Thank you Jesse Michaels

Stand by your friends
wrong or right
Can't call that "Justice"
If it's just a stupid excuse to fight.

Single out and attack
ones who got no defense
you call that a new way of thinking
I call it regression to ignorance

[Lyrics from "Take Warning" byJesse Michaels/ Operation Ivy, 1980something]

In my dream last night I ran into Marissa (L.) and Helena. They were with a bunch of women i had never met. Helena was holding a baby which i don't think was hers, but it was mad cute. There was some banter about the OC, and then i noticed that Marissa's hair was died and uncharacteristically straight. No idea what it means.

All Your Little Wishes Have Run Dry

Note to self. Making plans to apartment-hunt on July 4th weekend was a dumb idea.

And so i remain in my parents' apartment, possibly for another month, even if looking tuesday actually works out.

Argh.

Nine Seats For Mortal (wo)Men Bound To Lie

CNN: "Battle For The High Court Begins"
ROTK trailer: "The Battle For Middle Earth Has Begun"

another thing for Peter Jackson to sue about, i guess.

The New York Times reports that, as it scurries to push forward DR-CAFTA, the attempt to solve the conundrum of the FTAA's collapse through smaller, regional agreements which could very quickly create a dynamic which pits Latin American governments against each other in a race to the bottom for US/transnational capital, the Bush administration has spent a year trying to block the release of a report it funded which is critical of the labor standards in the countries covered under this agreement

The Labor Rights Fund concluded in nearly 400 pages that while there were some adequate labor laws in Central America, there were systematic barriers to enforcing those laws. Recordkeeping is shoddy, giving workers little chance to make claims against employers, the reports said, and sanctions for violations are weak.

The fund also found problems ranging from discrimination against labor organizers to inadequate measures against child labor. El Salvador, for instance, the study found that it was not uncommon for foreign companies to close shop and leave without paying workers. The study also noted a failure to maintain safety, citing two accidents at a textile plant in 2002 in which 560 workers were overcome by fumes in chlorine spills. The ensuing investigations were shoddy, the study found.

Though the Labor Rights Fund has been critical of labor standards in developing countries, the Labor Department nonetheless chose it to conduct the studies. The contract was worth $937,000. "We transparently and in good faith put in a proposal," said Bama Athreya, deputy director of the Labor Rights Fund.

But after the reports were submitted in early 2004, the Labor Department held them in secrecy, preventing their release to Congress and forbidding the fund to publish them, Mr. Levin, the Michigan representative, said.

iFetishized Commodity Shuffle fun

Architecture In Helsinki - "Imaginary Ordinary"
Nirvana - "Come As You Are"
Nirvana - "Stay Away"
Bob Dylan - "As I Went Out One Morning"
The Clash - "Hateful"
Liars - "Loose Nuts on the Veladrome"
Ghostface Killah - "Beat The Clock"
Sleater-Kinney - "The Day I Went Away"
Jeff Buckley - "Corpus Christi Carol (For Roy)"
Sonic Youth - "The Sprawl"

(Come on down to the store. you can buy some more more more more.)

I finally watched Kinsey, which was pretty good, even if i think it may adhere a bit too faithfully to the "great man changes history" school of historiography. The "sexual revolution" did not begin with Kinsey and encapsulated the actions of uncounted thousands of people he never met and who likely never read his books. I could go on and get foucauldian, but that really isn't what i want to talk about right now. Anyw, so I switch it off, and then ABC News is talkin' about how the republicans 2want a replacement for O'Connor before October and will use the "nuclear option" to expedite this if they so desire. First reaction was "so much for Kinsey. Then moved over to the computer and read latest accounts of flailing imperial and became very uncomfortable at the thought of ever bringing kids into the world. The changed channel to live performances of Bob Marley and The Wailers in full fetishized glory, and just sat and listened to "Them Belly Full."

Them belly full but we hungry.
A hungry mob is a angry mob.