Friday, February 20, 2009

KEZI 9's digital signal

Okay, I'm wondering how many other people out there don't get KEZI anymore since they've gone digital. We live in Corvallis and we have the digital converter box with our old rabbit ears and though the OPB signal is pretty good (not perfect by anymeans) the KEZI one is unacceptable and unwatchable, whereas previously the KEZI analog signal was second only to OPB and quite watchable. I'm not sure how to feel about it. I mean part of me feels like, good riddance, but the other part is mad because, well, I'm cut off from ABC, I guess. Yeah, I know, big loss, big whoopee. But ultimately I'm a citizen cut off from one of the few remaining media conglomerates. My options have narrowed. Its not that I'll miss KEZI all that much, its that I'm getting screwed by dtv, something I never asked for and feel it was shoved down my throat. I'm sure come June 12 we will lose KVAL (CBS) and whatever the NBC affiliate out of Eugene is, as well as Fox. Oh well...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Economic meltdown

If you watched Frontline the other night you might have reached the conclusion i just reached that as the economic collapse ensued, it was primarily two people who made billions of dollars of decisions with taxpayer money (ie bailouts).

The other day I think I glanced onto Chris Mathew's show and some dude said something to the effect that for the vast majority of us, the poor, nothing's really improved in the last 40 years. Our condition has basically stayed the same. The middle class is getting rocked like Bart Simpson getting choked by Homer, and of course, the Uppermost class is doing just fine.

Rich people don't want to make loans. Well, that's good. It gives us an opportunity to localize our economies and create a manufacturing boom where communities all over adopt the diy mentality. The time of cheap transportation and centralized industry are ending, We need to invest in our local capacities to provide what we need. We should all be recycling and producing in more localized scales. Of course, while we reconsider what is really necessary. Perhaps its time to invest in creating jobs to clean up the environment. Maybe we could think about how to clean up the oceans of all the garbage and plastic thats floating around polluting the earth? Maybe its time to plant more trees instead of cutting them all down. Also, I think its time many of us just stop participating in the global economy. I know its hard and I haven't completely made that step yet, but lets face it, there's nothing really to worry about. If the next generation doesn't get to guzzle gas like we did, its okay, they can still have a better life if we focus on that question, what is a better life? Maybe its a life with less stress about work work work. less stress about paying the bills and having health insurance and whether my plastic bag will end up in the ocean. I'm convinced that there is a balancing point where resource consumption is sustainable, but right now we're consuming too much and we need to reduce. That means a new economy. We can't keep living the way we have. Here's my suggestion. We need to congregate more. The more we get together the less resources we will need. We need to share more.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

An open letter to everyone who seeks the truth of what happened on September 11, 2001

I've been obsessing over 9-11 and the truth of what really happened for a good week. I've been a "truther" for some time now and I think we must seize the opportunity of Obama's presidency to push for a new, legitimate investigation.

In a search for information about the molten metal at ground zero, which flowed "like lava, like a steel foundry" according to a group of NY's finest (firefighters) (I think they are credible witnesses, I'm gonna take their word for it) I clicked on a youtube video which showed scenes of ground zero and the clean up, and the raw horror struck me, because crews were using picks and hoes to recover body parts out of the muck, which were given the utmost respect and care and then I was struck with what its really all about.

Why it is so important, what really happened.

Well, clearly its for the people who died, in the collapse, in the planes, the ground zero rescue workers foolishly exposed to toxic air, who have died and are rapidly dying(hang in there and fight for truth!), and for the thousands who have died subsequently in a terrible war on terror, the Troops, how many people in Iraq and Afghanistan?, and the families of those stupidly killed and maimed. How can I, given a simple amount of information about what happened that day and has happened since, using that day as justification, sit still and not demand the truth. These dead demand the truth and of course, justice. And those of us with a brain and a conscience will fight the good fight.

After viewing a History Channel production, which largely recycled the Popular Mechanics version of what happened to refute the truthers, David Ray Griffin/Stephen Jones/Scholars/ArchitectsandEngineers/Patriots/common folk/etc, etc "version" (more on this later) which did not address the issue of the molten metal nor the issue of why the debris was so tightly controlled and rapidly disposed of, and certainly not preserved for study and inquiry, why the 9-11 commission was reluctantly allowed and tightly controlled by Bush insiders, culminating with the (p)resident testifying before the 9-11 Commission on the conditions he specified (no oath, no recording and with Cheney, give me a fucking break) and in light of the NIST report on building 7 which fudged the numbers to make their model work...these are just points that I can think of right now, there's a vast amount of credible information which suggests Bush had something to do with it. yeah, I said it. What more evidence do you need than someone who is reluctant to the idea of open, honest investigation, does not provide/withholds information from the investigating body, controls the areas of investigation (Philip Zelikow), does not adequately fund...I mean, am I seeing things or is this not how Bush dealt with the 9-11 Commission? What was he trying to hide? probably the truth.

I'm trying to be objective but the rebuttals in the form of the History Channel and Popular Mechanics and Michael Lehrer of Skeptic, only hurt their argument. They argue that "conspiracy theorists" pick facts to fit a predetermined conclusion when that is what they do. The truth movement is really about the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth so that justice can be served. The truth movement is as large as it is already not because millions of people need to attach a grandiose scheme to a unimaginable event, but because the preponderance of evidence suggests we're being lied to. I don't know all the answers, I just know Bush covered a lot of them up, and you know it too, the 9-11 Commission knows it, the Families of 9-11 victims know it, and the truth movement knows it.

I saw the NOVA program called the Spy Factory or something. It was about the NSA and the fact that they monitor all our electronic communications for possible terrorist activity. (Hi NSA! I'm not a terrorist. I love America and I want the truth!) The NSA knew about Al Qaeda and specific people who were granted visas (under Clinton Administration State Dept.) who ended up being 9-11 hijackers because of some rule or law that prevented the NSA from sharing the information on those individuals with the FBI. At the end one guy said something to the effect that we are safe now, and we would have been safe on 9-11 were it not for some stupid mistakes and the NSA probably doesn't need to be listening in on all of our communications after all. I'll take them at their word. They didn't say anything about what that law was that prevented information sharing from the NSA to the FBI. How did that come about? Who made that law?

I'm just sayin'...

We shall overcome!