nothing special about it. If we don't recognize the exceptional end of his life, we are saying there was no value in it. If we forget his contribution we are doing everything we can to undo it.

troublemakers

troublemakers
Originally uploaded by general grumpypants.

you know, I can't possibly describe how awesome it feels to have friends and friendships that survive the most heinous self-inflicted nihilism.

nudity

nudity
Originally uploaded by general grumpypants.

for our last show Jon got naked, Tom got hand cramps, I got a sinus infection, Muhammad was unaffected by anything, and we all had a fucking great time

black box is over

My band of the past 6 or 7 years (I really don't remember if it was 99 or 2000 when we started) is done. We are playing our last show on June 11th at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma. The show is a book release party for Flowers In The Sidewalk a book about a rather notorious punk house at 714 Humboldt in Santa Rosa. You should come out the show starts at 5pm, and Black Box's set could be one of the most socially uncomfortable experiences of your life. It's not often that one can witness a rock-n-roll meltdown 6 or 7 years in the making.

A day with 10,000 immigrants

The local daily gives the cop head count for today at 7,500. Typically I double the cop number, but today I'm amiable or they are only 2500 from honest. So let's call it 10,000.

I posted this over at indybay, and it'll have to do for now, cuz I'm pooped. I'll ramble more later about the organizing model, which I'd compare to the famous March on Washington.

that immigration thing

To even enter into the fray of the current immigration debate I'd have to:

1) accept that borders are anything more than imaginary lines
2) pretend that people who are walking distance from a better life won't walk to a better life
3) pretend that language and culture determine the intrinsic worth of humans
4) pretend that the "labor market" is anything more than some made up bullshit to keep poor people fighting each other

if you want me to get more in depth I'd point here.Not that victor speaks for me, but he's plenty smart.

oh and my brother made this poster

denying Hersh

Seymour Hersh has stirred up a bit of troule with this. The vigor with which it is being denied, has me thinking he's onto something. Without a doubt there is contingency planning that includes the possibility of nuking Iran. But there is also contingency planning for invasion from Canada.

What is most distrubing about the discussion of Hersh's writing is the use of "we," reporters and journalists refering to US military plans and planners as "we" says volumes about what is happening in the US today.

back?

I've been busy, new house, new dog, new job. But my brother insists that I have "important" things to say. I think I just say them prettier than him. So I'll be saying them more often.

I have been thinking about spinning off another somthing and calling it "myjackassneighbor.com" sort of a crack head tinkerer version of all those revenge photo sites. This is definately not very important.

I am working on a piece about the hip-hop reniansance that is threatening to break loose this summer. 3 new Public Enemy records in 12 months, plus 2 greatest hits records, maybe a Flav solo record, a DVD concert and video retrospective, and double CD audio documents of the Nation of Millions and Fear of a Black Planet era's. Ice Cube is putting out his first solo record in 6 years, he's squashed the Don Mega persona, the lyrics for the first two singles remind me of Amerikkka's Most Wanted era, in other words a good resurgence of his attitude, politics and intellect. Plus Caitlin's bringing me a promo of the new Coup record as I type. Guerilla Funk continues to release great records at a break neck pace. All in all promising developments.

"excited delirium" or "jackasses unable to correctly state facts"

The local daily has once again made it's readers dumber or angrier, depending on their subjective disposition. In this article about "excited delirium", a new rationalization for police murder, Derek J. Moore states that "excited delirium,' a controversial medical condition marked by extreme agitation that has been blamed for at least one Sonoma County death and dozens more nationwide." The local case he's talking about is the Dec. 7 murder of Michael Tolosko. Tolosko was killed by police, not a panic attack, not methamphetamine, but 3 consecutive Taser shots, which rendered him unconscious,the police then hog tied him with maximum restraint cord. The coroner lists the cause of death as "cardio-respiratory arrest", considering this was the result of a struggle followed by binding, any coroner who knew his trade and had a shred of conscience would call it homicide. If I shocked someone until they were unconscious and then tied them up and left them restrained even though they were unable to breathe, what would you call it?

Excited delirium is just a pseudo-medical excuse for cops to hide behind. "Suicide by cop" has obvious troubles gaining traction in the granola covered hills of Sonoma County, so some pencil pusher at the Sheriff's Department or Coroner's office dug up some crap about "excited delirium" and forwarded it to Mr. Moore, and Moore gets to play reporter. This oozes bullshit, especially when the surviving family has been cut out of the discussion, Tolosko's mother called the police for help and ended up with a dead kid.

Class Bias

Just glancing at the front page of the PD today; Jimmie Rogers' empty unfinished house burning lands on the front page, while a woman dying in a fire destroying a mobile home is buried. What does this say? Seems that Louisiana isn't the only place with a murderous class bias.

greatest ideas ever

I used to work with my friend Scott, when I wasn't grumbling or scowling we came up with some awesome ideas. He wrote about them here and here. They're damn funny. So are Cheat Commandos

Local Kid Makes Good

Jacob Applebaum used to frequent Santa Rosa Food Not Bombs, where I sometimes ribbed him about using the royal "we" to describe the project. He has spent the past year consistently impressing me, first cruising to Iraq and delievering some of the best technerd on the streets blogging I've ever read, now he's in NOLA working his ass off to document the scene and improve the quality of life of the holdouts. He grew up alright. To mar myself with an odious retro slogans: "Jacob Applebaum, live like him"

Robert "King" Wilkerson found and safe, Ahmad Nelson abandoned in prison

I posted earlier about Robert "King" Wilkerson, he has been located and is safe. He wa s interviewed on Flashpoints on Tuesday the show can be downloaded here, the interview with King starts around minute 8.

Ahmad Nelson is also mentioned in that earlier post. I just recieved this e-mail:

Ahmad Nelson, a native of New Orleans, was in the Orleans Parish Prison on the day the Hurricane hit. He was there on trumped up charges of trespassing (he is a black male, and this happens to him all-too frequently).

A really good friend of mine is close friends with him (they have a baby boy together) and just talked to him over the phone. Ahmad is in Houston now, with a portion of his family.

Ahmad told Maga (my friend) that he was LEFT IN ORLEANS PARISH PRISON, along with every other prisoner, when the Hurricane hit and the flood waters rose. The prison guards and other staff left, evacuated the prison and left the inmates there to fend for themselves - most of which were locked in their cells (the cell doors were stuck due to power outages).

Ahmad tells of riots and total panic within the prison as it started filling with water. He says "the whole prison is going to have to be rebuilt" as the inmates literally tore the place apart, trying to escape anyway they could.

Ahmad went four days and nights locked in the prison WITHOUT ANY FOOD OR WATER.

It is unclear to me how he escaped, but he did, and swam what he said seemed like MILES in flood waters feet above his head (he is over 6" tall) until he finally came to an interestate bank above the flood waters... Along his swimming path he tells of seeing people throwing their babbies and themselves into the water, starved and tired after being alone, stuck on their rooftops for over four days and nights in the summer sun without any food, water or shelter - or any relief in sight.

Ahmad is safe now, miraculously. He is in Houston and has found many members of his family their. I am not sure where they are going next, but am told, amazingly that they are in good spirits and are very positive and happy to be with eachother.

My friend Maga and I are working with friends in Houston to ensure that Ahmad and his family find proper care, etc.

I am writing this to those I know, as this is a story that I have yet to hear on the media - and it is a story that must be told!

It is one of the more disturbing stories outlining the examples of governmental neglect and racism towards the people of New Orleans.

I thought I would write friends and collegues to share this story, as I know many of you do work within independent (and public) media. If anyone would like to learn more about Ahmad's story and the story of the New Orleans prisoners left behind in the rising flood waters, please feel free to contact my good friend Maga. Her e.mail is :

Maga Merello
goodlittlebird@hotmail.com

She is on contact with Ahmad and his family on a day-to-day basis.