All the News That's Fit to Fake

From Raw Story

A study by a group that monitors the media reveals that, over a ten month span, 77 television stations from all across the nation aired video news releases without informing their viewers even once that the reports were actually sponsored content, RAW STORY has found.

One "news report" that aired on three stations relied on a video news release (VNR) produced by a PR firm on behalf of General Motors which was even apparently based on a "false claim."

Does your station air fake news? Does mine?

One More Piece in our Puzzle?

This is why big kids still play in the dirt"

The skeletons have the fins, scales and other attributes of a giant fish, four to nine feet long. But on closer examination, the scientists found telling anatomical traits of a transitional creature, a fish that is still a fish but has changes that anticipate the emergence of land animals — and is thus a predecessor of amphibians, reptiles and dinosaurs, mammals and eventually humans.

Dug this up at Americablog

Your Money in Their Hands

Via the Huffington Post, a story of incompetence that boggles the mind and strangles the heart. Read about your money:

A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.

It's not the only contract they have:

Security And Justice Sector - Parsons Inc. (US)... Provide design-build construction services for projects associated with the rehabilitation and construction of Iraqi security and justice facilities and facilities for the Iraqi National Defense Force

Repair of Iraq's Oil Infrastructure (North) - Parsons Iraqi Joint Venture (US)... Repair and restore Iraq's oil infrastructure in the northern region

Tadji Military Base renovation - Parsons Inc. (US)... Reconstruct and renovate the Tadji military base and the Iraqi Armed Forces recruiting stations

More later...

44

There were 44 people
At my funeral
I liked
Four
I
Didn’t know the others

The grass smelled like diesel
Ash
Gas
Cigarettes
1978 or 9

I wrote
Better yet
Sang
A song
As wide
As Alaska as
dead as
Buddha’s toenails
As
Easy as apples

I loved all 44
One
For each caliber

David Byrne and Brian Eno

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts came out in 1981. Over the last decades, hundreds of artists in genres ranging from DJs to alternative to electronic have all borrowed from its ideas and claimed its influence. It is now being re-issued in a beautiful new package, with extensive liner notes and photos, and featuring 7 previously unreleased tracks from the original album and a film by influential artist Bruce Conner.

I'd somehow missed that one, but that will soon be recitfied.

From the Snowflake Preservation Society...

[Links fixed] This is the coolest thing I've seen since Sunday.

Ever wanted to catch a snowflake and keep it forever? You can. This is a photograph of a snowflake that fell in January 1979, but it isn’t a 27-year-old photo. It is a recent shot of a snowflake that’s been sitting in chemist Tryggvi Emilsson’s desk for 27 years, locked in a drop of that miracle of modern chemistry we call superglue.

And I gotta learn that on April 1. Sheesh. C'mon December, I've got snowflakes to entomb.

(Things like this are why I go to Metafilter)

Oh jeez, now you're gonna make me cry

I just saw this at Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

Buck Owens played a show at his club, Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, hours before he died on Friday night. And he did it for you and me:

"He had come to the club early and had a chicken-fried steak dinner and bragged that it's his favorite meal,"[family spokesperson Jim] Shaw said. After dinner, Owens told band members he didn't feel up to performing and decided to drive home. On his way to his car, fans on their way in told him that they had come from Bend, Ore., and that they were really looking forward to hearing him sing. Owens turned around and did the show.

"He mentioned that onstage: 'If somebody's come all that way, I'm gonna do the show and give it my best shot. I might groan and squeak, but I'll see what I can do,' " Shaw said. "He died in his sleep — they figure it was about 4:30 [a.m.] — probably of heart failure. So he had his favorite meal, played a show and died in his sleep. We thought, that's not too bad."

Not too bad at all, Buck.

Seargant Major Myers

I just found a new blog and a well-written and powerful post by Sgt. Major Larry A. Myers, U.S. Army (Retired). He spent 27 years in the Army, including combat tours in Vietnam.

And he's got a thought or two about the situation in Iraq.

Bottomfeeders

Bottomfeeders, originally uploaded by Little Thom.

This is the cover shot from my CD, Bottomfeeders, shot by the lovely and talented Susan Parker, CD designed by Eric Warren.

You can hear songs from Bottomfeeders at the Vital Links on the top right of the page. And you can even buy one.

Okay.

Ramblin' Boy

From the handsome blog Body and Soul, a link to a great song by a great maker of songs and a personal favorite, Tom Paxton.

The Last Dance

A Sunday salute to one of the real giants.

The official site.

Those Old Sayings...

Benjamin Franklin said, "A stitch in time saves nine." Hmm. "A stitch in time saves nine."

It’s like time is this big piece of fabric that has a hole in it, and nine is gonna escape through the hole unless you stitch it up. That would be bad. What would we do without nine?

No more baseball.

No more bowling.

And how would we get to ten? We’d have to build a bridge from eight to ten. And only eight people could work on it until it was done. And they better finish the job in eight hours. We’re in big trouble if they don’t.

Of course everything would be okay if 6 was 9. Then every time you need a 9, you could just grab a 6. You’d be like: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, reach back and grab the 6—it's okay! 6 is 9!—10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, reach back and grab the 9 that was 6 and you’ve got you’re 16! You wouldn’t even have to stitch up time; you could just leave the hole in it. If the hole came around and said, “Hey, that’s a 9, isn’t it? Gimme that 9." You could say “What, this? This isn’t a 9. This is a 6." What’s the hole gonna do?

Benjamin Franklin was a pretty smart guy. But not as smart as Jimi Hendrix.


Have you been experienced lately?

The Naked Eye

I was in science class one time when I was a kid. The teacher was teaching us about atoms, and she said that they were "invisible to the naked eye." That fascinated me. "Invisible to the naked eye."

I really wanted to see some of those atoms, so when I got home from school that day I made little suits for my eyes so they wouldn't be naked anymore. Little tiny eye-pants, little tiny eye-shirts, and little eye-socks and shoes. Mom helped me sew them to my eyelids. It was really cool.

I don’t know if my eye suits would have allowed me to see atoms though, cuz the next morning on the way to school I got hit by a truck. You might not be able to see atoms with the naked eye, but I’m pretty sure I would saw that truck.

Riverdancers to be Arrested

BRANSON, MISSOURI: The FBI announced today that agents will begin arresting people for riverdancing, after the EPA said the practice was polluting rivers. "We'd been noticing a dramatic rise in pollutants in the nation's rivers for some time," said EPA spokeswoman Jilly Montange, "and we finally found the cause. It's riverdancing." FBI officers said dancers could face up to 15 years in prison.

On a similar note, cities across the nation have begun passing laws making breakdancing illegal. They said the practice was harming the otherwise respectable image of coffee, lunch, and restroom breaks.

Three Weeks Before 9/11

I confess to being completely ignorant of these facts
about the Moussaoui case until I just read this. How
is that possible? And how is this story possible?

In an electronic communication sent to his superiors on Aug. 18, 2001, Samit said he believed Moussaoui was "conspiring to commit a terrorist act."

Samit also warned that Moussaoui, who did not have a pilot's license, had been taking simulator lessons to learn the basics of flying a jumbo jet. Samit expressed his concerns that Moussaoui was plotting a possible hijacking.

"You thought you had a terrorist who was planning a terrorist attack. And you wanted everyone in the government to know," MacMahon asked Samit.

"Yes," he replied.

Although he sent numerous e-mails and formal requests to various agents and to his superiors, Samit said he was unable to get authority to seek a warrant in order to search Moussaoui's belongings.

MacMahon quoted from a report in which Samit accused people at FBI headquarters of "criminal negligence" and said they were just trying to protect their own careers.

Cashing in on hysterical

there's this guy just off the screen to the right
must be a brown paper bag
what's in the bag?
peanut butter sandwich?
nah, this is a bar, not elementary school
and i'll ignore that
rustling in right eardrum
that's a nice thing that
a paper risp in your ear
might be like he steps to the back of the mound
grinds into a slider powder
'batter up!'
salami sub from down the street?
yeah, wait, no, it's 11 a.m. sunday
noone eats subs this early on sunday
seeing how saturday night's bought
most of the real estate
from its weekend business partner
okay turn the head what the hell
i've got a spine i've got all the muscles necessary
for cranial rotation
oh, rest stop, the camera settles on
bartender white muscle shirt
wrap around flowered skirt
brown freckled shoulders
ahhhhhhhhhhh
who needs brown paper bags full of
wo!
twenty dollar bills
hey now, i wasn't finished counting the petals
stretchin my back
she's got her back to me
cleaning the cash register or something
upper back muscles rippling
triceps doin pushups
she's been exercising
riding a bike, drinking from a plastic
water bottle on a rock in the sun
she a camper, a hiker
she's a bartender, smokes
camel lights
looks me straight in the eye
when she says she's from new hampshire
and you got something behind that question
or you just gonna sit there and look stupid?
oh, i just wanted to talk
to hear you talk see
you talk to me your
mouth move to glance down
peep zap buzz brown
paper bags at the poker machine
ya know, some would say
that money belongs in a little basket
passed into your lap
on a sunday morning
but hey, i know
you play the odds
and the oregon lottery's
got it all over
a second royal flush
i go back to the flowers
i go back to the freckle hey!
whatcha do in new hampshire?
whyju come over here?
what's your middle name?
talk at me
here's my basket there
ain't nothin behind it
just this hysterical coming
this
jackpot

Blogger is Whacky Today

I went to my address and got sent to a "Bible College Online". The URL was right and everything. Whacked.

Emailing It In

Just figured out how to email a post in. Too cool. I
could get used to this.

And just in case you've been living in a cave and
haven't already heard about it, get on over to Blue
Grass Talk Radio. What else is there to talk about?

First, they came for Missouri:

"If you hand out contraception to single women, we're saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that."

Via Fired Up Missouri.

Poor, Poor, Pitiful Us

History we all know: We rebelled against the British because the British governed us unfairly. Basically put: the super-wealthy ruled, and used the power afforded by their wealth to suppress and exploit the less wealthy.

We created a new form of government exactly as a response to that, one of its chief functions being, not surprisingly, the protection of the less wealthy from the super-wealthy.

We need to remember that, and we need to do a better job of it.

FACT: Jim Gerlach has taken $30,000 in contributions from indicted former House Majority leader Tom DeLay and he won’t give it back.

FACT: Jim Gerlach has voted with Tom DeLay 90% of the time.

FACT: We asked Gerlach to give back DeLay’s money, but he has refused.

These are the facts. They are indisputable.

And Clear Channel won't let you see them.

That’s right, media giant Clear Channel wouldn't let us run an ad that informs the people of Pennsylvania’s Sixth Congressional District about the tainted money Jim Gerlach has taken from indicted former Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Clear Channel refused to run this billboard (pictured above).

Clear Channel told us they wouldn’t run any billboard “that might make Jim Gerlach mad.” We’re not kidding. Clear Channel is a supporter of Jim Gerlach and has contributed money to his campaign.

There are other and clearer examples, and I'll be presenting them in posts to come. Especially: How taxation can and should be used to prevent the super-wealthy from taking control of government. Remember: It is one of the primary reasons we created this country.