Here’s your moment of Zen for today. A former banker talks about the necessity for socialism in light of the Wall Street debacle:
I wish this one came with English subtitles, but so far, it’s just in Spanish. All I can say is, WOW. Just…WOW.News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
They walk among us…
September 30, 2008 — Sabina BeckerWho are they? Well, they look normal enough. It’s what they DO that’s not so normal:
Police are looking for a suspect after a woman says another woman poured a liquid on her and told her she was going to set her on fire.“She came in the store and I came out from behind the counter and I greeted her she asked for bath salts.”
That’s how Crystal Basler Payne, owner of The Country Goddess, says her Saturday on September 13th started. Payne says things went wrong when she started ringing up the sale.
“And I turned to look at the register and I turned back and that’s when she threw the kerosene on me,” Payne said. “She had it in a Dante water bottle.”
Payne says at first it didn’t register what was going on until she saw the lighter.
“She actually had the lighter at that point and she was flicking it, the lighter, in front of me and the lighter wouldn’t light.”
She began screaming for her life and ran for the front door. But she never made it, she says she lost her footing and fell in front of a stack of posters.
“She said ‘Be still and let me light you on fire.’ There was no emotion in her voice. At no point did she yell,” Payne said.
What do you bet that this woman will never be charged with terrorism?
Yes, we are glitching. Thanks for noticing.
September 30, 2008 — Sabina BeckerYou HAVE noticed, yes? Good.
Well, here’s the story: My best friend and geekus maximus has helped me improve this site with the latest edition of Movable Type. We did it to help secure the blog against hackers exploiting weaknesses in the original version I was using.Unfortunately, the latest edition of Movable Type could use some improvements of its own, such as being able to recognize entries created with Tinderbox, which I use to write my entries before uploading them here. It currently doesn’t, and we’re both still scratching our heads trying to figure out how my last six entries could disappear into the ether (though they still show up on the post count, they aren’t counted as current entries, so I can’t categorize them or make them show on the main page anymore either), my blogroll became such a mess, and the mysterious date of “December 0000″ has shown up in my monthly archives (I suspect that’s where the “missing” posts were disappeared to, probably by the Chilean DINA or its Movable Type equivalent.)For now, it looks as though I’ll have to generate my posts on the “write entry” page of MT, which will take some getting used to. It’s kind of sad to stop using the old Tinderbox Trainblogging template, which has served me so well up till now, but until we get this glitch straightened out, it looks like I’ll have to post the “lame” way. Grrrr.El Ecuadorable’s big win
September 29, 2008 — Sabina BeckerLatin America’s cutest president turned out in one of his groovy embroidered shirts to thank the people for what was, in the eyes of anyone in the know, a foregone conclusion:
He’s got at least 66% so far, according to exit polls. Auntie Bina ventures to predict it will go even higher–close to the 70% mark, as Evo did recently during his recall referendum in Bolivia.
Hey, do you suppose it’s got something to do with their both being good-looking guys who wear mega-cool shirts?
Headline Howler: Another Reuters schmuxtaposition
September 29, 2008 — Sabina BeckerOh lordy-loo. You just can’t make this shit up:
“Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic rise from the ruin … It’s time to shout ‘Liberty!’ again in the United States,” Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free of the “dictatorship of the elite” such as big banks and corporations.Critics accuse Chavez of running an authoritarian, Cuban-style regime in oil-rich Venezuela.
Of course, said critics aren’t named, nor is any proof offered to bolster their accusations; we’re meant to assume that it’s all self-evident, and that they’re too numerous (being, like, everybody but Chavecito himself, if certain lazy wire service reporters are to be believed). But the problem is, those unnamed critics follow right on the heels of a statement by the Big Guy His Own Self which kind of makes them, and the reporters of Reuters, all look like, well, schmucks.
Sarah Palin: Snubbed in Paraguay
September 29, 2008 — Sabina Becker
So, the Lipstick Pig Woman got out her presidential kneepads for a certain Paraguayan ex-bishop. Only, sadly (or rather, happily–for him!), Fernando Lugo told her to keep ‘em and her lipstick to herself:
Paraguay President Fernando Lugo, while attending both the United Nations General Assembly meetings and the Clinton Global Initiative, shared with friends over dinner some of the other meetings he had been having in New York.He met this head of state. . .and that head of state. . .and so on. . .
. . .but then the room went silent and then broke into subdued laughter when he confided that he was approached about meeting with GOP Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
President Lugo turned the meeting down.
Ha, ha…suck on THAT, Paliness. You may be able to suck up to Dubya’s coke dealer Numero Uno for some ersatz foreign policy experience, but that’s about it. The rest of Latin America has no desire to be trotted out to showcase your nonexistent talent and experience.
Quotable: Adolfo Gilly places Bolivian racism in a nutshell
September 28, 2008 — Sabina Becker“In that domination, being a full citizen means being white or an assimilated mestizo. To become a citizen, an Indian must stop being Indian and see themselves and be seen as being white; break from their concrete historical community, that of the Aymaras, the Quechuas, the Guaraníes or another one of the many indigenous Bolivian communities; and enter as a newly-arrived subordinate into the abstract community of the citizens of the Republic. The Indian does not expect that the Republic will change and be like his people. Instead, it is required that these people change their men and women, renounce their identity and their history and be like the Republic of the whites, the rich, the educated, the Spanish-speakers — where, for everyone else, the inerasable color of their skin will forever condemn them (those men and women) to second-class citizenship. That is the nature of this domination.”
–Adolfo Gilly, at Ukhampacha Bolivia
Chavecito drops another bombshell
September 27, 2008 — Sabina BeckerHe says that if he were a person of any power in the US, he would follow Ecuador’s example and convene a constitutional assembly–democratically elected–to write a new constitution.
And if that sounds shocking, remember–the original US constitution was not written by a democratically elected assembly, nor was it ratified by the general populace. Yet it’s being held up, still, as a model for democracy around the world, while the democratic constitutions of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador are being demeaned from none other than Washington, DC?
The mind boggles.
Festive Left Friday Blogging: Evo at the UN
September 26, 2008 — Sabina BeckerI get the feeling that I’m not the only woman who likes this humble honey…and as proof, I present these shots taken at the recent UN meeting:
Michelle Bachelet’s body language tells me all I need to know about how she feels about Evo. I guess he charmed the pants off her when he negotiated that sea route with Chile.
Ditto Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of Argentina. I sure hope Néstor’s not jealous!
Chavecito anti-American? Shyeah, right.
September 26, 2008 — Sabina BeckerUnfortunately, the man’s own words, taken straight up, undercut every bullshit thing that’s ever been said about him (usually by people mistranslating him or taking him out of context, or just plain old making shit up). So here he is in his own words. You be the judge as to whether the president of Venezuela hates the US:
“I don’t talk to the candidates, the candidates are out looking for votes,” emphasized President Chávez upon being questioned about his position with regard to the latest declarations of Barack Obama and the use of his image in the campaign ads of Republican John McCain, and in response to the comments made about his government by the US presidential candidates.“I want to repeat something, this time from Beijing–we have nothing, nothing, nothing against the United States as a people. I’m not anti-US, no, I’m anti-imperialist,” said Chávez. “Whoever tries to manipulate anything to get votes is another matter. But I don’t respond to candidates. If McCain wins, if Obama wins, fine, I’ll be ready [to talk with him], and not just me but all of us in South America, all of us in Latin America and the Caribbean. The only thing we ask of the new president of the United States is that he respect our peoples, nothing else.”
Translation mine. Linkage added.
BTW, I learned Spanish expressly so I could get him right. The nice side effect of this is that it helps me also get Evo right, and El Ecuadorable, and the presidents of Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, and…well, you get the picture. Right?
PS: Check out the AP’s lame-ass version of this same quote. See what I mean? If you don’t know Spanish, the corporate media will shut you totally out of any true understanding. And leave a bunch of skanky-ho right-wing blogs to fill in the gaps with bullshit spackle. Ugh.
