September 2, 2008 archive

The Stars Hollow Gazette

When the Union’s inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run,

There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.

Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?

But the Union makes us strong.

Chorus

Solidarity forever!

Solidarity forever!

Solidarity forever!

For the Union makes us strong.

Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite

Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?

Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?

For the Union makes us strong.

It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade;

Dug the mines and built the workshops; endless miles of railroad laid.

Now we stand outcast and starving, ‘midst the wonders we have made;

But the Union makes us strong.

All the world that’s owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.

We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.

It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own,

While the Union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,

But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.

We can break their haughty power; gain our freedom when we learn

That the Union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold;

Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.

We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.

For the Union makes us strong.

Solidarity forever!

Solidarity forever!

Solidarity forever!

For the Union makes us strong.

Sung to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

So it’s a quiet day here in Lake Wobegon Stars Hollow.

In the back yard I could hear kids playing in the pool on the next street over.  Back to school tomorrow you noisy trouble makers.

It is in fact starting to get fall-like, gardens going to seed and birds flocking, oppressive heat and humidity not so oppressive as they used to be and days getting shorter and shorter.

I used to like winter best, clean and hard and cold.  Now it’s just mud season and depressingly naked.  My sainted Aunty Mame used to say that’s why bedrooms have a light switch.

In a climate of change what I most long for is stability and I cling to the broken trophies of the past which have long outlived their usefulness.

And yet I commit my deepest thoughts to insubstantial photons until someone pulls the plug.

U.S. Unfolds Gestapo-like Raids at GOP Convention (updated)

Amy Goodman reported from the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul), site of the Republican National Convention, September 1, 2008, Labor Day:

Armed groups of police in the Twin Cities have raided more than a half-a-dozen locations since Friday night in a series of preemptive raids before the Republican convention. The coordinated searches were led by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher but conducted in coordination with federal agencies….

Minnesota Public Radio is reporting that the FBI is at least one of the “federal agencies” acting in concert with the Minneapolis/St. Paul police departments. A professor at the University of Minnesota has snapped a photo of FBI presence at one of the raids. Many of these police gestapo actions involved two dozen or more riot police entering private homes with guns drawn, handcuffing the residents, and rifling through the house to search computers, and political literature.

Amy Goodman arrested and march photos (updated with links)

First of all, this is just outrageous.

Here are links about the days activities and Amy’s arrest from:

Democracy Now

Glenn Greenwald

Three Steps to Heaven

Original article, by John Andrews, via dissidentvoice.org:

Anyone reading these words already knows our political systems are broken beyond repair. They already know that trying to patch them up by changing one political party for another every few years merely conforms to Einstein’s definition of insanity: ‘Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ The great man also said something else worth reapeating: ‘We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them … We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.’

Casting the Beauty Platform for a Multi-Polar Peace

A world of one dominant power is an imperial world … to maintain its dominance that one dominant power must interfere with the affairs of those outside the boundaries of the metropole. It is an intrinsically imperial project, whether proudly so or, as in our case, it is an imperial project that must be pursued while paying lip service to self-determination and democratic expression.

A world of one dominance power is a world, therefore, of war.

But a multi-polar world is not necessarily a world of peace. It can be, under a balance of power, but there is no necessity that it shall be.

So today, it is casting the Beauty Platform for a Multi-Polar world at Peace. A lot of weight for one shiny and three tarnished copper coins to carry … I hope they do not get deformed under the stress, like the pennies that “those mischievous kids” used to put on the railroad tracks.

Bill O’Reilly’s Favorite Outrageous Things

The bottomless fount of hilarity that is Bill O’Reilly has erupted once again. After MSNBC displayed humorous text on screen during a story about John McCain’s inability to remember how many houses he owns, Bill O’Reilly went nuts declaring that it was…

“…one of the most outrageous things that I’ve ever seen in my 35 years of journalism.”

Never mind that O’Reilly hasn’t spent 35 seconds in journalism, he still selectively ignores the much more offensive (and not humorously intended) examples of Fox News’ broadcasts:

A NewsCorpse.com Video:

Open Thread (Now with FREE Horoscope!)

We Got Docudharma Horoscopes!

Yeah, I figure if all these other folks can go on and on about horoscopes, why can’t I?  I’m as psychic as the next guy!  And I know this because I’m psychic!

So here are your Docudharma  horoscopes, courtesy of Madame NPK.

Aires

Only the second day after the new moon, time of purification and emptiness, and you’re already raring to go fill everything up in a heartbeat!  Well, impetuous Aires, go right ahead, no one is going to stop you as they’re all too worn out eating at barbeques and otherwise engaged in Labor Day activities.  You’ll be the one to steal the march on everyone else and by the end of the day, if anyone tries to stop you, you’ll be gone like a cool breeze.

Taurus

Sure you are stubborn, why wouldn’t you be?  Isn’t the Earth herself awfully stubborn, hanging around as long as she has?  Consider it a virtue, I say.  Use this day to catch up on your sybaritic pleasures, long sensuous bath, a glass of wine, loving your lover or, if you are single, wooing a new lover with your not inconsiderable charms.  You’ll need this break because the week ahead will be chock full of adventure!

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