My "One World" Response Video

And here's mine. War != answer (war is not the answer). The Youtube video is here.

Revolutionary QOTD: November 21, 2006

This is the original "One World" video posted on Youtube making it's statement in a unique way and inviting others to make one in a similar way. It has inspired thousands of responses, including mine which I will post shortly.

Racist Rehab

Remember back when acoholics were drunks and when someone did something that indicated they might need some help with an alcohol problem, there was always the big denial. They would say something like, "I don't really have a problem with alcohol. I like to have a few drinks. Have some fun. I got out of control, but I'm not really an alcoholic." These days we have the complete opposite when it comes to openness about alcohol problems. In this age of celebrity rehab clinics, Oprah and the public emotional confessional, the first thing a public figure is ready to admit when they are busted doing anything embarrassing or wrong or even criminal is that they have a problem with alcohol and/or drugs. And they can at least unload some of the responsibility for what they did on their dependence problem. Then they fly into rehab and out of the public eye for awhile. It's almost a cliche at this point, especially after the Mark Foley scandal and several others.

Too bad we're not at that point of openness about racism and other forms of intolerance such as anti-semitism. One of the first things someone who does or says something racist is allowed to get away with is a denial that they are a racist or anti-semite. Mel Gibson said it after his drunken anti-semetic tirade. And now actor Michael Richards is saying that he is not racist after his public tirade at a comedy club. And he doesn't have alcohol or drugs to lay part of the blame on.

Now I get what Richards is saying about free associating and his pushing the envelop with is comedy. And maybe he tried to go somewhere with his routine and it just didn't work and he couldn't work his way out of it. I can't see into his or anyone's heart to tell you whether they are a racist or not. But I can hear what they say and see how they act and I can get a pretty good idea from it. And maybe if you are free associating and pushing the envelop, or driving drunk down PCH and what spews out of your mouth in a moment of stress is a diatribe of hate speech, maybe you could consider the possibility that you might have a problem with race or anti-semitism. Just maybe this is something you ought to look at.

The odd thing is that I started this post this morning, but didn't finish before I was supposed to go sailing with a friend, so I saved it. When I got back I had an email message from someone railing on me and calling me a racist for something I wrote almost a year ago about, about the case of Corey Maye. And the weird thing about it was that she was calling me a racist and my blog racist for alleging racism in the Maye case. It's come to the point in this country where if you dare point out that racism exists, or point to a case of racism, someone will say that you are racist for seeing it. The country is in such denial about race, they simply refuse to allow racism exists anymore.

I'm not one of these people who sees racism in everything. Far from it. But I'm not blind either. And unless I missed it when America reached that Martin Luther King I have a dream speech utopia where children, white and black, protestant and catholic are walking hand in hand and singing to the words of the Negro spirtual, free at last...well, you get the point. Some racism still exists in this country. Maybe we're just supposed to shut up about it and ignore it. Be a part of the denial.

If you're listening closely to Richards, and I haven't heard anyone else mention it yet, he calls the persons he was yelling at, "Afro-American". He's about a generation behind in his PC nomenclature and maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe we can come to a point in recognizing racial problems where we can see it, like alcohol and drug problems, as an illness. And someone doesn't have to be a bad person, and maybe they are someone who doesn't want to live with and express hate, but need help in order to rid themselves of it. Maybe we need a kind of racist rehab and that Oprah confessional kind of openness so that people can admit to it and get help with it.

Bad Comics

First bad cops, now bad comics being caught on video doing and saying bad things. The pervasiveness of the video camera makes it hard for people who do something that's highly embarrassing, as Richards did, and those who abuse their power, as those officers did in the video in my last post, to spin what they did afterward. When the whole world can see it as it happened, it gives them no opportunity to explain it way to people who weren't there to see it. Orwell warned us of the threat to liberty when Big Brother could see everything we do. But he never imagined what the same power in the hands of the public could do. These days it's Little Brother who's watching. Working as a check and balance on the power of Big Brother. The video on Youtube is here.

Bad Cops

Could it be a new Reality TV show? A new video by moi. More on this topic shortly. For now enjoy the video.

The Illusion of Homeland Security

This CNN report details problems at one of our nations Supermax prisons. Prisons which house the most dangerous terrorist prisoners in the world. One of the problems is lack of personnel to monitor their communications. Maybe they should call the NSA on that one. Over 300 billion spent on the War on Terror in Iraq. Our national reputation scared by support for torture of prisoners of war. Our freedoms threatened at home by the Patriot Act and domestic spying. But a drug dealer can run a major operation out of the most "secure" prison on the planet and terrorist can make phone calls to their friends without monitoring. Not to mention lack of security at our ports and along our border. Is Homeland Security just an illusion? Is it being maintained solely by war in oil rich countries abroad and at the cost of our civil liberties at home? The video is here. And on CNN.com here.

Google "the google on the Internets dot com".

Olbermann on Faux News Memos

Keith Olbermann discusses Fox News network memos that outline to reports ways to slant the news to the right. He discusses their complete lack of journalistic integrity with Robert Greenwald, maker of the documentary film Outfoxed. From MSNBC. The video is here. Also on MSNBC here.

Revolutionary QOTD: November 14, 2006

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
-Bob Marley.

This is kind of a Revolutionary QOTD replay. I used this quote back here on the anniversary of Bob Marley's death this year. I didn't use the video then. It's classic old-school reggae. Enjoy.

Make http://thegoogleontheinternets.com your default search engine.

-Fight the powers.

John Edwards on the Daily Show with John Stewart

Former Senator from North Carolina John Edwards on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Does Edwards seem a little hesitant when asked about an old associate? Stewart asks the questions other anchors dare not ask.

The Youtube Be Down

Youtube is down for maintenance so all my videos won't appear until they are back up. I guess that is the drawback of using Youtube videos. I have no idea how long they will be down or how often they do something like this. There was a notice on the site saying they'd be down at 9pm PST. It's only 8pm PST. Maybe they missed that whole end of Daylight Savings Time thing a couple weeks or so ago. Or maybe the maintenance is done by a bunch of nerds who blazed up a fattie of the ganjah beforehand. Dammit Chad and Steve. You make your 1.8 billion from the Google and do you care about us? The average everyday 'Tubers? Nuh uhnn. I guess if the Google paid me 1.8 billion I wouldn't care about you mofo's either.

I see what the problem be here. Their notice actually says 9pm PDT. That be Pacific Daylight Time. But it ain't Daylight Savings Time no mo. Dudes. Put down the joint and handle yo' bidness. K'?

Update: Just visited da tube and they are officially down now. As evinced by the graphic:

I guess they do be knowin' what time it be.

Update: They're back up and now I can get my tube on.

-Fight the powers.

A Daily Show Primer on Republican Campaign Strategy

The Daily Show, in a Rob Riggle report, looks farther ahead that anyone else in the news media. They look to the 2044 Pesidential Elections and in the process give a useful tutorial on Republican campaign strategies.

Google "the google on the internets dot com". It's recursive.

Nancy Pelosi Clarifies Feelings About Bush - the Daily Show

Pelosi gets no honeymoon from Jon Stewart and the Daily Show as Speaker of the House elect. In this clip she clarifies what she didn't and didn't say about President Bush previously.

It's About Time - Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Presidents, civil rights icons, celebrities and ordinary citizens gathered Monday on the National Mall, where construction is getting under way for a monument honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The monument will be built on a four-acre site near the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream " speech in 1963.

CNN.com

Revolutionary QOTD: November 13, 2006

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate.
-Marvin Gaye, What's Going On

Revolutionary QOTD: November 12, 2006

"But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow."

-The Beatles - Revolution.

Could they mean someone like me and the picture of El Che on my logo? Nah.

Bring Home the Troops - Send in LAPD

I'm probably not the first to say this after looking at this video. Not that the fisasco in Iraq is the fault in any way of the troops or that LAPD could do better, but they are bad ass. I just can't wait for the TV show, Greatest Rodney King Style Police Ass Whuppin's. Or When LAPD Attacks! There must be enough of this kind of footage to put together a special for sweeps week.

In fairness to the LAPD, the guy that they're on top of is probably a punk that I'd want to punch and I'm half a pacifist. And it appears one of the officers is trying to stop his partner. But it's something that shouldn't happen. I stress my fairness to LAPD in this regard because I myself don't want to end up the victim of one of these, as W would put it, thumpin's. Especially not one that ends up on video on the Youtube. Link to the video here.

-Don't "Fight the Powers" if they happen to be LAPD attempting to arrest you.

Satan, Get thee Behind Me - Bill Maher

Bill Maher weighs in on Republican mid-term elections rout on Real Time with Bill Maher, Friday, November 11, 2006. A direct link to the video is here. YASP (Yet Another Shameless Plug): The Google on the Internets, http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/.

-Fight the powers.

I Enjoy Cocaine Because....

Who says an interview with Stephen Colbert is the kiss of death for a politician? This is an exerpt from his Better Know a District series with Congressman Robert Wexler (D) Forida. Colbert points out that every congressman he interviewed won Tuesday. A link to the video is here.

Revolutionary QOTD: November 10, 2006

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

-Thomas Jefferson.

Update: Maher Outs Ken Mehlman on Larry King Live

We now have the CNN approved version of Bill Maher's interview on Larry King Live the other night. As I said in an earlier post, CNN had Youtube remove the video that showed the part they censored, Maher's "outing" of Mehlman. Although most people are saying, and Maher said himself, that it was pretty well known around Washington. And that if he was the first to say it, he'd be sued. Apparently CNN has no copyright problem with this version of the interview. See any similarities between this and another earlier post about how the White House created their own revised version of history? A link to the video is here.

-Fight the powers.

Stephen Colbert Sings National Anthem with Congressman John Hall

Stephen Colbert helps to heal our national divide by singing the National Anthem with singer/songwriter, co-founder of Orleans and new Democratic congressman from New York's 19th district, John Hall. A link to the video is here.

YASP (Yet Another Shameless Plug): The Google on the Internets @ http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/.

-Fight the powers.

Ed Bradley, Veteran CBS News Reporter Dies

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Ed Bradley, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent whose probing questions and deceptively relaxed interviewing manner graced some of that show's most notable reports, has died. He was 65.

Bradley died Thursday at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital of leukemia, according to staff members at the CBS program.

The full story at CNN is here. A link to the video is here. Ed was truly the coolest reporter on the major networks. We will miss him.

Well, Blend My Balls - Will it Blend?

Ok, this is just plain odd, but there are a series of videos on the Youtube that ask the intriguing question, "Will it Blend?" One of my favs is the one above where our host Tom Dickson blends 50 marbles to make glass dust and warns, "Don't breathe this." Indeed. He also blends, another fav of mine, and entire McDonald's Value Meal, a can of Coke, and his balls. That is his golf balls. Yes folks, Tom Dickson blends his balls. I'm not making it up. The link is here. The rest can be seen by clicking the tab "More from this User". Uhm, goes without saying, but I'll say it, don't try this at home.

YASP (Yet Another Shameless Plug): The Google on the Internets @ http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/.

-Fight the powers.

Revolutionary QOTD: November 9, 2006

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Maher Outs Ken Mehlman on Larry King Live

From the Huffington Post: The link is here. I saw the show last night and HuffPo says that when CNN re-aired Larry King Live later that evening that Bill Maher's comments stating Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman is gay were removed from the show. I set the DVR to record the later show and didn't get the comments. There was a video on the Youtubes, but it was removed for copyright infringement.

Some of Bill's best one-liners were, when Larry King asked why someone who is gay would want to be in a party determined to limit their rights, he said, "because hating yourself is the greatest love of all." That about sums it up and I think applies equally to black, Latino and any oppressed minority Republicans. That should be my Revolutionary QOTD. It's a great line. He also said, "lots of people wanted to vote straight Republican but they couldnt find one." There also were some great comments posted on AMERICAblog.com this morning:

I can't accept that, sorry. Mehlman is just too ugly to be gay. Last night he looked like his head was shrivelling and imploding from all the lies it's had to juggle. Please god, no, he's just too ugly to be gay. Period!
AnthonyinAtlanta | 11.08.06 - 10:22 pm |

The issue for me isn't that all these Republicans are Gay it's that in order to be a Republican a gay person can't be himself and has to hide so deeply that it breeds not just passive acquiesence to the demonization of Gays by the hatemongers in their party, but pandering to the Gaybashers for political reasons and/or actual overt Gaybashing of their own. Yes, many of these people are victims who have been so twisted by the homophobia in our society that their attempts to externalize their self-loathing is not truly their own fault. There are others however, who conciously and actively gaybait as a survival strategy, to stay undiscovered and to direct suspicion away from themselves. These people--the Gannons, the Mehlmans, and their ilk--are reprehensible slime and should be outted, not to expose and excoriate them for being Gay (which is their right to be) but for using their political power to hurt others in such a viciously dishonest way. The crime is that through their political power they could actually work to obliterate homophobia in the Republican Party and in American society.
Bash the Bluenoses | 11.09.06 - 6:38 am |

-Fight the powers.

Amazingly Graceless - Faith Hill

Transcript: One of the weirdest phenomenon I've seen on the Youtube is that Faith Hill CMA freak out thing. If you've taken a look at the top 100 lately you may have noticed that the same footage of her freaking out at the CMA's is up there on the first page, count 'em, about at least nine times. With over 2 million views on the top one, a million views here, over nine hundred thousand views on the next couple.

I find that amazing, and I am wondering if the same people are watching this same clip on different videos that many times. The first clip even has a close up. And a far out shot. And when you notice that the clips are about the same length you should know that they're probably the same thing and not anything new. Maybe I'm wrong and there's 5 million different people viewing these clips. But it seems a bit, well, I hate to put it that way, but it seems a bit retarded to watch the same video of a self-absorbed ungracious celebrity throwing a hissy fit because things didn't go her way.

It seems to me that you could act behave with a little tact and grace, even if it was a joke, one of the videos I think mentions that, I haven't paid enough attention to know if that's true or not, it's still not a very gracious way to act at an awards show. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was a publicity stunt.

And it's even more amazing when you think about in the context of Tuesday having been one of the most important elections of at least the past 5 or 6 years. One that may change the course of our nation in a time of war. Youtube is an excellent platform for political and activist speech, for artistic expression and yes, even for entertainment. Even silly entertainment. I'm not knocking that. In fact it's one of the things I love about it. That's what it's for and that's cool. But the fact that there was hardly a single political video in the top 20 on that day is incredible.

And when you think that only 39% of the voting age public voted Tuesday. Not to be a hypocit, there's been times, and I'm not proud of it, I haven't voted. But 39% is sad for what many Americans will claim is the greatest Democracy on earth. And who feel it's important to bring Democracy to Iraq, where people risked their lives to vote. I don't know if the same people watching the Faith Hill videos are in that 39% of voters or not. I don't know this for sure, there's no way to measure, but it seems there's more interest in Faith Hill and her freak out at the CMAs than there is in our Democracy.
End transcript.

Original Youtube video link here.

Yet another shameless plug: http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

-Fight the powers.

Update: Because I blogged this I feel obligated to set the record straight. It's not that I care at all whether Faith Hill was joking or not in her reaction to loosing at the CMAs the other night. My point was that it got way more attention than the election, which got almost none, on Youtube. But that's just Youtube I guess. But I did comment on it so here's a link to her explanation.

Revolutionary QOTD: November 8, 2006

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.

-George Orwell.

No doubt. Ok, I used an Orwell quote yesterday. I was on Colbert Nation's Message Boards and it was "ThePatient's" sig and it saved me the trouble of having to look for one for today. If I borrow from enough posts, this thing practically writes itself.

Nancy Pelosi Speaks on Election Night 2006

Nancy Pelosi will be our nation's first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives as Democrats take control of the House. She says that Americans have voted for change and vows that Democrats will lead the most open, honest and ethical congress in history.

Vote!

A patriotic message from A Revolution of One blog on this Election Day 2006. Vote!

And now a shameless plug from same: Vote for us in the Contageous Festival @ Huffington Post, http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/.

Revolutionary QOTD: November 7, 2006

"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth."

-1984, George Orwell.

The quote above is from the character Winston Smith in the novel 1984. Of course we aren't living in a society as repressive and Orwell's 1984. Yet. But the video above shows how close we are coming to it. This society is like 1984 with shopping malls, SUVs, and 500 channels of cable TV. I tried to get to the White House video, but it wouldn't come up. Maybe it's flooded with hits or maybe the White House is fixing it again. The link to the exact page is here. I found the video via Huffington Post. The direct link to the video on Youtube is here.

Borat on Letterman, You Look on It, Please?

Borat, I like very much. You like? He appears on the David Lettermans. High five! You go look on it. Genqui.

-Fight the powers.

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment - Changing Justifications for Iraq

Olbermann's Special Comment from last night, November 6, 2006 on the changing justifications given by George W. Bush to justify the Iraq war. On the eve of the 2006 mid-term elections, Bush on the campaign trail amazingly, miraculously, admits that one reason for the war is oil. Something he repeatedly vehemently denied previously. As the reasons for invading Iraq are exposed for the illusions they are, new ones replace them. Keith provides a history of them from the beginning. Direct link to the video here.

Shameless Plug: Vote for us in Huffington Post's Contagious Festival - http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/.

-Fight the powers.

Update: A commenter on Youtube reminded me of Keith's key point. We can't blame Bush, but must blame ourselves for letting this happen. Amen.

Free Hugs Campaign. Inspiring Story!

You may have seen this because it's been out there awhile. Coincidentally it was uploaded to Youtube on my birthday this year, September 22. How's that for sychronicity dude? In any case, it may sound sappy for a cynical revolutionary like myself to say, but it is a great video and an inspiring story (just as the title says). And it lets you all know that this blog isn't all about revolution and what's wrong with things in the world, and of course, the Global War Against the Man. No siree. It's about hugs too. A direct link to the video is here.

Also a reminder, ok, alright, a shameless plug for ourselves. If you haven't already, please visit http://thegoogleontheinternets.cf.huffingtonpost.com/ and help us climb back up the rankings in the Huffington Post's Contageous Festival. We've slipped to numero 10. Doh!

-Fight the powers.

Swift Boated Again, Doh!

Video Transcript:

I'm going to speak for Senator Kerry here. Because it seems his party just wants him to shut up and go away. Over the past few days we've seen what is tantamount to a second Swift boating of the Senator. Except this time some of the Swift boaters are Tony Snow, President Bush, and to his great shame, Senator John McCain. Every single one of them knew full well, as they were making their attacks on Senator Kerry, that what they were saying is at best a distortion of the facts. At worst, a flat out lie. They all knew that Senator Kerry was bashing Bush and his policies, specifically the Iraq war. They all knew that his remarks were not directed at troops serving our country. They knew, but they made the allegations anyway because they are desperate, and even when they are not desperate, they will do anything, including tell a bald faced lie to win an election.

These are the Republicans, whose leadership claims to be more moral than the secular liberal Democrats. Who claim to be so moral that they can protect the sanctity of marriage from gay couples. So moral they can protect embryos that will be discarded anyway from medical research that could save lives. So moral that they can protect children from the science of evolution in our public schools. But they will tell a bald faced lie to win an election.

They so love democracy that they will spend billions and sacrifice the lives of our young men and women and innocent Iraqi men, women and children, to guarantee it to the citizens of Iraq. But they will tell a bald faced lie to win and election here at home.

And it is amazing that John McCain an American war hero who withstood 5 years of severe physical torture as a prisoner of war, is unable to stand up to the low down sleaze ball politics of his own party. Especially when it he himself was a victim of it. In the 2000 Presidential primary elections, he was the victim of push polls that asked southern voters if they'd vote for him if they knew he had an illegitimate black child. They knew he had no such child. But that he and his wife had adopted a Bangladeshi child. McCain also recently, astoundingly, caved in and supported Bush's legislation that in essence allows the torture of prisoners of war.

It seemed for one brief shinning moment that John Kerry was going to stand up and not let himself be Swift boated again. He stood up and made a ballsy comeback in a press conference in Seattle. But the limp weenies of the Democratic Party called him off. Asked him to apologize, knowing full well he had nothing to apologize for. So afraid to fight back against the low down slime ball politics of the Republican party that they laid down again and took it.

Who is a better friend of the troops and military veterans than Senator John Kerry? He supported legislation to increase combat pay for active military and death benefits for those killed in an ill-advised war. Legislation this Republican congress and President Bush opposed. While Dick Cheney's buddies at Halliburton and other defense contractors got fat by the billions, our troops were scrounging scrap metal to armor their humvees and sending letters home to ask family to ante up for body armor. For these Republicans, "Support the Troops" is a bumper sticker that translates, "Support Our War for Oil in Iraq".

Democrats are as spinelessness as Republicans are shameless. But theirs is not the only spinelessness that allows Republicans to get away with these lies and distortions. They could not get away with this if the 10 second sound bite mainstream media was not as spineless. Or lazy. Or maybe the MSM is more like the Republicans. I don’t want to say they are complicit in spreading Republican lies, but it certainly does play in their favor. You see if they had picked up a transcript, as Chris Matthews did, or reviewed a tape to find the context of the statements Senator Kerry made, which you'd think as reporters they'd want to do, because it's their job, it becomes a non-story instead of one that plays for several news cycles. If they did anything but accept and pass on what is passed to them from Republican hacks, this story disappears immediately.

Democrats would love for this story to go away as quickly as possible and that's why they want John Kerry to apologize, tuck his tail between his legs and disappear. Republicans would like for it to play as long as possible so that they can draw attention away from their failed policies, especially Iraq. But there's another alternative. That is to turn the focus of this story on the slimy sleazy low down dirty tactics that are used by these Republican hacks. Write the candidates, your political representatives, the media, blog, vlog and post comments and turn the focus of this story from Kerry ineptitude and Democratic spinelessness to Republican sliminess and lying. And keep the focus on that until Election Day when we can throw those bastards out of office.

End of Transcript.

That was my first vlog. Don't know how I feel about listening to myself. Anyway, here's a link to the original offending 10 second sound bit that swift boated Sen. Kerry.