Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
I am going over to see Markos Moulitsas Zúniga at Arise Books at noon. Hell yah. Then probably go drinking. That's as good as it gets in the Blogosphere. MNSpeak notes:
Internationally known blogger and new age political pundit Markos "Daily Kos" Zuniga will be in town today for his "Crashing the Gate" book tour. Markos will be autographing books starting at noon at the Arise! Bookstore. Then he will be doing an interview on All Things Considered at 2:30 until 3:00 pm, and finally the Lambert and Janecek Show from 5:00 until 5:30 pm. Following that, he will be swinging by Drinking Liberally at the 331 Club in the evening for the after party.
Minneapolis, MN
Tuesday, May 2nd, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Reception at 331 Club
Hosted by Drinking Liberally - Minneapolis Chapter
331 Northeast 13th Avenue
Minneapolis, MN
Also tomorrow:
St. Paul, MN
Wednesday, May 3rd, 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Breakfast at Louisiana Cafe
613 Selby Ave
St. Paul, MN
Genetically engineered bladders have been created in labs from host samples. Then the bladders have been successfully implanted. Excellent. The eschaton is at hand.
I was just given word that Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, of MyDD.com and DailyKos.com respectively, will be at Arise! on Tuesday, May 2, at noon.
The event is confirmed! Tuesday, May 2nd at noon.
Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga will be speaking and signing copies of their new book, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics. Markos is the founder and editor of The Daily Kos--the largest and most popular progressive blog in the country.
(Check it out at: http://www.dailykos.com)
This event could be seriously huge. The blog is read by a crazy amount of people, including everyone from left-leaning Democrats to the far left. I'm going to start with publicity today. So, we may start to get some calls at the store about the event. Please confirm the date and time w/people, provide directions, etc. If anyone has any other questions about the event, please give them my cell # and email address.
Thanks!
maddy
as was noted to me:
its gonna be crazy big, probably way bigger than we can handle, but thank goodness we are about the last option for independent bookstores in the twin cities.
I read Crashing the Gate on my way down to Arizona, and it was pretty good, if a bit uneven, as reviewed earlier. Interesting stuff. I gotta say what up to Kos and get the book signed. Sweet.
At this very moment, Hunter Thompson's ashes may be arcing through the air, settling back down all over the place. A fitting end to the legend. There were Golden Tickets to the ceremony hidden in Gonzo Imperial Porter bottles which you can order from Flying Dog brewery over the Internet. "Photographer tangles with Thompson's neighbor for shot of cannon". A news roundup via the Great Thompson Hunt. Hunter Thompson Widow Tells AP of Send-Off. FAA to keep tight grip on airspace at Hunter Thompson’s memorial (it is near the airport).
I've got nothing particular to say, save a quote (Songs of the Doomed, p. 294)
Feeling crazy has never really worried me. It is an occupational hazard and some days I even get paid for it--but there are some things that even crazy people can't get away with, and this idea of turning around and driving back to Sacramento to pick up Jilly's birth certificate seemed to be one of them.
"Don't worry about him," she said. "He's having dinner with some tax lobbyists tonight. I'll just run in and get a little suitcase. It won't take two minutes."
I shrugged and turned around. What the hell? I thought. Buy the ticket, take the ride. There was madness in either direction. And besides, I was beginning to like the girl.
She was a dangerous dingbat with a very pure dedication to the Love and Adventure ethic--but I recognized a warrior when I met one, and on the way down the mountain I knew what Clyde must have felt like when he met Bonnie.
Fare thee well, Doctor of Journalism. Selah.
Gonzo in Space: Hunter S. Thompson to Go Out With a Bang on Saturday
"We have never had a request such as this one in our company's history," Marcy Zambelli, chief executive officer of Zambelli Fireworks, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gaztte this week. "But we respect the request of the family and have actually custom engineered an aerial shell specifically designed to carry out his final wish."
Richard Gilmore, left, and Tom Bennie with Specialized Protective Services of Aspen, stand guard at the entrance to Hunter S. Thompson's Owl Farm in Woody Creek, Colo., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2005, where preparations are underway for Saturday's memorials service for Thompson. The memorial pictured in the background will be unveiled Saturday night and Thompson's ashes will be distributed by a fireworks projectile. As many as 250 family members and friends are expected to attend the by invitation only ceremony. Thompson shot himself to death six months ago on Feb. 20 at age 67. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Hunter S. Thompson's counselor By D.A. Blyler | RAW STORY CONTRIBUTOR
The Scriptures relevance for Thompson flooded back as I stared at The Proud Highway and Bible in the bottom of the box. It reminded me of the mystery surrounding Thompson’s brief suicide note. Before shooting himself with a revolver, he had typed the single word “Counselor” in the center of a blank page. To date, fellow journalists and friends of Thompson have expressed confusion as to what the word might signify, comparing it to the mysterious “Rosebud” of Citizen Kane. And that’s when it hit me. I picked up the Bible and quickly scanned the Gospel of John. There it was in the 14th chapter:
“16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor*, to be with you for ever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.”
It isn’t surprising that journalists didn’t pick up on this connection with Thompson’s goodbye in the days following his death. While the Bible has wielded greater influence on the history of American Letters than any other work, we currently live in an age where any mention of the Bible immediately conjures up images of right-wing nut-cases, homophobic TV evangelists, and door-knocking Adventists in bad suits. Fewer and fewer educated people (including Christians) read the Bible anymore. But Thompson wasn’t a product of this age. He was of that rapidly dwindling generation of writers who saw the majesty of the Bible as both a work of literature and a looking-glass into the human condition.
Thompson surely would have felt drawn to the Gospel of John, the most lyrical and mystical of the four Gospels. It’s there that we find the pronouncement: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It is a decree that has resonated with writers from Twain to Whitman to Fitzgerald to Miller—a revelation that words are transcendent, that a writer’s vocation is more than just a job. It should be a calling, wherein the “Spirit of truth” (Counselor) is followed unfailingly. No mean trick.
For following your Counselor often means discovering things that aren’t fit for polite company. It’s never pleasant to find evil growing among the peonies. Or in the hearts of your elected officials. Better to be “vaguely happy” than uncomfortable. Thompson, though, never fell for that devil’s lie. He knew that even though the truth often cuts like a razor, it also serves as a “Comforter*” when the jackals begin circling. Because as Thompson recognized, the jackals don’t really give a damn whether you speak the truth or not. They are coming after us all one day. But facing the bastards down is a whole lot easier when you’ve got the truth by your side.
Hunter Thompson Ashes Set to Blast Off
By ROBERT WELLER
The Associated Press
Saturday, August 20, 2005; 8:26 PM
WOODY CREEK, Colo. -- Iconoclastic journalist Hunter S. Thompson would have loved the 153-foot tower built to blast his ashes into the sky, said one of his many friends and admirers gathered for an unsolemn farewell.
"It's a beautiful structure. Of course, he would not have been able to resist putting a few holes into it," said Michael Cleverly, referring to his former neighbor's love of shooting guns. "But it weighs several tons, so it could handle a few holes."
The counterculture author killed himself six months ago at his home near Aspen. His ashes, intermingled with fireworks, were to be fired out of the tower Saturday evening in front of a star-studded crowd at his Owl Farm compound.
"He loved explosions," his wife, Anita Thompson, explained during the planning of the fireworks sendoff.
The tower _ intentionally built just taller than the Statue of Liberty _ was erected in a field between Thompson's home and a tree-covered canyon wall. It was shrouded in tarpaulins for days, but his widow, Anita, said it was modeled after Thompson's Gonzo logo: a clenched fist, made symmetrical with two thumbs, rising from the hilt of a dagger.
The memorial was expected to be a party, with plenty of alcohol, reminiscences, readings from Thompson's works and performances by both Lyle Lovett and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
About 250 people were invited, including Thompson's longtime illustrator, Ralph Steadman, and actors Sean Penn and Johnny Depp, close friends of the writer. Depp portrayed Thompson in the 1998 movie version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream," perhaps the writer's most well-known work.
Anita Thompson said Depp funded much of the celebration.
"We had talked a couple of times about his last wishes to be shot out of a cannon of his own design," Depp told The Associated Press last month. "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out."
It is nearly time to relocate into 1630 Selby. Kennedy is gone for the week, visiting family, and Alison has already moved out, so it is eerily quiet at both ends. My stuff is more than half-packed up. I bid an ambivalent farewell to dowdy plaid shirts that stuck with me far longer than they should have, and threw away old notes and bits of paper, signifying elements of the trail over the last four years.
The server may go down for a while here, and may take some time to come back. Hopefully quickly.
Many objects found in the room, a mapbook of Paris, cards and CDs, photos from the war protests and London. The Hongpong.com Gentoo Linux server, a Pentium 4 Dell Dimension that has performed admirably since I got it from Dan Schned's brother Alex last summer, has faced the challenge of websurfers from the CIA and thousands of virus attacks with great stamina and more importantly, almost unshakeable stability. The server will go down after 42 days in operation. Not bad, but not as good as its all-time record of 111 days.
The electrical problems in my room (bet you didn't know the Uninterruptible Power Supply was grounded by a wire I installed) never blew up the computers, and the dust from all the shit in here didn't quite kill me.
The room was sort of an overgrown projection of my personality, hodgepodge with sprinklings of conspiracy, David's crazy art, wires and components, Rhymesayers stickers, burnt matches, post-its and printouts, critical theory readings and Poli Sci books scooped from the free table, a bookcase topped by Marx, half the Illuminatus trilogy, scribblings and bizarre charts taped to the walls. Many a long night hunched over the computer, following hyperlinks into arcane trivia until three or four in the morning. I tried real hard to "Get it" even though all too often I felt totally disconnected, hostile to the America outside.
Those days are over now... there were fun times, strange times. Someone once claimed that the center of the universe passed through the corner where the TV used to be. For some reason, I tended to believe it.
CNN: 'He loved explosions'
Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Posted: 5:28 PM EDT (2128 GMT)
DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Hunter S. Thompson's ashes will be blasted from a cannon mounted inside a 53-foot-high (16.15 meter-high) sculpture of the journalist's "gonzo fist" emblem, his wife said Tuesday.
The cannon shot, planned sometime in August on the grounds of his Aspen-area home, will fulfill the writer's long-cherished wish.
"It's expensive, but worth every penny," Anita Thompson said. "I'd like to have several explosions. He loved explosions."
Thompson, 67, shot himself in the head on February 20 after a long and flamboyant career that produced such new journalism classics as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and cast his image as a hard-charging, drug-crazed daredevil.
The cannon shot will be part of a larger public celebration of Thompson's life. Some details remain to be worked out, including the exact date, what kind of cannon will be used and the specifics of the gonzo fist, his wife said.
She said the gonzo fist will be mounted on a 100-foot pillar, making the monument 153 feet (46.63 meters) high. It will resemble Thompson's personal symbol, a fist on an upthrust forearm, sometimes with "Gonzo" emblazoned across it.
Anita Thompson has said the monument will be a permanent fixture on the writer's 100-acre property.
Thx to Judge Deason for telling me...
This is so bizarre: Colin Powell was being interviewed by Tim Russert, and right as Russert asks the key question about spoofed intelligence at the UN, Powell's media person somehow gets the camera to point away from Powell and stops everything for a few moments. Then Powell gets control again and answers the question.
The video is online. Skip to about halfway to see where—what, the press monkey takes over the camera? This was laid out on this blog, via the Agonist.
I don't know what happened, really. This fixation on video clips is a striking feature of reality lately. I finally finished reading Pattern Recognition, which revolves around a set of enigmatic video clips distributed on the Internet, and obsessed forum-goers search for hidden connections in these videos. And yet who would have thought that William Gibson's 'footage fetishists' would so readily appear in our reality? Now we have enigmatic moments of horror like the Berg atrocity to drive speculation on the message boards in droves.
They are making the case that there are fifty weird things about the Berg video. I will reflect on this a little later. Beware the lawn chair.
NEW POLL!
A quick lunchtime update: Fox News has just sued Al Franken for titling his next book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," because Fox believes it controls the concept of 'fair and balanced.' What I really like is how their lawyers phrased the case(NyTimes)
"Franken is neither a journalist nor a television news personality," according to the complaint. "He is not a well-respected voice in American politics; rather, he appears to be shrill and unstable. His views lack any serious depth or insight."... "Franken is neither a journalist nor a television news personality," according to the complaint. "He is not a well-respected voice in American politics; rather, he appears to be shrill and unstable. His views lack any serious depth or insight." Lawyers for Fox who filed the complaint also take issue with Mr. Franken's book cover because it "mimics the look and style" of two books written by Bill O'Reilly, a prominent Fox News personality. Mr. O'Reilly is also pictured on the cover, just beneath the word "Lies."I did see bits and pieces from said dinner... Judging by the choice edits made by MSNBC that day, O'reilly is a screaming bastard and Franken a rambling idiot. I forsee the possibility that this lawsuit may unequivocally prove Fox News is not fair and balanced. That would be precious. This is great, as it will help promote his book, which I do intend to buy. He better stop at Ruminator on the book tour!Court papers refer to Mr. Franken, who is a former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer, as a "parasite" who hopes to use Fox's reputation to confuse the public and boost sales of his book.
Franken is also accused of verbally attacking Mr. O'Reilly and other Fox personalities on at least two occasions, and of being "either intoxicated or deranged" as he flew into a rage at a press correspondents' dinner in April 2003. Mr. Franken has not filed a response in court to the suit.
ut This War Had a Much Deeper Significance than Reported! according to a marvelous book I received on Friday. Beyond Iraq: The Next Move, is selling well on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, where it is listed under the 'non-fiction' and 'biblical prophecy' categories. I got my copy the only honest way, through Armageddon Books (order form: "Thanks again for selecting Armageddon Books as your supplier of end-time materials"). Evans' key points:
As I stood and shook Mayor Giuliani's hand, all I could see in my mind's eye were the two 189-ton bombs in the form of fully fueled Boeing 767s hitting the World Trade Towers just as my friend [Mossad director] had foretold. No one could have known that on that Tuesday, the 11th of September 2001, the first war of the 21st century would begin--a war against terror that may well draw the line in the sand, , forever dividing light from darkness, proclaiming like a trumpet a spiritual battle of monumental proportions. Who would have wondered at the time, that the epicenters of this battle would center on ancient Babylon (biblical Iraq) -- the spiritual center of darkness -- and Jerusalem -- the spiritual center of Light... Iraq will become the US base from which the war on terrorism is fought. From there it will only be a short reach to the throat of Syria and Iran and the terrorist networks.Ahh, sweet sweet Christian evangelistic eschatology. It's the end of time and we have front row seats for the showdown of good and evil. What actually egged me to put down $11 on this book is how much it's getting promoted, at least on MSNBC. On Hardball the other day, the host (a sub for Mathews) introduced Evans without putting him into the context of his evangelical beliefs. He just rambled on (the host asked him if he was drunk, after blurting "Sugarcoating Sinai") about the "t" word, terror, being the issue. The issue of the end of the world never entered the discussion, and suddenly the discourse in the book becomes normal. Who is reading up on stuff this way, who sees the world through this lens? What do they believe about Palestinians?
Today's Star Tribune features a story on the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Paul Wellstone. Most likely it was a random accident, but as Ted Rall said, we can't ignore the remote possibility of a harsh government killing its most powerful liberal opponent. Was Wellstone worth assassinating? I think so. i think my favorite theory is the electromagnetic pulse assassination:
Discounting weather, pilot error or mechanical problems in Wellstone's flight, Fetzer's articles have seized on the possibility of sabotage brought on by a futuristic electromagnetic pulse weapon that he said could have disabled the plane's computerized components. Evidence for this, he said in an interview, was the absence of any distress call from the pilots and the odd cell-phone experience reported by St. Louis County lobbyist John Ongaro.Ongaro, who was near the airport when Wellstone's plane went down, has dismissed the significance of his experience, in which he said his cell phone made "strange" sounds and then disconnected. "It's not unusual for cell phones to cut out, especially in northern Minnesota," he said.
The Democrats are conflicted, believe it or not. Kerry and Dean are dickering with each other, as Dean has been the most outspoken, grassroots oriented Democrat to run. Is there a conflict between the D grassroots, (Wellstone's bread and butter), versus the Democratic national leadership? (link Nick)
The contest for the 2004 Democratic nomination cannot be understood apart from two factors. One is the intense opposition to Bush at the Democratic grass roots. The other is the widely held sense that the party's older strategies and internal arguments are inadequate to its current problems. Candidates can't win if they address only one of these concerns. But addressing both at the same time will require a political magic that Democrats haven't seen yet.
Private schools in Minnesota are undergoing a growth spurt, according to an article in today's Strib. Would Mounds Park do something similar? Well, you gotta keep up with Blake and Minnehaha, dontcha?
Nick was happy with Thomas Friedman in the times yesterday, talking a big game about the whole theory of everything and generally disreputing the usual targets. Friedman is funny, I like to think of him as this guy from St. Louis Park, travelling about on an exciting personal journey to illuminate the whole everything (particularly the Middle East) for confused American liberals. Yet he seems to sugarcoat the corruption inherent in the way America has managed so much. Does he pull it off?
Why didn't nations organize militarily against the U.S.? Michael Mandelbaum, author of "The Ideas That Conquered the World," answers: "One prominent international relations school ? the realists ? argues that when a hegemonic power, such as America, emerges in the global system other countries will naturally gang up against it. But because the world basically understands that America is a benign hegemon, the ganging up does not take the shape of warfare. Instead, it is an effort to Gulliverize America, an attempt to tie it down, using the rules of the World Trade Organization or U.N. ? and in so doing demanding a vote on how American power is used."Oh dear, the lack of weapons of mass destruction is blowing a mess all over the place. Paul Krugman is pounding away as usual today on the Bush crew and their addiction to 'spin.'
There is another reason for this nonmilitary response. America's emergence as the hyperpower is happening in the age of globalization, when economies have become so intertwined that China, Russia, France or any other rivals cannot hit the U.S. without wrecking their own economies.
The only people who use violence are rogues or nonstate actors with no stakes in the system, such as Osama bin Laden. Basically, he is in a civil war with the Saudi ruling family. But, he says to himself, "The Saudi rulers are insignificant. To destroy them you have to hit the hegemonic power that props them up ? America."
Hence, 9/11. This is where the story really gets interesting. Because suddenly, Puff the Magic Dragon ? a benign U.S. hegemon touching everyone economically and culturally ? turns into Godzilla, a wounded, angry, raging beast touching people militarily. Now, people become really frightened of us, a mood reinforced by the Bush team's unilateralism. With one swipe of our paw we smash the Taliban. Then we turn to Iraq. Then the rest of the world says, "Holy cow! Now we really want a vote over how your power is used." That is what the whole Iraq debate was about. People understood Iraq was a war of choice that would affect them, so they wanted to be part of the choosing. We said, sorry, you don't pay, you don't play.
It's long past time for this administration to be held accountable. Over the last two years we've become accustomed to the pattern. Each time the administration comes up with another whopper, partisan supporters ? a group that includes a large segment of the news media ? obediently insist that black is white and up is down. Meanwhile the "liberal" media report only that some people say that black is black and up is up. And some Democratic politicians offer the administration invaluable cover by making excuses and playing down the extent of the lies.Sounds like nothing but liberal excuses to me. Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken got in a huge argument over liberal media bias on CSPAN. However what was shown on TV was edited to provide its own perspective. (The fair and balanced Fox News story) I can't seem to find a transcript of the argument around, but here is a story about the whole book fair they were at, which seems to have been overtly political this year. (AP)If this same lack of accountability extends to matters of war and peace, we're in very deep trouble. The British seem to understand this: Max Hastings, the veteran war correspondent ? who supported Britain's participation in the war ? writes that "the prime minister committed British troops and sacrificed British lives on the basis of a deceit, and it stinks."