Week Ending 12 October

This week wasn't filled with "disappointment" as so many pundits claim... it was filled with anger, resentment, confusion and disillusionment.

Fleet Week

As if we didn't have enough reminders of America's current war fixation, the Navy tortured the city of San Francisco with repeated fly-bys of its 'Blue Angels'. They had to "practice" for four days and the noise was deafening. The homeless veterans camped up the street from my building seemed to be suffering from PTSD coz they were running around in circles screaming. I still think it's immoral for the government to spend so much money on this type of propaganda instead of spending it on vetrans who need assistance.

Under The Tuscan Sun

Tom Teare said it was a really great movie, so I checked it out as a matinee. This was a really well crafted film. The dialogue seemed pat, derrivative and stilted in parts but those bare spots were completely forgiven when later there was a scene involving a Pole speaking Italian with a Polish accent and being misunderstood until they tried to explain the situation to the American. It was a wonderful comedic bit that totally worked because someone working on the script had at least a basic understanding of all three languages. This was obviously a well researched film and is probably based on a book given the complex and multi-dimensional characters. Having the best friend played as an Asian-American lesbian from San Francisco seemed innovative for a Hollywood film, but totally authentic given the fact that one-third of SF's population is of Asian descent. It's a total date-film with so much rumination about the nature of love with the backdrop of such exquisite Italian beauty. The cast is as beautiful and authentic as the scenery. I highly recommend this film.

Rock The Vote

I got an email about a little dance event in the Civic Center to "Rock The Vote" on election night. Some of my friends were DJing so I decided to check it out. It was really cold and windy so I didn't stay very long. The crowd was sparse, but the tunes were great. At the dance stage, they had a DJ with a live musician set up next to him laying on synth lines and effects over the records. The main stage had old funk tunes and there was a trance/techno stage as well, but I didn't really walk over that way. I recognized a few faces, chatted with Jeno and then got too cold and walked home to watch the election results come in. As it is, I probably stayed too long as I've felt "under the weather" for the rest of the week.

Teen Scene

I've often felt that society fawned over the Baby Boomers way too much and now I find out that our global economy will be pandering to "Gen Y" even more. Today's teenage generation is now the biggest the world has ever seen, according to a UN report released Wednesday. One in five people on Earth are adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19, and about half the world's population is under 25...

Black Top Ten

For the first time in it's 45 year history, the Billboard Hot 100's top ten is completely filled with African-American artists. I think this marks another major milestone in Hip-Hop's history. Beyonce has the number one spot with her R&B hit, "Baby Boy" but the other nine entries are all Hip Hop songs.

Election '03

Sucked in By Celebrity
Arnold Schwarzenegger won the California recall election this week. With an undefined program, historical ties and admiration for Nazi style hierarchies and leadership, he made "leadership" the only focus of his campaign. He capitalized on the people's dissatisfaction with Governor Davis and hyped up the perception that he's a 'tough guy for tough times'. Because Arnold is a centrist on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues his win might create a new template for the national republican leadership.

Revolution or Restoration?
The day after the election, former California Governor Pete Wilson came out of Arnie's closet to take a more visible role in the newly elected administration. People thought they were voting for something new, but now they'll just get something old. Despite term limits and the fact that he's despised by over 2/3rds of Californians, looks like we'll really be getting a re-Pete.

Who's vote counts?
It was a night of "We told you so" coverage. Every channel had the same information. An hour before the polls closed they said arnie won, then ten minutes after the polls closed they said that the Associated Press projects Arnie to win... an hour after that, McClintock bowed out and an hour after that Davis did the same. Only 20% of the vote had been counted at that time. The tickers running at the bottom of the screen showed "No on the recall" getting an overwhelming percentage of the votes and winning in almost every Bay Area county. I was left wondering who's vote really counts.

Corporate media declares the winner.
Corporate owned broadcasters chose to focus on a few candidates and gave them hours and hours of totally free advertising time disguised as "news". Despite the fact that there were well over a hundred other candidates on the ballot, broadcasters conducted polls and then used them as justification for their bias.

Section 315 of the Communications Act stipulates that each candidate deserves 'equal time' on publicly owned airwaves. Of course the corporations that dominate and control the public airwaves created a loophole that exempts "news" and "news style interview programmes" so they can keep pushing their fallacies about 'objectivity' and 'fairness' that only seem to validate the status quo.

He won the roll, now he'll have to act
All week Arnie has vowed to raise the state budget deficit to 12 Billion dollars at least by repealing the car tax. He's made it the cornerstone of his campaign platform but he has made so many promises about 'cleaning up Sacramento' when he gets to the state capital that it just seems like so much bluster. Everything he says he wants to do like no new taxes while properly funding education, are the same things that Davis was trying to do and failed. As my pal Irwin pointed out, Arnold has already boxed himself in with no real idea of how to accomplish his two main goals = No New Taxes & Repeal of The Car Tax; that his administration will either turn things around for the state or just be as ineffective as the Democrats he replaced. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the Shrub kicked down some hella scratch to bolster Arnie's fiscally irresponsible tax plans because they mirror his misguided federal agenda.

Election '04

Shrub once again selling his war for oil
Facing growing doubts at home about the wisdom of invading Iraq, the "president" of the United States launched a campaign to defend the attack and tried to cite "progress" being made even as US troops face almost daily attacks...

The Age of Imperialism

Death Toll Higher Than Ever
This week more Americans died because Bush lied.

Priorities
Republicans are far more interested in fixing schools, roads and infrastructure in Iraq instead of fixing schools, roads, and infrastructure in America.

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