Monkeyfister

Not Photoshopped.


via Dependable Renegade

Reminds me of Steve Bell's vision of Der Chimperor. I can only imagine Bell's Bush face on the other side of this image. OOOK!!! WAR!!!





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Labels: Fuck You George W Bush

But, apparently not to Republican "Free Market" Ideologues. They got the Socialized Losses commitment from Bernanke and Paulson, and now they are back to the Denial of Reality phase-- with a political twist, as Invictus points out...


via Blah3.com

Back in May 2004, Donald Luskin wrote a 900 word column arguing in painstaking detail that the country's last recession -- despite the March 2001 date pronounced as the peak by the NBER -- began on Clinton's watch. The column is titled "Truth Matters." It apparently mattered deeply to Luskin that "blame" for the recession be assigned where it belonged -- on Clinton and not on Bush.

Well, now that Luskin doesn't have Clinton to kick around anymore, and the economy is clearly in the crapper, guess what: Recessions don't matter:

So what if the National Bureau of Economic Analysis — the nabobs who "officially" decide when the economy's business cycle peaks and troughs — declare that this slowdown really is a recession?

I'm not scared of that. It's just words, not reality.

And NRO's Larry Kudlow, as well... We should expect a wave of this nonsense.


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Labels: Collapse, Drowning Government In A Bathtub, Republican Politics, Republicans Hate Governing, US Recession

Cumberland County, Tennessee embraces the Flying Spaghetti Monster.




Gobbless 'em!


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Krugman gets this excerpted part right...

via The NYT

As I’ve mentioned in past columns, the Veterans Health Administration is one of the few clear American success stories in the struggle to contain health care costs. Since it was reformed during the Clinton years, the V.A. has used the fact that it’s an integrated system — a system that takes long-term responsibility for its clients’ health — to deliver an impressive combination of high-quality care and low costs. It has also taken the lead in the use of information technology, which has both saved money and reduced medical errors.

Sure enough, Mr. McCain wants to privatize and, in effect, dismantle the V.A. Naturally, this destructive agenda comes wrapped in the flag: “America’s veterans have fought for our freedom,” says the McCain Web site. “We should give them freedom to choose to carry their V.A. dollars to a provider that gives them the timely care at high quality and in the best location.”

That’s a recipe for having healthy veterans drop out of the system, undermining its integrated nature and draining away resources.

Mr. McCain, then, is offering a completely wrongheaded approach to health care. But the way the campaign for the Democratic nomination has unfolded raises questions about how effective his eventual opponent will be in making that point.

... and then he drops into his Partisan self. But, his highlighting of McCain's desire to Privatize and destroy the V.A. as a wreckless scheme is the highpoint of this article. I'm not a partisan of either of the remaining Democratic Candidates, but I DO expect a Universal, Single-Payer Health Insurance Mandate out of this next President and Democratic Congress and Senate.

I receive my care from the VA, and can say with confidence, with 12 years of VA care under my belt, with the past 5 being the absolute worst, that the only thing wrong with the VA, is that George has so deeply under-funded it, and slashed it's budgets so hard, that we are left to help each other in the waiting lines. The problem is that the Republicans slashed the VA's budget, while manufacturing a record number of wounded recipients for the VA to help. They are doing great with what they HAVE. We Veterans are doing what WE can to help... It simply comes down to proper and realistic funding. The VA is doing its Mission-- with or without Bush's help.

George and John McCain want to "drown Government in the bathtub." Psychopathic methodologies have no place in a Civil Government. Precedents be damned.

I guess by destroying the last of the Government Programs and Departments that are still functioning and succeeding, the increasingly Socialistic "Free Market" Republicans feel that they will be able to say with credibility that Government has failed. It makes as much sense as any of George's Policies. Every bit as counter-productive.



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Labels: Health Costs, Health Issues, Universal Health Care

Boy, as a musician, Jerry Garcia was one hell of a Story-Teller.

Those that don't "get" the Grateful Dead, miss this one point-- he and the rest of the boys told a little story every night they played. Following the Dead for a Summer Tour is much the same as following "A Prairie Home Companion" on their summer tours. Same people, different story every stop.

Further-- Jerry had a real knack for gathering great musicians around him. If you listen to nothing else, listen to the Late John Kahn's bass playing. Man... he'll make your roof leak with such heavy, sad, emotive pocketing-- Kahn is the conductor of this piece. That part 2 solo of his is eviscerating. Damn, if he doesn't tell every last sordid side bit that Jerry didn't lay out in his solo in Dylan's epic story in that few minutes. This is a horror to view, but, a real treat to hear-- just close your eyes. My only guess is that it was originally recorded in BETA with some weird video coding. It was done in 1980. Who knows?

Check it out:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Damn, that's nice.



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From the Deep Archives.

My old friend, Jason Graham, of Saginaw, MI, was Steam Punk before Steam Punk had a name.

We were getting shitty on homemade cider, one Autumn night, at his workshop. He had just finished his second Scarecrow, and asked me to drop by on my way home. What I saw blew my mind. His first scarecrow is in the pic, right center, and the second is the "female" left center. Everything he used in these sculptures, he found in abandoned factory sites along the Saginaw River.

I encouraged him to make more.

That winter into spring, we planned a land reclamation project on a block kitty-corner from where we both lived. A full city block that we could clean, and grow food upon. We gathered and hauled off over 3 Tons of salable, recyclable shit from that lot, and gave the Land-owner enough money to pay his back-taxes for three years.

I planned, and established the garden, Jason's girlriend, an herbalist, and others transplanted identified beneficial/medicinal herbs and plants into beds, and Jason dutifully provided the Scarecrows.

When he got enough made, Marc and I worked out the deal with the Theatre where I was Production Designer to do the show for two weekends, free gratis rent for Venue Publicity.

It was a smash hit. We counted over 8,000 Michaganders who came to see this installation. The Theatre made several thousand dollars in donations, and Jason is a Thumb Area working artist, now.

Jason's Scarecrows, with set and light design by me. It was accompanied with a multi-track soundscape. We attached an arc welder to a metal garbage can, and recorded the loud noise made by the arcing. We ran it through a digital delay, and layered it with helicopter fade-ins and fade-outs, media news alerts babble run through delay and looped, and multi-layers of Gulf War Poppy CNN military recordings that I had. All of the words were rendered utterly indecipherable, but the Authoritarian Tone was unmistakable. We recored about 20 minutes of that, and recorded it as a loop. It was enough for each person to walk amongst sculptures, experience the exhibit, play with each scarecrow, walk out into the auditorium to talk amongst themselves, and leave without noticing the loop. The whole project was a huge load of fun for eight months or so. Several of the lights in the picture were "scanning lights," which re-enforced the helo sounds.


Click for bigger.

PRESS RELEASE

June 10, 2001
For Immediate Release
Contact: Marc Beaudin
(989) xxx-xxx

CAGE and Pit & Balcony Theatre Present Art Installation

"Scarecrows (man deluge)," a multi-media installation by artist Jason Graham, is being presented cooperatively by the Collective Artists' Gallery and Exchange (CAGE) and the Pit & Balcony Theatre Co. The exhibit will run June 7 - 10 and 14 - 17, 6:00 - 10:00 pm daily at Pit & Balcony, 815 N. Hamilton, Saginaw. There is no admission charge.

The exhibit, including 15 large metal sculptures of industrial, nightmarish scarecrows, and several painted metal panels, depicts the path our culture is taking to a condition of artificial dependencies as a result of over-population and over-consumption. The scarecrows represent the human obsession with staking claim to the earth's resources. An obsession that, combined with increasing scarcity of those resources due to out of control population and consumption habits, result finally in a world covered by scarecrows with no remaining space for the crops they were meant to protect.

Regarding this concept, Graham writes, "By holding propertized dominion over the world, humanity confines its own existence, for without wild nature, man becomes caged within the marginalizing dependencies of an artificial social structure." This exhibit is a graphic representation of that reality.

The artist also notes that this arrangement is no accident: "There are those who would prosper from your dependency on an artificial, convoluted survival. There are those then who become artful at creating such dependencies."

We really don't want to end up like this-- husks of our former selves, kept alive by injections of nutrient mixtures, solely for the harvest of our Cerebral Processes by the Man.


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Labels: Good Art

From my deep archives.

Stay with this story until the very end, childrens.


Hunter S. Thompson:

Some fool wrote a story last week about the Raiders and their nasty reputation as the outlaws and bad boys of the NFL. Of all the new Raiders, this writer said, "None represents Raiders lore as much as Tyrone Wheatley does." And above the story was a photo of Wheatley on a couch with his three infant children, a giddy smile on his face; and, said the caption, his hobbies are "organizing furious Monopoly games at every NFL stop and falling asleep on his lawn." I was stunned. This was a savage insult to the whole Raiders tradition -- which is extremely dangerous and criminal. The Raiders of old were vicious and crazy and cruel. Hanging around their locker room was like hanging around the weight room at Folsom Prison. Not all of them were ex-cons, but there were always enough Killers and Rapists and Bank Robbers around to make you nervous. I know. I once moved in those circles. I knew the players and spent a lot of time with them. They were friends, and some still are.

I see Phil Villapiano on TV, talking smartly about the art of destroying running backs. Freddy Biletnikoff is a Raider receivers coach now. The Raiders of yore had no mercy on anything they could get their hands on. They strangled cops and ate their own babies. ... I was standing in a San Francisco courtroom a few years back, on a routine traffic offense, when I heard the assistant DA ask the judge to put me in jail for 30 days. It was an outrage. I turned to the DA and almost bit him. But he just gave me a sideways smile and said, "Hi, Hunter. Good to see you again." For a moment I thought I was being mocked. I stared at him, a big handsome boy in a Palm Beach suit, his hands clasped behind his back, deadly serious. It was my old friend Bob Moore, tight end for the Raiders when they were the terrors of the AFC. I was happy to see him, and we shook hands as my lawyer clawed at me, and the judge stared balefully down. Then, I heard Moore again ask for 30 days in jail, his voice crisp and cool, utterly without mercy. "You bastard," I said later, having a drink in his office. "Why in hell did you do that?"

He shrugged and smiled. "Hunter, I'm on the other side now. It's my job to put criminals like you in jail." I understood. He was a different kind of hitman now, but he still had the soul of a Raider -- pure black. Nice story, eh? I could tell a few more, but we don't have time or space. And the whole Bush family, from Texas, should be boiled in poison oil.

Selah

HST 11-13-00

Because Pygalgia made go digging through my archive drive, looking for pics of me as HST for a benefit.

This piece is way better than some stoopit picture that I can't find.


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Labels: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Paul Weller's Style Council-- "Walls Come Tumbling Down"...




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Nothing needs said here, save for this is the last NATO meeting that George will ever attend, and we can see that the world has already moved on.











Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

I am deeply curious about the lapel pins that the other NATO heads are wearing. Upsidedown American Flags? Snarky stuff?

If YOU were one of the people in this picture, what would YOU have worn as your lapel pin for George?

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Labels: Failure, Fuck You George W Bush, NATO

I attended the Beloved Community March in Memphis today, from Beale Street to the Lorraine Hotel/National Civil Rights Museum. Rainy and cold. But, the crowd was large, and proud, warm, and friendly. The speeches were moving. Five years, here in Memphis, and I never visited the National Civil Rights Museum. It is amazing. The entire hotel is frozen in time. Nice exhibits, great staff.

This year marks the 40th year of my life. Born in August, MLK, JFK and RFK were all struck down while I was waiting to be born. I was born in the middle of the Detroit riots. Born under a bad sign. Summer of Love? Where was that?

At any rate, what struck me so hard this morning, is what Dr. Martin Luther King accomplished in his 39 years. He changed this nation in ways which we are still just comprehending. And here I am... just another 40-year-old small blogger, humbled. What the hell have I accomplished? Nothing, compared to the Good Doctor.

He gave this most famous speech on April 3rd, in support of the Memphis Garbage Workers Strike...




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Labels: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Mr. Bageant bats one outta the ballpark...

via Online Journal

Lately though, I don't hear so much outrage. In fact, the readers seem to be suffering from what someone aptly called "rage fatigue." Which is another way of saying the bastards have simply worn us out. And it's true.

I am not kidding when I say rage fatigue victims have fallen into an ongoing mid-level depression. (Looks to me like the whole country has, but then I'm no mental health expert.) The less depressed victims can be found lurking near the edges of the Obama cult, consoling themselves that a soothing and/or charismatic orator is better than nothing. Obama may yet be borne through the White House portico by a Democratic host of seraphim, but he cannot do much without the consent of a bought and paid for Congress. Only George Bush can do that, and we can only hope God broke the mold after he made George. And like whoever else wins the presidency, Obama can never acknowledge any significant truth, such as that the nation is waaaaay beyond being just broke, and is even a net debtor nation to Mexico, or that the greatest touch-me-not in the U.S. political flower garden, the "American lifestyle," is toast. But then, we really do not expect political truth, but rather entertainment in a system where, as Frank Zappa said, politics is merely "the entertainment branch of industry."

Still, millions of Americans do grasp at The Audacity of Hope, a meaningless marketing slogan of the publishing industry if ever there was one. At least it has the word Audacity in it, something millions of folks are having trouble conjuring up the least shred of these days. And there is good old fashioned "Hope" of course -- that murky, undefined belief that some unknown force or magical unseen power will reverse the national condition -- will deliver us from what every bit of evidence indicates is irreversible, if not politically, then economically and ecologically: Collapse.

Compounding everything is the fact that it is quite human and even pragmatic to passively accept reality as it is. Until it's too late to do anything. As my late friend Virgil, the philosophical backhoe operator, summed it up: "If we fucked everything up so bad tryin' to do our best, maybe we oughtta just leave'er be for a while. Quit thinking about it so much."

More Band-Aids for the trained chickens, please!

Virgil may be popping open a Keystone Light lager somewhere in heaven, or in maybe a much warmer venue. I dunno. But people are thinking about it more than ever. Among sentient people everywhere there is a deep, visceral unease, and among those most aware there is genuinely acute suffering. I hear this expressed quite articulately not only in places such as this Omni Hotel "writers' lounge," but in working and middle class living rooms and in emails from Americans and around the world.

Naturally, the bunny and cupcake set of Americans are still oblivious, or at least pretend to be, but even at the more inchoate and private level, there is a growing awareness that things are going very wrong, and doing so on an incomprehensively massive and complex scale. There is the feeling that even if what is happening could be made comprehensible to the majority of humanity, to all those people just trying to keep afloat on the planet, from Zimbabwe to Flint, Michigan, overall it is unstoppable. Unfixable except in the fleeting media/politics Band-Aid sense, and then only in locales rich enough to afford the illusionary Band-Aid fixes politicians dream up when they write their campaign "plans for change."

All of which is horseshit, of course, since real change would entail undoing most of the machinery of planetary destruction and extreme pressure to standardize humanity that we have come to know as modern civilization and mass society -- halting, then reversing the momentum this monolith has achieved.

We now live as the technoculture's subjects, not its masters and will from here on out as viral technology mediates, homogenizes and monetizes human experience worldwide, in ever more remote corners. I watch it regularly in the Third World, where the power of gadgets such as cell phones is wiping out the core foundations of indigenous or longstanding cultures within a decade or two. The global machine's technological nervous system and production musculature, the techno grid now embedded in the world, grows in quantum fashion to control every aspect of our lives deeper and more thoroughly than is imaginable by the folks living those lives. It's so pervasive we don't feel it at all.

Joe has truly gotten down to the roots of America's problems, and the wise will take him up, and read this excellent excellent essay.


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Labels: America, Collapse, Deer Hunting With Jesus, Joe Bageant

And Bernanke tells us to learn to love the taste... FABULOUS!

Ahhhh. the TASTE of those Free Markets the Republicans love to tell us about! We never get to taste the fabled trickle-down fruits of those oh-so Democratic profits-- they just piss on us and TELL us it's profits trickling down. But we sure do get to eat a fell harvest of their rotten losses when their bottom line is threatened.

That first $100 dollars per US Citizen didn't seem to taste so bad, eh? Why, yes. It did. It tasted rather like shit on the palate.

via Mish Shedlock

The Fed Defended Its Bear Stearns Rescue in testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee. Let's take a look.

"We judged that a sudden, disorderly failure of Bear would have brought with it unpredictable but severe consequences for the functioning of the broader financial system and the broader economy, with lower equity prices, further downward pressure on home values, and less access to credit for companies and households," Federal Reserve Bank of New York President Timothy Geithner said in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee.

"If you want to say we bailed out markets in general, I guess that's true," Mr. Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee, adding the Fed's role in the rescue was necessary given the fragile state of financial markets. "Under more normal conditions we might have come to a different decision" with respect to Bear Stearns, Mr. Bernanke said.

My Comment: Sadly, no one bothered to ask Bernanke if what he did was legal, how many votes were required, who did vote, and why the Fed could not see this coming even though many predicted this would happen.

At any rate, Bear Stearns really has until the 8th to sell it's failed ass to Failure Lehmann Brothers, or else it starts taking out the rest of the Market. Those with money might want consider that a hard bet. It's OK not to bet-- Lehmann is teetering on Failure anyway.

But, boy! That was some rally the other day, wasn't it! Fucking Wall Street Drunks will jump at nothing these days.


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Labels: Bank Failures, Drunk At The Casino, Failed Industry, Wall Street Fairy

Here's a face to go with the moniker for you all... It ain't pretty, but I call it home.

I've always told you that I'm a skinny little geek. This is me, responding to the news that John "Fucking Fascist Bastard" Yoo opined Legally, that the Fourth Amendment is null and void.

"He did WHAT???!!! Why, that little fuck-- I'll mortalize him!!!"

Those aren't fashion shades-- they're prescription glasses-- cross-polarized to deflect the strobing of fluorescent lights. They help to keep me from getting fishy at work.

So, clearly, my only hope is that chicks really DO dig skinny white guys... heh. I can only imagine how many readers I am going to lose, now. I DO have a full head of hair, and all my teeth-- that should count for something.

Sorry to inflict this on you all. I felt the need to uncloak.

Heh-- I sort of look like a Morey Eel, don't I?

Full Disclosure: My most talented co-worker, and wonderful Navy shipmate and friend of 12+ years now, Mario, came over to me while I was working on some matting jobs (thus, I am bent over the matte cutter), and said, "Quick, MF-- make a wacky face as my iPhone pic for your calls!" I did, he snapped the shot.

If you've recently seen a NAVY calendar, or attended a Blue Angels Air Show, and took note of the billboards, ads, tickets, and programs, chances are that he did the artwork and layout. Mario has done some of the most striking and memorable of all Navy print material over the past 8 years-- hands down. He's 100% Navy, and he's one of the sweetest souls I have ever had the pleasure to know.


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Labels: Fourth Amendment, John Yoo, My Life As It Is

This dood has the Hipster vote sewn up. I actually really do like Senator Gravel, and wish the Primaries hadn't been weeded out quite so quickly. I sent him a few bucks for the many good points that he brought to the early debates. There is much to admire in him.




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Labels: 2008 Election, Primaries

Wow.

Runtime: ~96min.

(click google button for full screen)


Hat Tip to The Editors



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Labels: Iraq War

My question is what are the Bushies planning to accomplish the same goal? They never stop, they never rest, and they sure as hell don't compromise in any meaningful or honorable way.

Some sort of Executive Order? Some nefarious Signing Statement? Pardons?

via Think Progress

The White House, seeking to break a months-long standoff, has signaled to Democratic lawmakers it is open to negotiation over a proposal to expand government spy powers, according to officials familiar with the conversations. […]

Over the two-week spring recess, administration officials contacted Democratic leaders to suggest they were open to compromise on updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “We definitely want to get it done,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “We’ve had some initial conversations with Congress about the need to get FISA reform done quickly.” He added that Mr. Bush still prefers the Senate measure, which the White House negotiated with Senate Democrats. […]

The White House’s more conciliatory posture reflects a recognition that the Bush administration’s leverage on national-security matters has slipped since this past summer, a top Republican congressional aide said. “There’s a recognition that if they’re actually going to get a product they can support, there’s going to have to be some new level of engagement,” the aide said.

They're not going to give up on this. It's about protecting BushCo not the TelCos, and every person with a functioning brain knows this. So, what are they up to?


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Labels: FISA, Illegal Spying, Illegal Wiretapping, Warrantless Domestic Spying

PolitiCook. Started by our favorite Jazz Cook, Kate Petersen.

Welcome to PolitiCook, a site for progressive souls concerned about all aspects of food, including provenance, cost and environmental issues related to produce, organic or otherwise, meat, vegetables & seafood. Oh, and politics!

You are most welcome to participate, write diaries, and debate in a civil manner. We make no apologies for being politically to the left and hope you will enjoy and use this site to air your views on food and the politics thereof.

I hope to post, and keep a diary there in the coming days. It's great to have this wonderful place on the nets.

I see now, that I have enough food sites to start a new Sidebar category. I'll see about that this week.

Great job Kate, and your fellow comrades!


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Labels: The Blogohood

Yep. Quite possible this year, right here in America.

via Houston Chronicle

NEW YORK — A BB&T; Capital Markets analyst said Monday corn rationing may be necessary this year, following a U.S. Department of Agriculture report predicting farmers would plant far fewer acres of corn in 2008.

According to the March Prospective Plantings Report, farmers intend to plant about 86 million acres of corn this year, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II.

Analyst Heather L. Jones said in a note to investors if the USDA estimate proves accurate, the year may produce just 200 million bushels of corn. That, she said, wouldn't be enough to meet demand, given current export and feed demand trends and higher ethanol demand. Both ethanol and animal feed are made with corn.

"That is an untenable inventory demand, in our opinion," she said. "Consequently, we believe demand must be rationed or there needs to be a big supply response from other growing regions of the world."

The plantings report caused nervousness among meat producers and food makers who spent last year struggling to offset higher corn costs. Even though acreage was high, demand for ethanol and need overseas pushed prices to record levels.

Jones said she expects corn prices to rise even more, especially if unfavorable weather damages any of the crop.

The report delivered some promising news for meat producers, who also use soybeans to make feed. Farmers estimated they will plant 74.8 million acres of soybeans, up 18 percent from 2007.

But that might not bring much relief, Jones said, since corn is still the primary feed ingredient.

Hmmm... Lets see... Get rid of the useless ethanol mandate, and voila! We get our corn back as food-- where it belongs, and the fresh water used to make the ethanol goes back to watering food crops and hydrating people. Then all we need to do is ditch the cars for more mass transit, and we might be on to something.

But, what do I know?



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Labels: Corn, Food Not Fuel, Food Security

Rumour on the streets is that they are all back to blogging at Fafblog. And not a minute too soon, says I-- the new universe welcomes you back from wherever you've been.


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Labels: The Blogohood

Last October, and again in late February, I seeded about 20 pounds of Dutch White Clover in my backyard. I honestly did not think that it would take over so quickly, but, BOY did it! Looking out of my back door, I see an expanse of clover, ready for it's first mowing.

With the long rains that we've been getting, the clover has established itself, and crowded out the hated Bermuda grass, and is pushing out the other grass growing in the yard. All Spring, I have been actively jumping from grass tuft to tuft to weaken and stomp out that shit grass, to encourage the clover to expand. It's worked.

I'll give it a mowing later this week, when it is dry and I am feeling better.

Why Clover?

I'm planting the clover for several reasons:

1. I have no topsoil in my yard. The Developer scraped it all off, and carted it away, leaving me with hardpan sub-strait dirt. Any grass that is actually there is just plain nasty, and chock full of weeds.

As Clover is a Legume, it draws Nitrogen from the air, and fixes it in root nodes. It also breaks up the dirt, allowing worms to get in, and start the topsoil-building process anew. It will take years and years to get even an 1/8th inch of topsoil back, but, I have to start somewhere.

2. It's great for composting. Rich in nutrients, it makes great compost.

3. It is great for bees. All those little white flowers full of sweet nectar attract bees to the yard, and hopefully to my garden as well. Clover also attracts parasitic wasps, which lay their eggs on tomato hornworms, cabbage worms, and other garden pests.

4. Reduced mowing. I am epileptic, and the one sure-fire way to get me fishy is to sweat out my electrolytes mowing a 2-acre yard full of useless grass every damned week. Once I get the grass choked out, my need to mow will be cut down to about once per month, perhaps less during the dog days of Summer, when the temps here will stay around 100 degrees.

5. No watering required. It grows deep roots to find the water that it needs, so no special care is needed to keep it alive. It will go semi-dormant in drought conditions, and spring back when the rains return.

This year is a transitional time. I think that I'll work on digging out the remaining grass tufts over the year, and compost it all, and re-seed those areas with more clover.

My grass lawn-nurturing neighbors are going to LOVE me, once they catch on. Heh.



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Labels: Clover Lawn, Lawns To Gardens

Click through the link to the one-hour audio program.

via Global Public Media

Many forms of urban agriculture have existed for thousands of years.

As practical and environmentally responsible as growing food within a city can be, the art of gardening has seemingly disappeared in many urban settings. As current farming practices are proving to be unsustainable in the long-term, urban agriculture is looked upon by many as being a critical shift that needs to take place if we are to ensure a level of food security in the near and distant future.

Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast The Farming in the City series will now be incorporating a new focus on urban backyard chickens. Raising poultry within an urban setting provides eggs, fertilizer, garden help and meat with a minimal environmental footprint. Having suffered decades of disconnection from our food, bringing the farm into the city, and in this case animals, can provide a much needed dose of agricultural and food awareness. It's this very disconnection that has allowed for the appalling conditions now found in factory egg and chicken barns.

Helping guide this series will be Bucky Buckaw and his Backyard Chicken Broadcast. Produced in Boise, Idaho at Radio Boise, Bucky hosts weekly segments on backyard chickening. His experience and knowledge can help guide any urbanite wishing to set up some backyard chickens. On this broadcast, we listen in on four Bucky Buckaw episodes: Intro, Shelter, Feed and Winter. Backyard Chickens can present a controversial issue in many parts of North America. While many cities do indeed permit the raising of poultry within city limits, some cities do not. One of these "no chicken" cities is Nelson, BC. We will visit with one Nelsonite who has been working to reduce his ecological footprint, and in doing so, is defying the environmentally irresponsible City of Nelson bylaw.

Screw the anti-poultry laws. They don't apply to reality anymore.

Much More Can Be Found Here

Bucky Buckaw's Place


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Labels: Chickens, Suburban Permaculture, Urban Farmer

And the new place looks great!


Go Have A Look!



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Labels: The Blogohood

More power to them.

via WTAE

PITTSBURGH -- Truckers are upset over record high diesel prices. They are taking a stand today with a one-day nationwide strike in which no freight will be hauled.

With the current diesel prices, it can cost a trucker about $1,200 to fill up their big rigs.

More than a 100 truckers lined up Monday in Harrisburg to show state lawmakers something needs to be done about the high prices.

Diesel fuel averages $4.33 a gallon in Pennsylvania, but the average this time last year was $2.84.

Fuel taxes in Pennsylvania are 38 cents a gallon for diesel, and 32 cents a gallon for gasoline. The state Transportation Department said the state needs the revenue from those taxes to repair roads and bridges.

The record high diesel prices are also affecting the average consumer. The higher prices to haul groceries has led to a 25 percent increase in the price off eggs, a 17 percent jump in the price of milk, rice and pasta are up 13 percent, and bread is about 12 percent more than it was last year at this time.

It'll take more than a day to really make the point. Call today a shot over the bow. But, as one Trucker said on NPR yesterday, "What difference does it make if we lose money striking, or driving for a day? We can shut down this country with a turn of a key."




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Labels: Shut It Down

All the many, many reasons to shut it down, set to a catchy song!




Speaking of Shutting It Down-- It looks like America's Independent Truckers are gearing up for civic action starting Tuesday morning. Expect delays on the roads.



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Labels: Guantanamo, Shut It Down

Woke up today feeling like hell. Went to the Doctor-- Strep Throat. Not awesome. Antibiotics, and off work until the fever breaks. Here's a lovely song from Neil Young...




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Unrest is breaking out as a result.

And then the war... and the mass migrations and deep famines...

via Reuters

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers can't keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it's already boiling over.

Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports -- a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century.

Plundered by severe weather in producing countries and by a boom in demand from fast-developing nations, the world's wheat stocks are at 30-year lows. Grain prices have been on the rise for five years, ending decades of cheap food.

Drought, a declining dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and use of farm land to grow fuel have all contributed to food woes. But population growth and the growing wealth of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors.

World population is set to hit 9 billion by 2050, and most of the extra 2.5 billion people will live in the developing world. It is in these countries that the population is demanding dairy and meat, which require more land to produce.

"This is an additional setback for the world economy, at a time when we are already going through major turbulence. But the biggest drama is the impact of higher food prices on the poor," Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, told Reuters.

In Gurria's native Mexico, tens of thousands took to the streets last year over the cost of tortillas, a national staple whose price rocketed in tandem with the price of corn (maize).

Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the year to the end of January, markedly accelerating an upturn that began, gently at first, in 2002. Since then, prices have risen 65 percent.

In 2007 alone, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

"The recent rise in global food commodity prices is more than just a short-term blip," British think tank Chatham House said in January. "Society will have to decide the value to be placed on food and how ... market forces can be reconciled with domestic policy objectives."

Many countries are already facing these choices.

Overshoot.

We're there.



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Labels: Food, Food Prices, Food Security, Food Wars

All four beds are finally filled and gridded, and planting has really begun.

Bed #1 (last year's garden) I took the frame off, and stapled weed-block to it, wraping and fastening it up the sides of the frame as well. I then turned over, and chopped up everything except the rosemary, oregano and parsley, which I moved to Bed #3, along with the cabbages. I then replaced the frame over the super-fine, wormy soil, and refilled it with fresh compost, peat, poop and vermiculite. It's still unplanted, as I just finished this this week. I realized too late, that I should have mulched a foot around the bed to kill the Bermuda Grass. It got into the bed, and got way too established in that fine dirt, and water last summer. So, it's sub-strait now, and a nice berm against the water erosion problems. More about Bed #1 later.

Later this year, I'll be adding another bed for the late Cole Crop rotation, since I planted Bed #2 in Strawberries and Asparagus...

Bed #2 was planted in Strawberries and Asparagus, for a long-term bed. Along 8' of the west side of the bed, I planted Sugar Snap Peas 8 plants to the square, 2 rows 3" spacing along the edge. They are now fully up, and are starting to put out their little climbing whips, so, I started putting up the strings for them to climb up. The other 8' is all in spinach, nine to the square foot. They too, are all up, and setting real leaves.

The asparagus rhizomes have all sent up the first years shoots now (which I cannot eat, and need to let fern). I planted Swiss Chard, Romaine, Endive and Red Oak Leaf Lettuces, and Parsley around every shoot to block weeds for the year. A living mulch, which I'll replace as I harvest the lettuces with turnips.

The strawberries are planted every-other square over it's 4'x8' area, which is separated by a board, and interplanted with several types of radishes being inter-planted with them to keep weeds out until the berries send out their shoots. Red Jumbo, White Icicle, and Early Crystal are what I am planting. A square or two every week to keep me in radishes to June. I'll replace the radishes with bush beans and beets as I harvest them. The beans will fix nitrogen and provide shade for the berries. The beets will keep the soil covered and loose. All are companion plants.

Bed #3 Is the Cole Crop bed this year. I have planted (in order left to right) A block of 9 Early Broccoli, a block of 12 Savoy Cabbages, A block of 8 Red Cabbages (both cabbage types are doing well after the transplant, and heading up well after two weeks), A block of 9 Cauliflower (an experiment), and another block of 9 Early Broccoli. I've planted three squares of garlic (not enough), and the rest of the bed is planted in onions (Sweet Red, Sweet Georgia, and Yellow Keepers), a passel of Parsley, and lots of early carrots between the cabbages-- I'll keep planting carrot seeds and some nasturtium every week until I've filled every space in.

Bed #4 is going to be planted in corn (20 squares) interplanted with pole beans, new potatoes (8 squares) and eggplant (4 squares)-- both interplanted with bush beans to control potato and bean beetles (they each deter the other plant's primary bug pest), and cucumbers (grown with radish-- see below).

Back to Bed #1. With the new soil mix in Bed #1, I am going to transplant in the Beefsteak and Roma Tomatoes that I have hardening off (four plants of each-- interplanted with basil and garlic to deter the locally problematic Tomato Hornworm), 4 Acorn Squash vines, 4 Summer Squash vines, 2 Zucchini plants (with all of the squashes interplanted with radishes, which I'll let go to seed all season to deter the dreaded Squash and Cucumber Beetles).

As I am hoping to can-up a few quarts of pickled peppers, the rest of the bed will be mostly peppers (Yellow Hungarian Hot Wax-- my favorite of canning, Cayenne for drying, Sweet Bell Peppers for salads and stuffing, Sweet banana for canning). I usually add two or three Hungarians-- seeds and all, to a quart of Sweet Bananas-- the final product is full of sweet pepper flavor, with a wonderful bite. Strain and save that spicy vinegar brine in the fridge for cooking or for salads later in the winter! If you ever decide to cook a piglet or whole pig, this brine makes an EXCELLENT baste for the first couple of hours of cooking-- it imparts a little spice, while drawing out fats from the skin.

I have all eight 1'x 4'x 8" frames all made up for the hops. all I need to do is put the weed block on them, place them at the short ends of the beds, fill them and plant the rhizomes. I just hope the rhizomes can hold on for another few days. I HAVE to get them into a pot of loose Peat Moss, or damp Vermiculite right away to make sure they are going to grow. (you can see why posting has been light of late... busybusybusy.)

And then the clock starts ticking for me to build the trellises for the hops. I have a design for them, and that is good. Whilst I was noodling with the design using "Google SketchUp"-- Google it-- I realized that I could permanently set pipes for the bottom and tops of the vine supports if I used four posts per bed. Instead of running string along the bottom, I'll just clove hitch string from the top pipe to the bottom pipe for vine supports. So, the project has tripled in price, and time to build. Sixteen footings instead of four. BUT, it will be far more elegant and useful in the long run, and a real selling point should, Dog forbid, I ever need to move. My hope is to create gardens that will always encourage further use and expansion. There is plenty of room to keep me very busy for years here.

Oh, mercy-- I've got fruit trees coming soon. Woot Woo! Busy times!



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Labels: Fifty Million Farmers, Gardening, Grow Your Own, Suburban Permaculture

A sad day.


via Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Photojournalist Dith Pran, whose harrowing survival of genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge was dramatized in the film "The Killing Fields," died on Sunday at the age of 65.

He died of pancreatic cancer at a New Brunswick, New Jersey, hospital, The New York Times said on its Web site.

Dith, who used his fame to draw attention to his country's plight, spent the last weeks of his life in the hospital surrounded by family and friends. Among them was Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sydney Schanberg, who worked with him for The Times during the Cambodian civil war and recalled him as a dogged journalist who was "always doing good deeds for people in the Buddhist tradition."

Best known for his depiction in the 1984 film "The Killing Fields," Dith worked in Cambodia as a translator and journalist assisting Schanberg, who credits Dith with saving his life when they were arrested by the Khmer Rouge.

Forced into a labor camp when the radical Communists seized control of his homeland in 1975, Dith endured four years of starvation and torture. He lost more than 50 relatives to the Khmer Rouge, including his father, three brothers, a sister and their families.

They were among some 1.7 million people who were executed or died of torture, disease or starvation under Pol Pot's 1975-1979 reign of terror as his dream of creating an agrarian peasant utopia turned into the Killing Fields nightmare.

After fleeing to Thailand in 1979, Dith moved to the United States and worked as a photojournalist for The New York Times.

He also dedicated himself to speaking out against the Cambodian genocide and ran the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project to educate U.S. students about Cambodia's dark period. He was appointed a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in 1985.

"The Killing Fields" Runtime-- 2hr 22min(click through for full-screen):



And Henry Kissinger, one of the prime enablers of the Cambodian genocidal horrors, is still alive.


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Labels: In Memoriam

John Gorenfeld has put together an eighteen minute introductory companion video for his new book, Bad Moon Rising. Give a watch... and stop eating that Moonie sushi.

Inside the secret world of Washington Times publisher Rev. Sun Myung Moon; he arranged for himself to be coronated the "King of Peace" on Capitol Hill, with help from John McCain aide Charlie Black and members of Congress.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Tip o' the hat to Cell Whitman for the heads-up.



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Labels: Moonie Front Companies, Moonies, Sun Myung Moon