Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

As if the recent raid on a Culver City medicinal marijuana cooperative by DEA agents wasn’t enough, it’s now become apparent that this raid was conducted not only by DEA agents, but also by Blackwater employees. Yes, that would be the same Blackwater that has government contracts for private security in Iraq, and the same Blackwater whose trigger-happy thugs killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians for no particular reason. What’s next – will Blackwater agents start shooting medicinal marijuana patients too?

As I browsed pages while reading about this story, I came across this article about Blackwater’s broader functions in the present and in the future. Then I came across this chilling paragraph:

What could prove to be one of Blackwater’s most profitable and enduring enterprises is one of the company’s most secretive initiatives–a move into the world of privatized intelligence services. In April 2006, Prince quietly began building Total Intelligence Solutions, which boasts that it “brings CIA-style” services to the open market for Fortune 500 companies. Among its offerings are “surveillance and countersurveillance, deployed intelligence collection, and rapid safeguarding of employees or other key assets.”

Now, if you read the LA Times article you’ll find that while the DEA agents and Blackwater people ransacked people’s bedrooms and stole all of the marijuana and live plants on the premises (and uprooted their vegetable garden too), they did NOT arrest anybody. They did, however, crack open the ATM and help themselves to its contents. More importantly, they also seized medical records, which basically would include the names of all of the co-op’s customers. Why does this matter? Well, those patients are not breaking any California laws, but until the CA legislature passes a new employment protection bill, employers can still fire patients who test positive for marijuana use, even if they have a valid prescription, are not medicated while at work, and there has been no negative impact on job performance (although apparently it’s perfectly fine to come to work hopped up on Vicodin or Xanax or suffering a hangover from a massive drinking binge the night before). There are also other non-criminal ramifications of being a known cannabis user.

So what I’m thinking is that we’re seeing Blackwater doing its “CIA-style” intelligence gathering, with the generous and convenient help of the DEA. If you’re a patient who goes to Organica Collective, you can bet both dollars AND donuts that Blackwater has your information now, and will be keeping it on file for those Fortune 500 companies and selling it on the open market.

I think Organica employee Brian V. Birbiglia, a disabled former Marine who was handcuffed for more than four hours during the “raid,” said it best: “We follow the law,” he yelled, his face red and his eyes teary. “We might as well have just got robbed by a bunch of thugs downtown.”

Brian, I think you were closer to the truth than you imagined.

Another great video, this one from TheRealMcCain.com – more specifically, from Robert Greenwald at Brave New Films, creators of the amazing film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

This great “Commander In Chief Test” video is definitely worth watching. I particularly like the bit about getting Bush re-elected. I think that little clip should be played on every network television station across America. Multiple times.

The quake’s intensity was downgraded from 5.8 to 5.4 by The Powers That Be over at Caltech. Still no major damage or injuries, although people are being asked to cut down on their telephone use because the phone system is maxed out. I assume the same goes for cell phones.

[Edit: Some reports of power outages from Southern California Edison, around Diamond Bar, Chino, Chino Hills, etc. SCE says the outages could be prolonged.]

NPR just reported that other people are having problems with their cell phones as well. No reports of cell towers down – the speaker made the same guess that I did, which is that this is a capacity issue and not a matter of damaged towers.

We’re still having cell phone difficulties out here – anybody else experiencing this? News is reporting no disruptions in utilities, but this still makes me nervous – what good will our cell phones do in a major emergency if a little earthquake slows them all down? My guess is that cell phone use is so elevated right now that everything is slowing down – that’s what happens at major events like West Hollywood Halloween, where there are thousands of people all trying to find each other. Probably the same right now with everybody trying to confirm that everybody is okay.

Look how many aftershocks! It was a long quake too – went on for quite a bit, although those may have been immediate aftershocks we were feeling. So far there have been no reports of injuries or structural damage, and power in Los Angeles has not been interrupted. Not sure if it was cut off in Chino. Will update later!

Did you feel it?

[Edit: The one thing people seem to be having trouble with is cell phone use – but that is probably because eeeeeverybody is trying to use their cell phones. Text messages are taking a little longer than usual to go through, and a few calls haven’t gone through either. Are you having the same problem?]

There are a few entertaining bits in this Daily Show clip – but the most entertaining for me is that FAUX News has resorted to showing 8-year old clips of McCain’s Election 2000 press conferences so they can get a shot of him looking younger.

From the NY Times:

SAN FRANCISCO — To the ever-expanding résumé of Gavin Newsom — San Francisco mayor, California hopeful for governor, Montana-bound groom — one may now add this: code-breaker.

In a story that seems equal parts spy novel and potential municipal fiasco, Mr. Newsom was enlisted on Monday to coax a secret code out of a city engineer who prosecutors say had effectively hijacked a large part of the city’s computer systems. [Read more.]

Next stop, starring in the next Mission: Impossible sequel? *g* Could just picture it.

If the ban on offshore oil drilling is lifted, you can expect to see more oil spills like this one in Louisiana. Ironically, rumor has it McCain was scheduled to visit an oil rig the same day but cancelled his trip after the spill. Guess it wouldn’t have gone well with his “oil drilling is good” rhetoric.

This awesome story is making the rounds on the Internet and in the news lately.

In 1969, Anthony “Ace” Bourke and John Rendall rescued a lion cub from the “exotic animals” department at Harrod’s Department Store in London. They named him “Christian” and raised him in their apartment, exercising the cub on the grounds of the local church. After a year, though, Christian the lion became too large to keep in their home.

As luck would have it, the two men coincidentally ran into actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who had recently starred in Born Free, the 1966 film about another domesticated lion who had been reintroduced into the wild by the couple whom the actors had portrayed, George and Joy Adamson (author of Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds). They suggested that the two men contact George Adamson in Kenya.

Bourke and Rendall eventually brought the lion to Kenya, and after a few years, they returned to visit him. They were informed at that point that Christian was the leader of his own pride and was fully wild now, and that he would not remember them. See for yourself what really happened when the lion and the men met again.

You can purchase the DVD made about Christian the lion at the Born Free Foundation website.

Some free shipping and other deals from Target.com. The free shipping is where the real discount is; Target’s shipping fees are so high that sometimes the cost of shipping cancels out the economic benefit of shopping at Target’s website. Take advantage of the free shipping offers whenever you see them!

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Summer savings at Kmart.com:

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A great sale at Kohls.com:

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Last month, CNN revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had stored $85 million worth of household items in warehouses for two years. Instead of giving the supplies to victims of the 2005 hurricane, FEMA declared them surplus and gave them all away to federal agencies and 16 states in February.

FEMA fucks it up again: A recent CNN investigation revealed that for two years FEMA was paying $1 million to store millions of dollars’ worth of supplies that were intended to go to Louisiana and Missouri residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Eventually it declared the items “surplus” and gave away the supplies to prisons, colleges, fire departments, and even government agencies – everybody but the intended Katrina victims.

Nobody can really say why this happened, except that everybody (except those actually on the ground) claims that there wasn’t a “need” for the supplies. The folks living in tents in New Orleans more than two years post-hurricane are saying otherwise.

Now FEMA is downplaying the error, claiming that it made a HUGE accounting error and it was only $18.5 million worth of supplies “given away” to non-Katrina victims, not the originally-estimated $85 million. (So let’s get this straight – when they were bragging about how much they were planning to Katrina victims, it was $85 million, but now that they’re caught with their pants down, it’s suddenly “only” $18.5 million? Either way, there are thousands of people who could still use these supplies and aren’t getting them.)

They’re also blaming Louisiana for not taking all of the items in the first place (no clear explanation on exactly why or how that happened), and even claiming that the items weren’t really JUST meant for SPECIFICALLY Katrina victims, PER SE.

Louisiana is demanding answers from FEMA, but I’d certainly like to know why Louisiana turned down the items in the first place. That said, how utterly out of touch does an agency have to be to not know that there is still a need for disaster relief over there?

There are some killer deals at Lane Bryant this summer:

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Meanwhile, I detect a dental hygiene theme over at drugstore.com (with a few exceptions…):

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I would love to go back to Israel again some day, and this NY Times article on Tel Aviv is definitely a reminder that I need to go again some time soon! (Last time I visited was 1994!)

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Note the expiration dates on some of these – they expire today! Use them while you can!

From The New York Times:

With millions of new voters heading to the polls this November and many states introducing new voting technologies, election officials and voting monitors say they fear the combination is likely to create long lines, stressed-out poll workers and late tallies on Election Day. [Read more]

With Obama expecting the votes of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new voters, you can expect that he’ll take the brunt of the difficulties, especially since the longest lines tend to be in the swing states and in economically troubled areas.

McCain must be celebrating and clinking glasses with the Diebold ops right about now… Have they promised to “deliver” the election to him yet? Here’s hoping for victory on the side of American democracy – or what’s left of it, anyway.

Found this great and useful article on Hubpages, entitled “How to Make Money WRITING Online.” The nice thing is that it’s actually a pretty honest and accurate assessment of making online writing your career; it’s not a “set up a single page loaded with keywords and watch the money tumble into your Adsense account” deal like many of the articles I come across – ’cause I think for the most part, those are bogus. This is not. Check it out!

Have you come across the “5 computers” error in iTunes? You know the one – it tells you that you have already authorized five computers and can no authorize new machines to play your iTunes-purchased songs and videos? If you’re like me, you’ve probably got a few “authorized” machines that died long ago, or maybe you forgot to deauthorize your work computer before you left your last job. How are you supposed to clear them now?

Well, it turns out that you CAN deauthorize your computers within iTunes without going to each computer that’s authorized to play your songs. The catch? 1) You can only do it once a year, and only if all five slots are already filled, and 2) doing it will deauthorize all five computers. If that’s fine with you, then here’s how to do it – it’s super-easy.

1) Log into the iTunes store in the iTunes application.
2) Click on your email address in the top right corner to bring you to your account page.
3) Enter your password when prompted.
4) You’ll be taken to your account page. In the top box, the last option in that section is “Computer Authorizations.” If all five computers are authorized, you will see a button labeled, “Deauthorize All.” Click it, and you’re all set. Just remember that you’ll have to reauthorize the computers you do want to use with the files.

That’s all!

How can we believe a nation wants peace when it gives a hero’s welcome to a man who deliberately bashed in the head of a toddler?

CNN reports that Kuntar vowed to keep fighting for the “liberation of the Palestinian territories.” Right. I’m SO sure he referred only to “territories.” Bullshit. I’d be willing to bet he referred to the entire land of Israel.

Rove on the NY Times: “[T]hey’ve got a very callous view about our nation’s security and interests.”

If they offered a degree in Advanced Hypocrisy, Karl Rove would graduate summa cum laude. No, really.

Apparently that seems to be the mindset of some Americans, who don’t seem to have a problem with the fact that countries like India and the Philippines are leeching away our jobs by the thousands, or the fact that most manufacturing is now done overseas, but who are ready to boycott Budweiser beer if Anheuser-Busch is bought by the Belgian company InBev.

If only these people cared as much about the economy and the job market as they do about beer, maybe we might actually see some change.

It turned out to be a pretty interesting article about an 80-year old stripper, Tempest Storm – something of a legend, apparently, who still performs on stage. Who knew?

From Newsweek: “For months, economic Pollyannas have looked beyond the dismal headlines and promised a quick recovery in the second half. They’re dead wrong.” (Read more)

Depressing, but an interesting read, nonetheless.