Wasn’t Expecting That….

So I went to check out the KCRF Performer’s page…..not for any real reason, mind you. I tend to check it once a week or so, to make sure that I’m not missing any announcements.

What should I see at the top of the page:

I remember posing for that photo, and I had wondered what became of it. I wasn’t expecting to see it used as one of the revolving images on the Performer’s site, though. Kinda cool.

EDIT: Although, now that I look at the image…..Green! Yellow! Blue! Red! We’re the Rennie Rangers!

New Year, Old Outrage

Several political points today:

  • Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff has plead guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, and will be assisting with the corruption investigation on what one source claims is two dozen lawmakers and staff members. This is huge. But of course, every media outlet has shifted the story in favor of the latest in TragiPorn: the trapped West Virginia miners.
  • The burying of the NSA wiretap scandal has been successful — pretty much every media outlet in the US is covering the story as a “trade-off between security and civil liberties”, completely parroting the GOP plan. They try to make it sound like it was neccessary for national security…..bullshit. There is no trade-off. The Bush administration could have gone to the FISA court and secured warrants….FISA has only rejected 5 cases in its history….compared to the 18,761 it approved. The needs of security would be met, and the LAW would have been upheld. But Bush broke the law. It’s not about security. It’s about a crime. The media has already decided though, that is not how the story will be told. The Republicans have succeeded. The story will go away. If there has been any trade-off in this, it’s that we have traded the soul of our nation for this President and his administration.
  • Our Never-Ending War, Part III: Various German news sources are reporting that the US is planning to attack Iran this year. The reports started with a story from the news agency DDP that during CIA Director Porter Goss’ Dec. 12 visit to Ankara, he asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide support for a possibile 2006 air strike against Iranian nuclear and military facilities. This was followed by the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, citing NATO intelligence sources claiming that Washington’s western allies had been informed that the United States is currently investigating all possibilities of bringing the mullah-led regime into line, including military options. Some American media have quietly covered this as well: last year in the New Yorker, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed that clandestine American commando groups had already infiltrated Iran in order to mark potential military targets. We’ve got mid-term elections coming up in November of this year. What better way to stir up the red-state base than giving them another enemy who threatens America……

What are you gonna do about it?