News That Matters to CC

Hi everyone. I've been offline for a few days recuperating from repeated lashings at the hands of my managers at Yahoo! as we got the Current project out the door. You'd be so proud of me - I didnt touch a computer for several days. You'll have to excuse my ramblings in my last post about Hugo Chavez. I stand by everything I said, but the fact is that the coup took place in 2002. So much for mixing 70/80 hour work weeks and, well, facts. I stand by all the points made, though, as they are all still valid. It's just that the coup took place 4 years ago, not 2 weeks. Remember, you are reading the ravings of a person who once mistook the rising moon for a UFO that pinned me to the ground with its extraterrestrial energy rays and wouldn't let me up. So now I'll put my tin foil hat back on and bring you the news that really matters.

On more than one occasion CC has called me from a city bus from San Francisco General Hospital or whatever its called with __(fill in the blank)__'s placenta in tow. The first time she did it, I asked her, "where are you?" to which she replied "on the bus" to which I replied "what are you doing?" to which she replied "taking __(fill in the blank)__'s placenta to a dehydrator so I can dry it out and put it in the freezer" to which I go "so you have __(fill in the blank)__'s placenta on a CITY BUS?" to which she goes "yeah, I didnt really think of it that way, but I guess I do."

I immediately offered to buy that hearse she has always been so wont to purchase specifically for the purpose of helping her transport all those placentas around. I am not entirely clear on what she does with them. I'm not sure I need to know. All I know is that I don't think they should go on the bus, and would be happy to purchase a special vehicle such as a hearse for the purpose of making sure they never have to be on a city bus. Ever.

So this story on ReduceIdiocy.org (reducing idiocy is apparently a nonprofit venture) caught my eye, about an Australian couple who were inspired by Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin to feed their twins' placentas to the pet goannas (alligators apparently) that live in pits in their backyard for the purpose of bringing the family closer to the giant lizards. (Link)

And now, for those of you who actually enjoy my video postings, here's what its like to drive in India. It's for all of you who have ever accused me of being a bad and/or unsafe driver.

A Brief, Unsolicited Editorial on Chavez v. Bush

After Hugo Chavez hit the floor of the UN, calling Bush "the Devil" the week after the Bush administration seems to have sponsored a coup that removed him from office for a couple of days, you would think that sombody in the American or British media could have linked these two recent events. But instead I wake up and see headlines like "Chavez Blasts US".

John D. emailed me a full transcript of Chavez's speech at the UN ( link ) that makes it very clear that Chavez's speech was directly aimed at Bush and the corrupt US Government and its policies, not the everyday people of America who, he pointed out, when asked want peace.

The other thing that I find absurd is the fact that I read The New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, every DAY through RSS feeds that let me scan and see what's going on. It's my ritual... get up, check the news, get dressed, etc. Not ONE story did I see in any of those papers about the coup in Venezuela. Not ONE story about the leader of the country that has the most crude oil in the world being unseated in a coup. And yet... when the leader of that country hits the floor of the UN and denounces the corrupt US administration, the newspapers are all over it - without one mention about the real reason the guy might be a little ticked off.

I actually think that Chavez's speech was a smart move. I'm probably the only one you'll hear saying this - but traditionally in dealing with Latin American populist leaders who want justice for the poor of their nations, the US Government has usually acted swiftly and effectively, usually either fuelling military coups that remove the leader from office or through assasination. Henry Kissinger and Pinochet (who has now been found guilty of these crimes) arranged for many a South American socialist activist to be thrown out of military C-10's over the Pacific to drown while gagged and bound. But you don't hear about dead socialists and their families in the mainstream press. Chavez is a marked man. The quiet little coup that took place last weekend is just the beginning and he knows it (remember that Chavez is the man that Pat Robertson said "we" ought to assasinate and be done with). But now he has the entire world's attention, because he went to the UN and made some really inflammatory remarks to taunt the US president. "How are you going to murder me while the whole world is watching NOW?" -- that's all I hear in that speech. Self-preservation.

Here's an interesting Op-Ed piece from a non-mainstream outlet that has some interesting points to it, including that fact that after Hurrican Katrina the Venezuelan leader offered to drop the price of oil coming from his country by one third, from $75 to $50 a barrel - and how Bush refused him because he is in bed with the Saudis and has a stake in keeping the price of oil nice and high. Link

And here's another great piece about the distortions in our mainstream press about politics in Venezuela from Alternet. ( Link ) Here's an exerpt:

"Look at the Chronicle/AP photo of the anti-Chavez marchers in Venezuela. Note their color. White.

And not just any white. A creamy rich white.

I interviewed them and recorded in this order: a banker in high heels and push-up bra; an oil industry executive (same outfit); and a plantation owner who rode to Caracas in a silver Jaguar.

And the color of the pro-Chavez marchers? Dark brown. Brown and round as cola nuts -- just like their hero, their President Chavez. They wore an unvarying uniform of jeans and T-shirts."

The writer points out that in 2002, when every American newspaper reported that Chavez had resigned from his post but was later revealed that Chavez had been kidnapped at gunpoint, incarcerated by his captors, and forced to resign, this writer asked a reporter why all these newspapers got the story wrong.

"The U.S. papers got it dead wrong -- but how? Who was the source of this "resignation" lie? I asked a U.S. reporter why American news media had reported this nonsense as stone fact without checking. The reply was that it came from a reliable source: 'We got it from the State Department.' "

"Oh."

Coup in Venezuela Linked to Bushies

The brief coup in Venezuela last weekend that unseated Hugo Chavez for a couple days has close ties to senior US Gov't officials. The people invovled in the coup "have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time." One of them even has a conviction, er, notch in his belt from misleading Congress during Iran-Contra. Link

It's no wonder that Chavez hit the floor of the UN General Assembly yesterday, calling Bush "The Devil" and teasing that the podium where Bush spoke at the day before still smelled like sulfur, the smell of the Devil. The Washington Post has great video of Chavez's speech here.

"In an effort to bolster his case, Chavez waved a copy of Noam Chomsky's book 'Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Domination' and recommended that everyone read it. The book, written by the American linguist and longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy, argues that the United States' pursuit of political supremacy is having devastating consequences for the majority of the world's people."

Chavez was at the UN in an effort to gain a seat for Venezuela on the UN Security Council, a seat that would give Venezuela an opportunity to oppose US policies. No wonder Bush wanted him out of office last weekend.

Current TV @ Yahoo!

I mentioned a little about Current TV a week or two ago here, so since today is the launch of Current TV's partnership with Yahoo! Video (my team) I thought I'd mention it in more detail and point you in that direction. Current TV is "a new kind of news station" (according to the all-knowing, all-pervading Bono) started by Joel Hewitt and Al Gore here in San Francisco. Meaning the news stories brought to you are user-generated (that means you) and brings you all kinds of different points of view, which I find much more interesting than the traditional media model of pointy-headed "news"-people beaming into your living room and bombarding you with a fixed point of view anchored somewhere in the belly middle class America. It brings a human voice to issues that cross boundaries that traditional news media has never really managed to push beyond.

Current has partnered with Yahoo! Video to expand its profile by launching a microsite at http://video.yahoo.com/currenttv that highlights a few of their offerings. Their main site can be found at http://current.tv

Here's some of my favorite clips:

Vegas has nothing on North Korea:



A seven year old street hustler kid in Thailand hustles Americans at Connect Four. Look out for for the international symbol for loser at the end:


also...
Surfers Against Sewage

Tibetan Exile Community in India

Enjoy!

CNN on What To Do With Your Salad

Spike Lee's Katrina Documentary on YouTube

You can find the whole 4-hour series broken up into 26 parts and posted on YouTube. Follow this link for links to all 26 parts. It's getting great reviews.

My Nerd Just Quit Me

Sorry to be so Lauren about posting the videos, but this one rocks.

Rockwell Automation Products

The video is labelled "WTF! is he talking about?!?!?!" At first I didn't get it, now I find it hilarious.

Maybe

I get bored at work sometimes and look up random words + .com on the end, just to see what comes up. So I looked up maybe.com and found that it is owned by a Gemini who keeps a blog there. Go figure, "maybe.com" is owned by an indecisive Gemini who links to places like "Fuzzy Galore", "Knitty Knit This", "OhMyStars", and "Crafty Planet".

This is a very fortuitous find, seeing as how Tony just showed up at my house with 19 yards of his favorite fabric and one gross of rhinestones after being gone for a year; I think he sleeps with the rhinestones under his head. If you've missed Tony all you need to do is follow the trail of sparklies to my house; he'll be the one on the couch catching up on back-episodes of Project Runway.

UPDATE: Quote of the Day
Even though being gay gives you super-powers in terms of taste and design, you don't have to rub it in.

Big Package

Can anyone tell that Tony has blown into town? He claims to have "fabric burn" on his leg.

Rearrange This

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."

- Terry Pratchett


"A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices."

- William James

TV Free Burning Man - Spectators Welcome

Current TV is Al Gore's new TV station, and seeing as how I am being pimped out to them for work by Y! (more on that later...) thought I might keep up with what they are up to over there before the big launch. This year, Current TV is covering Burning Man and bringing it to you free and *without commercials*. So even if you're not going this year or have never been, you can go check it out (from behind the relative safety of your computer monitor). The Man burns at midnight tomorrow (Saturday) night and they will broadcast it LIVE, baby, LIVE. link: http://www.current.tv/burningman/

PS to Euge: Look! that artcar that has sat in front of your old apartment for years in Berkeley made it in!