So, Craigslist is now charging $5 per post to people offering services in the adult gigs list.
Nevermind that erotic services are part of the greatness of Craigslist - many women across the country rely on supplemental income from masturbating in front of a camera, and many men across the country rely on dirty videos and photographs for their source of nookie.
Nevermind that a Supreme Court ruling on Miller v. California defined pornography in such a way that most advertising contains pornographic content, as outlined below:(http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/851.html#12)
1. Would the average person, applying contemporary community standards find that the material:
when taken as a whole,
appeals to a prurient interest in sex (i.e., an erotic, lascivious, degrading, unhealthy, morbid interest)?
2. Would the average person find the material depicts or describes:
sexual conduct (i.e., ultimate sex acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, lewd exhibition of the genitals, excretory functions, sadism, and masochism)
in a patently offensive way? AND
3. Would a reasonable person find the material:
as a whole,
lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value?
If you don't agree with me, just turn on you television, or watch this:
I'm not saying we should crack down on sex in advertising, per se. I think marketing as a whole needs to be revamped, but that's for another article. What angers me about this situation is the double standard. Big corporations can get away with lascivious content in their advertising, but individuals who want to make a private video or have sexual photographs taken of them for fun, and to earn a bit of extra cash, have to pay money to post their services, disclosing their credit card information, with no refund if their post is flagged.
It's coming to an end. I know that most of you are excited. It's almost palpable, like an entire nation (or at least 70% of it) waiting to breathe that big sigh of relief. Regardless of your feelings on Obama (my own are mixed), the excitement about this is incredible. I have friends that plan on burning photographs of Bush (including one who's lived under the Rule of a Bush throughout a lot of her lifetime - she's from texas). Big parties planned for late January...
And, in honor of this momentous occasion, a look back at the Bush administration! I promise to do my best to make this entertaining... and keep in mind that this is hardly comprehensive. I'm just trying to stick to the most outrageous and major events of the bush era.
Remember the 2000 GOP primaries? Ah, the salad days (kinda sad that I look back on the late 90's and pre-9/11 2000's as a good time, but by comparison...), our nation finally had a balanced budget, we felt completely secure in our military and financial dominance, and the Republican candidate who seemed the sanest was John McCain (oh, how times change!). Along comes W, boasting a record of bipartisanship in Texas and... not much else. Tax cuts! We'll all get big tax cuts (assuming we make over $250,000!), whee!
So, Bush edges out McCain by pandering to the Religious Right (which McCain, still at the time in possession of some principles, did not do), and running robocalls about his main rival which suggested that McCain had fathered an Illegitimate African-American baby (Karl Rove really is a sadistic bastard, huh?).
On to the big campaign! How to beat Gore? Well, distortion always helps - Gore championed and helped pass a bill that transformed the military computer system ARPAnet into the civilian version, the internet, and claimed his small part in the creation of this communications tool. So... "GORE SAYS HE INVENTED THE INTERNET! Oh, that big fat liar!"
Or at least, something along those lines.
Other ways to beat Gore: be a better debater, and criticize his foreign policy. Bush, in his defense, did a pretty decent job in the debates. He would have kicked his own ass only 4 years later, but let's not get ahead of ourselves... anyway, here's an entertaining video of the George Bush we forgot existed.
But you know what? That was not enough, as we now know. Theft is the surefire way to win an election. This is done by purging voters you are sure will not vote for your candidate. Typically you can tell them by the color of their skin, but that is not the only way to tell if someone is a dirty liberal....
in any case: "If Vice President Al Gore is wondering where his Florida votes went, rather than sift through a pile of chad, he might want to look at a "scrub list" of 173,000 names targeted to be knocked off the Florida voter registry by a division of the office of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. A close examination suggests thousands of voters may have lost their right to vote based on a flaw-ridden list that included purported "felons" provided by a private firm with tight Republican ties." http://www.gregpalast.com/floridas-flawed-voter-cleansing-program-saloncoms-politics-story-of-the-year/more-937
Voters were purged en mass in Florida. Because of how our electoral system works, it is not necessary to steal the elections in every state (as there are 50 separate elections when we vote for the President)- just sway it in a few influential swing states. The Bush team did this brilliantly in 2000 with Florida.
Inauguration day, 2001:
The next months were fairly uneventful. Senator James Jeffords switched from Republican to Independent, sighting the "intolerant, rightward thrust" of the GOP in recent years, giving the Democrats a one-seat majority over the Republicans.
Summer, 2001: The FAA recieves 52 seperate warnings of Al-Queda planning to hijack airlines. This is in addition to warnings that the Bush administration recieved from Russia, France, England, Israeli Mossad, and at least 6 other international intelligence agencies.
September 11th, 2001...
...you know the rest.
Within 2 hours of the buildings collapsing, Military and ex-military officials are pointing the finger of blame at Osama Bin Ladin on mainstream news outlets.
Here, I've got to step aside and say: Since when do we know the culprit of a murder within 2 hours of the murder? A simple murder investigation takes much longer, let along the murder of 3,000 people.
As for the rest of 9/11, I'll leave it to section 2 of Zeitgeist.
October, 2001: While Congress is in a panic over the Anthrax scare, the Bush administration pushes through a bill to 'help us combat terrorism.' In a display of what I would call fake patriotism (not to mention childishness), it's called the USA PATRIOT ACT. It restricts many of our constitutional rights and civil liberties (1st amendment - restricted. 4th, 5th amendments - also restricted), and the passage of the bill was almost unanimous (only Senator Russell Feingold was with the terrorists that day, saying that he would like to have time to READ something before voting on it).
The Department of Homeland Security. Another layer of beaurocracy, we are told, will prevent further terrorist acts. Government Agencies such as FEMA now report to the DHS.
The assault on Afghanistan begins. NBC news reported in May 2002 that a formal National Security Presidential Directive submitted two days before September 11, 2001 had outlined essentially the same war plan that the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon put into action after the Sept. 11 attacks. The plan dealt with all aspects of a war against al-Qaida, ranging from diplomatic initiatives to military operations in Afghanistan, including outlines to persuade Afghanistan's Taliban government to turn al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden over to the United States, with provisions to use military force if it refused. (Source: Wikipedia. Yeah, I was lazy on this one)
Interesting Side note on afghanistan - before the Soviet-Afghan war, it produced none of the world's heroin supply. By the late 80's, after the CIA/ISI trained Mujahadeen had victory, they produced 40%. By 1999, 80%. Then the taliban rose to power, and they were vicious and brutal, a regular medival army, but they destroyed 94% of the poppy fields in Afghanistan. After the US invasion, Afghanistan is once again producing over 80% of the world's opium supply. Interestingly, planting season for opium poppies is November - when we succeeded in "liberating" the nation... Opium production levels vastly increased after the US invasion http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2361453.stm Opium production is one of the easiest ways to make money in that country http://opioids.com/afghanistan/opium-economy.html
Guantanamo Bay: starting shortly after the invasion of afghanistan "enemy combatants" are housed in a prison of the Naval base at guantanamo bay, cuba. Enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding take place starting in 2002. Bush claims that Geneva convention regulations on the treatment of prisoners do not apply to enemy combatants.
January, 2002: Bush Signs No Child Left Behind into law. More accurately titled "No Child's Behind Left." Bush Blocks public inquiry into the attacks of 9/11. Reason? We don't want the terrorists to know how we gather information.
Also in January - The John Yoo Torture memo! John Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General (now a Professor at UC Berkeley, which refuses to fire him despite public outcry) writes a memo which says the 4th amendment does not apply to the war on terror. He also states that the President can authorize any action at all as commander-in-chief in wartime.
March, 2002 - NSA Warrantless Wiretapping program begins
September, 2002: Iraq: the new Vietnam. Condoleeza Rice says we don't want the smoking gun of evidence in regards to Iraqi WMDs to come in the form of a mushroom cloud. Faulty intelligence in regards to what Iraq is doing: Colin Powell claims that metal cyllanders are clear evidence that saddam is building WMDs.
November, 2002: Bush finally allows an investigation into 9/11, though hardly an independent one. Initial budget: $3 million. Original proposed head of 9/11 Investigation: Henry Kissinger (you know, that guy that helped overthrow the democratically elected President of Chili on September 11, 1973). Kissinger resigns after it is discovered that his firm, Kissinger and Associates, represents members of the Bin Ladin family. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/13/kissinger.resigns/
2003: "Nigerian Yellowcake." "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein is trying to reconstitute Nuclear Weapons." UN Inspectors beg for more time to search. Denied. Bombing begins in March - "Shock and Awe"
March 2003-Present: Construction Companies such as Halliburton reap massive profits off of "No-Bid" contracts, with "Cost-Plus" incentives - meaning that for whatever they buy, the government will pay the entire bill plus give them a percentage of the cost. Now THAT'S a deal! But they only did high quality projects, right?
....hmmm.... maybe not.
May - "Mission Accomplished." End of Major Combat Operations!
July - Insurgency. Mission Un-Accomplished? Bush seems unruffled: "Bring em on." Joseph Wilson blows whistle on WMD claims. His wife, Valarie Plame, is outed as an undercover CIA officer. Controversy ensues - "Scooter" to take the fall for it, but that comes later. I think this is the last I'll mention of it, however.
August to the new year - Insurgency rages on. Apparently, people don't like occupying armies, no matter how bad their former leaders were. Who knew?
April, 2004: Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse comes to light
People see these photos and start to wonder about Guantanomo bay a little bit more.
October, 2004 - Debates with Presidential Contender John Kerry. Kerry supporters say he whoops Bush. Bush supporters say otherwise. Kerry manages to somehow be more dull and robotic than Al Gore was in 2000.
November, 2004 - Ohio is 'Floridated.' Voter purging, caging lists, a lack of voting machines in heavily liberal districts, extremely hackable voting machines, etc. 4 to 8 Hour lines to vote. Bush declares victory...
To Be Continued in Pt II: Drive the country like you stole it (2004-2008)
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended the country’s legislature for more than seven weeks in a bid to stave off a challenge from opposition parties seeking to bring down his government.
Harper, re-elected in October, said Governor General Michaelle Jean, who acts as the country’s head of state, agreed to his request to close Parliament until Jan. 26. The government’s first order of business will be a budget scheduled for Jan. 27, Harper said, calling on the opposition to work with his administration on a “stimulus” package for the ailing economy...
President-elect Barack Obama introduced his principal national-security Cabinet selections to the world Monday and left no doubt that he intends to start his administration on a war footing. Perhaps the least well known among them is retired Marine Gen. James Jones, Obama’s pick for national security adviser. The position is crucial—think of the power that Henry Kissinger wielded in Richard Nixon’s White House. A look into who James Jones is sheds a little light on the Obama campaign’s promise of “Change We Can Believe In.”
Jones is the former supreme allied commander of NATO. He is president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. The institute has been criticized by environmental groups for, among other things, calling for the immediate expansion of domestic oil and gas production and issuing reports that challenged the use of the Clean Air Act to combat global warming.
Recently retired from the military, Jones has parlayed his 40-year military career into several corporate directorships. Among them is Cross Match Technologies, which makes biometric identification equipment. More germane to Jones’ forthcoming role in Obama’s inner circle, though, might be Jones’ seat as a director of Boeing, a weapons manufacturer, and as a director of Chevron, an oil giant.
Chevron has already sent one of its directors to the White House: Condoleezza Rice. As a member of that California-based oil giant’s board, she actually had a Chevron oil tanker named after her, the Condoleezza Rice. The tanker’s name was changed, after some embarrassment, when Rice joined the Bush administration as national security adviser. So now Chevron has a new person at the highest level of the executive branch. With Robert Gates also keeping his job as secretary of defense, maybe Obama should change his slogan to “Continuity We Can Believe In.”
But what of a Chevron director high up in the West Wing? Obama’s attacks on John McCain during the campaign included a daily refrain about the massive profits of ExxonMobil, as if that was the only oil company out there. Chevron, too, has posted mammoth profits. Chevron was also a defendant in a federal court case in San Francisco related to the murder, 10 years ago, of two unarmed, peaceful activists in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. On May 28, 1998, three Chevron helicopters ferried Nigerian military and police to the remote section of the Delta known as Ilajeland, where protesters had occupied a Chevron offshore drilling platform to protest Chevron’s role in the destruction of the local environment. The troops opened fired on the protesters. Two were killed, others were injured. (Rice was in charge of the Chevron board’s public policy committee when it fought off shareholder resolutions demanding that Chevron improve its human rights and environmental record in Nigeria.)
One of those shot was Larry Bowoto, who, along with the family members of those killed, filed suit in California against Chevron for its role in the attack. Just after Jones was named Obama’s national security adviser Monday, a jury acquitted Chevron. Bowoto told me: “I was disappointed in the judgment by the jury. I believe personally the struggle continues. I believe the attorney representing us will not stay put. He will take the initiative in going to the court of appeals.” I met Bowoto in 1998, just months after he was shot. He showed me his bullet wounds when I interviewed him in the Niger Delta. I also met Omoyele Sowore, who has since come to the U.S. and started the news Web site SaharaReporters.com.
Sowore has followed the case closely. Though disappointed, he said: “We have achieved one major victory: Chevron’s underbelly was exposed in this town. ... Also there is Nigeria: Protesters won’t give up. ... This will not discourage anybody who wants to make sure Chevron gives up violence as a way of doing business. American citizens are increasingly protective of their economy. ... Chevron played into fears of ... the jurors, saying these are people [the Nigerian protesters] who made oil prices go through the roof. This was a pyrrhic victory for Chevron. If I was in their shoes, I wouldn’t be popping champagne.”
Nigerians know well the power of the military-industrial complex in their own country. While Obama was swept into office promising change, his choice of Marine Gen. James Jones as national security adviser probably has U.S. corporate titans breathing easy, leaving the poor of the Niger Delta with the acrid air and oil-slicked water that lie behind Chevron’s profits.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 700 stations in North America. She has been awarded the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the “Alternative Nobel” prize, and will receive the award in the Swedish Parliament in December.
The Council on Foreign Relations runs a think tank called the David Rockefeller Studies Program. This program was started by David Rockefeller, a patriarch of a strong American family with strong American values. John D. Rockefeller became the richest man in history by building up an oil empire, but he gave some wealth back to the people in the form of foundations, funding for the arts, colleges, and even a private research university. Today you can here his name nearly every day on the "liberal radio station" NPR.
Wait a second, did I say American values? I meant to say, self-serving capitalist values.
Jay Rockefeller (one of John D. Rockefeller's many great-grandsons) personally supports "granting the President new warrantless eavesdropping powers and granting immunity to lawbreaking telecoms" (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/24/rockefeller/).
Keep in mind, this is just one of the richest families in the world. There are several families using their wealth and power in similar ways with the end goal of controlling the US economy and indirectly the people involved in that economy.
The same family worked to pass the Rockefeller Drug Laws in the state of New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_drug_laws) that have increased New York's inmate population by over 400% since their passage. According to drugpolicy.org "As of 2008, approximately 14,000 people are locked up for drug offenses in New York State prisons, representing nearly 38% of the prison population and costing New Yorkers hundreds of millions of dollars every year." (http://www.drugpolicy.org/statebystate/newyork/rockefellerd/)
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